spring vegetables with basil gremolade

 
 
Recipe (from June 2008 Bon Appetit, with lots of modifications) Vegetables: In olive oil, sautee chopped garlic, baby carrots and sliced squash about 3 minutes. Add sliced beet greens and cook about 1 minute. Add spinach, turn off heat and toss until spinach wilts. Gremolade: Chop 1/4 cup basil and parsley. Add 1 T chopped capers, grated lemon peel, and 2 T olive oil. Mix. Cook linguine. Mix with vegetables and gremolade. (Cook and serve beets separately.) Serve with grilled fresh Alaskan salmon and a nice Cabernet – on the…
 
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party!!

 
 
Its a perfect time for celebrating. The bounty of the garden. The beauty of the season. We have a birthday today as an event to gather our family, express cheer and raise a toast. I harvested in excess. And we all enjoyed it. Thanks to my sister and nieces from CA for coming by and joining us! And to the birthday boy – cheers! To many more!
 
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bee search

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Where are the honeybees? I’m planning to search our community garden for bees soon. Especially honeybees. I haven’t seen ANY yet this year and it is very disappointing. I’m still hopeful that if I actually go looking for them I will find some. Maybe they’re there and I just haven’t noticed ….. I meant to do this project sooner, but I haven’t gotten to it. Soon.
 
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garden bluebirds

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We have a pair of bluebirds nesting in a house in the middle of the community gardens. As I understand, this is not a good location for bluebirds. The risk is high that gardening activities and aggressive birds, especially sparrows and wrens, will interfere with their nesting. But so far, so good. Both parents are bringing food to the box, which means their chicks have hatched. They need a few more weeks without interference to raise their family. The following Eastern Bluebird information is from Alabama Wildbird Conservation Association at…
 
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two types of broccoli

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This year I grew two varieties of broccoli: Green Goliath and Green Sprouting Calabrese. Unfortunately, I don’t know which plants are which. But I do notice that some of my plants make compact heads and some make taller sprouts with very small heads. I suppose the compact heads are Green Goliath and the taller sprouts are Green Sprouting Calabrese. I planted seeds on March 22 and am harvesting now. Green Sprouting Calabrese is an Italian heirloom that was brought to America in the 1880s. It is supposed to have 5″-8″…
 
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grilled broccoli

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I wanted to try something different with my fresh broccoli harvest. I found this nice post at The Grown Diaries on Spicy Grilled Broccoli. My version is the same idea, but a little different. I used dried chiles from last year’s garden and some chile oil we made by soaking dried chiles in olive oil. I also used a bunch of broccoli leaves. Recipe: Separate broccoli leaves and heads. Chop leaves and slice heads into 1/4 inch slices. Combine broccoli and leaves with 2 cloves chopped garlic and 1 chopped…
 
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notes from my garden

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– Time to give up on growing soybeans at the community plot. They are being dug up by some critter. Seeds and sprouts. I’ll plant these at home. They did OK in the shade last year. I figure I’m lucky that its only the soybeans. – My potato plants keep getting bigger! I planted too many and they are way out of hand. I figure I’ll end up with potatoes to last all winter. Great! I’m having fun collecting potato recipes. – The flea beetles are gone from my potato…
 
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evening cocktail party with the cows

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We were invited to a wonderful Birthday Party at a local farm with a fantastic view of the sunset on one of the longest days of the year. Not shown is the patio with lavender and peonies in full bloom, women in cocktail dresses, and wait staff with platters of appetizers and wine glasses. A flock of plump Buff Orpington hens were scratching and 17 Belted Galloway cows calmly chewed in the pastures. Idyllic is the word, I believe.
 
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it’s Boy Scout work day at our community garden!

 
 
Our local Boy Scout Troop did a full day of work today fixing up the paths at our community garden. Actually it was my son’s Eagle project. He coordinated a great work day. About 20 scouts and parents moved rocks, pulled weeds, leveled dirt, removed debris, weed-whacked, and just generally made the paths fantastic. They used shovels, rakes, pry bars, a chain saw, and lots of plain old muscle power. Many paths that were previously inaccessible to lawnmowers and wheelbarrows, and sometimes gardeners, are now wide and open. Now that…
 
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Belmont Victory Gardens on longest day of the year

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Our community gardens are beautiful right now. All of the 100-plus plots have been filled this year and there are so many active gardens. A lot of work has gone into these. Yesterday Skippy and I wandered through the overgrown and rocky paths and took many photos of the plots. No sense in showing just my garden with so many other nice ones around! They look nice viewed as a slide show (June Victory Garden slide show). By the way – tomorrow the local Boy Scout Troop will be doing…
 
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Kathy Martin
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy


weeks and counting until my last spring frost

What I planted recently

Jan 21
thyme, lettuce, escarole

Feb 21
celery, celeriac, parsley, leeks

March 11
cabbage, kale, arugula



What I'm planting soon

April 1
peppers, eggplants, marigolds, beets

April 12
tomatoes, basil, sunflowers

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My garden this week

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17 years of archives!

Check out the food pantry farm I helped to start up:

Aurelia's Garden

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Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!

“I envision a day when every city and town has front and back yards, community gardens and growing spaces, nurtured into life by neighbors who are no longer strangers, but friends who delight in the edible rewards offered from a garden they discovered together.” – Greg Peterson

"What can happen to a seed is a miracle."

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