Pushing the Envelope on Vegetables

As long as the oddly colored vegetables are nutritious and edible I'm willing to try a few in my garden.

The fascination with all things "food" that has been influenced by the Food Network or Martha Stewart has probably inspired a lot of people to grow their own and save money. Growing your own vegetables and fruit and cooking and serving them to friends and family is a very human thing to do. There is something basic, elemental, about it.

I trust that the odd-colored veggies will grow well in the Southern California climate........I'll give a report at the end of the season.

I adore cooking but I've never been much of a gardener. No patience. Obviously, I'm in the minority. I recently read the gardening is the #1 most popular hobby in the U.S.

Gardening a "hobby"? Back in my youth, it was not a hobby, it was a necessity. Now, however, we live in a patio home and all we can do is some potted tomato and pepper plants on the patio. But "back in the day", we had a rather large garden and I spent the summer canning (using my mother's Victory Canner from WWII), pickling and freezing. One year my husband gave me a rototiller for my birthday, something he has not lived down to this day. But it did indeed allow me to enlarge the garden and put in an asparagus bed.

Now that reminds me. Different colors of veggies. Years ago we raised purple beans, a purple string bush bean that turned green when dropped into boiling water. They were the most tasty green beans we ever tasted. If you can find the seeds, I strongly recommend them. Also, another family story. My son has just returned from a week in Germany. This is apparently asparagus season there. Germany only raises their asparagus as white. I assume you know that if you cover the shoots, not allowing them to absorb light, they will be white. Well, he said that for a week all he consumed was beer (see yesterday's comments), asparagus, and pork products. I guess it will be quite a while before he will want asparagus again, white or green. While he likes it, enough was enough.

My job, as a young girl, was to sit in front of the stove, and make sure the needle on the canner did not go past a certain point on the gage. Out of fear that an explosion would occur, I never took my eyes of that dial (and Mom did alot of canning).

Also, growing up my Mom (a rather smart lady) told me the only way to get a good tan, was to pull weeds in the garden (I did believe her....for awhile)!

It's only 9:33 a.m. here and all I can think about now is a big platter of still crisp veggies that have been roasted in olive oil and rosemary.

I'm less than 10 minutes away from a dozen or so farm stands so it's a bit of heaven on earth season in the Mid West right now for asparagus lovers.

Have a most sumptuous Sunday everyone!

p.s., I've found that the secret of being a good cook is to always say you just "like to mess around in the kitchen". This way you almost always exceed expectations. You won't find this tip in any Martha Stewart cook book, besides . . . who needs a cookbook anyway!

I just spent the morning in my garden surrounded by French Breakfast Radishes, Rainbow Chard, and Lemon Cucumbers. The latter are my favorite, as they are round and lemon-yellow, yet have a crisp cucumber flavor. I've been vegetable garden for 7 years, since moving to NC. My motivation was that I was sick of the pretty, yet tasteless, produce found in the markets. The heirloom varieties may not keep as long, but nothing compares as far as flavor.

Onc Doc, its always a wonderful treat to be eating an heirloom tomato that you just picked a few minutes ago.

South-Side, try the french breakfast radishes sliced on a baguette with some goat cheese and a few of the radish leaves. My favorite breakfast.

Onc Doc, that sounds incredibly delicious. Goat cheese with anything is always toothsome. I'll give it a try indeed.

After the reading all the above comments I feel like cooking tonight. Maybe something from the Caribbean.......given the heat in L.A. today that might make me believe I'm really in a tropical paradise. That's what dreams are made of: good food and a beautiful setting. Even a desert can be beautiful with the right ingredients for a BBQ.

I agree with you South-Side John about cookbooks....I buy them to look at the pictures, who needs to read the recipe. I'm one of those who likes to mess around in the kitchen. I sometimes watch the Food Network, not for the recipes so much as the inspiration to do something different.

Anything on a baguette sounds good right now.

To: LaDonna,

My favorite way to tan is from running in the hot sun on a remote trail. I, too, tried the garden tan technique. The back of my neck looked like I'd been on vacation in Hawaii, the rest of me looked like a refugee from the North Pole.

Do you still do any canning?

ExPat,

I don't have space for a garden, right now, but I do have to have my cooking staples....pots of herbs on the patio.

I also like to mess around in the kitchen.

