Garden Update

The garden demands a lot of attention by this time of the growing season, but it also now provides daily rewards. The first planting of salad greens are nearly gone and the second planting withered in the heat wave over the last few weeks. I intend to plant a third batch, but will wait until temperatures are on the decline. Thankfully, the second planting of radishes fared well and we have been enjoying them, along with lots of fresh herbs and the summer's first peas.  I often crave the shelling peas, or field peas as we called them, that I enjoyed so much as a kid in Alabama. I always griped about having to help my mom shell them, but I never complained about eating them and now that I look back on that time, I have great memories of shelling peas with my mom. Purple hulls were my favorite variety, but since they nor their other southern counterparts will grow well here (and boy, how I've tried), I have found a suitable replacement called Laxton's Progress #9 Shelling Peas.

Laxton's Progress #9 Shelling Peas

A few weeks ago, we were enjoying garlic scapes and now that July is coming to an end, it's time to pull, clean, and dry the garlic that has been growing since last October. You may remember the Autumn Garden post where I wrote about garlic planting. Garlic makes a great crop to grow since it is generally hardy, doesn't need a lot of attention during the growing process, and is very easy to store with minimal effort toward preservation. I simply pull it up, snip the necks and roots, wash it, peel off the outermost layer of skin, and let it dry in a ventilated area for a week or so. Once the skins feel papery, then the garlic is ready to be stored in a cool, dry place where it will remain good for months.  I use garlic in just about every dish I make. It packs a lot of flavor, plus it is extremely heart healthy and can protect against various cancers, most notably breast, prostate, and colon cancer. According to University of Alabama biologist Dr. David W. Kraus, to maximize the health benefits of garlic, crush it at room temperature and allow it to sit for 15 minutes before adding it to your meal. This triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in the garlic. It is also more beneficial when consumed raw rather than cooked.

Late July also signals the start of blueberry season in my region. I picked the first handful of ripe berries on Wednesday and they made a delicious, seasonal addition to my breakfast. Blueberries are chock full of antioxidants, Vitamin C, fiber, phytonutrients, and manganese. As part of a regular diet, they play a role in heart health, brain health, insulin response, and cancer prevention. Since they have a relatively short season, it is great to get out and pick your own while they last, either from your garden or a local u-pick berry farm. To preserve them, simply wash them, shake off any excess water, and freeze them in a single layer. You can do this by spreading them onto a baking sheet and popping them in the freezer until they harden. Then, transfer them to freezer bags or other air-tight freezer containers to pull out and use anytime you want to make a cobbler, a blueberry topping for pancakes, a smoothie, or use them any other way you wish.

Another July garden chore is to keep the cabbage worms in check. These worms are the larvae of dainty white butterflies that seem way too graceful and attractive to wreak such havoc on the plants in the Brassicas family. They eat the leaves of the plant and, as the plants approach maturity, the velvety green worms will bore into your cabbage heads or infest the undersides of broccoli or cauliflower crowns, making them hard to see. If you can't spot the worms, you may be able to spot the trail of green excrement they leave behind. When gardening organically, the best way to control these worms is to hand pick them in the mornings or evenings, when they are most active. I hold a cup of soapy water in one hand, scoop the cabbage worms off the plant with the other, and slip them into the soapy water. If you pick them off once or twice a week, you can effectively control the population and save your beautiful cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and other related crops from becoming a worm feast.

cabbage worm munching a hole in a young head of cabbage

The vegetables that aren't yet ready to harvest are still making beautiful contributions to the garden with their colorful blossoms and tiny, young veggies.  I'll wrap up today with a few photos of my favorites:

