In case you missed my earlier description, kale florets are the delicious edible flower bud of a mature, overwintered kale plant. You might think of them as bonus no-work broccoli raab. Or perhaps as “the only thing that’s harvestable in the whole damn garden right now.” However you mentally characterize these tender little brassica buds,…
Spring
When and How to Harvest Kale Florets
Ok, here’s the deal. Kale, collards, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, kohlrabi – all these amazing, diverse plants have been bred from the same wild cabbage ancestor. Kohlrabi was bred to make a juicy, swollen stem, and you’ll notice it tastes like broccoli stem because, well, botanically, it pretty much is. Brussels sprouts look like teeny…
Garden Magic
Yesterday, as I chopped, dropped, and tried to cram just a few more blueberry bushes into my garden, it was obvious. The apple blossoms, the eager tips of asparagus, and the carpet of germinating calendula made it undeniable. Spring is here. If you are a gardener and you do not see magic in the ripe swelling of…
How To Make Corned Beef Brisket At Home
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, it’s time for another giant cured meat tutorial. Our cured meat of focus? Why, corned beef brisket, or course! As you certainly know, there is no corn in corned beef. Originally corned beef was cured with chunky rock salt. Someone thought those nuggets of salt looked like corn…
Thai Red Curry Cabbage Salad
A few months ago I planted a half-bed of Caraflex cabbage, a new-to-me variety that has become my official favorite fresh eating cabbage. This pointy-headed cabbage has performed wonderfully for me on dense spacing, so I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve made basically one thing with it. That’s not to say the cabbage has gone to…
Spring Pea Soup with Coconut Milk
I love early spring as a gardener, but I hate it as a chef. All the delicate flavors of spring we look forward to – the asparagus and rhubarb and tender greens – those crops tend to be ready for harvesting about 6 weeks after our tummies are ready to be eating them. Talk about…
10 Tips to Simplify Your Spring Planting
It’s spring, the very beginning of the gardening year, so why do some folks feel like they are already behind? This is a crazy time of year for the gardener, I totally understand. Between seed starting, transplanting and soil prep, it’s easy to feel like you just can’t keep up. Here’s a few tips to keep it a…
Of Dead Heroes and Roast Chickens
Judy Rodgers died Monday. Unless you are a chef, or a follower of the food world, or live in San Francisco, this probably means nothing to you. Why should it? People die every day. If we mourned for every person we’ve never known we would be paralyzed. But Chef Rodger’s passing means something to me….
Ginger Breadcrumb Fried Cauliflower with Sriracha Dipping Sauce
Like most everyone with a pulse, I love crispy, high-fat food. I also like a good honest hot oil burn on my forearm, so deep frying should be right up my alley. But because of the hot aerosolized fat that goes everywhere, the 7 or 8 bowls it usually takes and the cup or more…
Sugar Snap Peas with Herbs and Feta
I don’t want to brag, but because of that sowing peas in guttering technique I tried this year, we’ve been enjoying sugar snaps for about six weeks now. I have photographic proof that our first harvest was June 6th, and it’s been pretty well continuing since then. I am almost relieved to say that the pea…
Creamy Spinach Puree
The garden has had a spinach ka-boom moment. I was waiting patiently for my spinach to size up, and now, oh boy, has it. But that’s not something to complain about, really. Spinach is tasty, quick to wash up, and always on those magazine lists of “Foods You Must Eat To Be Healthy.” When faced…
The Simplest Salad In The World
Salad days are here. My lettuce is responding to our cool drizzly weather by growing big and verdant and tender. Say what you will about a crappy, sunless spring; the lettuce loves it. Thanks to an over-eager over-seeding of lettuce back in February, I have a bed of lettuce to eat, and it all looks like this:…