Brunswick Stew

 Early autumn brings an abundance of vegetables to the East Tennessee table. This variation on the Southern favorite, Brunswick Stew, makes use of that abundance. If you cannot find fresh green lima beans, frozen is fine. 

You can add any proteins you like, along with an appropriate broth, and make this dish anything from vegan to wild-game-centric. The original recipe almost certainly involved squirrel and rabbit, and modern versions feature both chicken and pork. You can add green beans or other legumes to increase the protein for a vegan version.

John's Brunswick Stew

4 servings

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 large scallions, chopped, white and light green parts reserved separately from greens
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups sliced okra, divided
• ½ cup tomato sauce
• 4 cups broth
• 1 carrot, chopped
• The kernels from one ear of sweet corn
• 1 baking potato, cubed
• 1 cup green lima beans, fresh or frozen, thawed
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium low heat. Add the white and light green parts of the scallions, cover, reduce heat and sweat until tender. Add the celery. Cook 2 minutes. Add the bay, leaf, a big pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper and 1 cup of the sliced okra. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato sauce and cook until most of the moisture has evaporated. Add the broth, carrot, corn and the remaining okra. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add the potato and lima beans. Cook, covered, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fully cooked. Stir in the scallion greens, the chopped parsley and the Worcestershire sauce. Check and adjust the seasoning.

Serve hot with cornbread.

If you wish to add green beans or other legumes, add them along with the lima beans. Use drained canned beans, or freshly cooked. 

If you wish to add meat, cut it into bite-size chunks and brown in oil at the beginning. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve, pour off most of the fat, and proceed with the recipe. Add the browned meat(s) back to the stew with the potato and lima beans. Increase the cooking time, if necessary, to insure the meat is tender.

Pinto Bean and Sweet Corn Soup

 If you are tired of plain old beans and cornbread, here’s another good pinto bean recipe, and one that is ideal for dinner on a cool autumn evening. The recipe for my Tex-Mex Seasoning Mix can be found in Appalachian Cooking, or you can use your favorite commercial one.

Servings: 4

1 ear of corn

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

½ cup chopped onions

1 large bay leaf

1 tablespoon Tex-Mex Seasoning Mix

1 small can diced green chilies, preferably Hatch

1 15-ounce can pinto beans, or two cups cooked pinto beans

1 cup chicken broth

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped

Minced fresh parsley or cilantro, for garnish

Tortilla chips, for garnish

                Shuck and silk the corn, wrap the ear in foil, and place it in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.

                Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the onions. Cook, stirring now and then, until they begin to soften. Add the bay leaf and half the seasoning mix. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the spices are fragrant. Add the chilies, beans, remaining seasoning mix, and broth. Bring the soup to a simmer, adjust the heat, and cook gently for 15-20 minutes.

                Remove the corn from the oven, unwrap and allow it to cool sufficiently to handle. Cut the kernels off the cob and add them to the soup. Keep the soup hot.

                Shortly before you are ready to serve, add the chopped tomatoes to the soup. Ladle the soup into heated bowls, garnish with parsley and tortilla chips, and serve.

Succotash

I recently journeyed to UT Gardens with Stephanie Aldrich and crew from "Tennessee Life," a program about all things Tennessee from East Tennessee Public Television in Knoxville. As part of our segment on Appalachian Cooking, I had the pleasure of cooking up some of the vegetables grown by Holly Jones and the UT Kitchen Garden staff. Thanks to Holly and everyone at UT Gardens for allowing us to use their beautiful location.

Because I was unsure just what vegetables would be available on the day of our shoot, I chose a recipe that can be varied to suit whatever is in season, so long as you have an ear or two of fresh sweet corn. (I brought along corn from the grocery store.) The recipe I selected is one for succotash.

"Succotash" comes from a Narragansett word meaning "broken corn kernels," and indeed corn seems to be the only constant throughout the numerous recipes I looked at during my research on regional foods. Many folks associate lima beans with this dish, and most recipes call for the inclusion of some form of legume, but it is extremely unlikely that the Narragansett people would have grown lima beans. They grow in warm climates, like the Deep South.

