| 1. |
July 2007 Newsletter
|
|
|
Dear Kitchen Gardener,
Walking through the well-known farmers' market in Uzès,
France, as I recently had a chance to do, is a religious experience for
food lovers. The
olive stands alone are worth the trip. Add to that heaping
tables of sun-drenched produce, artisan breads and cheeses, a
mind-boggling choice of honeys, meats and seafood fished from the nearby
Mediterranean Sea and you have all the
makings of a memorable meal, if not several.
In fact, the quality and
variety of the produce is so dazzling that you might be tempted to ask
yourself why any area resident would bother growing some of his or her
own. Yet, despite the fresh bounty on offer twice a week at the Uzès
market, the kitchen garden, or "potager" as the French call it,
seemed much alive and well where I was staying.
I had a chance to meet and
speak with a few gardeners while I was there. If they grow some of
their own food, it's for the same reasons that you and I do: taste,
variety, freshness, economics, concerns about the environment, and, most
importantly, because they enjoy the process. My trip
reinforced what I already knew: kitchen gardening is a universal
language with many different dialects. What's different is that
some of us have a better garden view out our back door than others!
I learned a lot while I was
there. Rather than try to share it all in one gush, I'll let the
stories, pictures, and recipes trickle out over the course of the next
several months. In fact, if there's sufficient interest, we may at
some stage even consider organizing a KGI trip for those of you
interested in seeing and tasting the pleasures of Provence firsthand.
I'll look forward to updating
next month in the week leading up to
Kitchen Garden Day. I hope you'll find a way of recognizing
the day in some small way. We've got a lot to celebrate and share
with others.
Warm regards,
PS: Interested in starting a
local kitchen garden group in your area?
Check out
our new info page on gPods
|
| 2. |
Eat-out Nation
|
|
|
Each year, the US Department of Agriculture compiles and publishes data about America's food habits and purchases. 2005 represented a turning point in the way Americans eat: for the first time since statistics were kept in this area (i.e. 1953), we ate more foods prepared outside our homes than ones we cooked ourselves at home. While the US has been famously dubbed "Fast Food Nation", it seems like "Eat-Out Nation" might be a more accurate term.
For those interested in seeing the raw data, you can find it here
|
| 3. |
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
|
| 4. |
Optimal timing for your garlic harvest
|
|
|
Plants tell us a lot with their leaves. In the case of garlic, they tell us when the bulb is ready for harvest. Or do they?
Scanning some of the literature written by expert growers, we saw differing opinions on what harvest signs we should be looking for:
Garlic is mature when the tops fall over (mid July to early August).
-Eliot Coleman, Author of the Four Season Harvest
When half to three-quarters of the leaves turn yellow-brown, it's harvest time.
-Organic Gardening Magazine
Each green leaf above ground represents a papery sheath around the cloves. Once the leaf tips begin to yellow and die back, its time to dig the garlic. The lower six to eight leaves still being fully green indicate optimal harvest timing: This allots 5 to 7 protective wrappers around the bulb after curing. Our harvest here in northern New Hampshire begins the latter part of July and gets completed by the first week of August.
-Michael Phillips, Heartsong Farm
It's time to harvest garlic in the late summer when the bottom two or three leaves have turned yellow or the tops fall over.
-Ed Smith, author of the Vegetable Gardener's Bible
Harvest in summer when the bottom leaves are beginning to yellow and before more than one or two leaves turn brown (July through August).
-University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension
Fully green, yellow, or brown: so who's right? Well, in a way, you could say that all of them are. It depends on what your garlic goal is. The longer you wait, the larger the bulb. The danger in waiting too long is that the bulb will start to split apart into individual cloves. If Michael Phillips urges an earlier harvest when the plant is still upright and showing a lot of green, it's because he has a different goal: long term storage. An earlier harvest helps insure that the garlic cloves are "well-wrapped" for fall and winter feasts.
One surefire way of knowing whether your garlic is ready is to dig up a test bulb. If it's a decent size and seems well formed, then you can harvest the rest of your crop with confidence.
|
| 5. |
Brain Boosters
|
|
|
A child with good brain
health has the opportunity to be more successful in their schoolwork, and that
translates to a better...
|
|
Everyday Menus: No Cook Recipes
Comment This Article
Refer it to Friend