Fishing + Farming = Fabulous Fooding, by Tom DiGangi

Fishing is just like farming, except there is no weeding to do, you can’t forget to water your seedlings, and you wear funny outfits that connote, “I am a superhero.” If you have ever seen someone in chest waders, this last phrase will make sense. If not, just imagine a grown man in tights with lots of gadgets hanging from a vest. Laura, my wife and host of this blog, particularly enjoys pointing out how ridiculous I look in said outfit. I digress. The point is… you don’t see many farmers in tights.

Now that I really think about it, there are actually very few similarities between fishing and farming. But, they do share one big thing in common. A meal prepared from either the produce just picked from your garden or the fish just caught from your stream is equally delicious.

A few weeks ago, I decided to combine the two when I hooked a rainbow trout in a pocket of fast water on the stream behind our house at 7PM and ate it at 8PM on a bed of organic field greens, paired with a grassy sauvignon blanc. Technically, the one hour from hook to table doesn’t count as a “30 Minute Meal,” but Rachel Ray isn’t gutting fish and harvesting greens during the ½ hour of pain she serves-up 10 times a day on the Food Network. So, one hour to prep and cook is ok by me.

This recipe is ideal for using-up all those cold weather garden products like radishes and greens before they grow too tough and bitter this summer. If you live by the sea, not the stream, the procedure and salad combination works well for striped bass, snapper, and other small saltwater species.


Baked Wild Trout with Field Greens and Radishes

To make the fish…

Ingredients:
1 Whole Wild Trout (extremely fresh, gutted)
2 Garlic Cloves (crushed)
1 Tarragon Sprig (bruised)
2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Lemon
Black Pepper (freshly cracked)
Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher)

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 450F. Place the trout on a baking sheet and coat with only 1 tablespoon of the oil. Sprinkle the exterior and the cavity of the fish with a pinch or two of salt, then stuff the cavity with the crushed garlic cloves and tarragon. Bake the fish at 450F for 20 minutes. Remove the fish from the oven and prepare for service by peeling back the skin (on one side of the fish only) to expose the flesh. Use a spoon to gently lift pieces of the flesh away from the bones, and place on a serving plate. When the one side is clean, gently pick-up the tail of the fish, thus pulling the bones in one big creepy skeleton off of the underside. Discard the bones or use them to make fish stock. Then, use the spoon again to pull the newly exposed flesh from the skin, and place on the serving plate. Finish by drizzling the remaining oil over the fish pieces, then add a squeeze of lemon, a touch of pepper and adjust the salt to taste.

To make the salad…

Ingredients:

Mixed Field Greens (about 4 loose cups)
3 Radishes
1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Lemon (juice and zest)
1 T. Dijon Mustard
Black Pepper (freshly cracked)
Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher)

Procedure:
In a large, non-reactive bowl, make the dressing by whisking the mustard, lemon zest and juice to combine. Slowly add the oil while whisking to create an emulsion. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, and set aside. Select a mix of field greens. (For my 8PM trout dinner, I chose a combination of romaine, oak leaf, endive and arugula, all from the garden. My father is particularly fond of a mix called, in Italian, “tre colore,” consisting of arugula, radicchio and Belgian endive. But, anything you like is appropriate.) Cut the radishes into matchstick size strips. Add the radishes and greens into the bowl with the dressing and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

Useful Weed Primer: Broadleaf Plantain

If you've been following my blog, you already know about my recurring theme of the trials and tribulations of a lazy gardener. Therefore, it will come as no shock to you that I hate weeding and have not yet found a way to justify not doing it. Not until now.


Think for a bit on the definition of a weed. Really, a weed is just a plant that appears in a place you don't want it. Grass in your raised herb bed is a weed, but herbs in your lawn are weeds too. Speaking of lawns, ours is a disaster by conventional standards. I'm not sure if any of what's growing there is actually grass. I don't care because I sort of hate the concept of a lawn. If I had the time, energy and back strength, I would rip it all out and make a huge showcase garden. Without those factors in my favor however, I need to learn to like both the grass and the weeds. Perhaps if I could find a positive quality about all the weeds in my lawn, I could put to bed some of my weedy lawn angst!



