garden tour

i took a trip down memory lane yesterday, revisiting old posts on rake shovel hoe, my now defunct garden blog. i am so thrilled to have that record, especially the photos, of my early gardening days. what's funny is that my excitement has not waned in the least. if anything, it has grown. here's a sampling of what's going on in the garden so far:

the peas are up, and climbing the trellis i made for them.



i may have created a harvesting nightmare, but, as usual, i plunged into the planting and making of the pea trellis without a clearly thought-out plan in mind. at the moment, these are cosmo's most closely watched plants in the garden. he likes to observe their little tendrils griping the twine, and climbing. but, he is also looking forward to the peas, and keeps asking when the plants will make pods. he's also asking about the husk cherries, which i have now taken to calling ground cherries.



those have been started indoors (along with peppers and tomatoes), but won't go into the ground until mid may, or so.



has anyone eaten tender pea shoots? i recently had them on a dish at a fancy restaurant (pictured here, on top of yummy stuffed peppers that my sweetheart made), and was so impressed i had to grow some myself.



of course, i read up on how to grow your own pea shoots AFTER, i had already started mine. i did everything wrong, but they shot up in about 4 days anyway, and now, less than a week later, they are ready to harvest!

as much as i despise having a big white tent in my garden, i am pleased with how happy my cabbages, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale are doing under cover. the cabbage moths just flutter about the garden, wishing they could get inside, to lay eggs on my lovely brassicas. they, too, want their offspring to dine on my broccoli. DENIED!



the arugula and cilantro that over-wintered out there (in the cold frame) is already bolting! no worries though, we have more of those started.



we've already begun to enjoy a few salads from our baby greens, and the butter crunch lettuce is starting to take shape. though the carrots and beets were planted almost a month ago, they still seem so tiny.



one of the beds of rye cover crop was getting so tall, i decided one evening to trim it. with some clippers. why? not sure. these things just occur to me.



the next day i turned it over, so i'm not sure what the point of trimming it was, but i enjoyed myself. i planted some hairy vetch in there a bit too late in the fall, so most of it didn't make it, but i did notice a few strands of it in there. now all the rye is turned under, and it will be ready for corn, pumpkin, and beans (three sisters) plus okra, cucumbers and dill in the other bed. some of these have already been started indoors, though we have run out of space under our grow light. a sunny window sill will do, at this point.



the onion sets i planted are up, and look great, as does the garlic, which is getting big. i planted a row of morning glories along the side of the woodshed, and a few sunflowers. it might be too early for those... guess we'll see.

remember the great wall of tomatoes last year? well, the bed they were in now has tomato plants popping up like weeds, ALL OVER! the rye is supposed to suppress seed germination for a while. clearly that window has closed!

our landlords have four large beds of perennials, mostly flowers.



while i enjoy them immensely, i just don't have the time to invest in weeding them. currently, they are over-run with weeds. i got a hold of some free wood-chip mulch in my neighborhood, so i've been loading up the trunk of the car, hauling it home, and spreading it all over the perennial beds. i'm not sure if it is exactly the right kind of mulch for them, but it's what they get. life is too short to worry about other people's flowers.

especially when there's a vegetable patch to endlessly fuss over.


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apologies for the lousy color on these photos. for some reason, all the photos are showing up in blogger over-exposed, no matter what they look like on my computer prior to being inserted in a post. go figure.

beets!

i tried to grow beets last year. they germinated, grew about 2 inches tall, and that was it. they just sat there, all summer. didn't die, but didn't grow either. i've determined it was a combination of bad soil, and too much shade.



this year, i gave it another shot. i planted two different varieties in my fall garden, in our new place, between rows of leaf lettuce. boy, did they take off! i credit plenty of sun, and that miraculous river bottom soil in our new garden beds. we pulled out our first one a couple of weeks ago.



cosmo got to do the honors. would ya take a look at the size of that thing! i baked that one, sliced it, and just ate the whole thing with a little butter and salt. there is nothing like a beet pulled fresh outta the ground. i used to not care too much for beets, 'til i had one that had just been pulled from a friend's garden, in oregon. it is a completely different experience, and i believe the reason is that the sugars begin to break down, and convert to starches, as soon as the beet is removed from the ground. so, the fresher, the sweeter. baking and roasting do a good job of concentrating the remaining sugars, and making most vegetables taste better, even if they are not fresh from the garden.



for the next batch we harvested, we made this unbelievably delicious soup from (possibly) my favorite cook book:

Beet Soup with Three Legumes
from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison

1/2 cup red kidney beans, soaked 4 hours, or overnight (i have also used white
beans, they cook more quickly, and don't need to soak as long)
4 medium beets, peeled and diced
1/2 cup brown or green lentils
1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned are fine, drained)
2 cups chopped beet greens, or chard
salt and freshly milled pepper
1 bunch scallions, including half of the greens, chopped
two cups coarsely chopped spinach (or more beet greens, if ya got 'em)
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped

the garnish (in my opinion, this can be doubled)

3 tablespoons butter, preferably clarified (ghee)
1 onion, cut into 1/2 inch squares (or chopped in a food processor, if you are in a hurry)
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup chopped mint
1/2 cup plain yogurt, or sour cream

Drain the beans, cover them with 5 cups water, and boil hard for 10 minutes. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until soft, about 1 1/4 hours. set aside.

Put the beets, lentils and 7 cups water in a soup pot. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes. Add the kidney (or white) beans with 2 cups of their liquid, the chickpeas, beet greens and 2 teaspoons salt; simmer until the greens are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions, spinach and parsley; cook until the spinach is wilted and bright green. Taste for salt and turn off heat.

For the garnish, melt the butter in a small skillet over low heat. Add the onion, tumeric, cayenne, and mint; cook until the onion is soft, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle the soup into bowls. Add a spoonful of garnish and yogurt to each serving.

Madison notes:...Unlike most soups, the aromatics are added at the end, breaking the clean surface with a net of golden speckles.

to achieve the effect described above, make sure you ladle plenty of broth into each bowl.

i hope at least one of you will try this soup, and let me know what you think. i love it because it is so thoroughly packed with nutritious foods, and yet it tastes like some rare, gourmet delicacy, and the colors are fantastic. the mint really takes you by surprise, and works with all the other flavors. don't think you can skip the mint. the recipe makes a lot, but luckily, tastes better the next day. however, if you leave it on the stove too long, to re-heat it, you may lose some of the dazzling color-- but, none of the flavor.

ahhh, beets.