Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed ligula. Pellentesque ut massa nec velit imperdiet sollicitudin. Pellentesque posuere orci sed nisi. Proin porta porttitor enim. Nulla facilisi. Pellentesque hendrerit purus id metus. Vivamus porta enim quis metus euismod consequat. Nulla tincidunt. In libero ligula, accumsan sit amet, consectetuer ac, ullamcorper a, arcu. Nullam volutpat, magna et eleifend pulvinar, metus orci bibendum pede, at pellentesque felis est at nibh. Nulla ornare mauris in velit.

Pellentesque faucibus malesuada leo. Mauris adipiscing lectus a tortor posuere varius. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Vivamus et metus dapibus neque fermentum ultricies. Integer lobortis mi eget est. Donec in purus vitae ante malesuada eleifend. Ut orci. Etiam leo ante, rutrum ac, consectetuer eget, placerat sed, lacus. Nullam convallis lorem ut ligula. Curabitur accumsan ante vitae metus. Duis eu eros. Nam magna.

Posted by at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Last year, KGI launched its mini-grant program by helping a couple of small food and garden projects break ground. One of these projects is based in Guyana, South America and is working to help single mothers living in poverty use kitchen gardens to feed their families healthier food and to become more economically self-reliant.

We've heard back from the project organizers that the first phase of the project was a success and that they are now looking to expand their efforts to reach more people in need. Thanks again again to all who offered financial support to KGI and to our friends at Territorial Seed who helped make this project possible.

The project organizers would love to acquire a basic digital camera in order to tell their story to potential funders in pictures. Please let us or know if you are in a position to donate one or the funds needed to buy one. Thank you.

Posted by at 9:12 AM | Permalink

Ingredients:
10 ounces fresh spinach, well washed, large stems removed, or 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 to 2 cups buttermilk or thin yogurt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter, plus unmelted butter for cooking
1 cup sour cream, optional
1 tablespoon minced lemon peel, optional.

Procedure:
1. Put spinach in a covered saucepan over medium heat, with just the water that clings to its leaves after washing; or plunge it into a pot of salted boiling water. Either way, cook it until it wilts, just a couple of minutes. Drain, cool, squeeze dry and chop.

2. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat while you make batter. Heat oven to 200 degrees. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Place 1 1/2 cups buttermilk in another bowl. Beat eggs into it, then stir in the melted butter. Stir this into dry ingredients, adding a little more buttermilk if batter seems thick; stir in spinach.

3. Place a teaspoon or two of butter in pan. When butter foam subsides, ladle batter onto skillet, making any size pancakes you like. Adjust heat as necessary; first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Add more butter to pan as necessary. Brown bottoms in 2 to 4 minutes. Flip only when pancakes are fully cooked on bottom; they won’t hold together well until they are ready.

4. Cook until second side is lightly browned; as pancakes are done, put them on an ovenproof plate in oven for up to 15 minutes. Mix sour cream and lemon peel together and place a small dollop on each pancake.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Source: New York Times

Posted by at 10:05 AM | Permalink

The article below on "co-gardening" appears in the latest issue of "E", the environment magazine. Check it out below and, while you're at, give their rest of their magazine a look via their website. E has won numerous Independent Press Awards and is chock full of everything environmental -- from recycling to rainforests, and from the global village to our own backyards.

By Hannah Jones

I look through my kitchen window and see a young couple tromping through my back yard, pitchfork and rake in hand. He chooses sticks from the brush pile to make a trellis for green beans; she bends over a raised bed and pulls tiny weeds. Who are these people, and why are they in my yard?

Urban condo-dwellers desperate to dig in the dirt, my “co-gardeners,” Maggie and Karl, are helping me to plant and tend a garden on my half-acre of real estate in the suburbs. I get to share the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor, and they give me support to become a successful gardener.

Like many modern suburbanites, I can use all the help I can get. Vegetable gardening is a dying art, and growing a garden can be daunting. Enter co-gardening, the act of gardening with friends, family and neighbors. Co-gardeners till, plant, weed, water and even cook together. Like urban community gardeners, they share garden space, and like Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSAs), they share produce. The difference is that co-gardening can happen on any scale, from two friends tending vegetables on a back patio, to whole communities cultivating large plots of land.

