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August is Garlic Month at Clay Coyote

August 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

Ellen, Toby and I in the field

This week at Loon Organics, we harvested part of the garlic crop. As I sat in the sunny field and rubbed the dirt from each head, I developed a new appreciation for this little allium.  “Nothing is easy about garlic.” I heard Adam say as he moved down a row, rhythmically pulling head after head from the dirt. I was quick to understand why. The heads don’t give up easily. Sometimes they stay in the ground, and all you come up with is the top of the plant. The pitchfork is then used to free the garlic. After each head has been cleaned, they are loaded onto the wagon and escorted by Toby back to the barn for drying. Up the ladder and into the loft of the barn they are lined up to dry. Hearty German, Music, and Red Chesnok varieties of garlic filled the warm air inside the barn with their fragrances. I biked home that day winged with green garlic stalks bursting from my backpack.
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Moroccan Spice Mixture: La Kama

February 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

I always love the recipes I create from Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking book.  I recently followed her recipe to make the Moroccan spice blend, La Kama. I made a huge batch and split it up as gifts for my fellow Clay Coyotians. It turned out wonderfully, as expected. Tom has been using it for everything. He suggests using it to compliment mild dishes. He especially likes it on his eggs. I think it would be a wonderful addition for the hummus recipe I recently listed. I just received a Clay Coyote tagine for my birthday, and I am looking forward to creating a meal with this blend. I hope to share that recipe with you. Please feel free to submit any ideas, recipes, or questions you may have.

Midnight Garden Tagine

Midnight Garden Tagine

“La Kama spices are similar to the more famous ras el hanout (which literally means “top of the shop”) in that its formula varies from cook to cook. Some ras el hanout mixtures contain as many as fifty different spices, others just ten or twelve. A Good La Kama recipe may be made with just five, as shown here.” – Paula Wolfert, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

La Kama is a Moroccan tagine seasoning mix. It is originally  from Tangier, and is very different depending on the creator.  This recipe contains a few spices you might not be able to find at your local grocer. Paula makes suggestions for substitutions, but I would not recommend doing that. I went to www.kalustyans.com, and purchased from their online store. They have a wonderful selection. I ended up buying a few of their unique curry blends as well.

Location of Tangier

Location of Tangier

-La Kama-

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon finely ground pepper

2 teaspoons ground Ceylon or Mexican Cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground cubeb berries

(crush berries to a powder in a mortar)

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Combine the ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, cubeb berries, and nutmeg and transfer to a small jar with a tight fitting lid. Store in a dark place and use with in 6 months.

La Kama preparation

La Kama preparation

Filed Under: Clay Pot Cooking, Featured, Moroccan, Recipes, Spice blends Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MINERAL POINT

October 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

HIDDEN ART GEM UNCOVERED!!! Travels with Tom & Betsy

On our way to Chicago for the Frankfort Fall Fest, we uncovered a hidden gem this year…Mineral Point, WI. It was an old mining town that had been pretty near shuttered in the 1950′s and 60′s. The a few artists discovered it and began to build studios. Shops followed. Now it’s an amazing array of galleries and artist studios.

Down towrds the bottom of the main street hill we were attracted by something on the ‘balcony’ of one shop. (You’re going to have to click on this to figure it out).

It’s the home of Howdle Gallery and Bruce Howdle. Bruce is most famous for his large ceramic wall sculptures (here he is working on one), but one of his fascinations is pigs.
He has done wonderful sculptures, mugs, wall pieces, you name it, with pig themes. Ask him how he came to have this old building and out comes the picture album. He’s done much of the work himself over more than 20 years. The character of the building is wonderful. We’d strongly recommend Clyde and Carolyn stop in….you too!
Mineral Pt. is about 1-1/2 hours SW of Madison…a bit out of the way, but well worth the trip. Look at their website for special celebrations during the year. For Chicagoans it’s an easy day trip. If you’re headed north or south along I-94, plan a few extra hours.
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The Final Show

October 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I’ve gotten a little behind here with fall production and development of a new line of pots for you.

The last shows were Frankfort (IL) over Labor Day weekend and our local Hutchinson show 2 weeks later.
Frankfort is a blast. It’s the first show we ever did back in 1992. Amazingly, we still have some customers who saw us at that first show come by. Since both Betsy and I worked right near by old neighbors stop by, too (well they’re not any older than we are).

And last year we came across a photo taken the next summer. This is what we looked like back then. A lot of pots, a lot of good friends and customers. We really do appreciate your support over the years.

Seems like we spent half the summer in rain….setting up or tearing down. At Edina we had the big hailstorm, Highland half a day rain, Evanston set up, Duluth set up, and finally Hutchinson. The first day was perfect, then came the second day….

Packing up wet is no fun. But all in all it was a great year. Thank you!
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IT AIN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE

August 6, 2008 By 1 Comment

OK, click on this picture, cover up the snow fence in the foreground and tell me where this is!

Nope….it’s Lake Michigan at Evanston IL, last weekend (Aug 2-3) The water was turquoise, the weather 80 deg with a nice breeze. Couldn’t have been better, and people paid us money for being there!

Tom was, of course, working (above) while Betsy helped, (below).

This one was kind of like art shows should be. Interested patrons, a beautiful setting, good music…way to go Evanston!
But, we thought you might like to have a peek at what goes into one of these shows from the artists viewpoint….

A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES
This year at Edina, our friends Don and Paul came ahead of time and helped us set up….and then, after inviting us to stay at their house and treating us like royalty, came and helped us tear down. It was an education for them….to say nothing of being way above and beyond the call. Here’s a bit of what they saw….’course it was raining there.
Here’s a bit of the setup at Evanston.
At Evanston we set up the tent Friday night and schlepped the boxes of pots, display and tents across about a block of rough grass. Total of over 20 trips each with two-wheelers. Starting at about 5:30, it was dark before we got the tents up, and display racks assembled. Then we crashed. Next morning at 6 am the scene we were greeted by was the above…a booth, 40 boxes of pots and all the extra stuff. An hour and a half later we looked like this….ready to start unloading pots.
Almost done! The last load of empties is about to be schlepped back to the trailer over that same block of grass.

Set up and ready to go at 3-1/2 hours (not counting the 3 hours the night before)….pretty good for us with a double booth.

After the show it typically takes us about 3-1/2 hours again to pack it all up, tear down the tents and schlepp it back to the trailer. It’s much lighter if everyone who comes by buys a pot or two and helps with the schlepping.
We’re not complaining, understand, and very grateful to be able to do this for a living and for you. Great customers who enjoy and use the work, and come back with their stories are what make it all worth it.
Thanks to ALL of You!
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