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Archive for category gardening

Fresh is Sexy

Aug 11

Posted by admin in cooking, gardening

farmmarketasiancusOr we could say a market a day keeps the doc away. Remember when farm markets were weekend gigs? No more. They’re everywhere; every day. It’s great news. We can buy what we need from jus’ picked and carry home the freshest products available. It’s so exciting to see what appears at the market. Actually you don’t even need a market; a farm stand will do.

This summer it seems that every corner or at least a major cross section of town has a little handwritten sign announcing “fresh produce.” Offshoots or siblings of big farm booths are literally popping up everywhere. The bigger farms have figured out they can spread themselves throughout the area, and set up a stand, and the people will come. Yes, there are crowds of people recognizing how different this food tastes. So different from what the bigger grocers are advertising as “local.” Even though the items are local, they still need to get to the store and get processed. Quite different from sun-kissed in the morning and hauled to the stand waiting for your approval.

There’s little to compare these tastes to. They are mouth-bursting fresh flavors that seldom get duplicated.

Buy for the day.

Here’s a simple recipe: Buy a loaf of bread–go artisan, crusty, and put in a skillet with some olive oil and lemon juice. Toast and turn. Top with fresh cut and diced tomatoes (the sweetest multi-colored cherries are a terrific choice), cucumbers, peppers, onions, some basil or cilantro, and a little red wine vinegar. So good. So fresh. So slurpy with flavor.

Lunch.

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Composter Love

Aug 10

Posted by admin in coffee, Environment, gardening, lifestyle

This has been quite a year: I’ve learned to use very few paper towels, I’ve stopped scrubbing dishes clean before putting in the dishwasher, and I’ve become E, the Environmental woman. Yes, it’s true, as with everything I do, I do it wholeheartedly. All or nothing; it’s all.

I’ve been trying to figure out the whole composting ritual. I know New Yorkers who take their scraps in little Ziplocs on the train from the outlying boroughs into Manhattan to the GreenMarket composter. I know someone out in the country who has been swearing by these little green machines. He’s right. I’m sold.

I’ve had it two days and become a master. After all, you know how much coffee I drink and how I revere my espresso, and that coffee grounds make the soil thrive. Am convinced if I just composted the coffee grounds, my soil would be smiling and writing thank you notes. In the two days I have been in love with my new toy, we’ve been to the Farm Market and bought plenty of fresh veggies and fruit. The composter gracefully accepted the tops from the fresh beets, the peach pits, and the inners from the tomatoes.

The important wet-dry balance enabled me to shred all the class Z mail and feed it into the composter. Now we’re talking.

Maybe the best is I’ll no longer have to warn people about olive pits going into the garbage disposal (Yes, I know, we still use the disposal, but use it far less). The composter does not want meats, fish, and dairy, but loves egg shells.  Olive pits get composted, and we all appreciate the quiet.

Step aside, coming through with my kitchen counter gleanings.

This is a perfect solution for hard-rock soil and my newly minted environmental attitude.

thankyou

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When Is a Tomato Not a Tomato

Jul 30

Posted by admin in gardening, life

IMG00520It’s so hard to relive the past, even to go back a year. Look at the garden. Last year it was a phenomenal summer on the East Coast. Everyone’s gardens were brimming with produce. Many redefined generosity and contributed handsomely to other people’s dinner tables.

This year, not so much. When many people wanted to plant, we were in the midst of multiple, dark, dreary weeks of rain. Gardens finally went into the very wet soil, and shoots immediately responded. Not necessarily crops, but good looking vines gave definition to the landscape. Unfortunately when one expected to be having nightly bowls of gazpacho, the picking’s were slim. The weeks of rain gave way to a severe dry spell, and the confused crops bore little fruit, much of it not as handsome as in the past.

Whole gardens succumbed to a blight, and tomatoes bore little resemblance to last year’s beauties. Many people complained about the shortage of cucumbers, and the whole gazpacho plan seemed doomed. Farmers know what they need, and it is RAIN. Small growers, as in back yard aficionados, know what they need, and it is RAIN. One single downpour will not make the season a success, but it surpasses the days of expectation with severe warnings of what’s to come and nothing arrives. Watering cannot solve the dryness from the hot, humid days.