Rattlesnake Pole Bean blossom

Calendula

Tug helps check on the budding okra

blossoms on Mountain Rose potatoes

Salads & Scapes

Sheep's Sorrel

The time has finally come when I get to begin enjoying fresh veggies straight from the garden. Going out with a basket, picking, and shaking the dirt from vegetables that are still holding the warmth of the sun or still speckled with morning dew is remarkably satisfying. Today's harvest mostly included garlic scapes, piles of lettuce, radishes, and a few wild edibles that I like to add to summer salads. Dandelion greens are great in the spring, but have turned bitter by now, so I stuck with sheep's sorrel and plantain, both of which grow wild in and around the yard. They are loaded with iron and boast nutrient profiles that will make your garden plants jealous. Sorrel is especially known as an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antioxidant, immune-boosting powerhouse with a nice lemon-pepper zing that makes it a flavorful addition to many recipes. Plantain tastes a bit like spinach and also has a reputation as a healing plant, full of calcium, beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, and Vitamin K. It has anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and detoxifying qualities. When added to skin salves, it promotes wound healing, softens skin, and stimulates cellular regeneration.  And to think, most consider these plants to be weeds! 

Plantain

Cherry Belle radishes

  

After tossing together a fresh salad, I love topping it with a homemade dressing and homemade croutons. Both offer inexpensive, healthy, delicious alternatives to picking up the same items processed for supermarket shelves. For the croutons, simply cube any stale bread you might have on hand, toast it lightly, then toss it with fresh garden herbs, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, grated parmesan, or any other flavoring that suits your tastes.  Toast it once more after you toss it with herbs and spices and they are ready to top your salad. Store any extras in an airtight container. They will remain good for a week or two.

 My two favorite homemade salad dressings are a creamy buttermilk ranch and a tangy maple-balsamic vinaigrette. The buttermilk ranch recipe comes from a new cookbook I picked up recently from Diane St. Clair of The Animal Farm in Orwell, VT. I mentioned my obsession with her buttermilk in two previous posts, one involving buttermilk bread, and another featuring my buttermilk birthday cake. Thanks to her new Buttermilk Cookbook I am armed with pages and pages of tasty new ways to use it. 

Classic Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
 
1/3 C buttermilk
1/4 C good-quality mayonnaise
3 Tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt & fresh ground pepper 

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and feel free to get creative with it. Diane suggests experimenting with flavor variations on this simple base recipe with things like chipotle chiles, parmesan, or roasted garlic. Today I added fresh chives and a bit of sheep's sorrel. 

Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 C balsamic Vinegar
1/4 C maple Syrup
1 C olive oil
1 Tbsp whole grain Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Combine all but the oil in a blender or food processor, pulse until combined, then add the oil in a steady stream while the processor is still running until the mixture is completely emulsified.  

Both dressings can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The ranch will last about a week, and the vinaigrette will last much longer, but is best when pulled from the fridge an hour or so from when you want to use it, then shaken vigorously to allow the oil and vinegar to re-blend.

 

Scapes are the graceful, curling shoots that come from the garlic plant and, if left on the plant, they will flower, but will also divert energy that could otherwise go toward developing a larger garlic bulb below ground. As a result, I like to snip mine off as soon as they appear and begin curling, which usually happens about a month after the garlic first develops leaves. Leaving them longer will result in tougher, woodier scapes which are not as desirable to eat. When harvested at the right time, scapes are delicious in a pesto or can be used to add a fresh, pungent kick to any recipe where you might otherwise use garlic or onions. 

Garlic Scape Pesto

10-12 garlic scapes
1/3 C unsalted, roasted pistachios
1/3 C finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 C olive oil

Blend all but the olive oil in a blender or food processor, then drizzle the olive oil in a steady stream while the processor is running until well blended. Pesto can be used as a dip, as a spread on crackers or crusty bread, or tossed with pasta for a quick meal. If you don't use it all right away, it freezes beautifully. 

