Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of checking out the Los Angeles County Fair with some friends. (The nice people at the fair actually offered me some complimentary tickets because I am such an big-time blogger. Since I was planning on going already, I happily accepted.) I had never been to the Los Angeles County Fair before, but I had some pretty high expectations--particularly regarding their chicken attractions. It did not disappoint.

When we arrived at the fair, we went straight to the farm exhibits (somewhat weirdly sponsored by McDonald's) and almost immediately encountered some chickens. They had several open pens with a variety of chicken breeds on display. Pictured below is a nice-sized enclosure of young chickens, including some Barred Rocks resting on a log. I love those stripes. I definitely plan to get a Barred Rock when it's time for new chicks. They were in with a few fluffy silkies and some fancy Polish.



In the barn across the way, I noticed this handsome hen peeking through the bars. I really like the mottled black and gold of her feathers. Silkies sure are cute. I hear they're not the greatest layers, though, and tend to go broody. So I don't think I want one for my small flock.



Near the silkie were these big girls. Does anyone know what breed they might be? The chicken breeds weren't posted on their pens, unfortunately. My guess is Buff Orphington. I don't think I've ever seen an Orphington in real life, and I had no idea they were such big girls. They're definitely on the list of breeds I'd like to own, but I feel like we might have to make the coop door bigger if we ever got one.



Despite the somewhat disappointing lack of breed signage, there were some informative plaques about chickens scattered around. This one was very pro-backyard chicken, which I appreciated.



After all the chicken admiring was complete, we turned our attention to the wide variety of goats and sheep at the fair. This caused Dakota and I to briefly indulge our goat-ownership fantasy. How cool would it be to drink milk fresh from our own backyard? (Answer: very cool.) But, even excluding the legal and neighbor obstacles, I don't think we can squeeze a goat on our property. I doubt we have enough space for the goat, much less a nice-sized enclosure and room for all its feed. That said... Look at the cute angora goats! They're so fluffy, and I could knit with their wool.



And while I'm going on about the cuteness of barnyard animals, check out this little pig. I could not get enough of him as he marched around his pen and indulged in several vigorous scratching sessions. I have a friend at work who owned a pig, and I think he found it to be a wonderful pet. Hmmm...



Another great thing about pigs: they race! Our group was very excited about the pig races, and after rushing across the fairgrounds for the 1:30 show, we got our chance to see some. There's kind of a cuteness theme happening in this post, and I apologize for going on, but, seriously, pig races are so cute. If you go to the fair, definitely check them out. I had no idea pigs could run so fast. I think the milk and cookies they got at the finish line were highly motivating.



Just so you don't think we spent all our time in the farm animal section of the fair (although I certainly could have), we did roam the grounds and take in the sites. Predictably, there are lots of carnival rides, silly photo booths and places to buy knick-knacks. Some of the better attractions included a sky ride over the fair, several giant, inflatable slides and an event called "Splash Dogs," where you could watch extremely excited dogs try to jump as far as they could into an above-ground swimming pool. Highly recommend for any dog lovers.

And, of course, there was weird fair food. This years hot item appears to be chocolate-covered bacon. I was more intrigued by the sign below. What, exactly, is "Meat Lover's Ice Cream"? There was no additional information posted, and no one was willing to order some.



Towards the end of our visit, we made it over to the Going Green exhibition--basically a mini-trade show of green vendors. We said hello to the Solatube guy, who informed us that we could write off a percentage of the cost of a Solatube on our taxes. We're considering getting the kind with a light and a fan for our bathroom. There was also a display for a portable graywater system called Enviro Water Boy, which seems like a convenient way to reuse your bath water to water your plants. It would definitely be faster than scooping it up with an empty milk jug, which is what my mom does.

Below is a picture of another Going Green display, which I am calling The Fanciest Rainwater Collection System Ever. I didn't catch the name of this particular product, but essentially it collects rainwater, filters it, stores it in an underground cistern and then pumps it into a very attractive waterfall. There's also a little spigot so you can use the collected rainwater to water your plants. I didn't get a brochure for this since it's obviously hugely out of our price range. But, it looked really cool.



One company at the Going Green exhibition did catch my eye: an organic fruit and vegetable delivery service called Farm Fresh to You. They had a promotion for $10 off a sample box, so Dakota and I are going to try it. I'll post more about the produce and the company once we have a chance to eat the fruit and do a bit of research.

All-in-all, I had a fun day at the Los Angeles County Fair. There was a good balance of animal and plant exhibits alongside bizarro fair culture. The fair runs though next weekend if you want to check it out.

