Garden Update

We have strawberries! Early last Sunday morning when Willem and I picked and ate the first handful, we were two very happy people. They are shiny, sweet, and perfect. (Unfortunately, this means that our pug is a greater pest about trying to get through the garden fence than he was last summer when green beans were his main prize.) I love strawberries as much as any food in the whole world, but I feel especially gratified that our own plants are producing because we planted them two summers ago and nothing had happened until now. I knew the first season we wouldn't get anything, but then as last year's early summer turned into midsummer, I had to fess up to my own worries when Willem asked, for the hundredth time, when the strawberries would grow, that maybe... they wouldn't? And they never did last summer, even though the leaves grew big and looked like they meant business. I definitely have some things to learn about growing berries, but it is such a delight for now to see this red garden candy calling to us from among the greenery every time we find ourselves nearby. We've gotten a bigger bowl full each time we've picked throughout the week. We're also feeling rich in wild ones growing in the grass. 

We've eaten our strawberries chopped up in fruity yogurt popsicles, and on Willem's birthday sundaes.

I'm feeling satisfied with some other aspects of the garden even if they aren't as show-stopping as berries. The garden has come a long way since its meager, late beginnings this spring. It was such a long cold winter, that both the weather and my mindset contributed to everything starting quite a bit later than usual. But I eventually caught the bug again and I'm optimistic. 

Gordie doesn't usually get too involved in the garden, but back in May he did the lion's share of the work in hacking up all the sod between and around the six raised beds and then pinning down landscaping fabric to keep down the weeds. We then dumped a bunch of bark mulch on that. So now it looks neat and tidy around the edges, which has so far been keeping me motivated to keep the gardens themselves weeded to match. Last year the mower didn't fit between the garden beds and the weed whacker didn't mix well with the wimpy garden fence, so we had incredibly discouraging strips of lush grass going to seed between all the beds. No more.

Willem is often interested in helping with some of the garden jobs, and he was especially involved when we were just getting it started. His help is sometimes truly a help, as when he carted armload after armload of sod and weeds and brush we were producing to the woods while we worked, and sometimes not, as when he wanted to use his own shovel to help remove the sod and needed to work exactly wherever Daddy was currently working (meaning Daddy could no longer work). But, his participation is always adorable. Here he is carefully planting peas:                                        

Here was one of our first asparagus shoots this spring (another moment of gratification, having planted the crowns two years ago):

I let the potatoes dry out for a day after cutting them, before planting them-- two varieties this year: red and fingerling.

 Things finally got going mid-May. Peas back then:

 and lettuces making their appearance:

And here are some pictures from last week. These are the asparagus fronds. We enjoyed breaking off the spears at ground level and eating them for three weeks straight, then we let them go. We get to harvest all the spears that come up for an increasing number of weeks each year to let the plants establish themselves to come back year after year for a long time.                                

The tomato garden is on the left. They look pretty packed, but they each have at least a square foot. I learned recently that it's a good idea to prune them to focus on the central growing stem. This is supposed to help with higher yields and better disease resistance, by directing energy to producing tomatoes rather than to unnecessary foliage. It involves pruning any leaves touching the soil because those leaves are more prone to pest problems, pruning all "suckers" (little shoots at a 45 degree angle between the junction of the stem branch and a leaf), and pruning some leaves in the interior of the plant to let in more light and air flow. 

On the right is: squash at the back (I've since put a trellis there for it to grow on to keep it cleaner and neater), cucumber, beans, beets, a broccoli I'm trying for the first time this year, and carrots.

Thinnings we ate:
This is the strawberry bed:

 Snap and shell peas (and a couple more broccoli at the back):

One thing I have not enveloped into my gardening practices is succession planting. With some things like lettuce that we can't preserve at all, it would be ideal to plant some every couple of weeks through much of the summer so a small amount is always ready. I tend to plant all of it, or all I can fit, all at once and I feel pretty pleased just to get it in the ground. 

Right now the lettuce garden looks really pretty and healthy, but we are not going to be able to keep up with this much lettuce. It's so perfect and fresh, with no wilted pieces like you always get from the store, not even bug-chewed leaves. We've been eating all our favorite big salads lately. When I pick it I cut it all off in a given area an inch or two from the ground and it keeps coming back amazing quickly, for a good part of the summer. Lettuces are in the front, red potatoes at the back:

Fingerling potatoes and garlic:

I didn't get a picture of the herb garden, which we also massively de-weeded and overhauled to be a predominantly basil garden for the pesto days ahead...

On Turning Four, Granita, and Using up a lot of Watermelon

This wildflower-picking, fun-loving, sweet child is growing up!

He is nearly four years old, so we recently had a birthday party for him. It was neat to see him having so much fun running around with a mob of little friends from various pockets of his young life. Running, literally, seemed to largely be the activity of choice, whether it was running after bubbles, running in and out of the kiddie pool (because it was too cool to actually swim in), running through the sprinkler, or just running laps for the sake of running and laughing. Here are a couple photos that attempt to capture all the movement.