We’ve never had to purchase this many tomatoes before, but what would summer be without a thick, juicy, hot vine ripe beauty. Maybe they’ll still make it, but right now we are left with these pale, pathetic mutants bearing more green than lipstick red, and missing the critical taste component. Hard to call them tomatoes.

Time to buy more seeds and try for fall.

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Crisis in the Salad Aisle

Jul 26

Posted by admin in FDA, food recalls, gardening

First I become enamored by salad–see Salad Wars–and then I was told to be a little more cautious. Things are a little more confusing, possibly dangerous. What? Not this again.

Yes, it has been the year of food recalls, and this one regarding romaine lettuce is all the more painful since I’ve returned to the salad aisle. We’re talking about a product that was shipped to 29 states–do the math, there are only 50 states, this type of recall, whether merely cautionary or not, affects a large number of people and companies.

It almost doesn’t matter what food is being recalled, but that food recalls have become so numerous, and we as consumers are so vulnerable. This has been the year of the peanut butter, pistachio, and refrigerated cookie dough recall–all products that cut across a broad swath of our society. As we try to improve food safety and consider giving the FDA greater powers and more staff, we are still left without 100% confidence.

It always goes back to the question of who to trust. Even if you have befriended your local farmer and visit numerous farm stands for your fruits and vegetables, there are still plenty of days you need to pop into the supermarket, sometimes just for that extra head of lettuce or some cilantro, another product recently on the recall list.180px-Koeh-193

Whether you call it coriander or cilantro, lettuce or romaine, it behooves us to stay alert.

Time to start more seeds for the fall homegrown crops!

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The Shrieking Garden of Delight

Jun 6

Posted by admin in gardening, life

IMG00405earlygardenearlycucNo matter how hard we try to be good garden waterers, we fail miserably in comparison to what occurs after a significant downpour. We even installed one of those do-it-yourself drip irrigation systems from Lowe’s and credited it with the record heirloom crop of tomatoes we had last year.

This year is already different. Here we are 3 weeks from our traditional Mother’s Day planting exercise, and the zucchini and cucumbers (and even a few tomatoes) look as if they’ve been in the ground for a good 60 days! It has a lot to do with the fact that it has rained almost endlessly on the East Coast for the better part of the past two months. Washington’s reputation as a swamp is no longer limited to the early years of the city’s growth, but a modern reality with daily flash flooding and standing water alerts. This weekend is supposed to be sunny, but by Monday, the rain promises again to be in the scary thunderstorm category.

Farmers everywhere are rejoicing; even those of us in the city that define locale as our front or back yards–we are the true locavores, even though we need deer netting to get any crop to survive!

I personally am amazed by the speed of garden growth. Yes, I admit I am tired of grabbing my raincoat and any additional covering, but my garden is truly smiling. the plants are the earliest, the biggest, and the crops of the future, giving new meaning to “Early Girls.”

Look at these photos.

Amazing.

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It's Not too Late: An Heirloom Awaits

May 24

Posted by admin in gardening, health, life

IMG00354All those gardeners out there who began early are still way ahead of the game. That is if their crops did not succumb to a late spring freeze or fall behind their growth pattern from odd weather fluctuations.

You can still jump on board and grow your own heirlooms. These kits make it super easy, and you will have them in the ground when the soil appreciates their entry–not too cold, not too hot. They may look odd in their current form, but you’ll be singing their praises when the stringy sprouts grow into your own bountiful display of multi-colored tomatoes.

What I like about these seed starter wombs is that they do all the work for you. You occasionally, not that often, need to water them to get them hearty for their natural soil habitat. They grow in specially prepared pods that have all the organic nutrients to help them survive the ground. 

Instead of going to the store all through the summer, you can supplement your farm market trips with your own garden that will give you more personal pleasure. If space is a problem, these seed starter babies grow nicely in larger containers on balconies or wherever you have space.

Gardening is such a wonderful self-fulfilling exercise. If you remember the maxim: Plant what you can eat but plant more than you think you want as not every seed will become a 4 lb zebra beauty.

The taste is unmatched and the cost minimal for the pleasure.