The combination of beans and corn provides complete protein, with all the essential amino acids for a healthy diet. No wonder Native Americans often combined beans and corn. With the inclusion of yellow squash, the dish reflects the Native American practice of growing the "Three Sisters," corn, beans and squash, together in the garden. After the arrival of Europeans on this continent, new ingredients, such as onions, found their way into the dish. European herbs have mostly replaced the native ones in succotash recipes, but it is not hard to imagine Native Americans adding ramps, lambs quarters or some other greens. And down in the Delta, and probably elsewhere in the South, they add okra, which arrived on our shores with enslaved African people. Succotash is such a hearty vegetable dish, it is sometimes served enclosed in a crust, like a pot pie.

Succotash is, therefore, about as all-American a dish as you could imagine. Moreso even than apple pie--apples come from Khazakstan, originally.

Here is the recipe as it appears in Appalachian Cooking:

Succotash

Two servings:

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup chopped red onion

½ cup baby lima beans, frozen, thawed or fresh, blanched if fresh

½ cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen, thawed

½ cup diced summer squash

½ cup vegetable stock

2 fresh thyme sprigs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Warm the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook gently, stirring once or twice, for about 2 minutes, or until softened. Add the remaining vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.

Pour the vegetable stock into the skillet. Add the thyme, a pinch of the salt, and a few grinds of the black pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm until you are ready to serve.

Serve warm.

The ingredients highlighted in yellow can be anything you like. I used scallions instead of red onions, fresh green beans instead of lima beans, and diced carrots instead of the summer squash. Just for fun, I also added a couple of sliced okra pods near the end of the cooking, to thicken the sauce.

The Warm Season Begins

by John Tullock
May brings reliably warm weather, so it is time to get those warm season veggies in the ground. I prefer buying started plants of tomatoes and peppers, because we need only a few. I plant beans and cucumbers from seed.

Other vegetables you can plant this month include eggplant, squashes, melons, okra, tomatillos, and sweet corn. Check the temperature of your garden soil with a thermometer. When it is above 60F, you can plant even the most demanding crops, like melons. If you don't have a thermometer, or are not sure, wait until after the middle of the month, by which time we are likely to have had a day or two in the 90s.

Eggplants, melons, and squashes need protection from insects. Despite all the remedies, organic and otherwise, that you may have read about, the best approach to preventing damage from flea beetles (eggplant) or squash borers (squash, melons) is to cover the plants with a fine, lightweight fabric. You can use frost blanket, sometimes known as Reemay, or nylon window shears. I find the latter work well supported over the plants by a tomato cage or similar contrivance. Remove the cover when blooms appear on the plants, and damage should be minimal. You can use the cover for multiple seasons. Covered plants may need extra water. Check the soil regularly to make sure.

This year, we are growing Sungold tomatoes for salads. This productive, orange cherry type has a unique flavor. For general use, we decided to try Better Bush, a determinate version of the famous hybrid Better Boy. We are hoping for traditional flavor on a compact, uniformly productive plant.

Our pepper selection this year is our old standby, Sweet Banana. They are hard to beat in the Valley, and can be used for salads, in Creole dishes, to stuff, or as pickles. A single plant is all we need, as it will bear peppers until frost if well cared-for.

We are growing Homemade Pickles cucumbers, for the obvious reason, and our bean selection continues to be Fantastic Filet. Three seeds every two or three weeks keeps us in beans all summer long, and they are among the most tender and delicious green beans available.

Have a vegetable gardening question? Email me.

"Do Everything" Time

I was relieved to read that John Coykendall, chief gardener at Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN, abandons his do-list at this time of year, and simply writes "Do Everything!" on the blackboard in his workspace. This is indeed the time of year to "do everything" in your garden.

