OLS Week #5 – Grilled Striped Bass with Basil, Garlic Butter Sauce, Grilled Zucchini and Green Beans

It is hard to resist striped bass when it is in season. While fishermen are always willing to part with a few extra bluefish or fluke, the striper is held close in the family freezer. So I purchased mine this week, and it was divine. I made a simple butter garlic basil sauce for it. Melt butter on low and add 3 sliced cloves of garlic. While it is warming in the butter bat go out and get about 10 basil leaves and slice them chiffonade style. The basil should be added at the very last minute before pouring the butter sauce over the fish. Yum. To this week’s plate I added fresh green beans and grilled zucchini.

Striped Bass – Local waters

Basil, garlic, zucchini, green beans - Garden

Also this week I came up with a great solution for all the cucumbers that keep pouring in from the garden. Take a vegetable peeler and run it down the length of the cuke. Throw away the first peel, but thereafter you will have long ribbons of cucumber. I wrapped the ribbons and put them in ice water until just before serving. And in the middle I put a small dish of ranch dressing for dipping.

And here I scored the outside of a cuke with a zester and sliced into thick rounds ont each round I placed a dollop of Pam’s Pesto the Ruby and the Green. She sells at the Farmer’s Market on Wednesday and Saturday.

OLS Week #4

This week's dinner was shared as a potluck offering st the local Slow Food Convivium dinner. Our local chapter is one of three in Massachusetts. My offering was an American Chop Suey made with:

Farm Institute Beef - 5 miles
Farm Institute Green Peppers - 5 miles
Whippoorwill Farm Tomatoes - 2 miles
Tiasquam Brook Farm Onions - 1 mile
Garlic and Basil from the garden

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the final dish. But here are some shopping and prep photos including my bicycle basket filled with goodies from the Farmer's Market

"Is there a section of your garden that needs weeding?"

... so asked my dear friend Rosemary when she was here to visit. This question more than any other will get the attention and appreciation of a gardener. And there is something to the rhythm of weeding ... sort of like drying dishes after a good meal ... that allows the conversatoin to flow and move on its own. Thanks, Rose ... it looks so good out there!

sunrise on a new cleaned out bed for my beets and shallots

a weeded flower bed

I love mid- July

I love mid-July ! The cukes and zucchini are not coming in at a frightening pace yet, and the beans and peas are still a manageable treat. Moreover, the tomato hornworms haven't shown up (at least so you can see 'em.)

Let’s begin with tomatoes. Something magic is going on out there this year. Very little blossom drop, very little leaf curl just big luscious tomato plants. Can this really be tomato gardening as I know it? Might I finally have a summer with too many tomatoes? It could be.

I attribute this welcome turn of events to three factors. First the quality of the compost I built last summer from local lamb manure. Second the calcium I used in the soil this year that was given to me by Jim at Walatoola. And last, and maybe most important, a June and early July with low humidity. No, make that four factors: I am pruning much less this year. Stay tuned.

In the meantime it was nice to finally bring out the tomato knife even if it was to slice into a cherry tomato.

Then there is the garlic harvest. I confess to a mistake this year. My garlic beds are outside the garden. I did not water them this spring at all. And that was OK as long as Mother Nature was doing her part which she stopped doing around June 10. By early July they had browned out. In hindsight I should have watered regularly until all the scapes had been removed. I thought their roots would be able to find water, but they could not.

The result is that my bulbs are much smaller than they might have been. The two varieties that might be contenders at the Fair are Montana Giant and a variety I have nicknamed Place Monge after the Parisian organic market I bought it in last summer.

From the Garden Gate (and back again) 7/11/07

OLS Week #3

Fluke = 1/2 mile offshore and snap peas and green beans = garden (0)

I had a brilliant idea today. Why not go crabbing and feature blue crabs as my local meal? Well I was less than successful in my crabbing venture. When I arrived at the Great Pond I could see the crabs walking along the shore and I said OUT LOUD "This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel." THAT apparently taunted the gods. After catching one female that I threw back, I saw nary a crab for the next 45 minutes.

But I did have a very nice piece of fluke in the freezer that had been caught in local waters by my friend Gordon. Fluke, striped bass, bluefish and bonito are the fish in these waters and Gordon knows the ins and outs of how to catch them all. I have a broken handle of a fishing rod hanging on my wall from the day I caught my biggest bass ever with Gordon. We had so much striper in the freezer that summer, I had to throw it back ... and it was high adventure bringing it in on a broken rod. But I digress.