Roger Doiron is founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, a group dedicated to empowering people to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance. Doiron envisions food in concentric circles. Ideally, consumers should grow what they can in their own back yards. From there, they should look for the closest regional producers, such as local farms, CSAs and farmers’ markets. Only after local sources are exhausted should consumers look beyond their own region for food.

According to Doiron, “In American suburban culture...the idea of shared space is relatively unknown.”

On a Grand Scale
David Foley and Judy Berk of Ocean Glimpse Farm in Northport, Maine, are co-gardeners on a grand scale. For 16 years they have been sharing their half-acre garden space with up to eight local families at a time. The idea began when the couple became friends with their next-door neighbors, who lived on blueberry barrens. The neighbors expressed envy for Foley and Berk’s fertile front yard, and the couple invited them to garden there. Soon, other neighbors were participating, including a friend who was suffering from leukemia and wanted to grow macrobiotic food and a farming couple who were between farms. Now a diverse group gardens together: the youngest gardener is two years old, and the oldest is 73.

The project has evolved into an informal but highly effective organization. Every January, gardeners gather for an event they’ve dubbed the Seed Summit. They reflect on the previous season’s successes and failures, plan for next year and pore over seed catalogues.

During the growing season, the group meets on Sundays for a couple of hours of gardening and a potluck lunch. Those who enjoy the social aspects of gardening can join the group; others might stop by on a weekday for some early morning weeding.
One advantage of co-gardening, according to Berk, is that different people gravitate toward different parts of gardening—her group includes natural weeders, hoers and seed starters. Berk says, “There are leaders and laggards, as there are in everything,” but for the most part the garden runs well on the honor system.

Suburban Eden
Every vegetable garden planted replaces one of the chemical-intensive lawns that cover 23 million acres of American soil, costing $30 billion, robbing us of productive land and consigning suburbanites to the weekly chore of lawn mowing.
And in the words of Judy Berk, co-gardening “allows people to share resources and skills and to develop a sense of community, which is really lacking in modern society.”

Maggie and Karl know more than I do about both cooking and gardening, and working with them taught me more than my library of gardening books ever did. As Doiron put it, “If you tell people to plant a lot of Swiss chard without telling them what to do with it, then people just end up with a lot of Swiss chard.”

The benefits of co-gardening extend well beyond a marriage of convenience. My co-gardeners and I have shared meals, frozen mountains of pesto, and enjoyed each other’s company. In the process, I have gone from a reluctant lawn tender to an enthusiastic budding gardener.

HANNAH JONES is a writer and teacher who gardens in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Posted by at 5:00 PM | Permalink

This is the story of an inspiring garden and gardener from Seattle, Washington. It's amazing the amount of beauty and food she's planted in her modest suburban plot.

Posted by at 10:29 AM | Permalink

Here's Brian Halweil, senior researcher with the WorldWatch Institute and author of "Eat Here", making a good, succinct case for locally-based food systems.

Posted by at 1:40 PM | Permalink

To read the full newsletter online, please go here: http://www.kitchengardeners.org/newslettermarch07.html 

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

To celebrate spring, I started preparing a large pot of potato leek soup this morning.  If all goes according to plan, the soup should be done simmering by late September. 

No, there’s no problem with my stovetop or my cooking skills.  The problem, if there is one, is with my admittedly extreme definition of slow and local foods.  

Unless you managed to lock yourself in your kitchen pantry for the past year, you will have heard that road-weary foods are out and fresh, local ones are in. Yet, different people have different ways of defining local.  John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has said that local foods are those sourced within a 200 mile radius of a store.  Nutritionist and author Joan Dye Gussow has defined local more poetically as “within a day's leisurely drive of our homes”.

In my case, local foods are those coming from my own backyard, literally.  In order to have backyard-grown leeks by September, I’m planting seeds indoors now which will grow into pencil-necked seedlings that I’ll move outdoors in May when Maine’s winter officially ends and summer begins (for those who haven’t been to Maine before, spring comes the second week of May, except for those years when it skips us completely).  Once the seedlings are in the ground, they’ll need a hundred days before they’re ready for the soup pot. 

There are certainly easier paths to delicious, local foods than the one that passes through the backyard garden, but none more direct or more satisfying.  It is a path, however, that fewer and fewer people are willing to tread.  According to latest data from US Department of Agriculture, home food production hit an all time low last year and was down a full 20% from the previous year.  Meanwhile, despite recent trends, foods in the US have never traveled farther than they do now, over 1500 miles on average from field to fork, using up to 17 more fossil fuels than foods sourced locally. 

