What makes this an unusual salad is that the herbs in this recipe play a leading role, complementing the cannellini (small white) beans as equal partners instead of minor players. Think of the herbs in this recipe more as greens than flavor enhancers. It’s a great way to use large amounts of fresh herbs from the garden. It’s super easy, super delicious, and super nutritious; herbs are known to have extremely high levels of phytonutrients. Continue reading
Category Archives: Gardening
Let the Growing Season Begin!
The first time I joined a community-supported agriculture (CSA), almost ten years ago, its kickoff late on a Thursday afternoon sent me racing out of the office at the end of the day. The first week’s bounty included lettuce greens, herbs, onions, kohlrabi, radishes. Adults chatted and children hopped around like happy rabbits as we waited for strawberries to arrive. After a long winter, we all hungered for fresh food. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Kale Salad Like You’ve Never Imagined
Here’s another fabulous recipe from Sweet Amandine‘s Jessica Fechtor, just in case one wasn’t enough! You will not be sorry. In case you were wondering, kale happens to be one of those cold-weather vegetables that continues to grow even after the first frost. In fact, sometimes it seems like the frost kicks it into high gear. Try this recipe with whatever kale you can get your hands on, whether from the grocery store, or your own garden, or someone else’s. And thank you! to my friend Suze, who stopped by this week with a big bunch of kale from her family’s own prodigious garden. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Garlic Asparagus with Lime
If it’s spring, it’s asparagus time. Unless your hens got into the asparagus bed at the end of last summer and dug it all up, like happy pigs. In which case it is still asparagus time, but — this year — at the supermarket. And it is back to the drawing board for your own asparagus bed, which took the requisite three years to mature and was started in 2012. Which would have made this year number four. Just saying. Continue reading
Potatoes, Horseradish, and Other Gifts from the Compost Pile
A few years ago, when winter was coming to an end and spring was still soggy and cold, I discovered a lone organic* potato in my kitchen. It is important to specify organic here because conventionally grown potatoes are much less likely to root and generate offspring. It was dried out, wrinkly, and way past edible. At least six baby roots were beginning to form on the skin. I decided to try an experiment. I cut that potato into six small chunks, each containing a single rootlet. I dug a trench in the garden on the far side of my backyard, and dropped the pieces into the trench, about 1 foot apart. I covered them with dirt and waited. A few weeks later, when potato buds began to push up through the mud, I covered them with more dirt and waited again. I kept covering the buds until I forgot about them completely, distracted as I was by other projects. Later that summer, I found a group of straggly potato plants on the far side of the backyard, and when I finally got around to digging up those potato plants, I discovered many beautiful, golden-skinned, new potatoes, perfect in every way. Continue reading