Why would anyone ever want to go to the trouble of making home-made yogurt when store shelves are teeming with the stuff? Well, you could say the same thing about home-made bread and home-grown veggies. The point is not to make everything yourself (unless, of course, you want to) but to understand what goes into the making of good food. In doing so, we become informed eaters who are able to make better food choices. Whether you decide to make some yogurt or not, you'll enjoy Alton Brown's explanation of the process.

Posted by at 9:47 AM | Permalink

The well-read kitchen gardener is familiar with the classic homesteading guide "Five Acres and Independence" by Maurice Cains. One California family is showing that the food independence equation may be be more flexible than previously thought.

Very few of us have five acres or even one for that matter. The Dervaes family of Pasadena is proving that what you lack in land can be more than made up for with creativity and passion. Their urban family farm, built on an ordinary city lot, yields 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables each year. They were recently featured in the Los Angeles Times. Below is a shorter "how to" article that went along with the feature.

For more info about the Dervaes and their farm, please see: www.pathtofreedom.com

Novice's Guide to an Urban Homestead

By Joe Robinson, published in the Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2007

FARMING is inherently an optimistic act, a belief that you and your hands can make something happen, even if you couldn't last year. That's a good thing, because nurturing your crops to a fruitful harvest can take some trial and error as you find the right mix of soil, sun and weather exposure. Plants sensitive to cold, for instance, may grow better close to the house, where it may be warmer than in the rest of the yard.

Jules Dervaes suggests starting your micro-farm with just a few plants, hardy ones that will do well even for rookie green thumbs. Start with some herbs, such as basil, and tomatoes. And even the horticulturally challenged can triumph with squash.

You'll want to spend serious time upfront getting the soil right. "If you don't have healthy soil, you don't have healthy plants," he says. Think in terms of feeding the soil as much as the plant, with a regimen that includes mulching and compost.

As you add more plants, you have to be imaginative in maximizing space. Dervaes and his three adult children use trellises along the walls and down the center of the backyard for snow peas and flowers. In one optimizing technique traditionally used by Native American gardeners, they combine several plants in a "three sisters" bed — black Mexican/Aztec corn, cornfield beans and winter squashes with a cover crop of mustard. The family has a portable corridor of crops grown in pots they can rotate depending on the season.

Because of space limitations, home farmers need to pick their plants carefully, going for harder-to-find items that can fetch a premium price, Dervaes says. That means you need quality customers who will choose taste over price.

His family started with flowers, selling them to local stores. Building on that success, they hit the streets to see whether their salad greens could find a market. They discovered that getting their products taste-tested by the chef got them on the table. It's possible to break through to the restaurant market, Dervaes says, because owners are always looking for freshness.

Customers have to be able to adapt to your micro-supplies. The Dervaeses have had to limit sales to customers who can adjust to their crop availabilities and quantities.

Dervaes suggests that would-be urban homesteaders first try in a small way at a community garden or by selling to churches or schools. If you want some up-close advice, he holds evening classes in the warm months in everything from gardening to making your own biodiesel.

If at first you don't succeed, keep going back to the drawing board, he says. "There's failing, but when you climb to the top of the mountain, you feel pretty good."

Posted by at 12:33 PM | Permalink

This is an inspiring story of a young man working for community food security. Although his tools of choice are a cash register and dolly (which, as you'll see, he still needs to master) instead of a spade and wheelbarrow, his goals are very much in line with ours: bringing the food system back in to the hands of local people.

His effort comes at a time of historic consolidation in the grocery sector, with more and more small markets being either bought up or closed down by larger, more powerful national and global chains. According to US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, the nationwide share of sales for the four largest US food retailers grew by more than 80% from 1992 to 1998.

Posted by at 11:15 AM | Permalink

If Wendell Berry is America's unofficial farmer laureate, Michael Pollan is making a very good case for being the moral voice of the American eater. His most recent essay in the New York Times offers nine concrete suggestions on how we can build a better food system, one bite at a time:

1. Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these.

9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases. That of course is an argument from nutritionism, but there is a better one, one that takes a broader view of “health.” Biodiversity in the diet means less monoculture in the fields. What does that have to do with your health? Everything. The vast monocultures that now feed us require tremendous amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to keep from collapsing. Diversifying those fields will mean fewer chemicals, healthier soils, healthier plants and animals and, in turn, healthier people. It’s all connected, which is another way of saying that your health isn’t bordered by your body and that what’s good for the soil is probably good for you, too.

