Healthy Recipes

61. A berry good activity for kids

By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, November 1, 2007 in The Washington Post



An emerging tribe of hunter-gatherers colonized our farm this week. Look out the window and you'll see them creeping down the rows of crops, nibbling as they go, or reaching into low tree branches for apples. They are the grandchildren, and they know, with a primitive wisdom, how food should best be eaten. Send a grown-up out to pick raspberries for supper and he'll come back promptly with a quart. Send a young child forth with an empty yogurt container hanging from her neck by a string and she'll come back with a berry mustache, the container as empty as before.

Among this summer's best memories is the one of the 2-year-old twins, Heidi and Emily, gorging naked on tiny alpine strawberries during a warm July rain. Recently their 3-year-old cousin, Bode, joined them for the almost endless harvest of these ever-bearing fruits. The blueberries were finished for the year, but there were still a few raspberries left, and one day Bode walked in with a fistful of green pods filled with sweet, fat fall peas to savor, one by one. His grandfather lifted him up so he could reach the Swenson Red grapes dangling from the arbor. There were even some cherry tomatoes in the garden. Nobody of any age can resist the sight of red Sweet 100s or yellow Sungolds beckoning from the vines.

Everybody at our place is a perpetual grazer when easy-pick goodies are in season, but it's especially heartening to see the kids go at it. Foraging gives them hours of amusement (much more harmonious than those spent fighting over toys) and the idea that fruits and vegetables are not something they are told to eat, but delicious prizes they go out and win, all by themselves. Pretty soon, Preschool Nation will be out in fleece jackets, pulling our winter carrots, as sweet as candy, from the cold soil. One of them just came in with a fistful of kale, not yet ready to try it but, well, interested.

Even if you are not a parent or grandparent, there is no better way to welcome young neighbors or visitors than to send them out on a fruit-finding mission. And even if you are not yet a gardener, watching such a scene might turn you into one. What better introduction could children have to real food and its source in the good earth?

The snack aisle at the food store is not something you'd ever want to imitate, but it does provide a useful challenge. Make sure the rows in your garden are just as tempting, and no one will even mention candy.

Article copyright of Barbara Damrosch. Reprinted with permission.
Photo credit: Adam Clarke

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Nov 1, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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62. Organic Gardening: Unusual Holiday Gift Plants

It’s the holiday season, and for
the gardener in the family the gift of choice often is a holiday plant. Over
the...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Dec 3, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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63. Good Fats, Bad Fats

Fats have gotten a bad rap. Cruise any supermarket aisle, and the promises of
“fat free” and “no trans...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Dec 3, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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64. The Health Benefits of Antioxidants

”The amount of antioxidants in your body is directly proportional to how
long you will live."- Dr. Richard Cutler,...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Dec 3, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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65. November 2007 Newsletter

To read the full newsletter online, please see: www.kitchengardeners.org/newsletternovember07.html


 

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Here’s a question for you: when a gardener in Geneva or Zurich grows chard is it called "Swiss Swiss chard", “Our chard�, “Swiss© chard �, or something completely different?

I’ve always wondered about the origins of the name “Swiss chard�. Aside from Brussels sprouts, it’s rare that one region gets top billing for a whole species. What’s interesting is that North Americans seem to be the only ones calling chard Swiss these days. Like a James Bond of the vegetable world, this plant travels under many different identities in other parts of the world including silverbeet (UK and Australia), bietola (Italian), blettes (French) and acelga (Spanish).

As it turns out, Swiss chard is about as native to Switzerland as James Bond too. Botanists have traced its origins back by to Sicily. So, why don’t we call it Italian or Sicilian Chard?

There are multiple explanations depending on who you ask and how deep you are prepared to dig. I recently read a column by a chef who claimed that chard is referred to as Swiss “because of its extensive cultivation in Switzerland�. Hmmm. I’ve been to Switzerland before, a few times in fact, and cannot recall seeing it at all. Verdant valleys with dairy cows, yes. Snow-capped mountains, yes. Endless fields o’ chard, um, no.

