Archive for vegetable

11 May 2011
Farms • fruit • locavore log • vegetable

On Growing Rhubarb

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Until recently I thought tender all-summer long rhubarb was available only in place like England, the Pacific Northwest or Maine. Places with cool and moist summers. Places like Vachon Island where my blog pal Tom of Tall Clover Farm harvest armfuls upon armfuls of crimson stemmed monsters. Makes me turn green with envy…

I was convinced that rhubarb in Virginia was a fleeting all-too brief treasure, the plants sending flowers forth as soon as it got too hot and then considerably slowing down for the summer. Because this denizen of the mountains of Central Asia likes it cool. And since we rarely have a real long cool even-temperatured spring here (let alone a mild summer!), I thought: in Virginia you got rhubarb in May and that was it.

Anyway, that is indeed what I thought until very very recently. Until last week as a matter of fact. Read more

sylvie | 6 comments | Tags:
05 Feb 2011
Appetizer • locavore log • Recipes • vegetable • Vegetable recipe

Winter Pickles: Sunroots aka Jerusalem Artichokes

Undemanding. Vigorous. Pretty in a blowzy sorts of way. Tall. You could almost be talking about me. But not quite: Helianthus tuberosus is what I mean. You know: Jerusalem artichokes, sunchokes, sunroots, earth apple, tobinambours. Look at them in that somewhat blurry September picture, towering over the arches of the cold frame  – well over 8 feet tall (the arches top at 4 feet tall and the ground is sloping up, so the prospective is somewhat distorted). But tall they will grow in decent garden soil, and that only from spring to fall as they are an herbaceous  perennial -  impressive, no?

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The bright yellow  flower is cheerful and pretty too, in an unsophisticated care-free sorts of way – although small when compared to the overall plant size. Nothing like its fat headed cousin the annual sunflower.

Some people actually things sunroots are “invasive”. Well… for those of us on the Eastern North American seabord, that’s impossible: Helianthus tuberosus is native to Eastern North America (from Quebec to North Florida and as west as North Dakota). How can something native be invasive? Read more

sylvie | 4 comments | Tags: , , ,
22 Mar 2010
Garden Technique • Harvest • locavore log • vegetable

The Taste Of Green

I simply love this time of the year when the days are clear, the nights are cool, the maples are blooming, the buds are swelling on the trees, and so many green things – good to eat too – are poking out of the ground, or just starting to grow for real.

Witness:

  • The acid green of sorrel. Lemony flavor in our salads and tart soups and sauces. Lovely with potatoes.

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sylvie | 9 comments | Tags: , , , ,
14 Mar 2010
Seed Starting • vegetable

Growing Babies

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Seven weeks old (seeded on January 25), and growing. Transplanted once already and soon again!

Those are my super early batch (The main batch was started on Feb22). They are a reliable tasty and prolific cherry tomato for me (Wetsel Red Cherry) and – cross our collective fingers – harvest should start in June. That’s the only reason really to start things so early: to really extend the harvest season.

sylvie | No comments | Tags:
10 Mar 2010
Garden Technique • Harvest • Kitchen Garden • locavore log • vegetable

On Spinach

A month ago, we were under 2 feet of snow with night temperatures in the single digits. This week we garden in short-sleeve shirts and harvest mache, baby lettuce, just-emerging sorrel, baby arugula, escarole and… spinach – lots and lots of spinach. Finally!

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The spinach was not planted in the hoophouse but outside. Last spring we simply did not have enough spinach, not having planted any the prior fall. So this past fall, I did 2 separate sowings, a small one in September to give us some fall spinach, and three long rows in November. We covered the bed with wire hoops, and Reemay. The bed was buried under snow for several weeks, the hoops crushing in the process – they’ll have to be reshaped. Yes, the larger leaves of the spinach are somewhat tattered (but fine enough for the chicken who are happy enough for anything green), but the 2nd planting – much smaller plants – did very well and is starting to grow again. Happily so, too. With enough water, that should provide us with spinach through May. Maybe I’ll even have enough to freeze some later this spring. Read more

sylvie | 2 comments | Tags: ,
26 Feb 2010
Garden Technique • Kitchen Garden • Seed Starting • vegetable

A Gross Of Tomatoes

It does roll good off the tongue, doesn’t it? or is it just me?… “a gross of tomatoes”…

Except of course, they are not yet tomato plants, just 144 seeded cells with the promise of 144 seedlings. Seeded on Februray 22 (although the labels read 2/21 because I meant to do it on the 21st but did not get to them until the 22nd, and then was too lazy to change the labels). Hard to look at that one flat and think that’s a potential of 144 tomato plants. Hard not to go and seed an other gross… it seems such a long time away until we can pick tomatoes. Especially when the wind is howling outside.

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Read more

sylvie | 7 comments | Tags:
13 Feb 2010
Garden Technique • locavore log • Seed Starting • vegetable

Planning for Tomatoes

We may have two feet of snow on the ground, but the early tomato seedlings have germinated.

I do like to pick my first tomatoes in June, so I plant a few seedling in late January. They germinate in early February, and I keep up-potting them into bigger pots until it is time to plant them out. I will put a couple in a cold frame come April, and I may this year – space allowing – plant some in the hoophouse.

