Autumn Recess

November 23, 2016

Autumn has arrived in North Carolina, bringing with it the final harvest of bell peppers, roma tomatoes and serrano peppers.The herb garden has brushed off the first few light freezes and stands ready to make meals fragrant and savory for months to come. I am confident that the thyme, oregano and sage will over winter well and hope that the french tarragon and parsley will also.Parsley is such a staple of fall and winter dishes that I have more growing on my deck. I have been poaching from the deck parsley for a few weeks thinking that it would not handle the frosts as well, but so far it is also doing wonderfully.In previous years I have repeatedly removed pine needles from the garden beds only to replace it with a different mulch. This year I have come to my senses and am embracing the pine trees taking care of mulching for me.Collards, carrots, cabbage and parsnips are tucked into their naturally (and effortlessly) mulched beds.The fall planting of sugar snap peas has been supplying tender pea shoots and now has peas forming as well.The hydroponic herbs were changed over 10 days ago to the varieties I know and love to cook with and are already doing quite well. I am growing 2 plantings each of my favorite basils and cilantros, 3 of the flat leaf parsley and just for fun I am trying to grow 2 red kales hydroponically.With the Super Bowl and attendant tomato starts almost 2 months away, this cozy, fall garden that is mostly taking care of itself feels like a recess.

Herbal Remedy

September 20, 2016

My experiment with the front yard herb garden has come to a close.On Sunday I thinned my 150+ strawberry plants that were spread over two beds down to 32 first-year runners in one bed. Back in April I wrote about a New Zealand farmer that said first-year plants produce larger quantities of bigger berries and determined that I would try to save enough runners to have a fresh bed for 2017. This opened up a whole 4'x4' box to overwinter herbs in.Overall the herbs did fairly well in the front, though the bunnies enjoyed the french tarragon for a while this spring and the chives were eaten down to nubs repeatedly. I did a little research and it seems that the tarragon may over winter in my zone, and I am sure the sage and oregano will do fine. The rosemary is a maybe and I have no idea about the thyme or dill, but I planted everyone in a checkerboard pattern to allow for some sprawling and hopefully some self sowing for a perpetual herb garden.Once established, I will trim back the herbs and dry the cuttings for my fall/winter use and mulch the plants with leaves to retain heat, moisture and feed the soil.

Morel and Kale Egg Scramble and Pan Roasted Tomatoes

Easy Decision Dinner

September 3, 2016

Egg scrambles for dinner with almost any leftover veggies in the fridge is a quick and easy decision for nights that lack a dinner plan.I had a small bunch of kale leftover after an Italian soup earlier in the week so I chopped it up and sauteed with some rehydrated morels. Add in scrambled eggs and herbs/seasoning of choice (I used fresh tarragon and a little cayenne), top with a little cheese and viola - a delicious, nutritious and frugal dinner!As a side note on a side dish - a couple of weekends ago I processed 15lbs of my Roma Tomatoes into sauce. 2lbs of sauce to be exact. I divvied up the sauce into freezer bags and started looking for other uses for the Romas I am growing. I have diced them up into tomato salads along side the slicing and cherry tomatoes and lately I have been working on pan roasted tomatoes (above). They taste delicious but the skins are a bit like tough paper after the roasting...still a work in progress.

Farmin' the Front

March 25, 2016

For years I have been sporting an agricultural mullet - suburban-nice in the front and a garden-party in the back, but no more.Yesterday I ripped out the low growing juniper bush that was taking up half of the space between my sidewalk and front porch to make room for my 2016 herb garden.Soon this space will be growing french tarragon, rosemary, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage and if I am lucky, chives*. I will also be sprinkling in some Mother of Pearl Poppy flowers between my herb plantings to maximize the planting space for me and add visual interest for my suburban neighbors.I left the viburnum and nandina landscaping bushes in the back 1/2 of the space alone for now...* Does every gardener have a plant nemesis? Some varietal that stubbornly refuses to thrive despite trying year after year in different conditions? Mine is chives.

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