Leeks, Onions & Shallots

 Nearly all the beds are set for sowing and transplants.  Yesterday, though really windy, I set in some cippolini onions that we started indoors back in February, along with some leeks and new for me this year--red shallots.  I just love cippolini's roasted in balsamic.
And finally the asparagus is started to shoot. Asparagus is best in full sun in an open site but not too exposed to wind. It requires rich,  well drained, sandy soil and prefers a PH of between 6.5 - 7.5 and  needs cool winters during its dormant period to crop well in spring. After this past winter, we should have oodles of asparagus!  I'm told that the natural habitat of asparagus is maritime and it can be found growing wild in many seaside locations around the world.  It thrives in soils that are too saline for for many other plants and is an ideal plant for a seaside garden....so clearly this addition to my garden should flourish here on the ocean front. Gotta love Spring!


                                          The last of the cippolini's from last season.

Signs of Spring

Yeah, I know, it's been a while.  It's been a long winter, but we're so glad to see the first arrivals of Spring... chirping birds, pussy willows, mud (yes, even the mud)  croccus, and one of my favorite garden plants.. rhubarb with which I'll be making plenty of jams, pies and chutney!

I've been busy readying all the garden beds and today I'll set some of the onions, carrots and peas.  I'm so glad I planted some greens last Autumn in the cold frame.

Happily growing at home are  peppers, tomatoes, more onions, rosemary, sage, basils, many greens,  scented geraniums and bay.  All in all, we're hopefully off to a good growing season.  Welcome Spring!

In My Basket

Boy, it's been a steamy summer up here in the northeast.. but the garden is just loving all this heat..but then, so do the weeds :(  We could feed a small nation with all the zucchini, pattypans and summer squash and hot peppers we're harvesting! :)  This summer is zipping by, and I've been extremely busy in the garden and at farmers market.  I just planted our second sowing of root crop for Autumn--more beets, carrots turnip and kale. How are your gardens doing?

 

With the many squash in my basket this week, I made a very easy to prepare Vegetable Scampi over linguini.

And we are perpetually harvesting the basils... red ruby, lemon, genovese, thai & spicy globe.  I dry most of the basils..for our herbal dips & seasoning blends and of course our herbal soaps, but it just wouldn't be summer without some fresh basil pesto too!  The one nice thing about all this heat is herb drying is so much easier. Hanging to dry are the basils, oregano,sage,  sweet marjoram, summer savory,and  lavender,

This season at Farmers market we are offering our Chunky Garden Salsa, so many many hot peppers you'll find in my garden.  They'll also go into my Vintage Garden Hot Pepper Jelly, Herb Garden Hot Pepper Jam and our newest Garlic & Onion Pepper Jam.

For the very first season here in Maine our Kirby pickling cukes are doing just splendid! All of these go into our Wicked Good Pickles

So, it's been a very good busy summer for me so far,  but the thing I'm happiest about this year in Mama's Giardiniera are my grapevines. I can't wait to harvest them!  Stay cool.  Til next thyme.. happy gardening.

Ode to the Chive Blossom

  Do you remember that old verse 'ode to a pelican'?  Ode to the pelican: It's beak holds more than it's belly can. :)  Well right now in the garden my chives are bursting with flowers. They are so pretty in the garden, I just hated to pick them--when  typically I'm a seed saver.  But with all this rain we've been seeing here lately, I decided instead to pick half of my chive blossoms and make this vibrantly colored vinegar..that's so tasty added to  a fresh garden salad.


This lovely vinegar didn't start out this way. It was a clear white vinegar infused with heaps of fresh blossoms that gave it this lovely dark rose shade.  So if you still have chive blossoms lingering out in your garden, go out and pluck as many as you can get and make some of this fragrant and beautiful vinegar today. 

Just fill a mason jar with as many blossoms as you can snip.  I filled my jar 3/4 full and covered with white vinegar and capped.  Store your infusing blossoms in a cool dark cupboard for a couple of weeks--then simply strain through a micro sieve or coffee filter to remove any sediment. Then just fill a pretty bottle or jar and enjoy--or nice Spring gift. Thanks Spring blossoms--see you again next year!

Root Children

    Finally it’s March.  I’m saying this with fingers crossed because all of us New Englanders know so well, we can ‘march’ our way right into Spring or take an about face into Winter for another storm or two..  (or more!)
As I sit looking out of the window I can clearly see the first signs of the season.  Only spotty patches of snow remain and patches of grass.. though muddy,  peeked through, while last Autumn’s leaves blow aimlessly down the road. Are you as excited about Spring's arrival as I am?

 One of my favorite books from childhood is still one of my favorites as an adult – The Story of the Root Children. This story is about the wonderful, magical transformation from Winter into Spring. This story has been retold several times, but my favorite version  is called When the Root Children Wake Up. My mother read it to me when I was 5 or 6 years old and every year, just about this time of year.  I think of the story which begins like this:

“All winter long the trees are bare, the wind is cold and the fields are empty. But very early in the Spring the Sun begins to grow warmer, the air softer and the sky bluer. And the boys and girls grow happier though they cannot tell just why. Down underground something is happening. Something secret and wonderful. The root children who have been sleeping soundly all winter are awakened by the  Mother Earth. She comes with her candle and her little firefly helpers to tell them they must be up and at work for it will soon be Spring. They are very sleepy at first but soon begin to stretch and open their eyes and be glad that it is time to wake. Wide awake at last, in their root house, the root children work busily on their new Spring dresses. Each chooses the color she loves best – violet, yellow, blue, white, orange, red  and green– and with needle, thread and thimble, sews happily till her work is done.”