With the gardening season and climate change both upon us, I am encouraging people who have a little bit of land - be it a vacant lot, a yard, or a well-tilled window box -  to use it in the service of their planet and their gastronomy.  Last year, a Vancouver couple made the international news by eating a ‘100-mile diet' for a year.  In a globally-warmed world with a growing population, we’ll need even more ambitious experiments in local eating in the future and slower interpretations of “slow food”.  

My goal this growing season is to meet one third of my family’s annual vegetable needs through our modest suburban plot.  That may not sound like much, but a lot of little kitchen gardens can add up to a small farm in urban and suburban areas where farmland is either not available or affordable.    

Now that my leek soup is on the boil, so to speak, I’ll soon turn my attention to making pasta with red sauce, starting with a tomato seed order later this week.  I’m thinking of trying an heirloom variety called Amish Paste.  It takes about 5 days longer to mature than the paste tomato I grew last year, but, heck, I’m in no hurry.

Happy spring,

Posted by at 10:32 AM | Permalink

Different countries, regions, and cities are promoting gardening and sustainable living through policies and incentives. In Belgium, the policy of "bebloemingsacties" (literally: planting action), provides economic incentives as follows:

-31 euros ($40) are paid per square meter for growing succulent mosses, grasses and herbs for a green roof. The program pays a maximum of 5,000 euros ($6,500); the minimum is 6 square meters.

-250 euros ($325) are paid for collecting and reusing rain water. The money goes to fund a collecting system and pump.

-Each household can get as many as three chickens which will consume kitchen waste and add fertilizer to the garden.

Countries less well-heeled than Belgium grow 90 percent of their fresh produce out of necessity. Two cities known for their urban gardens are Accra, Ghana, and Havana, Cuba.

Venezuelan leaders, inspired by Cuba's small urban farms, have started a socialist farming cooperative called "Interior economy." Premier Hugo Chavez started Organoponicos (urban gardens) to aim for 20 percent food production from urban gardens. Tools and land are subsidized through this program.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by at 10:24 PM | Permalink

Ingredients:
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and peeled
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 small head green cabbage, quartered and cored
1 small head red cabbage, 8 leaves set aside for plating, the rest quartered and cored
1 carrot, peeled
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

For the dressing
4 ounces blue Brie cheese or other creamy blue cheese, cubed
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the garnish
1/4 cup minced fresh chives

Procedure:
Using the large holes of a box grater, shred the apple into a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice to prevent discoloring. Shred the green cabbage, red cabbage and carrot into the bowl. Add the onions, salt, pepper and caraway seeds and toss.

To make the dressing: In a blender or food processor, process the cheese and cream until smooth. Add the sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper and blend again for 30 seconds. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil and blend until the sauce thickens, about 15 seconds. Pour over the salad and toss until thoroughly coated. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 12 before serving.

To serve, place a red cabbage leaf on each of 8 salad plates and spoon some of the salad onto each leaf. Sprinkle with the chives.

Recipe adapted from "The Irish Heritage Cookbook," by Margaret M. Johnson and reprinted in the San Francaisco Chronicle

Posted by at 11:19 AM | Permalink

National food security:
Let's grow it over here so we don't have to grow it over there!

By John Hershey

"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day," President Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, quoting his favorite aphorism about self-reliance. "But give him a large cache of weapons that he can illegally sell to a hostile middle Eastern theocracy, and he can covertly finance a guerilla war in Central America."

Wait a minute, that's not it.

Oh, now I remember. It goes like this: "Teach him to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime."

Reagan might have chosen gardening as well as fishing for his metaphor. Ralph Waldo Emerson used the garden as a symbol of self-reliance in his famous essay of the same name: "Though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."

So if we translate Reagan's old saying into horticultural terms and balance it out gender-wise while we're at it, it might go something like this:

"Give a woman a can of Spaghetti-Os, and she'll eat (in a manner of speaking) for a day. But give her some tomato and pepper seeds, a few onion sets, and a basil seedling or two, and she'll have fresh, delicious pasta sauce in just 10–12 weeks."

Yes, it takes a bit longer to grow a meal in a garden than to pull a fish out of a stream, although in my case it might be close. So we have to get by in the meantime. That's the role of the food banks and food drives, and they provide an essential service for people who don't have enough to eat.

