We enjoyed this late lunch on a particularly lazy Sunday and enjoyed every smokey bite.
Applewood Smoked Pork Chopspork chops (Richardson Farms at Austin Farmers' Market on Wednesdays or the freezer section at Wheatsville)
applewood chips (we were lucky enough to find ours two weeks ago at the Bat Creek Farm stall at the Saturday Austin Farmers' Market)
Fill smoke box with applewood chips, season pork chops with salt and pepper, smoke at 225 degrees until the internal temperature is around 150 degrees (2-4 hours depending on the thickness of the pork chops). If you don't have a smoke box, you can use your grill. Fill a small cast iron skillet with applewood chips that have been soaked in water. Turn on the grill and only leave one burner on. Set the cast iron skillet with the applewood chips over the burner and put the pork chops on the grill away from the flame so that the smoke does the work!
Serve with sliced tomatoes (Milagro Farm) and applesauce, (homemade if you're lucky enough to know someone with an apple tree (my sister) or a great applesauce recipe!).
Green Beans
green beans (Johnson's Backyard Garden CSA membership or Austin Farmers' Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays)
one slice Czech bacon, cut into small pieces (Kocurek Family Charcuterie at Austin Farmers' Market on Wednesdays)2 cloves garlic
2-3 Tbsp olive oil (Texas Olive Ranch at Austin Farmers' Market on Saturdays)
1/2 cup water
1. Snap the stems off the green beans and rinse.
2. Heat garlic, olive and bacon in pan over medium heat.
3. When bacon is cooked through, add the green beans and 1/2 cup of water.
4. Cover and let steam for 10 minutes.
I was thinking about your tips on winter gardening, and how it varies from region to region. Here in San Jose, we needed to have already put or winter transplants out (esp. cabbage family plants) back in September. Otherwise, they don't get enough warmth to grow significantly before the weather cools down. Our day time and night time temperature regularly differ by about 25 degrees. And we haven't had a night over 55 F for a couple of months. Although we do have the benefit of a much lower chance of frost. Around here, gardeners string Christmas lights (not the led ones, since they don't give off heat) in their citrus trees to keep the chill off. This won't help during a hard freeze, but is good on the borderline nights.
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