Karen's Garden Delights Journal
1st week of June 2011

Garlic Scapes It was a week of delightful weather for working outdoors and there was plenty of work to do. I am weary of watering greenhouse plants so finally most of the tomatoes, peppers and flowers made it into the ground. Another round of green beans was planted and the first sweet corn along with some Bloody Butcher corn meal corn. The garlic is still growing beautifully and this is the time of year they send up their curly flower scape. These get snapped off so more energy goes to bulb production. The scapes are edible and can be used like an onion scallion in soups, stir fries and more and give a prelude of garlic flavor while we wait for the bulbs to mature. With such a large quantity, I am able to take some to Local Roots, try to lacto-ferment them as "dilly scapes," freeze several bags of chopped up scapes, add some to bouquets and even pass them out at my June speaking engagements. There are a number of Amish growers with mountains of scapes and I was excited to be able to help make a connection through Amish Door Farm for an order of 1000 bundles of scapes (a dozen/bundle) to help supply a CSA in Cleveland. Our van was completely packed full when I picked up the scapes from the four growers and the satisfaction of keeping nearly $1000 in the local economy was wonderful. I also have been passing out recipes to growers to hand out to customers and I think once we educate folks on how to use this unusual veggie, more farmers can turn them into a cash crop rather than tossing them in the compost or feeding them to the steers.

Flower Bucket Another crop that I am excited about having more of an outlet for this year are cut flowers. Homespun Flowers is an Amish flower shop about 2 miles away from us and they are glad to purchase high quality local flowers when they can. Here is a bucket of flowers I delivered there this week. Business in their first year (out of their basement) has been so swift that the Weavers are currently erecting a building on the corner of their property that will open sometime in August. Amish weddings are a big part of their business plus they are the only florist in the Mt Eaton/Kidron/Apple Creek area. Stop in and see what is happening at 6500 Zuercher Road and you may end up with flowers from Sue's, Nettie's or my garden plus you can find locally made soap, candles, my handmade cards, many other gift items and even Amish coverings.

Nasturtiums My nasturtium bed is now in full bloom, just in time for Schlonegers Homemade Ice-Cream's request for the first bag of 120 nasturtiums for their event at Quailcrest Herb farm. They made nasturtium pistachio ice-cream plus they purchased lavender sprigs from me for lavender ice cream which tasted delightful. It was definitely worth starting my nasturtiums early in the greenhouse so I could have them in time for this event. I also love adding the colorful nasturtiums to all the salad bags plus there are also borage, johnny jump ups, calendula and pea blossoms. I am planning on teaching a class on edible flowers at Today's Kitchen Store in Wooster in July and you can learn more about those details at their website. To prepare I want to experiment with a couple edible flower recipes and learn how to sugar them for cake decorations in my spare time.