Harvest baskets 

Tomatoes plants as far as the eye can see 

Two old friends

Over the April 8th weekend I visited Chicago to attend a wedding. While there I visited the Art Institute and dropped in on an old friend, the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. It’s not my favorite of his paintings, but it does draw me back. I decided to take my photos from inside the painting.

Then the next weekend our own Phillips Collection here in Washington heralded the return of another old friend, The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir. It has been traveling around Europe and has returned to a newly renovated gallery. I have come to treasure that painting as DC’s own … a painting that, unlike those of the National Gallery, belong not to the nation but to our city. On Easter Sunday they opened without charge, and I decided to go back and see my old friend. It is great to have it back home.

Garlic Order 2006

The garlic has over wintered well. As usual the ophios seem hardier than the soft necks right now. I have to admit that I prefer to grow ophios, but I grow soft necks because they are supposed to store longer. Well now I find that my braids of soft necks from last year have almost all gone dry. I still have a few ophios that are staying crisp. Perhaps it is all due to curing and storage and not the fact that ophios do better in cold climates, but I am thinking of switching to all ophios.

In part this love of the hard necks is inspired by the fact that when I went to the mailbox today there was the Filaree Farm 2006 catalog. There on page 7 looking up at me with a flirtatious “come hither” look in his eye was MONTANA GIANT advertised with “consistently extra large bulbs.” Then in the next column was YOUGHIOGHENY PURPLE which is so rare it has a one pound purchase limit. I have always been aced out of these because I order too late in the season. Who is really thinking about what they can order for NEXT year when THIS year’s crop is still struggling to establish itself?

But I think after years of doing this, I have come to some conclusions.

#1 Only plant as many Rocamboles as you can eat or give away by Christmas.
#2 Concentrate on Porcelains like MUSIC PINK because of their longer storage.
#3 IF you plant soft necks, make them Silverskins for their cold climate adaptability and longer shelf life.

My seed order has gone in and here are the new varieties

Montana Giant (rocambole)
Zemo ( porcelain)
Rosewood (porcelain)
Silver White (silverskin)

Clematis

Yesterday was a lovely day. Low sixties, bright sun, no wind. I took on the task of weeding around the clematis that grows up a trellis on the side of my outdoor shower. Every spring I have a battle with the guy who mows our lawn because he forgets that the clematis is there and takes the weed wacker to it. So every spring I start from scratch with my clematis. I can’t really blame him if I don’t keep it cleaned out.

I started by removing the grass. Next I sprinkled in a cup of pelletized lime and then a cup of calcium. I watered that well and then topped it off with half a bag of composted manure. I covered the roots with stones to keep them cool, and then I marked off the area with white stones. I think this should keep him from wacking away at my clematis this spring.

the mighty parsnip 

Spring Dug Parsnip Chowder

I have come to enjoy more and more eating things as they come into season. It starts each spring with parsnip chowder. I couldn’t live on a steady diet of it, but that first taste on a cold spring afternoon is one of life’s great comfort foods. It is soooo sweet and is such a silky broth. The magical thing about spring parsnips is that they need no other flavorings. They carry hints of mace, cinnamon, celery seed and clove.

My parsnips were neither as big nor as difficult to harvest as they have been in past years., I pulled up one two years ago that I think had a taproot in the aquifer. It was the size of a sperm whale. Such parsnips can get pretty woody at the core, but there is still plenty of sweet flavor around the edges.

Spring-Dug Parsnip Chowder

3 slices bacon
2 Tbsp butter
1 large onion cut into ¾ inch dice
1 pound parsnips peeled and sliced into rounds
1 pound Yukon Gold, Maine PEI or other all purpose potato peeled and cut into ¾ inch dice
3cups chicken broth
1 ½ cups heavy cream ( I use skim milk)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. In a 4 quart heavy pot over low heat cook the bacon. Leave the fat in the pot and reserve the cooked bacon until later.
2. Over medium heat add butter and onions and sauté until onions is tender but not browned 6-8 minutes.
3. Add parsnips and potatoes and stir. Then add the broth and turn the heat up to a boil and cook vigorously for 12 minutes. Reduce heat to low
4. Remove 2 cups of the chowder from the pot and puree in food processor or blender, and return to the pot. Let the chowder simmer slowly for another 5 minutes; the broth should look silky-smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Let the chowder sit for an hour to meld the flavors. Season with salt and paper to taste.
5. When ready to serve reheat over low heat; don’t allow it to boil. Warm the crumbled bacon in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes.
6. Ladle the chowder into cups and scatter the bacon over the individual servings. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley

from 50 Chowders by Jasper White

spring chives 

Garden Gifts

I opened the garden gate this morning. It is tough when your vegetable garden is 500 miles and a ferry ride away. But I am here and none the worse for wear. It was a warm day for New England, and I found the spinach was pushing up against its white row cover. I shall nibble on it some this week and look forward to a modest spring crop.

