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!