Ukrainian Easter and 2 Week Slaw

                    As I'm milling around through the alleys and greenways through the city I've been cloning and transplanting wild herbs for my garden. Ive been successful transplanting wild fennel, mint, fern and lemon balm to my yard. Other garden updates. Broad beans are flowering, purple sprouting broccoli is almost ready to harvest, 18 kale plants have been moved into the ground, 12 pea plants, green beans and 2 variety of carrots sowed. Garden is producing lots of oregano, rosemary, parsley, sage, mint and thyme. Nights have been mild and days have been very warm. I also turned my child's Ikea stuffed toy holder into a solar dehydrator for drying herbs. I have a dehydrator but with herbs I prefer a nice slow and low air dry.

               We had the most epic Ukrainian Easter spread this year. We got pashka bread and Brooklyn style dark chocolate babka bread from Kozak Ukrainian Bakery. If you live in Vancouver and have never fucked with their stuff, GO THERE!!!! Heres a link to the page.  https://www.kozakeatery.ca
I made a hickory honey ham on the treager. We also made cabbage rolls, cottage cheese, beet horseradish sauce, potatoes and sour cream.

 Covid bonus****Local mushroom farms are overproducing and have extra bags for sale on the cheap to grow your own oyster mushrooms at home. Its been a fun project for the kids. They love misting the shrooms and watching them grow. Its real crazy how fast they get going once they start popping.

Been making lots of quick pickles lately. They are nice in contrast to the full sour and vinegar pickles made last fall.

Ive been playing around with old school Slaw recipes. On the bottom left of the plate above is the Classic prairie "14 day slaw" This is my version of this classic refrigerator pickle.

                                                      14 Day Slaw (Refrigerator Pickled Cabbage)
Dressing:
1+ 1/2 cups vinegar (I used organic apple cider but have used white)
1/2 cup water (every chef loves when this ingredient is in a recipe!!)
1 + 1/4  cups white sugar (or any kind of sugar you want, also use less if you want it less sweet)
1 tbsp celery seeds
2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp ground turmeric
2 tsp salt (or more to taste)
1/2 cup grape seed oil (or other non solidifying oil)
In a saucepan stir dressing ingredients and bring to a boil. Be sure all sugar is dissolved. Cool. Add grape seed oil.

Salad Ingredients: 
1 large head of cabbage, shredded
1 whole yellow onion, grated finely
1 or 2 green peppers, shredded (optional)
1/2 cup chopped salad olives with pimento (optional)

Combine everything together in a large bowl, let sit for 20 minutes. Pack into one litre mason jars. They should be coved with the liquid if not now by morning. Let sit overnight before serving. Can be stored in the fridge for several weeks. I like to drizzle a little olive oil over them before serving them.
Enjoy!!!!!!!