So the swordfish and salmon that line the cases of the local fish markets here are not local. The sword once was, but now locals have to take off for George's Banks if they are going to find any. We have a few talented harpooners still in our fleet and their story is told in a wonderful documentary called Strikers Passing. Sustainable fishing is a whole other topic that I am not really qualified to write about. But I do like to be vigilant and careful when making choices at the fish market.

So I baked up the flounder in a butter and fresh garlic sauce, and then when it came out of the oven I added fresh basil, marjoram and parsley from the garden to the remaining sauce in the pan and poured it on top. On either side of the fish were snap peas and fresh green beans. All in all a delicious meal once again.

Braised Lamb Shanks, Hash Brown Potatoes and Snap Peas

One Local Summer Week #2

I returned to some of the same sources I used last week to make this week's meal. I used

4 Allen Farm lamb shanks

some onions from Tiasquam Brook Farm

and some rosemary from the garden to braise the lamb shanks in 2 cups of broth at 300 for almost 3 hours.

Then I decided I wanted to make Ruth Reichl's Hashed Brown Potatoes. This is taken form her book Garlic and Sapphires.

Here is a quick version of her recipe

8 small new potatoes (Tiasquam Brook Farm)
6 (yes six) Tbs butter (Cabot from Vermont)
1/2 small onion (I used a shallot from my garden and chopped fresh garlic also from garden)
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes and cool. Peel potatoes and cut into one inch dice. Melt 4 Tbs of butter over medium heat in a well seasoned cast iron skillet. Add potatoes and mash them down into the pan with a spatula. Cook uncovered over medium heat for 6 minutes until a good crust as formed on the bottom. Keep pressing with that spatula forming them into a flat cake. and run around the edges to keep from sticking
.
Scatter the diced onions over the top and grind some salt and pepper over the whoe thing. Remove from heat and cover with a large plate. Leave for 2 minutes allowing the potatoes to steam. Here's the tricky part. Using oven mitts, hold the skillet and plate together and invert so that the potatoes fall onion side down onto the plate.

sliding the potato cake back into the skillet

Put the skillet back over medium heat, add the remaining butter and carefully slide the potato cake back into the skillet trying not to break it. Add more salt and pepper and turn the heat up to medium high and brown the potatoes for another 5 minutes until a crust forms.

You can choose to slide it out of the pan onto a serving plate, or simply serve right out of the skillet as I did.

This is dish worthy of practice. My first batch was a mess. But I am getting more skilled each time I try it.

The house smelled heavenly all afternoon in the rain as the lamb shanks braised in the slow oven. I finished the plate with my first cropped of snap peas from the garden.

From the Garden Gate Wednesday,July 4

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Happy Fourth of July!

I could see my breath out there this morning! But I am not complaining. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous these past two days. The low rumblings of what could be called harvest are starting to appear. The snap peas are just hitting perfection and the super charged zucchini plants are hard at work. There is even a blushing pink Viva Italia tomato out there.

Friends walk into my garden these days and ask, “What are you going to DO with all those tomatoes?” I have 36 plants in the ground. I know that is potentially a lot of tomatoes, but somehow my potential and my actual output when it comes to tomatoes seldom coincide. My honest answer is “I have never had too many tomatoes.” Wouldn’t it be great if THIS were the summer.

There are some mysteries lurking in the garden. WHERE are the Colorado potato beetles? Not only did I not plant potatoes this year, they are thriving in the absence of the hungry critters. Perhaps the Bt we had sprayed on the trees to stave off the winter moth had something to do with it? I know I read in someone’s blog that they are without the CPB this year. Anyone else enjoying their absence?

And then there is the garlic crop. I thought it was impossible to under water garlic in June. It appears, however, that I have done so. They have browned up really fast. And now it is too late I fear. I will start pulling today and see what I see.

I invite you to take a gander at the new home for One Local Summer and see what is happening as LOTS of people explore their local food supplies. Kudos to Liz for the vision. I am enjoying a slow read of Animal, Vegetable,Miracle. I am learning many of the same lessons I learned from Omnivore’s Dilemma last summer but from a different angle.

Happy Fourth!

Let the pictures speak

a view from the back of the garden TOWARD the garden gate

The trellis is in place for the cukes and pickles

These zucchini are MAMMOTH

From the Garden Gate Wednesday, June 27

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A meal fit for a queen

My first One Local Summer Meal for OLS 2007

This is the second year that Liz at Pocket Farm has issued a challenge to eat One Local Meal each week for 10 weeks in the summer. Last summer I was traveling too much to participate, but this year I am committed.

