Urban farm to table: Arugula pesto

I came home from Memorial Day weekend to an explosion of arugula. With so much to harvest, a pesto made perfect sense.

I planted arugula seeds a month ago. This salad green loves cool rainy weather. 

Just add olive oil, garlic, walnuts and Parmesan and blend it in the Cuisinart. 

Tossed with fresh pasta and some veggies on the side. Mmmmm!

How to plant an urban garden

Our garden is up and running again, though this season we were lazy urban farmers. We chose to buy tomato seedlings instead of growing them ourselves. We bought heirloom plants, mostly from Union Square Green Market. We got black cherry and Aunt Ruby's German Green (below) plants from Silver Heights Farm - an organic nursery with a booth at the market. It has the widest choice of heirlooms, though the plants are very long and leggy. I burried the stems very deeply in the pots to make them stronger as they grow taller. We bought two Cherokee Purple and two Brandywine plants from different vendors at the market. Because we went store-bought, we didn't experiment with new varieties the way we do when we buy seeds from Tomatofest.com, but maybe that's a good thing. We've had some clunkers the past few seasons. This year, we went with our greatest hits. Now, the real work begins - nurturing them to get a bountiful harvest of amazing fruit. We replaced the old Miracle Grow with new organic soil. We fired up the automatic watering system. We pinched the early flowers to give the plants a chance to grow stronger. We fertilized with Jobs Tomato Spikes for the right balance of nutrients. And now, we wait. It will take a couple months, but when the tomatoes come in, they will be truly delicious. There is nothing like a home-grown heirloom!

Of course, we didn't stop at tomatoes. We've got salad greens, arugula, Red Russian kale, sweet bell peppers, Hungarian hot wax peppers, Ichiban Japanese eggplants, and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme - and basil, peppermint, lavender and chives, strawberries and blueberries too!

First Strawberry

Young blueberries

Red Russian Kale

Aunt Ruby's German Green tomato

Basil seedling

Best recipe for ramps

I didn't grow these ramps in my garden - they were farm fresh from the Union Square Green Market. The recipe, however, is my own. Stir-fried with broccoli and drizzled with a soy-hoisin-sweet-chili sauce mixed in relatively equal proportions, the ramps were delicious and the main attraction. I served the dish with a side of faro (because I ran out of both quinoa and brown rice) and was surprised by how well the grain complemented the veggies.
I have always struggled to find a good recipe for ramps each spring, last-resorting to ramps and eggs, which is certainly tasty, but not terribly exciting. Cooking them Asian-style really brought out the best in the wild spring onion. The ramp bulbs maintained their crunch and the greens wilted like spicy spinach. The WOK made all the difference in enhancing the ramps' earthy flavor. This is a recipe I will come back to year after year.

Fresh from the Green Market

Spring flowers make an entrance

On this glorious spring-like day, my hyacinths couldn't resist poking their heads out of the dirt to greet the sun.

This green shoot will become a beautiful purple flower soon

How my orchid grows

Sure it's frigid outside, but in my home this blooming orchid reminds me that spring will be here soon. Every year around this time, the flowers return in all their glory. It's a sight that never gets old.

The Garden Party Is Over

The party's over. Once again, our garden is ready for a long sleep. I've plucked the last tomatoes from the vines and though I see a few flowers here and there, I know they have no chance of fruiting. But there are still some bright spots.

The tomato vines have called it quits

This little eggplant wants to grow up. We'll see...

I'm rooting for these mini bell peppers.

The big bell pepper plants are determined to keep growing

The worms are getting their last meal, munching our collard greens.

Yes, we had some tomatoes

This was the best tomato season we've had in three years, though still not as bountiful as in seasons past. We lost our Brandywine plant to the bunchy top virus, a very unusual disease that makes the plant stop growing and the leaves, well, bunch up. Our Cherokee purple produced mediocre fruit. But the chocolate stripes (below) were delicious and our red and black cherries were equally tasty.

Beefy: our chocolate stripe tomatoes tasted the best.

A tomato medley, including cherries and beefsteaks.

This chocolate stripe is ready for its close up!

Japanese oxhearts are great for roasting.

Ugly, but edible. They can't all be beauties.

Mystery of the missing Mockingbirds

I've written many posts since we started growing blueberries four years ago complaining about Mockingbirds that view our bushes as as nothing more than giant feeders. But this year, despite a bumper crop of blueray berries, the birds are strangely uninterested. We have seen them on nearby buildings and regularly hear them singing. We even sighted one on our terrace recently. But they have not been feeding on our juicy fruit. Sure, the berries are a little tart, but could that be it. The berries just aren't to their liking this season? Are these birds such connoisseurs that they are rejecting our fruit? Our neighbors Michele and Charles across the street grow blueberries as well. Are the birds stocking up there? I should be overjoyed. After all, when they come, they babble, chirping with verve outside our bedroom window at 5:30 a.m. And when they nosh, they take the berries just before they're perfectly ripe, which leaves us with little worth eating for ourselves. So, I'm thrilled that the birds have found blue-r pastures. I'm just trying to make sense of it all.

