local food
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Here’s a second recipe for kale and garlic scape pesto. The first uses walnuts and Parmesan cheese and can be found here. Get out the food processor and place it on the counter. Measure the following and place in the bowl of the food processor in the same order: Two thirds cup raw pine nuts… Read more
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Garlic growing happened in our home garden. After randomly planting it in a plot where it propagated year after year without care, last October I planted cloves the way I learned from my friend and mentor Susan Jutz. I harvested 20 head of garlic this morning. What made this year different was devoting time to… Read more
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Beginning Monday, I’ll be covering the editor’s desk for Trish Nelson at Blog for Iowa for the month of July. Everyone needs a vacation and Trish works harder and more persistently than most to get a progressive message up every weekday. That means a lot of writing for me. It also means I get better… Read more
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It has already been a good year for our garden. We’re just getting started. Yesterday I picked first broccoli, along with cucumbers and cilantro. The ice box is jammed with garlic scapes, greens, beets, turnips, lettuce, sugar snap peas, celery, herbs and much more. Yet to come are pears, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, zucchini, and… Read more
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There is little point in growing a garden if one doesn’t use the produce. Yesterday I made the first pick of arugula and sugar snap peas for a classic dish with farfalle. Preparation is done while the pasta is cooking and the result makes the effort worth it. Put six ounces of dry farfalle pasta… Read more
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The garden and yard were excessively dry Saturday morning so I watered the vegetables. Couple of hours later it rained, then cleared up in time for a wedding at Wapsipinicon State Park. It was a lovely day for a wedding, and for living in Iowa. We could use more lovely days… and more rain. I… Read more
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Fridays in Spring I soil-block for a farmer. Yesterday I made 4,944 soil blocks which were planted in winter share. Leeks, broccoli and the like. It took four hours. While driving north on Highway One I nodded off for a brief moment. After realizing it I sat upright, glanced in the mirror and concentrated on… Read more
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In the end it didn’t rain. The forecast had been rain for a couple of days. The weather radar looked ominous Saturday at 4 a.m. It was heading our way. At sunrise I went to the garden to beat the rain. Our garden is big enough to engage a person for hours — weeding, harvesting, planting,… Read more
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Wednesday I worked from sunrise until 2:30 p.m. in the yard and garden. Ambient temperatures rose only to 89 degrees, and the relatively cooler day enabled me to work longer. Early hours were harvesting spinach and spring onions, weeding, planting Red Rocket peppers, tending seedlings in the garage, and installing nine feet of fencing for… Read more
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For the second day in a row ambient temperatures reached the high 90s with a “feels like” over 100 degrees. Farmers and gardeners were up at sunrise and curtailed outdoor activities by noon — a simple adaptation to unseasonable weather. It was too damn hot. While picking up the final spring share at the farm… Read more
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