Growing Thoughts

Having Trouble returning this to the library

2010-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

Planthropology – Ken Druse, garden writer (Making More Plants)and lecturer presents a new book about plant mysteries, secrets and curiosities with beautiful photos of plant parts. He reveals the geometric equations in flower buds, arcing patterns in pinecones, repeating leaf arrangements in nearly all plants, and the mathematics of patterns in architecture and plant life as well as other cosmological designs. If you like to ponder leaf bracts and stare at bark patterns, (as I do) this is the book for you. Of course, knowing the right name for plants helps you understand their lineage and begin to get their story. The pursuit of the story, begun with the name, followed by the study of growth habits caused him to coin the blended scientific term, planthropology. Also offered is a summary of the major plant explorers like Douglas(as in Xmas tree) and Banks. This is a book I want to have around. The photos are awesome!

2010-01-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

Fascinating books for the gardener in you---
The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart--Think you know all you want to know about earthworms?Okay, so did you know that too many of the wrong type of earthworms can damage a forest? Or that hermaphroditic as they are, they enjoy sexual practices that are quite amazing involving length judgments and worm hair link-ups. Darwin studied them at the end of his life but revealed fascinating tidbits about their beneficial qualities calling them soil engineers. Organic farmers love them and practice the no-till method of gardening to disturb them the least.

On a related note the Center For Urban Horticulture here in Seattle (CUH) offers the recipe for a great worm bin. They will hook you up with red wigglers and you have entered the world of creating your owl fabulous compost from your food scraps.

2010-01-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday felt like a bit o' spring- went to a kick off garden meeting with some very enthusiastic and organized community gardeners and it got me thinking about getting back into the dirt... But, alas, we just toured around the briefly sunlit garden space, mourning the liquified stems and frost brown leaves while noting some nubs and corms emerging from the mush.

Nothing to do but wait a bit until winter loosens its grip. In the meantime, here is a a recipe for an early spring vegetable that is starting to come down in price. Enjoy!

From Orangette.com

....not as great a something, though, as the roasted asparagus with walnut crema that I made for dinner a few hours later. The oven and I were on a roll.

I found the recipe in A16: Food + Wine, by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren, executive chef and wine director, respectively, of the restaurant A16. I’ve wanted to go to A16 for a long time now, but somehow, whenever I’m in San Francisco, I wind up so distracted by every option on every street corner that I completely forget what I went there for. I think sensory overstimulation is a requirement for any proper visit to the Bay Area, so I don’t fight it too hard, though it means, sadly, that I have never been to A16. Luckily, the book makes a happy stopgap. It’s visually stunning - clean but warm, with lots of luminous photographs on sturdy matte paper - and the recipes walk a fine, perfect line between simple and complex, rustic food and restaurant food. It’s the kind of cookbook I feel inclined to keep on the nightstand, so that I can read it in bed. Just this past weekend, it won Book of the Year in the 2009 IACP Cookbook Awards, so if you need a really firm, serious endorsement, there you go. It also contains the most inspired asparagus recipe I’ve run across in ages, which is why I’m rattling on and on like this.

It was 70 degrees in Seattle yesterday, unreal for April 6, and I decided to mark the occasion by driving with the windows down and buying some asparagus. The A16 book was lying on the coffee table in the living room, and at some point in the afternoon, I picked it up to put it somewhere else, and when I did, it fell open to page 102, the recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Walnut Crema and Pecorino Tartufo. I took it as a sign. From Narnia.

The recipe title sounds fancy, and the finished dish tastes fancy, too, but in essence, it’s very straightforward. First, you make the walnut crema. You bring some water to a boil, toss in some walnuts, and cook them until they’re tender to the tooth. While this is going on, you sweat some red onion in a skillet. Then you dump both items into the food processor with some of the walnut-blanching water, blend it all up, and then pour in olive oil while you blend it some more. The resulting mixture, now worthy of the handsome word crema, looks a little like hummus, but it tastes somehow more like a distant cousin of pesto: fragrant, rich, and deeply savory. You spoon it onto a platter, top it with roasted asparagus, shave some ribbons of pecorino over the whole thing, and splash it with olive oil. The pecorino melts against the hot asparagus, and it’s salty and tangy, and the walnut crema sort of slithers beneath it all, subtle but beguiling. We scraped our plates, and then we had it again for lunch today.