But our updated saying is different from Reagan's original in another important way. With gardening it's not just an analogy. It's literally true. You don't see many charities dispensing trout, or idealistic young people traveling to the inner city to offer free fly-casting lessons. But when community gardening organizations like Denver Urban Gardens distribute free seeds and transplants, they help thousands of people become more self-reliant every year.

Self-reliance is part of what motivates all gardeners, I suspect. We feel a primal urge to provide for ourselves and our families directly, asserting a bit of independence from the industrial food grid. When we eat from the garden, we know where our food came from and what's in it. In a small way, we opt out of a food system whose chemical inputs and highly processed outputs make us feel increasingly insecure.

But, a cynic might say, an urban gardener can never really be self-reliant. A city is the antithesis of self-reliance: it's about specialization and economies of scale, work and consumption. The feeling of independence you get from growing a few radishes and carrots is just an illusion.

Au contraire! Gardening does provide relief from the over-scheduled urban life. But the benefits are not just emotional. Growing just a small amount of your own food can noticeably increase your food security, as I discovered during the snowstorm that paralyzed Denver in late December.

For a few days after the big blizzard, many of us couldn't get to the stores, and when we did they were running low on many essential items like fresh produce, milk, and beer. But on those snowbound days, I enjoyed salads of fresh mesclun lettuce and stir-fries of kale and chard, all picked moments before in my little backyard greenhouse. I had to shovel my way through deep snow just to open the lid, but when I got there I found the plants warm and lush inside. What a feeling of pride and self-reliance!

This was food security in action. The supply chain from farm to market was disrupted by the snow, as it could be by any number of natural or human disasters, yet I did not go hungry. I was independent, if only for the few days my supply of fresh greens would last. And it's all thanks to my little greenhouse, really just a glorified cold frame slapped together from scrap lumber at almost no cost. But it can keep these cold-tolerant greens alive year round, even in a blizzard, due to the skill and ingenuity with which I designed and built it. Well, actually it's not because of that. Buried in the soil is an electric heating cable, which probably accounts for a major chunk of my utility bill in the winter.

So I'm not really self-sufficient, and my garden produce isn't devoid of fossil fuel inputs. My veggies aren't free, no matter how free I feel when growing them. We can't escape the industrial food system entirely, and we wouldn't really want to. We live in a city because we want community, not autarky. Still, by growing just some of what we eat, we diversify the food system, and that's a big part of food security.

Wendell Berry said it this way: "We cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free."

In a community garden, we all live a bit more free. And the free seed programs open this opportunity to many new gardeners every season.

This taste of freedom is as delicious as the fresh food we grow. It's hard to feel powerless when you're the midwife of the amazing process by which a tiny seed turns into a huge sprawling vine, with giant leaves and heavy pumpkins that keep you baking breads and pies and cookies all winter long. As Emerson put it: "When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands."

When the next disaster strikes, I may have to do without milk and beer again for a while. City authorities would probably deny me a permit to keep a cow in my small yard, and I have no time for another hobby like home brewing. But to paraphrase Reagan (or was it Heston?) again, they can take away my arugula when they pry it from my cold, dead hand.

To read more garden-variety humor, visit John's website: www.rakishwit.com.

Posted by at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Posted by at 10:55 AM | Permalink

NAME:
Eshe Riviears, a.k.a. "the Herb Lady"

PROFESSION:
Herbalist

HOME:
Conyers, Georgia, USA

WEBSITE:
www.herbsistah.com

How long have you been kitchen gardening?
I have been kitchen gardening since I was 9 years old growing up in Michigan. I remember being put in charge of my 1st tomato plant. Those were the yummiest tomatoes in the world even up until now.

Who were some of your influences or teachers?
My dad, Percy and my Uncle Bayman. They were great "sometimey" gardeners.That means they didn't grow every season or even every summer, just sometimes. The best Organic growing advice that I ever received and that I still teach to my students, I received from my Uncle Bayman, "Plant some for you and some for the rabbits."

What are some of the gardening challenges you face?
I garden in a forest, uncut and untamed, except for my 4 acre parcel. The weeds are jungle-like, the rabbits are wiley and the deer are phenomenal, even squirrels watch you work from the treetops and swoop down and dig up whatever you have just planted. Techniques like radios on talk radio stations, human hair balls and scarecrows or foil mobiles don't foil these garden companions. The most effective techinque is my little boys "tinkling" around the perimeter. They happily comply.