What are those super early babies? Wetsel Red Cherry. I love cherry tomatoes for salad, fresh salsa (especially mixed with other veggies or fruit like this Grilled Peach Salsa) and for drying. Dry cherry tomatoes are simply wonderful tossed in a green winter salad – a burst of sweet-acid tomato taste. Of course, it’s also easy to freeze bagfuls of fresh cherry tomatoes.

Cherry tomato start to produce earlier than the big ones, and by starting them in January, and keeping them happy (that’s the key), I will have tomato in June. My earliest is June 14, and that was prior to the hoophouse. Can I beat that?

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So can’t say I am “dreaming” of tomatoes – after all I am consuming plenty in the form of soup, sauce, paste, confit etc from last summer canning. But I am certainly planning my tomato crop. This year I am getting more of the non-red tomatoes, and I am planting more of the canning tomatoes too. That is, those tomatoes that were bred for little pulp so that they would not give off too much liquid. They are also called paste tomatoes, processing tomatoes or sometime Italian tomatoes.

Last year I had three different paste cultivars: Amish Paste (at noon in the picture – new to me then), Roma (at 4:00) & San Marzano Sel el Redorte (at 8:00). Amish Paste is very meaty and some were longer than my hand (it was a dry summer and I don’t water that much so the specimens below were not that large). Great for sauce and paste. Roma, which I decided to try again – was fine for crushed tomatoes. San Marzano was good also for sauce and paste, to can whole and to make tomato confit - and Tomato Tatin.

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Those, as well as the slicing tomatoes and more cherry, I will be starting from late February through mid-March. Trying to time the determinate paste tomato harvest for September, you know… so the ambient temperature is a little more conducive to canning.

What are your tomato plans this year? Any you can’t do without? and why?

PS: the first pepper seedlings have been emerging over the last few days. Hot pepperts up first, followed by Round of Hungary. Still waiting for the bell and Italian…

sylvie | 18 comments | Tags:
09 Jan 2010
Garden Technique • Kitchen Garden • vegetable

More on Growing In Hoop Tunnels

This is Swiss Chard in the garden today, unprotected, after weeks of cold weather, night in the teens (F/- 7 C to -12 C) and days of bone-chilling howling winds with gusts at 50 miles/ h (80 km). Not pretty, right? Certainly not much to harvest…

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This is Swiss Chard (and more) in the unheated hoop tunnel. Need I say more?

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A few hours of labor, $100 in materials (some second hand), one layer of greenhouse plastic – and we moved at least one zone south, maybe 2 . Not bad for January, eh?

sylvie | 4 comments | Tags: , , ,
19 Jul 2009
Cookery • locavore log • vegetable

Summer Lunch

Summer has been cooler here than in prior years. So while tomatoes are really just starting to ripen and yield – finally!!!! – for real (a good 2 weeks past my usual tomato target date though), cabbage, kale (kale!!! in July! edible!) and lettuce greens are doing just well. On the other hand, the sweet potatoes are looking anemic, and the okra… well, we won’t talk about the okra. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about!

Let’s talk instead about the colorful lunch (or dinner) plate that one can make from the garden at the moment . Everything can be cooked, days in advance, and assembled just a few minutes before serving. Perfect for when one feels lazy or is hurried. For example, today’s lunch:

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First, spread a variery of lettuce leaves on the plate; Read more

sylvie | 6 comments | Tags: , , ,
29 Jun 2009
Kitchen Garden • vegetable

Peppers Before Tomatoes

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That’s really not the way it’s supposed to work, but that’s how it’s working this year.

Despite having started my tomato plants early in February, I did not plant most of them them until fairly late, and since they don’t hold as well in pots as peppers do, the peppers are harvestable – not yet the tomatoes. Yep, here it is, not quite July 1, and I am harvesting peppers. On the picture: Sweet Banana (which I love) , Jimmy Nardello – new to me this year, supposedly great for frying and drying – and probably (because I forgot to look at the tag and I am too lazy to go check it now) Acongagua.

The tomatoes? Well they are ripening, and I should be able to pick a few before July 4 (maybe!), but it’s nothing like last year, when I was harvesting cherry tomatoes from June 14 on, and big fat ones by late June. OK, I did pick 5 ripe cherry tomatoes (ah!) so far, and one green fat one to make a green tomato salsa. But it’s nothing like last year… Of course, i have also heard from others who were the recipients of some of my plants, that THEY are harvesting RIPE tomatoes. Sigh…

What else in late? Squash, winter squash and cucumbers. But that was on purpose. Last year squash bugs, cucumber beetles and stink bugs were just awful. So I decided to plant all those squashes late, with the hope that the first generation of bugs that emerge would find nothing to eat and nothing to host their eggs. While I have seen – and squashed – some bugs, at least for now, it’s nothing like last year (this is good)! So, unlike Ed of The Slow Cook who is making true pickles with his cucumbers at the moment, pickles are at least 3 to 4 weeks away for me (although I can see the first flowers on my young vines).

Okra? Beans? Corn? late too, but like tomatoes, that was due to short of time in May and June (as well as old seeds for beans that germinated very poorly. Lesson learned, I hope….). All should do OK provided we don’t get cold too early in the fall.

On the other hand, I am harvesting kohlrabi, cabbage and still lettuce, and enough basil to already make pesto.

So goes life!

sylvie | 7 comments
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