Here they are, the first tomatoes of the season. Sasha’s Altai, Prairie Fire and a couple of Galinas. The catalog copy is right — the Sasha’s Altai are delicious — I took one bite of my lunch this afternoon and thought, as I do every year, why would anyone eat a tomato out of season? I really mean it — I’d rather wait all year and eat delicious tomatoes for a few months, than eat those hard things from the store (canned tomatoes are a different matter altogether). I didn’t really get my act together as far as basil goes…
-
-
I’ll have some garden pictures soon — it’s been a strange summer in the garden. Summer started so late, and then got hot fairly quickly, so some things, like the peas didn’t really work this summer. I got a few peas, but the vines burned up before they could really produce much.The arugula bolted as well — it was a thick hedge of 2-3 foot tall plants with pretty flowers, but by that point the leaves are so bitter they’re only good cooked, and frankly, the arugula was crowding out the peppers in that bed. So, out they came and…
-
Behold, my gorgeous
-
Here it is — my first basket of greens — this is Senza Testa from Seeds of Italy. I love this strange green — it grows like a weed, is slightly bitter, a little fuzzy, and really nice. I cooked these with some onion, chile, garlic and vermouth. Then I finished it off with some of my Milk Lady’s delicious yellow Jersey cream and ate it over pasta. I also harvested this crate of broccoli rabe — both the Cima di Rapa Quarantina – Broccoli Rabe and the Cima di Rapa Sessantina. I’ve planted both of these at the same…
-
Here’s today’s lunch. There was a break in the rain and I ventured out into the garden to see if there was enough for lunch. A yummy salad of arugula, wild arugula, spinach, green onion, radishes, parsley, pickled mushrooms, and some delicious feta cheese that my Milk Lady brought me with today’s delivery. I toasted up a piece of flatbread that I made earlier in the week — I’m on a flatbread kick and tonight I”m going to try this recipe from the LA Times. And a glass of real milk from my milk lady — what can I say.…
-
It’s a little hard to see in this photo — but two weeks ago, when I was making a cake for a party, my KitchenAid beater sprung a sproing! It broke! Now, to be fair, this beater is at least 35 years old (I’ve written before about my heirloom KitchenAid), and thanks to the miracle of Amazon I have a replacement beater, but it seemed that a breakdown after all this time was something worth commemorating. And I’m really hoping that I’m just imagining that my elderly KitchenAid is beginning to sound a little sluggish. Since there’s no one left…
-
Here they are — the first preserves of the season — pickled oyster mushrooms (just writing that makes me feel like someone in a Tolstoy novel — they’re always eating pickled mushrooms in Tolstoy). It’s been unremittingly cold and rainy, which is terrible for just about everything except the oyster mushrooms. While I only found a handful of morels this weekend, I found probably 20 pounds of oysters — the small and tender ones I sauteed in lots of butter, some garlic, thyme and a little alleppo pepper, then finished with some wine and cream. Then I froze them in…
-
I’ve written before about the egg-scallion-tortilla thing I love for breakfast — all winter I have to make do with store scallions. They’re fine. Sometimes I add my own frozen blanched greens. But it’s hard — one of the things I hate most about winter. But now it’s spring! And although it’s been a long time coming, there are finally things coming up in the garden. This morning, my breakfast omelette/tortilla contained a green onion (from the garden), a handful of wild arugula, a big sprig of lovage, some parsley and a handful of chives. This is the thing about…
-
I keep hearing the headline in my head to the tune of “The First Noel” — but here they are, the first morels of the season. It got hot here this weekend — into the eighties — and after our long cold wet spring, I just knew there must be mushrooms out there. These “yellow” ones show up in woodsy copses along the river, then later, the black ones emerge in the mountains. I didn’t find very many yesterday — this is maybe a pound or a pound and a half — but I only hit one spot. Ray and…
-
I just had a terrific little visit with Barb Marshall of CrazyWoman Farm. She brought me 18 pounds of lamb — about half a lamb — a nice big bag that included a whole leg, a whole shoulder, a bunch of chops, some kebab meat and some ground lamb. She delivered even, all for six bucks a pound. And she’s really cool — we had a nice little chat about my urban farming — turns out she used to live on the next block over. It’s one of the things I really love about living in this particular rural place.…