Companion Planting and Other Natural Pest Controls

Memorial Day weekend signaled the start to full-blown gardening season in my region.  The tiny seeds I started in cups 8 weeks prior were now hearty seedlings ready to be transplanted, the cold-hardy seeds I started in the garden around the same time are coming up, and the stack of seed packets I set aside for planting once the danger of frost had past were now ready to meet the soil. The next step was to figure out where each one should go. To make those decisions, there are a few things I like to keep in mind. First, I look at the sketches I made in my garden journal indicating where things were planted over the last few seasons. This way, I can be sure that I'm rotating crops and not planting the same crops in the same beds for at least 2 or 3 seasons. Crop rotation results in better harvests by breaking disease cycles and helping the soil maintain a healthy balance of nutrients, organic matter, and microorganisms. Field trials demonstrate that crops planted in the same plot season after season experience a sharp decline in yields and a sharp increase in disease and pest infestation, when compared to crops that are rotated.

seedlings started 8 weeks ago, now ready for transplanting

The second important consideration when deciding where to plant my seeds and seedlings is the practice of companion planting. Certain plants benefit from sharing garden space with other plants either because they attract beneficial insects or repel the not-so-beneficial ones. There are lots of resources online about companion planting, but my favorite source of info on the subject comes from a book called Carrots Love Tomatoes:  Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte. I found this gem of a book in a box of freebies at the end of someone's driveway while out for a run one drizzly morning and it insisted on coming home with me. I dried it out and dove in. 

Here are a few things I learned and applied to this year's garden: The Brassica family of vegetables including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower is aided by the Allium family which includes onions, garlic, leeks, and shallots when it comes to keeping away wireworms. Beans and corn are happy together and help prevent beetle infestations. Native Americans knew a lot about companion planting and coined the term "three sisters" referring to corn, beans, and squash and the symbiosis that occurs when they are grown together. Lettuce and spinach enjoy sharing space with radishes, since the radishes keep the leaf miners off the other two. Cucumbers benefit from the company of radishes to deter ground beetles. There are also two flowering plants that I love to add to my garden as a method of companion planting:  marigolds and sweet alyssum. The marigolds help keep hornworms off of the tomatoes and sweet alyssum attracts numerous predatory wasps and other beneficial insects that feed on the insects that would otherwise feed on your plants. Plus, they add a fun pop of color to the garden landscape and the alyssum has a sweet honey aroma that I can't get enough of.

Sweet Alyssum

Marigold

Glass Gem Corn

With crop rotation and companion planting in mind, I made a mental map of where I wanted everything planted, set some speakers up on the porch, cranked up the tunes, and got to work. I prepped most of the beds by adding a few heaping shovels of our compost, churning the soil, and dropping in rows of seeds or seedlings. Some plants, like those in the Brassica family, prefer more alkaline soil, so I skipped the compost on those beds. I direct-seeded rows of Georgia collards and Laxton's Progress #9 shelling peas from High Mowing Organic Seed Company.  I also seeded rows of Rattlesnake pole beans, Sacaton Brown Tepary beans, Glass Gem corn, and Cochiti corn all of which are seeds saved from extinction by a nonprofit organization that works to collect and preserve endangered traditional seeds called Native Seeds Search.  I then transplanted all of my seedlings into beds and finished by mulching around them with straw to serve as both a blanket and weed deterrent.

Sweet Alyssum planted with my Brassicas

tomatoes planted with marigolds

Two final projects in the arena of natural pest control involved making beer traps for slugs and neem oil spray. Slugs are a common pest in my garden, so I made traps by filling a wide-mouth can or dish with beer and burying it at ground level in several of the beds. Slugs love beer, and when they come to drink it, they fall in and drown. The traps have to be refreshed after rain and it's good to periodically dump out the drowned slugs so they don't get smelly. Neem oil spray is a chemical-free way to deter pests and can be made by combining 1 liter of water and 1/2 teaspoon of unscented dish soap, shaking it, then adding a teaspoon of neem oil. Neem oil can be purchased where organic garden supplies are sold or online through Organix South. Only make as much as you will use in one application, as the neem oil breaks down and loses its effectiveness once it is mixed with the other ingredients. Use the spray as a preventative, spraying leaves and soil about once a week. In instances of infestation, make a more concentrated solution and spray it more frequently.