Roasted Asparagus with Walnut Crema and Pecorino
Adapted from A16: Food + Wine

The original version of this recipe calls for Pecorino Tartufo, a sheep’s milk cheese with black truffle, but barring that, any aged pecorino works nicely. I used Pecorino Romano. The original recipe also calls for finishing the dish with some toasted walnuts, but I skipped that part. The walnut crema carried plenty of nut flavor for me, and I thought that anything more was overkill. Maybe I’m weird. Either way, I finished mine with a squeeze of lemon, and it was a nice counterbalance to the richness of the crema.

This recipe is intended to serve six, and even if you don’t need to feed that many, I would go ahead and make the full amount of crema. It will keep in the fridge for a few days, and you can roast the asparagus as needed. (One bunch is perfect for two people.) Also, Brandon has a hunch that leftover crema would make a terrific sauce for pasta, tossed with fresh garlic, lemon, and a little Italian parsley.

For walnut crema:
Kosher salt
1 ½ cups raw walnuts
½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, diced (about 1 cup)

For asparagus:
3 bunches fat asparagus (about 30 spears, total)
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
1 block Pecorino Romano or Pecorino Tartufo
Lemon wedges, optional

To make the walnut crema, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the walnuts, and blanch for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender in the middle. (I pulled mine out after 8 minutes, thinking that they seemed tender enough, but I should have left them for the full 10 minutes. My finished crema was slightly grainy, probably meaning that my walnuts weren’t soft enough.) Drain the walnuts, reserving ¼ cup of the cooking water. Set aside separately.

In a small skillet, warm 1 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and a generous pinch of salt, and sweat for about 7 minutes, or until golden brown and softened. Remove from the heat.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the walnuts, the reserved cooking water, and the onion, and process until creamy. Taste for seasoning: it will probably need a decent amount of salt. With the motor running, slowly add ½ cup olive oil, processing until blended. The crema should have the consistency of a creamy hummus. If it seems too thick, add a little water. Taste again for seasoning, and then transfer to a bowl or other container. Cover, and hold at room temperature. (Crema can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for a few days. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil.

Snap the tough ends from the asparagus spears. Rinse them, and then dry them well. Spread them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheets. Drizzle them lightly with olive oil, and roll them around, smearing the oil with your hands, to coat evenly. Season with kosher salt. Bake for about 8 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice, until blistered, slightly charred, and tender.

To serve, spoon the crema evenly across the bottom of a platter. Arrange the asparagus spears on top. Working quickly, while the asparagus is still hot, shave Pecorino generously over the platter. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, and serve immediately, with a squeeze of lemon, if you like.

Yield: 6 (first-course) servings

Fabulous New Plant Artist

2009-12-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for the special occasion indoor plant arrangement whether for the table or for a gift please check out the new, as in (hasn't let success jack up her prices) plant artist:

sarahwallerflowers.blogspot.com

sorry, local to seattle area only right now

Plantgirl's Porch is my business that offers design for your pots, porches, and other particular areas in your little piece of the planet. Send me a message and I will email you.
plantgirlchd@comcast.net

good tips for veggie gardeners

2009-12-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Get the most from your veggie beds:

Soil Cleaners & Builders

These store the nitrogen from the air and then they release it into the soil. Examples of cleaners include things like potatoes and corn and peas and beans are great soil builders.

Therefore, if you follow a pattern of planting leafy vegetables the first season then follow successive seasons with fruits, then root plants the season after and then finally your soil builders and cleaners, you’re establishing a good crop rotation system which not only deters weed growth but keeps disease at bay as the different families of plants are more prone to different diseases.

Therefore, by rotation, you’re reducing a disease’s potential for incubation which could then take hold if you are planting crops from the same family year upon year. This is also true for pests and insects. If they know exactly where their preferred food is located, it will be a natural instinct to head for that area each year so by rotating the types of crops you plant each season, this only adds to their confusion so they are less likely to cause devastation to a particular crop.

By adopting a garden crop rotation policy, you’ll find that the yield from the crops you plant will be greater and of better quality and that your soil will healthier in which means each group can thrive.

http://www.safegardening.co.uk

Can't Wait Until Spring!

2009-12-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun project to plan for the spring-- a white textural and fragrance garden as inspired by the British gardener Vita Sackville West and shown in her garden at Sissinghurst.

This garden is lovely through the seasons, but it was was designed to be at its best in early July and especially in the evenings or when illuminated by a full moon, since this garden was always used as an outdoor dining room. In one corner there is a dining table shaded by a rose arbor supported by broken columns (dubbed the "Erectheum"), where the family would eat whenever the weather allowed.