Warm season weeds will be growing strong, and you should remove them while they are small, before they produce seeds for another crop. It is a good idea to apply a germination inhibitor to the area after weeding. Disturbing the soil by pulling up weeds can bring more seeds to the surface, where they will germinate. There are both organic and non-organic germination inhibitors on the market. Both are sold under the "Preen" brand, so read the label, and always follow the label directions. Be careful of using germination inhibitors in any area of the vegetable garden in which you intend to direct sow seeds. Using the inhibitor around transplants, such as tomatoes, is OK, as only sprouting seeds are affected by these products.

Now is the time to plant all the crops that are associated with Southern food and cooking: corn, okra, tomatoes, peppers, field peas, sweet potatoes and pole beans all have plenty of time to mature before the weather cools down again. Cucurbits, too, thrive on summer heat. Now is the time to plant watermelon, winter squash and pumpkins, as well as the faster-maturing summer squash and cucumbers. If you have room to grow pole lima beans or field peas, the flavor of freshly shelled ones is well worth the trouble. It is difficult to produce them in quantity with limited growing space.

Plenty of time remains for growing basil and eggplant. Protect the latter from flea beetles with a fabric cover, or grow dwarf plants in hanging baskets. The beetles do not fly very far off the ground, so hanging baskets provide a measure of protection from this major eggplant pest. Basil, on the other hand, is typically pest free and will produce abundantly until the temperature dips into the 40s again. You can find basil plants in a range of sizes, colors and flavors. Try them all if you have room. Basil needs plenty of water, but not much fertilizer. If growing in containers, they need to be fed about every two weeks. One or two feedings druing the season is enough for plants growing in the ground. For container production, we like Bush Spicy Globe, as it has great flavor and remains small.

Early June is also the time when the first shelling peas arrive. We have grown Sugar Snap peas in recent years, but this year we decided to grow shelling, or English, peas instead. The variety we chose is Green Arrow, a very old heirloom cultivar we purchased at Mayo Garden Center. It is easy to see why this pea has been grown for so long. Despite producing vines only about 30 inches in height, it bears heavy crops of pods, each with 10 to 12 peas inside. The pods are easy to shell, and are said to be preferred for making green pea soup. It should be noted that all pea pods, not just those from Sugar Snap types, are edible, but they are typically too tough to be eaten without being cooked, pureed, and strained to eliminate fibrous material. The characteristics that make pea pods easy to shell unfortunately also make them tough.

The photo shows two other crops that are reaching perfection right about now. Zinnias are among the hardest working flowers in the garden, as they attract pollinators as well as providing lots of cut flowers for the house. Mint has been growing well since April, but the warm, wet weather of late has produced some enormous, flavorful leaves and plenty of greenery for the flower vase. Mint won't wilt after cutting if you immerse it in plain water. In fact, it will remain in fine shape for days and will root if you place the plants where they will get some sunshine. You will need to replace the zinnias after a few days, however. Fortunately, they will continue to produce blooms until frost if tended properly.

Now is also the time to harvest new potatoes. You can "steal" a few or dig up most of your crop for canning, provided you have a pressure canner. Otherwise, leave the plants alone until they turn yellow and fall over. Spring-planted beets and carrots will also be ready to harvest now.

Crops that mature together in the garden often go together in the kitchen. Early June peas are perfect when seasoned with fresh mint, for example. Here is a simple recipe:

Peas With Mint

(2 servings)

1 cup freshly shelled peas
1 tablespoon safflower oil or olive oil
2 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil, add the peas, reduce the heat and cook for exactly 3 minutes. Drain the peas in a strainer, rinse them under cold water, and set aside.

In a small skillet, warm the oil and add the scallions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they are softened but not browned. Add the peas to the skillet, followed by the reamining ingredients. Heat through, tossing or stirring occasionally. Serve immediately as a side dish.

A few steamed new potatoes, some roasted carrots and/or beets, and your protein of choice would make a superb dinner!

