So, it some patience and some waiting, but my heirloom tomato ship finally came in. We’ve been enjoying these babies pretty thoroughly the last few weeks. They’re just so gorgeous, they make every meal a little more special - sliced up with some olive oil and sea salt - or chopped into a spinach curry - or gently sauteed and tumbled over pasta.
Every few days when I have a new pileup of them on the counter I slice ‘em up and stick them into the oven (at a really low temp - like 100-200 degrees F). Half a day later, I have my very own oven dried heirloom tomatoes to use all year long!
Yeah, these babies are pretty much as hardcore as food porn gets.
Little known fact about me: I used to hate the zucchini more than any other food on the face of the planet, except for possibly sweet pickles and liver.
I haven’t changed my mind about yum-yums, and beef liver still disgusts me (though I might occasionally snack on pate) but I have completely changed my tune when it comes to zuchini.
I like to call them courgette now though, and I think using that substantially more sophisticated, frenchified word calls to mind the softer, gentler, more indulgent vegetable a tender young zuchini can be. Sauted in butter and garlic? Delicious. Deep fried in tempura batter, dipped into ponzu? Yum.
The trick is to pick them when they’re young (the younger the better) and try out the sweeter yellow varieties instead of the traditional (and often bitter) green. Pattypan squashes are also pretty delightful and mild, and have that awesome spaceship shape.
Right now I have a basket full of the things, grown from my own garden, and I’m trying to decide what to turn them into. We are having a party on Saturday, and I’m thinking I can borrow a friends idea and use little rounds of them as the bases for canapes (in lieu of bread or crackers). Perhaps some courgette bruschetta? Could be pretty delicious.
Other than pondering zuchini, this week I’ve been crafting and watching the new fall shows. My verdict on the new 90210? That main Grimey girl is pretty annoying, but seeing Jessica Walters basically reprise her role as cocktail swilling, smack talking, matriarch of the Bluth clan is pretty worth it. Gossip Girl gets a similar pass for continuing to up the amazing outfits ante, and for giving me my sorely missed weekly dose of Chuck Bass. They both may or may not get watched depending on how I feel from week to week. They’re entertaining, but I’m not married to them or anything.
Now if only somebody would make a sitcom where Alia Shawcat runs a movie studio despite being a teenager (hilarity, of course, ensuing), we wouldn’t even need a Arrested Development movie…
My first little garden harvest has come in, and I’ve found a couple of collections of recipes in the last couple of days that are going to be indispensable for cooking up my fresh and (very) local produce.
They are both by the New York Times’ Mark Bittman who first came to my attention when he proclaimed that the best chefs don’t need a fancy kitchen filled with pricey gadgets to cook great food - a thesis me and Alton Brown can totally get behind (I’ve actually given away bread makers, George Foreman grills and food processors - they just take up too much space).
The first is this handy compilation of 101 quick and easy picnic recipes. Each recipe is about 2 sentences long and they all sound either deliciously unconventional, or at least, painless in their simplicity.
I think I might just start making my way through them - they sound perfect for avoiding actually ‘cooking’ in this heat that’s finally decided to come and stay.
Then there’s the smaller collection of recipes attacthed to this review of a delightful sounding vegetarian restaurant in the south of France. Good, hearty veggie recipes are so hard to find, but these sound incredibly comforting and satisfying.
In particular, the recipe for swiss chard stuffed with risotto is going to get some use, I think, what with my bumper crop of beautiful, neon-tinged bright-lights chard.
One of the best things about moving into an old house, is being pleasantly surprised by what pops up come spring. The downstairs neighbor told me that there were lilies next to the sidewalk leading to the laneway - but that didn’t really prepare me for what started blooming this last couple weeks.
This is some crazy collection of multi-coloured lilies - colours I’ve never seen before like lemon yellow, and crimson red. There are at least ten different varieties of them - many even have beautifully contrasting stamens - and there’s yet more that have yet to bloom (I’m really hoping I don’t miss anything interesting when we go on vacation - but I inevitably will).
You’re probably wondering what my garden looks like right around now.
Pretty good, actually!
That’s my side of the garden on the right there (the other side with the big potato plants are my downstairs neighbors - and I didn’t think to plant potatoes, so I’m pretty jealous).
We’ve been getting a lot of rain, so I haven’t even had to do much work. Just the occasional weeding.
The only veggie I worry about is my heirloom carrots, as they got a little trampled, but even my heirloom tomatoes (which I was worried about, because I started them indoors a little late) seem to be getting big and healthy and growing flowers.
My deckside, container-bound cherry tomatoes are doing even better - they already have tons of fruit on them that should be edible pretty soon.
My little strawberry plants are having a bit of a struggle though. We have raccoon visitors, at night, and one of the plants has been dug up a couple times now. I’m keeping it inside during the night time, but I think some stronger measures might have to be taken for when the tomatoes ripen.
I’m already growing mint, which is supposed to deter raccoons - but it doesn’t seem to be working at all. Next up is tucking rags soaked in ammonia around the place. I don’t want to use cayenne, even though it seems the cheapest, easiest option, because it can irritate the eyes of animals - cats in addition to raccoons, - and my catnip attracts the occasional kitty visitor, so that would be no good.
My pink champagne scented geranium is blooming though, and as you can see here, the blooms are as bubbly a pink as the name implies. Gotta love a double duty plant that smells as good as it looks!
There are even more pictures of growing things on flickr, if you’re interested. Just click through any of the above photos to see more.
