What's Growin' On Archives - Page 111 of 136

Romantic Notions of Roasted Vegetables

In my early years of cooking, I found that my attempts at roasting vegetables ended with deflated, soggy lumps that once resembled fresh veggies. Perhaps that is why I still hold romantic notions about serving amazingly caramelized, oven-roasted, Mediterranean fare cooked to perfection at elegant parties.

Well, it may not have been an elegant party - just a thrown-together dinner for two based on this romantic notion - but success was finally achieved in the roasted vegetable department.

First, the old stand-by - baked/roasted home grown potatoes: ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:March 23, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Keeping Cucurbits “Cloche” By

Maybe I'm a little anxious. Maybe I'm just ahead of the game. Really, though, I think I'm just excited about the coming of spring to the point that I can't hold it in any longer. See, I planted squash and cucumbers - I KNOW, I know... it's early... I can't help it. It may still be blustery and chilly out there, but I've got a plan to make everything alright:

Cloches - home made cloches - will keep my cucurbits happy until the weather warms up.

...

Post author:Christy
Post published:March 9, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments

Dream Center Garden Progress

In September 2009, I started working on a project for the Dream Center in downtown Los Angeles. It's been a long road, gathering grant money and donated supplies, but the Dream Garden is shaping up to be a fine reality for the residents of the Dream Center.

Today a team of about 15 people planted the first batch of transplants into the garden. The excitement was palpable as we placed plants in each bed, according to a diagram I made ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:March 8, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:5 Comments

Phytoremediation Update – Sad News

I'm supposed to be a garden guru with a bountiful garden year-round, right? When crops fail or disease sets in, my husband is thoughtful enough to remind me that a true gardener's approach to gardening is experimentation, and more specifically trial and error. So in the spirit of true gardening, I present my latest error.

You may remember that I spent the winter growing milk thistle and chicory in my community garden plot to remove some excess zinc from the soil. Included in the results from the initial soil ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:March 3, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Cabbage Moths – Pretty but Dastardly

They're coming. In fact, they're already here. The seemingly beautiful white butterflies that hover delicately over your kale plants might appear to be innocent, but in reality they can wreak havoc on your brassicas if left unchecked.

They'll flutter around looking for a nice place to land, then disappear underneath the leaves of your treasured broccoli and cabbages. When they emerge, they will have laid dozens of eggs on the underside of the leaves that are so tiny they are almost invisible to the human eye. Almost, but not to the trained ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:March 2, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:10 Comments

Winter’s Bounty 2011

As the winter growing season is winding down, we've already planted some spring crops, and planned out the summer crops. There's still one important thing to do, however, before we move on to spring: appreciate winter's bounty.

Even though we can see what's growing above ground, there's an element of surprise when harvesting root crops like carrots, parsnips and potatoes (okay - it's a tuber, not a root crop). Students always ask me how they will know when to pick their root vegetables. I tell them to run their index finger around the ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:February 24, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:3 Comments

How’s that Broccoli Coming Along?

Experimentation yields results - just not always the results we expect. Such is the case with our trail planting of the Italian broccoli, Cavolo Broccolo a Getti di Napoli. The picture on the seed packet indicates that this sprouting broccoli is harvested mainly for it's leaves, but those leaves (and the shoots of sprouting broccoli) are reported to be slender and spear-like.

Well... not so much.

While it's true that this is a ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:February 23, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments

Not a Shred of Evidence

NERD ALERT! This one is for you. You know who you are.

Question: How do you solve domestic disputes between husbands and wives who have differing opinions about how composting should be done?

Answer: You get a chipper/shredder and then everyone is happy.

The Problem: You see, I sit squarely on the side of the fence that prefers to chop up all the green and brown bits into small pieces before it goes into the compost bin - because it breaks down faster, and ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:February 17, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:5 Comments

Oh Rats!

It started as an agreement for peaceful co-habitation. Then it ate half of my Christmas Lima Beans right through the young green pods. Then it pulled out all of my pea sprouts, nibbled on the ends, and left them for dead.

That's when we declared war on the rat.

Note the dark lines outlining the eaten area. Now dry, this bean pod was eaten through while green,
leaving the pod empty and the beans devoured.

Prior to this ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:February 16, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:5 Comments

Lima Bean, Barley and Vegetable Soup

With all the talk of winter storms and canceled flights, it's clear that comfort food is in order. As a blanket apology from Southern California and our lovely weather, I offer this warming recipe to those in icy places across the country.

It starts with baby lima beans, but we used Christmas Lima Beans that we grew this past summer:

It also calls for pearl barley, but we didn't have any on hand, so we used brown rice, since they cook in ...

Post author:Christy
Post published:February 3, 2011
Post category:What's Growin' On
Post comments:4 Comments