Veggie Beauty

Over the past month - I have been noticing the beauty in fruits and vegetables while I prepare meals. I’ve collected some of my favorite ‘closer looks.’

The spiral of white veins around a seed in a ‘seedless’ watermelon

The raised ridges in a freshly cut cross section of a leek

A cross section of a banana pepper

And the 10x magnification of the seeds

A cherry tomato cut in half

A cucumber cross section (I have to many of them waiting at home that I should try a couple of slices on my eyes before cutting up the rest for a salad or smoothie)

The red ridges of an onion (10x magnification)

A beet leaf with its bright red veins through its green - it was tender enough to put in a salad rather than a stir fry.

The Deck Garden - July 2014

The deck garden is growing vigorously. My favorite plant this season is the sweet potato vine. It was started last winter when a sweet potato sprouted before I got around to eating it. I cut the sprouted end off and planted it in a pot. It did not grow very fast until it to outdoors in this summer. The soil in the pot is already being pushed upward by the tubers underneath - and the plant has two other appealing characteristics: the foliage is purple and it has occasional blooms. I’m going to root some clippings from this plant to take through the winter indoors in pots so that I’ll more the plants next summer for the deck.

Several of the other veggies have been an interesting experience but I probably go back to growing flowers on the deck next year. I get plenty of veggies from the CSA each week. The tomatoes are good picked fresh and eaten immediately. They might be worth it.

I have a spaghetti squash that is starting to grow. Watching it mature will be a learning experience. I also have a pot full of pepper plants that came up when I stirred some kitchen parings (including the waste from bell peppers) into one of the pots before I planted a squash plant in it. The squash has not done so well but I have several small peppers.

The cucumber plants are the ones that scream ‘water’ the fastest. I planted them in a pot that is too small. They need water every day - and more than that on very hot days.

And that leads me to the big lesson learned from the past 4 weeks: my shoulders hurt after only a few days of carrying big jugs of water out to deck to keep the plants hydrated. I’ve maneuvered a hose from the faucet below the deck to water the plants from now on!

CSA Week 6

This is the first that my crispers were totally empty by the time I went to pick up this week’s share from the Gorman Produce Farm Community Supported Agriculture. The last items to go were a leek I used with some scrambled eggs for breakfast and a cucumber that I diced to fold into yogurt for lunch.

The two new-to-me veggies this week are Japanese Eggplant and the Sun Jewel Melon. I may need to do some web surfing to decide how I want to eat them. I’m already planning to make Fruit Beety with the beets - probably tomorrow.  I am missing leafy greens so have added them to the list for the grocery store.

CSA Week 4

I managed to have empty crispers by the time I picked up the 4th week share from the Gorman Produce Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Drying most of the parsley (cutting it up coarsely with kitchen scissors and just leaving it out on a cookie sheet for a couple of days…now it is stored away for use in other cooking) and making collard green chips (same technique as kale chips) cleared the overflow condition within 24 hours of picking up the share!  Then I alternated between salads and stir fries and green smoothies to finish off everything except the beets - which I used for the special treat: Fruit Beety (see picture in yesterday’s post, recipe in CSA Week 3 post)

There is a shift in week 4 - it not as overwhelmingly leafy green! Can you find all the items on the list in the picture below?** (Hint: I chose the kale rather than chard or turnips). The cucumbers will make excellent smoothies with plain yogurt and pineapple salsa (and maybe I’ll use some leek too). The lettuce and cucumber are the only two items that are not candidates for stir fry. I’m trying to decide whether to use the kale for chips…or save some leaves for stir fry and salad - there’s really enough for all three!

** Starting at the upper left and moving clockwise: red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, kale (lower right), summer and zucchini squash, garlic, carrots, and leeks.

CSA Week 3

I did a reasonable job of using up the veggies from week 2 of the Gorman Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) ….although not quite as good as the week 1 share. I ended week 2 with some broccoli and spinach left to eat….and some beet leaves in the freezer. I discovered that the dandelion greens were excellent in salads, kale chips are wonderful snacks, and beets are yummy in Fruit Beety. Here’s the recipe for Fruit Beety:

Combine in a food processor: 3 cooked beets, 3 oranges, 2 tablespoons coconut (unsweetened), 1 teaspoon honey, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange peel, pinch salt, scant teaspoon of raspberry vinegar. Process for a minute or two. Mine was the consistency of a thick applesauce. Adjust honey or vinegar to taste. Chill to blend the flavors. This recipe results in 3 large snack servings (6 servings if with a meal). It is good by itself or with a dollop of plain yogurt!

Lessons learned from week 2: 1) have a salad or stir fry twice a day that uses a significant amount of produce, 2) make kale chips with the whole bunch right away next time they are included in the share (they keep well enough for a few days), and 3) remind my husband to eat at least one salad a day and sneak a leaf or two of something green into his strawberry smoothie.

