Archive for the 'Gardening' Category
August is the season for figs in Vancouver. I know this because on a bi-daily basis, my neighbour comes over with a huge bowl of figs for me to turn into something delicious. He has 5 trees that bare 2 kinds of figs of which I don’t know the name, but each one has green skin, one variety is large with sweet, mild white flesh that turns golden as it gets really ripe, and a smaller variety that has red flesh and is a bit tangier.
Two years ago I used the white-fleshed figs when they were really ripe to make fig ginger jam. I skinned every fig and just used the flesh for this jam with lots of texture from the seeds and chunks of candied ginger. It turned out so well that I saved and savoured the jars knowing they would have to last. One sad, sad day my last two jars hit the tile floor on the laundry room and smashed in a glassy figgy mess. As I was contemplating licking it off the floor (and picking the glass off my tongue from the splatter that hit my leg), I decided I better make some more to avoid this sort of desperate craziness.
In 2009, I used both kinds of figs together to make jam, again making Fig Ginger Jam , but this time I left on the skins. This changed the colour and texture of the jam as I needed to pulse the jam with an immersion blender to chop up the skins this time making it thicker. And because I had added the candied ginger in the jam before blending, there were no yummy candied ginger chunks. The colour was not nearly as nice as the 2008 jam (which was a rich, shiny, golden colour) but it tasted just as good.
I made a second Jam in 2009 as well, Fig, Brandy and Honey Mandarine. This had a lot more citrus and some richness from the brandy both of which went very well with the figs.
Then came August 2010:
I don’t know if it is a love for figs, the daily harvest delivery from my neighbour, or the squirrel in me but I made 7 recipes from the figs this year:
Oh, and I froze some halved figs too. Whew. I actually went out yesterday to see if the trees had any more ripe figs (um, crazy) and thankfully, that’s it for the year. I can put this figgy month to bed enjoying a pantry full of riches, of the fig persuasion.
August 31 2010 | Baking and Canning and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Projects | 22 Comments »
The following is an excerpt from my article in the Spring / Summer 2010 issue of Delish magazine. Delish is a free-to-the-reader online publication for women with an cutting edge format. It is not just a website or blog, it is an online magazine that allows you to flip page by page just as you would a hard copy. The writers and editors live all over the world and in many cases were brought together by the internet. While I’ve never met any of the lovely ladies, I so much enjoyed working with them for this first issue that I wrote two more for the upcoming fall issue. To look through Delish, click on the thumbnail:
Finding Your Inner Farmer: A Guide To Getting Your Own Green Thumb
I adore beautiful plants. My garden is chock-full of them, looking like little gems, all gleaming aubergine and cherry and tangerine at different times of the year. So when I happened by a photo of a beautiful backyard potager boasting ornamental vegetables, fruit trees and herbs all intermixed with gorgeous dahlia blooms, coneflowers and wisteria vines, it was love at first sight. My image of an ordered country vegetable plot tended to by an overall-clad farmer was immediately replaced by one of a chic urbanite showing off her bounty of freshly-picked produce.
With a little research (browsing through local garden centres and seed catalogs), I quickly realized that rainbow chard and beetroot don’t only look good together on the dinner plate. I dug up the perennial beds surrounding my back patio and replaced half of the showy blooms with gorgeous veggie plants like Dragon Tongue beans and Pizza My Heart peppers. That summer, the patio looked just as beautiful as the previous year, required no extra tending to, and as a bonus, gave me a gourmet produce section right in my backyard.
It’s been a few years now since edibles have joined my small urban garden. The whole things is incredibly addicting. While the garden is still filled with flowers and ornamental trees, I’ve found it’s more rewarding to plant a trellis with Purple Peacock pole beans than a flowing vine. Hanging baskets overflow with Tumbling Tom tomatoes and yellow alpine strawberry plants can be seen in many a nook and cranny. I take great pleasure when a neighbour asks, “Is that a cabbage?” with both awe and delight at the interesting, leafy, red globe nestled in the front border of a garden that still looks unabashedly ornamental.
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August 21 2010 | Gardening and Growing Food | 8 Comments »
Here are the lovlies blooming in my garden this month. Hover over the thumbnail to see the name or click on the thumbnail for a larger picture. Anyone able to help me name the hydrangeas? Extra points for identifying the bright red bloom.
