Category Archives: Vegetables

Potatoes Aren’t Just for Mashing

Posted by Lesley on November 20, 2011 2 comments

The ingredients for ceviche were a bonus; yesterday’s goal ingredient that we could not and would not leave the farmers market without were organic potatoes…not for cooking, for science class.Cooper’s hypothesis: If I introduce fertilizer and pesticides to a potato, then it will produce more phosphoric acid therefore increasing the voltages.  The YouTube video that sparked his interest: How to Make a Potato Battery.His hypothesis was wrong; the voltages were about the same regardless of organic versus non-organic, but anything that requires a knife and voltage is a fun project for a 13 year-old boy.  And by the end of the weekend he had transformed the potato batteries into potato targets.He made a slingshot out of a stick, clothespin, duct tape, ruler, hollowed-out pen, and piece of elastic.  The arrow is a skewer with a nail duct taped to the top.  The gadget works so well that he was slinging the skewers into our back fence and they were sticking in the wood!

It was in the news recently that many of the techies in Silicon Valley send their children to a Waldorf school that doesn’t use computers and even discourages their use at home because they stifle creativity and intelligence.  The potatoes and slingshot have me believing.

Cooper has suffered a series of unfortunate events lately.  First his computer blew, literally, it was smoking.  Second, our cable company made a change that requires a new box we haven’t picked up yet, so he’s down on channels.  Third, he came home with a terrible report card and got his tablet taken away.  His situation is now what I grew up with – basic cable…boohoo.  But on the sympathetic side, in teenage wasteland today, no Facebook equals desert island.  I can’t wait to see what the upcoming five-day holiday weekend will bring…hopefully nothing sharper or faster than flying nails.

My Two Best Tips for Visiting Busch Gardens

Posted by Lesley on November 12, 2011 1 comments
  1. Keep your head erect when riding the Gwazi.
  2. Splurge on the nectar.

“Keep your head erect,”  something I read while strapped into the front seat of a wooden roller coaster that boasts 100 mph speed.  I was unaware of that fact at the time and had even gone so far as to comment to my brother how bored the people returning looked compared to the Montu riders from earlier, so I was completely puzzled by the seemingly pedestrian instruction.  How else would I keep my head? 

Well, let me tell you that as my head flipped back like an unhinged Pez dispenser, those four words became all too clear.  I spent the rest of the ride with my shoulders and neck stacked like a linebacker ready for impact.  I was sure my souvenir from the day would be whiplash, but so far so good.  I can turn left, right, up, and down.  Life is good.

And it can be made even better with a shot of nectar in the Bird Garden…although it should be noted that it probably costs less to get drunk.  But for five dollars a pop, you can have birds lining up to your arm like drunks to a bar which is pretty cool…  …and sometimes a little scary!And here’s a money-saving tip.  The birds won’t drink half that nectar, so look around for people leaving the garden.  The kids were given nectar while I was outside buying it, and we also gave ours away when we left.

Orchid on a String

Posted by Lesley on August 25, 2011 None comments

More aftermath from the Great Grapefruit Massacre of 2010…

When the grapefruit tree was full and lush, out of season the spiders would move in and create a hammock of webs along the bottom branches.  Spiders eat wasps, and they never interfered with the grapefruit harvest, so I learned to duck when mowing under the tree and left them alone.  But this year I feared strangulation by spider strings as the webs began to envelop my orchid.  The orchid didn’t bat a bloom.  It started budding in the beginning of the month and is now in full bloom with its blossoms strung up marionette-style.

The orchid’s brilliant blooms in the midst of an overbearing web reminds me again of a quote my sister recently texted me:

The peacock eats poison and that’s what makes the color of its tail so brilliant…the poison becomes the source of much beauty and joy. -Pema Chodron

The orchid without the spider last year was about to plummet out of its lopsided pot, but this year the orchid was lifted up by the creepy, sticky, usually unwanted strings of the spider’s web.Imagine me as a porcupine voodoo doll, trade the quills for poison pins.  But inspired by the beauty of the peacock and the orchid, I’ll keep on blooming with tolerance and joy.  Wonder Woman was my hero in childhood; Pema Chodron is my hero in adulthood.

