Category: gardening

tagging monarchs to track them

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on a recent cold and rainy saturday morning, i participated in a a few events for a green apple day of service at lipscomb elementary school.  actually, i was there with my husband so that i could help him give a demonstration on square food gardening.  when he isn’t busy at the university-he is the catering chef, he works with the kindergarten classes in their garden beds.  he has been working with one of the teacher for the last two years and the program has been very successful.
the teacher he works with is also heavily involved with monarch watch.  give becky five minutes and she will tell you all she can about monarchs.  she even manages to work them into every lesson plan she has for her students.  along side of the driveway just outside her classroom is long and narrow garden full butterfly plants.  some are host plants for the caterpillars, like the milkweed for instance, while others, such as coneflowers, herbs and asters are valuable nectar plants for the butterflies.
monarchs like many other creatures are very sensitive to changes within their environment.  the large amount of construction in many areas has meant a drastic reduction in host plants for monarchs and sadly, their numbers are declining quickly.  i can remember seeing so many fluttering about during the summer when i was young but now, i can hardly remember seeing one this summer.  but construction isn’t the only problem that monarchs are facing.  herbicides and genetically modified crops also have a hand in their decline and the bring back the monarch campaign is hoping to prevent further decline.  you can help by planting any of the 15 native(to tennessee) milkweed plants in your yard or garden.  for a complete list of the varieties native to tennessee, follow this link and to find sources for seeds and plants, check this list.
becky watches the plants closely with hope of finding caterpillars or a chrysalis.  when she finds them, she carefully moves them to a secure environment in the building so that she can be sure they will have the chance to become butterflies.   

on this day, one monarch decided to join the festivities by coming out of the chrysalis shell.  it was a complete surprise to everyone-especially the children in attendance.  while the wings unfurl and dry, butterflies are extremely vulnerable to predators.  this one was lucky that miss becky took it inside-the cool temperatures would have made it even harder for it to fly away.

sorry for the blurry shot-plastic containers are not the best thing to take photos through.

one of the things becky does is to tag each butterfly before setting it free.  she keeps careful records of each and every one so that it can be tracked.  she explained that all of the monarchs in this part of the country will actually fly to a small santuary in mexico for the winter.

the tag is placed on the wing and each one has a number specific to that butterfly.  the native people who live in and around the santuary will actually comb the ground looking for tags.  for some, that is a large part of their income and they take the task seriously.

becky will tell you that every so often, they get an email listing a number from one of the tags that she and the children have used.  that means one of the butterflies made it to mexico and for this group, it is news to dance and shout about.

it takes a minute or two for the butterfly to become accustomed to the tag on its wing but once they are, they can fly just fine.

did you know that it is very easy to determine the sex of a monarch butterfly?  well, it really is, by gently splaying the wings open, a five year old was quick to tell me that this was a male.  how did he know that?  by the single large black spot on each of the wings.  this guy went back into the aquarium until it warmed up and then they were going to let him fly off.  and with any luck, he will make it to the santuary in mexico.

change of season in the garden

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hard to believe but fall is creeping in.  the fact that it is still 90+ outside and humid does not help to convince me.  spring came so late this year that the garden is still in full production mode but there are some signs…
goldfinches are making quick work of the sunflower seed harvest
peppers are turning from green to red-these are ghost peppers
cucumber vines are dying off 
fall veggies planted in the garden

carrots planted in late winter are ready to be harvested.  summer lingers, thunderstorms pop up and the garden goes on.  when i see how late the sun comes up and how early it goes down, i know the change of season is upon us.  as hot as it is in nashville, i do not look forward to winter.  if we skipped it altogether, i would not be the least bit offended.  

in the garden with cake and the first lady of tennessee; blackberry cornbread buckle

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so many things say summer, but few do it as well as freshly picked blackberries.  in the south, blackberries aren’t hard to find.  they grow wild in urban areas as well as rural.  luckily for me, i work in a demonstration garden that has several large bushes.  on one warm sunday morning, i picked 6 pounds of them.

and just as you would expect, there is no shortage of recipes to use blackberries in.  my first task was to cook up a batch of jam.  it was easy to do and it only required two ingredients; blackberries and sugar.  i kept a few back to use in cakes and the like and i am glad i did.  on a recent morning, i had the opportunity to show off the demonstration garden to the first lady of tennessee.

