The Curse of Temperance

Temperance, at least in its non-ironic form, would seem a virtue. Certainly for weather, where temperate climates attract swarms of humans. I certainly pine for temperate weather when the hottest and coldest days are upon us. But this summer, in the middle of July, I find myself wishing it were hotter, more humid, sunnier. I would like to sweat my body weight every day. I want to feel like a salty heap.

But why? Why? After all, am I not enjoying the morning walks with my dog, feeling chilly in a t-shirt? Am I not enjoying seeing 70 degrees on the coke sign thermometer outside my downtown office? Am I not pleasantly surprised when I wear a hoodie all the way home without realizing it? (That one does require a modicum of explanation--my office is sometimes air conditioned to sub-arctic levels, and I put the hoodie on in my office. Then I went home, and realized, half way, that it was still on.) So why? Because my tomatoes are not coming along. We are in mid-July, and I've had only a few beefsteaks and a few handfuls of cherries. The vines are not fruiting. The fruits are not growing. By now in any given year, my diet consists largely of tomatoes. Tomato sandwiches, tomato salads, tomato just because. I now fear that this will be a lost year.

The peppers are slow to ripen too. I have only two that have begun to ripen past green. My major discovery this year was that pepper plant branches have to be supported, lest the heavy fruit weigh down and rip them off. And i did have them staked--just not properly.

The hot weather will come, no doubt. Until then, we slog along in wet and cool weather. My heart goes out for the poor farmers who have lost their crops. I know my little garden has suffered through, of all things, mild temperatures and lots of rain.

Fertilizing the garden

Fertilized the garden. Yesterday. It has been tough to get to this because it has been so wet. Everything is coming along fine, although I lost a branch on a pepper plant. Too heavy, I s'pose. The squash borer is slowly threatening my summer squash plant, although I have now gotten at least six squash from it and more are coming. We've made one casserole and grilled up the rest. So I can't really complain.

You can kind of see one pepper that is ripening here

The tomatoes continue to sit, and the fruit is not ripening. This is the coldest, wettest summer I've seen since I moved to Atlanta. Whoever thought I would complain about rain! The upside is that I haven't turned a hose on in weeks.

The sunflower my daughter grew. It stands ten feet tall now

Lettuce

Peppers are in, ribs are smoked

So, yesterday I did a little yard work. After mulching the entire back, planting a few happy looking flowers in the herb garden and pruning the weeping bush and the Japanese Maple, I went ahead and planted a row of peppers in the front. I went with 2 yellow bells, 2 red bells, 1 banana (hot) and 1 mammoth jalapeno.

Hickory all Dickory Day

The peppers are in the tomato row of last year. The soil was sandy and black. I amended it with about three inches of homemade compost, but otherwise did not fertilize, or even lay down blood meal. Given that I've never had success with peppers, I have nothing to lose from this little experiment.

I also smoked some ribs for the occasion. I took a pair of baby backs, used the Four Seasonings blend to create a meat paste on them, and then smoked them at 220 for three hours over chunks of hickory. They came out black with a bark. I wrapped them and sweated them in the cooler for an hour. Then I put them on the grill and basted them (southern baste) for about fifteen minutes, medium heat (300 degrees).

NEXT TIME, will try foil wrapping them after 1 hour to keep the meat even more moist. I felt like the ribs were a little dry, although good. Grilling them afterwards will crust them enough, so no need to smoke em dead after one hour.

Garden Recap 2012

In all, it was a successful gardening year, although it left me realizing just how much potential went unfulfilled. Given that my approach is still experimental and amateurish, this is not a source of significant anxiety, but it did leave me wanting more.

SUCCESSES:

The Tomato Row. Instead of clustering plants, I put them in one of the front rows, and this allowed for a continual source of varietals. We feasted on Cherokee Purples, Sunny Boys, and Jaune Flamees all summer. The determinate Orange Blossom variety gave us early tomatoes, and the Mortgage Lifters took the longest to mature. I will plant a couple more plants this next year, but the basic shape has now taken hold.

Peppers. I planted bell peppers that did beautifully, although I needed more plants. I really need a row of about six to make it work properly. Hot peppers seem to grow more fruitfully, although this year my jalepeno plant did not take.

Herbs. I got excellent use of my peppermint, spearmint (second year), oregano (second year), thyme, sage, cilantro, parsley, and lemonbalm. Chives were particularly helpful. More herb bushes in general need to be planted. As does garlic.

FAILURES:

My silver edge thyme was pretty, but useless as an herb.