It’s an Acorn

Posted by Lesley on June 9, 2011 1 comments

It was down to a lakota or an acorn, and the mystery squash turned out to be an acorn squash. 

The squash was plucked yesterday morning and by the time I got home last night, John had already split it wide open and eaten half.

He baked it with a little butter and garlic, but it would have been just as tasty plain.  Acorn is my favorite of all squashes because of its sweetness.  I savored every bite.  There are a few carrots left in the ground, but after that, our garden is closed up for the summer, so are most of the local farmers markets.  The downtown Sarasota market stays open on Saturday mornings, but many of the vendors take the summer off.  The selection is just not the same…it’s going to be a long, hot summer. 

Plant Shopping Locally vs. Walmart

Posted by Lesley on June 7, 2011 None comments

The scent of Star Jasmine left the garden a few weeks ago, which makes me very sad.  The fragrance is so potent that two small climbers blanket every inch of the garden, and you don’t have to tickle your nose with petals to take it in either.  The minute the back door opens, the smell strikes. 

Now, a little over a month after the full-blown bloom of the Jasmine vines, there is a regular Star Jasmine plant blooming in the corner, completely scentless.  WTF?  It’s a cheeseburger with no cheese.  So now guess where I bought this particular plant – Walmart, of course.  They get me every time with their bargains.  I bought that one and a Gardenia at two for ten dollars.  The Gardenia is also big, beautiful and scentless.

Above is a five-dollar bell pepper plant bought from a vendor at King Family Farm and Market.  She owns and operates a local nursery nearby and grows for our gardening zone.  There are peppers ripening every day and more just starting to grow.  The peppers alone would cost more than five dollars at the grocery store without a plant attached. 

A plant should be healthy not root-bound.  They should smell good if they’re supposed to and be grown for local conditions not mass markets.  The next time I’m in Walmart, I’ll try to exercise some constraint and avoid the Garden Center.  Here’s a list of my favorite local plant sources in Sarasota and Manatee Counties:

Mystery Squash

Posted by Lesley on May 25, 2011 1 comments

Remember that rock in my neighbor’s garden?

I should have one.  We have a monstrous plant growing in one of our squares that I thought was a zucchini growing up from the compost.  Now I think it’s a squash that I may have planted.  Hmmm.  It could be self-sowed.  We had a squash plant there two summers ago that flowered but never fruited.  Still, I’m leaning toward seeds now because I found this ripped open seed packet.

The seed packet leaves the candidates at Butternut, Spaghetti, Acorn, or Lakota squash.  Only time will tell now…         

Get Your Bibb On

Posted by Lesley on April 20, 2011 3 comments

Our Bibb lettuce patch was a huge success this year.  It was already two weeks ago that John looked at me and said, “I am so sick of salad.”  And still we have a whole row left. 

A month after the first head was plucked and I can’t remember a time when we didn’t eat salad.  John has started going door-to-door offering the beautiful Bibb heads to our neighbors.  Three gladly accepted, and one said he was allergic.  For some reason, possibly an inner caveman desperation to move on from salad to meat and potatoes, I don’t believe him.  If anyone has a lettuce allergy, comment and I’ll bring him some beans when they’re ready.      

No matter how much salad I eat, there’s one recipe that never tires.  I’ve posted it before; the recipe is for a homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  Basil is a main ingredient, and my sweet basil is just starting to come in.  The dressing is delicious tossed with the unlikely pair of grapefruit and green beans for a quick side dish.  It completely tempers the sourness of the grapefruit.  

This time the dressing was drizzled over a side salad of Bibb lettuce, strawberries, cucumbers, and pears with a main entree of Chilean sea bass.  It’s as good as it looks and the perfect weeknight meal because everything besides the fish can be washed, chopped and prepared ahead of time.  The minute you walk in the door, toss the fish (it doesn’t have to be sea bass) in a bowl and cover it with low-sodium soy sauce.  Marinate for at least 15 minutes, then dip the fish in tea leaves, and broil on both sides.  Celestial Seasonings has a line of Zinger teas.  Tear open a few of the bags and coat the fish as if the tea leaves were bread crumbs.  Tangerine Orange Zinger is my personal favorite but lemon, raspberry and red zingers work well too.  Bon appetite!     