Posted by at 9:58 AM | Permalink

NAME:
Rachel Knight

PROFESSION:
Kitchen Gardener

HOME:
Wellington, New Zealand

WEBSITE:
www.thekitchengarden.co.nz

OTHER HOBBIES:
public speaking, cooking, re-planting
an area of wetland, reading.

Why do you keep a kitchen garden?
I love gardening. Growing things to eat gives me the most satisfaction. Having our own kitchen garden means we eat more vegetables and a wider variety of crops, and they are fresher than if we’d bought them. Nothing tastes better than things you’ve grown yourself – even the ones that aren’t as perfect as the ones in the supermarket. Some things you don’t see here very often either such as kale, unusual potatoes or purple beans.

How and when did you get started?
I started growing salad and herbs in a small raised bed just outside our back door in our house in the city so that we could have fresh ingredients for dinner. Reading Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening book inspired me to develop a bigger vegetable garden (200 square foot) on a flat piece of lawn in 2003. I was amazed what I could grow, even with limited time and experience and thirty, steep steps to reach the garden. We moved out of the city in 2004 and I turned kitchen gardening into my own small business.

Who or what has had an influence on you and your gardening?
I moved to New Zealand from the UK in 1996. I grew up in Chester in the North West of England. My Dad had a huge and prolific vegetable garden that fed our family and most of the neighbours. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t helping in the garden or helping my Mum bottle tomatoes or make jam.

The book I refer to most on vegetable gardening is Joy Larkcom’s Grow Your Own Vegetables. I’ve found Eliot Coleman and John Jeavons' books invaluable for practical gardening advice on a larger scale. Bill Mollison's books on Permaculture are also fascinating. Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall’s books and DVDs (www.rivercottage.net) are an entertaining and inspirational take on grow-your-own and his recipes for seasonal food superb. The UK monthly magazine The Kitchen Garden is one of the best magazines I’ve found on the subject. I borrow it from the local library so that I can get one six months old to match our southern-hemisphere seasons.

Tell us about your garden or gardens. How large are they? For whom do you grow food?
We live on a property about 25 minutes drive from Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It’s 30 acres but the majority is steep, hill country leased to sheep grazing. The gardens cover about an acre but are mainly ornamental. The original kitchen garden was about 500 square feet of cultivated area in raised beds with grass paths. We’ve extended this over the last two years into an existing orchard area. This gives us an additional 1000 square feet of raised beds including a 26’ long polytunnel. We’ve added cordoned fruit trees around the garden and replaced some climbing roses over a pergola with vines so we can maximize the amount of edible crops. We have plenty of space to expand further, depending on whether we decide to take on some help.

We grow for ourselves (my husband and me) and last year set up a ‘box’ scheme during the summer season. We mainly sell to friends and neighbours but word of mouth has meant we’re getting enquiries without any advertising. The local farmers’ market is keen for me to sell there too but I won’t have enough produce to do that this year. This year I’ve sold tomato seedlings and free-range eggs. We keep chickens, bees and have established a wild pheasant population.

Box scheme farms, or CSA farms as they're called in the US, are really taking off in North America. How are they doing in New Zealand?
There are a number of schemes throughout the country but I suspect they sell a tiny proportion of the vegetables consumed in New Zealand. Farmers’ markets are a growing trend here as they are in the US, UK and Australia.

What are some of challenges you face with your garden, climate and soils?
Compared to many States in the US, New Zealand has a mild and temperate climate all year. Wellington in particular is never very hot or very cold, usually neither very wet nor dry. We typically get less than six frosts a year. However it is extremely windy – enough to blow the leaves off runner bean plants and although our garden is relatively sheltered, everything benefits from as much additional shelter as you can give it, particularly in the early stages. The soil is acid (pH 5.2) clay so the addition of lime and organic matter make a big difference.

Even the pests are relatively benign – bats are the only indigenous mammals in New Zealand. Unfortunately rats, mice, brush-tailed possums, hares and rabbits have been introduced so we trap and shoot as many as we can. The humble slugs and snails can be a challenge too – we play host a large population of blackbirds and thrushes as a result.

