Early red potatoes and kale

I didn't plant nearly enough of these medium sized red potatoes. I ate them for dinner a couple of nights and sold a few more, but I am wishing that I still had them to harvest. The good news is that there are still fingerlings out in the garden that are currently in flower and should be ready in a few weeks. Potatoes are abundant and cheap to buy in the supermarket, but they just don't have the same fresh dug taste as the home grown varieties.  I like to eat my potatoes with pesto that I make with kale, yes kale, the most misunderstood vegetable that I have ever grown. I tried for years to convince farm members of kale's virtues with no success. Nutritionally, kale is vastly superior to most vegetables. It is very rich in vitamins A, C, and calcium. It is also high in B vitamins and protein. It is really versatile in the kitchen with its distinct, but not overpowering flavor and is interchangeable with broccoli and other greens in recipes. I love it also because it is the only plant that can survive a hard Long Island frost. It is possible to harvest kale in your snow boots in mid winter. In fact, kale tastes sweeter and more tender after a few good frosts. I'm sure my preaching is going to fall on deaf ears yet again, but here are a couple of easy things to do with kale:

Kale Pesto

Ingredients:

1- 2 garlic cloves

kale leaves, separated from ribs

olive oil, about 1/4 cup

a handful of walnuts (or amonds, pine or any other nuts)

parmesan cheese, about 1/4 cup

Directions: 

In a food processor, chop garlic. Fill processor bowl with kale and chop. Add olive oil in a steady stream. Add nuts and cheese.

Kale pesto is good served with potatoes, on grilled chicken, or with crackers as a snack.

Kale with carrots, potatoes, and bacon

Ingredients:

(exact measurements not needed)

leeks (you may substitute onions or scallions)

carrots

potatoes

chicken broth

olive oil

bacon

salt and pepper

Directions:

Saute leeks in olive oil until soft. Add kale leaves that have been separated from the ribs. Add enough chicken broth to cover. While cooking, add diced potatoes and carrots. Cook until done. Add cooked, crumbled bacon at the end, if desired.

Note: My friend Judy gave me this recipe. She served it to a class of 6th graders who ate it all and were asking for seconds!

Finally, I add raw kale to my breakfast smoothies all the time. Besides kale, this morning's ingredients included bananas, blueberries, peaches, pomegranate juice, and a little vanilla yogurt. A glass of pure energy!

The peas are done

I took this photo of the peas last month when they were in flower and getting ready to produce the tasty pods that we enjoyed for several weeks. You might have guessd by now that I'm catching up on my blog posts with all that is happening in the garden. 
A word about peas: "Peas, like all legumes, are great soil enhancers.Their leaves gather nitrogen from the air, and their roots thread that nitrogen into the soil, right where we want it. Another way to put nitrogen in soil is to inject fields with anhydrous ammonia. We prefer to let our plants do it in their organic, silent, and splendid way." Farmer John Peterson. Whatever anhydrous ammonia is, I'm glad it is not in my soil or on my food.  Anyhow, besides being great for the soil, peas are good to eat, mostly raw, fresh picked off the vine, but sometimes steamed or lightly sauteed. The only problem with peas is that they don't last long, but they were sure great while they lasted!

Keeping the vampires at bay

I harvested about 50  garlic bulbs right around the 4th of July and I've been using them to cook with ever since. I sold a few bulbs, but I'm hoarding the rest because I am getting nervous that I won't have enough garlic to last me the year. Home grown garlic is superior to what is available in the grocery store. The cloves are large and moist and loaded with flavor.

Garlic lore is pretty interesting. Slaves forced to build the great Egyptian pyramids refused to work without a daily garlic ration. Wreaths of garlic were believed to ward off witches and vampires. Jockeys may rub their horses' bits with garlic or tie a clove to the bridle to prevent other horses from passing. Bullfighters may wear garlic around their necks to protect them from the bulls' horns. Garlic is also gaining recognition for its health and healing benefits. Some of garlic's believed therapeutic benefits include fighting infections, cancer prevention, stimulating the immune system, relief of chronic bronchitis, use as an expectorant and decongestant, reduction of blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides.  By the way, to ensure the most medical benefits it is best to use the garlic raw.  Exerpted from Asparagus to zucchini, a guide to cooking farm fresh, seasonal vegetables.

Who cares about a little garlic breath when you can pretty much cure whatever ails you while you are keeping those pesky the vampires away! Bring it on! 

Dozens of cukes!

