Tag Archive for ‘In The Garden’
Kale Catches Cold but Survives (& Obama notes Michael Pollan’s food wisdom)
Small miracles to be grateful for. Kale survival and Michael Pollan might seem slightly incongruous – maybe they are, but I think there’s a connection. Anticipating last week’s cold snap, we covered some of our lettuce with wool blankets and harvested the rest, then left the brassicas, broccoli and kale, to the cold which, it [...]
On the Local Table: Pears in Season
Many of our pears were ripe and on the ground when we returned home from vacation last week, but salvageable. Time for chutney, pear salad, poached pears, or simply sliced with a piece of cheddar. Unlike other fruits some pears diminish in quality when ripened on the tree – better to pick them just before [...]
One or Two More Things About Tomatoes
And then that’s enough about tomatoes for this year . . . maybe. They’re abundant at the moment so I made Gazpacho and dried some.
Returned home from vacation a couple of days ago to find tomato plants, finally, laden with ripened tomatoes. They’re late and not as sweet as when they ripen earlier, but I’m [...]
Tomato Sauce Fiasco
Surely among the top ten slow foods, tomato sauce. The reward for preserving them in late summer will be the essence of luscious vine-ripened garden tomatoes mid-winter in a soup or marinara sauce, with an onion and sausage frittata or mushroom polenta. I’m a fool for tomatoes and should make myself a tomato cape, [...]
Things are a Changin’: Late Summer
Monday morning I set out early to photograph the Seattle Tilth garden and the Good Shepherd P-Patch . The weather was changing as I was meandering around. By the time I reached this whirligig, the wind was blowing pretty hard. It’s legs started flying every-which-way and it was spinning around wildly. The weird thing was, [...]
Plot to Plate: Artichokes in the Pacific Northwest Garden
I used to think artichokes were strictly Mediterranean. It’s true they’re native to northern Africa where they grow wild, and southern Europe, but it turns out we can grow globe artichokes in the Pacific Northwest.
Maybe not commercially like they do in California, but I have to tell you there is a mini-artichoke orchard in the [...]
A Small Action: Sweet Dreams On the Line
. . . the clothesline.
Air-dried sheets and pillowcases, one of the luxuries of life, but the convenience of electric clothes dryers overrides the organic alternative right outside the door. We manage to dry ours outdoors all year long with surprisingly rare interference from weather. Sheets infused with the fragrance of a fresh green bouquet are [...]
Seed Bomb Recipe
The notion of a gardener and a seed bomb recipe is oxymoronic to the nth degree. Gardening and bombs aren’t that compatible, but this concept sheds new light on unimagined possibilities. Click on the link below and watch a video about the what, how and why of urban guerrilla gardening. Not as incendiary as you [...]
The Incredible Edible Garden
Edible Estates , the book’s title implies something a little loftier than vegetables in the front yard, but Fritz Haeg, a designer, landscape engineer, visionary is in fact talking about replacing grass with food in the front yard, plain and simple and unpretentious. 
He’s working to make it a practical, attractive, and nutritious option that people will want to try. If you’ve been wondering about the feasibility of this new fangled thinking about gardens, Edible Estates might be the book for you, but first check out author Fritz Haeg’s website which has an edible estates menu where you can read and see what people have done with this idea all over the country, the world.
Farro All Dressed Up In Fresh Herbs
Plant some herbs and culinary magic is at your fingertips. 
When I planted an herb garden just outside the back door ten years ago, I had no idea how much it would simplify and influence our cooking, our ability to have what is needed to brighten the flavor of almost anything. … I wanted to marinate a flank steak and I had everything needed for the Herbfarm recipe I like, some of it in the backyard: mint, oregano, garlic, with olive oil and red wine vinegar.
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