GBBD - April 2012

Everything has burst into bloom in the past couple of weeks. It's a blissful spring - today I decided to forgo any garden chores for a nap in the backyard instead (knowing it will not be mosquito-free out there for long). As I drifted off to sleep, I heard my 7 year old take her dad to see the strawberry plants in bloom. Here are other blooming in my garden. Take a look at all the GBBD posts at May Dreams Gardens when you're done. What's blooming in your part of the world?


Fothergilla beaver creek - a perfect little shrub. Fragrant bottlebrush blooms in spring, green all summer, all sorts of fiery autumn color in the fall.




Above - my favorite tall flowering shrub Sinycalycalycanthus. Gorgeous dark blooms, billowy leaves that turn yellow and orange in the fall. Below - Euphorbia Rudolph

Above: checkered lily

GTTC: chicken noodle soup (with fall/spring? carrots)

Welcome to the first Garden to Table Challenge post of 2012!

It started with a plan to clear out the raised beds to make way for spring vegetables, but what I found were some gorgeous carrots I never got to in the fall. I ended up pulling a good bunch of frost-sweetened atomic reds and chantenay red cores for a basic chicken noodle soup - perfect for a funky spring in Maryland when the weather is 78 degrees one day and 38 degrees the next and everyone's suffering from what's hopefully the last cold/flu of the season.

What are you harvesting and cooking in your part of the world? Post about it here - each and every Monday of this growing season! Click HERE for all the details about the weekly Garden to Table Challenge.

Today, I'm also announcing the first GIVEAWAY of the season - each week for the next four weeks, I will send a random participant a "starter pack" of Chinese vegetable seeds - mustard greens, luffa gourd, wax gourd (aka winter melon), Ceylon spinach, snow peas, bitter squash, tong ho (chrysanthemum greens). Link to the current post anytime after Monday. The link for each week ends when the next GTTC post goes up - the following Monday. For those new to the GTTC, just post your GTTC entry on your blog mentioning Greenish Thumb with a link back here, link your blog below and that's it! Enjoy seeing what other gardeners are doing with their harvests.

Urban Farm Handbook Challenge - (not) paneer

I'm such a wannabe farmer it's disgusting. In between my full time job and driving kids to ballet, piano, art classes, etc. in my SUV, I imagine the different combinations of jams I will can this summer, consider the eternal question - how can I make my garden bigger, and ponder the feasibility of raising chickens in my backyard. This is why when I stumbled upon the Urban Farm Handbook Challenge (book and blog) the other day, I scrambled to figure out what I would put together for the March Home Dairy Challenge.

I figured I would try to make paneer, since I've heard it's ridiculously easy. The cubes above are attractive enough, but this first experiment with cheese-making was not terribly successful. Here's what DID go well:



Above - the whole milk is at a rolling boil. The lemon juice was added and the milk began to curdle. Below - it was all strained through a cheesecloth over a colander in a bowl. I did drink some of the whey, and it was not unpleasant. I actually drank a lot because every time I made someone try it, he/she said, "You drink it first". So I got more than my fair share of tastes. After the whey has been stained through, I folded the cheesecloth over, put a small plate on top, and weighed it down with my heavy cast iron risotto pot. The whole operation sat for about 2 hours, and then the cheese went into the fridge for an hour.


Here's what needs to be improved for next time:

• The cheese was not firm enough. When I added it to my tikka masala sauce, it basically fell apart. I think my paneer recipe was basically the lemon cheese recipe I saw on a link on the Sustainable Eats blog. Next time, I will try a different paneer recipe and use today's recipe to make a softer herbed cheese. I can tell that would be incredible - tart and creamy.
• I need to figure out how to make this lactose-free. One of the consequences of aging is that dairy is now my nemesis, and though I dare my body way too frequently by having dairy, my favorite magazine Experience Life keeps telling me that eating things my body does not tolerate increases inflammation, which leads to some sort of bad thing that has to do with insulin, which ultimately leads to weight gain.
• I need to make my own sauce because the jarred tikka masala sucked. OK, I do see the irony here - making my own cheese like an urban farmer just to buy a jarred sauce like an urban schmuck. Not too farmer like. However, I do have a good excuse this time. My sister has just gone into labor with her second child and I'm in a rush to post this, pack, and get down to North Carolina!!!