Tell us a bit about the state of home gardening and cooking in New Zealand. What do you think is needed to encourage more people to produce and/or buy more locally grown foods?
New Zealanders are following the worldwide trend of eating out more often and relying increasingly on pre-prepared fresh or frozen foods at home. Many kids leave home without adequate cooking skills to prepare a meal from raw ingredients, not having enjoyed regular home-prepared meals.

Having good local markets where people can enjoy the experience and buy excellent, competitively priced, seasonal produce attracts a wide range of people – everyone loves a shopping bargain. Vegetable growing is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It does seem to be hereditary – most people pick it up again at some time in their lives if they were exposed to it as a child. Some schools are introducing a kitchen garden as part of their curriculum, which can only be good. I’ve even had a number of requests from adults wanting me to ‘teach’ them about it so clearly there’s a demand out there.

Do you preserve any food through canning, pickling, freezing, root cellaring, etc?
I made some delicious chutney and tomato ketchup this year. We have relatively mild winters so we can grow a reasonable number of crops for much of the year, which makes preserving less of an issue. We tend to eat leeks, carrots, kale, rocket (arugula) and silverbeet (swiss chard) in the winter and store garlic, onions and pumpkins.

If you could choose another place to visit and garden in, where would it be and why? What would you grow?
New Zealand is my ideal place to garden. I’d love to be able to grow really good capsicums, chilli peppers and eggplants, but it’s just not hot and sunny enough here. My friend in Sydney can, but she has to worry about drought and water restrictions. The grass isn’t always that much greener.

Rachel's Chutney
Chutney is an easy way to preserve not so perfect summer crops in pretty much any combination available. It makes a welcome gift in decorative jars and is a tasty addition to casseroles – particularly strong game meats such as pheasant and hare.

Ingredients
2lb marrows (squash) or pumpkin
2lb tomatoes (red or green) or 2lb plums
2lb apples or pears or tomatillos (or a mixture)
1lb onions
1lb sultanas (a type of white raisin, brown raisins may be substituted)
1lb raw sugar
1.25 pints cider vinegar
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tsp ground mace

Procedure:
Chop the marrows into 1/2” cubes, skin and de-seed the pumpkin and chop into 1/2” cubes.
Scald the tomatoes in boiling water, peel and chop roughly. Stone and chop the plums.
Remove the cores from the apples and dice, skin and chop the onions.

Put everything into a really big, heavy-bottomed pan. Make a spice bag by tying one inch of grated ginger root, 10 whole cloves, 10 black peppercorns, one teaspoon coriander seeds in a 4” square of muslin. Push it into the middle of the mixture. Bring to the boil stirring and simmer for 2-3 hours uncovered. Stir regularly to prevent it sticking. Seal into sterilised jars while still warm.

Posted by at 7:17 PM | Permalink

By Julianne Malveaux, PROGRESSIVE MEDIA PROJECT

The war in Iraq, President Bush has said, is "of enormous importance to American security." There's another kind of security our president might want to focus on - food security at home.

To be sure, he mentioned hunger and poverty in passing during the State of the Union address, but only in the foreign policy context. Yet, 11 percent of all Americans are "food insecure," which means they are hungry or living on the edge of hunger. That's 12 million households - 35 million people, including 13 million children - who are too poor to eat balanced meals, or who skipped meals because there was not enough money for food.

These are folks who have "more month than money" and who visit food banks toward the end of the week or the month when their food runs out. Their food insecurity ought to have as high apriority as our national security does.

Our nation fights hunger by providing poor people with food stamps to supplement their budgets, but more than a third of those who are eligible for food stamps don't receive them. Low-income children may also get school breakfasts or lunches, but again, fewer than half of poor children participate in school breakfast or lunch programs.

Food insecurity in the United States is often recurrent but not chronic. In other words, the food insecure eat most days, but possibly not every day. They sometimes supplement their household food supply with charitable donations from food banks or community food programs. Some, but not all, of those who experience food insecurity are homeless.

Households that are poor, headed by single parents, or by blacks or Latinos are more likely to experience food insecurity than other households. Households with children were more likely to experience food insecurity than those without children.

