Fruits of Our Labor

One thing about gardening that has really amazed me is the sheer growth ability of well-tended (and even not-so-well-tended) plants.  Here are some pictures of the tomatoes as of this afternoon.

This is about half of “Tomato Town,” as we’ve dubbed it. The majority of these plants are ones that I started from seed (the Sun-golds and Purple Cherokees).  We traded a few extra plants to our gardening friends and mentors and received a Mortgage Lifter, Red Brandywine, Legend and Early Girl in exchange.  I’m hoping to be able to do more plant trading next year as it was a relatively easy (and fun) way to increase variety.  If anyone would be interested in trading in the future, let me know! 

Tags: cherokee, gardening, heirloom, sungold, tomatillo, tomato

Natural Weed Whackers

It’s been a long time since my last blog post but that’s certainly not been due to a lack off happenings around these parts.  I’ve traveled to the motherland (America’s intensely humid Midwest) for a family reunion, helped plan and cater a best friend’s wedding, officially graduated from college and officially accepted a position in graduate school.  I said goodbye to my dog (who passed away) and to my father (who moved to Colorado).  There have been a lot of changes in my life the past few months and there have been a lot of changes in the garden as well.  We’re almost to the end of the Spring vegetables; before long we’ll be eating the last of the kale and collard greens and peas.  The tomatoes and squash are blooming and the first of the carrots are about ready to be eaten.  I’ll be making a more involved garden update (with pictures!) shortly.

In the meantime, NPR ran a story about an old-fashioned form of natural weed whackers that’s being used by the city of LA.  Check it out here.  I hope to see this sort of thing utilized more in the future!

Tags: gardening, links, livestock

Roast Chicken

I’ve posted about Thomas Keller’s simple roast chicken recipe before but it’s amazing enough to deserve another post.  The secret of the recipe is to cook the bird at high heat (450 degrees F), which crisps up the skin and keeps the meat incredibly moist.  Nothing is worse than dried out chicken.

The only problem with the recipe is that the high heat can tend to set off your kitchen smoke alarm.  However, there’s an easy solution so that you can make this recipe without having to place a call to the fire department.  Line the bottom of your broiler pan with aluminum foil, cover it with non-stick spray, and then add in four or five medium red potatoes that have been cut into wedges.  Replace the top piece of the broiler pan, put the trussed chicken on top and cook.  The potatoes absorb the juices from the chicken, which not only keeps the juices from burning and setting off your smoke detector, but they make the potatoes absolutely delectable.  Thomas Keller recommends serving the roast chicken with a simple green salad, but I like mine with a little quinoa and vegetables sauted with garlic (in this case, broccolini).

Tags: chicken, cooking, meat

Garden Update

I had fully intended to make a massive post on Earth day on April 22nd.  Nate really wanted to go on a picnic, but I figured I had plenty of time afterward to write about finishing my first batch of compost.  However, our picnic turned into a long drive in the country, which turned into an overnight stay at the Edgefield hotel, which turned into Nate asking me to marry him.  I said yes and the past few days have been incredibly busy and exciting.  The only problem is that my Earth day compost story never got written and it probably never will.  I guess sometimes blogging just has to take a backseat on the rollercoaster of life.

Anyway, May is almost here and the garden is looking lush!  I just want to make a quick post with some photos from today.

Tags: gardening, kale, lettuce, photos, potato

Poe-tay-toes

At the gardening lecture I went to in January they said that the perfect time to plant potatoes is on St. Patrick’s day.  Fitting, right?  Unfortunately, since I just got around to planting my seed potatoes today, my potatoes are almost a month late.  Whoops!

I’m going to blame my tater tardiness on the fact that we took forever to decide where and how to plant them.  To get the most food out of your potato plant, you’re supposed to cover the green plant that grows out through the dirt with more dirt on a regular basis.  So it was necessary to plant the potatoes in a way so that we could mound several more inches of dirt on them throughout the growing season.  Many resources recommend planting in trashcans, but to be honest, spending $10+ on each trashcan seemed unappealing when you can buy a bag of potatoes at the supermarket for dirt cheap.

Tags: DIY, gardening, potato, sewing

Mesclun Madness

I took some pictures out in the greenhouse today just for the hell of it.  I really wasn’t anticipating on posting any of them but I was so amazed when I compared today’s picture of the mesclun starts to the one from April 5th.  It’s only been six days but the seedlings appear to have tripled in size!  Plants are amazing!

Tags: gardening, greenhouse, mesclun, seedlings

Cheddar Chile Beer Muffins

I made these muffins for the first time a few months ago for my good friend Christa’s birthday.  She decided to base the festivities on the food network show Chopped, and she challenged me to make an hors d’oeuvres that featured jicama, crab and beer.  I knew I could easily use jicama and crab in a Latin inspired crab cake, but wasn’t sure how the include the beer.  A quick google search for “beer bread” turned up an array of bread loaf recipes.  I picked this one from Recipe Zaar and made it in a muffin tin instead of a loaf pan.  Split in half and paired with the jicama crab cakes and a cilantro-lime aioli, they were fab: very moist with a slight yeasty taste from the beer and they could hardly have been easier to make.

Tags: baking, beer, cooking, muffins, recipe, savory