Kale is probably the easiest crop you can grow in the Pacific Northwest. Our cool, mild climate is perfect for kale, which can easily become a year-round source of hipster-approved greens. However, like most cold hardy brassicas, kale tastes best when the weather turns chilly, so if you aren’t a major kale lover, grow this…
Cool Weather Crops
Why You Need To Start Your Fall Vegetables ASAP
It’s time to get your slow growing fall and winter crops started. Don’t delay – plant today. Here’s why.
4 Sensational Winter Salads To Eat Now
Last Sunday I presented a garden-to-table cooking demo called Sensational Cool Season Salads at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. I showed how to make salads that highlight great winter produce. I’m always a huge bundle of nerves before any public speaking engagement, but I think it went pretty well. I crammed four salad demos…
How To Grow Arugula In The Pacific Northwest
It is inconceivable to me that arugula of all plants got pinned as a vegetable of elitism in American politics. Are you kidding me? Belgium endive, sure. Forcing chicons in the middle of winter just screams “I have people to do that for me.” Even cauliflower I could see; that’s one finicky veg. But arugula?…
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…
Garlic Rust and Gardener Waterworks
Last year, Nick really got on board with the gardening thing. His support and assistance and enthusiasm is what has allowed my backyard garden to become our urban homestead. The gateway plant, the crop that drew him into the entire gardening ethos, was garlic. Nick was so enamored of the way hardneck garlic scapes curl and twist,…
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:…
Sowing Peas in Guttering: Wherein I Grudgingly Admit This Technique Rocks
Every American gardening book I own says you absolutely must direct sow peas because they loathe root disturbance. Every British gardening book I own advocates sowing peas early in the season in a length of guttering. They always use this exact phrase – length of guttering – and whenever I read it, my internal dialog…
Lacinato Kale and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad (Plus Variations!)
Kale is a hearty green. It is tough and fibrous and people think you have to cook it to make it palatable. But kale can be fabulous raw, in big-time cold weather salads that double as a meal. One of my favorite combinations is finely shredded raw Lacinato Kale (also called Tuscan, Cavolo Nero, or Dinosaur kale) with…
What We Look Forward To
Well, last week didn’t really feel like it in the Pacific Northwest, what with the intermittent hail and occasional snow flurry, but spring is fighting the good fight. President’s Day weekend was the traditional time to put your peas in the ground, though in my area the soil was still a bit cold. Did you sow peas outside? Did…
Lessons From A Year Without Summer
Last year (2010) we had a cool spring and a cool, short summer. No one had a ripe tomato until damn near September. The heat loving tomatoes, squash, corn, etc. didn’t thrive, and so a lot of gardeners said it was a terrible, terrible year. I disagree! I had the best year ever for cabbage,…