Certainly, the world hunger problem makes food insecurity in the United States seem manageable. After all, around the world, 46 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. In parts of the world, there are famines, floods or wars that affect the food supply. In Darfur, Haiti, Somalia and other parts of the world, hunger is a major issue. Pictures of children with matchstick-thin limbs and distended bellies are often used to raise money for those international concerns that fight hunger, and we're very unlikely to see such images here in the United States.

Still, it is a cruel irony to see our nation described as the most powerful in the world and to realize that we seem to be powerless to abolish food insecurity, especially among children.

Allocating more money for food stamps and school breakfast and lunch programs would go a long way toward eliminating food insecurity, but in our quest to "balance the budget," coupled with our spending in Iraq, this matter seems to have a very low priority.

Internationally, too, we could do more to fight hunger. Bush raised the issue obliquely in his State of the Union address, mentioning the Millennium Challenge Account and the "strength and generosity" of the American people. He might note that both domestically and internationally the fight to eradicate hunger has a direct bearing on our national security. Hungry people do desperate things, often for small sums of money.

If we want to reduce the level of terrorism abroad, we might question whether terrorism is purely ideological or if it also has an economic component. We must work to eliminate food insecurity because it is the right thing to do.

In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about his "audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies." Even though our nation celebrates King's birthday, we lack his audacity and his focus on eliminating poverty and food insecurity both in this country and in the world.

Posted by at 9:27 AM | Permalink

To read the full newsletter online, please go here

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Political scientists talk about the United States as a closely fought battle between red and blue.  From a climatologist's perspective, though, the red is clearly winning. 

The map above recently released by the National Arbor  Day Foundation shows changes in US Hardiness Zones over the course of the past 16 years.  While there are a few pockets of bluish gardeners who have actually lost a zone, the vast majority of the country has seen its climate slip into the red. 

I am located in the southern tip of coastal Maine which has gone from Zone 5 to a Zone 6.  I can't deny that there is a selfish and opportunistic side of me that fantasizes about what these few extra degrees will do for the grape vines and peach tree I planted last spring.  But then I wake up and remember that climate change is not simply a few extra vineyards here and a few less sugar maple groves there.  We are talking about an extreme global makeover, the impacts of which no one can accurately predict.  What is clear is that we all need to do what we can - as individuals, communities and countries - to reduce and offset our global warming causing activities. 

This will not come as much of a surprise, but I am convinced that we kitchen gardeners have an important role to play in this challenge.  The highly industrialized food and agriculture systems of North America, Europe and Japan do not run on compost, sweat and hope,  but on fossil fuels.  According to Richard Heinberg, author of the highly acclaimed book "Powerdown", over 400 gallons of oil equivalent are expended to feed each American each year.  Clearly, we can and must bring that number down by increasing the amount of food produced locally. 

Who is more qualified than we  - the "localest" eaters of all - to the lead the way towards this delicious new food system? 

Posted by at 9:29 AM | Permalink

KGI will be meeting with a number of food and garden groups in the course of 2007 and offering them food-for-thought on the role of home gardening and cooking in a sustainable food system. Here's a draft of one of the graphics we've produced. Let us know what you think and what we might to to make it better. You may click on the image to see a larger version.

Posted by at 1:55 PM | Permalink

Here's a short video featuring the work of Seattle Tilth. For more information on urban agriculture, see cityfarmer.org, a super resource.

Posted by at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Beets and carrots are reliable performers in nearly every climate. This short video shot at the gardens of The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts gives some hints on how to space and use the thinnings of carrots and beets.

Posted by at 3:55 PM | Permalink

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch at
it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch the
renewal of life -- this is the commonest delight
of the race, the most satisfactory thing a
person can do."
-Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1870

Yeah, yeah Charles. That's all well and good, but what do you do when you have the kitchen gardening itch and little or no ground to scratch? Much has been said and written about the loveliness of little things, often by those who own large ones. For example, the German-born economist E. F. Schumacher (pictured right) is known for his visionary book Small is Beautiful, yet he is also known to have tended a very large organic garden at his home in Surrey, England. When it comes to kitchen gardening, the more appropriate catchphrase might be "small can be beautiful".