It is important to keep in mind that with crop rotation, companion planting, and other natural pest controls, the goal is not total annihilation, but rather to keep the garden insect population in a healthy balance. Many garden insects are beneficial and using harsh chemicals for pest control kills insects and other organisms regardless of their role in the garden. This adversely affects the balance of the garden

love your pollinators

ecosystem, the health of the garden soil, the health of the pollinators, and health of the environment as a whole. According to a national water quality inventory conducted in 2000, agricultural pollution is the number one source of water quality impairment to rivers and lakes and is the second largest source of impairment to wetlands.  Additionally, it is a major contributor to the contamination of our groundwater. If that doesn't get your attention, then consider the pollinators who especially

need our help now, as their numbers are decreasing dramatically. Without them we lose the ability to grow fruits and vegetables without the tedious and impractical process of hand-pollination. When I consider these issues, it seems worthwhile to use a gentler, more natural approach to dealing with garden pests.

With a sore body and the satisfaction that comes with a hard day of physical work, I sat on the porch swing marveling over the garden with all of its new life and daydreaming about the fruits of my labor.

Garden from the porch

Brine Pickling vs. Vinegar Pickling

When most of us think of pickling, we think of the method described in my last post where the vegetables are often blanched, then hot vinegar and spices are poured over the vegetables and allowed to marinate for a period of time.  These pickles are tasty, but the vinegar does kill the natural cultures and rich enzymes present in the vegetables. Fresh pickling or brine pickling is different in that the vegetables are never cooked, the solution is never heated, and they are salt-based rather than vinegar based.  The salt-based pickles create their own preservative qualities through lactic-acid fermentation as the live cultures that live on the vegetables react with the vegetable starches in the presence of the salt water.  Lactic acid bacteria dominate the environment and lower the pH of the solution to a point where no pathogens can survive, similar to the environment in our gut.  When pickling is complete, these vegetables are still raw, but have become a nutritional powerhouse capable of delivering all the additional benefits that come from consuming wild fermented foods. 

If you read my Adventures of a Wannabe Fermento post, then you may already be familiar with the many benefits of wild-fermented foods.  If not, here is a quick recap:  they are rich in digestive enzymes and probiotics; they produce a complex of B vitamins and vitamin K; they preserve the vitamins already present in the vegetables such as Vitamin C; they improve digestive health; they treat a variety of digestive disorders; they help prevent certain types of cancer;  and they strengthen our overall immunity.  The wild ramp season is nearly over in my region, but pickling is a great way to extend the season and really make the most of vegetables when they are in season.  Especially when it is a vegetable like a ramp that nature provides without any planting or cultivating on my part.  I harvested one last batch so that I could try wild fermenting them in a brine pickling solution.  Rather than use the large fermentation crock I used for my sauerkraut, I will use a handy little invention called the Perfect Pickler that my Aunt Janet sent to me.  It is a quick, inexpensive, and easy way to turn a regular canning jar into a hydroponic, wild fermenting, pickling machine.

To pickle a batch of ramps, I first harvested them, cleaned them well, trimmed the roots and all but an inch of the greens.   Then, I placed them into a clean, quart-sized canning jar and followed the simple instructions in the Perfect Pickler manual:

Brine Pickled Ramps

20-30 ramps

2 Tbsp unrefined, additive-free sea salt

4 cups of bottled spring water or distilled water

Quart canning jar

spices of your choice

First make the brine by combining the salt with the water.  It is really important to use unrefined, additive-free salt since table salt contains additives like iodine and anti-caking agents that will effect the pickling culture.  It is also really important to use bottled spring water or distilled water since chlorine, trace antibiotics, and antibacterial soap residues are present in tap water.  Well water is fine as long as it is not too hard or too soft, but keep in mind that the minerals present in well water may also effect the culture.  I used the Real Salt sample that came with my Perfect Pickler since it is unrefined, non-iodized, and contains over 70 different minerals.  I also chose to add about a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns, a teaspoon of whole coriander, 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, and a bay leaf for some added flavor.

