KGI Newsletter: May 2006

Contents:

Gardening:

Cooking, recipes, and self-reliance:

-Warm rhubarb crumble

-Asparagus Salad With Soy-Mustard Dressing

-Fresh green pea salad in sesame dressing

-James Beard Cookbook Award Winners

Food system news and commentary:

-Disecting dinner

Garden wisdom:

-Wendell Berry on the importance of gardeners

From KGI's bloggers:

KGI News:

-Place yourself on the map

-call for volunteers

-Tuscany in 2007?

Recent Comments:

Calling All Shutterbugs

We've set up a KGI photosharing group at Flickr.  If you have digital pictures of yourself, your garden, your dinner or that pesky rodent in your garden who's eating your dinner instead of you, we'd like to see them. 

Flickr's a free service and offers another way of connecting with each other.

Link Up!

Got a website or a blog? Please consider adding a link or a logo below.

Mangia Mangia!!!

KGI is in the beginning stages of planning a group trip to Tuscany, Italy in the summer of 2007.  We have made contact with a nonprofit group that manages a beautiful Tuscan estate consisting of a fully restored medieval castle surrounded by well-tended vegetable and flower gardens, olive groves, vineyards, pastures and orchards.  The Italian nonprofit group rents out rooms in the castle and would help organize a hands-on Italian cooking and gardening educational program for KGI. 

We estimate that costs would be approximately $2000 for room and full board for 9-10 days not including international airfare and side-trips. 

We are not yet taking reservations, but rather are putting together a mailing list of people who'd like to know more.  If it seems clear that we could rally a large enough group, we will take the next steps with the Italian organizers.

Yes, I am interested to know more. Please add my name to your mailing list for this activity.

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Ahh, rhubarb.  She and I are once again back on good terms  It was only a few weeks ago that I had all but given up on the plant, chalking the relationship up as yet another case of unrequited garden love.  I loved her, but she didn't love back, or so I thought.

This story started over a year  ago when my gardening friend Frank gave me a couple small but healthy looking plants which I deftly managed to kill within two weeks of receiving them.  I shuddered at the thought of the story hitting the press and what it might do to my reputation.

ORGANIC GARDENING EXPERT ACCUSED OF KILLING RHUBARB PLANTS

(Associated Press) -   Two rhubarb plants were found dead in the yard of Roger Doiron, a local gardening expert and garden writer.  Police are now trying to piece together the events leading up to the deaths.  "It's very strange to say the least and unprecedented in my experience," said cooperative extension agent Jim Miller commenting on the case.  "Rhubarb, you see, is pretty much a weed.  It requires almost no attention and is not generally susceptible to pests and disease.  Small children are capable of growing rhubarb.  You really have to wonder what he (Doiron) did to those poor plants."

As with Mark Twain, rumors of my rhubarb's death were fortunately greatly exaggerated.  The parts that I could see  - leaves and stalks - clearly did die last year.  What I couldn't see or kill were the sleepy crowns which woke up about three weeks ago, tan, rested, and ready to make rhubarb again.  Now, I suspect I couldn't stop them if I tried. 

So what are the lessons of this little story?  It may sound trite, but in gardening love as in love love, patience is a virtue and old flames - once thought long extinguished - can flicker anew. 

Hoping there's a bit of love and rhubarb in your life this spring,

                                                                                                                               Add your comments

Put yourself on the map!

A number of people have expressed an interest in connecting with other kitchen gardeners, near and far.  We've discovered an ingenious way of doing this through a website called Frappr whereby people can place themselves on an interactive map by entering their name (first name is fine), their e-mail address and their location.  Once on the map, you can connect with others on the map one on one or in a group discussion forum.  User preferences allow you to decide what type of contact, if any, you want to have with others.  Give it a try by clicking on "add yourself" below.