mrs. haslam is busy with the installation of an heirloom vegetable, herb and cutting garden at the executive residence in nashville.  she came out to the demo garden to learn about alternative methods of planting and to see the many plants suitable for our area.  in this photo, i am explaining the keyhole garden, our latest experiment in the garden.

we toured the herb garden which was constructed completely out of found objects and the beds were filled using a lasagna gardening technique.

our herb garden has many culinary, medicinal and pot pourri herbs as well as a few edible flowers and some herbal tea plants.

the garden is a labor of love (or insanity-you choose) for me.  it is where i go every sunday morning.  the chance to share it with others is an honor.

my two favorite gardeners were with me, shirley (not in the photo) and ty ann.  without either of them and their hard work, the garden would not be nearly as beautiful as it is.  and where ty ann goes, so goes bella, the garden mascot!

and any morning spent in the garden means cake.  in honor of the first lady’s visit, i baked up a blackberry cornbread buckle with some of the berries i had picked.  to see the full recipe, visit food52.com

my very own field of dreams

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open the newspaper, surf the internet, read a magazine, it doesn’t matter which you do to stay informed. when you do, though, you will most likely hear another story of disappearing wildlife due to diminishing habitats.  as a gardener, i take the responsibility of providing a natural setting for all types of wildlife seriously.  we do not use synthetic pesticides and we purposely add native host plants to our landscape.  
as a child, i would see monarch butterflies all summer long.  while living in california, i went on a trail ride with my mother in law.  it was one of many trail rides through the headlands of marin, and as we came down the trail into a valley, we encountered migrating monarchs.  it was an amazing sight to be seen; everywhere you looked were monarchs fluttering by as they headed south.  luckily, the horses didn’t mind them and we were able to just take in the view.  twenty years later, i can still recall the excitement of watching them and knowing that they were headed to mexico powered only by their delicate wings.
these days, so few monarchs come through my yard because their numbers have declined drastically.   one factor is the disappearing environment that they need.  mainly they need a specific host plant, milkweed, for the larvae to feed on.  with the need for housing and all that goes with it, lots of open fields of wild flowers and plants like milkweed have disappeared.  it is with this knowledge that my husband and i have planted milkweed, asclepias syriaca, in our yard.  

we started out with a few plants from seeds that i purchased from easy wildflowers.  it took a couple of years for the plants to mature but when they did, they began blooming.  it never ceases to amaze me just how wonderful “weeds” can be.  a close up view of the flowers is surprising; they are beautiful.

they look like little shooting stars from the side view.  but even more surprising is the scent.  milkweed has one of the most potent scents in my garden.  i snipped a few of the clusters off and put them in water in my living room and within a short time, the entire room was heavy with the perfume of milkweed.  then my husband came home and quickly learned that he is allergic to them.  out went the blooms…

the plants spread quickly by sending out runners underground.  if you do not want them popping up in your landscape, i suggest you plant them in pots.  we want them to fill this otherwise useless strip of property between our yard and the house next door so we have let them run all over.

we see many butterflies coming to the plants but we are still waiting for monarchs.

another type of milkweed is common butterfly weed.  this is asclepias turberosa and the seeds can also be found on easy wildflowers website.

the foliage is very different but we have had monarchs on them in the past, just not the last several years.

one visitor we have had in abundance is the milkweed bug.  they do not do much damage to the plants but make a nuisance of themselves around the yard.  they are often confused with box elder bugs but they are not nearly as pesky.

the story goes, if you build it, they will come.  the plants are in the garden and i will wait, with fingers crossed for the monarchs to come…

