Footprint Gardens

Pathways to Greener Living

Cooking Pizza in the Garden

Sep 4

Posted by Footprint Gardens in Gardening | No Comments

PICT0016 There is nothing better than cooking pizza in the garden especially on a cool winter evening with family and friends.

I built this wood fired brick oven last year. It was a fun project and did take a bit of thought to get it right. There are lots of people all over the world that are into this so it was fun to check out all the sites and morph them into my design.  If you are even a little handy this is a project the family can take on.

I use the pruned wood from our yard to heat it up and then use my special stash of mesquite for the flavor. It gets hot(800 degrees) in around 2 hours and doesnt need that much wood to make it work. The secret is let it heat slowly and the mass of brick will hold the heat for hours.The fire burns hot just let it burn down to coals and push them aside with a shovel when your ready to cook. It takes some experimenting to manage the temperature so just have fun. It doesn’t hurt if you like your crust a little burnt!PICT0033

I dont have a door yet but think I will make one so I can bake loaves of bread after the pizza is done and it has cooled down a bit. Im sure there are tons of things one can cook, we do apple crisp and I think salmon on a plank would sing!

aloha

Larry

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Footprint Gardens the oasis

Sep 4

Posted by Footprint Gardens in Gardening | 1 Comment

Its 110 degrees today here in the Coachella Valley part of the Greater Mojave Desert a fairly typical event from May to September. Weve had 89 days over 100 degrees this year and no rainfall. How does my garden grow? The truth is without drip irrigation, creating micro climates,  selective plant choices and mulching this would be a nearly barren sandy location.

We have a 10,000 sq. ft. fenced sand lot with a small house built in 1936.

The  15 Native Washingtonian Palm trees are mature and have their beautiful leaf skirts providing habitat for cactus wrens, Mocking birds, hummingbirds, Road runners and doves and shade for the house and gardens. Trees are the backbone of our desert oasis, lemon,lime,blood orange, late lane naval orange, tangelo and tangerines, Dates, Bananas, Thomson seedless grapes and Perlite  grapes,  Palo Verde trees, 3 large China Berry shade trees and other shrubs. This habitat sets the stage for our raised bed vegetable and herb gardens and out door living areas.

We have the best winters,warm sunny days and cool crip nights. I can plant tomatoes in January, harvest citrus fruits from December to April and grow herbs all year round. Basil is my favorite and theres nothing better than fresh picked herbs on almost any dish. I will begin planting my fall vegetables as soon as the hot weather breaks.PICT0004