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

Posted by admin to A, Activity, Berry, Good, Kids, for on 2007-10-24, 20:00:00

An emerging tribe of hunter-gatherers colonized our farm this week. Look out the window and you'll see them creeping down the rows of crops, nibbling as they go, or reaching into low tree branches for apples. They are the grandchildren, and they know, with a primitive wisdom, how food should best be eaten. Send a grown-up out to pick raspberries for supper and he'll come back promptly with a quart. Send a young child forth with an empty yogurt container hanging from her neck by a string and she'll come back with a berry mustache, the container as empty as before.

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

Posted by admin to A, Broccoli, Charlotte, Girl, Hoping, Named, North America, United States, for on 2007-10-10, 20:00:00

A friend just gave birth to a baby named Violet, much to the delight of all. A floral name conveys instant charm on a little girl, which is why the world is full of Heathers, Lilies and Roses. We have all encountered Daphnes, Jasmines, Irises, Daisies and Laurels. There are even Primroses, Poppies and Posies. But you're unlikely to meet a little Cauliflower, Parsnip or Potato.

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

Posted by admin to A, Bee:, Busy, Caution, Sharing, Space,, With, as on 2007-08-15, 20:00:00

Gardening can be a solitary activity, and pleasantly so. But on a recent sunny day, harvesting lavender, I found myself in the middle of a bustling marketplace. The blossoms were surrounded by butterflies, especially painted ladies with gaudy, multicolored spots under their wings. Small grasshoppers perched here and there, as did tiny green inchworms. A ladybug or two came by, foraging for aphids.

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

Posted by admin to A, Bean, Praise, Well-Behaved, in, of on 2007-08-01, 20:00:00

If pole beans are allowed to get into trouble, they will. Early on, they are like a good baby that sleeps through the night. You poke the conveniently fat seeds into the ground, then let the warmth and easy moisture of late spring nudge forth the young shoots -- big healthy-looking things grouped in tidy circles at the base of their poles or lined up in long rows.

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

Posted by admin to A, Adds, Blues, Borage, Colorful, Cure, Indoors, Out,, The, for, or on 2007-05-30, 20:00:00

One of spring's little sensory thrills is working the herb garden and discovering plants that have self-sown the year before. As you clear away weeds, debris and dead leaves, the seedlings of cilantro, dill and chamomile announce themselves to the nose even before they catch the eye. Borage arrives with much less charm: Its greeting is a prickling sensation on your winter-softened hands. All parts of the plant are covered with fine white hairs, just sharp enough to irritate, that may even produce a slight rash on skin that is especially sensitive.

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

Posted by admin to A, Cook's, garden on 2007-05-09, 20:00:00

Some years you think you'll never get the garden in on time and, sure enough, you don't. Too late to plant peas, then too late for lettuce, and finally too late even for squash. Even if you accept with grace the compromises of a busy life, there's bare ground to deal with, and weeds are poised to do their job. Cover the beds with sheets of black plastic? Yuck.

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

Posted by admin to A, Carve, Cold-Sensitive, Cozy, Niche, Out,, for, plants on 2007-05-02, 20:00:00

After an April marked by high drama (airports paralyzed by storms, peaches frozen on the trees), spring planting requires an extra shot of courage. Even if you've hardened off cold-sensitive transplants such as tomatoes and cucumbers by setting flats outside on sunny days, it's an act of faith to finally put them in the ground. Has the weather "settled," as it must for tender crops? Will it ever?

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

Posted by admin to A, Side, Stalk, The, Wild, on on 2007-03-28, 20:00:00

Cherry bombs, the exploding kind, must have been named after cherry tomatoes, the edible kind, which burst in your mouth with a charge of candy-sweet juices. Pop one in and another must follow, whether you're raiding the shopping bag in your car or gorging your way down a garden row. The outdoor route is pure luxury, when the little orbs are warmed by the sun, their vitamin C at magnum force.

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

Posted by admin to 'Net, A, Planning, Plot, Without on 2007-03-07, 21:00:00

Country people used to look to the sky for gardening advice, and some still do, taking cues from the phases of the moon, the positions of the constellations, the angle of the sun, the shape of the clouds. More typically now, a tiny, slow-moving dot of light beams an endless stream of fact and fiction to the satellite dishes in their yards, and thence to their PCs and Macs. Tidbits of plant lore appear with a click of the mouse. The right time to sow chervil root? Click! A source of Italian peppers? Click!

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

Posted by admin to A, Corn, Redeemed, Reputation, Smut: on 2007-02-14, 21:00:00

Here's the word: Silver Queen, that old favorite sweet corn variety, has a reputation for smut. Not the lurid kind. The kind that erupts from an ear of corn in a large, bulbous mass. It is a parasitic fungus that affects other parts of the plant as well, and most anyone who grows corn has made its acquaintance.