Hops have one glorious purpose – making beer.  Some varieties add bitterness to counteract the sweetness of malt.  Others give various aromas and subtle flavors to the finished beer, and some work well at both tasks.  Mostly used dried, some brewers prefer part of the hops to be fresh (“wet”).  Although we have Brewers Gold, Nugget, and Willamette hops, the main ones we offer are Cascade.  They give a wonderful floral aroma to IPAs in particular. 

Lime Basil  is a great herb!  It has a distinct citrus scent and flavor that lends itself to fish or chicken dishes.  Try it in Thai dishes if you do not have lemongrass or Kaffir lime available.

It can be added to vinegars, salad dressings, fruit salsas or chutneys.  We love it just chopped and added to a fruit salad or on top of sliced fruit (wonderful on figs!).

Try adding it to your tea, or making a tea of just lime basil.  If you imbibe try our “Umpqua Gin and Tonics”!  Just muddle some fresh lime basil in gin, strain (if desired) and use for your gin and tonic.  The gin and basil can be stored in the freezer so you can enjoy your Umpqua G&T far after the lime basil is no longer available!

What to do with all those tomatoes?!!!  We had bowls of split cherry tomatoes and tomatoes with other blemishes that I just couldn’t throw out.  Then I found a recipe for tomato bread at work (Cardiac Rehab at Mercy Medical Center) and have had a lot of fun adapting it to what we have on hand and trying out new herb combinations.  Here is the basic recipe followed by my adaptations.  The original calls for making the entire bread in a food processor.  I didn’t use ours (it’s pretty old..) and I enjoy making bread with a modified traditional method (ie I use a mixer and enjoy forming my own loaves..) Enjoy!  Joni

Zesty Tomato Bread

1 package active dry yeast 

1/4 cup very warm water

3/4 cup pureed fresh or crushed canned tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 Tbsp sugar (or honey)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp each dried basil, oregano, and parsley, crumbled

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 3/ cups flour

1. Disolve yeast in water in a small bowl until creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.  In the workbowl of a food processor, combine tomato, garlic, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, parsley and oil.  Whirl until smooth.  Add yeast mixture and flour, process until dough forms a ball.  Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake until bottom sounds hollow when tapped, about 40 minutes.  Cool.  Yield: 10 servings.

Nutrition Info: per serving:

Calories: 165  Fat  3.1 g.  saturated fat  0.4 g  cholesterol 0   sodium 183 mg

Experiment 1:

First I blended all my tomatoes, which was about 4 cups of puree, to that I added 1/2 cup of garlic cloves.  Then I used:

2 cups of tomato/garlic puree

1/2 cup each fresh basil, oregano and parsley (including the root of the small new parsley)

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp yeast

1 Tbsp honey

1/4 cup olive oil

2 heaping Tbsp gluten flour (gluten flour improves the texture of whole grain breads)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup pumpernickel rye flour

2 1/2 cups white flour (whatever amount needed to get a nice soft dough)

My method:

Soften yeast in warm water and honey.

Add to tomato puree, oil and blend.  Slowly add gluten flour and rye and whole wheat flour.  Add white flour until a soft dough forms.  Knead 10 minutes in mixer. Allow to rise and bake as above.

Experiment 2:

2 cups of tomato garlic puree

1-12″ stem of fresh rosemary, adding only the ‘leaves’ to the batter (you may want to add more)

1/2 cup warm water

1 Tbsp yeast

1 Tbsp honey

2 heaping Tbsp gluten flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

3+ cups white flour

Same method as above.  I made some of these into rolls, which would be nice for the Fall holidays, some into loaves for sandwiches.

The combinations for herbs is limitless – just keep the liquid and dry ingredients in porportion.

Talk about a vegetable which gets no respect.  Young turnips go well sliced into salads and for veggie dips, and the greens are legendary in the South. They can be cooked like beets or potatoes, and many people like them mashed like potatoes.