I'm Not Dead Yet!

Happy New Year everyone! It was a wonderful holiday season for the grow peace family. I hope you enjoyed yours too.

Winter has been especially mild so far, especially compared to the last two years. So we were able to enjoy a salad on Christmas day with fresh cut arugula from the garden! It was very simple, just the arugula, red onions, oranges, almonds and a vinagrette made mainly with fresh squeezed orange juice and mustard.

 

We also had vegan 'goat cheeze' crostini, with fig balsamic jam, topped with fresh garden sage. It wasn't just a pretty garnish - it really did taste better with the sage. Our roasted potato side dish was flavored with fresh rosemary from the garden. Easy yet delicious.

I was really happy we were able to have a few treats from the garden for our holiday feast. It just makes things so much more special when you're grown them yourself!

July Harvests

I feel really bad about neglecting my blog all summer! I can't believe it has flown by so quickly. We've had lots of fun taking K. to the beach, boardwalk, hiking, and swimming in the pool.

Unfortunately the garden was not as great as all that. It was another relatively unlucky year, with a 106 degree heatwave killing the blackberries again, a gopher devouring all my green beans and cucumbers, blight on the tomatoes, mislabeled peppers, carrots choked out by weeds and now I've even got poison ivy but can't identify where it is in the yard. Yeesh! Lately I've felt like plowing it all under and replacing it with sod! Of course I'm not going to do that, but I may downsize to just one side of the yard. We'll see how I feel.

In any case, here is a photo roundup of pretty much everything I harvested in July. At least there was something, I guess!

 Albino Peppers

 Little Dickens and Cubanelle Peppers

 Tiny Jalapeno's (Supposed to be Grandpa's Favorite)

 Very Spiny Cool Breeze Cucumbers (All I got before Gophocalypse)

 Genovese Basil

 Aunt Mollie's Ground Cherries

 Napoli Carrots & Gold Ball Turnips

Good ol Purple Top Turnips

A Berry Delicious Harvest

Last year it seemed the heatwaves killed off most of my strawberry patch. But I was wrong! To my great delight, we had quite a good harvest this year. To the left is the 1st ripe strawberry, picked on May 20th.



Then over the next two weeks I picked all of these (and another bowl, but the picture is still on my camera):

I ate them in several delicious salads and a heavenly chocolate breakfast. Details and recipes will follow soon in another post.

Cilantro City

Check out my herb garden - it is growing wild!

It isn't the greatest picture since it was late in the day, but that may be for the best since I need to get out there and trim them. I'm not really complaining though -nothing not to like about an abundance of herbs! I am going to try to use as many as possible over the next few weeks, before they get attacked by summer bugs. (I wish I could get them all in the dehydrator, or frozen, but I know I won't have enough time to pick and clean that many leaves).

The cilantro is so tall it looks like a city. Of course that means they're already starting to bolt, but I don't mind. Letting them go to seed last year is how I got this whole crop! I think the frilly tops taste just as good as the larger leaves at the bottom anyway.

Tonight I harvested some cilantro, mint and chives to attempt  to replicate a Peruvian quinoa taboule we had at a restaurant called El Tule in Lambertville over the weekend. (the mint is in another corner of the yard by the ferns, also growing like wildfire) Mine was low fat, and theirs was better, but it turned out pretty well for a first try. Very refreshing, and thankfully cooling since I served it with very spicy chipotle field roast sausages. (we did have avocado too, it just isn't pictured) Keep scrolling for the recipe.

Spring Herb Quinoa Salad

2 cups cooked quinoa

2 tsp olive oil

scant 1/2 cup each chopped cilantro, mint & chives

juice of 1 lime (or to taste)

salt & pepper

avocado slices (optional)

Mix all ingredients except avocado. Mound on plate and place avocado slices on top.

I've got a colony of ferns!

I'm so excited! The one edible ostrich fern I planted in 2009 has formed a colony. They all sprung up this spring. I counted about 8 crowns.

Unfortunately, I missed the harvest window again this year. I swear the fiddleheads didn't unfurl until June last year, but as you can see above they are well past that stage already. That's ok - I read on garden web that you shouldn't really harvest them until they've established a colony anyway.

Next year is going to be the year! I better make sure to be out there looking for fiddleheads every day in April.

18th Century Kitchen Garden

I went hiking with the family at Washington Crossing State Park this weekend and found the cutest little treasure: an 18th century living kitchen garden. Here's the official blurb about it and some pictures I took:

Johnson Ferry House This early 18th-century gambrel roof farmhouse and tavern near the Delaware River was owned by Garret Johnson, who operated a 490-acre colonial plantation and a ferry service across the river in the 1700s. The house was likely used briefly by General Washington and other officers at the time of the Christmas night crossing of the Delaware. The keeping room, bedchamber and textile room are furnished with local period pieces, probably similar to the furniture used by the Johnson family from 1740 to 1770. The site also includes an 18th-century kitchen garden.

