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State of the Garden 

ByElizabeth

How blessed I feel to be able to come home at the end of October to some bounty and to be able to eat it straight from the plant without worry.

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    This Evening on the Catio

    ByElizabeth

    The snow pea shoots were
    Especially exquisite.
    And the kale flowers.

    Hydroponic tomato from one of the farmers at the Penn Quarter Thursday market and organic avocado, tossed in tahini and then sprinkled with fine balsamic vinager, supplement sprouts grown on the counter and an assortment of tender garden greens.

    Cool infusion of peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, and licorice mint.

    The season has turned.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    One Person’s Weeds

    ByElizabeth

    Last year, some romaine lettuce must have bolted.  I have baby romaine lettuce coming up everywhere.  Having reverted to the wild, it is quite bitter.  It is also taking up a fair amount of space, so to be able to plant more appealing things (new herbs and greens) I will be pulling it up.  It has become, in essence, a weed.  Later in the year, I’ll also have a surfeit of volunteer epazote and purslane, which many would pull as weeds.  Those, I actively encourage, eating young the ones that come up over and over again through the bricks and confining in containers a few others to grow larger and to reseed.

    Even though it is too bitter to be palatable raw, the now “weed” romaine tastes fine cooked as a tender green.  So it does not get discarded.  I just won’t make myself eat it in its bitter form as the salad green that it is “supposed” to be.  Instead, since it is nourishing and tasty as a cooked green, it is a welcome early addition to the garden.

    Just I have challenges and tribulations from whatever is my overall plan for the garden, I have my share of aches, pains, challenges, and disappointments, in life and in my yoga practice.  The question is how to discriminate (viveka) among those that are poisonous, those that are bitter, and those that can be made nourishing and sweet, through the cooking of understanding, practice, and effort.

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    Ways to Eat Day Old Bread (Is that “fresh” food?)

    ByElizabeth

    Ayurveda says one should only eat “fresh” food.  What does that mean?  How does that translate into having delicious food making the best use of every bit of it without waste and without having all of our time being devoted to creating it (from start to finish).  Is making a fresh dish from a food item from yesterday’s meal “stale” food?  I don’t think so, but then, I am not an ayurvedic practitioner.  I am fairly certain it is less “stale” than “fast” or packaged food.  And I am too much the New York grandchild of peasant immigrants to forego making the most optimal and complete use of all the food that enters my kitchen.  Also, the simple efficiency of leftovers are too important a component of having the most personally and lovingly prepared food I can with my life style.

    Here are some of my favorite ways to eat bread the day after it was a fresh accompaniment to a salad, sandwich, or larger, festive meal.  (Obviously, this is not for all of those who cannot or do not like to eat bread, which I think of as indeed the staff of life.)   Here are some of my favorites, not in any particular order:

    Crostini/Bruschetta (topped with tapenade, salsa, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, etc.)

    Bread salad (with the best of the summer tomatoes and fresh basil)

    Croutons (for salad or soup, my favorite is rubbed with a little garlic)

    Red pepper spread with pomegranate molasses and walnuts (bread is the thickener)

    Skordalia (also can be made with potatoes or a mix of bread and potatoes)

    Stuffing for squash

    Bread crumbs for a whole variety of things

    Savory bread pudding

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    State of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    Today I harvested herbs to dry (lemon balm, mint, rosemary, thyme, sage). I froze a pint of garlic chive blossoms, made a green jerk sauce, a basil-garlic chive pesto–most went into the freezer, the rest I will eat in the next week or so. I started a mint liqueur and today’s bean harvest, yielded a pint of fresh beans that I put into the freezer. And I started stringing chili peppers to dry. I found it soothing and meditative.

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