Once the brine is mixed and ready, pour it over the ramps in the canning jar and fill until the brine is 1/2 inch below the jar rim.  Next, float the brine overflow cup that comes with your kit by pressing it into the top of the solution until the rim of the cup is level with the rim of your jar.  Some of the brine will overflow as you do this, which is fine since you want the brine level at 1/8th-inch below the jar lip once the cup is in place.  If the brine gets into your cup, dump it out and try again.  Next, install the gasket into the jar lid.   Wipe the jar lip clean and twist the lid into place.  Tighten just until snug.  Finally, add tap water to the fermentation lock until it reaches the designated line and twist the fermentation lock into the top of the lid until it is snug and upright.  Do not push it in too deeply.  The Perfect Pickler website has a great video that shows each of these steps in detail.  

The final step is to jot down the date and place the jar in a spot that is away from warm appliances or direct sunlight.  The ideal temperature range is between 68-74 F (20-23 C).  The liquid in the jar may cloud a little, and bubbles will form and rise as the wild fermentation takes place.  If the water in your fermentation lock is bubbling, remove the pickler lid and pour out any brine that may have found its way into the brine overflow cup.  After four days, check to see if the recipe is sour enough for your taste.  If not, add a day or two and re-check.  When the pickles are perfect, replace the pickler top and fermentation lock with a regular jar lid and store in the refrigerator.  The pickles will continue to ferment in your fridge, but at a slower rate.  They will stay fresh for months.  Keep in mind that you can ferment just about any vegetable or combination of vegetables in your pickler.  The Perfect Pickler website has lots of great recipes for everything from traditional brine dill pickles, to krauts, chutneys, and slaws. 

Wildcrafting Ramps & Fiddleheads

I recently had the opportunity to attend a talk by Philip Ackerman-Leist where he discussed his book Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems.   During his lecture, Ackerman-Leist spoke about the critical components and challenges of creating strong local food systems.  One of the interesting things he mentioned in his lecture was the importance of utilizing the food that is already at our feet.  This practice is known as wildcrafting and is defined as the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, wild habitat either for medicinal use or for food.  A few years ago, my friend Ali led me on a few walks to show me the ins and outs of wildcrafting in my region.  Ali is a physical therapist and also a certified herbalist who utilizes wildcrafted plants to make medicinal salves and tinctures and also harvests them for food.  She taught me where to look for certain common plants and how to harvest them sustainably.  Today, I will focus on two of my favorite plants that Ali taught me to find for food:   ramps (also known as wild leeks) and fiddleheads.  Restaurants and specialty grocers where I live will pay upwards of $10 a pound for these spring vegetables, as they are seen as something of a delicacy.  I don't intend to sell any that I collect, and be aware that it may be illegal to sell them in some places.  But, I will share how to find them, how to sustainably harvest them, and how to prepare them.

Fiddleheads are the young, furled fronds of the ostrich fern, matteuccia struthiopteris,  as they first emerge from the ground.  Once they unfurl they become beautiful full-length fern fronds and are no longer edible, so they must be harvested and eaten when they are still curled up like little pinwheels.  Fiddleheads can be found in damp woodland areas of Central and Eastern North America in early spring before the leaves fill out on the trees that tower overhead.  Search near streams, brooks, rivers, or vernal ponds.  Because the trees in forested areas are still bare in early spring, there is still plenty of light reaching the forest floor allowing the tiny ferns to sprout.   Ostrich ferns can be identified by the clusters of 3-12 shoots on each plant, the smooth stems, and the u-shaped curve on the inside of the stem.  They are high in antioxidants, omega-3, omega-6, iron and fiber.  When locating and harvesting, tread lightly so as to disrupt as little of the natural vegetation as possible.  Harvest only one or two fiddleheads from each fern so that the remaining fronds can reach maturity and reproduce.   Harvest from a wide area, moving often, rather than in a very concentrated zone.  That way, you can be sure that there will be fiddleheads to harvest for years to come.  

