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Ted here! I’ll be leading a Beginner Gardening workshop at the Memphis Mushroom Festival on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023 from 10:30 – 12:30. The web is full of resources for gardeners–so much so that it can be overwhelming. Here are a few that I find really useful:

What to plant (based on your area):

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Baker Creek Seed Co. (mostly veggies)

TN Nursery (Fruit trees)

Oak Hill Community Nursery (Shameless self-promotion)

Wild Ones Mid-South Chapter (Native plant resources)

When to plant:

For veggies, see the Urban Farmer planting calendars—look for Memphis in Zone 8.

For perennials, including trees, the best time to plant is usually early Fall or early Spring. The worst time is usually mid-summer.

Plant garlic in the fall—after Labor Day but before Halloween.

How to plant:

Planning for Square Foot Gardening

Hugelkultur

Permaculture

Eco-agriculture

How to make more plants:

Seed saving

Propagating plants from cuttings

Dividing perennials

Cheap Garden Hacks:

Newspaper pots

Free seeds

Seed library (Memphis)

Compost made easy

Last week of the Spring 2016 CSA!

In the bag this week:

Spring onions:

Garlic:

Broccoli greens:

Green kale:

Lacinato, AKA Tuscan, kale:

Cabbage:

Basil:

We’re off to deliver veggies–more details and photo later!

We love spring! Part of the joy is the growth of the season–but part is the surprise factor. Every year is a little different based on weather, shifts in weed and pest populations, stray deer, and other wildcards. Three years ago, for example, we refer to as “the year of the beet” because all of our various plantings of beets flourished. This year has started out as the year of the turnip–we were going to give you all a break from their deliciousness this week, but the fluctuating weather has started some of them bolting.

This week’s box is full of surprises, thanks in part to our neighbors and long-time friends at Oleo Acres, who provided some of this week’s diversity. On to the veggies!

Turnips: We love these cut into cubes (about 1/2 inch), coated with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little honey, and baked in a single layer on a cookie sheet until golden. However you eat them, as the weather warms you will stop seeing them in the bag–so enjoy while they last!

Spring onions: Soups, salads, cooked, or raw. Check below for a special recipe…

Spring garlic: Spring garlic fettuccine? Spring garlic soup? Another couple of weeks, and our little babies won’t be so tender any more…

Collards: There are literally thousands of recipes for collards. Ted’s favorite: sautee a little spring garlic in olive oil (or, if you prefer, cook some bacon and use 1 tbsp of the bacon grease. Add the crumbled, cooked bacon to the dish at the end.) Wash and chop collards (remove stems) and add to sauteed garlic; stir until it just begins to wilt. Add 1/2 cup water, cover, and cook to desired softness. Before serving, add 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, hot pepper optional.

Apple mint: (thanks Oleo Acres!) First thing–cut off the ends and put your apple mint in water. You can plant this outdoors and it will grow easily from cuttings; just be warned: it spreads! Use it in salad, with rau răm (see below), in tea, or with roasted lamb. Or:

Oak Hill Farm Mint Julep

10 leaves apple mint
1.5 teaspoons super fine sugar
2.5 oz favorite bourbon
Hard apple cider (suggest Angry Orchard Green Apple)
Crushed ice

Chill an old fashioned glass. Muddle mint leaves and sugar until leaves start to break down. Add a splash of cider, ice, the bourbon, and another splash of cider. Porch and rocking chair optional.

Rau răm: (thanks Oleo Acres!) This is a Vietnamese herb, also known in Malaysia as Laksa leaf. It is delicious in salad or soup and has a slight cilantro flavor. Rau ram is also a standard ingredient in Pho, the ubiquitous Vietnamese noodle soup–which, incidentally, can potentially also contain green garlic, spring onions, apple mint, collards, and horseradish leaf. This recipe for pho ga (chicken noodle soup) is a good start; include any of the box ingredients as garnishes, or cook the onions, garlic, and collards into the soup.

Canh Rau Răm / Vietnamese Coriander Soup (adapted from http://www.rauom.com/2011/08/15/clarified-vietnamese-coriander-soup/)

1 tomato
Green garlic
oil for sautee
1/4 lb ground beef
Rau ram

Chop about 3 inches of green garlic and sautee until wilted; add ground beef and stir until brown. Add chopped tomato, water to cover, and fish sauce to taste. when it is cooked, add one fistfull of chopped rau ram leaves, chopped. Serve immediately.

Horseradish leaf: (thanks Oleo Acres!): This is the lone large leaf in the box–it is slightly spicy without being overpowering. Suggested use: cook with collards or use raw in a salad or over a soup. Don’t be afraid! How about a horseradish/collard colcannon? 3 parts potatoes (cooked, mashed, with cream and butter–your favorite recipe) and one part sauteed green stuff: green onion tops, chopped collards, chopped horseradish. Mix together, serve with a dollop of butter on top… mmmmmm.

Your second CSA delivery has been dropped off! This week you’ve got turnips and turnip greens, a different variety of kale, spring onions, baby garlic, baby kale, and radishes.