I’ll admit that even as an adult this story is exciting for me and I can still feel the wonderful anticipation of Spring and envision it through a child’s eyes.

The seeds that were sown in flats under lights a few weeks ago have germinated! The tomatoes were first, followed by the peppers. We are growing two new varieties of peppers this season--Aji Colorado and Corno Di Toro that I hope to harvest and dry to make my own chili powder this year. I'm also planning to use these moderately hot peppers in my Hot Pepper Jelly I make every year. There is something about watching pepper seedlings grow that makes me deeply happy.

        This season I'm even more inspired than other years to try new varieties as over the winter months I applied and received my state kitchen license--so at farmers market this season we'll be offering not only our herbal soaps,  herbal dips and seasoning blends we've added a line of  herbal and wine jellies, pickles, my Nonna's giardiniera, hot bruschetta in a jar  and salsa's too!

 Along with the usual Roma, grape and of course brandywine tomatoes, I'm planning to grow the Rose tomato, another heirloom variety that proved to be delicious when we grew them last year. The culinary herb garden will also be revamped this year and expanded. Now that I'm more familiar with the growing season and challenges of growing in this salty air, I can hardly wait!

Yesterday I started my scented geranium cuttings. I needed something to warm up my day and as I went about snipping my mother  rose geranium for cuttings I  spotted this little lady..that just warmed my heart-- hope she warms up your day too! Til next thyme--think Spring!

Savory Harvest Galette

 Piled all over my counter, they just drew me into the kitchen thinking of delicious recipes they'll all be used in. Besides-- a combo of root vegetables slow roasting in the oven for an hour lends warmth, and great smells to my kitchen as well as go into a very satisfying dish. Perfect, for the chilly day that it was.

 Combined with some carmelized onions, herbs and seasonings and fresh goat cheese. The outcome? Well it was both, very colorful and so tasty! I can't wait now to try another. :) You can't go wrong, no matter what assortment of veggies you might decide to use. Enjoy!





Savory Harvest Galette

 The Pastry:

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup chilled and cubed butter
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold water

2 TBLS milk - to wash top of dough before baking

In a food processor, combine the flour, salt and 1 tsp sugar until well mixed. Add the butter using pulses until you no longer see chunks of butter in the dough. Use pulses to get everything to mix together correctly,and does a better job of breaking up the butter rather than letting the machine just run.

Slowly add the ice water a tablespoon at a time while pulsing the dough until it is evenly distributed and it begins to look like play-dough. If you need to add a bit more water--add it only a teaspoon at a time. You don't want your dough to be too wet-- but it should hold together nicely.

Remove the dough from the food processor and knead for a few minutes until it begins to smooth out. Don't overwork the dough, you just want it to come together and smooth out a little bit, it should really only take a couple of minutes. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Roasting veggies:

6 medium beets, rinsed, unpeeled & quartered
4 purple top turnips, quartered
4 new red potatoes, quartered
6 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 delicata squash - unpeeled,quartered and cubed
1/2 butternut squash- peeled & cube
1/2 medium size kabocha squash, peeled & seeded
1 tsp fresh summer savory
1 TBLS fresh thyme
1 TBLS fresh oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt & ground pepper

In a large bowl toss all the vegetables with fresh herbs in olive oil. Be sure to coat them all well and turn out onto a large parchment paper lined baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for an hour, until the veggies have just become tender. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool.
 
Carmelizing the Onions
:
3 medium sized yellow onions, peeled & thinly sliced
2 TBLS olive oil
2 TBLS unsalted butter
titch of sugar

In a large skillet stir oil and sliced onions together over a medium heat. Cover and cook slowly until very soft, about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, and add the butter and continue to cook until the onions are golden brown. I like to add a pinch of sugar at this point. Remove from heat and reserve.

Other Ingredients:

Add to the roasted vegetables and toss well:
**1/2 lb fresh chard leaves,chopped; stems removed (save for another day)
** 2 apples, peeled, cored & cubed
**********************
8 oz fresh goat cheese
4 oz grated fontina cheese
:) A mug of warm apple cider to sip as your savory galette bakes in the oven.

Assembling the tart:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out into a circle to about a twelve inch round. Don't worry if your edges aren't smooth or perfect--galettes aren't meant to be perfect, but rather rustic looking. Take a pastry scraper and transfer the dough round to a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Mix the cheeses together and spread onto center of pastry. Next, evenly distribute the roasted vegetables over the cheese, leaving a two inch border of pastry uncovered. Now top with the carmelized onions. Drizzle with just a bit of olive oil and season with sea salt & ground pepper. Free fanfold the edges of pastry over the mixture, pinching the dough as you go along to seal. Brush the crust with milk and bake until golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. May be served warm or at room temperature. * Note.. I ended up with about 1 1/2 cups vegetable filling left over in this galette, so we used the leftovers in a breakfast omelet the next day. Enjoy!

Yesterdays Roots

In they came with an armful of pumpkins and Autumn mums in hand. Our children surprised us with a visit yesterday. Typically,  they only get up here to New England from their home state of Florida during mid-winter, so this made the visit even nicer for us. I had just come in from the garden with a basket of root crops with plans of making a savory harvest galette-- turnips, beets, butternut squash, acorn squash, and carrots.. an because I've become so impatient waiting 110 days for my sweet potatoes--I pulled a few of  those too! The deer had already beat me to my patch and clearly had nibbled on many of the sweet potato vines.. Some, were smaller than others--but extremely tasty. I will definitely plant more of these next year.

An odd meal for me to be thinking of preparing on an eighty degree day out there. It felt more like the forth of July---but it turned out just yummy! Til next thyme.. happy gardening.