As usual, I had mixed success with my summer garden this year. I'm not sure why I tend to have more trouble with my summer crops, maybe it's my sun exposure, soil composition or poor watering technique. Whatever my problem is, it makes for a summer garden that provides equal amounts of excitement and disappointment.

In an attempt to ensure tomato success this season, I planted only small fruiting varieties. Happily, all three types I chose produced attractive, tasty fruit. The most prolific and hardy were the Mexico Midget and Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry heirloom varieties, which I purchased from Seed Savers. I particularly recommend the Hartman's Gooseberry. They're a lovely, gold color and have a tart, fresh taste that even I, a professed tomato-hater, kind of enjoy.

The Austin Red Pear tomatoes were the most temperamental variety. They were annoyingly prone to blossom end rot, despite diligent mulching and plenty of crushed eggshells in the soil. This surprised me, because I've grown other pear tomatoes in the past with great success. The plant that did best was the one planted in the front yard. The Austin Pears in containers lost about half their fruit to the evil rot.



Notice that one yellow pear on the far left? For some reason, one of my red pear tomato plants ended up making yellow pears. I don't know if it was a plant mutation or if some of the wrong seed made it into my packet, but I don't mind.

Peppers were another successful summer crop. As usual, they began producing fruit much later than the tomatoes, but now that they're fruiting, things are going fairly well. The earliest harvest came from the Wenk's Yellow Hot. It's a thick-skinned, fat pepper that starts light yellow-green and then turns red. Next came my Maule's Red Hots, which look and taste similar to cayenne peppers. Both those varieties have been producing fairly steadily since late July.



Unfortunately, despite the presence several leafy, healthy plants in my garden, I am still waiting on to try the Fish Peppers. I hope the plants bloom soon, because the fruit looks so pretty in the seed catalog pictures. I'm having similar issues with my Listada de Gandia eggplants. There are least five good-looking plants in containers and the ground, but not a single one has made an eggplant. I think I'm running out of time with those, because eggplants need hot weather to flower.

Earlier in the summer, I had some modest success with my green beans. I have a few plants left, but I think they're probably done producing for the year. I'll cut them off at the soil surface soon and leave their nice nitrogen-fixing roots in the ground to decompose.

My corn, sadly, has been a complete failure. This is my second year trying corn, and I think it may be my last. Corn takes up a lot of space and needs significant amounts of water. So, I think I give up on corn farming. It hardly seems worth it considering how cheap and plentiful corn is in summer farmers markets.

I have already documented my frustrating relationship with squash. So far, I've harvested only two yellow zucchini squash despite carefully tending to 10 plants. Sigh. I don't think I'm ready to give up on all squash just yet, but I will probably plant fewer hills next year to make room for some more reliable vegetables. And I am going to quit winter squash for a while. All sectors of my Los Angeles garden seem unable to produce a single winter variety. (I know it's possible, since Ilsa at Rambling LA grows gorgeous pumpkins in her yard.)



To end my summer garden assessment on a brighter note, my first foray into strawberry growing has been fun and tasty. My two plants continue to spread in their pots and produce new fruit. I hope to keep them alive through the winter so I can have more delicious, homegrown strawberries from these plants next year.

Very soon, it'll be time to begin my winter garden. I've started a few seeds in pots, and will start working the soil this weekend to get it ready for planting. Hopefully, the weather will cool down by mid-October so my seedlings don't get scorched.

So this is interesting. A couple of months ago, I gave up on some cabbage in my middle, shaded vegetable bed. Rather than pulling the plants out by the roots, I decided to cut them off near the surface. This was inspired by a post about permaculture on a blog I enjoy, although, unfortunately, I don't remember which blog it was.

The gist was that, if you leave the roots in the ground, you will preserve the beneficial organisms living in the soil around those roots. So, I decided to try it. I chopped off most of the cabbage stem, and then planted some pepper seedlings nearby.

I was expecting the cabbage stem and roots to rot away, adding their nutrients back into the soil. Instead, several baby cabbages decided to grow off the abandoned stalk. What's interesting is that they appear to be individual purple cabbage plants, rather than new leaves growing on the existing stalk. The cabbages look really healthy and cute right now, so I'm thinking about letting them grow. I figure that, once they get bigger, I'll just pick the strongest-looking cabbage and cut off the others.

The original cabbage grew from seed, and I didn't even realize that cabbage could reproduce like that. Has anyone grown cabbage (or broccoli or other brassicas) this way before?

