Dad Grew Perfect WITLOF or Belgian Endive

 No wonder that this is one of my favorite veggies!

Yes, about seven years ago I did a post about Belgian Endive Salad (see link below) but then I did not have the negatives scanned.

Also my youngest sister Gerd Van den Munckhof did scan some old black and white photos from Mom & Dad's Estate since then.

Bet most of you have NO IDEA how this WHITE GOLD is being produced?

Strange Vegetable grown in the dark - Belgian Endive Cultivation - Golden Chicory Farm and Harvest (short informative YouTube video)

This shows how Dad was digging in the roots for their 220 chill hours, in December of 1956.

Those roots are being required to grow in a dark environment.

Dad did this outside, this was before he had his first greenhouse built.

The greenhouse to the left is from a neighbor.

December 1972, from my scanned negatives.

This shows Mom setting in those Belgian Endive roots for being grown in the dark.

With the two wheel wagon, Dad has dumped the roots along the section to be set in.

Tedious work!

Dad on his knees, doing the very same and to the right the 2 wheel wagon and part of the 4 wheel one.

Labor intensive!

Dad shown here using his Agria Baby 1100 a unicycle degree milling machine with single axle.

For that time quite an invention! Click link for seeing one in working...

These photos are not good, my very first Kodak camera!

It almost looks like Dad used some straw to cover it up...

Can't ask my Dad anymore; wish I'd had these negatives scanned before he died on June 30, 2019.

Photos got scanned by my sister.

These are from 1973 where Dad used his Kramer tractor and the 2-wheel wagon behind it and the 4-wheel wagon.

Showing wooden crates with the dug up roots that now have grown the Belgian Endive on the top.

Quite a harvest...

For cleaning them and preparing them for the auction, the job could be done indoors.

Here Dad did bring in some of the wooden crates with Belgian Endive into the greenhouse.

With some plastic curtains and the use of a HiLo petroleum heater, they kept it more 'pleasant' during the cold winter days!

Too bad that this is not in color as the paper used is BLUE, which perfectly does set off the white, now cleaned Belgian Endives. The outer leaves are being removed and also properly cut off.

Mom took this photo of Dad holding two wooden crates with cleaned and weighted, ready for auction, Belgian Endive.

It was Dad's pride, he always loved growing them and as with most veggies, he grew them well and with excellent quality. Not loose but rather dense heads.

Did any of you KNOW how this special veggie is being grown?

Related link:

{Belgian Endive Salad with Chia Seeds} | previous post with my favorite recipe

Working with my Kodak Negative and Slide Scanner | previous post

Nature's Gold | How it is done anno 2022 the modern way!

Honey Mushrooms or Armillaria Mellea Recipe

 Of course we do see lots of mushrooms in our garden!

Honey Mushrooms or Armillaria mellea in our garden. 

Showing also the underside with its lamellae.

There used to be some trees on our front lawn...

Still the roots are below the lawn and that's where toadstools love to grow, as they need some cellulose and lignin for food.

Love their fragrance when the Honey Mushrooms are fresh and good quality!

Next morning I did collect some for preparing a Honey Mushroom risotto...

Maybe they were even better yesterday? Their caps have a little curled up now.

Pieter did gather the other cluster and I've already boiled them, will freeze those for later usage!

Still looking very fresh and good!

Showing you a good detail of their stem.

For preparing in a dish, we ONLY use the caps!

They have to get boiled for about 3 minutes and then drained.

Using one of my baskets, for gathering fresh food.

Here it is, except for the melon in the back... 😏

Those are all the fresh ingredients needed.

Oh, a great tip I once read is to keep pine nuts in the freezer to keep them from going rancid.

After trimming off the Honey Mushroom stems, add water and boil for 3 minutes.

Then pour into strainer to drain and cut into smaller pieces, set aside.

In a non-stick pan over medium heat do dry roast the pine nuts.

Set aside.

For the entire bag of 454 g of arborio rice, I use a bit over 2 pints of water to boil with just one Porcini tablet. If not available, you can substitute with vegetable bouillon.

Chop the two onions, cut the Italian parsley for having it ready towards the end.