Now for week 3:

I already have ideas for everything in this share….a lot of excellent meals ahead this next week!

CSA Week 2

My husband and I managed to eat everything from week 1 portion from the CSA except for 2 cups of frozen Romaine lettuce stock in the freezer - averting the disaster of the head of Romaine lettuce freezing in the overfull refrigerator. What did I find the best aspects of the week?

• Garlic scapes - Excellent chopped up to use for scrambled eggs.
• The smell - Somehow the smell of the fresh veggies reminded me of childhood summers when I visited by grandparents. Both sets had large gardens. It took me almost a week to recognize that aside from enjoying the wonderful flavors from the CSA produce (which I had anticipated) - it was the smell that was a pleasant surprise.
• Cilantro - It is probably my favorite fresh herb. I enjoyed all the CSA provided…and cut more from the pots on my deck (that was already beginning to flower…and planted some more seeds in pots whose seedlings did not survive the hail several weeks ago.

I also learned the lesson that I simply making a list of the veggies may not be quite good enough to identify everything. When I went to pick up the week 2 portion yesterday, I took my camera.  The list for the medium share was quite different from last week.

Dandelion greens were somewhat new to me.  The leaves were a lot bigger than the dandelions that normally grow in my yard!  I enjoyed them as an addition to tomato soup last night (along with some broccoli); I put a chopped scallion on top. So I am off to a good start enjoying the week 2 produce.

Salanova baby lettuce was also new to me; it was a small head of tender leaves….it will be gone quickly!

The challenge for me this week is going to be the beets. I can remember my grandmother growing them but I don’t remember every eating them myself!  The CSA does have an exchange table but I am intent on trying the ‘new to me’ veggies! I’ll report on my beet experiences next week. The do have a wonderful color.

My Deck Garden - May 2014

I am enlarging my deck garden this year and done some planting in small pots indoors to be ready.  It was finally warm enough here late last week for them to all go outdoors. I’ve planted combinations of plants in larger pots - one that will spill out over the side and one that will grow upward….or one that makes a large root and one that grows tall. I’m not sure it will work or not, but at least the deck will look interesting this summer and I’ll do a monthly post about the deck garden until the fall. I supplied the plants I had started from seed with potted plants bought at Home Depot once they were sale priced. The mint that wintered on the deck has already sprouted so I simply added something else to those pots. I have pots or troughs of:

Sweet potato and bell pepper

Watermelon and tomato

Zucchini and cilantro

Tomato and spaghetti squash

Cucumber and cilantro

Tomato and cucumber

Spaghetti squash and mint (in the old ‘turtle’ sandbox)

Tomato and carrots (in a repurposed bin that cat litter came in)

Cantaloupe and cilantro

I just realized that I probably should plant some basil somewhere.

Garden Dreaming - March 2014

Spring is getting a late start this year….more time for garden dreaming.

• The racks of seed packets are hard to pass by. I bought colorful beans and carrots…and decided to start chives and cilantro indoors immediately.
• I’m always on the lookout for items that can be turned into ‘pots’ for the deck. The big plastic containers from cat litter are my latest target. We buy the big jugs of cat litter so I’ll have to cut off the top but that means I can make the ‘pot’ the depth I want. The maximum depth would be enough to grow sweet potatoes or carrots on the deck!
• It seems like freebie seed packets are coming from all directions. So far I’ve collected sunflowers and marigolds….cucumbers and tomatoes!
• It is pretty obvious that garden success will require some control of the deer browsing in my garden area (fortunately the deck is not accessible already). I’m going to try a ‘liquid fence’ repellent for my garden (and right away from my ornamental shrubs and bulbs coming up….the deer are starving….eating everything right now).
• I had to cut the sweet potato back in the pot I have growing indoors….and it is rooting in a glass of water. Now that it is putting out fresh leaves I probably will need to plant it soon but I need a pot of it (may be the first thing planted in an empty cat litter jug will be the sweet potato)!
• I’m thinking about what will go in the garden plot. It gets a reasonable amount of sun on one side although a young sycamore is shading part of it late in the day. The veggies have priority and I’ll try to start some indoors to give them a head start. The sunflower may be too large for my garden so I’m contemplating planting them along the sunny side of the house - which is not even a flower bed right now.
•  I enjoyed the cardinal flowers and zinnias in the pots on the deck last summer. This year I am getting more organized and thinking about combinations in the larger pots; the thriller - filler - spiller idea appeals to me. The first and last on the ‘dreaming’ list below is already started - assuming the cardinal flower survived the winter in its pot and the pot I have growing inside now makes the transition to outdoors after the last frost.