Fernando Friday!

Here we go again...

Last night the little man was just a streak of shiny black hair as he evaluated the contents of the week's CSA bag.  Fernando and I both came to the same conclusion: the salad marathon will continue!  It's going to be another very green week (literally) in our house.

Growing out back I have kale that must be consumed and a new crop of salad mix.  Last night I received Swiss chard, lettuce, spring mix, a giant head of cabbage, and spinach, among others (like that pretty - but dirty - head of cauliflower pictured above). 

I willingly accept the challenge!  Let's see what I come up with!

Anyone else out there feeling forced to consume salad like there's no tomorrow?

The good news...

... is that if we have salad for dinner tonight, we may finally have exhausted the supply. This after giving some away, inviting friends over for salad (don't you know that's the new thing to do?) and eating it what feels like non stop. So in this first mobile post, I'm treating you to a photo of salad on the go! (AKA on my desk)

And guess what - I will be harvesting more before the week is through!

Salad days

I am sure some variation on this theme has happened to just about every gardener who's ever planted lettuce at this time of year.  You know, the time when it all starts to grow.

One day, you have a little.  Tear it up, rinse it off, run it through the salad spinner and leave it stored in the fridge.

Then, you have even more.  It won't fit in the spinner, because that is already full of lettuce that you haven't finished yet.

Around this time, you are realizing that while you do really love eating salad, you are maybe feeling burned out on eating it every single day.  You are running out of ideas.  Especially since the tomatoes you're getting from the store aren't really that great in June.  Your spouse simply begins declining every offer of salad.

Then, if you are me, and decided to join a CSA, you receive even more lettuce.

Which means you now have to find a tertiary location for it.  The salad spinner is full, the crisper drawer is full, and pretty soon the entire bottom shelf of the refrigerator will be filled with greens.

And you still kind of don't feel like eating any more of it.  So you try to give some away, but have a real concern that your mother-in-law isn't actually going to come over and pick up the giant bag you have made for her (far left, above).

That is what I am discovering is the problem with salad/mesclun mix.  It has no other application.  While you could enjoy spinach and kale raw or cooked, cooked lettuce seems very, very gross. 

On the bright side, the succession planting sure is working!

And in other news, peas!  Finally!

Not enough to share, but I was flying solo for dinner that night anyway.

 You'll be shocked to hear this, but those peas were chopped up and joined some of their friends....

IN. A. SALAD.

Who knew these inexpensive Ikea pasta bowls would be getting so much publicity?

Vegetable Confessions

Oh, it has been such a busy week, with jobs and rainstorms and sinus infections!

Butch is like, "I know you are busy but where is my second breakfast?" 

So there's been a lag in blogging, but not for lack of action in the backyard!  Expect some updates.

But first, I'd like to come clean on a few things.  Not everyday things, but things that most gardeners would keep as deep-dark-secret kind of things.

1) I never knew that pea shoots were edible until this week
2) I learned about pea shoots from the CSA that we joined and received our first bag from this week.  I know, I know, what about all the stuff I am growing out back?  Well essentially, I can't grow everything.  I am limited in time, space, and expertise.  I intentionally decided to focus on just a few crops this year that I've had success with in the past.  And also - a CSA is a great chance to try some new things.  Every week is like an episode of Chopped! Money well spent.
3) I do not actually enjoy pea shoots, at least not raw.

I was a little thrown by the pea shoots, but thanks to Google I discovered www.peashoots.com!  Yes, an entire website devoted to pea shoots! I found a recipe for Pea Shoot and Strawberry Salad that sounded delicious (and for which I had all of the ingredients, excepting cucumber).  I also added salt and pepper.

So pretty, right?

Sadly, we did not enjoy it one bit.  It is one of the worst things I have ever made.  We mainly picked out the strawberries.

I'm wondering if perhaps our pea shoots were too mature to be eaten raw.  The pictures on the Pea Shoot website appeared to have much smaller leaves.  The tendrils and stems were very hard to chew.  Dan deemed it "too raw" and I said it was "too much work to eat."  Both were apt descriptions.

Next time, I'll cook the pea shoots.
(but that balsamic-honey-strawberry combo was lovely)

First salad of the season! (or, how to make tofu croutons)

I think it is fair to assume that all of humanity can be divided into two groups - those who have an interest in something called "tofu croutons," and those who do not.  So I thought I'd be real upfront for those of you who don't, just so you know that buried within this post is information about this thing I've decided to call tofu croutons.  Don't shoot the messenger, carnivores.  You were warned.

The other night for dinner I decided to harvest some of the mesclun mix that is ready to eat.  I'd just bought some gorgeous looking strawberries and decided to incorporate the two into a salad.  Balsamic vinegar is a natural accompaniment to both salad and strawberries, so I mixed up a makeshift "balsamic vinaigrette" out of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a little lemon juice, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

I really would have loved to add some fresh basil, but as you can see in the picture, that plant is not quite ready for consumption!  So instead I settled for a little mint.

