Port Potager

We made our garden plan back in February, but I forgot to document it. I was reminded of this when we pulled out the plan to actually start planting. It hasn’t been warm — it’s snowing as I write this — but the ground has thawed and we can get started with our hardiest cool-weather plants. The leeks we ordered came in the mail, so we had to get them in the ground. We bought transplants instead of doing them from seed this year, and they are about as big around as a pencil — much bigger than the tiny strings we’ve managed to get starting them on our own. These are much easier to work with, and I’m certain they’ll have a better survival rate than our tiny seedlings, so this looks to be a good investment. Behind the cold frame you can see a few of last year’s leeks — these are the stragglers we haven’t harvested yet. Usually when we plant in March, we’re out of luck when it comes to compost. That’s because the City Yard doesn’t open until April and our pile is usually frozen....

The final quadrant of our planning for the upcoming growing season is the one nearest to the driveway: Along the top is a long trellis of peas, which is on the northern end of the bed so as not to shade the zucchini and annual herbs grown in the rest of the area (basil, fennel, parsley, and celery). To the right is another 27-foot trellis of peas. We don't usually orient them this way, but since it's to the east, we are confident that the Roma tomatoes behind it will get enough afternoon sun. The peas will also be gone by July, well before we expect to harvest any tomatoes anyway. Along the bottom are crops that can handle a bit of shade from the house as fall comes. Here we have another zucchini plant, summer carrots, beets, mesclun lettuce for the summer, and a short trellis of snap peas. We also have a block marked out for something new: cauliflower. I have never been a big fan, though my distaste has probably always had more to do with the whiteness of the wh...

It's been a while since I've reported on a Sunday supper , but here's a really good one: Food styling courtesy of Tiegan Trach. We still don't have a fully functioning kitchen yet, so Kirk is focused on easy dinners. This chicken and  broccoli ziti was an upgrade from the mac and cheese that we'd normally make, to spruce it up for a Sunday dinner. To make this, Kirk boiled a box of pasta and added broccoli from our last harvest  in the last three minutes of cooking. This is probably the equivalent of one large head of broccoli, but ours included lots of individual side shoots, which is what you get as the season goes on. He also sautéed up a pound of chicken breasts, seasoned with dried basil and oregano, plus salt and pepper.  Finally, the sauce is a standard bechamel with about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan and four to six cloves of minced garlic. He mixed it all together, topped it with breadcrumbs and some more grated parmesan, and it's a...

Last week I spent some serious time in the herb garden. It could use a renovation: some are now too shaded, others are garden bullies that have spread beyond their borders, etc. Even so, there was plenty to harvest. Here's what I walked away with: That's not everything we grow, but it is a sampling of what's doing well. Things like sage and rosemary will be better in the fall, but these are some of the herbs that are ready to go at the height of summer. Basil. I cut a lot  to avoid having it begin to flower and go to seed. Even with this giant pile, I still only ended up with eight pesto cubes . Luckily, a little bit goes a long way in the flavor department. Horehound. Those globes between the leaves are its flowers, so I may have cut this a bit too late for full potency. Horehound is a bitter relative of mint used to cure respiratory ailments, and I keep meaning to use it to make some homemade cough drops.  Tarragon. It's not worth dryi...

When it's my turn to cook, I often go for a vegetarian dish. Tonight I went down into the root cellar (ok, it's really just the cold, drafty basement) and grabbed a couple of butternut squash to stuff. First, they need to be pre-baked, so cut off the stem end, slice lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Then place cut-side down on an oiled tray (I used peanut oil, but it doesn't really matter): Bake for a half hour at 350 degrees. As you can see, I picked a big one for me and Kirk, and a small one for the kids. While that's cooking, you can make the stuffings.  For the kids, I went with an Italian filling. The measurements below made extra, but you might need it depending on the type of squash you use). 1/4 cup pine nuts, chopped (I used a food processor) 4 sundried tomatoes, finely diced 6 cloves of garlic, minced 1/3 of a small leek, diced 1/2 cup grated mozzarella 2 Tbs. grated parmesan 1 cube frozen pesto , thawed (it's about...

I already wrote about our delicious Thanksgiving lunch of chipotle corn chowder, rolls, and Bloody Marys, but here's what else we had for our harvest celebration. Thanksgiving is the culmination of our year's labor, so I'm going to show it off a bit. Some snacky appetizers: pickled Swiss chard stems , sweet gherkins , and curry sour refrigerator pickles . Also on the scene is a slice of cheese torta to spread on the crackers. That wedge is actually a small portion of what was once a giant jello-mold-esque bomb of buttery, cheesy delight. It's super-rich and freezes well, so we brought a piece out for the holidays. This is modified from an old recipe from Kirk's mom that we only have a photocopy of. Here's how we make it. Cheese Torta 2 packages of cream cheese, room temp 4 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp 6 pesto cubes , melted (about 4 oz.) 1 small jar of oil-packed sundried tomatoes cheesecloth 1. Moisten and then wring ou...