You add enough olive oil into a large enough non-stick skillet for stir frying the two onions.

Add the arborio rice and stir till the rice has been fully covered. 

Then pour half of the small bottle of white wine over it, while stirring.

Start adding the hot bouillon and keep stirring.

It will take about 20 minutes in total preparation time.

When most of the liquid has been absorbed, add the pine nuts, the Italian parsley and the Honey mushrooms and stir again till all liquid is fully absorbed.

We ate ours with baby arugula with a bit of Agave nectar whisked into white Modena vinegar (Trader Joe's) as dressing.

 We dusted the risotto with Trader Joe's Pecorino Romano & Parmesan blend grated cheese with only 2% cholesterol and fat. Sodium is low too with only 3%. See FRESH Made Pasta Sauce below with image.

Husband Pieter liked it very much and so did I; will prepare it more often!

In this photo there is no grated cheese added as I wanted to show the other ingredients clearly... 😉

Hope you find yourself some Honey Mushrooms...

Related link:

{Toadstools Digest Lignin in Nature} | previous post showing Honey Mushrooms or Armillarea mellea

{FRESH Made Pasta Sauce} | previous post showing the grated cheese

Indian Summer and Biking

 Living in subtropical Georgia has lots of benefits.

Our Indian Summer is so lovely...

Rather exotic looking Yucca lily in bloom on October 24, as we biked.

Had to zoom in as I was a bit reluctant with my sandal feet to get into the ditch...

Copperheads are being born live in the fall and I sure don't want to step onto one!

On a lovely sunny October 15, on the bridge across the Oconee River.

That's me posing next to Pieter's New Green Deal...

We went back to the bridge for the first time since Pieter got a flat tire there!

That was quite something... I swapped bike with him so he could ride home on mine and come back with the car, backseat flat for transporting his bike. It JUST fit...

I've managed to push it for about 4 km and it was hard to do in the heat, full sun and uphill!

Next we had to go to Atlanta Cycling for getting a new back tire; they happened to have just the LAST one, at their other location.

So we keep our fingers crossed that things go well!

Oh, on one of the longer rides, Pieter had an empty battery... he thought he had more than wat it was.

So I swapped with him again and pedaled that heavy sucker home for some 20 km... Those hills are killing you!

There still are lots of yellow wildflowers alongside the road.

Golden Rod with a happy Bumble Bee feasting on its pollen.

Pieter in his TREK Atlanta Cycling top.

We love the quiet back roads since we do not have bike lanes here, like in The Netherlands.

WISH we had them!

Lovely wildflowers... 

Huge field where peanuts already have been harvested!

Here they were still harvesting the peanuts.

Georgia is a BIG peanut exporter!

Photo is from October 17, and these Confederate Rose shrubs (Hibiscus mutabilis) are blooming everywhere!

We used to have one in our wood garden but of course, the competition with tree roots is fierce.

These goat kids were loose once we biked past this meadow.

Now the owner has secured the fencing a lot better, attached mesh wire in front of the planks so they no longer can escape!

There were five more of those goats in front of an old school bus.

Hate to see old cars or equipment sitting somewhere; why not recycle?!

October 22, blue sky and at this lake there always is lots of water fowl.

If there would be a bench, one could observe different birds.

October 22, it was 28℃ or 82℉

Guess on a Saturday we ought to clean out this barn...

Horses are a far better sight!

Pieter captured me when I went closer for capturing that Yucca lily.

Did not want to go into the ditch bare footed... think about snakes from my previous post (see link below).

Love to wear these cotton terry shorts from Escada, with a cotton t-shirt from Indonesia.

Wish this photo would work LIVE as you could see those birds flying away in a big cloud...

Smart cooperation, the cows stir up insects and they're right there!

Pieter counted 50 cows but they have such vast meadows here, compared to The Netherlands!

Another farm where they usually keep horses but this time they had several Llamas.

Haha, this one tried its very best to smile at the camera!

On LIVE it does...

Hope you enjoyed this little view of rural Georgia.

Related link:

New Green Deal | previous post

Copperhead Snake | previous post