Spruce up with Swiss Chard Stalks

Posted by Lesley on March 28, 2011 2 comments

I picked up a bunch of rainbow Swiss chard at the farmers market on Wednesday.  Although we grew Swiss chard a couple years ago, it’s not something I normally cook.  But it looked good, and thanks to the internet; there’s always a recipe to be found.  Working with the ingredients I had on hand, most of the recipes called only for the leaves.  But it seemed a shame to wasted those colorful stalks, so I cleaned them up and placed them in a vase filled with amaryllises.   

Love it!  So much so that when this one got droopy, I downsized it and arranged another.

In most flower shop bouquets, you don’t see stems.  Swiss chard stalks are something cheap and simple to quickly hide your stems and elevate your garden bouquet to pro status.  I used rocks to keep the stalks and flowers in place. 

So simple…happy arranging!   

Gardening Keeps Me Sane

Posted by Lesley on March 7, 2011 2 comments

My thighs are screaming from all the crouching, but my mind is well rested and relaxed after an entire weekend of gardening.  Despite multiple reports warning of thunderstorms, the weather was non-stop perfect.  I weeded, seeded and savored.  Between the weather and the sweet scent of citrus blossoms, x marked the spot to be – my garden.

I planted Violet Queen giant zinnias and an annual cut flower mixture, carrots, jalepenos, Royal Burgandy garden beans, and heirloom tomatoes.  Mortgage Lifter seemed a topical choice, and of course, there’s a story to go with the seeds.  They were developed by a radiator repairman named M.C. Byles.  In the 1940′s Byles advertised the tomatoes as being large enough to feed a family of six, and people drove from up to 200 miles away to buy the seeds.  He’s said to have paid off a $6,000 mortgage with his seed money.  

And I’m not the only one planting seeds right now.  The red salvia is whipping seeds around the garden like confetti, while the milkweed is being awfully precise.

The solid white specs are petals from the grapefruit blossoms.  The things that look like little badminton birdies are the milkweed seeds.  All I had to do was push them in and water.  My other projects required a little more effort.  I mulched the lettuce with newspaper and rooted a half a dozen crotons.

The weeds were becoming too much work, and I didn’t feel like leaving the house or spending money.  Newspaper was my solution.  I pulled the weeds, added a layer of compost, and laid the newspaper down.  I cut a hole in the center of each section and pulled the lettuce through. 

It’s cheap, easy and biodegradable.  But as the pages start to dry, you’ll need to weight them down with something.  I used lava rocks.  The ink in the newspaper initially made me pause, but people add it to their compost all the time.  Unless you’re using glossy inserts, you’re in the clear because most newspaper print is now soy-based.    

Our office needs a landscaping upgrade, so my mind immediately went to crotons.  They’re colorful without having flowers.  Leaves range from basic greens to soft pinks and bright oranges.  Use plain water or a rooting hormone; either way, getting cuttings to root is a cinch.  I used the latter this time around.  Simply take your clipping and immediately submerge it into water. 

Cut the leaves off until only the top two remain, then dip the cut end into rooting hormone and stick it in the ground…be patient.  At ten dollars per plant, this project will eventually save me sixty bucks!   

A Sweet Potato Valentine

Posted by Lesley on February 14, 2011 2 comments

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I went searching for hearts in my garden.  The only one I could think of without looking was the Bleeding Heart vine, but that’s too obvious and despite having heart in its name not that appropriate for Valentine’s Day.  The connotation is more antagonistic than loving.  So I moved past the Bleeding Heart, checking every leaf, petal and stem in the garden and nothing.  On my way back inside, completely resigned to go with the off-message but vaguely related Bleeding Heart, the tip of my toe brushed the planter nearest to the door – my sweet potato seedling!  There are only two leaves and two teeny sprouts on the whole thing, but the leaves…

…are perfect hearts!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Bleeding Heart Vine