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

Posted by admin to Cabbage, Italy, John Scheepers Inc., Joy, Northern Ireland, Savoy, The, of on 2007-11-07, 21:00:00

For the life of me, I can't figure it out. The produce bins aren't piled high with Savoy cabbage, even though this is the perfect time of year to enjoy it. Granted, it has a more delicate leaf and therefore does not keep or ship as well as hard-head types. But then, neither does lettuce. My friend Pauline, a transplant from Northern Ireland, is peeved by the lack of Savoy cabbage in her adopted home. Her mother would come home and announce grandly, "I've bought us a nice Savoy," as if it were a bag of gold nuggets. "Why can't I buy one here?" Pauline wails.

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

Posted by admin to Bounty, Last, Summer's, The, of on 2007-10-17, 20:00:00

This time of year I'm like the women in Jean-Fran¿ois Millet's painting "The Gleaners," bent over the mown fields in their kerchiefs and long skirts, gathering scraps of leftover grain. It's completely irrational. My garden is still bursting with fresh crops for fall: spinach, kale, leeks and a dozen or so others. Winter squash is just starting to cure in the shed, and I haven't even dug the root crops yet. But somehow the oncoming winter brings out the frugal peasant in me, and I'm gripped with the urge to salvage what is left of summer's bounty.

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

Posted by admin to Eric Plaksin, Make, Own., Rachel Bynum, Virginia, Wary, Your, mulch, of on 2007-10-03, 20:00:00

We live in a world of phobias, but here's a new one: fear of mulch. And there's some basis for it.

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

Posted by admin to An, Element, Italy, Salad, Surprise, United States, Your, for, of on 2007-09-26, 20:00:00

My delight in growing odd edibles has led me down some strange roads, at times wild and exotic, at other times so homely I feel almost foolish to have trod them. This year's experiment with a leafy green named sculpit (also called scuplit or sclopit) was a case of the latter.

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

Posted by admin to 'Little, Big, Defense, Squash', in, of on 2007-08-29, 20:00:00

If growing a giant pumpkin makes a gardener look like a hero, why does growing a giant zucchini make her look like an idiot?

(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 Joy, Tidings, and, compost, of on 2006-11-29, 21:00:00

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . a truckload of well-aged horse manure.

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

Posted by admin to Elusive, Pawpaw, Pursuit, The, in, of on 2006-10-11, 20:00:00

The old children's song makes it sound easy. "Where, oh where, is sweet little Susie? Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch. . . . Pickin' up pawpaws, puttin' 'em in her pocket. "

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

Posted by admin to Pest, Slime, The, Withstanding, of on 2006-06-28, 20:00:00

The slug, in theory, is a friend. It belongs to a class of animals, called detritovores, that feed on the detritus of the living world so that it does not pile up endlessly around us. Vegetation that is decaying, or has at least begun its downward descent from the prime of life, is a slug's food of choice. If only fresh, robust plants abound, it will make do. But as an alert gardener will note after thinning a row of seedlings, the plucked ones left to wilt on the ground attract slugs first, not those left standing.

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

Posted by admin to Bandages, Honor, of on 2006-05-10, 20:00:00

There was an expression back in the Renaissance: To have not experienced serious trouble was to be one on whom "the black ox hath not trod." This painful image makes me appreciate modern gardening techniques. My continued life as a biped no longer depends on the sure-footedness of a one-ton beast just ahead of me in the furrow, or my agility in getting out of its way. The ills I've endured in gardens rarely loom this large. Still, there's a host of them -- insidious little demons that just as surely do me in.