Behold the blueberry bush May 14, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle I’ve never had much appetite for blue food. Apart from the sky, blue is rare in nature, and even more so on the plate. A delphinium blossom or a huge, iridescent Morpho butterfly are both miracles of blueness. But I pass up those Peruvian blue potatoes in favor of golden ones, and the same goes …
Dandelions are health-giving, even life-saving April 30, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle If every plant is here for a purpose, then few have as full an agenda as the dandelion. For starters, few plants announce spring with as much fanfare. Those joyous little yellow dots are everywhere you look, thanks to the plant’s talent at procreation. It needs no pollinating insect to set its fuzzy balls of …
Nasturtiums add color, texture to any dish April 16, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle An old friend of mine was recalling the first time he ate a nasturtium garnish. “It didn’t taste bad, but I felt a little weird about putting it in my mouth. It was so big, and orange, and soft. Not like food. As if I were eating the napkin.” I asked him if he felt …
One potato, two potato, three potato…more! April 2, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden When the grass starts to grow, it’s time to plant potatoes, or so the old saying goes. But how many gardeners are rushing out to plant a vegetable so humble, homely, lumpy and brown? Historically, the potato is an important survival food that has seen humankind through times of war and famine. But nothing to …
Shape your booty in the garden March 19, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle The famous homesteader Helen Nearing once told me that gardening was her tennis, her golf and her calisthenics. “I bend, stretch, leap and drop every day,” she explained. Helen had built a stone house in her 70s and was still growing her own food in her 90s. Her husband, Scott Nearing, who died at 100, …
Garden to plate can be a waiting game March 5, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle According to Albert Einstein, time is relative. I once saw a TV interview in which he said, by way of explanation, that time passes more quickly when you spend it with a beautiful woman. As we all know, time nearly stands still when you are waiting to find out when your delayed plane will take …
Tangy leaf for salads, soups and sauces February 19, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle The 21st century has seen many old European salad crops — such as arugula, mache and radicchio — become popular in America, boldly going where only iceberg lettuce had gone before. Sorrel, oddly enough, has yet to arrive. In France, it’s as popular as spinach, and in the days when Paris was ringed with market …
Preparing for this year’s garden January 30, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle The stack of mail was heavy with seed catalogs throughout December and January. Now it’s noisy with the swish and rattle of seeds. Seductive little envelopes whisper “Plant me” to the winter-weary gardener. Yet it’s still too early for most spring planting, outdoors or in. Resist those voices. Seedlings sown prematurely grow tall and spindly …
Touting tatsoi greens in winter January 15, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle New ethnic vegetables enter the culinary scene all the time, and the best become multicultural, eventually. Tatsoi, for instance, may not be a household word yet in your kitchen, but in mine it refers to an Asian green, international in scope. When I overwinter it in our unheated greenhouse, I use it almost every day. …
For the love of leeks January 1, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle “Oh, oh, oh…,” our dinner guest murmured. “Where did you get these lovely little leeks?” In June it would have been a compliment, but that November, thanks to a delayed planting, my leeks were a pitiful size, lovely or not. With winter varieties, size counts. You want a beefy leek, a stouthearted leek to hold …