My all-time favorite soup and sandwich combo, especially as the weather turns cooler in the fall, is grilled cheese and tomato soup. I think I ate this every single Monday night in college, heading directly to the dining hall from chorus rehearsal. (I'm pretty sure I had French fries and Texas Pete on the side as well. Can't pretend I was too all-fired concerned about healthy eating at The Pit .) Since it's much cooler now, and since Wednesdays involve a lot of chauffeuring the kids around, it was a perfect night for some tomato soup. It's quick and easy, even to make from scratch and not from a can. Here's what I did: Garden Tomato Soup 2 Tbs. olive oil 1 small onion 2 cloves garlic 3 ribs celery 1 red bell pepper 6 basil leaves (about 2 Tbs. fresh) 1/3 cup fresh parsley 1 Tbs. flour 1/4 cup half and half 1 quart  canned tomato sauce  (plain, no seasoning) 2 tsp. brown sugar 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce salt and pepper to taste ...

I'm trying to savor my very last days of summer vacation this weekend — a break that was extended into the first week of September this year, thanks to Rosh Hashanah. This past Thursday and Friday I was able to enjoy some peace and quiet around the house while the kids were at school (their classes started — gasp! — before Labor Day this year). I used the time to dry some tomatoes, for starters: Once these were in the oven (directions to make them are here ), I celebrated by eating up the remaining sundried tomatoes from last year's supply. We had been using them sparingly throughout the spring to ensure that they lasted until we had tomatoes again. Now that day is here, so here's a sundried lunch: This sandwich is sundried tomato and goat cheese on roasted garlic ciabatta. (The bakery at Market Basket is not too shabby!) The sandwich (which gets put together to eat, of course) is dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh basil, and fresh rosemary. T...

The kids are off to camp and the kitchen is closed for business for the next few days while we try to finish the lion's share of our renovation before they get home. Right now everything but the fridge is covered with a drop cloth, and the doors are sealed off in plastic while we finish with joint compound hell on the seams of the drywall. It makes a lot of dust when you sand it, so we'll be eating out for the next couple of days. We did enjoy a last, easy garden dinner before the shut down, though. Two new veggie tarts: We've made these on puff pastry before , and they are delicious in all seasons. The tart on the left is heirloom tomato (Moskvich and Ukrainian Yellow) with hard mozzarella beneath and basil on top. The tart on the right is Swiss chard with peaches, garlic, and goat cheese. This one is savory despite the bits of sweet peaches, which was a nice change from all of the peach desserts we've had recently.  These are so good I almost wis...

Sometimes, it's hard. Not just hard work, which is no big deal. Today was not that (although it involved elbow grease, too.) More just a mistake-riddled, bad-luck-prone, exhaustion-inducing day. First off, beginning to process the peaches took a lot longer than I thought. I cut myself, burned myself, and I still have cramps in my hands from peeling and pitting just the first five pounds of our big harvest . And then this happened while I was processing the jam: One of the jars broke in half. See the bits of peaches floating in the water bath? That was super-fun to clean up. Also, I'm not sure if this jam even set up properly, after all that. More on this tomorrow. In the midst of the canning madness, a crying child came home with this nasty gash down a shin: The quarter is for reference — this is the shot I texted to Kirk to get an assessment of its suture-worthiness. In the end we decided to let Nurse Dad patch it up with Steri-Strips when he got ...

This is my all-time favorite thing to eat  in the summer: It's a super-easy salad with fresh tomatoes (here I have yellow and red cherry tomatoes cut in half, but any great tomato will work), fresh basil, chunks of mozzarella, and chunks of sort-of-stale French bread. It's best if everything is cut or torn into bite-sized pieces. Stir it together and drizzle some olive oil on top, then finish with a dash of salt and pepper. It takes about five whole minutes to make, and is so, so good. I would eat this every day if we didn't keep running out of bread and mozzarella. Those things are summer staples for us, but everyone still keeps eating it up, especially now that the kids are old enough to hit the kitchen and put together their own lunches.