I am harvesting a ridiculous amount of cucumbers! Not just a few a day, but dozens and dozens of them. I've been selling them and eating as many of them as I can, but really, how many cucumbers can a person eat in one day?  I eat them raw and add them to salads. I include them in my breakfast smoothies. This week Larry made cucumber risotto which was surprisingly tasty. I peeled and sliced a bunch and put them in the freezer to use later. I've never frozen cucumbers before, but I figure I can add them to my smoothies.  I guess I should learn how to make pickes, but I've never been much of a pickle fan. I read  somewhere that you can rub cucumbers on your face to help condition the skin. This could be because they are high in vitamin E. Maybe after yoga tonight  I'll take a cucumber bath, towel off and rub some on my skin and then place a couple of slices on my eyelids for a refreshing spa like treatment!

Carrots

I've been pulling up big bunches of carrots for several weeks and there are still plenty in the garden to last a while. Pulling the bright orange roots from the ground is always a lovely surprise, like stumbling upon buried treasure. Carrots are high in vitamin A and beta carotene, the substance that makes them orange. The carrot is also high in fiber, calcium, potassium, and other trace minerals. I often dust off the soil and eat the sweet, crunchy, raw carrots right in the garden. Last night, however, I simmered them on the stove top in enough water to cover. While they were cooking, I added olive oil, butter,  about 2 tbsps. of brown sugar, and a handful of chopped fresh dill. Once the carrots were cooked and the water had evaporated, the carrots simmered in the butter, oil, and brown sugar until they were slightly carmelized. I served them with grilled chicken and basil pesto, and yellow squash, corn, and scallion saute which made for a colorful summer meal! 

Onions hooray!

This was a great year for onions. It was sunny and hot and the bulbs grew happily undisturbed in the northwest coner of the garden. Once established, onions are not difficult to grow. In fact, because of their shallow root systems, they prefer to be left alone. Once their tops have fallen over, it is time to harvest. We harvested three varieties of onions this week, white 'Superstar',  yellow 'Ailsa Craig', and  red 'Mars.' I cut the tops off the bulbs, dusted them off and placed them on trays in the sun to dry. I was uncomfortable leaving the onions outside over night so I brought them into my den where they are drying in front of the oscillating fan. There is a faint smell of onions wafting through my house, but I don't mind.  It must be because I'm a Taurus that I like earthy smells like onions and horse manure. It is certainly satisfying to have harvested such a large crop of onions after last years poor yield. The drenching rains of last June caused much of the onion crop to rot in the fields.

It seems that so many good meals start with onions sauteeing in the frying pan. Tonight I may add some eggplant and peppers to the onions and see if I can make a simple caponata. Whatever I add to it, the onions will make it smell and taste delicious!

Cabbage leaves for later

I pulled the rest of the Napa cabbage from the garden this morning. The heads were beginning to look tired, and frankly, I was getting sick of eating it. I didn't want to throw all 10 heads in the compost pile so I decided to clean it up and save the leaves for later. I chopped the leaves, blanched them for 2 minutes in boiling water, patted them dry on paper towels and put it all in plastic bags in the freezer. I will use the cabbage leaves in soups and stews during the winter.  I also peeled and sliced about 20 cucumbers and placed those in the freezer. I'm thinking that I can use them in my breakfast smoothies. It takes time to wash, chop, blanch and  prepare vegetables for use later in the season, but next winter after the garden has stopped producing and been put to bed, I'll be happy I made the extra effort to save the fresh taste of summer for later.

Lots of beans!

I've been harvesting green beans for a couple of weeks and I'm starting to feel it in my back. Green beans are difficult to pick. The mature beans hang low to the ground hidden beneath the plant leaves. There is no way around it, you have to bend down low or get on your knees to pick them. There are certain CSA's that offer green beans in their shares only as a pick your own vegetable. Not me. I happily picked them for 50 families for 8 years at my CSA which eventually landed me at the chiropractor's office.

But, I love the taste and crisp texture of fresh picked green beans. So, despite the ache in my lower back, I'm out  in the garden every morning  crouched down amongst the foliage searching for the slender green treasures. I planted Maxiibel, a french filet beans that is easy to grow and produces high yields of the tasty tender beans.

I enjoy eating Maxibel beans raw. But they can be steamed or blanched in less than 5 minutes to make the best of their bright color, firm texture, and fresh flavor. They pair nicely with most herbs, but I seem to choose fresh rosemary more often than not.

zucchini outta control!

This year I planted three types of summer squash and they all matured at the same time! There is only so much zucchini that a person can eat, but I'm trying my best not to let any of it go to waste. Luckily, I've been able to sell some to my gardening friends and neighbors and I've been  scanning the cookbooks for new ways to incorporate this summer vegetable into my menu.

When all else fails, I just chop it up and add it to a giant stir fry along with anything else that I've picked from the garden that day including, scallions, Swiss chard, carrots, peppers, eggplant, and basil.