Here are the other Urban Farm Handbook challenges that I'm looking forward to: April/Gardening, May/Foraging, June/Botanicals, July/Seed Saving and Winter Gardening, August/Preserving, September/Bartering, October/Protein, November/Grains, December/Handcrafted Holidays.

And in the meanwhile, I'll be eager to read posts from other participants on the Sustainable Eats blog, and will also be hosting my own weekly Garden to Table Challenge which begins April 9th. I'll be announcing the first giveaway then. Check it out!

My article in Kiki Magazine

Kiki Magazine is a super cool girls magazine. Here's why I like it:

• There are no silly quizzes about what kind of girlfriend you are or what kind of kissing style you have.
• The magazine is not filled with advertisements for tampons or Clearasil (not that there's anything wrong with those - but you're not paying for a bunch of ads!).
• It's edgy yet modest. There are articles about runway and world fashion, but at the same time, a swimsuit article will feature the suits by themselves and live models wearing cute coverups.
• The models are ethnically diverse, and they are real girls - not mini pre-anorexic fashion models.
• There are always articles that involve other cultures and countries.
• The pages ooze with creativity and encourage girls to be creative.
• It's filled with how-tos and DIY projects. There are TONS of ideas for things to make and do.
• And finally, I like it because my article on how to build a 4x4 garden out of stone is printed on page 46. :)

If you have a young daughter or granddaughter you should know this is really a high quality magazine. It'd make a great gift for any girl you know with "style and substance".

The Garden to Table Challenge 2012 begins!

The Garden to Table Challenge 2012 is about to begin on APRIL 9th, and you're cordially invited!

• WHO: Anyone with a passion for growing food, cooking, and sharing ideas with others.
• WHAT: Simply post on your blog or on Facebook about how you've used your own harvests. See any of my GTTC posts for an example. Share a recipe if you can. Be kind by mentioning Greenish Thumb in your post so others can find us.
• WHERE: Link your post to the GTTC of the week using Mr. Linky.
• WHEN: I will add each week's GTTC post on Monday. Simply find the most current GTTC post and add your link. Posts will begin on Monday, April 9th.
• WHY: Because it's fun. Because you're growing and cooking amazing stuff anyway and you should let others know about it. Because you can see what other people are doing with their harvests each season. Because knowing you plan to participate will inspire you to be your culinary best. And finally, because I will be doing giveaways periodically throughout the summer and each time you 1) do a GTTC post that includes a link back to Greenish Thumb and then 2) link using Mr. Linky, your name goes in a pot to win random prizes. Your name never comes out, so the more you participate, the more chances you have to win. How fun is that?!
• Not reaping huge harvests yet, but still want to participate? Please do! Choose fresh, seasonal vegetables and show us how you're using them!

Scamp and the fence

If you've been following Scamp's story, he's been doing great. A little wobbly and arthritic-looking, but he seems to have a happy life with us. He's the kind of dog you can dress up in a bonnet and push around in a baby carriage. He's just a sweet and quiet dog who tolerates (and has been through!) a lot.

Unfortunately, he's also been routinely destroying my precariously stacked raised beds and sleeping and peeing in the vegetable garden. When you try to tell him to move, he sits and just looks at you. When you try to move him, he lays down and closes his eyes. Below, you see him in the strawberries. In the irises. In the raspberries. This behavior can't continue.

Sooooo... the yard that had been metal fence free for several years, is once again surrounded by the unattractive but necessary green metal fence. Above, Scamp is enjoying his last moments before being moved to the garden-free portion of the yard.

week 12 run recap - fat (asparagus, that is)

I never tire of these gorgeous magnolias. Could a bloom period be any shorter though?!


Race is approaching and my running is decreasing. Not smart. These posts, which I have set to post automatically for "accountability" every week for the rest of this year are actually really annoying me. I deleted all my posts scheduled to post after the race to spare you and me. This week, I ran twice. Didn't time it. I'm finding the whole thing getting old.

But here's an instance when getting old is good! In this photo (in which my daughter looks really horrendous for some reason), I found the fattest spear of purple asparagus yet - proof that patience is really a virtue for asparagus growers. My small asparagus bed was planted about...7 years ago I think?