Those of you who have been scratching at the ground for a while know that gardening is very much about doing "what you can with what you've got". This pertains not only to one's space, but to one's soil and climate. To expand on this, the organic approach to gardening is about living as lightly and creatively as possible within one's natural limits. One soon discovers in doing so that there is much joy and even beauty to be had in this approach.

Here are a few categories of "smallness" along with some ideas for finding beauty in them:

Apartment dweller, no space:
This is a category I know very well having lived in it for nearly 10 years in Brussels. The first and obvious solution is to grow what you can indoors on a sunny windowsill which essentially limits you to fresh herbs in clay pots or, if you're lucky, a window-box. You may succeed with other things like compact varieties of tomatoes and peppers depending on the amount of sun you can provide them. You can improve your chances by using the right soil mix and types of containers. For more information about that, see the links below.

My longing for extra space ultimately led me beyond the confines of my family's two-bedroom, 7th-floor apartment. I was working at the time for a European environmental organization called Friends of the Earth Europe and had an office whose window gave access to a small rooftop with an unprotected fall of 80 ft (25 m) onto a paved courtyard. Environmentalists are known for being "crunchy" (think granola); I was also a bit "nutty" or maybe "nuts" is a better word. My colleagues would watch me with a mixture of worry and wonder as I climbed out my window during lunchbreaks to tend my tomato plants. The owners of the the building ultimately closed down my operation for safety reasons which led me to appropriate a small plot of land at my parents-in-law's house. You might be able to do the same thing -- not at my parents-in-law's because I doubt they'd approve -- but by seeking out a small piece of available land in your area. There's a vibrant and growing community gardening movement (a.k.a the "allotment movement" in the UK) happening in the world whereby city-dwellers can have their vegetables and grow them too. See the links below for more information on plots near you.

Apartment dweller, small balcony:
In addition to having the options above, a person living in this category has the possibility of growing some varieties that require more space and more sun. I've even seen people growing dwarf fruit trees on larger balconies. I mentioned before that living within one natural limits involves creativity. Here's a photo sent to us by one kitchen gardener who has devised an elegant solution for extending his balcony an extra 4 feet (1.2 m). He tells us that he's also designed a small collapseable table for his balcony so that he and his wife can enjoy breakfast in the garden when they want, proof that kitchen gardening is not just an activity but a lifestyle.

Home, apartment, or condominium dweller, very small yard:
It is when one owns a small plot of land that is part of the earth that one can really begin to experience the delight that Charles Dudley Warner describes. Here, several options become possible from a salad garden (ie different varieties of greens and lettuce) to a soup garden (ie carrots, onions, potatoes, etc) to a salsa garden (ie tomatoes, peppers, cilantro a.k.a coriander)) and everything in between. For people just starting out, I think a small tossed salad garden (ie a few varieties of "cut and come again" lettuce varieties or mesclun mixes, 1-2 favorite herbs and a compact tomato plant or two) is great introduction to the pleasures of the kitchen garden. It is important that the beginning gardener be aware of the space requirements of different plants and varieties. Your love of zucchini (courgettes) may well preclude your love of anything else if you're not careful.

The important thing, once again, is to do what you can with what you've got. Schumacher wrote that "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Planting a small garden, whether in the ground or in containers, is way of taking a small step in this other direction towards simplicity and living in harmony with nature. It's true that it requires a bit of courage and genius, but its returns beat Wall Street's even in the bullest of years.

Posted by at 8:57 PM | Permalink

by John Donnelly published in the Boston Globe

US factories producing ethanol fuel for cars may consume as much as half of the country's corn crop next year -- more than double earlier government predictions -- creating competition for grain stocks that could drive up supermarket prices for cereals, meat, eggs, and dairy products, according to a report released yesterday.

"The world needs a strategy to deal with this unfolding competition between automobiles and people for the grain supply," said Lester R. Brown , president of the Earth Policy Institute , a Washington- based advocacy organization that wrote the report. Brown called for a moratorium of ethanol plants in the United States "so we can catch our breath and determine how much we want to harvest our corn for ethanol."

Democrats in Congress are expected in the next two weeks to begin a major push for alternative energy, including ethanol, as a way of reducing the country's reliance on foreign oil.

Ethanol plants use corn to create a synthetic form of oil. Feedlot owners, who intensely feed corn to cattle and pigs for four to six months before slaughter, have seen their costs rise dramatically because of ethanol production. The growing competition for corn is expected to create price hikes that will be passed on to consumers who buy anything from milk to pork chops, Brown said.