One day, my houseguest Gay coated slices of zucchini in egg and then in breadcrumbs with dried herbs and baked them in the oven until they were done. Although we enjoyed them as is, I've heard that these taste good served with a basic aioli (garlic) sauce.  I'm going to make the sauce this week and I'll post the recipe if it turns out to be something that I enjoy.

My friend Drew inspired me to try last night's recipe. I sauteed shallots until they were slightly carmelized. Then I added chopped yellow squash and chopped Swiss chard which made a colorful side dish to grilled striped bass and pureed sweet potatoes.

Now that local corn is available, I cut it off the cob and saute it in oil and butter with scallions (chives will work) and grated yellow squash. This dish is so easy and is the perfect companion to any summer meal.

Finally, I took two of the largest zucchini and actually made ten small loaves of zucchini bread! Baking in the middle of the hottest summer on record is a tad challenging, but I froze the bread and I know that I will enjoy it this fall after the garden has been put to bed.

In case you don't have a good recipe for zucchini bread, I'll share one that I got from my former neighbor Ginny Oliver, who brought me a loaf of her zucchini bread the day we moved into our house.

Zucchini Nut Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups zucchini, grated and well drained

3 large eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

1 cup salad oil

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups walnuts

3/4 cups raisins

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9- inch loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar and mix well. Add zucchini, flour, oil, salt, cinnamon, walnuts, raisins, vanilla, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Yield: 2 loaves

Too hot for lettuce

If your lettuce looks like this,  four feet tall and looking more like a christmas tree than something you can eat, there is a good chance that it has bolted. The central stem or flower stalk has formed and shot up towards the sky before the outter leaved have fully developed.  Bolted lettuce is bitter and not good to eat. Lettuce bolts for a couple of reasons, mostly because it is too hot. Lettuce will also bolt if it is not getting enough water or nutrients. I planted this bunch of lettuce during our july heat spell in an area next to the herb bed where I had not ammended the soil. I didn't fertilize the plants and I'm pretty sure the area wasn't getting adaquate water. Plants are usually able to adapt to conditions that are not perfect, but these conditions were ridiculous. I'll have some work to do before I plant anything else in there.

Fun with Julia

Thats my beautiful neice Julia with me in the garden. Julia could be the poster child for eating a healthy, organic diet.  She radiates health and vitality. She is also a foodie who gets almost as excited as I do when she is in the garden. She likes to cook, she reads Michael Pollan. She watches documentaries about U.S. agriculture. When she lands her dream job in the food industry, I am hoping that she'll hire me.  Anyhow, we were out in the garden picking veggies for our breakfast. We picked zucchini, scallions, and Swiss chard that we sauteed and added to the local eggs that I buy from my neighbor Roxann who raises egg laying hens in her back yard. We added fresh basil and some cheese and enjoyed a delicious frittata.

Swiss chard 'bright lights'

Family motto

Our family has a motto " Butter makes everything better." Well, it does and always has. As it turns out butter goes well with a variety of vegetables, especially the collard greens that I've been harvesting.  I ate collards for the first time when I was visiting my friend Amy in Charleston, S.C.  They were sauteed in bacon and butter. Oh my goodness. This morning, in an attempt to be a little bit more health conscious, I  sauteed them in olive oil with scallions and served them with scrambled eggs and a handful of cherry tomatoes, the first of the season. What a great way to start the day!

Flowers blooming!

The dahlias have started opening up color by color. First the deep reds, then the pinks.  I am looking forward to the dark purples and oranges, my favorites! These amazing flowers will  bloom consistently right up until frost.  I planted sunflowers along the front fence which greet me with their sunny faces each morning, a month earlier than I expected.  I've been picking zinnias for several weeks, cheerful flowers that I place throughout the house all summer.

Garden party

OUTSTANDING!

July harvest

This is what we picked from the garden this morning!

What to do with scallions?

Scallions, or bunching onions, are young onions that are considered bulbless. They are also called green onions and can be used just like onions. In some ways they are even better because you can eat most of the green stem. I grow both purple and white scallions and can not taste the any difference between the two. Since my onions are not quite ready to harvest, I've been using scallions in a lot of recipes lately. I added them to a zucchini and corn saute, included them in a beet salad and used them in the following red pepper pesto recipe that I recently discovered.

Red pepper scallion pesto

2 red peppers

1 medium size bunch of scallions, white and green parts, chopped

1 or 2 garlic cloves

olive oil, about 1/4 cup 

salt and pepper

handful of slivered almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts

parmesan cheese, about 1/4 cup

Saute red peppers and scallions in pan until soft

In a food processor, chop the garlic.

Add the pepper scallion mixture. Use the pulse setting. Be careful not to over chop.