In the herb garden, only the chives are showing signs of life and I did snip some for my eggs this morning.

Buried beneath the surface is that wonderful spring sweetness … parsnips. Tomorrow I shall make a spring dug parsnip chowder.


I like having crops in the garden for spring eating. They are like little gifts. This year I will try to over winter leeks.

The apple trees have not been eaten to nubs by the deer. In the fall we had built an 8 ft. fence using tall bamboo for the posts. One of the bamboo poles snapped over the winter and the deer have had access for awhile, I guess. I only see damage on one tree. I shall measure them tomorrow and check against my records. I was out there with the Bobbex this morning trying to make them less appetizing. No “little gifts” for the deer.

Mr. Mallard visits the nation's capital 

Cherry Blossom report

We have a peak bloom date forecast for this year’s cherry blossoms --> March 26-28. They are a sight to behold. I went down to the Tidal Basin this morning to see how they were faring in the cold nights we’ve been having. They are in the phase right now called “peduncle elongation” and it is a frost critical stage. So far they are holding back enough that I don’t see any damage. And ironies of ironies, it looks like peak will actually coincide with the Cherry Blossom Festival this year. Often they have come and gone by the time the lantern is lit.

The trick to enjoying the cherry blossoms is to go in the morning … the real early morning … with a thermos of coffee, some croissants and a blanket. No one is there, the sun is brilliant AND you can park. Any other time of day is an exercise in frustration and enjoying nature should not raise your blood pressure.

I uncovered a little unknown piece of history about the trees once when I was doing research on WWII and the home front. The trees were a gift from the government of Japan in 1912. On December 11th 1941 relations with Japan were not so good, and the city awoke to find several of the trees chopped down. The DAR flew into action and mobilized the local chapter to symbolically chain themselves to the cherry trees. If you wanted to chop down a cherry tree, you were going to have to chop down a daughter of the American Revolution in order to do it. The vandalism ceased, and the trees were renamed “Oriental Flowering Cherries” for the duration of the war.

The seed order 

Hope springs eternal. Green Globe Artichokes. 

Seed Order

I mailed off my Fedco seed order this morning. I have been wrestling with it because I have to rethink my vegetable garden this year. My husband will be in Paris June through August and this will have implications for the garden, as I will join him for some of that assignment. I need to think of below ground items for this year’s garden. So I have ordered all kinds of carrots. I never do plant enough of them. I will plant no pole beans, no cucumbers, and no corn. I WILL plant tomatoes, but not as many. And I will plant …..TAH DAH …. Sweet potatoes. I found a wonderful ordering site for slips in Tennessee, Steele Plant Company. This may also be the year I try fingerling potatoes.

And then there are the artichokes. I swear, I must be a masochist. Last year I planted a dozen and one survived. And that one never really grew up to be an artichoke. They are very susceptible to damping off, so this year I planted them in very dry starter mix, and I have sprouts … 5 of them. Also I changed the variety this year from Imperial Star to Green Globe. I did so on the advice of a gardener at Monticello. He was quite adamant that there was a significant difference in the two varieties. Artichokes seem to survive as a perennial most years in Charlottesville. I am attempting the same in New England.

So no two years are the same and you can’t always plant what you want. But it’s still fun and an adventure.

Worth the wait 

Amaryllis

There ought to be a picture of an amaryllis next to the word anticipation in the dictionary. They seem to take FOREVER to show their glory. But glorious they are. I think I was tricked years ago into thinking these were showy Christmas plants. Make that March for me. I’ve taken to propagating them from side shoot bulbs and have pretty much stopped buying them.

I feed them well all spring and then place them, pots and all, below ground for the summer in bright sunshine. I’ve experimented with taking them out of pots, but they like being pot bound. Around Labor Day I pull them out of the ground, snip their foliage and their roots and put them into the cellar until Thanksgiving to rest. It’s become something of a Thanksgiving ritual to pot them after the bird goes in the oven.

About two years ago I started cutting them during bloom and placing them in vases. They continue to fully bloom in water and I think there’s a little less stress on the bulb that way.

Anticipation 

flower vase 

flower vase 

American Crafts Council

Last weekend we went up to Baltimore to shop for crafts at the Baltimore ACC Show. Our purchases were mostly vases for flowers.

However, one of our first stops was at the booth of Andrew Van Assche. Andrew is a self taught ceramicist who caught my eye nearly six years ago with a series of tiles and plates he did on carrots. In particular I was charmed by a tile he did of a farmer in the rain (with which you are all familiar).

I love this tile because it speaks to me of the groundedness I feel as a gardener and the oneness (see the number 1 in upper left corner?) I feel with elements when there are things growing in my garden. I like that there are still parsnips and garlic below ground in my garden waiting for my return.

Since then Andrew has moved on to more abstract tiles all of which tell a story. Here is the one I purchased this year.

What story do you see?