Ethanol production doubled from 2001 to 2005, and the report said it could double again by 2008 to more than 15 billion gallons, or roughly 6 percent of US auto fuel needs.

The report found that 139 million metric tons of corn will be needed for ethanol by the 2008 harvest season, or roughly half of the nation's crop, according to US Agriculture Department estimates. In February 2006, the Agriculture Department estimated that just 60 million metric tons of corn would be needed for ethanol.

Brown, a widely respected environmentalist and founder of the Worldwatch Institute, which studies global environmental issues, said the Agriculture Department estimate did not account for last year's surge in global oil prices that led to more ethanol production. His research found 116 ethanol plants operating in the United States, 79 more under construction, and another 200 planned.

Already, he said, the price for corn has reached 10-year highs. Consequences, he said, could be far-reaching. Since the US corn crop accounts for one-fourth of all grain exports, a rise in price "could create food riots in low-income areas around the world," he said.

Bob Dinneen , president of the Renewable Fuels Association , a Washington- based lobbying group for the ethanol industry, said Brown's concerns were overblown. Dinneen said increased farming of corn could offset much of the increase in demand for ethanol.

Corn production has risen to an estimated 86 million acres in the last year, up from 76 million acres in 2005, largely because of the demand for ethanol, he said.

"I have more faith in the marketplace," Dinneen said.

Text copyright 2007 Boston Globe
Photo copyright of Frascelly

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, January 4, 2006 in The Washington Post

New Year's resolutions are useless. In fact, I think they're a sort of jinx. Proclamations about losing five pounds or maintaining a perfect garden are doomed to failure because they're too much like homework. "Positive change," as the self-help books call it, happens accidentally when you're fully engaged in life. Progress occurs when you're so caught up in a project that you can't quit.

If your vegetable garden isn't fun anymore, this is a good time to ask why it's not, and what you can do to make it the place that gets your attention. A garden that becomes a burden is easy to avoid, so that by fall it's a disaster you can't face at all. Instead of promising yourself to do better next year, see if you can figure out just what makes that spring-planted Eden slide downhill. Use the tranquil dormant period we're in now to make a new plan. Not somebody else's plan. Yours.

Any garden will depress you if the plants in it fail, and this almost always takes place because of dreadful soil. Only if you've actually seen superb garden loam can you fully appreciate what yours ought to look like, and what its magic effect on your plants will be. Four-star soil is dark and crumbly like chocolate cake. Your fingers can probe it so effortlessly you don't need a trowel. It's full of happy worms and venturesome roots, and you don't achieve it by scattering a bag of 10-10-10 but by adding fertile organic matter -- more than you think you need. Make it a project to round up as much good-quality aged manure as you can find, add some peat moss, dried seaweed and greensand -- a bagged product containing a broad range of trace minerals. Spread these amendments over the garden and till, fork or dig them in thoroughly, whenever weather permits. Instead of struggling, your plants will explode with vigor.

To read the full article at washingtonpost.com, please go here

Posted by at 1:28 PM | Permalink

NAME:
Gerard Bernard

PROFESSION:
Retired train enginneer

HOME:
Villers-les-Nancy, France

HOBBIES:
Painting and fishing

Every gardener is known for something. For one, it might be his plump and juicy tomatoes, for another her aromatic herbs. In the case of Frenchman Gerard Bernard, it's not what comes from his garden but what he does with it. Gerard takes humble extras of the fruit world - currants, cherries, pears, plums - and turns them into stars. Gerard , you see, is a master of a little-known artform: small-scale, artisinal fruit wines and liqueurs. Let's see how he earned his reputation.

KGI: Why do you make your own fruit wines?
GB: It's each person prerogative to like or dislike jams and jellies. I love certain types, but there are others that make my hair stand on end (which is saying a lot seeing that I'm bald). One type I can live without is red currant jam.

But how can you prevent your wife from making red currant preserves when your garden is exploding with red currants (he explains that currant bushes serve as an edible hedge separating his garden from his yard and his yard from his neighbor's)? When I first heard talk of making wine from currants many years ago, I said to myself "ah-ha, therein lies the solution".

