Port Potager

The final planting quadrant is also the smallest, because it lacks the center C that the others have in favor of a patio area for picnicking. It also has a full bed of strawberries along with existing perennial plantings of roses, rhubarb and lavender, so there aren’t many areas left to fill. Across the top row is garlic that was planted back in October. When this is harvested in July, it will be replanted with winter green like arugula, bok choy and turnips. The remaining section has Paisano paste tomatoes.  Along the right side is a short trellis of snap peas, which will shade a patch of mesclun and other spring greens. Right now this is the site of our winter cold frame of mache and spinach, so our plan is simply to interplant the mesclun with these plants in early spring and gradually remove and replace things they bolt throughout the season. There are also both winter and summer carrots close to the house, where they can handle the shade that creeps in during th...

So there's no more fuss and there's no more scenes and my garden thrives! (You should see my nectarine.) But I'm telling you the same I tell Kings and Queens don't ever ever ever mess around with my greens! ~ from Into the Woods , by Stephen Sondheim We're still slogging through our kitchen renovation , and it's sucking up a lot of time that we would ordinarily be spending on preserving the last of our summer fruits — not mention cooking delicious meals using all that garden produce. An embarrassing amount of apples, pears, and tomatoes have been fed to the chickens due to our inability to eat them in a timely fashion. One thing that's doing well and can be stored in place outside  are the cool-weather greens. Though the back half of the summer was a dry one, we had a fair amount of rain early this month to get us back on track. The moisture and the cooler temperatures mean happy greens: Cilantro, because it's related to carro...

So last night, after we were done with or delicious turkey dinner , Kirk put the carcass directly into our stock pot with bunches of dried herbs (sage, savory, thyme, and rosemary), a leek, and a couple ribs of celery, then covered it all with water and let it simmer for the rest of the evening. This, of course, is how you make turkey stock. That's really all there is to it (well, you also have to strain it into a container once it cools). If you need more details, you can read about it here . The turkey stock was ready to go as the base for tonight's dinner, the second dish from the whole turkey we made on Sunday: This is  sopa de lima , which is a traditional turkey soup from Mexico. The literal translation from the Spanish is "lime soup," and indeed, that is its secret, awesome ingredient. This was what I had for dinner our first night in Mexico ( where we enjoyed our fifteenth anniversary trip last April ), and it was delicious. I've been wanting t...

Ok, so the kids weren't all that psyched about tonight's dinner until I reminded them of this: Justin Timberlake - Cup O Soup by tony0413 Then they got on board. Anyway, you shouldn't need any convincing to be excited about this dinner: Kirk made a chicken barley soup and some sage rolls, and it was all delicious — perfect for an icy-cold day between snowstorms. Chicken Barley Soup 3 chicken breasts 2 stalks of celery 3 leeks 6 small parsnips 1 Tbs. peppercorns 1 lemon dried herbs 1-2 Tbs. olive oil 2 large turnips 3/4 cup barley 8-10 sundried tomatoes  1/2 cup frozen peas salt and pepper to taste To make the quick stock, fill a large stockpot with 3 quarts of water, 3 chicken breasts, plus a stalk of celery, 2 leeks (cut into large chunks), 6 small parsnips, 1 Tbs. crushed peppercorns, 1/2 a lemon, and a handful of dried herbs of your choice (we used sage and thyme).  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour....

Although for the most part this fall had been mild and calm, that all changed last weekend with ( surprise! ) a gusty wind storm that tore up one of our greenhouse tunnels: This one houses our leeks (to the left), plus some root veg, bok choy, arugula, and cabbages. Well, it used to. Now it's the home of bok choy popscicles: The picture doesn't quite get across that during the rapid temperature drop into the teens, the bok choy was frozen absolutely solid. I could have broken pieces off with a snap, like that experiment where a scientist dips a rubber ball in liquid nitrogen and then smashes it on the ground. So much for the stir fry we were planning on. The leek leaves are similarly frozen, but since that's not the part we eat, it's not a problem. Underground, the fat white bulbs are still happy. Kirk was able to fix this just to cover the leek half up before the big rain storms hit last night. The leeks would likely survive the winter uncover...

Is it more labor intensive to make chicken noodle soup from scratch than, say, to open a can of Campbell's and add some water?  Yes. Is it totally, life-alteringly worth it? Yes.  First, pull some homemade chicken stock out of the freezer. We always try to have some on hand, especially in the winter. Just save your chicken bones and make some (the link has more specifics). You really do get your money's worth out of a whole chicken — a couple of meals plus stock. You could use store-bought broth in a pinch, but using your own is richer, and you can control the herbs and salt content.  Next, finely dice a (garden fresh or winter storage) carrot, leek, and turnip. And don't wrinkle your nose at turnips — they are what I am now calling soup potatoes. Fall turnips are pretty sweet, and they hold their texture way better than a potato in a soup. They’re totally superior, and that lets you save your potatoes for something else. Bring the sto...

Now that school is back in session and I am back at work like a normal (sad) person, our harvesting is more of a weekly chore instead of a daily one. Last week's harvest: What we have here are a LOT of green beans, three turnips that ripened late, a bowl of English peas to be shelled (in the back), and a bowl of snap peas for snacking (in the front). In the middle is a beet (kind of hidden behind the bowl of snap peas) with its greens still attached. Lettuce, spinach, and bok choy are still gathered on an as-needed basis, since the best way to store them is in the ground outside. The cool fall weather is the best refrigerator!

Earlier this week we pulled most of our turnips. Like most people, I'm not a huge lover of this vegetable, but these were so beautiful: Seriously, these are some perfect turnips. Ah, but what to do with them? We always think about eating the greens, but we never manage to pick them when they are small enough — and these leaves get big, spiny, and out of control really fast. So we always end up with actual turnips. We took our turnips and made them into a meal our family fondly calls "root soup." It's super easy and open to several variations, depending on what root vegetables you want to use. This week's soup uses turnips, sweet potato, and carrot, but you could add other root vegetables. Winter squash (like butternut) could work too. Root Soup 1. Saute onions, garlic, and carrots (all finely chopped) in olive oil, salt and pepper until softened. 2. Put sauteed mixture in a large soup pot. Add cubed (and peeled, for the potatoes) turnips, sweet pot...