1000 pizza doughs

CSA Recipe Roundup

During CSA season, I write the weekly newsletter for the Summer Creek Farm CSA in Frederick, Maryland.  Since a few people have mentioned that they've come to the blog looking for the recipes I tweeted about, here's a recap of the CSA recipes so far this year.  Each link goes to the archive of that week's e-mail newsletter (feel free to sign up -- no CSA membership required!).  Each week also includes some information on one featured CSA item in season that week.

• Basic pasta with broccoli rabe - featured item: broccoli rabe
• Tabouleh and raita - featured item: mint
• Garlic scape pesto - featured item: garlic scapes
• Garlic scape hummus - featured item: romaine lettuce
• Pea and potato curry - featured item: potatoes
• Stir fried shrimp and snow peas - featured item: snow peas

This week we have a CSA break (so the farm can harvest wheat), so I'll be taking the opportunity to visit the new downtown Frederick farmers market that Wednesday instead. 

Above: pea and potato curry, from Devra Gartenstein's The Accidental Vegan. The recipe is posted here on Google Books.

When Does One Become a Gardener?

I've been pondering today. And picking lettuces - my first harvest! So, when does one officially become a gardener?

Is it when you:

1. Buy a basil plant at the supermarket instead of cut herbs?
2. Grow a few herbs in pots (who can kill mint anyway!)?
3. Look at your tiny suburban lawn and imagine the possibilities?
4. Plant the first seed?
5. Identify the first pest? (And the second, and third...)
6. Harvest the first crop to actually eat something you grew?

Today, I completed #6. Of course, you can barely see the lettuce under all the CSA veggies (radishes and English shelling peas) and other goodies I piled on there... but it's there! 

I have to admit though, I was almost defeated.  By nearly microscopic green bugs. See, over the weekend, I tried to snip some lettuce for a lunch salad.  I did snip some, actually, only to notice once I got inside that parts of it were moving (several of them up my arm!).  I tried to blast them off under the sink spray, but they were stuck tight... and there were loads of them.

In an effort not to poison us, I am trying to avoid pesticide use in my garden.  But there is absolutely NO chance I am going to eat lettuce covered in green bugs, no matter how organic it is.  So, I found some "insecticidal soap" for organic gardening, and gave them a good spray.  A couple days and a thorough wash later, we have salad. Bug free! (OK, so there were just a few holes in the leaves...)

So what do you think: when do you become a gardener?  (I'm waiting for my secret decoder ring...)

Garden Check-In

When I wrote the first post about my rookie garden, I didn't really believe it would actually grow.  I wanted to believe, but having killed too many houseplants, I was lacking a certain confidence. Now, look at it!

Yes, there are some things that likely won't make it. A tomato plant, probably, and those eggplants aren't looking too spry.  But the dill looks great, and most of the lettuces are coming along nicely.  I planted some salad bowl lettuces a few weeks before the garden, and they are rapidly approaching harvest. (Snipped a few leaves for small salads the other night - tasty!)

Based on my research, these should be "cut and come again" lettuces.  But just in case, I'm planning to plant a second round of seeds soon in more containers so we'll have fresh salads later into the summer.

My rose bush is doing well in its fourth (I think) year now. It's always at its best now, before Japanese beetle season (how I loathe those little buggers).

Are you gardening in a small space?  If so, you might enjoy this story from NPR's Science Friday interview of the Cheap Vegetable Gardener.  Happy planting!