stuffed artichokes; almost as good as grandma’s

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growing up in northern new jersey, i knew a few things were certain.  you were likely to be catholic and quite possibly jewish if you weren’t catholic.  if you were catholic, like my family is, then the chances that you were irish or italian were pretty high.  for me and my siblings, there was no either or, we are both irish and italian.  
like most families, our food traditions were firmly based around our ethnicity.  for my mother’s family, my irish side, it was new england yankee all the way.  we can trace our roots back before the civil war on this side making the menu a traditional american one.  not so much on my father’s italian side.  they came to america long after the civil war, just around the turn of the century making them italian americans.  my great grandmother held on to the tradition of an italian woman; she did a lot of cooking and almost all of it from scratch, including some of the pasta dishes.  the sunday dinners looked more like a feast and we won’t even get started on holiday dinners.  ask my father about them, he can speak at length to the tradition of the seven fishes on christmas eve.  all i can remember is the jello she would make for me and all of the milano cookies my great grandfather would share with me.
my grandmother however was not a traditional woman.  she was a career woman.  having lost her husband to world war two, she went to work as a secretary in an office in new york city.  after my great grandmother passed away, she began cooking and sunday dinner became her responsibility.  what i remember most from those dinners; mountains of fusilli, meat balls so unbelievably tender, a salad served after the meal and it was often little more than chickory with red wine vinegar, the occasional plate of raw fennel slices, and artichokes filled with a moist bread stuffing.
more than once, i shared an artichoke with a friend who did not know what they were.  after explaining how you just scraped the leaves on your teeth to get the flesh, i mainly got odd looks and a hasty “no thanks”.  when my children came along, i shared this with them as well.  luckily for me, my husband knew all about artichokes and enjoyed them almost as much as i do.  both of my girls will dig into one with out any coaxing.  so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we planted some in our garden.  earlier this week, i picked our first three and they were part of our dinner that night.

 artichokes are members of the thistle family and if you let the blooms mature, they look like thistle flowers on steroids.

 the flower heads consist of leaves with a tiny thorn on the end of each one.  the thorns must be trimmed away before eating.

 each main flower is located on the end of the branch but each leaf on the branch also develops a side bloom.

 since we do not use any chemicals on our vegetables, they needed a good cleaning.  i soaked the trimmed heads in salt water to help flush out the critters.

 to fill the centers, i mixed up some plain bread crumbs with fresh parsley, salt, pepper and a little granulated garlic.  after combining this, i added a little olive oil to moisten it and then filled the centers.  to make it worth the effort, i packed it in there as best as i could.

 to cook them, i placed them in a pot with about an inch or so of vegetable stock and let them simmer, covered, for an hour and a half.  to keep them moist, i replenished the vegetable stock as it reduced.

they are done when you can pull a leaf out easily-pull one half way between the top and bottom towards the middle of the choke to get the best idea.  taste it, it should be creamy and soft not at all chalky or astringent.  now for the hard part, waiting for more to grow…

sriracha

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 by the end of summer, the tomatoes and cucumbers are long gone but the pepper plants are still pumping out the produce.  i have wanted to make some sriracha and have been waiting for the peppers to ripen.  pictured above, starting from 12 o’clock:  tobacco peppers, hot banana peppers in a range of colors and sizes, thai chiles, korean chiles and in the center-cayenne peppers.  the korean pepper plant gave up its fruit long before the others and i ended up throwing them in the freezer while i waited for the others to catch up.  the process is surprisingly simple and easy and this recipe from viet world kitchen is fool proof.

 the recipe calls for palm sugar or light brown sugar but i had a cone of piloncillo sitting in the closet and decided to use that despite the recipe suggesting it could lend a darker color.  to get the amount needed, i simply used the large holes on a box grater.

 the peppers simmering with the other ingredients: water, vinegar, sugar(piloncillo) and salt.

 running it through the food mill-you need to let it completely cool first and then blend it before straining it.  warning never try to blend hot liquids in a conventional blender-they will blow the top off and shoot hot liquid everywhere!

 i can feel the heat just looking at that puree!
 such a beautiful shade of spicy hot

it will be interesting to try it out, we have an old bottle of the rooster in the fridge and i will have to compare them.  my taste of this one was of course very hot but it also had a fruity flavor that i can only guess was caused by the combination of peppers-oh to repeat that blend….

the little fig tree that could

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gardening; love it or hate it, you choose.  personally, i love it no matter how frustrating and unsuccessful it is for me at times.  why?  because sometimes, it all falls into place, the stars align and magic happens in the garden.  in my case, the little fig tree on the sunny side of the house has decided that this is the year to really produce fruit and we have been enjoying the bounty.

about 5 years ago, we went on a typical beach trip down to the gulf of mexico.  while we were there, we stopped in at one of the sketchiest flea markets we have ever encountered-scary, almost.  when we spotted a vendor selling plants, we stopped to see what was available and took a chance on a tiny fig tree.  the first few years, the little tree hung on as we moved it from spot to spot hoping to find a happy home for it.  we diligently wrapped it up in cardboard and blankets and covered it in plastic each winter.  it wasn’t until we put it in it’s current spot that it decided to grow and grow it has-about 9 feet tall now.  better still is the fact that it is producing fruit at a rate that has me picking figs by the dozen.

