Happy New Year!

2013. Does this year seem unlucky or lucky to you? Or is it just a number?

After all, the year does not really begin or end. Time and a calendar are boundaries set up by those people who need beginnings and endings, boundaries and borders, to make their lives seem neat and tidy, started and finished, intended and accomplished.

To an Ohio gardener, life is a cycle. December is a rest, not an ending. January and February are a respite (for the garden as well as the gardener), not a beginning. The time when any gardening done is done indoors or truly indoors (in the gardener's mind!) is an important time, too. Planning, dreaming, sorting out the "I wish I could"s from the "I believe I can"s-- these parts of the year are as important as the actual digging, planting, harvesting parts.

It's a time for thinking, planning for the next seasons. And a time for looking forward to the results of efforts we've already made (planting perennials and bulbs, receiving seed orders.) I hope that the anticipation of snowdrops and the memories of daffodils sustain you throughout this snowy month. The earth will reawaken. The sun will shine on your back as you dig in the dirt.

It's coming. Can't you feel it?

Processed vs Real Food

"MSG is used to create fat mice so researchers can study obesity. MSG is an excito-toxin that stimulates your brain to eat uncontrollably. When fed to mice, they pig out and get fat. It is in 80 percent of processed foods and mostly disguised as 'natural flavorings.'" (From the Huff Post.)

Obesity is an epidemic in our country. According to the article "68 percent of Americans are overweight" and   "from 1960 to today obesity rates have risen from 13 percent to 36 percent and soon will reach 42 percent." In order to fight this epidemic we need to eliminate most, if not all, processed foods from our diet. Real food, prepared from its natural state with no added preservatives, is always the better choice.

 Grow your own, cook at home, shop your local Farmer's Market. Eat real food. Simplify your choices and enjoy better health.

Edible Allegheny

If you live in or near the western Pennsylvania area, check out the magazine "Edible Allegheny." It has articles concerning the food scene in the areas around Allegheny County, as well as lists of Farm Markets and Farmers Markets and CSA's in the area, local wineries, and restaurants which source locally-grown food for their menu selections.
And, now and then, the cover is eye candy, like this one which shows some of the King brothers of Freedom Farms.

Love Fresh Strawberry Pie? You Can Grow That!

My strawberry plants are loaded with white blossoms. Each blossom is a potential strawberry. My future looks sweet and rosy, how about yours? No berries in your garden? You can remedy that!

Find a spot in full sun with good, well-drained soil (or improve the soil, or create a raised bed.) Get some strawberry plants from your favorite locally-owned garden center or nursery. Choose a variety that performs well in your area.

You can choose from "June bearing" or "everbearing" types, depending on your eating and preserving habits. If you mainly want strawberries to eat fresh, and want the harvest to last longer, plant "everbearing." (They bear smaller crops over a longer period of time.) If you want to make pies and jams or jellies, then you may want "June bearing" which bear more heavily but for a shorter period of time.

Ask for planting directions from your strawberry source-- they know the best time and methods for planting in your area. Pick off the flowers in the first year and begin to harvest your own juicy sweet strawberries next year. Strawberries? You can grow them!

Keep Cilantro (and Other Herbs?) Fresh Longer

From the blog Vegetable Gardener, an experiment to find the best way to keep cilantro from getting mushy and disgusting before you can use it. It might be worth trying this method with other herbs, too.

Grow your own if you can, and just harvest as much as you need to use at one time, but if you need to rely on farmers markets or the grocery for your herb supply, this may be just the information you're looking for.

Best Restaurants?

Why is it that the "Best Restaurant" articles usually are accompanied by a picture of a dish that can't be postitively identified as food?

What makes the restaurant judges think that an artfully arranged plate of herbs and flowers or a stack of foodstuffs with an artful drizzle of balsamic sauce should be shown as an example of what is served in a good restaurant?

Perhaps Noma is the best restaurant, I'm not the one to ask. But, as an example, show me a plate of meat and sides, or pasta, or a piece of glistening grilled fish.

Fresh Herbs to Cook With? You Can Grow That!

Have you ever found a recipe in a cookbook or online and gone to the grocery store to buy the ingredients? I usually buy the meat or protein first, then the veggies and starches-- then I get to the fresh herbs. I need 2 TBSP or 1/4 cup of something, and I pick up the package of fresh herbs, and they cost... HOW MUCH? EEK!

You can grow fresh herbs in your yard, or even in a pot on your patio. Herbs respond positively to clipping, by throwing out new growth. So you have a good source of fresh herbs all summer and into the fall, from one plant, or one packet of seeds. And you'll pay the same amount or less for the plant or seeds as you will the single-use packet at the grocery. Talk about a win-win proposition!

Ask for instructions for growing herbs at your locally-owned independent garden center or nursery. They'll be glad to help, and they'll probably have a great assortment of herb plants and seeds for you to choose from. Happy gardening, and bon appetit!