How would you describe your cooking style?
Delicious and Healthy Cooking with Soul! This is cooking with and for flavor, while leaving out the traditional Southern foods that are contributing to heart disease, diabetes and High blood pressure (which is almost epidemic within African-American families). I replace pork and smoked turkey with plenty of herbs, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, peppers. This retains the home-style flavor and is very satisfying even to staunch meat-eaters.

Any food or gardening books that have had an influence on you?
The Rodale family of books have had an tremendous effect on my life. I still buy anything that Rodale publishes, sight unseen. They are pioneers in organic gardening techniques and research. I believe that one wouldn't put so much energy and passion into gardening if they didn't want the best vegetable, herbs and health possible. To put toxins on this greatness cancels that monumental effort.

Tell us something about "The Herb Lady" and what she does?
Oh, thats' a great BIG question. I am an Herbalist and Organic Master Gardener. I teach folks the Traditional and Folk Uses of Herbs. This includes teaching people what I like to call, "Living With the Seasons". This is integrating the complete (culinary,& medicinal) knowledge of fruits/vegetables (& herbs) as food, and how we use the foods that grow in season, in our area or region, to not only nuture, feed & heal our bodies for now, but to build our bodies for the upcoming season. It' really could be considered "common-sense", but with travel technology as it is, one could easily be eating regularly from locales half-way around the world that are in a totally different season.

Here's a short example: in former times, grandmothers would start "Spring Cleaning" when the dandelions sprouted. They would clean out the house completely from top to bottom, and also clean out the bodies of their family with a "Spring Tonic", that would also include Dandelions. The dandelions appear when its' time to use them.

Spring would be a chance to "lighten up" and "clean the blood". Everyone would have more energy for Summer and the planting season and even lose some of the winter fat that was put on to increase the body heat and protection of the internal organs.

The light greens and early peas and even the clover teas, would help to lighten the food from the potato and root crop diet of the winter and move to a lighter fare that also helps to re-mineralize and re-energize the body.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I enjoy that what I do because it doesn't feel like work. I do it because I can't help myself! All of this oozes from me and because of that, I work at it all of the time. I love it!

Any parting words of wisdom or a favorite quote?
"We are a part of nature, not apart from nature." This helps people understand that we are one of the many creatures that are also impacted by the way the planet is treated and the change of the seasons. Once people realize this, their focus changes and it softens.

Posted by at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While we're not sure any process with 15 steps to it can truly be considered "easy", we like the steps set out in the article below and think you'll get good results following them.

15 easy steps to growing your own plants from seed

By Beth Botts, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Is this your year to try starting seeds? It really doesn't take much: seed, soilless potting mix, a few containers you likely have around the house, light, water, patience, attention and the urge to see something grow from the very beginning. If you have a sunny window, you may even be able to get a few plants started without artificial lights.

Once you've got the basics down, it may grow on you. Aggie Nehmzow, for example, now finds herself starting more than 200 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds every year and, like many seed starters, she has developed her own techniques she swears by.

Nehmzow and Kirsten Akre, manager of the Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse in Illinois, helped us with the basics.

• 1. Pick something easy. Everybody loves tomatoes, but Akre also recommends cabbage and kale because they can be transplanted outdoors much earlier. There's little point in starting the same plants you can buy at garden centers, so check through seed catalogs and "get something that's special," she says. Beginners should use freshly bought seed. Plant just a few things, but sow plenty of each so you have a cushion.

• 2. Choose containers: Anything shallow that holds soil will do - flats and six-packs saved from last year's annuals, plastic cups, yogurt containers, homemade newspaper pots, clamshell plastic containers from the salad bar. To save space, start seeds in egg cartons (or Nehmzow suggests dollar-store ice-cube trays); after germination, you'll transplant the sprouts into something larger. You will need to place the containers on something that holds water (think cookie sheet, boot tray, storage container lid). Poke ample drainage holes in each pot's bottom (unless you're using newspaper pots). Wash the pots and disinfect them by soaking them for 10 minutes in a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 5 gallons of water.