Add olive oil to desired consistency (not too much)

Add nuts

Add cheese

Add salt and pepper to taste

I served the pesto over pasta for dinner last week, but it is also good on crackers as an appetizer.

Beet- lover or beet- basher?

For some reason, beets are a polarizing vegetable. Nobody likes beets just a little bit. You either love em or hate em. I happen to like the earthy flavor of beets. I grate them raw on a salad. I cook, cool  and eat them with scallions, orange slices and dill (see recipe below). Or I serve them cold, sliced on a platter and eaten with a little goat cheese sprinkled on top. The beets are sizing up and I've been able to pick the larger ones from the garden. My garden beets are not as large as what you might find in the grocery store, but Edward C. Smith, author of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible  says that beets taste best when harvested at about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. As the roots grow larger, they tend to lose flavor and develop a rough, pithy texture. This year I planted two varieties, Bulls Blood, a dark red root with deep red foliage and Golden, a yellow- orange beet with green tops.  

Today I made a beet salad that I will serve to guests tomorrow evening:

Beet salad

Scrub about 5 beets, different colors, if possible.

Cook in boiling water until soft enough to pierce with a fork.

Cool and peel off the skin.

Add a bunch of diced scallions.

Add cut up segments of one orange

Add fresh chopped dill to taste

Add salt and pepper

Mix with a dressing of olive oil, a tablespoon or two of orange juice and a little vinegar

*Good served with crumbled goat cheese on top

Some like it hot!

I planted 65 tomatoes, many heirloom, and most indeterminate, meaning that they are true vines that will grow and set fruit continuously. Indeterminate plants grow to be quite large and need to be staked.  I've already tied up the tomatoes twice and will continue to do so as the season progresses. Most of the plants have set fruit and if this hot weather continues, it looks like it is going to be a very good year! Last year's rain and cool temperatures encouraged a fungal disease called late blight which hit Long Island hard and destroyed much of the tomato crop.

A quick word on heirlooms:

Heirloom tomatoes are varieties often grown from seeds that have been passed down through generations. Heirloom tomatoes are grown for flavor and not for shipping and storage, the reason why you don't very often see them in the grocery store. Heirlooms are fragile and often have distinctive shapes, tastes, and colors. They are best eaten the day they are picked. Some of the varieties in the garden include Cherokee chocolate, Pruden's purple, and Brandywine. If this weather continues, we should begin seeing some early varieties by the end of this month!

Eat locally and seasonally

Jens home garden mid july

This is the time of year when we ought to think about challenging ourselves to eat seasonally and locally. With our gardens full of ripening produce and local farmers markets and farm stands open, it is not so much a challenge as a decision to step out of the current food system, one that is dependent on fossil fuels, chemicals, and pesticides, and into a way of eating that is nutritionally sound and surprisingly delicious. To eat seasonally requires a heightened awareness of the natural world- a recognition  of what the earth is offering for our use right now. For me, eating seasonally means stepping outside my kitchen door and into the garden that is overflowing with fresh things to pick.  It is about as local as local can get.
Here are 10 easy steps to incorporate more local and seasonal food into your diet:
(exerpted from Lauri McKean, contributor  From Aparagus to Zucchini, a Guide to cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
1. Start Slowly. You will be required to make changes in food preparation, meal planning and cooking. Changes take time so set reasonable goals.
2. Be conscious of the source of your food. Check labels in the market to see where your food came from and choose foods that have been grown or raised closer to home. Ask your grocer to stock local foods.
3.Develop a connection to your food. Plant pots of herbs or a tomato plant. Start a small garden. Meet the farmers at a farmers market or join a CSA.
4. Buy food according to your principles. Help the local economy by spending your dollars closer to home. If you don't want to be eating food that is full of chemicals, don't buy it! If you believe in helping  the environment, buy food products that have been sustainably produced.
5. Be flexible and creative in your cooking. Don't be afraid to try new things! Fresh, well prepared vegetables taste very different from those canned peas that you were encouraged to eat as a child.
6. Plan for winter. With a little thought you can enjoy local foods throughout the winter. Try buying lots of tomatoes in season and making sauce. Make basil pesto and freeze it. Learn how to make preserves.
7. Learn how to substitute. Try celeriac root instead of celery. Try baking with local honey instead of using cane sugar.
8. Buy fewer convenience foods. They are more expensive, excessively packaged, and less nutritious than food that you cook at home. And, there is a good chance they have not been produced locally.
9. Encourage your favorite restaurant to consider purchasing from local vendors. The good restaurants already do. They know that the best tasing, freshest ingredients are local.
10. Enjoy it all. Enjoy the tastes, the challenge, the new relationships, and the knowledge that you are doing something good for the yourself and the earth!