brown turkey figs fresh from the tree

on a couple of days, i picked full flats of figs
while i had lots of fruit to work with, it just wasn’t enough to make a batch of jam-my first choice.  so, what to do???  sorbet, that’s what!!!  after a quick search on the internet, i had a recipe to start with.
 i cooked the figs with a little vanilla paste

 the recipe called for only 1/3 cup sugar so i added a couple tablespoons of pure honey

 after cooking, the mixture is pureed and water, wine and lemon juice is added.  the recipe called for port but we were out of port so i subbed cabernet sauvignon.

 beautiful puree with little flecks of vanilla bean and fig seeds.

 after processing, it went into the freezer to set.  perfect for a hot summer day

looking forward to next year, there are visions of fig jam in my future…

cinnamon swirl coffee cake; a comedy of errors

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just about every sunday morning, i head out to the demonstration and research garden to work with my fellow master gardeners.  it may sound like a bad way to spend a sunday morning but it is actually a lot of fun when a group of us get together for the purpose of tending the many beds.  yes it is social, but we also have the opportunity to learn about all things “garden.”

did i mention the cake?  it is hard to get volunteers to crawl out of bed early on a sunday morning so i have taken to bribing them with homemade cake.  every saturday evening, i bake a cake to take out there on sunday morning.  on the rare occasion that my husband can join me due to his insane work schedule, i let him choose the flavor; he chose chocolate chips this time.

one of my favorite types of coffee cake is a classic crumb cake.  tons of cinnamon scented streusel on top of a dense vanilla cake dusted with a barrel of powdered sugar.  mmmmmmm…add some chocolate chips and a cinnamon nut swirl and you just hit that one over the fence!  when i want a coffee cake like that, i reach for my worn out copy of the cake bible by rose levy beranbaum and i turn to her sour cream coffee cake recipe.

so, here i was in my kitchen on a saturday evening preparing to bake the coffee cake for my trip to the garden sunday morning.  how hard could that be?  oven set to 350 for preheating.  the food processor came out to make the crumb topping.  then i began to measure the ingredients for the topping and the ribbon since they are prepared first.  light brown sugar(bag of dark is open, i grab that instead), sugar, pecans, cinnamon, cake flour,  CAKE FLOUR!!!  uh oh, no cake flour; out came the all purpose and the corn starch to make a quick substitute.

next up, the butter for the topping and the cake, egg yolks, wait; let’s make that 2 whole eggs rather than 4 yolks-i don’t want left over whites.  back to it; sour cream-hmmm, it shouldn’t be neon pink now should it?  no problem, i’ve got buttermilk.  moving right along, vanilla, cake flour(or should i say pretend cake flour), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and let’s not forget those chocolate chips!!!

needless to say, it pays to stock the larder and to check it for the ingredients before you get started.  but despite the missing ingredients, the cake came out fantastic and for a change, the squirrels did not get a single crumb!!!

sour cream comedy cake with chocolate chips
1 (8) cup tube pan, serves 8-10
adapted from rose levy beranbaum’s sour cream coffee cake recipe in the cake bible, 1988, william morrow and company.  
topping
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup pecan pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup cake flour (or 1/3 cup all purpose flour and 1 tablespoon cornstarch)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
place the sugars, pecans and cinnamon into the bowl of the food processor and pulse to coarsely chop the pecans.  measure out 3/4 cup and set it aside.  add the flour and butter and pulse it to form small pea sized lumps of topping.  set this aside and prepare the cake batter.
cake batter
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups cake flour (or 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and slightly softened
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour an 8 cup tube pan and set aside.  whisk the eggs with 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk and the vanilla.  in the mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda and the salt and mix to combine.  add the butter and the remaining 6 tablespoons of buttermilk.  on low speed, mix until the ingredients come together.  turn the speed to medium and allow it to cream for several minutes until it is light and almost fluffy.  add the egg mixture in several additions, scrape the bowl after each addition and mix until combined.  add half of the chocolate chips and stir them in by hand.  pour about 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly.   sprinkle the chocolate chips and the cinnamon/nut mixture evenly over the batter.  carefully drop the remaining batter over the topping in small dollops and then spread them out to form a thin layer.  sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top of the cake and bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about an hour.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes.  carefully turn the cake out and then invert it onto a rack to cool.  serve as is or with a dusting of powdered sugar.  
and if you are interested in that garden i mentioned, see it here

lemon pistachio breakfast cake

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every sunday morning, i head out to the demonstration garden to work with my fellow gardeners for a few hours.  it is usually peaceful out there and we always have a good time together.  how can you go wrong if someone always comes out to the garden with a freshly baked cake?  unless you are that someone who is searching through cupboards trying to figure out what to bake…did i mention that the “someone” in question is me?

