Eats Shoots & Leaves

We've got radish sprouts!

May 20th was our second day of planting. Slowly but surely, we are getting this garden thing going. Along with checking out the progress of the previous week's plantings (just the radishes so far, but at least we know that the heavy rains weren't enough to wash our nice rows out of alignment, and therefore probably didn't carry off any seeds) we also transplanted some Roma and Brandywine tomato seeds into containers.

The rhubarb is in full swing, and as long as we continue pulling off the seed pods as they develop, we will be in rhubarb for quite a long time. The asparagus is also producing nicely.

Not a bad start.

Let The Games Begin

We finally broke ground on this year’s garden on May 13th. It had been freshly tilled, and we spent some time removing rocks and roots from the plot before setting up fences for the peas to climb on and getting some seeds in the ground at last. Although a little late with the peas and radishes, we also planted carrots, kale, and beets.

We were cheered on by some very vocal tree frogs, which we could see high up in the nearby pine trees, chirping to each other. That toad hung out with us for a while, too.

And then it proceeded to torrentially rain the next day, so we’re hoping that didn’t wash away all of our fresh plantings!

At any rate, the asparagus and the rhubarb (which were established in previous years) are going great guns already, YUM. It’s seeming like a strange year so far, weather-wise. It stayed very cold right up through April, and then became alternately mild and hot with very little precipitation, until recently. But, there are tiny little cherries forming behind the fading cherry blossoms already, and I suspect it will be a productive summer.

Still yet to plant: my popcorn and watermelon from Fruition Seeds! They also sent me a free package of sunflower seeds, which, how could a person possibly not love sunflowers? I’m pretty pleased. I’ve covered all my other must-plant items, but there’s still time for popcorn and melons. It’s not even Memorial Day yet, after all, but I am impatient!

Violet Alchemy

Every year around early April, my family's property becomes carpeted in violets for approximately one week, give or take a few days. And every year, this is one of my favorite and most-anticipated weeks of the entire year. Just setting foot into the back yard during "violet week" is enough to knock your nose on its metaphorical ass, in a fantastic way. The scent is captivating. Unfortunately, the violets are very ephemeral, leading me in the past few years to start looking for ways to prolong their amazing presence. On the bright side: they are edible.

Last year, I gathered quite a few violets and candied them, a simple but time-consuming process involving dipping them in hot sugar water (aka "syrup"), coating them with confectioners sugar, removing their stems, and letting them set. This was tasty, but I found that they did not want to dry out all the way and would get soggy the moment I put them into a tupperware for storage even after they'd been sitting out for days. These are the kind of thing that would put a really fancy cake or cupcake over the top of the awesomeness threshold if used as edible decoration, but by themselves they are perhaps too small and I found that they actually dried out my mouth after eating just a couple.

This year I decided to try something different: homemade violet liqueur.

Violet Week 2014 was gross. By gross, I mean that it was 40 degrees and rainy. My intention was to pluck my violets before noon, as I've heard is best to do when using flowers for eating purposes for optimal scent and flavor. I wanted to wait for a clear, calm day to do this, but the day I ended up biting the dreary, frigid bullet on was already a few days into Violet Week, meaning I had no way of knowing how much longer they'd be around. So I took action. Cold, cold action.

I gathered about four cups of violets before my hands became too numb to work, or else I would have liked to gather several quarts. Now, you'll notice that I am gathering them from a fairly wooded area. I realize that wildlife walks around those areas, and while there is no way to guarantee absolutely pure and untouched violets, several factors gave me cause to go ahead anyway. First, the violets had only just opened up two or three days prior, leaving not a huge amount of time for animals to have trod on them after they opened up considering the vast quantities of violets everywhere. Second, it had been raining steadily for days, which meant they had been rinsed to some degree. Third, I would be steeping them in 80-proof vodka shortly, which would kill most if not all microorganisms that happened to be hanging out on any given violet flower. Still, I steered clear of spots where there were visible animal pellets, and I also gave the flowers a rinse myself after collecting them.

Then came the steeping. I tried to research the heck out of this process, but the internet was quite a let down in this case. I couldn't find much information, so I cobbled together pieces of a few different methods people had written about and created a recipe that suited my endeavor.

After stemming all of the violets (a longer process than the actual picking of the violets) I took 2 cups of the four I had gathered and put them into a pint-sized mason jar, to which I then added enough 80-proof vodka to cover the flowers and shook the jar vigorously every so often. One recipe I had found recommended against steeping them for too long or else the end product would taste less floral and more "vegetal," so with that in mind I strained this first round of violets after six hours. I repeated this procedure with the other 2 cups of violets (using the same vodka, of course) except I decided that it was not worth it for me to get out of bed at 1 in the morning to strain the violets, so I let it go for 12 hours instead of 6 (and it turned out just fine, no "vegetal" weirdness to speak of).