So last night was our first One Local Summer (OLS) meal. I’ll begin at the center of the plate. My protein was a sirloin steak from Clarissa Allen’s farm. I had bought lamb from her before, but never knew she sold beef until this spring when I saw a Grass Fed Beef sign on her lawn. She has a small herd of about 10 now. The potatoes were from Glenn and Linda Hearn’s Tiasquam Brook Farm and the strawberries from Andrew Woodruff’s operation out at the old Thimble Farm. The lettuce was from Ethel and Ralph Sherman’s patch in Chilmark. For about two weeks every summer Ralph has the most extraordinary local iceberg lettuce. One outer leaf can cover sandwiches for four. I mixed that with salad greens from Blackwater Farm to give the salad a spicy bite.

From my own garden I managed to garner 4 small zucchini, a few garlic scapes and some VERY early garlic. I sautéed the garlic, added the zucchini and scapes flipped the pan a couple of times and then put ground salt and pepper and slivered mint leaves. Then I covered it and turned off the heat. The potatoes were seasoned from thyme, parsley, rosemary and garlic from my garden, and the salad with nasturtium blossoms.

That first bite of steak was sublime. Over the years Clarissa and her husband have planted over 27 varieties of organic grasses in their pastures and they tend to finish the herd on the south side of the property overlooking the ocean. The proof is in the taste.

So I would say I dined like a queen last night. Can’t wait until next week!

SALAD

iceberg lettuce - Sherman Farm (2 miles)
Salad greens - Blackwater Farm (3 miles)
nasturtiums - garden (0 miles)
dressing Annie's Naturals Balsamic - (not local)

HERBED POTATOES

red potatoes - Tiasaquam Brook Farm (1.5 miles)
herbs and garlic - garden (0 miles)
olive oil salt and pepper (not local)

ZUCCHINI NITZA

Zucchini, mint and garlic - garden (0 miles)
Olive oil, salt and pepper - not local

SLICED STRAWBERRIES WITH MINT

Strawberries - Whipporwil Farm
Mint - garden (0 miles)

GRASS FED SIRLOIN STEAK

one sirloin steak - Allen Farm (5 miles)
salt and pepper - not local

Summer signs

morning greeter

a rocambole garlic in full swirl

garlic scape harvest

The Solstice

The solstice came and went yesterday. We are now officially in summer. For me the solstice is always a bittersweet yin and yang moment. We wait and wait for summer to come, only to realize that now we are moving back toward winter. Perhaps the real message should be to savor every moment in the garden ... even the days when you are planting potatoes on a cold day in March ... even the sweltering humid days of weeding ... all of these are part of living in the present moment. This is a good reminder for me ... I tend to be waiting for the first squash, the first pea, and of course the first TOMATO ... and I need to remember that what it is really about is the process not the product ... or at least about the balance of product and process.

From the Garden Gate Wednesday, June 19

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Intended and UNintended Consequences

So this year I decided NOT to plant potatoes ... and what happened? I got potatoes anyway. It sure LOOKS like I planted them doesn't it. I'm naming this bed after the Tennessee Vols.

I notice that Liz at Pocket Farm has posted her invitation for this year's One Local Summer Challenge. I wrote and told her I am in for this summer. I invite you to visit and browse and look at last year's entries and recipes and see if you wouldn't like to sign up too.

I held off buying Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal ,Vegetable, Miracle in the hopes I would get it as a brithday present and I DID! What a great read.

From the Garden Gate Wednesday, June 12

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This is a Hold Up!

So I have been trying to arrange support for my 36 tomato plants. I am working with four different types of supports. A single bamboo pole. String supports from a bamboo cross piece. A single bamboo pole with what is called the Veggie Cage. And finally the Gardener’s Supply Tomato Ladders.

A single bamboo pole with what is called the Veggie Cage.

the Gardener’s Supply Tomato Ladders.

From the Garden Gate Wednesday, June 6

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Random Garden News

We are in the middle of the annual winter moth caterpiller infestation. This year we decided to hire a company to spray the perimeter trees with a product called Conserve. It has made a big difference for what we see out the window. They sprayed twice at 3 week intervals and yesterday was the second spraying. If you compare last week's garden gate picture with this week's you can see that trees are actually losing leaves as time passes.And now for a big announcement .... drum roll please ... I spied my first fruit on one of my apple trees this weekend! Ta dah da dut da dah!
The rhododendron is flowering beautifully and is home to every bumblebee in the neighborhood. I love watching them at work. And on Saturday I even saw a sphinx moth in among them. I felt so smart building my table bouquet from the side of the rhodie that need pruning. In addition, the clematis is blooming as are the lamb's ear and blue iris.

The new herb beds are built and we have been moving compost and soil into them. They should be planted this week. The sweet potato slips arrived, the winter squash have been repotted, the cucumbers are in and awaiting their lattice trellis. Early June is a GREAT time to be in the garden.herb beds