Getter On the Grow

While I know you were expecting the next post to be about my travels abroad and journeys home, you'll have to keep holding your breath on that one, because the story is an epic one currently being drafted in my journal to be transcribed at a later date. So for now lets just jump ahead a bit shall we...

Since returning home I have begun the arduous process of getting a business plan together for the Ciao Down! food truck and have begun catering again. Summer is such an exciting time for chefs and food friends because it is the bearer of the sweetest fruits, tomatoes, onions, and peppers; the freshest lettuces, wild greens, and a brilliant array of farm fresh, locally grown, wholesome ingredients. This is what we live for!

And now for something completely (alright not completely) different: GROW YOUR OWN!

As soon as I returned we started gardening, my mother picked up a few tomato plants and a couple yellow bell pepper plants and the oregano and lemon balm had returned from last year in gianormous bushes.  Jon brought over a couple of planters that had returning plants from last year including chives, mint, spicy thyme, and tarragon. The raised garden bed was already there from last summer's remodel and so we started planting. With the wild bushes of rosemary, sage, bay leaves, and fennel of South Italy fresh in my mind, I couldn't wait to start growing my own food. We went up to Watson's where our friends work and picked out two varieties of hot peppers, a little finger eggplant and herbs to start. Later I will describe what we've got growing in greater detail.

Our first farm fresh scores began as soon as I returned. All I could think about was rhubarb. I once saw a video of Alice Waters, my hero, talking about how your body naturally craves certain foods at certain times of the year. My body KNEW it was rhubarb time, it could smell it, it could taste it, my mind had already paired the apple-celery stalks in a dozed different combinations before I even got my hands on any. I was fresh off the plane, trying to readjust and re-evaluate, but all my mind wanted was to cook.

I couldn't stop thinking about marmalate, or marmalades, all the brilliant flavors we had come up with in Italy during conserve week. I had brought home a few items I felt I really needed in my pantry. The first was a small jar of very concentrated peperoncino jam that I had bought at a place called "Agriturismo"or "Farm Tour" where a bunch of nonne (no-nay)-grandmothers-cooked a brilliant 5 hour long lunch for us. I knew I had to make some hot pepper jam.
A second item I brought back was a bottle of Mosto Cotto, or Cooked Must, made from the mash left over after grapes are pressed for wine/vinegar. During conserve week we had made a mosto cotto and cipolla(onion) marmalata that was outstanding.

So, Jon and I set out to the Waverly Farmers' Market for our first good score, with the lust for marmalata in our mouths. We first stumbled upon an olive oil imported from a family farm in Greece, at which the lady, apologizing for having run out of bread, was taken quite by surprise when we took the olive oil as a shot, swishing it around and sipping it through our teeth. It was quite good, but I was on a specific mission. We rounded the corner and hit up one of our favorite vendors, a family run farm from Dundalk that has saved me a time or two with catering jobs. He had dollar boxes of jalepenos and spring onions a dollar a bunch. I think we walked away with two bunches of spring onions and three boxes of jalepenos.  An adjacent tent carried plants in more obscure varieties than we had seen at Watson's. We picked up a thai basil, a san marzano tomato plant, and a purple cherokee tomato plant.

But where was the rhubarb? Two days later, on the way home from a doctor's appointment, Jon, taking the scenic route as usual, pulled up behind an open box truck with a festival tent set up behind it. There it was! BIG, FAT, JUICY rhubarb! and strawberries to boot? Mine! We picked up a pound of each and were on our way. Love the roadside score, ALWAYS!

The next day we made jalepeno and honey jam, which simply began with sugar, honey, and jalepeno puree and somehow magically those three ingredients made crack (who knew!) that Jon and I have been addicted to all summer.  Goes great with cheese and wine, but it's a must on a cheddar and jalepeno bagel to start the day. We made straight-up strawberry-rhubarb marmalata that is perfect for making our home made yoghurt bowls with granola and plain yoghurt. For our third we combined thinly sliced whites of spring onions and sugar and finished it with mosto cotto. Good on almost anything, onion marmalata is a great accompaniment to sharp cheese or spicy sausage, or just on an everything bagel with some cream cheese. Tutto Buonissimo!