We are finally finished dumping dirt into our raised beds! This is the last quadrant, and we wasted no time getting seeds into those beds once we were done filling them. This weekend marks our frost-free date, so it was time to get cracking on our planting and sowing. In the center "C" you can see our bamboo tepees (made by pulling apart an extra section of bamboo fencing we used for privacy at the Red House — glad to put them to good use!). Around each tepee are planted Cherokee Trail of Tears, an heirloom black bean that will climb those poles. In the squared off ends of the "C" are zucchini and nasturtium seeds as well. In the foreground of this bed are also mustard seedlings (too tiny to see, but they are in the rectangular section that is dark from having been watered). Our tomatillos are just off frame. Other seeds that went into the ground this weekend, now that we're pretty sure nothing will freeze: sunflowers, chamomile, and borage, plus...

Did I mention that we had absolutely gorgeous weather last week during April vacation? One thing I love to do is to stroll around nurseries looking at all the plants they have, and it was a lovely week to do it. We don't need many flowers (although I still like to look), but I was on the hunt for the perennial herbs we have planned for the back row with the grapes . Although I was sad to find that my heretofore favorite nursery is shutting down, I found a great new (to me) nursery in Haverhill that might be my new first stop on future plant hunts. Cottage Gardens  is a great little family-run place on the Haverhill/Merrimac line, and you should definitely check it out if you live in the area. They had lots of flowers, a solid culinary herb selection, and their prices are great . I quickly filled up a flat of four-inch pots, including …  The basil and cilantro I mentioned before . These will give us something to munch on while we wait for the seeds to pop up and beco...

Out in the garden, where the cold frame used to be (ours are heavy but portable, so we removed it the other day, after a few weeks of having the glass off full time), you can find pretty little radishes like this: There is also a lot of young spinach, arugula, and mesclun to be had: So, finally, we enjoyed our first springtime garden dinner last night: The salad comes directly from the garden patch in the photos above. It's made of the last of our winter mache from the fridge, plus fresh spinach, arugula, and lettuce from the former cold frame bed. There are also radishes sliced thin for extra color and flavor (I find that a little bit of radish goes a long way). As usual, the only dressing is a splash of olive oil and lemon juice, plus some cracked pepper. Even Jonas the Lettuce Hater was on board with this salad. The other dish is pesto chicken over pasta. Kirk used some pesto cubes we had in the freezer (remember when we made them last fall ?) to c...

Remember the day I (sort of) saved the basil ? After setting it out to dry on some baking sheets, we finally completed the task of putting up the basil. What started out as three cookie sheets of fresh basil has dried and shrunken down into just this: This is a quart jar of dried basil. There's also a fair amount of air space in that jar, because we like to put the leaves in whole (or at least as whole as possible when you're dealing with the transfer of brittle, dried leaves). We crush up the leaves just before we use them, which releases their aroma right as it goes into the dish. I'm not sure if this makes a huge difference in the amount of flavor that is saved, but we figure that the longer the leaves stay intact, the better off they are. The glass jar also helps to maintain more flavor than a plastic container, which can absorb some the essential oils that you want to save in your herbs. The lesson here: next year we need to plant much more basil to store for ...

This week's great garden dinners? Green Bean and Feta Salad Plus charcoal-grilled flank steak from Tendercrop . This is a pretty summery dinner for October, but it was in perfect keeping with the amazing weather we'd been having. I cannot take credit for this recipe — that goes to my friend Carrie, who first made it for our group of friends at Wake during some evening we thought cooking would be fun. It's a life-changing recipe. Steam or blanch a pound of fresh green beans. Blanching takes 3 minutes; steaming might take a little longer depending on how thick the beans are. Don't overcook them, because they should be still a smudge crisp — not soft or mushy. Whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil (I like extra virgin), 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, and 1 teaspoon dijon mustard. Pour this dressing over the beans in a serving dish and toss in one package of feta cheese crumbles. You can add pepper and/or thyme to taste. It's soooooo good. I could eat it ...

It's official: The warm weather this holiday weekend is a full-blown Indian summer. In case you weren't sure, the definition of an Indian summer is when the temperatures are above 70 degrees after a frost. I'm a bit skeptical about whether or not we had a frost last week when it was so cool at night, because I leave for work pretty darn early, and I didn't see any in our yard. But … down our street there was some light frost on piles of grass clippings, and the outdoor thermometer registered 37 degrees as the low point. That may not have produced an actual frost, but it was enough to get to our basil. Oh, basil, you stupid, delicious, wimpy Mediterranean plant. So delightful, but so short-lived in Massachusetts. I don't think it even takes a full frost to get to it, but what we definitely had by Friday morning was some frostbite: I am kicking myself now for oh-so-cavalierly dashing off to trivia night without covering the basil last Thursday. By Saturday, w...