Start your own greenhouse.

It’s not too late.

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It's Time: Be Your Own Locavore

Apr 24

Posted by admin in gardening, health, life

We’ve heard so much about being a locavoresingle_ebox_terraearthbox, buying local, focusing on food miles, and buying in season, that it’s time to dig into the concept on our own. In most parts of the country, you can get the soil ready without too much of a worry of another frost. If your area is still susceptible to a nightly temperature drop, then keep the seeds in the garage or a sheltered place before considering ground planting.

Burpee seed company is thrilled that consumers are digging the concept. They are in the midst of a record season and have generously been helping community gardens by increasing their seed donations to help feed the less fortunate.

If your space is limited or your interest in manual labor is less than zero, the Earth Box may be the perfect solution. It is an all-in-one garden that basically waters for you. I love how confident the company is: they will refund your money if your garden does not produce the anticipated output. It comes with its own ground cover so weeds are never a worry, and the reservoir controls the water output so overwatering is not an issue. This is an easy way to garden.

For the more ambitious who want to feel at one with the soil and have had little luck with seeds, then it’s time to visit the local garden centers or home retailers and buy the starter plants that have fared well and healthily in a greenhouse somewhere.

Just take into account some of the enemies of gardening: deer in so many areas have become voracious gardeners, or produce eaters, and can make short work of your efforts. Buy deer netting. Weeds are unsightly and can easily be avoided. There are plenty of weed control fabrics which roll out over the tilled soil and keep the weeds under control.

Buy what you eat or want to eat. No point in a single corn plant, it will not produce cobs as cross-pollination and plenty of land are necessary. Assess your sun hours–if you have a shady plot, save your tomato dollars for the farm market, they will not grow in your garden.

It’s fun for individuals of all ages as so many products make it accessible. Young children will start eating their veggies if they helped prepare the home garden where they can go out and pick the crops nightly.

It’s good, it’s tasty, it’s healthy, and it started with just a simple dig.

A personal victory garden.

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A True Victory Garden

Mar 20

Posted by admin in First family, gardening

whitehousegardenEvery foodie with a computer has been encouraging the Obamas to take the lead in locavore headlines and pick up a shovel. Today, the official first day of Spring, the wish has become a reality. With the help of White House chefs and a legion of followers, the new First Garden will be dug.

Not since Eleanor Roosevelt have we had such a proactive first female head of the country. Michelle Obama knows what she wants for her family and has a national forum to share her ideas. The so-called “kitchen garden,” which will be on the South Side of the White House, will be an 8-foot garden plot with 55 kinds of vegetables, but there’ll be no beets. She said as the President does not like his beets–hope this doesn’t turn out to grab attention like the no broccoli administration!

The 1,100 square-foot organic garden will be a model for the nation that in  these times, planting a garden is a good project. Eating local, First Lady Michelle Obama believes, is critical to the concept and not that difficult. Nothing will be more local than hopping out past the new swing set into the garden to pick the bounty of the season.

Shovels ready. The time is now.

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Get Ready

Mar 16

Posted by admin in Economy, gardening, life

It’s that time of year when it stays light a little longer, and the birds sing a promise that spring really is just around the corner. Their early morning and late night tweets are comforting sounds that spell hope of warmer climes and sunnier times.

All this is a short translation that says it’s time to dust off the garden tools and start buying some early crop seeds. Around here, real plants just don’t have a chance, no matter how many warm teaser days you get, before Mother’s Day. Maybe we personally invented that notion as it is an ideal family activity on that holiest of days, Mother’s Day. Little hands, little shovels!

Early crops like peas, for instance, survive best when the days are still a little cool. They plain ole hate the hot, humid sun-filled days that tomatoes crave. That’s OK. We like peas, too.

Maybe with the economy in such a rough spiral, more people will consider a garden. Even a small garden can give great pleasure and save some trips to the grocery store. Not to ignore the real truth:  fresh-picked produce tastes far better than anything that’s ever visited a grocery store no matter how many “local” signs they surround the aisle with.

Planting your own Victory Garden will give you comfort and pleasure and save you money.

Too early to start for many parts of the country.

Not too early to dream.

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