• Baby garlic: You can use both the white and finely-chopped green portions of the garlic in cooking at this stage. It has a milder flavor than mature storage garlic, so feel free to add a little extra. For a special treat that only works with young, green garlic, try a green garlic pesto!
• Turnips with greens: Both the turnips and their greens can be used in cooking. Delicious in soups, sauted, or roasted, turnips are one of our favorites.
• Baby kale: Bundled with the radishes, this baby kale is tender and delicious as a salad green. Since we left the roots on, you can opt to plant and water them if you’d like some of your own.
• Radishes: Try this baby kale and radish salad option for a springtime treat.
• Russian red heirloom kale: This is one of our favorite varieties… light and sweet, it’s delicious as a salad green. It also makes incredible kale chips–heat oven to 35o degrees, wash kale and break or cut out any large stems, then tear into bite sized pieces. Use parchment paper on a cookie sheet if you have it, or just drizzle a little oil before you spread the kale flat across the surface. Drizzle a little oil over the leaves, then sprinkle with sea salt. Bake until the edges are slightly browned and the leaves begin to crisp, about 10 – 15 minutes.
• Spearmint: Makes a delicious tea or addition to lemonade, but we think it’s really good in salads, too. Try this cranberry bean salad with basil, mint, and feta cheese.
• Spring onions: The light, green flavor of these little delicacies is good raw in onions or sauteed with the young garlic as a basis for stir fries or cooked greens.

Hit us up with questions and comments–or pictures of your CSA dinners–here on the blog or on our Facebook page.  For more recipe ideas, you can also look over last week’s blog again. See you again next week!

Spring is in full effect now that we are (knock on wood!) out of the cycle of endless rain. This week’s box resembles the first two, but with some new additions; read on!

Red Russian Kale and Giant Green Kale: OK; more kale. We were skeptics at first, years ago, but we are still finding new things to do. Most recent:

Grilled Kale

1 large bunch of kale
1/4 cup olive oil
1 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on your love of garlic)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix last four ingredients in a bowl. Wash the kale, dry it, and toss it with the oil/garlic/vinegar mix.

Place the kale in a single layer on a medium-hot grill (about 350 deg. F). When it starts to seem crisp (about 2-3 minutes) use tongs to turn the kale. Grill one more minute, then remove to a stack on a plate. Serve alone or with other dishes.

Curly green mustard greens: If you love mustard, you can use this in a salad. We prefer it cooked–either in the traditional “southern style” with pork fat or, more often, wilted in a pan with garlic and olive oil. There is a theme here–garlic and olive oil are good accompaniments to veggies.

Cilantro: Some of you love it. Some of you hate it. If you never want to see it again (some people REALLY hate it) let us know. Bonus points if you guess what goes great with cilantro (hint: it rhymes with “car-lick.”)

Lettuce: This is black-seeded Simpson leaf lettuce; wash it well, use it like other lettuce. Ever had a wilted lettuce salad? Just barely sear it in a hot pan–then serve as usual for a salad.

Green onions: red, yellow, and/or white. We have an assortment of colors; usually in the store you only see baby spring onions in white. The different colors have slightly different flavors (really–try it).

Garlic: Softneck “Teenage” garlic. We’ve been sending you juvenile garlic; this week the garlic is a little further along–almost but not completely full-grown–so we are calling it “teenage” garlic. Like its namesake, it is stronger but hasn’t developed all of its adult character yet. Don’t try to store it for more than a couple of weeks.

“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.”   ~ Alice May Brock, American author, b. 1941

Garlic scapes: You won’t find these at most super markets; every garlic plant doesn’t make a scape, but those that do make only one each, and the scapes are only around for 1-2 weeks. Try these sauteed in butter or olive oil, tossed with the pasta (or spaghetti squash) of your choice. Throw in some pine nuts and you have an amazing meal.

Spearmint: You can actually plant this and it will probably grow–feel free! Give the gift of mint! Use in tea, or make candied mint leaves: wash the leaves, brush them with a 50:50::egg whites:water mix, dip them in sugar, then arrange them in a single layer on a cookie sheet or drying rack. Let them dry for 24 hours (you can rush this in a Very Slightly Warm oven (~175 degrees F). These keep for a day or so in a jar at room temperature.

Our Seed Swap is coming up on Saturday March 28. To help things run smoothly, here are some guidelines for swappers:

• Keep it simple! Have Fun!
• Bring a folding table and chair(s) if you have seeds to swap. No charge for table setup.
• Package seeds in small envelopes or bags.
• Mark seed packs with variety name, year collected/purchased.
• Be prepared to answer seed questions
• Swap! Seeds for seeds!
• If someone doesn’t have seeds to swap, sell or give away seeds as you choose. We will be charging $0.25/small pack (4 for a dollar) for seeds for people who don’t have seeds to swap. You set your own terms–bring your own change and keep track of your own money. Keep it simple! Have fun!

If you don’t have seeds, come anyway! We’ll have seeds and chili (we are asking for a donation for the chili). Our friends at Oleo Acres are having a propagation workshop at 1pm–right around the corner from us.