A few weeks later we jammed again and this time made tomatillo-raspberry with lemon zest and strawberry-rhubarb with balsamic-verbena reduction. MAMMA MIA! We gave an 8 ounce jar of each of those to my chef friend and mentor, Mike Wagner, along with a 16 ounce jar of the cipolla and mosto cotto.  Two weeks later we were hanging out with him at BIC and he said, "Your jams were great, I had 'em here but I took them home. My wife and I loved them! They're gone!" I couldn't stop laughing about it for days after I left. Two pounds of jam,  downed! Periodically I still turn to Jon and say, "I can't believe Wags ate two pounds of jam in less than two weeks." Definitely the best form of flattery.

As the garden progressed, we slowly started getting plants from other places. We picked up a few more herbs at the Fresh Market, we bought an entire flat of edibles from a nice lady at the Timonium fairgrounds the last day she was open for the season, and she even threw in a papyrus plant just for us to experiment with. We also got a flat of herbs from a lady with a hosta farm up in Ruxton. We made a second trip to Watson's where I picked up a tabasco pepper plant, a watermelon plant, and a yellow pear tomato plant, who eventually produced us the first ripe tomato of the summer.

As the plants grew and began to take their form, we began to notice tiny plants resembling baby tomato plants springing up all over the garden. We took one out, put it in a pot and watched it grow. Soon, there was no question, these tiny seedlings were in fact tomato plants. It was another week or so before we realized where they were coming from... THE COMPOST! Tiny seeds in our homemade compost were beginning to sprout into baby tomato plants all over the garden. The mystery tomatoes, as we began to call them, were like little gifts from the food gods. We began to start annexes of the garden in whatever we could find. First we used an old wooden crate thats been hanging around the back porch for as long as I can remember. Then, I became determined to find any alternative planter we could think of. We needed more space, the garden was growing and fate was allotting us new tomato plants at a rate of about three new sprouts a day.  A few days after I started transplanting the sprouts, we stopped at a yard sale at the top of my street. The guy was getting tired and was about to head in and he asked us if we wanted a five foot tall cassette shelf with no back and slats that slide out. I jumped on it! I knew immediately that it was exactly what I had been looking for.  I took it home and the following day I removed all of the shelving, tilled a five foot by two foot plot of ground, and plopped the shelving on its side and began to fill it. This is where I would plant the flat of peppers we got from the lady at the fairgrounds. Beside the new raised repurposed bookself garden bed, I planted our new herbs from the hosta lady in a small old wooden tomato crate.  Just in front of the old tomato crate, I placed what my friend had thought was a broken stool which we rescued from his garbage and flipped upside down inorder to make a bottomless planter that sits flush against the bookself.

However, as I began to transplant and plant new plants in the new raised bed, I began to realize that it STILL wasn't enough space. I needed MORE garden... The next week I tilled another 6 or 7 foot plot, added dirt and transplanted the baby tomato plants which had already grown twice the size in about a week. Still, I needed a few more annexes so we grabbed a few more planters. When last I counted, we had 31 tomato plants sprout up,  and we gave away about 8 or 10, so currently, including the 5 plants we purchased, we have about 28 tomato plants growing in the gardens. The mysteries are starting to unfold as they devolp flowers, then fruit, and of the ones blooming now, we know that we have some cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes. The various varieties are still a mystery but we cant wait to see what these little free range guys are gonna do.

 Last week, we started to see a different kind of bud popping up in the bookshelf bed. Out of habit, we never pluck anything from the garden before we identify it. These new seedlings looked very familiar and I searched for it and was ecstatic when I learned they were cucumber or possibly summer squash seedlings!