Snip each fiddlehead with shears an inch or so from the ground then soak them in water until the little brown, papery shavings come loose from the ferns.  Rinse them well to remove any other dirt or debris.  Do not consume fiddleheads raw.  They should be boiled or steamed for 10-15 minutes and can be prepared several different ways.  My favorite dish I have made with them is a fiddlehead orzo salad.  First, I boiled the fiddleheads in salted water for 10 minutes, then I plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking.  I boiled orzo pasta in a separate pot of salted water, drained, and rinsed it.  Then, toss the fiddleheads, pasta, some halved grape tomatoes, chopped fresh chives, a generous squeeze of lemon, olive oil, salt & pepper.  Chill and serve for a delicious, healthy spring salad.

Ramps, allium tricoccum, are wild leeks that can be found in the same wet, densely wooded areas where fiddleheads are found through central and eastern US and Canada.  They grow in dense clusters in marshy areas and around rivers, streams, and brooks.  They thrive in early spring when the leaves of the forest canopy are thin, allowing light to pass through to the forest floor.  They can be identified by their broad, smooth, green leaves and purple lower stems.  Their taste can be described as a mix between a green onion and garlic.  When harvesting ramps, follow similar rules as you would follow with fiddleheads:  tread lightly, never harvest any more than 5% of any one clump and harvest from the center of each clump rather than from the outskirts.  The ramps can repopulate an area in the center of a clump easier than they can from the outer edges.  When harvesting, you will need a small, sharp spade so that you can dig underneath and harvest the ramp roots and all.  They are well-rooted, so attempting to pull them out of the ground results in tearing the leaves off,  leaving the onion in the ground.  Be mindful of other plants growing among the ramps and don't unnecessarily disturb any of them.  A great example of this sort of thing happened on Sunday when I was harvesting ramps from one of my favorite spots.  Growing among the ramps was flowering trillium, a plant that is listed as threatened or endangered in many places.  Picking or otherwise disturbing them is illegal without a special permit in some states. 

Trillium in the Ramps

Once I harvest the ramps,  I like to place them in a bucket and soak them in water to remove the loose dirt.  Then, I place them on a screen or in a plant tray and hose them down well.  Next, I remove the roots and the outer skins of each ramp and rinse them again in clean, cold water.  Now they are ready to be bagged and stored in the fridge for any meal where you might otherwise use onions, scallions, or leeks.  Because I like ramps so much and they are only available for a few weeks each year, I like to preserve some of them by pickling them.  I use a pickled ramp recipe that comes from a cookbook called Cooking With Shelburne Farms:  Food and Stories From Vermont.  


Shelburne Farms Pickled Ramps

20 small ramps, roots removed and trimmed to 1" of greens
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar (I usually omit this)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
1 bay leaf

Prepare a large bowl of ice water.  Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the ramps, and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain immediately and plunge the ramps into ice water to stop cooking.  In a medium pot, bring the cider vinegar, honey, sugar, red pepper, peppercorns, fennel, coriander, and the bay leaf to a simmer, then remove from heat.  Put the drained ramps into a clean pint jar.  Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar and allow to cool uncovered.  Then, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.  These pickled ramps will stay good in the refrigerator for at least a month.  The cookbook recommends serving these in salads with beets and goat cheese, with charcuterie, or as an unexpected touch to a cheese plate.  I like to eat them straight from the jar.

Another way I really like to use ramps is in a pesto.  Pesto is really versatile and can be spread onto toast, used as a base for a homemade pizza, or tossed with pasta for a quick dinner.  I found this particular recipe in the produce section of my co-op and I'm unsure of its original origin.  I used a really great olive oil sent by my friend Sara that was grown and pressed by her neighbors in Winters, CA and I made a few minor substitutions to the ramp recipe.

Ramp Pesto

1/2 cup ramps, roots removed, leaves and bulbs roughly chopped

1/2 cup basil (or any fresh herbs you have on hand.  I used cilantro)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (I used toasted pecans)
1/4 cup parmesan reggiano, grated
salt & pepper

Combine all in a food processor and blend.  I used this most recent batch in a pasta dish by coating a chicken breast in some of the pesto and then baking it.  Meanwhile, I boiled whole wheat angel hair spaghettini, drained it, then tossed it with the shredded cooked chicken, the rest of the pesto, and a few finely chopped sundried tomatoes.