2nd week of October 2008
Beautiful fall days are making it a pleasure to work at putting the last of the summer garden crops to bed. We pulled the last tomato plants and the children made a giant "tomato pie" in the middle of the patch using the leftovers. We are so tired of tomatoes that we didn't even save some for fresh eating. With a frost warning coming, we gathered the last of the peppers and will keep the nicest ones in the fridge to use over the next few weeks. Olin also gathered the last straggling grapes to make his delicious lacto-fermented grape cooler. The grapes also helped create one of the most scrumptious but labor intensive seasonal pleasures - grape tapioca pudding topped with whipped cream. It involves squeezing each grape out by hand, straining out the seeds and blending the skins before mixing them together again to cook with tapioca. Pictured is a spoonful before it was devoured.
As we say goodbye to the summer veggies, the fall crops are becoming mild and delicious with cooler weather. The Black Tuscan kale is again in it's glory. It's nickname "Dinosaur Kale" perhaps comes from it's prehistoric looks. We like adding this sturdy, rippled kale to soups and stirfry. The Red Russian kale is also prolific and I was thankful a visiting aunt was excited to take a large bag home for juicing. Arugula is growing rampant after I let several plants go to seed this spring. I enjoy adding a small amount to spike up salads and one customer tried making an arugula pesto that was tasty over pasta. Savoy and late flat Dutch cabbage will be made into sauerkraut and I have a batch of kimchi lacto-fermenting. Kimchi is a Korean sauerkraut using cabbage, onions, garlic, daikon radish, carrots, ginger and chili peppers mixed with salt and whey. All the ingredients came from my garden except the ginger root and salt.
I don't spend a lot of time keeping track of politics but one political letter caught my eye recently. Author Michael Pollan writes to the President Elect on the importance food policy will play in the next administration. The letter is quite lengthy but brings up some very crucial points in how food policy will affect the energy crisis, climate change, the economy and more. My favorite section is where he encourages the new president to appoint a White House farmer, turn the South Lawn of the White House into a garden and have the first family spend time weeding as an example to the rest of the country. You can read more at Michael Pollan's letter to the President-Elect.
[Return to Garden Journal Page]