Pulled Pork that Practically Cooks Itself

I ordered a pork shoulder through Basis Foods a couple months ago. The online store estimated each one at about 8 or 9 lbs. But when it arrived from Mountain View Farm it was a whopping 13 lbs, and...it was frozen. So I popped it in my freezer because unless I had a special occasion or a plan to make use of all that pork, there was no way the Buddy and I were going to be able to eat all of it.

Last week I finally thawed it out. The boneless half I sliced into steaks which I used to make Char Siu, and Tasso Ham. The bone end, which weighed about 7 lbs. became the easiest pulled pork ever. I looked up David Chang's recipe for his Bo Ssam in the Momofuku Cookbook, and was truly surprised at how basic his recipe was for marinating and cooking the pork: Rub pork with salt and sugar and marinate overnight. Cook pork, in a covered pan at 300 degrees until fork tender.

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Watching the Garden Grow

Yes, outside of working a lot, all I've been up to these days is obsessing over my plants.  It's hypnotic, relaxing and exciting all at the same time.  Every morning before work I tend to my little urban garden - watering if necessary, and cleaning up any dried leaves and flowers.  Afterward, I leave the balcony door open, sit down at the dining room table with my coffee and my laptop and just watch.  I love seeing honey bees come and go.  If they're doing a good job of pollinating, maybe we'll actually get some zucchini or cucumbers soon.

       

Lemon Cucumber Plant

On my day off, I take care of messier and more time consuming tasks like going to the garden center to pick up supplies, re-potting plants as they get bigger, and sowing new seeds to ensure a continual supply of fresh herbs.  That's also the day I wage war on pests.  There is a lot of great information on-line about natural and organic methods for warding off all manner of pests and disease that threaten plants.  Golden Harvest Organics not only sells seeds and gardening products, but they also post extensive information about organic gardening and natural pest control.  I purchased Neem Oil and Castille Soap to combat aphids, but apparently there are a number of other methods that can be employed.  They range from placing tin foil on the soil surface to reflect light to the underside of the plant leaves, where they usually hang out, to spraying them with a tea made from tomato leaves.  I'd love to get my hands on some ladybugs to do the job for me.

Squash Blossoms

Another pest which has been a big problem is the fungus gnat, which breeds in damp conditions conducive to mold and fungus.  It has rained almost every day this June, and while everything is lush and green, my balcony is now the perfect home for fungus gnats.  It's been nearly impossible to keep my plants dry. I removed the saucers from under all the pots since they only provided a breeding ground, and I covered the soil with cedar mulch to keep the surface dry.  Despite my best efforts, some pots got really heavily infested, and I had to resort to an organic insecticide to keep them under control.   Gnatrol, which I also purchased from Golden Harvest Organics, is a brand of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis a bacteria that targets the larvae living in the soil.  Apparently it biodegrades quickly, and is widely used for organic agricultural applications.  Although most of the information on the web indicates that it's safe for people and pets, the product safety sheet that came with advises measures taken to avoid direct contact with the product.  So I take the necessary precautions, and won't harvest anything to eat until the stuff has had a chance to degrade.

A server at the restaurant also has an organic garden on her rooftop, so we've traded both plants and ideas.  She has also had a big problem with fungus gnats and is using Nemotodes, a species of roundworm that eat fungus gnat larvae.

The first few plantings

Sadie in our urban oasis

The garden has become a great learning experience.  Through trial and error, and some help along the way, I have learned things like how to replant seedlings with enough of their stems embedded so they form strong root systems (thanks to an info sheet sent to me by Golden Harvest with my FREE mystery tomato seeds).  Sadly, some plants did succumb to my bumbling - to much water, too little water, not hardening off properly etc, but despite all the factors working against it, my little garden is showing lots of promise.  Most of the plants are in their permanent pots now and are growing rapidly. I've even been able to re-plant cuttings from overcrowded pots and get new plants.  The zucchini plants are producing squash blossoms now, and the lemon cucumber vines have already grabbed hold of the balcony railing and are threatening to take over.  There's cat grass for the feline members of our family, and best of all, I get to bond with our 9-month old puppy Sadie, who seems to love the garden as much as I do.