Nigella Lawson is my favorite chef.
New favorite chef, Jamie Oliver.

To: LaDonna

I also like Nigella. At the end of her show she's always sneaking into the kitchen to raid the fridge before going to bed.

I grow my own herbs, too. Do you have a favorite? I like basil. Fresh basil in an omellete is a good way to start a sunday morning.

ExPat,

Fresh basil in an omelette (breakfast for dinner, is starting to sound very good)!

Herbs: Basel, chives, oregano, and parsley, and tuck in some lavender for color and fragrance.

Now, tell me what you are growing in your garden? Please.

LaDonna,

I'm growing marjoram, basil, oregano, french coriander, and tomatoes, green peppers, and zuchinni. They seem to do well in Southern California. I want to plant some dwarf fruit trees, mostly citrus.

What kind of lavender do you grow? I think there's English and French.

An omelette for dinner does sound good, doesn't it?

ExPat

Okay, I'll get into this. People consider me a good cook. I used to do a lot of scratch cooking when we had our garden, herbs and all. But these days, I too have no room and have to rely on farmer's markets and places like Whole Foods for decent produce. But since we are talking colorful plantings, what I do grow is stuff to use as natural dyes for animal fiber I spin. Like wool and alpaca. My favorite here is plain ol' marigolds. They give the most beautiful array of colors depending upon how the fiber is treated. Most other things are actually weeds like wode and safflower, although I did try to grow safflower one year. The rabbits liked them too much. Indigo is trickier to grow and I prefer to buy the extract. Just thought I would add another spice in here to the conversation.

To Spinner:

Of course, for many people, gardening is a necessity. Many fields that are necessities for some and professions for others are mere hobbies for yet a third group. Farmers markets and high quality produce sections render home gardening less necessary for those who have access to them than those who don't. Some people choose to do their own gardening because they love it even without the necessity. Letting passion be the prime motivator has always struck me as a pretty good definition of "hobby".

The same is true in my own field: I used to collect all kinds of trivia about history, music, movies, etc. This was a hobby of mine for years. It is a hobby for most people who do it. Today, it is absolutely essential to my work. As a professional tour guide, the kind of I used to collect for fun is now intrinsic to the difference between my providing a quality service or a substandard one.

So yes. Just like trivia, gardening may be a necessity for some, but is a passionately practiced hobby among others.

To: Spinner,

Is that the same "safflower" used to make safflower oil for cooking? The first time I saw safflower oil was in a health food store.

I didn't know it was a weed.

As you know we consider dandelions a weed, but in England it's a plant you can use to make a wine and a soft drink (called "dandelion and burdock"). The flower is edible. I think the leaves are, too.

Yes. Safflower is a thistle. Actually, it is rather small with a very pretty rusty colored flower. I had to end up going to a health food store and buy dried flowers to give me enough to make my dye pot. And I suppose we had very healthy rabbits around that year with all the safflower oil they must have consumed eating the plants down to the ground. If you are interested, safflower is a fascinating dye. When you first soak the flowers, what comes off is a yellow dye that will only dye animal fiber like wool or alpaca. Then you wash and wash those buds until no more yellow comes off. Next, you change the water to be more acid with something like white vinegar and soak again. What comes out is a redish dye that will only dye vegetable fiber like cotton. I spin both so I have a lovely golden yellow wool sweater and some cotton that is dyed a pinkish color (I was unable to get the color really dark). And that is the tip of the iceberg of my dying experiences. I prefer natural dyes because of the challenge of the methods and because I feel that they can give such vibrant, "natural" colors. And I will stop there.

Spinner, you are always pulling another rabbit out of the hat with yet another skill.

ExPat, just as you mentioned with the often miss understood dandelion, the difference between a weed and a flower is in the eye of the beholder.

oh yes, before I forget . . . Nigella rocks!

ExPat,
I prefer the English varieties of lavender for cooking.
Crush dried Lavender flowers, can be added to sugar (I learned this from Nigella), and stored in an airtight jar until ready for use. Then, use a sieve to separate the sugar and flowers. The scented sugar can be used in cakes, cookies, whipped cream, jams, and other sweets for a delicate flowery flavor.

To: LaDonna,

Thanks for advise and 'recipe' for lavendar sugar. I know I'll try it, now.

I mentioned I was growing French coriander....I don't know what I was thinking . I meant to say French sorrel. Sorry.