Quote of the Day: Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd
Vegetables beckon and intrigue us in a way no fish or piece of meat every could.
The beauty of a single lettuce, its inner leaves tight and crisp, the outer ones opened up like those of a cottage garden rose; the glowing saffron flesh of a cracked pumpkin; the curling tendrils of a pea plant; a bunco hot long white-tipped radishes; a bag of assorted tomatoes in shades of soft scarlet, green and orange is something I like to take time over. And not only is it the look of them that is beguiling. The rough feel of a runner bean between the fingers, the childish pop of a pea pod, the inside of a fur lined lava bean case, the cool vellum like skin of a freshly dug potato are all reason to linger. And all of this even before we have turned the oven on.
Nigel Slater Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch
This time of year I’m especially happy to start seeing the beauty evolve in the vegetable garden. It’s exciting to see the first pink tops of radishes forming in the dark earth.
The colors of all the brassicas are particularly intriguing, this year I’m enjoying the unfurling of ‘Purple Peacock’ Broccoli.
The ‘Scarlet Frills’ mustard is calling me to harvest it in order to add color to our spinach salads. And the Red Sales lettuce’s color is growing deeper with the intensity of the sun.
What vegetable are you enjoying visually at the moment?
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Wild Foods of Spring
On a mild day in spring it is pleasant to take a light basket on one’s arm and go for a long walk, garnering whatever the fields, woods and streams offer, the best foraging is probably close to home, around the flower and vegetable gardens, where many early-developing weeds are most abundant and tasty. The fattest finest dandelions will certainly be plentiful there, and violets, and possibly Saint Barbara’s weed. Chickweed will never be far from any recently cultivated ground, and if you have succeeded in keeping jewelweed out of the shadier parts of your garden, we would like to know your secret. But in the garden, other edibles plants will be available, all familiar nuisances, many worth gathering for food.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
I haven’t had much of a chance to get out foraging yet, but I did score some fiddlehead ferns at the farmers market last week. We enjoyed them sautéed for breakfast with poached eggs on top.
Dandelions have been making their way from the edges of the woodlot to our plates. I’ve been waiting for rain to start searching for mushrooms in earnest. Looks like this will be the perfect week for the that.
Wild violets also abound in the lawn, they always find their way into salads to add that special bit of beauty and a ton of vitamin C. There’s nothing quite like finding food that you didn’t have to take the time to cultivate!
Are you enjoying any foraged food at the moment?
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A Good Cause
This past weekend, I stopped at a few of our local conservation district plant sales. At one, there were a few grade schoolers selling packs of seeds to raise money for a new garden shed for their school garden.
I couldn’t pass them up without buying any seeds from them, they were so enthusiastic about their fundraiser. I loved that the seed packs are decorated by students. They even had a little catalog.
There’s nothing I love more than helping out industrious kids, especially when they’re trying to better their school garden. I didn’t really need any more seeds, but I couldn’t pass this up!
Have you purchased any interesting items from local kids recently?
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Let me Explain
Mr. Chiots here with a guest post. After an extremely busy week around the run we decided to take the day off so no podcast this week. I apologize. I know many of you will be disappointed. We will be back next week with our regularly scheduled program.
For the past three weeks we have been having some ‘technical difficulties’ with the podcast downloading in iTunes. The problem ended up being with Google’s Feed Burner, a feed service that we run everything through. At some point in the near future we are going to shift off of this system which may soon go the way of Google Reader according the chatter on the web.
The good news is that through the troubleshooting, we upgraded the host for our file storage. Shows should download very quickly and without trouble.
I love statistics and according to ours we just topped 180,000 downloads of the podcast. This week we will see the blog surpass 30,000 comments. We are one month away from the 5th anniversary of the blog. We want to thank you all for making the show and the blog a huge success. The community that surrounds Chiot’s Run is pretty amazing and we are constantly encouraged. Many of you know more about what is going on in our lives than some of our family members. We refer to those of you that we have never met as our friends. Thank you all.
If you have not had a chance to listen to the older episodes of Cultivate Simple, I would encourage you to do so. Thank you again and see you next week.
What topic you would like to hear on the show?
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Quote of the Day: Thomas S. Cowan
America is a nation obsessed with finding personal happiness. But the person who sets out to find happiness rarely succeeds. He or she may achieve occasional and temporary satisfaction through financial success or a busy social life, but rarely true happiness. Happiness comes to those people who concentrate on the opposite – who do things for others, who set out to produce beautiful paintings or delicious meals, or who engage in projects that bring beneficial change to the world. Such people not only contribute to a better world as a result but also achieve unexpected happiness. These are the people who move through life with ease, in spite of obstacles and misfortune.
Thomas S Cowan, MD (The Fourfold Path to Healing)
I love this quote, so much of it rings true in my life. My happiest moments are when I’m cooking good food for those around me, when I’m cultivating beautiful things in the garden, when I’m doing things that I know bring change in the world. These actions bring happiness and hope to my life, I find much fulfillment in investing my time where I know it truly matters and makes a difference. (PS: the meal shown is braised duck legs from one of our muscovy ducks).
What things bring you true happiness?
