Iceberg Lettuce

We're into December and the salad greens have survived quite well so far, despite the recent below-zero windchill. Even the more recently planted red leaf varieties (background) are growing well. In addition to the covered hooped-canopy, I place an additional double "blanket" directly on the plants using theAgribon+ AG-19 floating row cover fabric I use for the hoops.

The empty squares on the left row are from flowers which I pulled. Other than that, every square is coming along. Even the trellised peas (planted on a lark) are holding their own.

Undercover Salad

As of yesterday, eight kinds of lettuce, mizuna, tatsoi, spinach, bok choi, daikon, kale, collards, carrots, chard, Italian parsley, and thyme: that's what's still growing under these snow-clad half-domes.

Just a short run from the front stoop for salad.

Now if only they'd legalize that other herb.

Everything's Coming Up Brussels

Harvested Brussels sprouts and carrots this week. Both are sweet and delicious. The kale and collards in the same box have also survived thus far.

Each stalk yielded over two pounds of sprouts.

I like to think the snow insulation helped protect everything endure through the temps in the teens and twenties the past two weeks.

Tucked in for Fall

I've finally taken down my overburdened tomato cages, cleaned out the boxes, and put them to bed for autumn. At the same time, I've discovered a way to attractively attach functional row covers without the use of unsightly sandbags. These row covers (Agribon+ AG-19 Floating Row Cover) were purchased from Johnny's Seeds. They provide frost protection down to 28°F/-2°C. Hopefully, with the warmer micro climate of our sun-facing and sloping front yard, we'll get some produce for a few more weeks. Check back and watch me eat crow.

I stapled each side of the row cover to an 8-foot cedar 2"x2". Then I rolled each side taut over the hoops, and tucked them through 1 1/2-inch galvanized plumbing clamps on either end of the box. The four bricks hold the cloth down on each end. So far, they have proved quite stout in wind and rain.

Makes a pretty simple, clutter-free box, with no heavy (and unsightly) sandbags to move. To access each box, just move the bricks and slip the 2"x2"s out from the clamps and roll back.

Looking west to an early winter sky. Under cover, I still have several types of lettuce, collards, kales, Brussels sprouts, peas, bok choi, spinach, tatsoi, mizuna, chard, carrots, and a few herbs.

After the election, I took down all yard signs but the Green Party candidate's. He's the only one I didn't have to plug my nose to support.

Curb appeal? I think so.

Stop, already!

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. About every other day, we have to figure out what to do with another motherlode of tomatoes: eat 'em, give 'em away, roast 'em, freeze 'em, sauce 'em, throw 'em at squirrels. Meanwhile, the 12-foot tall plants are threatening to overwhelm and collapse my once-considered "overbuilt" cages. Waddyagonnado?

*Stay tuned for the fall planting update.

The Perfect Tomato

This is my idea of the perfect tomato (the fruit, not my wife, but she's pretty perfect, too). It's perfect not in the corporate ag sense: perfectly symmetrical, free of blemishes, and a particular shade of red. Rather, it's perfect in the wabi sabi sense: a color that's merging into purple, with greenish accents. But it's the taste and texture that really matter. This heirloom variety, and one of my favorites, is Cherokee purple. When properly ripe, the insides are a deep dark red, never mealy or dry, with just the right amount of juiciness. Perfect on an ALT (avocado, lettuce and tomato), a caprese salad, or just by itself.

They're starting to ripen fast and furious now. When I start to get tired of them, I will remind myself that I usually won't eat tomatoes out of season, so carpé tomato, and enjoy.

Cartoon Carrots

Unlike those long, skinny carrots developed by Big Ag to pack and ship well, Bugs Bunny would be happy to munch on these between one liners. Because they look like, well, carrots.

Garden Update: Holy Tomato, Batman

For those of you who thought I was crazy for building 7-foot tomato cages, perhaps I actually made them too short.

The cabbages survived the cabbage worm invasion, which I quelled with a cayenne/garlic spray.

The squash all have vigorous blossoms, which you can't see under the canopy of climbing leaves.

And the tomatoes are going strong, lots of blossoms and no disease. We just need some sunny hot weather to bring out the 'maters.