Two gentlemen have arrived on the scene to aid me in my agenda. Cyrus Hyde, an herbalist and owner of Well-Sweep Herb Farm, led lecture tours at their open house event a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, Queen Sophia was in no mood to tolerate herbalists or plant discussions of any sort. If we were not hanging out with the dogs or watching the chickens, she was a crabby crying meanie. Hence, Cyrus' mountain of knowledge about his farm and plants was mostly lost. I did get a chance to learn three things: 1.) horsetail grass can scratch any metal and can sand wood more beautifully than any sandpaper 2.) wild ramps grow in our area and are available for purchase and 2.) most of my lawn is actually a potential first aid cream! Success!

According to Charlie, broadleaf plantain, a common garden & lawn weed, is great for soothing sunburn , treating insect bites and taking the itch out of poison ivy. He prefers to use a match to wilt the leaf and squeeze out the juice onto the affected area, or just slap the wilted leaf on there whole. Without a source of flame, the good old fashioned chew-it-up-and-spit method works too. Either way, you have to abuse the plant a bit to get it to release it’s juice.

I can't begin to explain how happy I was to hear this. We literally have this stuff growing everywhere. I went home to do more research, and easily found a few great websites with lots of plantain facts. Baby leaves are edible in salads and high in vitaminA, B1, C, and K along with riboflavin and calcium. Leaves also contain chemicals such as aucubin (a strong anti-toxin) and allantoin (wound healing and skin regeneration). Plantain has been used medicinally by Europeans for hundreds of years as a cure-all, but modern research is confirming its wound healing and anti-inflammatory properties. In Germany, the commission that regulates herbs and herbal uses also approves plaintain for use soothing coughs and mucuous membrane irritation during colds.

For more information and some homemade healing recipes, check out the following sites:

www.altnature.com
"Medicinal" herb tea: For colds and flu use 1 tbls. dry or fresh whole Plantain (seed, root, and leaves) to 1 cup boiling water, steep 10 min. strain, sweeten. Drink through the day.
Healing salve: In large non-metallic pan place 1lb. of entire Plantain plant chopped, and 1 cup lard, cover, cook down on low heat till all is mushy and green. Strain while hot, cool and use for burns, insect bites, rashes, and all sores. Note: used as night cream for wrinkles.

www.prairielandherbs.com
go to the site for instructions and dosage amounts on plantain tea as a cough treatment, as well as instructions on how to make your own herbally infused oil.

www.botanical.com
this site has a few recipes for treatment of odd ailments and more details about plantain’s uses throughout history.

Of course, after all the chatter, I had to see for myself. I tried it out on the constant case of poison ivy that I get on my forearms from May to October every year. Sure enough, it worked. A week later (and still as of this minute) I got a lovely case of secondary poison ivy over most of my face and eyes, but I've been hesitant to try it there. I might just have to, since the steroid shot is not kicking in yet. Tonight I just might be found hunched over the cauldron (modern day cauldrons go on electric stoves, of course) mixing up a witch's brew of herbal healing.

I am now officially hooked on discovering the beneficial properties of all the volunteer plants growing in my lawn and garden beds. Lucky for me, my enlightening moment at Well-Sweep Herb Farm was quickly followed by a wild foods foray given by Steve “Wildman” Brill. My next article all about Steve and his quirky tour of edible weeds coming soon!

Garlic Scape Original Recipes By Chef Tom

As covered in my long-winded blog entry from last year at this time called In Defense of the Lazy Gardener, I accidentally discovered that garlic has more than just the bulb to offer up for good eats. At the time, I had earmarked twisty curly Q top of my garlic plants for the compost pile. I knew that the twisty part was actually the forming flower, and that the growing flower would sap energy from my precious garlic bulb. I don't know what made me stop, but a quick google search turned up the knowledge that this part of the plant was actually an edible seasonal delicacy known as the "garlic scape". How did we live before Google? And what exactly do you do with a garlic scape?



