(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to 'Little, A, Beets, Guilt, The, Winter, With on 2007-01-17, 21:00:00

My sister proudly served a dish on Christmas day that she called "Al Gore Quiche." That it contained leeks, broccoli, spinach and flat parsley was not remarkable, but the fact that all of these ingredients came fresh from her Vermont garden was a Christmas miracle. In a normal year her plot would be frozen ground, covered with snow. "I'm also harvesting carrots, kale, beets and Brussels sprouts," she crowed.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Few, Good, Ideas, Seed, Take on 2006-12-13, 21:00:00

It's raining seed catalogues, and the forecast is for the downpour to continue well into January. They arrive in the mail bursting with potential, like seeds themselves. I look forward to a peaceful, post-holiday weekend in which sifting though descriptions of peas, beans and cauliflower seems like the most important thing I could possibly do with my day.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Friend, Frost,, Good, gardeners on 2006-11-22, 21:00:00

This time of year the Earth does the old possum trick of playing dead. Not easily fooled, we know the leafless trees are merely dormant (scratch a twig with your fingernail and you'll see the green layer just beneath) and the daffodil bulbs just biding their time. When snow falls, tracks reveal that multitudes of creatures are still out and about. Snow fleas, a type of hopping insect that feeds on pollen grains scattered on snow and ice, appear as sooty dustings within those footprints.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Blanket, Security, for, plants on 2006-11-15, 21:00:00

Meet the Kleenex of the horticultural world. It's called Reemay. Developed by DuPont in the 1960s, Reemay is a white spunbonded polyester fabric that is spread over plants as protection against cold and pests. Intentionally nonabsorbent (it's also used as the top, or "acquisition," layer in disposable diapers), it is porous and extremely lightweight. As with Kleenex -- or Saran Wrap or Band-Aids -- Reemay succeeded so well as a pioneer product that its name became generic. There are now other brands, such as Agronet and Agribon, but most gardeners call all of them Reemay.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Crop, Homegrown, Shrinking on 2006-09-06, 20:00:00

One of the Web sites I check out regularly, Kitchen Gardeners International ( http://www.kitchengardeners.org ), is the work of an American named Roger Doiron. His stories are always interesting, but his news is not always good. In March, he posted a U.S. Department of Agriculture chart showing the decline of homegrown food from 33.45 percent of total consumed in 1894 to 1.5 percent in 2004. Undiscouraged, Doiron continued to rally his troops. "We know a good thing when we plant one," he cheered.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Battle, Beetles, Picking, With on 2006-08-16, 20:00:00

Nicky and I are both working in the garden, but she's having a better time. Clad in a skirt and a peasant blouse, she gathers armloads of larkspur, zinnias, baby's breath and sunflowers, to make bouquets. I'm in the potato patch nearby, picking Colorado potato beetles off the plants and dropping them into a quart-size yogurt container, half-filled with dish detergent and water.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Aims, Please, Pod, Radish, in, to on 2006-08-09, 20:00:00

It was the perfect light summer supper from the garden. Angel hair pasta sauced with the first of the French shallots and some locally foraged chanterelles, sauteed together in brown butter and a little sage. On top of that went a small handful of radish pods, lightly crisped in olive oil.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to A, Weed, Welcome, summer, to on 2006-05-17, 20:00:00

Its name in Mexico, verdolagas , evokes green lakes. Up north it's purslane, and as sure as the sun will rise to its zenith on June 21, purslane will appear in my garden and spread its verdant mats from shore to shore. This is the quintessential weed of summer, its vigor fed by warm, bright days and the moist, fertile, cultivated soil of beds where other plants have legitimate rights.