Swiss Chard Ravioli

Time to make some use of the bountiful greens from the garden. Dinner this night included homemade swiss chard ravioli with lemon-butter sauce, mixed green salad with cherries and pecans, freshly made balsamic vinaigrette, a homemade rustic French boule, and a 2011 bottle of Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel.

Instead of cutting the raviolis by hand, as I have in the past, I used the new (old stock) ravioli maker recently given to me by my sister Marty. I think it's pretty kick-ass. Thanks, Marty. She found it at Goodwill for $2.00, and apparently it was never used. I bears a yellow tag from the old Italian Importing Company on East 5th Street in Down Town Des Moines, now home to one of our favorite East Village restaurants, Tacopocalypse.

The telling thing about this recipe marking its provenance as seventies, besides the gross ingredients of ground pork and veal, is the instruction to boil the ravioli for 15 to 20 minutes.  Best way to achieve that canned Chef Boyardee ravioli mushiness, no doubt.

My dough, which I kneaded for five minutes in the KitchenAid, then five minutes by hand. It is half semolina flour and half 00 finely ground white flour, eggs, olive oil, and water. 

From the garden, one big bunch of heirloom Verde De Taglio Swiss chard (all green, no red), and giant Italian parsley. Sauté in olive oil until wilted and dry in the pan. 

Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, which is in turn finely ground in a food processor.

Combine all filling ingredients: whole milk ricotta, chard and parsley, eggs, Reggiano, and fresh ground nutmeg and black pepper.

Cut dough into quarters to begin rolling-out process.

Make sure dough is wide enough to slightly drape over the sides of the ravioli maker.

Place dough over ravioli maker and then gently press the plastic form into maker to form pockets. It's helpful to dust each piece of the ravioli maker with flour to prevent sticking. This process is made easier with a bottle or two of beer, in this case Bell's delicious and very highly rated Two Hearted Ale (background).

Fill each indent with a heaping teaspoon of filling.

Cover the filled ravioli with another sheet of dough and roll with a rolling pin until cut through.

Pop raviolis out on a towel lightly dusted with flour. All that's left to do is make the sauce and boil the ravioli (for about 4 minutes, not 20!).

Serve everything to your guests, who are by now hungry with anticipation, and grateful that you would spend 5 hours preparing them a meal.

Swiss Chard Ravioli With Lemon Butter Sauce

Ingredients

Dough

3/4 cup semolina flour (I used Bob's Red Mill No. 1 Duram Wheat Semolina Flour)

3/4 cups white flour (I used Napoli Tipo "00")

two eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Filling

1 cup whole milk ricotta

1 large bunch swiss chard

1 or 2 large sprigs of italian parsley, leaves only

1/3-1/2 cup finely ground Parmigiano Reggiano

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper

Sauce #1: Lemon butter sauce

1/4 pond butter

zest from one lemon

juice from one lemon

2-4 tablespoons of pasta water

Sauce #2: Sage brown butter sauce

1/4 pound butter

10 fresh sage leaves

½-1 cup finely ground Parmigiano Reggiano, for sprinkling

Directions

Dough

1. Mix together dough ingredients.

2. Knead for ten minutes.

3. Wrap with plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

Filling

1. Rinse chard and cut into 1/2 inch ribbons. 

2. Finely chop the parsley.

3. Combine chard and parsley in a pot.

4. Saute in olive oil until chard is wilted Continue cooking until pan is close to dry.

5. Squeeze any excess water from chard and parsley mixture and finely chop.

6. Combine remaining filling ingredients.

Pasta

1. Cut dough into quarters. 

2. Flatten first piece of dough into a 3-inck square. 

3. Run dough through setting 1 of pasta maker. Fold over onto itself and run through again. Repeat five times.

4. Run dough lengthways through pasta maker one time each on settings 2 to 5.

5. Set dough aside on flour dusted towel.

6. Repeat process for remain three quarters.

7. Assemble raviolis using 1 large teaspoon of filling for each one.

8. Bring pot of water to boil and make sauce.

9. Boil ravioli for approximately 4 minutes. 

Lemon butter sauce (light and refreshing)

1. Melt butter in a large sauce pan.

2. Add lemon juice and zest. 

3. Add raviolis and a small amount of pasta water until desired consistency. 

4. Platter up and serve, sprinkle with grated Reggiano.

Sage brown butter sauce (earthy and rich)

1. Melt butter

2. Add sage leaves and cook until butter browns and sage leaves crisp up. Be careful not to burn the butter as it will be bitter.

