I’M RESOWING GREENS GALORE, spurred onward by the welcome shift in weather—the monsoon desisted!—and also by a chat with Ellen Ecker Ogden. Thanks to Ellen, my palette of ingredients to try is widening, and I’ve got several new variations on vinaigrette to taste-test, too. Get her advice (in print or podcast), and maybe win a copy of “The Complete Kitchen Garden,” which marries Ellen’s designs for edible gardens (that’s hers, above, and in the plan below) with 100 of her best seasonal recipes. [read more…]
recipes & cooking
"Margaret lets the garden tell her what to eat," a food-blogger friend said recently, and that is true, since I grow edibles to eat fresh in season and also can, freeze and store for offseason use. From heirloom baked beans to refrigerator pickles and peach clafoutis, some of my favorites--along with preserving and storage tips--can be found here.
growing a salad-lover’s garden, with ellen ogden (win her book!)
June 17, 2013 at 11:50 am
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hailstone rhubarb crumble, compote, syrup
June 6, 2013 at 7:43 am
WHEN LIFE DEALS YOU LEMONS—well, maybe not lemons, but battered, shredded rhubarb, thanks to hail—make rhubarb compote, crumble and syrup, perhaps with an eye to using less sugar than usually called for in the process. That was the attitude here recently, and we did. My 2013 rhubarb story: before, after, and deliciously ready-to-eat. [read more…]
after the hail, sorrel-spinach soup
May 30, 2013 at 9:25 am
IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING what plants are hailproof, the list is short—especially in the tender springtime vegetable garden, where peas and lettuce, spinach and such don’t take well to a thrashing. On Friday we rescued what could be salvaged from the recent storm’s mess, and made sorrel-spinach soup from some of it. Once it was all pureed, you’d never know there had been giant holes in the leaves. [read more…]
gardeners’ incentive: vegetarian reuben sandwich
May 10, 2013 at 7:35 am
WHEN WE ARE PUSHING HARD to get the garden “open” for spring, my trusty helper and I come up with incentives—usually in the form of food. “Treats,” we call them, or “employee benefits”—whatever it takes to get to the finish line despite the to-do list that’s far too long for too-few hands. “Let’s make the Reubens tomorrow,” Susan said, after a relentless day of chores last Thursday, and last Friday we did. Vegetarian Reuben sandwiches, specifically; hold the corned beef. [read more…]
soup garden: growing vegetable soup ingredients
April 19, 2013 at 8:20 am
I DON’T THINK I HAVE EVER planted a theme garden—you know, a Children’s Garden, for instance, or White Garden or Shakespeare Garden, the kinds of demonstration plots you might see at a botanical institution. But the joy of a winterlong supply of homemade vegetable soup from my 2012 harvest has perhaps changed that. I suppose am at least informally growing a Soup Garden this year—all but one or two ingredients are sown, with thought of soup-making in mind. [read more…]