Apparently, there are a lot of exciting sporting events happening these days. I am not much of a sports fan, and I don't think I've ever deliberately turned on ESPN. But, from what I hear, there are quite a few football, baseball and even basketball games on television on any given weekend in the Fall. Don't ask me what teams are playing, because I simply do not care. One thing I do care about, though, is snacks. I am a huge snacks fan.

The few times I've decided to sit down and watch a professional football game with my friends, it's primarily been because I was promised hot wings. I love the combination of crispy, chewy fried protein and spicy vinegar sauce. But, a couple of years ago, I gave up eating chicken. How could I hang out with my favorite hens, Peggy and Tina, and then go inside and chow down on the fried wings of their unlucky factory chicken relatives?

Several weeks ago, I came up with a nice solution to this little conundrum, and I thought I should share it with other devoted snack (and sports) fans. It provides the crispy/chewy consistency of hot wings, plus the delicious spiciness, without the actual wings. I don't really have a name for this dish, so let's go with, um, Crispy Spicy Tofu Bricks. If anyone can think of a better name, let me know.


For bricks:
1 pkg firm or extra-firm tofu
1 bottle Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
2 cups canola oil
4 stalks celery
salt
pepper

For dip*:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (2 ounces)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon milk

Cut tofu block in half lengthwise and press out the water by squishing it between two cutting boards. Put paper towels on the top and bottom to soak up the water. After the tofu is pressed, cut it into rectangular strips about the size of your thumb. Place it in a container and add about 1 cup of hot sauce, coating the tofu. Put in the fridge to marinate at least an hour.

Make the dip.
Cut the celery into manageable pieces.

Combine the flour, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper on a plate. Heat the oil in a deep saute pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, start dredging the tofu in the flour mixture, covering all sides. (It should be wet enough that you don't need to dip it in egg or milk.) Place the flour-covered tofu in the hot oil, laying it on one of the long sides, and fry it until it turns golden brown. Flip tofu onto the next side, and fry until that side is golden brown. Repeat until all four long sides are golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel.

Put the tofu on a plate and dress with more hot sauce to taste. Serve with dip and celery.

Pretend to watch sporting event while consuming as many Crispy Spicy Tofu Bricks as possible.

*Taken from this recipe on epicurious.com

There have been some nice additions to the kitchen lately, including two walnut and glass cabinets. Dakota brought them home a couple of weeks ago, and they're now installed on either side of the sink. I think they look beautiful. One of the cabinets will hold our Heath plates and bowls, and the other will hold prettier glassware, including a cool vintage set my sister found for me at a thrift store.

I like how these cabinets are both decorative and functional. They sit near the sink and dishwasher, so it will be easy to put clean dishes away. And the glass fronts allow guests to find a glass or plate without having to open every cabinet door.

Walnut is used as an accent throughout the kitchen. There's a walnut shelf above the stove, and a few little walnut drawer faces around the kitchen. The one below is on the pantry drawer which separates the upper and lower shelved areas. It holds tea. I think the rich, dark color of the walnut looks great with our green cabinets. Like most things in the kitchen, the accents were Dakota's idea. He's a pretty great designer in my unbiased opinion.



On another note, I am so happy to finally have a pantry. Considering that we used to keep all our pasta and canned goods on a open, messy shelf below a tabletop, it's a relief to have everything organized and safe from bugs.

More kitchen improvements will happen soon. I think we'll be getting paint this weekend, since we've decided not to use Milk Paint on the walls. (More on that in another post.)

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I purchased a few strawberry plants at the Silverlake Farmer's Market in April. For some reason, these particular strawberries were very slow to set fruit. But, after several months of patient tending, I finally harvested my first ripe strawberries last week--well past the traditional strawberry season.

I actually had a couple of strawberries almost ready to eat several weeks ago, but, to my horror, birds got to them before I could. I found two mangled, red berries lying on the ground next to the strawberry container with some jagged, beak-shaped gashes in them. It was quite a disappointment, although one I am used to considering the lively population of birds and squirrels in our yard. I have now taken precautions and placed some garden netting over my plants. That seems to be doing the trick.

I expect to get many more strawberries before the summer is over. My two plants are both flowering and fruiting quite vigorously. I water them every day in this hot, dry weather and feed them with a bit of liquid fish fertilizer every couple of weeks. That routine is keeping them healthy and happy.

After they're done fruiting, I plan to mulch my strawberry plants heavily and see if they can successfully ride out the winter. They are perennials, so I hope to eat fruit from these plants for several years to come.