This year, we were ready and waiting for the scapes. But more googling for recipes resulted in pesto, pesto and pesto. There had to be something else, but I am no culinary genius. As luck would have it, my husband Tom is also my personal chef, and the following blog entry is written completely by him. Enjoy the recipes, but keep in mind that Tom is Italian which means that he does not believe in actual measurements. You take some of this, a bit of that, and you make it into a great big something else. I forced him into using real numbers for the ingredients list, but feel free to adjust for personal taste.

Intro to the Garlic Scape, by Tom DiGangi

Garlic scapes are the long curly-cue stems that produce the flowers, and ultimately, the seeds in the life cycle of the garlic plant. Most people only eat the cloves that comprise the bulbs of garlic plants. But, the scape is a near-perfect, tender, juicy and green representation of pure garliciness.

For several weeks in June of each year, our family enjoys garlic scapes in virtually everything. If you grow your own garlic, live near someone who does, or have access to a farmer’s market, get a hold of these things. Here are some simple ideas of how you can enjoy them, too.


Garlic Scape & Rucola(Arugula) Pesto

Pesto is usually made with basil, but this early in the season our basil is just thinking about growing. So, we replace the herby pungency of basil with the unmistakable scent and peppery finish of rucola. Rucola is a ubiquitous Mediterranean edible weed that is a cousin to arugula, which is widely cultivated in the USA. Our rucola has been reproducing every year since 2002 when we brought some seeds home from a trip to Sicily. It smells and tastes great, plus it is carefree to grow. We just let it go to seed naturally and every spring and autumn we have a tasty reminder of the Sicilian countryside.

Ingredients:
1/2 C. (about two stems) garlic scape, cut into 1 inch lengths
2 C. Rucola or Arugula
1/4 C. pine nuts, toasted
1/4 C. Parmigano Reggiano cheese, grated
1 lemon, zest and juice
1/2 C. extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher salt)

Procedure:
Gently toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat until the nuts become fragrant and turn just slightly brown – not black! Combine the pine nuts, garlic scape, rucola cheese, lemon zest and juice and salt in a food processor. Process until finely ground. You may have to occasionally stop and scrape the sides of the processor with a spatula. While the processor is running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Taste and adjust the salt. Serve as a dip for crusty bread or hearty vegetables (e.g. roasted onions or potatoes), topping for grilled meats, or as a sauce for pasta.


Garlic Scape Romesco

This is a riff on the classic Spanish sauce/condiment, which usually relies on tomatoes. In the summer, when it seems like everything we make contains tomatoes, this variation using bell peppers is a nice change of pace. The bell peppers replace the color and sweetness, and the vinegar adds the necessary acidity.

While this recipe is more suited to late summer when peppers are producing at their peak, it is no big deal because garlic scapes freeze very well. To freeze the scapes, just cut the stems into 9 inch long pieces, lay them out on a tray and put them in the freezer. In a couple of hours, gather up the frozen scapes and put them in a one gallon-size plastic bag. Return them to the freezer and they will keep for months.

Ingredients:
1/2 C. (about two stems) garlic scapes, cut into about 1 inch lengths
1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, roasted
1 dried chili pepper (type of chili is up to your heat tolerance – we like chili de arbol)
1/4 C. almonds, slightly toasted
3 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 C. extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher salt)

Procedure:
Roast the bell pepper over a burner or in a very hot oven until the skin turns black. Set the blackened bell pepper aside in a bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap. After 15 minutes, rub the blackened skin from the pepper and remove the seeds and stem, and set the pepper flesh aside. Soak the dried chili in a small cup of boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove the chili from the water, coarsely chop and set aside. Gently toast the almonds in a dry pan over medium heat until the nuts become fragrant. Do not let them burn and turn black! Combine the garlic scape, chili, bell pepper, almonds, red wine vinegar, and salt in a food processor. Process until finely ground. You may have to occasionally stop and scrape the sides of the processor with a spatula. While the processor is running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Taste and adjust the salt. Serve as a dip for crusty bread or hearty vegetables (e.g. roasted onions or potatoes), topping for grilled meats, or as a sauce for pasta.