So now I had violet-infused vodka. It was a lovely deep purple color at first, but it turned brownish after a few weeks, which didn't disturb me because it still tastes fine, and also that seems like a pretty natural thing that happens to fruit and vegetables when they are cut up or masticated and exposed to oxygen. It's just oxidation. Actually, it makes me wonder what kind of coloring they must add to commercial violet liqueurs to make them be a uniform and consistent shade of purple. Bleh, food additives.

I have since added approximately 1/4 cup of homemade simple syrup to my violet vodka. It still doesn't really resemble a liqueur, and I think I need to do more research on what makes liqueur liqueur. But it does make a great mixer, especially with citrus flavors which beautifully balance it's intense sweetness. It also smells like Violet Week. :)

OG Life (Organically Grown, that is)

This past Tuesday, my three-person familial gardening contingent began preparations for this year’s Food Garden Of Awesomeness. It was a quiet, unfortunately dreary morning, so most of our efforts happened under roofs or indoors. We did manage to dig some wild ramps, which grow in abundance in the wooded space beyond the yard to the west of the house. Ramps are a type of wild onion, similar to leeks, and I can’t for the life of me tell them apart from young lilies and other similar-looking plants yet, so thank goodness for my aunt who can spot them with ease. Ramps grow in many parts of the eastern and middle United States and also in Canada. We were careful not to pull up too many. It is important to leave some in the ground to ensure that they will continue to grow.

There was a constant, very fine, penetrating rain, and the temperature was unsure whether it wanted to be warmish or chilly. We started the day by transplanting some recently-started tomato and marigold seedlings into larger containers, which we made out of newspaper by simply rolling it around a drinking glass and using a small amount of masking tape to hold them together. These can be directly stuck into the ground, as they will degrade and decompose easily.

Damp, grey days like this seem to feed a restless sort of inspiration in me, so the rest of the morning was easily spent putting pen to paper & drawing up plans for where we will be putting things when we reach the point of planting, and poring over books about gardening, canning, and the like.

Things that I am most excited to grow this year (all of the seeds I have purchased this year are marked "OG" which stands for "organically grown"):

• Popcorn - I have never grown popcorn before, but I have bought it from the farmer’s market. I’m always hearing how terrible microwave popcorn is for you, and frankly making it from scratch is way more fun. I grew up using an electric popcorn popper and topping it with melted butter, salt or garlic salt, and sometimes nutritional yeast (surprisingly tasty, kind of similar to parmesan cheese in taste). Plus, popcorn on the cob is pretty.

• Brandywine Tomatoes - These are the absolute most delicious tomato I have ever tasted. I am not a plain-tomato eater, I prefer them sliced and diced and thrown in with other ingredients, but this is a tomato I will devour straight up. Just straight into my face. They are super sweet and juicy, and I recommend that you eat one sometime. The seeds I bought for this year’s crop are an heirloom variety.

• Watermelon - I have procured a pack of Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds from Fruition Seeds, a recent addition to the local food & farming scene. Founded in 2012 and based in Naples, NY, they are now beginning to offer organic, regionally-adapted seeds. I am very excited to give them a shot! In the past, we have had difficulty growing melons, but I’m going to do my homework thoroughly this year and see if I can’t coax some melons out of the ground. Fruition's Kickstarter campaign was successful as of July, 2013 and their video for it is worth a watch.

• Jalapeños - I need something to grow at my own apartment, and I have a very sunny porch which will be perfect for jalapeño peppers and Roma tomatoes. I am getting my seedlings and containers prepped & ready as we speak, although the dog destroyed my jalapeño seedlings last week, so I will have to start those over... But once I have some peppers grown, maybe I’ll try pickling them.

• Beets - They are a new infatuation of mine. I used to dislike beets, but my tastes have changed dramatically over the past few years and I now enjoy many foods that I never did when I was younger. Beets are at the top of that list. I love that you can roast the root and sauté up their greens as well, and like many other highly pigmented vegetables they are chock full of nutrients to boot including manganese, folate, and phytochemicals which are purportedly good for liver and heart health.

I could go on. I’m also very pumped about radishes, kale, asparagus, mustard greens, raspberries, potatoes, spinach, bell peppers, and rhubarb. Among other things. Name your favorite veggie, ‘cause we will probably be growing it!