When I was growing up, we had an insulated metal box outside the side door to the kitchen. This is where the milkman left our regular delivery of milk and eggs and butter and such.
Does that make me an antique? Many of you may be too young to remember the milk man. He arrived [...]
Entries from April 2008
Dairy Delivered
April 30th, 2008 · 19 Comments · Uncategorized
Tags: dairy·local farming·local foods
Viva el Cubano!
April 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
They say you can’t get an authentic Cubano sandwich outside Miami and I tend to believe it. Ingredients can be extremely local. I can’t image a true lobster roll, for instance, without a top-cut bun, and top-cut buns aren’t available outside certain areas of New England.
Still, we continuously try to duplicate the flavors, the [...]
Tags: Cuba·pork·sandwiches
Spring Cuisine with the Historical Society
April 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Recently the garden group I work with– D.C. Urban Gardeners–received a totally unexpected e-mail. It seems the Historical Society of D.C. was looking for someone to put together a series of practical garden talks. They’d first contacted the U.S. Botanical Gardens and–surprise, surprise–the Botanical Gardens had recommended us.
We were thrilled and flattered. There was [...]
Tags: garden talks
Weekend Update
April 27th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Uncategorized
I got a phone call from an exasperated spouse yesterday afternoon. “We’re waiting in line to recycle. It’s a total mess!” she complained.
Turns out she wasn’t the only one. About three times the expected crowd turned out with their electronics devices and other hazardous wastes for the annual municipal pickup at Carter Baron Amphitheater here [...]
Breakfast: Greens Squared
April 26th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
You knew it was coming, didn’t you?
The mustard greens we braised on Thursday are even better two days later. Turns out my 8 1/2-inch square baking pan makes nine portions of lasagna with rutabaga greens. So this morning, I am looking at greens every which way.
And the best part may be, these were all [...]
Tags: breakfast·greens·lasagna·overwintered
Mustard Greens Just in Time
April 25th, 2008 · No Comments · Uncategorized
We had a party of seven drop in for dinner last night. Fortunately, they brought their own park roast. We cleaned the potatoes out of the pantry, tossed together a salad with croutons and I happened to remember there was a bed of mustard greens about to go to seed out in the garden.
This [...]
Tags: entertaining·greens·overwintered·spri
Lasagna with Rutabaga Greens
April 22nd, 2008 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
When I recently harvested the rutabaga that had overwintered in the garden I faced a terrible dilemma: What to do with the greens?
I hate to throw away any kind of food and I just assumed the green leafy parts of the rutabaga would be tough and bitter. But a funny thing happened on the [...]
We’re in The Washington Post
April 22nd, 2008 · No Comments · Uncategorized
The Washington Post this weekend ran a feature in its Sunday Source section on gardening in containers. They asked me, the kitchen gardener, to come up with a design for for an edible container scheme.
Gardening in containers is a great idea if you are short of space or want to be able to move your [...]
Tags: container gardens·press·salad
Garden Progress Report
April 22nd, 2008 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
You know you’ve caught the gardening fever when you are swept away by your fava beans. Favas are an architectural wonder. The leaf structures are fascinating. These plants are six inches tall now and bursting with energy.
Last summer I planted turnips for the fall and had the hardest time getting them to germinate. [...]
Teaching Teachers to Garden
April 21st, 2008 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized
Each year one of the groups I work with, D.C. Schoolyard Greening, holds a two-day workshop aimed at helping more teachers create gardens at their schools. This is the second year that we’ve held our hands-on session at the Washington Youth Garden in the National Arboretum. In the picture at left, Gilda Allen, of [...]
Tags: school gardens
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.