Chilled Potato, Turnip and Garlic Scape Soup

This is a surprisingly simple, healthy and refreshing idea for the early summer. We often serve the soup out of a thermos into shot glasses with appetizers out on the deck. Doing shots of soup evokes a party atmosphere without the undesirable side effects of embarrassment, shame and a hangover that accompany shots of vodka. Although, if you insist on alcohol, add the vodka, tomato juice and Tabasco to the soup and you’ll have one hell of a Bloody Mary.

This particular recipe is evidence of the “if it grows together, it goes together” school of thought. By the end of spring when garlic scapes are ready for harvest, our Zone 6 garden is turning out beautiful turnips, creamy Yukon gold potatoes and a hedge worth of tarragon. If you’ve got a cow, then you’ve got the heavy cream covered, too, and you are officially living off the land.

Ingredients :
2 medium sized turnips, cut into ¼ inch dice
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 C. (1 stem) garlic scape, finely chopped
1 sprig of tarragon, roughly chopped, with a few whole leaves reserved for garnish
Heavy Cream
Water (spring or some other high quality)
Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher salt)

Procedure:
Place the turnips, potatoes, garlic scape, tarragon and several pinches of salt in a stockpot and cover with the water. The water should cover the solids by about an inch. Bring to a boil, than lower to a simmer and half-cover. Cook until a fork smoothly is inserted and removed from the turnips and potatoes, about 30 minutes. Discard the tarragon sprig and let the soup cool. Puree the cooled soup in a blender or food processor. Press the pureed soup through a sieve. If the soup is too thick for your liking, thin with a little water or milk. If too thin, return it to the pot and reduce over low heat until your desired result is reached. Remember, thinner is better than thicker for a cold soup. When the consistency is correct, add a tablespoon or two of heavy cream, and chill for service. Garnish with finely minced tarragon.

Tom's 2008 garlic scape invention: Long-in-the-tooth pea & garlic scape soup

Make Your Own Hanging Baskets

Ok, I was inspired to write this blog entry a month or so ago when I was making my own adorable hanging baskets, because I do really get a kick out of planning and arranging them. I took pictures, and made plant list suggestions in my head, and even scoped out what was available at the local Home Depot so that I was recommending readily available varieties. But of course, I didn’t do it, and now it’s the middle of June and supplies are likely waning. My one entry per day challenge is still kicking, so I am writing my delayed advice anyway. I know at least Dina is interested!


Let me first state my disclaimer: I am no landscape architect, and have never taken a single design class. I just read a lot of gardening magazines and have tried stuff out over time. I can’t tell you this is the exact right way to do it, but I can tell you easy rules that I use to design my baskets.




Laura’s no-brainer rules for basket design:

1.) Pick your sun exposure

I always have two types of baskets. The backyard ones see blaring hot full sun all day long, and the front porch ones will never see one shred of direct light for as long as they live unless I take them down and move them into the yard for watering. Those are some extremely different and obvious plant choices. This year I also did some planters on the side of the house with part sun exposure, so that's a little trickier, and I’m not sure how those will do.

2.) Pick your container


The type of planter actually determines your watering needs, and therefore the kinds of plants you should choose. The standard white plastic hanging pot obviously retains moisture the best (although you’ll still need to water frequently during those dog days of summer) and is the most popular. For aesthetics, I like coir & wire baskets the best. I’ve been using the same ones for eight years now, so it’s worth the initial investment. If the coir wears out, it’s easily replaceable, and you can pick these up at your average big box store in spring and early summer. Just about any kind of plant will work in these. If you’re trying to plant in clay or terra cotta though, consider that fact that these pots retain water for all of 48 seconds. You have to commit to watering constantly, or buy plants described as “drought friendly”, “succulent”, or “for rock gardens”. I bought one of those adorable terra cotta strawberry pots with all the pockets and very promptly murdered every pocketed strawberry plant. The ones on top somehow survived though, and this year the pockets contain a very pretty hot pink portulaca. Lesson learned!


