Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener

Picking up strawberries in the garden on a warm day is a true sensual experience.

Your eyes are caught by the bright vermilion peeking not-so-shyly from under dark green leaves; your fingers caress grainy plumpness; the warmth of the noon sun radiates on your back; the whole garden is humming around you; the heady perfume [...]

Posted in Kitchen Garden, fruit, locavore log Comments(2)

Aren’t they beautiful?

They are earlier than the last few years, I may be able to pick in late May. While winter was cold and snowy (which currants like), the ground was protected from extreme cold by the blanket of snow - something we don’t have very often in Virginia. So the ground may actually have [...]

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Shall we talk about ground cherries?
mmm… say you politely, really? Ground cherries?
You are not the only one to wonder… the year I gave ground cherry jam to friends for Christmas, I got some puzzled looks: this is cherry? you grind them? why? that’s an unusual color… and what about all the seeds?…
Yes, it needed a [...]

Posted in Harvest, Kitchen Garden, fruit, locavore log Comments(1)

I do love crusty toothsome baguettes, perfect for a spot of rillettes, mopping the dressing after a steak salad, or in the morning with a slather of good butter and fruity jam - or a good country loaf for sandwiches. But baking those breads heat up the kitchen - desirable in winter but not [...]

Posted in Recipe, fruit, locavore log Comments(4)

Or is it for Swiss chard?
because my chard is doing quite well, thank you very much. I am now harvesting two big bunches a week, and with all that rain, and that nice temperature, it’s growing and growing and growing - as you can see from the photo taken just after a harvest, a couple [...]

Posted in Kitchen Garden, Recipe, beverage, fruit, locavore log, vegetable Comments(10)

Did you know red currants bloom as the same time as the cherries?
They do.
But unlike the billowy dreamy snowy cherry blossoms, the flowers of red currant are rather inconspicuous. One hardly notices them - especially with the explosion of greens and colors in the garden around the shrubs.

Still. As insignificant, small and greenish as they [...]

Posted in Bees, Kitchen Garden, fruit Comments(2)

Who does not like dessert? A little something sweet at the end of the meal? Especially a special meal? Yeah even the people who say they don’t really like sweets love a little dessert.

While I like to think myself fairly conversant in making pretty no-bake sweet endings like sorbets, ice-creams, mousses and cold confections that [...]

Posted in Cookery, Desserts, Fruit recipe, Recipe, Vegetable recipe, fruit, locavore log Comments(4)

You know there is a problem when the Virginia Department of Agriculture puts out a produce chart that shows that the only fresh produce available from Virginia in December and January are apples, herbs, greens/spinach (in December only says the chart), and sweet potatoes. Come ON! Granted, “Greens” cover a wide variety of vegetable, but [...]

Posted in Kitchen Garden, fruit, locavore log, vegetable Comments(4)

Gala, Crispin (or Mutsu), Fuji, Honeycrisp, Rhode Island Greening, York, McIntosh, Jonathan & Jonagold, Stayman Winesap, even Golden Delicious (one of MY favorites), Red Delicious & Granny Smith: those are just a few of the cultivars of apples available for pick up at our local orchards. As the season continues, the late apples will come [...]

Posted in Appetizer, Cookery, Fruit recipe, Kitchen Garden, Soups, Vegetable recipe, fruit, locavore log Comments(3)

Should you go walking along a bottomland stream in Rappahannock County, you are likely to encounter pawpaws (or paw-paws or paw paws). You may not notice them though – unless you paid attention - because they are small under story trees that grow in clumps. Nothing majestic about a pawpaw tree! Blooming in April [...]

Posted in Wild Food, fruit, locavore log Comments(2)