We are keeping a close eye on them to see what they do but I am hopeful we could have some baby cukes by season end.

 The main garden bed that was put in last summer in preparation for the Brunyate-Murray wedding houses three varieties of pepper-cherry bomb, super chili and yellow bell, a watermelon plant, new seedlings of cucumber/summer squash, two cherry tomato plants, one extremely large beefsteak tomato, a purple cherokee tomato plant, six out of seven of the varieties of basil we have, cilantro, rosemary, dill, lemon balm, and greek oregano.

 Marigolds for protection round out the space and add beautiful pops of bright orange and red.

 The bookshelf bed! It is home to one cherry tomato that popped up from compost,  one green lady bell pepper plant, five habanero plants, one tabasco plant, one cayenne plant, and one very happy and budding littlefinger eggplant. The bookshelf bed also currently houses four or five small cucumber plants that sprung up from compost.

 Alternative planters! Here we have two of our found planters, an old tomato crate and the repurposed stool we salvaged from our friend.

 One of our alternative planters, the tomato crate. Here we planted our second variety of oregano—golden oregano— and two huge sweet marjorams and a tarragon plant we got for free from the hosta lady.

 The salvaged stool planter houses two types of parsley, curly and Italian. We plant marigolds throughout the gardens because they are known to deter pests.

 The latest addition to the annexes, the tomato bed is a ground level bed with eight varieties of tomatoes, seven of which came up from seeds in the compost. All told, we have about 28 tomato plants growing for harvest.

 A few small planters house herbs, this one has a great purple sage that we picked up at Watson's and a genovese basil that the bugs have been destroying.

 The spicy thyme is HUGE! He just wont stop growing, when he came here from Jon's he was a squiggly mess of what we assumed were dead sticks, most of which began to sprout new leaves of tasty spicy thyme.

 A rosemary plant we picked up at Fresh Market, alongside our greek oregano which came back so huge from last year that I've already given away three plant of it and I still find myself pruning and drying oregano once a week. Rounding out the herbs we've got cilantro and stevia. Both are delicious in iced tea.

 Behind the oregano, rosemary, and cilantro, the beautiful cherokee purple tomato has huge fruits sunning, getting ready to turn.

The basil garden: purple basil and sweet basil are much loved by the bugs, but with the help of Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew (a human friendly bacterium called Spinosad which was harvested from the soil of an old rum distillery in the Caribbean in the 1980s) and nightly adventures of killing beetles we are starting to control the problem. Behind the purple and sweet basils we have a big Thai basil plant, a lemon basil, and my favorite and something I'd never seen before, a boxwood basil. With our genovese that totals six varieties and two days ago we acquired number seven from a friend which is yet to be planted but is a lovely looking basil resembling the Thai, called English basil.

Here we have a few close ups of the boxwood basil. And in the background you can see the big lemon balm which grew back from last year. We already halved the lemon balm plant and gave it away but it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The boxwood basil looks just like a tiny boxwood bush but has these delicious perfect bite sized leaves!

 The beefsteak tomato grew so big that it completely swallowed our measly tomato cage and we had to stake and retie it.

 The first ripe cherry bomb! He will be consumed shortly! We are so excited, he is huge and BRIGHT red!

 The peppers are growing up! LITERALLY! The cherry bomb are growing straight up, ass forward, with huge thick stems.

 Here is the second variety we bought at the beginning of the summer, and it is doing AMAZINGLY, the super chili is also growing its fruit straight up to the sky but in a linear direction. The beautiful bright yellow-green peppers are going to start changing color soon and are destined for hot sauce and jam.

 Our newest addition, the English basil, quite resembles the Thai basil only with bigger leaves.

 Around the ledge we have lavender growing in a pot,  another potted tomato seedling that is popping like whoa right now, a planter with spicy thyme that came back from Jon's garden last summer, and a likewise spearmint plant.  In the little yellow planter we have a small piece of lemon balm but we are also letting our new found friend, goosefoot, grow wild in it. More on that in a minute.