A bumper blueberry crop has not attracted Mockingbirds this year

Ants and aphids make for a gruesome garden

Sometimes, rather than bucolic idylls, gardens can be horror shows. Like when you discover squishy white aphids all over your beautiful Japanese eggplant, just as the flowers are beginning to bloom. Couple them with ants crawling all over the plant, not to eat the aphids, but to protect them, and its enough to turn a sunny day black indeed. Turns out that ants are sort of aphid farmers that sup on the tiny bugs' "honeydew"--a sweet secretion they produce. As soon as I discovered this unappetizing scene I went to work to salvage the plant. I pulled out my spray bottle of soapy water and washed away as many of the small bugs as I could (and there were hundreds, maybe even thousands!) Then I sprayed the Ichiban eggplant with Safer Insect Killer (I hate to use it but aphids are tenacious and will kill your plant.) Finally, I squirted tiny blobs of Combat ant killer (it comes in a syringe-like tube) on the pot rim where ants were swarming. Just minutes later, I witnessed a gruesome sight: ants feasting on the poison which is engineered to attract them. An orgy of delight for such a fortuitous meal ensued. The ants were of course unaware of the consequences: certain death. After two treatments, I am happy to report that the aphids and the ants were seriously depleted! But vigilance is a must. Aphids are hard to eradicate entirely. They often return on the young leaves. Still, the plant is back to healthy and plenty of eggplants are growing. What a relief!

This gorgeous eggplant was growing beautifully

But then I noticed aphids.  They are the tiny white dots

Combat attracts ants who eat it and then bring the poison into the nest

This feast will end badly

Healthy again. The lovely purple flower could become a Japanese eggplant in a few weeks

Roast tomatoes to bring out the flavor

In a recent post I said our late season tomatoes tasted good, even though they looked bad. But that's before I picked a few that weren't quite as delicious as I had hoped.  The season may be over now, but I still have a few last tomatoes ripening in a bag. I can almost guarantee that they won't be good to eat without some doctoring. It is especially true for the Japanese oxheart variety, a sort of pink plum tomato that we planted for the first time this year. They just didn't turn out well, even before the frost. But when they are tossed in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees, with a splash of olive oil, salt and garlic, the mediocre, mushy tomatoes are transformed into fragrant, flavorful, juicy treats. I've been serving them over pasta with a little grated Parmesan. Mmm.

Roasted tomatoes from the garden with garlic, salt and peppers.

Cold weather could spell end of the harvest

The spring-like fall has been great for our tomato plants. Stubbornly barren all summer, they sprang into action in September and have been producing fruit ever since. But with the mercury suddenly dropping and the threat of frost, the late tomato surge may be for naught. That big fat Brandywine beefsteak below may end up as a fried green tomato.
This time of year is always one of life and death in the garden, with new flowers sprouting beside dry brown leaves. I am always optimistic and believe that the growth cycle will continue endlessly, until the first frost arrives.    

This Brandywine may never ripen

Maybe these black cherries will turn rosy in a paper bag

Lonely Serrano pepper is ready to eat

My Red Russian kale will keep growing, even in colder weather

Not pretty, but late season tomatoes taste good

We were shut out all summer, but now our tomato plants are giving us a little fruit. They don't look terribly attractive. They're cracked and pocked. They're not very red. Still, when you cut them open and take a bite, they're pretty tasty. They don't have the flavor of juicy, mid-summer tomatoes, with that perfect balance of acidity and sweetness. And they're smaller by far. But they're still better than anything you can get in a store.  Nothing is ever as good as homegrown. So, thank you tomato plants, for finally coming through. Better late than never!

Cherokee Purple tomatoes

Meager harvest better than nothing!

More fun with Serrano pepper recipes

Our Serrano pepper plant finally offered up its last fruits on the weekend. But the cooking is hardly done. I have dozens of them in the fridge. A few weeks ago, I made these roasted chiles with a recipe suggested by my friend Kim in Texas. Eat one of these babies and it will burn your face off! Really. Another idea, chop up one or two of them to add to dishes that need some spice. Though they're usually picked green, I could not keep up with them and some ripened to a rosy red. They're still hot as...

Freshly washed peppers from the garden

Flatten the peppers with a large knife; be sure to wear gloves or you might get hot hands

Coat with oil (I used canola) and saute in a skillet on med/high heat

When the skin is browned and bubbled (on both sides), they're ready to eat. But proceed with caution!

Ripe tomatoes at last

Tomatoes! We've finally got some tomatoes! If this were July, we'd be thrilled. But it has taken until September to finally see a ripe tomato. Well, better late than never. These black cherries will be sitting in a salad by later tonight.

Some of the beefsteaks are coming along too. Maybe by the time we're back from vacation next week, an heirloom Cherokee Purple (above) or Brandywine (below) will be ready to pluck. 

We're still waiting for Aunt Ruby's German Greens (below) to ripen. They get to be a deeper shade when they're ready to eat.