3.) The rule of 3’s

This is the only real design principle I know, which I learned from a combination of garden magazines, home design books, and Bravo tv in general. Don’t know why, but things go better in 3’s. Better yet, I apply my Rule of 3’s to three aspects of plant design – number, shape and color. Whatever do you mean, Laura? Well, let me tell you!




Number: I always do at least three plants per container, and if the container is larger, then I go up to five. The sub-rule to the Rule of 3’s is, if you don’t use 3, at least use some other odd number. Again, I don’t know why. Maybe 2 of something looks too unfinished, like you meant to elaborate but didn’t get a chance. Maybe the pro-3 lobby is stronger than the pro-2 lobby. If you are a designer, please speak up and explain! Enquiring minds want to know.


Shape: My baskets generally have three different types of plant shapes – spiky, mounding, and cascading. Finding plants that fit this description and meet your sun requirements is not hard at all to do! It may take some label reading at first, but I’ll list my favorites for you below to get you started.

Color: I won’t go too far into color theory here. That would be a huge topic all on it’s own and I’m not qualified to speak on it. Plus in the end, it’s really about preference. You can choose a basket of all big bright colors, mix up only pastels, or even choose all different plants that feature the same exact color. No matter what the overall color theme is, I still use the rule of 3’s. My favorites tend to be combining 3 highly contrasting colors, like burgundy – silver – hot pink, or burgundy – lime – white. The best thing to do is to pick up plants and see what they look like together grouped in pots. Do you like the effect and color combo? Good, you’re done!





Now it’s picture and basket recipe time!

Shade basket, left to right clockwise:
Lamium, "pink chablis"
Coleus, "black dragon"
Dracena spike
Dusty Miller, "silverdust"
Oxalis, "charmed velvet"
Alyssum, "snow crystals"












Shade planters: This is a funny little plant invention that I bought at Lowe's last fall. There's an indented middle section with space for a small pot where you can plant seasonal annuals. The outside larger pot contains ivy, which stays green all season. This way, you can change out the flowers in the center pot when it's time to go from summer to fall plantings. Cute! I have these on my front porch, so the shade plants from above are repeated.













Sun basket, left to right clockwise:

Petunia
Sweet Potato Vine, "blackie"
Dracena spike
Licorice Plant (helichrysum petiolare), "white licorice"
Calibrachoa, "callie rose"









These pictures are from the beginning of May when I built them. Maybe later I'll post an addendum with what they look like now. In the meantime, happy planting!

Cast of Characters: FRANK!!!

Frank is a groundhog.







All groundhogs are Franks.







Frank, in various manifestations of size and gender, has plagued me since my beginning days as a gardener - except for the gardening I did entirely in containers on the second floor balcony of that apartment complex. Even then, I'm sure there was a Frank or two, rubbing his meaty little paws together while staring upwards and formulating a plan.







But really, all this humanization of animals does nature no justice. Groundhogs are not evil, conniving wizards. They are simply hungry little rodents with somewhat magical powers. For example, I believe groundhogs are capable of completely dissolving their skeletal systems at will so as to shimmy under a 2 inch fence gap, Mission Impossible style. They also have some sort of otherworldly endless appetite. I'm amazed by their ability to settle into a nice dining experience in the grassy fields next to a 65 mile an hour highway, completely oblivious to the rattling earth and rushing wind caused by passing 18 wheelers. However, should I even step out of my back door when a Frank is busily snacking on my weedy lawn, he shoots me the "whatchoo talkin' bout Willis?" suspicious one-eyed stare, and then he waddles off at top speed into the woods. Historically, all of my past Franks seem to prefer take their chances facing off with a truck rather than dealing with me. Look out boys, that crazy bitch is out again! The most impressive and newest stunt I've seen was just today when I watched him scrabble 40 feet up the mulberry tree with an almost bored self-confidence. I could practically see him peeling off his furry skin to reveal the spiderman suit underneath.







