Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener

It’s time to start hardening off the babies. At least, for those of us in the Northern Piedmont (and in the mid-Atlantic area). Yep, time to start hardening off the hardy annual vegetables that were lovingly started indoors. That include you people who took one of my “Starting The Veggy Garden from Seeds” workshops [...]

Posted in Fruit recipe, Garden, Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Recipe, Seed Starting, locavore log, vegetable Comments(2)

Finally - rain. Gentle, slow, soft, over the course of a few days.
A the end, it did not add to that much altogether - maybe 1/2 inch (as measured by my hand thrust in a bucket that was left out). Nonetheless, it was rain in what has been a cold and dry winter with hardly [...]

Posted in Garden, Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden Comments(3)

Something softly went through the hollow last night, dropping huge handfuls of wet snow all over. The snow on the ground was gone by mid-morning, but wads of sticky whiteness remained in shrubs and dry grasses - looking like cotton candy.

Meanwhile, inside under the shop lights, seeds planted earlier this month have germinated, true leaves [...]

Posted in Garden, Garden Technique, Nature, Seed Starting, chicken Comments(5)

ARGGGH!!!
Swiss Chard. Round 1: Mice.

AARRGGH!!!!
E-VE-RY-SIN-GLE-ONES!!!!
Lucullus, Perpetual, Poiree a Carde Blanche de Lyon, Fordhook, Carde Blanche! AARRRRGGH!!!

Posted in Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Pests, Seed Starting Comments(6)

Yes? Yes! YES! It’s that time of the year. Nooo… not the time of cherries (although that will come too), but even better: the time to start seeds for the spring & summer kitchen garden.

I am giddy, giddy, giddy. First of all, the days are visibly getting longer. Finally! almost 8 hours of direct sun [...]

Posted in Garden, Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Seed Starting, vegetable Comments(3)

Growing what?

You know… “chayote” (sometimes spelled “chayotte”), also known as chouchou, chocko, christophine, mirliton, vegetable pear. You don’t know? Time for today’s lesson, then: Sechium edule, a member of the cucurbitacea family (or if you prefer a cousin of squashes and cucumber), originates from Mexico and Central America and was already cultivated there when the [...]

Posted in Garden, Kitchen Garden, Propagation, Seed Starting, vegetable Comments(19)

A while ago, I posted a recipe for chayote shoots, this unusual green that’s easy to grow and that is wonderfully silky in stir-fry and braised dishes. It makes good quiches too - a racy alternative to spinach or Swiss chard. You have probably seen the fruit in the exotic section of the supermarket. In [...]

Posted in Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Propagation, vegetable Comments(10)

Now is when you should start your fall and winter Kitchen Garden.
Truly, there are some things that should be planted in May or June for fall harvesting because those crops take a long time to mature (like celeriac, parsnip, the perennial sunchokes, winter cabbages, winter leeks, Brussels sprouts and a few other things). But they [...]

Posted in Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Seed Starting, locavore log, vegetable Comments(3)

I had no idea that Swiss Chard flowers smelled so good.
The flowers themselves are small and inconspicuous - albeit on top of rather incongruously awkward stems that flop onto their neighbors - and, unfortunately onto the cowslip primroses. The scent is powdery sweet, not cloying. How I got to revel in the scent of Swiss [...]

Posted in Garden, Garden Technique, Kitchen Garden, Seed Saving, Seed Starting, vegetable Comments(1)