The garden is particular to time and place, yet it feels timeless.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A meditation on why I garden
The following is from one of my favorite occasional contributors to the New York Times. It captures how I can get lost in a parallel universe of time in the garden and why that is so attractive to me....
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
As good as cherries?
All my life I've loved cherries. Cherry anything. Waiting for fresh cherries each year was a trial. Not having the place for my own tree (past the one in yard of my childhood) was punishment. Then a few years ago I saw ground cherries listed in a seed catalogue.
They couldn't be as good as cherries, but then I still didn't have room for a tree. Or the patience to wait for one to grow even if I had the room.
This year I decided to try them. The plant is in a bit of an inopportune place, thanks to an error in judgment on my part and an amazing growing season. It is shaded a bit by towering tomatoes yet it is bushing out and set lots of cherries. They look strangely like tomatillos as they grow on this shrub.
Time came for a taste test. I can see now that the one I tasted wasn't fully ripe, yet it was - while not at all cherry-like in taste - quite true to the description in the catalogue: clean and citrusy. Immediately I knew I had a new ingredient to work with and began to consider how to use my harvest (which will be small). I still love cherries now have added this variety to the list: Bing, Ranier, Sour and Ground.
How many plants have we lost the opportunity to taste and enjoy and be creative with? Yet another reason to seek out and try the new as well as plant the old favorites.
They couldn't be as good as cherries, but then I still didn't have room for a tree. Or the patience to wait for one to grow even if I had the room.
This year I decided to try them. The plant is in a bit of an inopportune place, thanks to an error in judgment on my part and an amazing growing season. It is shaded a bit by towering tomatoes yet it is bushing out and set lots of cherries. They look strangely like tomatillos as they grow on this shrub.
Time came for a taste test. I can see now that the one I tasted wasn't fully ripe, yet it was - while not at all cherry-like in taste - quite true to the description in the catalogue: clean and citrusy. Immediately I knew I had a new ingredient to work with and began to consider how to use my harvest (which will be small). I still love cherries now have added this variety to the list: Bing, Ranier, Sour and Ground.
How many plants have we lost the opportunity to taste and enjoy and be creative with? Yet another reason to seek out and try the new as well as plant the old favorites.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Ingredient "pellets"
Recently I was in the presence of some people who do "food science". The term "pellets" was used to describe an ingredient in a mass produced food product. The first thing that came to my mind was the poison that was used to kill rats - pellets.
Then I thought of food pellets for animals and fish.
Never did it occur to me that the food products for human consumption were made using anything but raw ingredients. (And of course, depending on what one buys, the required litany of multi-syllabic, tongue-twisting chemicals.) Naive of me wasn't it? I'm sure it's much less costly to transport pellets of dehydrated stuff (e.g. tomato sauce) than all the tomatoes, onions, garlic and other ingredients of tomato sauce, but somehow it just seems wrong. Think about it. Tomatoes on the vine, processed into sauce, then dehydrated, bagged and shipped who knows where to be rehydrated into something that probably has the words "natural" and "fresh" on the label. Why not just make the sauce and be done with it? Why transport twice?
Then I thought of food pellets for animals and fish.
Never did it occur to me that the food products for human consumption were made using anything but raw ingredients. (And of course, depending on what one buys, the required litany of multi-syllabic, tongue-twisting chemicals.) Naive of me wasn't it? I'm sure it's much less costly to transport pellets of dehydrated stuff (e.g. tomato sauce) than all the tomatoes, onions, garlic and other ingredients of tomato sauce, but somehow it just seems wrong. Think about it. Tomatoes on the vine, processed into sauce, then dehydrated, bagged and shipped who knows where to be rehydrated into something that probably has the words "natural" and "fresh" on the label. Why not just make the sauce and be done with it? Why transport twice?
Friday, July 9, 2010
Zucchini bats
It's that time of year. You watch and wait and wait and watch for things to blossom, set fruit and ripen. Zucchini are notorious for growing only when not watched. A few days ago I had several small four inch or so squash so I decided to let them enjoy the sunny days. Today I have huge baseball bat zucchini, of multiple pounds each. I wasn't watching close enough and they had a run away growth spurt.
Lot's of people wouldn't touch a vegetable that looks like it's on steroids so they really aren't good to sell. But this variety doesn't have lots of seeds that grow proportionately, so the flesh of these monsters is great to dehydrate and make into sizable chips (replacing potato chips!), or shred for bread, or puree for a velvety cream of zucchini soup.
And the other vexing thing about selling seasonally, everyone has their bumper crop when you do so there is an abundance and everyone knows the laws of supply and demand...
Lot's of people wouldn't touch a vegetable that looks like it's on steroids so they really aren't good to sell. But this variety doesn't have lots of seeds that grow proportionately, so the flesh of these monsters is great to dehydrate and make into sizable chips (replacing potato chips!), or shred for bread, or puree for a velvety cream of zucchini soup.
And the other vexing thing about selling seasonally, everyone has their bumper crop when you do so there is an abundance and everyone knows the laws of supply and demand...
Sunday, July 4, 2010
What can you get for two pounds of locally grown Thai Purple garlic?
I just delivered my first order of garlic to a local chef. I grew three varieties and he's taking all I can provide. It sounds like a great way to enjoy the garden, make a little money and get closer to the wonderful world of food, right? As they say, two out of three ain't bad.
Thai Purple food garlic sells for $7/lb retail (Filaree Farms website - 7/4/10)
Say that wholesale (to cover the cost of seed garlic, labor and selling costs) my locally grown Thai Purple garlic is $4/lb (which still sounds like a lot for garlic to me....)
2 lbs of garlic X $4 = $8 or the price of a glass of Brumont Rose wine at Soe Cafe in Sawyer MI.
That little equation provides a context for understanding the conundrum we are in. We used to eat closer to home, with less variety and perhaps less quality in some things. We knew the seasons, understood scarcity and acted accordingly. Now we are aware that we eat from around the world, spending less on food than most if not all other countries, yet we aren't consistently eating well as the tainted food stories attest; the costs are higher to eat fresh local foods than fast, carb/fat laden foods; and we're paying for it in higher medical bills. Is eating healthily a right or a luxury?
Thai Purple food garlic sells for $7/lb retail (Filaree Farms website - 7/4/10)
Say that wholesale (to cover the cost of seed garlic, labor and selling costs) my locally grown Thai Purple garlic is $4/lb (which still sounds like a lot for garlic to me....)
2 lbs of garlic X $4 = $8 or the price of a glass of Brumont Rose wine at Soe Cafe in Sawyer MI.
That little equation provides a context for understanding the conundrum we are in. We used to eat closer to home, with less variety and perhaps less quality in some things. We knew the seasons, understood scarcity and acted accordingly. Now we are aware that we eat from around the world, spending less on food than most if not all other countries, yet we aren't consistently eating well as the tainted food stories attest; the costs are higher to eat fresh local foods than fast, carb/fat laden foods; and we're paying for it in higher medical bills. Is eating healthily a right or a luxury?
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