Sadie checking out some cuttings

April Showers

I had two days off this week - two rainy days.  Since I've started a little vegetable garden, I am actually appreciating the rainy days.  Why?  Well, the sunny windowsill in my apartment is getting a little overcrowded with seedlings now and the bigger ones just need to get outdoors.  Overcast, slightly rainy days are actually the perfect condition (or so I've read) to start hardening off, or getting seedlings accustomed to being outside.  A dry, sunny day can fry tender little seedlings, and temperatures too close to freezing are obviously no good either.  I've never really had a very green thumb so I've been taking lessons from Rose Marie Nichols-McGee and Maggie Stuckey in the form of their book, The Bountiful Container.

Jiffy pellets & mini greenhouse

I do however, have a singular childhood memory of picking cherry tomatoes in the summer, from the small garden that my mother used to have.  Even though I didn't like eating tomatoes as a child, I loved picking them - the smell of the vines, the light dusting of pollen on the fruit, and just being outside in the sun with my hands in the dirt.  Like I said, I wasn't crazy about tomatoes, but the homegrown variety were certainly far less offensive than the disgusting, mealy beefsteak tomatoes that were the grocery store standard at the time.  Now, with the presence of supermarkets like Whole Foods in the suburbs, and a wider choice of ethnic markets, and farmer's markets around the city we no longer have to settle for one mealy type of tomatoes.  Almost any kind of produce is available to the average consumer.  So why bother growing my own?  Freshness for one.  Sure, tomatoes, avacados and citrus fruits might be available year round at any local grocery, but they are being shipped thousands of miles from Mexico, Peru, and sunnier parts of the country like Florida and California.  How fresh can they possibly be?

So, every Spring I fall prey to a longing to move to someplace like California.  Anyone who had been to the farmer's market at San Francisco's Ferry Building can attest to the gorgeous and delicious array of fresh edibles available year round.  Still, I've known people who have grown up in the Northeast and moved to milder climates, only to return.  One of the most surprising reasons is that they miss the change of the seasons.   Deep down, I think I would miss the cycle of toughing out snowy blustery Winters that clear the way for the hopeful new blossoms of Spring; and the lushness of lazy Summers that always seem to be cut too short by the onset of Autumn.  The seasons change the way that we live, the way that we feel - both emotionally as well as physically - and the way that we eat.  So reason number two for growing my own vegetables is to find out first hand what eating seasonally and locally means by actually bringing my food from seed to table.

(Oh, and do I need to mention all the food scares in the media? Salmonella in pistachios and peanut butter? Melamine in baby formula?  At least I'll know where my vegetables came from.)

Well, you can't get more local, fresh, and seasonal than your own backyard.  For my first vegetable garden, I figured I'd keep it small and grow a few things from containers on the small balcony of my apartment.  The Bountiful Container does warn small space gardeners like me against going seed crazy - and wisely so.  Catalogs and online suppliers offer seeds for a dizzying array of vegetables and I could see how it might be easy to get over-ambitious.  As advised I made a plan, first limiting my purchases to heritage and organic seeds, then choosing produce we consume regularly, such as tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini, and herbs such as cilantro, oregano, and dill.  I also chose a few items that we were unlikely to find at the grocery, such as lemon chiles, lemon cucumbers, greek basil, and edible flowers.  Even with my plan, I think I may have gotten a little over-zealous myself.

Still, not a bad start.  I planted my first set of seedlings at the end of March using Jiffy peat pellets and a little plastic greenhouse tray.  I've had to re-pot the tomato plants once already and they are also outgrowing the deli-containers that I've been using as makeshift cloches to protect them from our cats.  This first set of seedlings are going outside this week to make room on the windowsill for the second set that I planted yesterday.

So with Spring comes hope - hope that my thumb gets a little greener, hope that my little seedlings will thrive outdoors, and hope that with some organization and a little help from mother nature, we will be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor from late May through September.