August 15 2010 | Flowers and Gardening and Photography | 13 Comments »
This month my neighbours and I have more growing than we can harvest and eat so there is quite a bit of food sharing going around. Almost daily I get a delivery of somthing, like a giant bowl of fresh figs, that I turn into some lucious creation. I have also now organized a farm fresh egg delivery in my city neighbourhood and been out picking wild berries – all making for a crazy first few weeks in August.
I’m currently harvesting the following veg from my home garden and the community garden plot:
Beans: Purple Peacock, French Filet
Peas: MammothMelting Snow Peas
Tomatoes: Black Russian, Siletz, Sweetheart Grape, Gold Nugget Cherry, Sungold Cherry, Isis Candy Cherry, Red Zebra, Tumbler
Sema Fino Florence Fennel
Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden
Chard: Rainbow, Fordhook Giant, Rhubarb
Peppers: Filius Blue, Garden Salsa
Basil: Organic Sweet Basil, Thai Basil
Squash: one Gold Nugget was ready at the community garden
Potatoes: Red Chief, French Fingerlings
All this has made for some interesting recipes like carmelized figs, fig ginger jam, walnut pesto, and mixed veggies ragu. I’ll be sure to share very soon. If I can get out of the kitchen long enough. help.
August 09 2010 | Community Garden and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 8 Comments »
Here is what’s blooming in my garden this July. Hover over a photo to see the name or click the thumbnail for a larger pic. Enjoy!
July 15 2010 | Flowers and Gardening and Photography | 12 Comments »
Today I dropped by my very favourite nursery in the Greater Vancouver area and the blooms on display simply blew my mind. So gorgeous it was worth a shout out.
Phoenix Perennials in Richmond features one of the largest selections of perennials in Canada with over 4,000 plants. Not only are the plants beautiful, rare, and impecably tended to by great staff, but right now the whole place looks like a plant carnival with so many rich colours of blooms and leaves and bracts.
It’s really the best show in town and the good news gets better: this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is The Summer Sizzle – 30% off plants, pots, and iron work. There are a series of free workshops this weekend as well - check out the e-newsletter for more details.
I’m hoping to steal a little of my time (which has been currently dedicated to the community garden) to get there myself and pick up a few show stoppers for my front yard garden. Hmmm, now where can I find some room….
July 07 2010 | Gardening and Vancouver | 9 Comments »
Wondering what has been destroying lawns around Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster? It’s the European Chafer Turf Pest or Chafer Beetle.
This time of year these ugly suckers can be seen mating in the trees at dusk and each one can lay up to 50 eggs in the surrounding lawn. Those eggs turn into grubs (ick) that feed on the roots of grass until they get ripped out and munched on by crows, raccoons, or skunks.
Since this introduced pest has limited natural predators (besides the aforementioned grub-snackers) we are seeing turf around the GVRD is being destroyed in a street-by-street wave all by a beetle no bigger than a penny.
What can you do to about it? In my opinion, replacing and reseeding your lawn every year is futile and expensive – you are really just planting gourmet micro-greens for grubs. Why not take the hint and get rid of that thirsty high-maintenance patch of grass and replace it with a vegetable garden or some ground covers? Here are some lovely ideas of lawn-free landscaping that look better without grass – and never need mowing.
Landscaping with rocks, water features, and flowering ground covers is an attractive and environmentally-friendly grass lawn alternative.
Low growing flowering perennials also make great groundcover - try Heather, Snow In Summer, and Lamb's Ear for different texture and colour options.
So far my lawn hasn’t been too badly damaged but I leave the grass long and full of clover, speedwell, and moss. I think it looks festive with various flowers in bloom and full of bees. And if what lawn I do have can’t withstand the grubs in the future, it’s just an excuse for more garden. It’s a hard thing to say goodbye to an old friend, but if change is forced upon us, perhaps it isn’t worth the fight but instead is opportunity for something new. Like a water feature or a heirloom tomato garden or a herb wheel or a rockery or….
If you’d like to learn more about Chafer Beetles then check out the Vancouver Park Board’s brochure. And stay tuned because over the next few months I’ll be posting more on Chafer Beetles (read: future studio shots of the grubs) as well as ideas on how to deal with our changing landscape.
June 30 2010 | Gardening and Photography and Vancouver | 12 Comments »
Not a whole lot of work went into my hanging strawberry planter project. I tucked some extra runners into a hanging planter I found at a thrift store and hung it off the garage. I’ve kept it watered for 2 months now and look how well it is doing. It is covered in little green strawberries and a ton of flowers. Not too shabby.
May 17 2010 | Gardening and Growing Food and Projects | 9 Comments »
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