Vita wrote a description of her plantings in the White Garden in her a regular gardening column in the Observer for July 5, 1955: “There is a white underplanting of various artemisias, including the old aromatic Southernwood; the silvery Cineraria maritima, the grey santolina or Cotton Lavender; and the creeping Achillea ageratifolia. Dozens of the white Regale lily (grown from seed) come up through these. There are white delphiniums of the Pacific strain; white eremurus; white foxgloves in a shady place on the north side of a wall; the foam of gypsophila; the white shrubby Hydrangea grandiflora; white cistus; white tree peonies; buddlia nivea; white campanulas and the white form of Platycodon mariesii, the Chinese bellflower. There is a group of giant Arabian thistle, pure silver, 8 feet high. Two little sea buckthorns, the grey willow-leaved Pyrus salicifolia sheltered the grey leaden statue of a Vestal Virgin. Down the central path goes an avenue of white climbing roses, trailing up old almond trees. Later on there will be white Japanese anemones and some white dahlias....” These plantings have remained essentially unchanged, although the gardeners have introduced a few new plants.

There is little ornamentation in this garden, with only the statue under a weeping pear and a large gray Chinese jar, purchased by Harold in Egypt. The wrought iron arbor over the jar in the center of the intersection of the main paths replaced almond trees that eventually died and were removed in 1970. The most vigorous of the climbing roses (Rosa mulliganii) that had rambled through the trees was left to be trained over, but not completely obscure, the arches of the arbor.

To read more check www.SissinghurstCastleGarden.com

Exit from the Garden of Eden

2009-11-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

Smith and Hawken, garden store extraordinaire and my employer for the past ten years, is exiting from the scene in all of its 56 stores across the U.S. Small potatoes, you might say. But there are tragic aspects of this tale, a death of a simple relationship between seller and buyer where life counsel is dispensed along with home solutions that make Every Garden Count(an S&H advertising slogan).

Let us define garden as a home space that involves living things in a crafted environment. Products that solve issues like storage, privacy, beauty and function in one's personal individualized space. The store began in the sixties as an importer of quality garden tools and evolved into a broader footprint that included heritage garden items such as pottery, statuary as well as heirloom garden furniture in patented designs. Thirty years and fifty six stores later, the catalog and internet business in full swing, the chain landed in its fourth owner's hands, a chemical company who freely promotes the use of poisonsonous chemicals in a happy, harmless, irresponsible manner by using words like Miracle to brighten their insidious message that nature needs these synthetics to make the good things happen in your garden. A company at odds with the message of S&H and admittedly bought to soften the reputation of the parent.
Well, S&H took many chances and needed to be reigned in during recessionary times. Real estate ventures into extra jumbo stores in strip malls, bizarre product additions with new competitors like heaters, barbeques, mortared fireplaces and outdoor televisions were just plain wrongheadedly complex. No effort to scale make or redesign were made however, and many of us lost a great place to shop and work.

As we close out our days, we at smith and hawken are constantly trying to soothe our bothered customers about this liquidation. At least a dozen times a days since July we hear "I am so angry about this. " I am so sad about this." And still very often do we hear oh I didn't know. It has made me wonder why the media has seen fit not to cover this story. When approaching NPR I was told- there are too many stories like this right now. There was a small mention in our local Seattle papers, (there are two stores in this area,) and if you google the events you get no more than the article in the Marin county paper or the reuters coverage of July 9. No one has touched on the tragic elements of this demise.

To many people, S&H represented a return to the land arising from the flower children of the sixties. It was a soothing, sunny image even though most of us could afford little of the merchandise, most of us could save up for some. It was a feel good place to wander, to bring family, to learn about plants, chat, get design ideas. And as we grew older and faced new challenges it was a return to past values. It was one of the few stores that still felt like a country store with odds and ends, some risky and strange merchandise like antique thumb pots for watering seeds or wooden bird call horns with authentic sound. The staff offered friendliness, concern , advice, orientation and most of all, especially to regulars, slow relationships. Just as you built a relationship with the staff, so did you get accustomed to the product line learning what garden structure offered you, and how to use a water feature or raised bed. I feel this more and more as I say goodbye to the many relationships that I have formed while at work here.

Some quotes from past Mission Statements:
" S&H believes that gardening is a life enhancing activity...we try to be a positive presence in our community and wish to offer goods distinguished by authenticity and integrity and believe these ideals will lead us to grow profitably. The personality of our brand DNA is to be both traditional and innovative, functional and unique."

So as we slip away into oblivion I wanted to take just this moment to ponder the loss.

Awesome Gardening Blog

2009-10-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome gardening blog: http://www.digginfood.com/
DigginFood is a vegetable garden and food blog by Willi Galloway that serves up organic gardening tips, recipes, backyard chickens and coop information. One of my favorites!