3. Pour on top of raviolis in platter. Sprinkle with Reggiano and serve.

Garden Update: Bodacious Boxes of Bounty

I thought I'd give a box-by-box update on our first-year front yard garden adventure. The veggies and flowers seem to thrive on all the rain. Can't speak to the produce yet as all we've harvested thus far have been salad greens and herbs. The great drainage from the slope keeps everything from getting drowned. I did get a few cabbage worms that got to my cabbages before I sprayed them with garlic-cayenne water (steep it for an hour).

This box contains tomatoes (San Marzano, Chinese Yellow Grape, and Ukrainian Purple), Chiogga and Detroit Dark Red beets, turnips and Swiss chard.

Herbs (Italian flat leaf parsley, Basil, fennel, cilantro, French thyme) & tomatoes (Cherokee Purple and Amish paste).

Tomatoes (green grape, Amish paste, and Ukrainian purple), carrots, and onions (started late, on the right).

We've been eating the hell out of these salad greens (Amish Deer Tongue, Cimmaron, Ella Kropf, Gold Rush, Petite Rouge, Oak Leaf, Out Redgous, Chadwich Rodan, various arugulas).

Cabbages, collards (Georgia Southern and Vates), kales (Dwarf Blue Curly and Lacinato), cauliflower & Brussels sprouts

Squash box (Table Queen, butternut, Golden zucchini, Black Beauty zucchini, Patisson Panaché Vert et Blanc Patisson Panaché Jaune et Verte).

Rhubarb Peach Crisp

My peaches aren't ripe yet, but my rhubarb is. Thus, it gets top billing in this recipe modified from one found on tasteofhome.com. These are perfectly ripe and juicy white peaches from, gasp, Costco. These slippery devils have had their skins removed. The trick to this is treating them like tomatoes. Submerge in boiling water for 30 seconds then in an ice bath for 10. The skins just slough off. 

Post baking note: this recipe sucks. I think the peaches were just too juicy and require a shorter cooking time from the rhubarb. I'm not sure it can be salvaged.

Rhubarb Peach Crisp

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 cups sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb

3 1/2 cups chopped peeled fresh peaches 

Topping

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cold butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, nutmeg, lemon peel, salt, rhubarb and peaches. Transfer to a greased 9 inch deep pie dish.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add hazelnuts and sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Garden Update: Plain Rain Disdain

I must be turning into a farmer because all I can do is bitch about the weather. On the plus side of our new climate of constant rain, everything is growing so well, the weeds are completely crowded out. Don't know the down side yet as the only thing we're harvesting so far is salad, and that's been ridiculously delicious.

The squash trellis is sure getting a workout.

Urban Squash Sprawl

The squash plants were spilling out over the sides of the beds, so I figured I needed to make some sort of trellis for them to climb. Continuing the cedar and copper theme from the tomato cages, I designed a simple hinged ladder trellis to straddle the boxes. I made two smaller four foot square trellis to allow for easy transport and storage.

The frames are made from  2"x2" cedar simply drilled and screwed together with 3 inch deck screws.

Two frames were attached by two utility hinges.

Notice the quarter inch deep 11/16" holes spaced a foot apart. these are where the copper cross pieces will fit.

Next step was to cut 12 pieces of ½" copper pipe to 45 ¾ inches to serve as cross pieces. 

All that's required for one trellis: the hinged frame, six vertical braces drilled for the copper cross pieces, and six pieces of copper pipe.

Gratuitous artsy shot of me taking a picture while attaching one of the vertical braces.

Finished trellis, shown on it's side for some reason.

And the final shot, with both trellises installed. My sister complained that there was a lack of symmetry, as compared to the tomato cages, but what's a properly zen garden without a little wabi-sabi (侘寂) ?