April 26, 2019- It is time for vegetables

It will be a short post this week.

The garden highlight of the week was  planting lettuce seed over at my little garden plot. I had not done that in maybe 35 years. There was a rain later in the week. I am  anxious to see little seedlings any day now.
I do think the danger of frost is over. There is nothing even close to. frost in the 10 day forecast. (Well ,it was in the upper 30's this morning.) That will get us into early May. I always understood the frost free day to be about May 10.

I hope you have like this even more than usual voting. It seems like we need anything to hold onto these days.



In revisiting the finals from 2010 last week, you picked the peach Iceland poppy.








The winner in 2010 was the pink poppy. It would go on to win again in 2016.





So here is the Classic Contest Finals from 2007.

#1 Trillium






#2 Monsella tulip





#3 Red Iceland poppy





#4 White waterlily






#5 Pink Daylily







#6 Calla Lily

Reality

or stuff in the garden now

Here are some of the cuttings grown over the winter.





This is a fritillaria. This variety, including the white one that is the same type, naturalize over time. There are even a few that grow in the little grass in the front yard.













Here is the group garden plot this past week. I think people use the tarp to kill the grass.












This is one of quite a few pulmonarias that get quite large.







This is Raspberry Splash.




This little white trillium turns a little pink over time.

Julia's recipe

Cauliflower Ragu

I have mentioned that I received a cookbook (Six Seasons) by a guy named Joshua McFadden, featuring seasonal vegetables. Although we have long been farmers' market shoppers, we are not bound by the local seasonal vegetable calendar. So I made cauliflower ragu the other day, although we are several months from local cauliflower. It's unusual, as are several of the recipes that I have tried so far. Not complicated, tasty, fresh in approach. All good.


The ingredients: about 7 cups of cauliflower, cleaned and prepped into small florets; 1-1/2 teaspoons smushed garlic; about 3/4 cup of diced onion; 1/4 teaspoon or a little more red pepper flakes; 1/4 cup of olive oil; 1 sprig rosemary (which I think, on further reflection, is optional); 1/2 lb. shape pasta (like penne or rotini or bowties); 1 cup parmesan; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1-1/2 cups regular water; 1/2 cup dry white wine and some salt and pepper.

I started by prepping the vegetables - cauliflower, onion and garlic.




Next, I heated the olive oil over medium high in a big dutch oven cooking pot. When the oil was warmed up (but not crazy hot), I added the onions and then a couple of minutes later, the garlic and the red pepper flakes. When I started to smell good, I added 2/3 of the chopped up cauliflower (about 4 cups), 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, the sprig of rosemary plus the wine and 1 cup of water. I stirred everything around, brought the mixture to a simmer and covered the pot. I checked now and then to make sure it was still simmering (and not boiling).

I let the pot cook for about 25 minutes. And when the pot had been cooking for about 15 minutes, I put on a big pot of water, added 1 tablespoon of salt and when that came to a boil, added the bowties. I cooked the pasta a minute or so less than the package said.

After the 25 minutes was up, I added the rest of the cauliflower and the other 1/2 cup of water and let that cook for about 20 minutes more. The idea is to have the pasta and the cauliflower get done at roughly the same time.

When the pasta was done enough (a minute or so shy of package directions), I ladled out about 1 cup of the pasta-cooking water and then drained the pasta.




I added the drained pasta to the cauliflower, and then I added the butter, lemon juice and parmesan, stirring everything together. And I removed the rosemary sprig.

I used a bit of the pasta water (but not all of it) to adjust the consistency of the dish, and then it was dinner.

We had extra parmesan at the table for extra sprinkling.








Here it is in a soup plate, looking perhaps less delicious than it was. Next time (and there will be a next time), I will use some kind of vegetable pasta - spinach noodles or tomato ziti so that there is color contrast between the pasta and the sauce.

We served the cauliflower ragout with a nice green salad and raspberries sprinkled with a little sugar and then with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Leftovers = excellent, hot or cold.

Note: gluten-phobes can substitute one of the available gluten-free pastas to make this dish work. You will have observed that it is vegetarian. To make it vegan, use a dairy-free margarine instead of butter and non-dairy shredded cheese for the parmesan. Enjoy.

Odds and Ends

The house crotons have all journeyed to the front porch. I will need to bring home the ones that have wintered at the office.
More inside plants would be thrown outside but for the lack of leaves on the trees. If the go out too early they will sunburn.

I need to consider other plants for the sunny extra garden plot. I do want to take some of the amaryllis over there. I want to plant them in the dirt for 4 months and see how they do.

I did discover that there is city compost over at the east side recycling center. It cost a little more than getting it from the landfill. But the landfill is still closed. That surprises me as there really is not much social contact in getting a load of compost.

I want more compost as I am using it as fertilizer. I  put it around selected plants that have emerged enough at this point. There would be the lupines and the peonies.

Time marches on.
Stay safe and all contact is so appreciated.

Philip