• 3. Use good soil. Akre recommends a new bag of sterile potting mix, ideally a brand labeled organic. Nehmzow gets by with plain potting soil, but that's riskier; it could contain pathogens.

• 4. Read directions. The seed packet will tell you how deep to plant the seeds or whether to lay them on top of the soil, and how long the plants will take to germinate. It also will tell you when to sow, in terms of weeks before the date of the last frost (the earliest most plants can be moved outdoors).

• 5. Fill the pots. Get the potting mix about as moist as a wrung-out sponge (if it's not a fresh bag, Akre says, you may have to add water to it the day before to get it evenly moist). Level soil to the top of the container and then gently tap it on the counter three times, Akre says, to settle it; there should be a little space at the top of the soil to contain water.

• 6. Sow seed. Use a pencil or chopstick to poke the right size hole, if needed, and to gently nudge soil over the seed.

• 7. Hold in moisture. Mist surface of the soil gently with water, making sure not to disturb the seed, and cover with a plastic bag or a dry cleaner bag to hold in moisture. Or simply close the lid of the clamshell or egg carton.

• 8. Label seedlings. Use a permanent marker, Nehmzow says, for the plant, variety and date.

• 9. Keep seeds warm and moist until they germinate. Favorite warm spots are above (not directly on) a radiator, on top of the refrigerator or in the laundry room. Seeds sown on top of soil need light to germinate, but seeds planted deeper don't. In three to 10 days - check daily - most plants will put out cotyledons, little smooth things that look like leaves. Immediately remove the cover so air circulates.

Check the seedlings frequently; you want the soil to stay evenly moist, but never sopping. The best method is bottom watering, Akre says. Pour water into the tray so it wicks up into the soil through the drainage holes.

• 10. Find the light. Seedlings need all-day light. If you have a very sunny window, it might do, but window light alone may produce spindly plants. For stronger, sturdier plants, provide 12 to 14 hours of artificial light such as a two-tube fluorescent shop light on a lamp timer. Place lights within a foot or so of the plants. (Akre has suspended hers beneath a table with the plants sitting on the floor.)

• 11. Transplant. If you sowed in tiny containers, transplant the seedlings when they have their first set of true leaves. (They look like miniature leaves of that plant and often are a little fuzzy.) Use a chopstick or pencil to gently tease the delicate stalk and roots up out of the soil (don't pull) and settle it into the soil of the larger pot. Thin the plants so you have one strong seedling per pot.

• 12. Room to breathe. Good air circulation is key to preventing the evil fungal disease called damping off. A gentle breeze from an electric fan may help, Akre says.

• 13. Fertilize lightly. Once a week, use just a bit of an organic fertilizer labeled for seed starting (ask at a good garden center). Fish emulsion and seaweed work well for Akre, though she warns they are fragrant; worm tea, such as Terracycle, also is good.

• 14. Harden off. Before you plant the seedlings out in the garden, gradually accustom them to the outdoors over several days. Nehmzow uses a plastic-film greenhouse; you could use a cold frame, or just move the plants outdoors for a few more hours each day.

• 15. Plant them. Make sure you have the site the plants need (plenty of sun for vegetables, well-drained soil with lots of organic matter for just about everything). Remove the transplants from their pots gently without yanking on the stems and settle them in the soil at the recommended spacing.

Article copyright of Chicago Tribune

Posted by at 3:28 PM | Permalink

So you went out and bought a Dutch oven. Congratulations. You’re about to embark on the tasty world of Dutch oven cooking. But before you start throwing together your favorite recipes, there are a few tips and tricks you should know.

What Can You Cook in a Dutch Oven?

Whether you’re looking for a Dutch oven cobbler recipe or a savory stew, your Dutch oven can handle it. Here are just a few of the Dutch oven recipes you can make:

Dutch oven Entrees
Pork spare ribs, Apricot glazed Cornish Hens, Italian sausages with Peppers and Onions, Chicken Enchiladas, Vegetarian pizza, and all-in-one meals such as stew and meat loaf.

Dutch oven Sides
Cheesy scalloped potatoes, Dutch oven stuffing, baked beans, and roasted vegetables.

Dutch oven Breads
Baking powder biscuits, Southern Cornbread, Garlic Cheese Rolls, Banana bread and Hawaiian braided bread.

Dutch oven Breakfast
Sausage soufflé, eggs, pancakes, and vegetable omletes.