KGI: How long have you been doing this?
GB: For more than 20 years now. I still have 2 bottles from 1982 in storage for a special occasion. And I've even taken to harvesting the currants from other people's yards (with their permission, bien s?o that I can increase my production and prevent them from going to waste. One of my greatest pleasures in life is offering bottles to close friends and family who await each new vintage with great anticipation, so don't bother asking whether it's good.

KGI: So how and when do you drink your wines?
GB: First of all, the older the better. I find that that they're at their best served "en apertif", ie. as a before dinner drink. We usually serve it with hors d'oeuvres because the alcohol level is somewhat stronger than a normal table wine and will quickly make heads spin on an empty stomach.

Just yesterday, we had friends over for dinner and started off with a glass of red currant wine, followed by a meal built around ingredients from the garden and local farms. I can't tell you just how pleased and amazed people are to sit down to truly local and handcrafted meal, especially those that have got caught up in the routine of eating faceless, uninspired food from the large supermarkets.

GERARD'S RED CURRANT WINE RECIPE

1) Ask your wife nicely to pick the currants (she was going to do it anyway for her preserves, right?)

2) Wash them and send them through a wine press or juicer.

3) Place the juice in a large food-grade carboy (glass or plastic)along with water and sugar using the following proportions: 1 liter of juice, 1 kilo of sugar, 2 liters of water.

4) Stir the mixture regularly (once a day at the beginning)using a long plastic or wooden stick. Fill the carboy up close to the rim in order to have easy access to the foam that will form once the fermentation starts. Remove this foam as it appears. You may top off the mixture with some extra sugar water to compensate for the lost liquid. Cover the carboy with a breathable material and wait for the end of the year.

5) At the end of December or beginning of January, pick a clear, sunny day for bottling. Use heavy, champagne-style bottles that have been thoroughly washed out and dried. Attach a plastic tube to your long stick in such a way that is one centimeter from the end. Place the stick and the attached tube into the carboy and beginning siphoning the liquid into the bottles. The one centimeter difference between the stick and the tube will insure that the sediment stays at the bottom of your carboy. Avoid moving your carboy around during or prior to the bottling process as this stir up the sediment.

6) Cork the bottles and cover with champagne-style wire hoods to keep the corks in place.

7) Affix your label and store upright in a cool, shaded area.

8) Drink with appreciation and moderation.

Red currants photo credit: mwri

Posted by at 11:43 AM | Permalink

By Renee Enna, Chicago Tribune

Did you know?

“The 1st Century Roman Emperor Tiberius was reportedly so fond of parsnips that he imported them from the Rhineland, ordering his cooks to boil them gently and serve them in honey nectar,” writes John Peterson in Farmer John’s Cookbook.

Parsnips have fallen from favor since Tibe’s time. Like most root vegetables, they’re not the most beautiful produce on the block.

“They may not be glamorous, but when cooked, they have the combined sweetness of a carrot along with an appealing parsleylike herbaceous quality and subtle nuttiness,” writes Cathy Thomas in Melissa’s Great Book of Produce.

Parsnips will form a sturdy base for stews and soups, casseroles and other winter-friendly dishes.

Storing tips
Refrigerate parsnips in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer; they’ll keep a couple of weeks.

Preparation tips
Trim the ends and peel the parsnips. (Younger parsnips, which will be smaller and smoother, don’t need peeling.) When cutting them, make uniform sizes so they’ll finish cooking at the same time.

Cooking tips
Young parsnips can be grated into salads or sliced as crudites, Peterson writes. If you’re of a mind to honor Tiberius, boil them in water or chicken broth, then add butter, salt and pepper. Fresh tarragon, minced orange zest or ground cinnamon are complementary flavors, Thomas writes.

Like any self-respecting root vegetable, parsnips are great roasted. “If you haven’t tasted a properly roasted fresh parsnip, then you haven’t tasted a parsnip,” claims Andrea Chesman in The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook. “Roasting brings out the hidden nutmeg and sweet nuances of parsnips.” Just brush them with a little oil and roast them in a 400- to 425-degree oven until they’re easily pierced with a fork.

“Bake sliced parsnips in a covered casserole with enough orange juice to barely cover them,” add the authors of The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden. “When the parsnips are almost tender, uncover so the juice thickens.”