 Our watermelon vine is already about seven or eight feet long and is just showing the first few buds. We also planted a couple heads of old garlic, as I had seen Chef John do in Calabria, which is the grassy looking thing on the left. We are hoping it scapes soon.

 The sideporch annex houses one roma tomato we purchased and eleven tomatoes from compost seedlings. The big crate has the smallest of our tomato plants in it, one of which is just exposing its first buds. We can't wait to see what the gods gave us.

 Hard to photograph because of its silvery color, this plant is actually a curry plant. Resembling a frosty rosemary, the curry leaves transport you to a kitchen of India. We used this in an Indian themed luncheon we put on for a few of our dearest friends to celebrate their engagement.

We have two small nasturtium plants that we've been trying to grow all summer but they don't want to do much. However, our new favorite friend is growing strong here—goosefoot! This common northeastern edible green is commonly dismissed as a weed and treated like a pest, but, like dandelion greens(my favorite) it is a delicious salad green when young and great for sauteing like spinach when it is older. Next time you see this "weed" growing, pluck it and eat it for lunch.

 Our tomatillo plant is growing ferociously, but its buds are weak, and everytime the flower drops out, a few days later the husks drop off too. We are hoping with our latest treatment of calcium in the soil we should  see some stronger stems.

 The tomatillo flowers are beautiful with bright yellow petals and black and white stamen. But some fruit would be REALLY beautiful.

 The first mystery tomato to bloom, there is no question this one with it's beautiful tiny globes is a gorgeous cherry tomato.

 The OG freebie! He already has about 6 clusters of tomatoes blooming, each with 8-10 tomatoes.

 Our roma was showing signs of blossom end rot but is looking much better recently.

 I love the way the cherry/grape tomatoes grow. They begin, as below, with crowded clusters of buds and then, as above, they slowly unfurl into long, vine-like clusters of 8-12, slowly straightening the manic cluster into a neat little chain.

 The second to start showing some good buds is definitely some variety of grape tomato with its elongated fruit.

 The littlefinger eggplant was one of the first plants we bought but is just finally starting to bud these gorgeous little fuzzy clusters. MMMMMM....

 Here, in the center you can see a baby tabasco pepper growing straight up! In the immortal words of Chef John Nocita, "What's up with dat? That's the shiiiit!"

 Now, pretty much all of the tomato plants have at least one cluster of buds and the mystery is beginning to unfold!

 Our San Marzano tomato plant has had a tumultuous season, it has a pretty bad case of blossom end rot, and we are hoping that regular additions of calcium will serve to correct the problem, fingers crossed, i need my sauce makin' 'maters. We did already enjoy the first two ripe San Marzanos. Both were eaten with salt and pepper along side duck egg breakfasts of guanciale and peppers.

The blossom end rot does not ruin the tomato, only the bottom half. Left to ripen, the tops can be cut off and consumed when ready.

And lastly for now, here is our  gorgeous lemongrass! Growing HUGE in a planter, imagine if all the tall grasses in B-more were lemongrass! 

As Chef John once said to me in Italy."You're gonna go home and start growing all types of stuff." Looks like you were right, as usual, Chef.

With more to come, we are so excited to see what's next with the garden. We are so excited to learn about another aspect of the cuisine we love. Sustainable, local, and fresh, can't get any better!

NEXT TO COME FROM THE GETTER: Soon we will be starting private classes, each of which will concentrate on a specific genre of Italian cuisine. The first of which? JAMMING! of course! The first class will concentrate on marmalata making and cheese tasting, and pairing jams with cheeses, the art of the cheese course.

We will also be throwing a garden party for friends with gardens, where we will be making and conserving all sorts of products to enjoy throughout the year.

Stay tuned for more info on classes! And look for my next posting, coming soon, about what else we've got going on. For now, I think I've occupied your time enough, so until later...

Spingerti...

Amo Cucinare,
Ryn