Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’
Take the greens by the stalk
We have consumed more greens in last two years than we ate the entire last two decades. I have our CSA (Live Earth Farm) to thank for that. Red beets come with lively green tops. Baby carrots come with leggy green tops. The turnips come with eager green leaves. The fennels come with delicate frond wings. Then there are just the greens on stalks – the rainbow chard and the spinach and the collard greens and the lacinato kale and the russian red kale and the winterbor kale. And of course there are herbs – the cilantro, the parsley, the rosemary, the scallions and the basil. These are not your anemic slim bunches that you get at the grocery store. The leeks come whole i.e. twice the greens of your grocery store bought ones. And finally, the heads, the salads, the radicchio etc.
There is no way you can waste them. These are no faceless farmers from another continent. They are located in Freedom, just a hop, skip and jump away. The food is grown on a land that I call home and I am convinced that small scale organic farming is backbreaking labor of love.
So, I have been cooking these greens in all possible ways. The unexpected greens from the carrots, turnips, fennel and beets, the stalky greens, the heads of greens, the herbs. And the greens don’t just stop with CSA – the real backyard giveth onion weeds, the oregano buds, the mint, the sorrels, the lemongrass, the makrut lime leaves, the fig leaves, and the bay leaves. Sometimes there are microgreens in a box by the window.
… and it has been exhausting. Like I have been running a marathon. All the cleaning, chopping, drying, freezing, pureeing, powdering, …
Read the rest of this entry »A lookback at 2024
Last year, the afternoon of the 31st, our cruise ship had landed on the Half Moon island of the South Shetland Islands in the Antarctic peninsula. A lot happened in 2024, I was expecting it to feel like a long year (link to Radiolab episode The Secret to a Long Life), but that didn’t happen.
Read the rest of this entry »A plummy shower
This summer, the plums ripened earlier than they have done in previous years. The tree is still young, perhaps best described as a young teenager. One of the best ways of harvesting fruits is to shake the tree. And if you are under the tree, the ripe plums shower down on you. They fall with a gentle thud, sounding like a bunch of tennis balls let loose. A few may hit you on their way down, a gentle thud on your head, or a nudge on your arm.
The first batch of fruits this year, unripe green plums, came from culling. They reminded me of gooseberries with their tannic tartness and so I made an Indian style plum pickle. It tastes like unripe mango pickle. A batch of the green plums are salt fermenting. The ripe ones are turning into jams. The first jam batch is always our most labor intensive one – we start with the ripest fruits, we take the skin and pit out, add cassis. The subsequent batches are left with the skin in. The scraps make a fine vinegar.
Standing under the mulberry tree
My relationship with the mulberry tree matured into something beautiful this year. We had planted the tree nearly seven years ago. I remember our surprise upon learning that Pakistani mulberry grows well in Redwood City. If we are lucky, the mulberry tree will live to be 150. If we are careful, it will stay pruned to a manageable size. Previous fruiting seasons, our wild squirrels would jump up on the fruit laden branches and rid them off the fruits. This year, they decided to leave the tree alone and there is more bird activity instead. The birds too like sitting on the mulberry branches and picking off the fruits. But unlike the squirrels, they pick what they eat. They are nice guests too, they pick the fruits that fall on the floor.
Read the rest of this entry »Aangan house garden this summer
… we had grown la ratte potatoes (link) more than 14 summers ago. Back then, I was disappointed with the yield. I have since realized that the trick to growing a vegetable patch, particularly in a suburban yard, is not to think about the bountiful yield but to focus on the bountiful happiness instead. The happiness of watching vines grow and flowers bloom. The happiness of watching butterflies and bees flutter and buzz about. The happiness that comes from learning about culinary practices elsewhere. Like the Hoja Santa (link) with root beer like flavor. In my case, I have found my garden to be an excellent anxiolytic.
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Locomotoring 