Dutch oven Desserts
Cherry Chocolate cake, Pineapple upside down cake, Fruit cobbler, and Apple tort.

Dutch oven Cooking 101

You can cook these Dutch oven recipes on your stove, oven, or campfire without missing a beat. That’s what’s so great about cast iron. But if you want those Dutch oven meals to turn out well, you need to keep these things in mind:

Follow the Directions Exactly
Dutch ovens cook differently. Don’t alter the amounts in the recipe. And make sure you measure everything correctly. What can look wrong is actually right because the rules are a bit different for a Dutch oven—especially for desserts. You will become accustomed to it after a little practice.

Know How Well Your Dutch oven is Seasoned
The better seasoned your oven, the easier it is to get wonderful results. If your oven is new or poorly seasoned, then you will want to make sure it’s well oiled. If you’re making bread (regardless of how well seasoned the oven is) coat the inside in shortening and heat it for a few minutes before adding the batter.

Keep Your Oven at a Constant Temperature
This is the number one key to success. And it can be the most difficult skill to master. This isn’t a problem when cooking indoors of course. We’re talking now about outdoor cooking. The next section will show you how to master this skill.

Outdoor Cooking Rx

Buy high quality charcoal briquettes. You want something that burns evenly for about an hour’s time. Don’t buy ‘match light’ briquettes. They burn out too fast. Now it’s time to set up your heat source.

Briquette Position
You will be putting briquettes on the bottom and on the lid of your Dutch oven. The briquettes on the bottom need to be in a circle that is ½ inch smaller all around than the outside edge of the oven. The briquettes on top need to be in a checkerboard pattern on the lid.

Number of Briquettes

Here is a handy chart for your cooking pleasure. If it’s very windy or cold, you may need more briquettes. Don’t be afraid to lift the lid and check on your food!

This chart will show you how many briquettes you need to use to achieve a certain temperature in your Dutch oven. The numbers across the top refer to the cooking temperature you wish to achieve. The number down the side refers to your Dutch oven’s diameter. So if you have a 12 inch Dutch oven and want to cook something at 350 degrees, for example, you would need 25 briquettes.

Briquette Position

Now you know how many briquettes to use to get a certain temperature. The next question is how many briquettes go on the top, and how many go on the bottom? Use this guide:

To Roast
Put ½ of the briquettes on the bottom, ½ on the lid.

To Bake
Put 1/3 on the bottom, 2/3 on the lid.

To Simmer
Put 2/3 on the bottom, 1/3 on the lid.

How to Handle Your Hot Dutch oven Without Hurting Yourself

All of those coals are going to make your Dutch oven very hot. And the food will make it heavy. Here are a few of the Dutch oven accessories that will make your life easier:

Leather gloves: Don’t use synthetic—they will melt!

Lid lifter: This accessory will keep your hands away from the hot coals on the lid.

Quilted handle sleeve: Pot holders aren’t enough (though you should have them). A quilted sleeve will keep you from burning your hands.

Cast iron trivet: This protects your table top from the Dutch oven’s heat.

Fireplace tongs and poker: Use these to move the coals around during cooking.

Iron tripod: Useful if you don’t want to kneel in front of a campfire.

Carry Case: Either woven or wooden. This protects your cast iron during storage. It also protects your clothes and car from the oil on the Dutch oven.

Turkey baster: To remove excess liquid during cooking.

Long handled tongs: These move either food or briquettes while keeping your hands away from hot liquids or flame.

Many of these accessories can make your cooking experience very pleasant. But don’t think you have to buy everything at once. If you can only afford a few items, get a pair of leather of leather gloves, tongs, and a turkey baster. This will get you started. Buy the other items as you can.

Creating great tasting food is easy in your Dutch oven—if you’re prepared. Stock up on the necessary supplies and follow the above tips. You will soon be making meals your family and friends rave about.

Teresa Douglas is an experienced, professional writer and a cooking enthusiast. She enjoys helping others learn to cook by sharing secrets and tips on Dutch oven cooking, and cast iron cookware.

Photo credit: Nic McPhee

Posted by at 1:24 PM | Permalink

Bok choi! Boy, that's fun to say, almost as much fun as guacamole. It's also fun to grow and eat, if you know how. Here's Chef John - who looks remarkably like American actor George Clooney - to show you one simple recipe.

Posted by at 11:23 AM | Permalink