All told, we won't get much of a harvest, but for all the trouble of growing these puppies from seed to vine, at least we'll get a small taste of deliciousness for fall.

Recipes starring Serrano chilies

Sure I'd like to be cooking with tomatoes about now, but since our tomato harvest was a bust  (I'm still holding out hope for the green fruit that has finally sprouted on our vines) I've started preparing some fun dishes with our Serrano peppers. We have one very productive plant, and faced with an abundance of hot chilies, I began seeking out recipes calling for them. I found one for Chicken Enchiladas Verdes at Simply Recipes through Tastebook (my favorite food app). I'm new to cooking Mexican food (though not eating it) so it was a fun experience and it turned out to be a tasty--and spicy--meal.  Fresh corn salad with cucumber, cherry tomato (from a farm stand), red onion, cilantro and a mustard vinaigrette  made the perfect side dish.  Next, I will try my own hot sauce with a recipe from my friend Kim in Tejas. I can already feel the burn!

Oh, p.s., if you are cooking with hot peppers be sure to wear gloves! I got a case of hot hands last week that kept me up half the night. After trying soap and water, aloe, olive oil, and a few other Web remedies, I rubbed ripe banana all over my hands and the burning finally subsided. Maybe the enzymes in the fruit neutralized the capsaicin. I'm just glad it worked.

Yummy chicken enchiladas made with my Serrano chilies

Blueberry bird feeder

That didn't take long! I removed the nets from my blueberry bushes and within days the Mockingbirds were back. I woke this morning to the sound of chirp chirp.

I thought they'd left town since I hadn't seen or heard from them since one had slipped under the net and I had to help it get out. That was a few weeks ago.But these are persistent little buggers. As I peered out my window, I saw the grey bird on the terrace railing, berry in beak. It did a head tilt, a quick swallow and off it went, laughing, I'm sure.

Well, it's end of season and there are just a few berries left so what the heck. Go to town little critters. Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

This Jersey berry bush was netted last week. Now it's fair game for the birds.

Green tomatoes

Finally, we have tomatoes. Tiny green ones, that is. This will go down as the worst summer on record for our garden. Our tomato plants just never took off. We were a little late getting them in their pots this season, planting them all by mid-June. But I thought they'd catch up. They should be tall and full by now. Instead, the poor things are thin and spindly and they haven't produced at all.The rainy June didn't help.Nor did the steamy July. Our harvest should be rolling at this point, but instead our plants have just begun to fruit. If we're lucky, if we don't get blossom rot, a hurricane or some other mishap, we might have tomatoes by late Sept. Wow, what a disappointment!
Fortunately, the lettuce, eggplants, peppers and herbs are doing well. I got a few cukes too, though not the harvest I'd hoped for, and the heatwave knocked off the vines. I was able to save our blueberries from the mockingbirds by netting them.
Still, without tomatoes, I'd have to call the season a bust.

These plants are way behind schedule.

The eggplants are tasty, stir-fried with some green market onions.

The lettuce has been loving it this summer. I have had salad all season long.

NYC Composts - and so can you!

Check out this story in Crain's New York Business by Miriam Souccar (and edited by me!) about New Yorkers who compost their food waste, even when family and friends say its gross. These folks are ahead of the curve. Soon enough, the whole city will be expected to compost. I personally can't wait!

Every time she so much as peels a carrot, Denise Oliveira takes the waste and stores it in a bag in her freezer instead of throwing it in the garbage. Her freezer is often so full of scraps that there is no room for actual food, but that's the only way Ms. Oliveira can compost without smelling up her small Manhattan apartment.
Once a week, she lugs the bags to a composting bin at the Union Square Greenmarket. Ms. Oliveira, who learned about composting from her mother in Brazil, started doing it a year ago in observance of Lent. Her brother thinks it's gross, and her friends think she's weird. Even Ms. Oliveira admits that composting in New York City is not for the squeamish. "Sometimes you get to the green market and the bin is already piled up so high that you are placing your scraps on this overflowing mountain," said Ms. Oliveira, a freelance writer.
"It is absolutely disgusting."
 Ms. Oliveira is one of a small but growing number of New Yorkers who are finding ways to compost, even with the considerable handicaps of tiny living spaces...Read more at Crain's New York

Season's slow start

Between knee surgery this winter and the rainy spring our gardening season has gotten off to a slow start. We were late to plant our tomato seedlings and did not get them into their pots till mid-June. And now they are taking their sweet time growing. They're still tiny, and have yet to flower. By July they should be twice as big.

We're having better luck with lettuce which likes chilly wet weather.

Our tomato plants are so puny.

At least our basil is growing strong. In fact, we just made our first batch of pesto. (I was lucky to catch a little sun for these photos.)

I've already harvested two cucumbers. I hope this flowering plant bears more fruit!

Our flowers are doing the best of all. The hydrangea is the biggest and fullest its ever been. I love the pink blooms. But veggies are the main event for us. I hope the season isn't a total wash out!