Another interesting, though implausible, theory is that chard earned its moniker after a “great flee beetle epidemic� which made it resemble Swiss cheese. If that’s the case, I grow many varieties of Swiss spinach, Swiss radishes and Swiss arugula in my own garden each year. Swiss cabbage is one of my specialties.

The explanation that gets the most attention on the internet attributes the Swissness of chard to a Swiss botanist named Koch who is said to have named the plant first. But try finding information on this famed botanist and you’re almost back where you started. Some sources have Koch living in the 19th century whereas others say the 16th. And you thought Austin Powers was a man of mystery!

So, several inquiries and sentences later, the confusion surrounding chard’s name continues and maybe that’s not a bad thing. It’s often when we think we really know something, or someone for that matter, that we start losing interest.

If you’re lucky to have some chard still growing in your garden (mine got wiped out this past week by two consequentive nights of 20°F temperatures ), give it a fresh look and try preparing it in a new way. Similarly, if you’ve got an alternative theory on its name or some better information on our Mystery Man Koch, send it my way. Inquiring minds want to know.

Happy harvests and harvest feasts,

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Dec 3, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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66. Storing vegetables for the winter

Here are some pointers on storing vegetables. If your conditions aren't just right, don't worry -- your veggies will still store, just not as long. Be sure to monitor your stored crops every 2-3 weeks and sort out ones that are turning.

Root veggies and tubers
Wash and lightly scrub and store in plastic pails or perforated poly bags, best at 31°-33°F / 0°C with high humidity. If you wash them first, they stain less in storage. In a plastic pail, monitor moisture weekly, regulating it with the lid position, more or less ajar. You don't want drying out, nor do you want root surfaces to have visible water droplets. And give the roots some space - don't pack them tightly in the pail - for example, arrange a loose layer of parallel carrots, then run the second row the other direction.

Onions, shallots, garlic
Keep these cold, like roots, but not so humid. Use onion bags or airy boxes.

Cabbage
Cold and humid like roots. You can also pile heads in the cold corner of the porch or detached garage and cover with hay, leaves, etc. If a cabbage head is a bit frozen, allow it to thaw slowly, like over a day or two, and the leaves will be undamaged.

Brussels sprouts
Remove leaves, store like cabbage. They will be good for a month or so. For longer keeping, retain the roots and stand up the plants in 5-gallon pails with some soil in the bottom. Sprinkle the soil to keep it moist.

Leeks
Lift leeks with a fork and trim leaves (optional) to 8" long. Pack them upright in 5 G (19 L) plastic pails with 2 in (5 cm) moist soil at the bottom. Humid and cold like roots. Add water as needed to keep soil moist.

Peppers
Medium-cold (40°-50°F / 5°-10°C) and humid.

Tomatoes
Cool (45°-65°F / 7°-18°C), ideally also humid (80%+).

Squash/pumpkin
Cool (50°-60°F / 10°-16°C), rather dry (50%RH).

Source: Johnny's Selected Seeds monthly e-newsletter

Photo: Newfoundland root cellar courtesy of Raphael Borja

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Dec 3, 2007 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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67. Toxins in Bottled Water

Water is necessary for life, so it's a wonder that it's treated with such disregard. What flows from the...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Jan 2, 2008 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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68. Healthy Treats for the Whole Family: Furry and Non-Furry

If you have children, then
you know they’re a magnet for hovering hounds and mooching mousers. Living in a
busy home that...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Jan 2, 2008 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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69. Juice to Boost Your Immunity This Flu Season!

We're sure you're like everyone else this flu season and can't afford to get sick. Here are two immunity...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Jan 2, 2008 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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70. Perfect Pesto

The recent teasers of chilly days have sent me scampering to
use up what’s left in my garden before nature decides...

Category : From the Garden

Date Added: Jan 2, 2008 Rating: 0.00 Votes: 0



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