We’ve surprised even ourselves with the vigor of our broccoli rape so far. Planted in seed trays the first week of August, and transplanted into the garden September 7, our rape has grown big, broad leaves and is 18 inches tall. No sign of florets yet. But can they be too far behind?
Though related to common [...]
Entries from September 2009
Happy Broccoli Rape
September 30th, 2009 · No Comments · garden
Tags: broccoli rape
Succulent Oxtail Stew
September 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Recipes
Oxtail–or tail of beef–is one of the most deeply flavorful of all meats, so I was thrilled to see it offered for delivery by our local dairy. Famous in oxtail soup, this is a cut you want to braise for a long time. Unctuous and soothing, oxtail matches perfectly with the root vegetables being harvested [...]
Tags: beef·braise·root vegetables·stew
Breakfast
September 28th, 2009 · No Comments · breakfast, garden
Eggs poached in curried okra stew.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Shopping: none
Food gardening is more like jazz than a symphony. You always have to be ready to improvise, depending on what’s in season. This okra stew usually calls for zucchini and sweet potato leaves. But our champion okra plants have lapped the zucchini and we are out [...]
A Home For Your Kitchen Scraps
September 27th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Sustainability, garden, urban agriculture
Making compost is a second occupaton for The Slow Cook. Since we garden organically, without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, our source of fertility consists of what’s in the ground already and what we add to it in the form of compost. Being in the city, about a mile from Michelle Obama’s White House garden here [...]
Tags: compost·kitchen scraps
Connecting Schools With Local Farms
September 26th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Sustainability, kids
This week was the big rollout of our local farm to school network here in the District of Columbia, but for me it was more like a tale of two cities.
My job was to give food demonstrations to the kids in two elementary schools, one a predominantly white school in an affluent area of the [...]
Teaching Kids About Fat
September 25th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Wellness, kids
“How many of you like fat?”
I’m sure the kids in my food appreciation classes were dealing with a mental picture of a big tub of Crisco when I asked that question. Initially I was greeted with silence and blank stares. But when I explained that fat is not only necessary for health, but makes food [...]
Tags: fats
Fearless–Or Just Trendy?–Critic
September 24th, 2009 · No Comments · food news
Publication of a new dining guide for our home town is reason for celebration. So when we received our copy of Fearless Critic covering the Washington, DC, area I felt a bit like Steve Martin’s character in The Jerk, who is swept away when the new phone book arrives with his name in it. I wanted [...]
Tags: restaurants
Breakfast
September 23rd, 2009 · 1 Comment · breakfast
Fried eggs with pork puddin’ and braised green beans.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Shopping, none.
Pork “pudding” is very similar to scrapple, except that it doesn’t have any grain in it. Both contain odd bits of the pig. But scrapple typically is bound together with corn meal.
We get our pork puddin’ delivered from our dairy, South Mountain Creamery, [...]
Tags: eggs·green beans·pork
A Big Fat Tax On Carbs
September 22nd, 2009 · 17 Comments · food news
An idea that’s gaining increasing currency lately is a possible tax on soft drinks as a way to raise money for health care and perhaps discourage people from getting fat drinking too much soda.
A recent study by the University of California at Los Angeles found that adults who drink one or more sodas a day [...]
Tags: glycemic index·taxes
Fried Okra, Eggplant And Green Tomato
September 21st, 2009 · 4 Comments · Recipes, garden
I normally don’t require a recipe to fry my okra. But I took a cruise through my cookbook library to consider my options and ran across this intriguing entry from Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking. The so-called lowcountry refers to the area around Charleston, South Carolina, and its coastal plain. It boasts it’s own culture and [...]
Tags: eggplant·fry·green tomatoes·okra
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, one mile from the White House.