Yesterday made up for all the crappy stuff that’s happened in the last couple of weeks (including - but not limited to - the top coat on my coral-coloured, venetian-plaster peeling right of my walls - I WARN YOU ALL EXPLICITLY: NEVER EVER BUY DEBBIE TRAVIS PRODUCTS THEY ARE CRAP).
But then I was in the grocery store and they had ripe tomatoes. That is all it requires for me to be happy. Jewel bright, yielding, soft, fragrant tomatoes fresh from a local hothouse. Not just red ones - no, orange and yellow too. So we celebrated with the adding to dough of cheese and tomatoes: Pizza!
I’m not going even going to bother with a real recipe, because it was too easy to make:
We marinated the sliced tomatoes in flavored oil (garlic and chili) with a generous sprinkling of oregano, basil and salt. Then we spread out (store-bought) pizza dough on a cornmeal covered pizza stone, brushed it with a little more oil, piled on the tomatoes and shredded mozza and baked it at 400 for 20 minutes. Perfection!
After a long Sunday filled with hanging laundry on the line and digging and planting (the garden is officially dug in by the way) we relaxed on our deck and watched the stars begin to twinkle, and the CN tower begin it’s LED rainbow show, accompanied by our little pizza margherita and two cold glasses of limoncello and soda.
Meanwhile, all three kitties gathered by the window and stared at us, jealously. I don’t blame them.
These are some of the things I shall be planting over the next couple weeks (May 9th is the no-frost date around here, and there are no more zero degrees celsius lows on the weather report). I’m worried we won’t have enough space for everything.
There’s been a little cold snap here, so my gardening has been temporarily postponed up until… Well, today actually - and today I have to go get allergy tests, so boo. No gardening yet. Soon though.
For the record there is:
- rainbow swiss chard
- purple basil
- mixed, multi coloured heirloom tomatoes
- golden pear mini-tomatoes
- scarlet red carrots
- sugar snap peas
- spaghetti squash
- yellow courgettes
- icebox watermelon
- poppies
As well as the chocolate mint, yellow strawberries, thyme, oregano, and sage I already have going.
These are my little heirloom tomato sprouts. I am very proud of them. Fingers crossed that they’ll get big and strong in time for Victoria day (also known as official tomato planting day).
Yesterday I made french onion soup using organic onions from the food box and fresh thyme and sage from the garden. It was pretty wonderful.
Well! I’ve finally started on my garden!
That’s right, no more dreams and promises, this thing is becoming a reality!
I’ve got a packet of beautiful mixed heirloom tomatoes started on my south-facing windowsill - although I’m worried that it might be a little late for them, so I’ll probably have to supplement my garden with a store-bought plant or two. There are also about a dozen other little paper envelopes sitting on the shelf patiently awaiting May 9th (that’s the frost date around here, if you don’t know).
I also got started on my little bathroom window box (as seen above). It faces the deck, so it’s easy to get to.
I saved up tomato cans all winter (I use them a lot, so it wasn’t too hard) and then I nailed holes in the bottom (this is very important - plants need drainage) and spray-painted them that pretty colour. Then I put herbs in three (golden oregano, golden sage, and lemon thyme) and miniature black pansies in the two remaining cans.
Altogether it cost me around 10 bucks, and it worked out so well, I dumpster dived some oversized spaghetti sauce cans from a nearby market, and I’m going to turn them into planters too! You have to love a project that’s quick, easy, cheap (free!) and recycles.
I’m glad eating colourful food is pretty much the healthiest way to eat, ’cause man have I got that down.
What you see here are local, organic, red onions (although really, purple is a more accurate description) some cherry-red cherry tomatoes and local, organic, RAINBOW CARROTS (they are green and yellow and orange and oh-so pretty)!!! The carrots and onions came in our Organic food box, just in case you were wondering how that turned out (pretty well, all though we still have a few kinks regarding ordering that we have to work out).
And in case you were wondering about how our garden is growing, it’s growing pretty well. This weekend we took a trip to ikea for some patio furniture and then we had a talk with our downstairs neighbor about how to split up the veggie plot.
Next up I think we need to grab some seeds and start sprouting them.
I see neon coloured swiss chard and sweet little strawberries in my future. I also see some home made rhubarb pies - there is already some pink stalks poking up in one corner of the garden and I am SOOOO excited. We love us some rhubarb around here, and I haven’t had fresh stuff in a really, really long time.
I found this image when surfing around, I believe it is an entry at last years Canada Blooms. I am totally taking it as my inspiration for my garden to be (and am I the only one who is very much reminded of Fred Penner’s Place and his awesome forest garden shed? Am I the only one who remembers Fred Penner?).
I love the juxtaposition of very vibrant saturated colours (the purple birdhouses, the yellow wellies, the electric blue stakes) popped against a rough, rustic, natural background with splashes of verdant and chartreuse gardens.
Although I’m gonna probably rock saturated oranges and pinks, rather than purples and blues because I have a couple big orange berried rowan trees (also known as Mountain ash) to work with. Totally using the “bright lights” swiss chard I want to grow as a colour inspiration.
I have also bought You Grow Girl, and am reading my way through - it’s pretty awesome. It’s got neat crafts, simple instructions, beautiful photography and a youthful/urban/girly attitude that is super easy for a youthful/urban/girl to relate to. The author actually lives down the street somewhere here in Parkdale, so I know all her advice is workable for me here in Toronto’s micro-climate. Perfect!
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