The salad was pretty, but nutritionally was not offering much as a dinner.  Enter the tofu croutons! To turn my block of extra firm tofu into crispy croutons, I followed the following steps (note that from start to finish this is a solid hour-and-a-half, so plan accordingly):

• Open and drain a package of Extra Firm Tofu
• Place between two plates with a heavy object on top (I used our juicer, since it was sitting on the counter anyway).  Leave for about 30 minutes -- this will press out any extra liquid and allow the tofu to better absorb the marinade.
• Cut tofu into chunks (mine were about 3/4 inch cubes). 
• Toss the tofu in either your own or store-bought balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Allow to sit in a shallow pan or baking dish for another 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spray a baking sheet with some type of non-stick cooking spray (I used olive oil spray)
• Scatter tofu pieces on the sheet, and bake for 20 minutes on middle or upper rack.
• After twenty minutes, check for crispness.  At this point, the "croutons" are cooked, but mine were still soft so I returned to the oven for another 20 minutes.  I like them very crisp on the outside.  You may want to set your timer in 5- or 10-minute intervals to be on the safe side.
• When they meet your established level of crispy-ness, remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.  Enjoy as a snack, on a salad, or in a stir fry.  I've also added them to soup.

I've experimented with many flavors on these little guys.  Another favorite thing is to do an Asian-influenced marinade (soy sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar) and I toss in with stir-fry vegetables.  

When in doubt, Google "tofu marinade" for inspiration!

Salad, anyone?

A lot can happen in 2 weeks!

The salad bar, 5/8/13

The salad bar, 5/22/13

Some definitely take longer to grow than others, but everything I have planted is coming along!  I've continued to add more rows every 1-2 weeks, and once I harvest any of these greens I will plant more in their place. 

Here are my notes from the gardening class - I just reviewed these today to remind myself of the details of cutting, since I think the salad will probably get eaten in the next 2 weeks or so:

I think that based on this advice, I can really squeeze a few more rows in between... I've probably been planting them 4-5 inches apart rather than the recommended 2 inches.  The point is that if you eat these as "baby" greens, they don't need a lot of room to grow, and definitely don't need the space indicated on the seed packet. 

Also, despite the fact that many greens aren't very tolerant of heat and can become bitter-tasting, if you don't grow them to full size (as noted above, cutting when they are 4-5 inches tall), you can actually enjoy them all summer. 

Greens can also be grown easily in a container since they have hardly any root system.  I think they would do really well in a window-style box (you know, the oblong ones) and you could probably manage 2-3 rows at a time. Considering a bag of this stuff in the grocery store averages about $1.99, and a packet of seeds could be found for much less, it is worth a try!

Salad bar, 2013 edition

Slowly but surely, the greens are a-growin'.  I'm trying to do some succession planting in this area so we have a never ending supply for salads.  Basically, all succession planting means is that you plant (approximately) every 2 weeks.  This is about 4 weeks' worth, and it's all muddy because I watered it before remembering to take a picture.  But you get the general idea...

This is a combination of mesclun salad mix (rows 2 and 3), spinach (row 1), and kale (row 4).  Above and below the kale I recently planted some swiss chard, but no growing action just yet.

Peas!

Yay!  This past weekend we were finally without snow and blessed with weather in the 50s.  The perfect time to finally plant one of my favorites, peas.  

Given the issues I had last year with these plants ending up much larger than expected, I decided to go with a trellis/lattice (I don't actually know the difference between the two...) system.  It will certainly be better than the tiny little bamboo stakes I used last year:



The gnome did not do a very good job of keeping these peas in line

Anyway, our new system is based on wooden stakes and twine.  I learned about this in the gardening class I took, and am hoping to apply it to tomatoes and cucumbers as well.  It seems like a way to keep things neat and linear.

The stakes are sturdy - they are hammered about 2 feet into the ground.  I placed the lower "rungs" of twine closer together, and then spaced them out more towards the top.  I can easily add in more if needed.

I planted one pea seed (sorry, I did not take any pictures of them... but picture a dry, shriveled-looking pea) a few inches in front of each stake about one inch deep, and one in the middle... for a total of 7.  I put two seeds in each hole, hoping at least one will germinate.

I also planted some spinach and salad mix in one of our raised beds... but it's not really anything to look at just yet.

Greens

I've been doing some research lately on what I can plant now that will grow in the fall weather.  One crop that seems to do well in cooler weather, and that I have actually been consuming a lot of lately, is kale.

I planted these seeds a few weeks ago and they are just starting to resemble kale.  I use it primarily in juice but it's apparently really good baked into chips as well.  Kale is not expensive to buy in the store... but at $.99/pound, when I can get a whole packet of seeds for $1.29... it will save money over time.  And, it is always nice to have things you use frequently literally right outside your back door.  So far, so good with this one.  I read that it actually tastes best after a frost... which means I could perhaps safely put in some more seeds now. 

On salad.

I love salad, in general.  And I am prone to spending upwards of $10 on salad in a restaurant, so it seems silly to not try and grow the stuff for less than $2 per seed packet.  The components of salad are relatively easy to grow as long as you can keep the rabbits away.  This year, in our net-encased fortress, we are enjoying the first salad crop that has lasted more than a few days.

L to R: spinach, red lettuce, arugula... when they were babies