this week, lemon sounded like a good choice to me.  it has been so hot and lemon sounded light and refreshing; a good choice for a crowd.  that is providing a crowd shows up.  since it was a holiday weekend, i ended up gardening by myself with a cake for company.  luckily, for me anyway, i wasn’t in a sweet tooth mood and was easily able to limit myself to a small slice.

this is a moist cake that is quickly mixed up in one bowl and baked in a medium sized (about 8 cups) bundt pan.  rather than make a glaze as the recipe called for, i opted for a more finger friendly dusting of powdered sugar-we don’t have the time for plates and forks in the garden.

lemon-pistachio breakfast cake

adapted from a recipe by lou seibert pappas.  the original recipe, lemon-glazed buttermilk bundt cake can be found in the 2006 book, coffeecakes, simple, sweet and savory published by chronicle books.

serves 10-12
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
3/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup chopped pistachios (i used unsalted, dry roasted pistachios from trader joe’s)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
powdered sugar for dusting the cake

preheat the oven to 350.  grease an 8 cup bundt pan and set aside.  in a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, zest, canola oil, chopped pistachios and salt and whisk until smooth.  sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda over the top of the egg mixture.  stir it a couple times with a rubber spatula, add the buttermilk and continue to mix until smooth.  scrape it into the greased pan and spread it out evenly.  bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a rack to cool completely.  to serve, dust the top with a small amount of powdered sugar and cut into slices with a serrated knife.

maple-walnut upside down persimmon cake

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on a recent trip out to the garden, this cake accompanied me and was shared among my fellow gardeners.  it is a simple cake that can be made with sweet potato or pumpkin puree if you do not have access to persimmons.  for those of you that have persimmon trees in your yards, be sure to wait until that first frost of fall to gather the fruits.  then after washing them, run them through a food mill to extract the seeds and freeze the puree in sandwich sized zipper bags to make it easy to use in recipes.

the maple syrup is heated with the butter and brown sugar.  when the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, allow it to boil a bit and then pour it into a greased cake pan.

top the glaze mixture with the walnuts, try not to go all the way to the edge of the pan to keep the nuts on the top of the cake-i didn’t do a very good job of that!

persimmon puree looks a lot like sweet potatoes or pumpkin and if you can’t find persimmons, both make a suitable substitute.

using the typical creaming method, this batter mixes up quickly.  after creaming the butter and sugar, the eggs are added.  once the eggs are in, sift the dry ingredients over the batter.  fold it a few times and then sprinkle the buttermilk all over the top and fold it completely until no streaks remain:

so easy!!!

the tough part-spreading the batter over the nuts without moving them.  be sure to allow the cake to sit for about 5-10 minutes before turning it out otherwise, the glaze and the nuts will not coat the top of the cake evenly.

maple-walnut upside down persimmon cake
1 (8″) cake serving 6-8
glaze:
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons maple syrup-preferably grade b
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
preheat the oven to 350.  grease an 8″ cake pan and set it aside.  place the butter in a small sauté pan over low heat and melt.  add the maple syrup, light brown sugar and the cinnamon and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved.  raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil.  allow the mixture to boil for a minute and then pour into the prepared cake pan
cake:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/3 cup persimmon puree
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
in a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar with the vanilla and salt.  when light and fluffy, add the egg and combine completely.  add the persimmon puree and mix in making sure to scrape the bowl well as you go.  sift the flour and baking powder over the batter and fold it in a few times.  sprinkle the buttermilk over the batter and fold it together until smooth.  spread it evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan.  bake until a tester inserted comes out clean,  about 35-40 minutes.  cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then place a serving dish that is larger than the cake pan over the top and invert the cake onto the plate-this will catch any drips.  allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.  and for the particularly evil-serve it with some ice cream!  buttermilk ice cream comes to mind…
bake on friends and may the force be with you.