I was impressed the garden looked so good this early in the season. I recognized almost all of the plants, and have grown most of them too. I saw cabbages, lettuces, onions, strawberries, various herbs, asparagus, fennel, and more. The assistant gardener came out and spoke to us for a bit. I commented how much bigger their lettuces were than mine, and she said they did grow some things from seed, but also used starts - so I didn't feel too bad my garden isn't as nice. lol

There were two beds full of lots of little plants that I didn't recognize. You can see one in the very back of the last picture I posted above - it looks like a light green rectangle. She explained that was flax, and how they used it to spin linen. She told us how it was a lengthy process with many steps, which sounded pretty fascinating. The other bed I didn't recognize was alfalfa that she said they were just using as a cover crop. I would have liked to talk to her more, but we had to get on our way since we had the baby and dog in tow.

There were lots of interesting things to do at this park. We spent two half days there hiking and exploring. I can't wait to go back when K. is a little older so he can appreciate the historical and natural events they have for kids, plus the open air theater.

First Harvest of 2011

Today I picked a bunch of mache that self-seeded when I let a few plants go to seed last spring. Here they all are in the bed:

And close up:

Unfortunately I think they've already started to bolt. You can see the middle leaves are starting to get taller - that's going to shoot up into a seed stalk pretty soon. They were probably at their peak in March, but I missed it. So, I picked a bunch today and made a salad with mandarin oranges, walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette.

This was the first time I ever ate mache, even though I grew it last year. (I totally missed the harvest window then since I had no idea they'd go to seed so quickly) It was delicious! The taste was very light and delicate. I can see why this green is also called lamb's lettuce - it evoked softness and spring.

I picked some chard and arugula that self-seeded too, and sauteed them with garlic and lemon. We had that as a side to whole wheat angel hair with white bean sauce. I'm not going to post pics of those, since that's pretty basic and look just like the chard & arugula I've posted here before. But it sure was nice to have fresh greens with no gardening work on my part at all!

Growing Seedlings

I'm so happy my seedlings are doing better this year, especially since it is my first attempt at growing tomatoes from seed. Here's some quick picks of my green babies:

the whole setup

mountain magic tomatoes

red romaine (front) & swiss chard (back)

gem marigolds, green romaine & ground cherries (l to r)

gem marigold close up

teeny ground cherries (back & right)

Gardening with Babies

I just saw this article in mothering magazine about gardening with babies. Somehow it had never really occured to me that you could bring a baby that young in the garden. Of course, I'd already gotten excited about the prospect of feeding K. his first tastes of some vegetables straight from the garden I'd grown myself. He's 6 months now, so we've just started him on solids. And I look forward to getting him involved in gardening tasks once he's a toddler. I already even bought two really cute books about gardening for him.

But, it just didn't occur to me to put a baby in the dirt like the picture in that article! To be honest, it gives me a bit of the heebie jeebies, thinking of all the bugs I've seen in the soil, his hands digging in it, and then his hands in his mouth. Obviously I'm all about gardening, but that's a bit much even for me. I guess if I watch him very carefully with a wet washcloth ready, it would be fun.

I do like the idea of working with him in a carrier though. I have a mei tai and he loves it. So I think he'd really enjoy hanging out on my back in the garden, and I'm sure it would be a great workout!

Anyway, I just thought it was a cute article and figured I'd post it. It was an excuse to post a picture of him eating his first sweet potato last week lol. Soon it will be carrots straight from the garden!

As for the garden, I'm so excited it is coming alive. There is a bunch of mache that reseeded itself that is just about ready for harvest. Radishes, lettuce, and arugula that I planted outside a few weeks ago are all germinated. This weekend I planted carrots, turnips, red & green mustard greens, scallions, more lettuce, and more peas outside.

Inside my seedlings are doing really well! (much better than last year) Under the lights I've got 10 tangerine gem marigolds, 4 swiss chard, 6 lettuces, 6 tomatoes and 2 ground cherries. The marigolds and 3 of the tomatoes almost have their 2nd set of leaves, so it will be time to repot soon.

2010 Retrospective: Bee Balms

The bee balms above are a bit of a mystery. I planted the red ones from seed (monarda didyma) then realized they were a bit too far back, so I thought they might not do well in the shade. I purchased another plant that I thought was the same exact variety, and planted it in front. Well, it turned out to be pink! So now I have both plants intermingled there. Maybe one day I can separate and replant, but really it isn't so bad.

Here is my other bee balm. Also known as wild bergamot, its scientific name is monarda fitulosa. This isn't the greatest picture, since they look a bit more lilac colored in person. But I like how it sort of gives the feel of how cute it is to round that corner on the path, with the other flowers around it. I'm not sure what the yellow ones in the foreground are (an impulse buy!) but in the back are someblack eyed susans and echinacea.

The bee balm certainly lives up to its name! The bees and butterflies love them.