The emperor liked his boiled gently and served in honey nectar.

Text © Chicago Tribune

Roasted parsnips photo © Abiola Lapite

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ingredients:
1 head garlic
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 bunches chard
3 cups water
1 tablespoon sea salt, plus more to taste
1 large sprig rosemary
Freshly ground pepper black pepper

Procedure:
1) Instructions: Preheat oven to 350°.

2) Cut off the upper 1/4 of the garlic head. Rub the head all over with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil, wrap in foil and roast until the cloves are creamy and pale gold, about 1 hour. Remove and set aside to cool. When cool, remove the pulp from the skins of the cloves by gently pinching at the bottom of each clove. Set aside.

3) Cut the wide ribs from the chard, coarsely chop them and set them aside. Coarsely chop the leaves. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt, rosemary and the chopped ribs. Cover and reduce the heat to low and cook until the ribs are nearly tender, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped leaves, cover and continue to cook until the leaves are well wilted, have changed to a darker green and are tender, about 15 minutes more. Put in a colander to drain. Squeeze dry with your hands. Discard the rosemary.

4) Return the saucepan to the stovetop and add the remaining olive oil, heating it over medium heat. Add the drained chard, and cook, stirring well to coat, about 2 minutes. Gently fold in the garlic pulp and cook until the garlic too is hot, about 1 minute more. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. Place in a serving dish and serve hot.

Recipe source: San Francisco Chronicle
Photo source: nOnnahs

Posted by at 7:18 PM | Permalink

By Jean English, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

The hubbub of the holidays over; it’s time for gardeners to get down to the nitty-gritty of ordering seeds, and the first step in that process is to inventory what’s in that shoebox on the shelf. Many seeds that are left over from last year or even previous years will still be viable. An organized checklist can help you go through your stock, see what you have, and order what you don’t.

Most garden seed, properly stored, will last for at least a couple of years; some last five to 10 years with little loss of viability (the ability to germinate and produce a healthy seedling). The Fedco Seeds catalog offers a list of exceptions—seeds that are good for only one year: onion, parsnip, parsley, chives, shiso, scorzonera, Batavian endive, licorice, pennyroyal, St. Johnswort, liatris, delphinium, larkspur, perennial phlox, and pelleted or hot-water treated seed. Seed longevity averages are listed in a table on page 8 of the Fedco catalog (available from Fedco Seeds, P.O. Box 520, Waterville ME 04903 or at www.fedcoseeds.com).

Regarding the term “properly stored” -- that shoebox on the shelf doesn’t really qualify. Seeds retain their viability longest if they’re kept in a cool (32 to 41 degrees F.), dry place out of the sun. Gardeners are often advised to store extra seed in a glass or other airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer, with a packet of powdered milk from a freshly opened box, or absorbent silica gel (sold by craft stores to dry flowers), in the bottom of the container to extract extra moisture. A tablespoon or two of powdered milk per glass jar will absorb excess moisture for about six months. Do this with the seeds that you order this year, and you may get more for your money in the long run. (You can put more than one packet of seed in each jar.)

If you’re in doubt about existing seeds, try germinating 25 or so on a damp towel or paper towel. How many send out roots within a week or 10 days? If the percentage is quite low, order new seeds. If about 50% of the seeds germinate, you might want to use these up this year, sowing them thicker than recommended, and order new ones next year. If germination is good, you’re all set for this year, and maybe more. Remember, though, that seeds will germinate more easily on a constantly moist towel than they will in the ground, where they’re subjected to more stresses.

Once you know or make an educated guess as to which seeds are viable, cross them off a checklist and you’ll be left with names of plants for which you’ll need new seed. The index on the back of the Fedco catalog can serve as a checklist; or you can download a list from www.mofga.org and use it as is or adapt it to the kinds of flowers, vegetables and herbs that you like to grow.

Article copyright 2006 of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. MOFGA is the oldest and largest organic farming organization in the US and a true natural resource. They produce an impressive quarterly member magazine consisting of articles like the one above. Please consider supporting their work.

Coriander (cilantro) seeds photo courtesy of Freakdog

Posted by at 6:52 PM | Permalink

Art courtesy of Cobalt

Posted by at 9:17 AM | Permalink