My sweet olive tomatoes did not produce. I should probably replenish the soil in the spot and plant two grapes there, or perhaps a roma plant along with a grape plant.

Romas, actually, are a necessity I need to follow up on. We are on the verge of needing to make our own tomato sauce for use in all kinds of dishes. I should probably plant two roma plants this year, one in each of the "planters" to go along with the grape and cherry varieties. OR, I should consider committing several spots to determinate romas and then pulling the plants after they bloom and replanting a second summer crop.

No beans. I have all the capability to plant pole beans. I should do it. We eat green beans all the time. Twice a week on average.

Variety. On this last point, it would be nice to have a little more variety from the garden. More beans, more lettuce. In fact, I have never successfully planted lettuce. Time to start afresh this spring.

Farro Salad

Farro is the latest grain of the month, an ancient grain once enjoyed by the Romans, prized for its healthy attributes, nutty flavor, and a texture which can vary from chewy to creamy depending on how one cooks it. I discovered farro in a salad at Empire State South in Atlanta. They carry it by the tub at the DeKalb Farmers' Market, so I picked one up on our weekly shopping pilgrimage.

Cooking farro is easy. I tried three different preparations. In the first preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of heavily salted water to a boil. I let it run about thirty minutes, and then drained the water. I allowed the farro to cool on its own. In the second preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of unsalted water to a boil. I pulled this farro after about twenty five minutes, and then rinsed it in cold water. In the third preparation, I let the farro cook for just under twenty minutes, then added about two teaspoons of salt and cooked for another ten, and then rinsed the grain in cold water.

The Romans knew what they were doing...

The first preparation was too salty, the second not salty enough, although the two mixed together worked just fine. The third preparation was spot on. Rinsing the grains prevented them from becoming creamy, so one can control texture.

The salad recipe I made from it was also simple, and tasty. Into the three cups dry farro (I did not measure how much this yielded cooked), I chopped up three green peppers, one jar of kalamata olives, about six ounces of crumbled parmesean, and one bunch of chives. With the exception of the olives, it all came from the garden.

The dressing was:

1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper



I dressed the salad about two hours prior to serving. Easy, quick, and (in my opinion), quite tasty.

Paella

I adapted a New York Times recipe for Paella that worked quite well. I chopped up half a big onion, four garlic cloves, a load of green beans, leftover red pepper, and two Tappy's Heritage tomatoes, after seeding and pulping.

I simmered 4 cups of chicken stock to get it warm (since my stock sits in the freezer, this would have been necessary no matter what.

In the dutch oven, I warmed oil and then sauteed the onion. After five minutes, I added garlic, peppers, and salt and cooked for a couple of minutes before adding 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste and 1 Teaspoon of sweet paprika. After blending, I added the rice and blended it in.

After a couple of minutes of cooking the rice grains, I added the tomatoes, which included the quartered Tappy's heritage and a couple of handfuls of cabernet grape tomatoes. Then cooked for about five minutes.

Time to add stock. I brought it to a boil, dropped it to a simmer, and cooked it for fifteen minutes or so, until the stock had evaporated.

I used jasmine rice, which is what we had. It's a medium grain, so it worked fine.

Garden Update

Everything in the front is growing beautifully. The jalapenos are coming along, and the anaheims I believe are pretty much ready to go. I have made gifts of them, but have yet to figure out exactly what to do with them. Salsa recipes are definitely in my future. We have already eaten one flavorburst pepper, and the red peppers have already turned green to yellow. Fairly soon we will have a good harvest of peppers.

The cucumbers are off the chain, literally. They come out one and a half inches thick and eight inches long. Bursting with water. Perfectly fresh. They store well, and make nice gifts.

The tomatoes are just coming in. Around July 4, I noticed them beginning to flower more prolifically, and to hint at a change in color. We left for Canada on July 7. When I returned on July 11, they had grown by inches, and in the front planter had begun to fall over. I immediately tied them up with some twine, and eventually dropped two cages in the planter to help hold up the new branches. In the mound (taxi, amish paste, golden nugget?), tomatoes were beginning to turn. The amish paste had produced several tomatoes that were changing from yellow to red, and the taxis are yellow. I picked an amish paste and made a cucumber and tomato sandwich. Highly tasty. I expect the real harvest to begin in a couple of weeks, and hopefully we will see production (like last year) into September.

Garden Update

Tomatoes are coming in on the triangle plot, although only on one of the taxi tomato plants. The amish paste plant is flowering. Sweet peppers are coming in already, and the cucumbers are getting defensive. They are on vertical trellises meant for orchids. Oh well.

Photos all by "the lil' gard'ner"