We've been snacking on peas in the garden. Sometimes we just run outside simply to pick a few and eat them raw. They are of course, best this way. The 'Sugar Annes' are very sweet, and meant to be eaten in their entirety- shells and all. Last night we had some carmelized shallots with pasta and pea shoots. With some raw peas on the side. Peonies and pea shoots for the vase.
Wait, wait, wait for spring in the Midwest and then blink it is gone. So this is a way for me to remember. The peonies have been blooming for two weeks and though the most recent thunderstorm has sent them bowing to the ground there are many still to cut.
I ran to the garden to pick a quick arrangement for the table. This is what's in bloom this week. This moment. Peonies, of course. 'May Night' Salvia, 'Huskers Red' beard tongue, alliums, and 'Walker's Low' Nepeta.
I made May wine last year for the first time. It's a lovely spring drink to serves guests. You need to open and use a whole bottle of wine (or more). It just makes sense to share it with friends. Here's how I made it.
I picked some sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) flowers and leaves. (Of course, it goes without saying that I don't use pesticides, so no worries on using the home grown herbs.) I dried a bunch of leaves in the microwave. The flavors intensify when you use dried leaves.
I poured a bottle of Riesling wine in a container. It just made sense to use a German wine since this recipe is of German origin. Any white wine you love will do. I added the dried sweet woodruff leaves, covered the container and chilled it for a few hours.
I then strained the wine into glasses. Garnished with strawberries, fresh sweet woodruff leaves with sweet woodruff flowers and bright purple-blue borage flowers.
I must say I am thrilled about the new kitchen garden that we are getting. The one on the South Lawn of the White House. Michelle, I applaud you. I love seeing the images of you digging in the dirt with children from a nearby school. It speaks volumes about what's important. The earth. The health of our children. What we eat. Self sufficiency.
The ripple effect, I hope it's far and wide. That we all plant a little bit. An organic kitchen garden at the White House. It's a great day.
Peonies are such a fleeting flower.... with a bloom time of a few weeks, if that. Add a late spring thunderstorm and it's even shorter. My tables are now filled with bouquets of pink and white double peonies and royal blue Siberian iris. Absolutely worth it in the perennial or kitchen garden. (Peonies grew in the first monastery gardens.) They are not edible, of course, but valued for their fragrance and beauty. They also attract beneficial insects.
The late spring garden means that the frost free date is past. My beans are planted under the trellises with some twine added so the little tendrils can find their way. The garlic bulbs will not be fully mature until later in the season. Dig some up now and it looks more like a large green onion or leek. I just cooked some up along with some shallots and radishes for a spring pasta. Green garlic can be cooked longer than fresh garlic so I allowed these to caramelize in some chicken drippings with some added olive oil. It's a different flavor than fully ripe garlic.
I stopped by my father's house because I wanted to check on the ramps. His ravine is filled with them. These wild leeks grow very well in moist woods and would make a great groundcover wherever hostas grow. (I plan to transplant a few this year to my own shade garden and see how they do.) Ramps are native, edible and wild. I just wish I would have found some morels at the same time. Not so lucky on this adventure, but no worries, Whole Foods had some wonderful Ohio grown oyster and Shitake mushrooms which I used for this mushroom and ramp quiche. The asparagus, beets, crab apple blossoms, and lilacs were picked fresh from the spring garden. This is one of the early spring menus in the book I am working on for Timber Press, tentatively titled, Seasonal Harvest.
I photographed this image last week at Dawes Arboretum. Okame flowering cherry (Prunus 'Okame') is one of the first trees to blossom in the spring.
I may be a coffee snob and certainly an olive oil highbrow. (Love low acidity olive oil from Greece which is pressed from Kalamata olives. I fell for Greek olive oil when my daughter randomly picked out a carton at the airport when she was traveling there. Martini's is a decent Greek brand I find at Trader Joe's and is a great compromise between price and quality. Someday I may import my own but in the meantime Trader Joe's is not far.) I digress, the subject was pansies.
These are technically violas and will grace the edges of the raised beds in my formal potager. I am planting them now, at the beginning of April, along with cabbage and broccoli. Yes they are ubiquitous; every commercial landscaper plops them around entrances. May 15, (the frost free date here) still seems an eternity away and pansies love the cool, fickle weather. The grower told me that these have been growing outside all winter. I cannot resist the garish colors of orange, purple and yellow. Not now. I am craving some color joy in the garden.
The flowers of pansies and violas are edible. (Check with your grower to be sure you know what they have sprayed on them; they probably weren't growing them as edibles. If you grow your own or buy from an organic grower, no problem.)
'Arnold Promise' witch-hazel is one of the last witch-hazels to bloom in the spring. I am enchanted by this plant- here blooming in the early spring when the daffodils are just beginning to appear but otherwise winter color lingers. Some varieties of witch-hazels bloom as early as late January and early February in the Midwest. Yellow goes in and out of fashion; some years I determine to eradicate it from my garden but lately I like seeing the color of the sun. A precious site in late winter in Ohio. Prune a few branches to bring indoors for the table.
Glorious day. It is really one joy of having winter... it gives me more time to dream of the spring and summer garden. Now is a good time to peruse all of the luscious seed catalogs and order for the potager. I am so happy that many nurseries in my area have heirloom varieties of peppers and tomatoes, but to get the special varieties I crave this year... I have to grow my own.
Since my garden is really a tasting garden, I try a few seeds from many different seed packets. It's really no problem; seeds keep from year to year. Sure the viability may decrease but everything I plant isn't from a new order of seeds. I think I have had the same parsley seed for a couple of years; germination hasn't been a problem.
I plan to grow edible and non-edible annual flowers as well as vegetables. Varieties I can't live without are: scarlet runner bean - an heirloom variety with edible scarlet flowers that attract hummingbirds; flat leaf Italian parsley - looks great all summer and will be used daily for pasta or tabouli; nasturtiums - an edible and easy to grow flower that likes it on the cool side; oodles of sweet Genovese basil - this is the variety that is best for cooking, 11 plants was not enough last year. My personal motto is you can't have too much pesto.
