Dear John,
The past month has brought lots of heartburn and plenty of fatigue. Meal planning has been sparse at best, partly because it’s hard to know what I’m going to be up to eating.
I think we went three weeks between garden visits at one point? The radishes came! The spinach bolted! The cilantro is off to seed! The mixed stirfry greens have filled many grocery bags with their leaves already! The peas didn’t take off, but the nasturtium are looking pretty leafy. The dahlia that we neglected to dig up last fall has already started blooming.
We bought starts for peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos and ground cherries and herbs. They’re in the ground in the garden and in pots at the house. The sunchokes are in giant pots and earlier today I thought I saw the barest beginnings of a sprout. (The potato that had sprouted went mouldy before we got it in a pot. It is in the compost instead.)
At the house, the lead service line is finally replaced. Without having done any soil testing of our yard, I don’t want to plant edibles there. Flowers sound lovely. A couple more dahlia bulbs. Seed bomb from a friend’s CSA. Extra zinnias and nasturtium. Why not? We can see what wins out in the rocky, bricky, soil + weeds underneath the mulch.
In The Most Recent Box
- Asparagus
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Head Lettuce
Still in the Fridge
- Strawberries (farmer’s market)
- Cranberries
- Greens: Kale
- Alliums: Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes, White Scallions, Red Scallions
- Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Rainbow radishes
- Turnips
- Potatoes: Sweet
- Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
- Radishes
- Stirfry greens
- Nasturtium leaves (as we thin the plants)
Open Preserves
- Preserved eggplant
- Dill pickle juice
- Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
- Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
- Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
- Plain pickled banana peppers
- Pickled fennel stems with orange
- Spicy pickled fennel stems
- Radish kimchi
- Sunchoke relish
- Green tomato chutney
- Applesauce
- Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
- Probably still more uninventoried
Meals that use the greens when heartburn makes things tricky
- Still trying to eat salads. This week was greens + potatoes + hard boiled eggs + radishes or turnips + parm + mustard vinaigrette. Also arugula or other greens + strawberries + turnips + chevre + almonds + rosemary infusing olive oil. (It’s a new batch and the rosemary flavor isn’t strong yet.)
- Omelettes. Scrambled eggs with greens. Breakfast tacos with greens. We haven’t made a quiche yet, so I think that’s coming soon.
- Twice baked potatoes.
- Risotto with turnips and their greens.
- Pad see ew with stirfry greens
- Summer rolls (aka salad you can eat with your hands) with peanut butter dipping sauce
- Coconut turmeric rice (if coconut milk is available. *sighs at supply chains and decades old planting decisions and climate change and sighs*) with added beans and greens.
- Saag aloo, nearly omitting the peppers. Womp womp. But it meant I could sleep at night.
- Do not make pizza. Even if it’s kale stem pesto instead of tomato sauce and has plenty of cheese. It took a couple of days to recover an appetite after that single meal.
Hoping the heartburn dissipates soon!
Sarah
Planning Inside The Box 