I couldn't mention the party without including a photo of this year's cake, created by my talented sister-- a farm, per Willem's request:

Other than cake, we had lunch that included a lot of watermelon at this party, and then had a lot of watermelon leftover afterward (a big melon and a half plus some that had been sliced. I estimated pretty well on all the other dishes. But apparently not everyone eats this iconic summer fruit in the same quantities that our favorite almost-four-year-old does). Gordie had the bright idea of trying to make something with it to preserve it rather than simply trying to eat record amounts of it in record time before it rotted. 

So I thought of trying a watermelon granita. 

Granita is so pure and refreshing, and I've liked it whenever I've had it. Last winter, I had fun making an Alice Waters recipe for citrus granita with grapefruit, then later with Cara Cara oranges-- both versions we tried as she suggested, served on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream, for a fun texture combination and a creamsicle effect. 

I've also had granita made with coffee. I was excited when I saw this Smitten Kitchen post last summer on granita di caffe con panna, coffee granita with whipped cream, inspired by the coffee granita at the same coffee shop in Rome where we ordered it when we were there a few years ago. The cold, caffeinated cups of it were the perfect pick-me-up on the hot, hot July afternoon we ate it while we sat on a stoop on a narrow street in view of the Pantheon, a stone's throw away. 

Granita is easy and basic (just crushed ice). I'm a big fan of most frozen and/or fruity desserts. It doesn't have to be rich or involve cream. As luck would have it, Willem is on the same page as me on this. He will just as happily accept this icy fruit juice served as dessert as he will something heavier. And it seems like the perfect thing for summer. It's just juiced fruit, usually with a little lemon or lime juice, and a little sugar. So, I looked up quantities I ought to use for a watermelon version and went to it. 

After chunking up the watermelon and blending it with the lime juice and sugar, you pour it into a pan then fork it occasionally over the next few hours as ice crystals form throughout. A fork works fine, but I like the Alice Waters tip of using a pastry blender to do the job, especially when big chunks start to form.

Are you impressed by my available freezer space? Last weekend we dragged the freezer outside, and hosed and thawed the thing out, a fun task we'd been talking about doing for some time. We gained a ridiculous amount of freezer space back as a result, and this picture was taken before we moved most things back into it from the other freezer.

Garnished with some of the first fruits from our strawberry patch

While this made quite a good amount of granita (nearly two full 6-cup containers of it), it only used up the watermelon that had been already sliced for the party. So, I decided to use up most of the remaining watermelon I had sitting around by making it into juice which it seemed, after poking around online for a bit, could be used for several fun summery beverages-- plain watermelon juice, which Willem happily sampled two cups of straight off ("Oh Mommy, I will like you more if you make this juice again"), or watermelon margaritas, or sangria... So I chopped and blended the watermelons then strained the puree to get a beautiful red juice. A small pitcherful I put in the fridge; the rest I froze in cubes, which I later dumped into freezer bags, to thaw and use for various delicious beverages as the mood strikes...  

And here's a couple pictures of the delicious pink grapefruit granita I made back in February:

Watermelon Granita

from The Pioneer Woman blog

about 8 C watermelon chunks (no rinds)

1/3 C sugar

2 limes, juiced

Put half the watermelon, half the lime juice, and half the sugar in a blender. Blend until smooth, then pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Repeat with the other half of ingredients, and pour that in the pan as well.

Freeze for a couple hours, then fork it or use a pastry blender to scrape up the frozen bits and stir it occasionally until the whole pan is granulated ice. Store in a freezer-safe container. It will then stay crystallized in the freezer for as long as you want it. Just scoop out and enjoy. For fun, garnish with strawberries, blueberries, mint, or other summer fruit. 

Grapefruit/Citrus Granita

from Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food II

2 1/2 lbs. red grapefruit or other citrus

1/4 C sugar

tiny pinch of salt

2 T lemon juice (juice from about 1/2 a lemon*)

*We found fresh lemon juice really mattered here. The bottled juice left too strong of a taste in the finished granita. 

Juice the grapefruit for about 2 cups of juice. Pour 1/2 cup of the juice into a saucepan with the sugar and salt. Heat, stirring, until the sugar is just dissolved. Pour into the remaining juice. Stir in lemon juice.**

Pour into a 9 x 13 pan and freeze. Stir every hour or so as it develops ice crystals and becomes slushy. Chop or scrape when solid. Transfer to a container and keep frozen. 

Enjoy by itself or sprinkled over vanilla ice cream for a creamsicle flavor. 

**Alice also suggests as a variation stirring in 1/4 C of Campari at this point before freezing, which I am sure based on my experience with these cocktails, would be delicious and make the granita an even more beautiful color.