After much deliberation (and a healthy dose of procrastination), I’ve finally selected and plotted my intentions for the 2010 garden.
It might seem awfully early to some, but seeds must be ordered, delivered and started before a springtime sowing in late May can be accomplished.
This year will be interesting for a number of reasons.
Primarily because I’m going to be trying to grow a couple crowns of asparagus for the first time, but I’m also attempting rare French strawberries from seed, as well as leeks, garlic and chard.
As you can see from my crude 10,000 foot drawing, there are lots of different veggies being installed, as well as a small bee garden that I hope will attract a healthy amount of polinators to our rooftop sanctuary. We had a bit of a problem with the lack of bees last year, though I’m not sure if it was due to colony collapse or the overall shitty weather, but it can’t hurt to encourage them with a pretty flower garden.
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Tags: asparagus, beans, beets, carrots, chard, Clover Roads Organic Farms, Gardening, garlic, herbs, Heritage Harvest Seed, leeks, lettuce, Lists, peas, peppers, Purveyors, Richter's, Salt Spring Seeds, shallots, tomatoes, Urban Harvest, Vesey's, West Coast Seeds
Posted in Gardening, Lists | 2 Comments »
On Saturday afternoon I began to wrack my brain for something nomlicious to have for dinner.
I’d been to Terroni earlier in the day to procure a jar of pepperoncini for ‘nduja after grinding all 4 bags of dried chillies came up short. As an educational aside, grinding that many chillies in a mini prep can be hazardous to your health because the fiery dust will get lodged in your nose and lungs. The preserved pepperoncini were intensely spicy and salty, and surprisingly delicious all on their own. Once the initial blast of heat wore off, they had a wonderful lingering finish. I wanted to incorporate this interesting new condiment into our evening meal, but was drawing a blank on how to do so.
Being a somewhat rainy spring day, and also owing to the Everyman not feeling entirely top notch, a tart seemed to be the perfect compromise of a meal. Several flavor combinations were considered but rejected once I realized that pepperoncini would completely drown out anything else. I wanted to use a bit of guanciale, because you can’t really go wrong with pork fat of any description, so I built the flavor profile around that. Next I contemplated a medley of potatoes and pears that I originally envisioned as some form of pave but in the end became small chunks. To round it all out I added some sliced leeks and rosemary, sauteed in a pan and stuffed it into pre-made puff pastry shells.
The pepperoncini was still on my mind, so I grabbed a few Paris toasts, smeared them with the flaming paste and topped them with small knobs of caciocavallo. A brief blast of heat from the oven and I had perfect fiery-cheesy croutons to top off my salad. And the verdict? I liked it, the Everyman liked it, but next time I’d probably cut down on the pear a tad and cook the potatoes further before stuffing them into pastry. Recipe proportions have been adequately adjusted to reflect those preferences. (more…)
Tags: Cooking, guanciale, leeks, pastry, pears, pepperoncini, potatoes, Recipes, rosemary, tart, Terroni
Posted in Cooking, Recipes | 1 Comment »