You see, I have a love/hate relationship with Frank that stems from my daily dealings with humans. I am nice. Too nice. I am nice to store clerks, customer service agents, and even (gasp!) medical claims specialists. I wind up being a repressed pent-up stew of anger and resentment. And then an innocent Frank crosses my line of sight, meandering about the yard nibbling on this flower or that weed. Aha! Got him! I tear out of the house screaming and brandishing kitchen utensils, with the fury of a thousand unpaid medical bills and bad customer service incidents, and shout "FRANK! YOU FAT BASTARD, YOU GET THE HELL OUT OF MY GARDEN!!!". And poor Frank does one of those cartoon poses where the shocked animal leaps straight up into the air in fear and starts running in place before his little paws even hit the ground. As he flops into the woods as if being chased by satan himself, I smile and let out a little sigh of relief. Ah, that felt good. Think I'll get more coffee.







Around this time of year, Tom and I start referring to Frank as though he is a family member. "I saw Frank at the swing set today" or "Frank seems to prefer the baby squash to the baby cucumbers." This is also around the same time that our friends and family start to consider us clinically insane. "Why don't you just get rid of him?" they ask, and immediately start offering up their personal cache of weapons from poison, to traps, to pellet guns and beyond. But I always turn them down. Why? Three reasons.







#1.) What would you have me do instead? Unleash my anger out on the humans who actually inspire it? Lose my insurance coverage because of the string of expletives I used on the Horizon rep after calling my fourth 800 number to be told "we don't handle that"? Pull a hammer out of my diaper bag and matter-of-factly smash to bits the device my clerk is too busy OMG!!!ing on to ring me up? Trust me people. The world is better off with me as the crazy lady running around my yard chastising rodents, than with me as the crazy lady running around Michael's chasing down store clerks shouting "What do you MEAN it shows 17 in stock but they are on the truck??? They were still on the truck last week! Where is this truck? Does it ever stop driving? Does WONDER WOMAN drive this truck? AM I THE ONLY SANE PERSON IN THIS PLACE???" And so on.





#2) Sure, I could off Frank. But Franks are like gray hairs - you pull one, five more come back in it's place. Maybe not in Frank format. Maybe they reappear as deer, rabbits, moles or squirrels. Don't even get me started on the countless bugs and diseases. My point is, if mother nature has some sort of cosmic judicial system, the void of one murdered Frank is sensed by the hungry deer on the prowl for beautiful hosta leaves, or that fleet of Japanese beetles that just hatched from your neighbor's lawn. You're surrounded. Just put the weapon down, and back away slowly.



But let's say you keep your gun and your can of spray and set up shop on the edge of your garden. In the end, you might get more vegetables than I will. But you'll wind up having to do that all day, every day, and what fun is that? Better to just jump in with both feet, and muck around in the yin and the yang of it all with the rest of us - aphids & ladybugs, tomato hornworms & parasitic wasps, groundhogs & anti-groundhog fencing ... or maybe a barky dog. The enemy of my enemy is my friend - if not in global politics, at least in gardening. So for now, I will find ways to use Frank's natural tendencies against him while engaging in my own trifecta of weaponry - menacing looks, degrading insults, and generally scaring the bejeezus out of him whenever possible.



#3.) If I kill him, how many hilarious stories will you miss out on in the coming seasons? Ok, maybe they are not that funny, but they are funny to me. Being the star of my own self-deprecating comic melodrama, I need a character who can be the butt of my jokes while accentuating my own neuroses. In other words, if I am the Kathy Griffin of organic gardening, Frank is my tour manager, Tom.



I have a lot more Frank information to share, but for now I'll leave you with this new twist. This year's Frank has a girlfriend Frank, and I'm sure the little Franklets are on their way. Bring it on, Franks! It's going to be a fun summer.