Time to Plant Summer Vegetables

Mother's Day marks the beginning of the traditional time for planting summer vegetables here in the Valley. All of the favorite summer crops can go in now, although in a couple of cases it is better to wait until the end of the month. Here's the rundown:

Tomatoes
Without a doubt, tomatoes are the most popular backyard vegetable crop. You can find a variety of tomato to meet just about any gardening situation, so there is little excuse not to grow them. We have Tiny Tim, which only reaches about 8 inches in height, just for fun, and Marglobe, an older and reliable cultivar, just for canning. Marglobe is a determinate type, meaning it grows to about five feet tall and then stops, bearing most of its fruit over a short season. This facilitates having a large amount on hand at canning time.

Tomatoes need even moisture, well-drained soil, and a four inch mulch. The biggest problem is foliar diseases. Either grow resistant varieties, or grow your tomatoes in straw bales if you want to grow non-resistant heirlooms like Cherokee Purple and Brandywine. Feed tomatoes at transplant time with a balanced organic fertilizer, but withold fertilizer when blooms appear or you will reduce the crop.

Corn
"Knee high by the Fourth of July" is the goal of the corn grower. Plenty of sunshine, nitrogen and water are needed to achieve that goal. Corn is among the least productive of backyard crops, but the flavor of freshly picked roasting ears is hard to beat.

Plant corn in blocks rather than rows to facilitate pollination. Give it at least an inch of water weekly if rainfall is insufficient. Feed corn with a high-nitrogen fertilizer, such as cottonseed meal, when it is 6 inches tall and again about every two weeks until tassels appear.

Cucurbits
Cucumbers, squash and melons may all be planted now, although melons and winter squash may not grow very rapidly until nighttime temperatures are quite warm. All these vegetables are subject to foliar disease problems. Grow resistant varieties, keep them mulched to prevent soil from reaching the foliage, and make sure the plants have good air circulation around them. Growing cucurbits on a trellis results in fewer problems with foliar disease.

Summer squash typically do not climb, and their primary enemy is the squash vine borer. The only sure way to prevent an attack by this pest is to keep the plants covered with fabric until flowers appear. Insect barrier fabric is available at most garden centers.

Beans
Continue planting beans every two weeks if you want a steady supply. Bush beans are easier than pole beans and need no trellis. Try something different from the standard "green beans." Yellow wax beans are tender and delicious, and filet beans are ideal for quick cooking. Big, flat Italian beans have rich flavor and are better for long-cooked bean dishes. With so many types to choose from, you should be able to have beans on a regular basis without getting tired of them.

Blue Lake beans, although certainly an older cultivar, were developed with the needs of commercial harvesting equipment in mind. They are stringier, and tougher, than many other beans. They tend to appear on numerous seed racks, probably because they are produced in huge quantities, but they are not the best bean for home growers.

Okra and Sweet Potatoes
These two Southern favorites can be planted together. Neither needs especially rich soil, and the potatoes provide a good mulch over the roots of the okra. Plant them any time between now and the middle of June.

Peppers
All types of peppers can be planted now. They need the same attention as tomatoes, and should be planted in blocks of four plants. Doing so keeps the humidity high around the leaves, a condition that peppers thrive upon. Most pepper varieties avoid the foliar disease problems that plague tomatoes, and are thus among the easiest and most productive of summer vegetable crops. The do need heat, however, so later plantings will have the best chance of success. Transplant peppers any time between now and the end of June.

Many thanks to everyone who came by our tent at UT Gardens' Bloomsdays event last Saturday. We had a wonderful time and answered a ton of questions for aspiring backyard farmers. It is very encouraging to see so many people taking an interest in growing food.

Vegetable Garden Basics

With the mercury hovering around 25 degrees, my thoughts turn to the warmer days ahead. I am refining my garden plan for 2014. If you have not made a plan yet, now is the time, before spring chores eat up most of your gardening time. Your plan need not be elaborate, but it should at least cover three things:

1. What am I going to plant?
2. Where am I going to put everything?
3. What is the best strategy for succession planting? 

Food garden at UT Gardens

Here are some tips for answering these questions. One of the best ways to determine what to plant is to ask the other people in the family. You may think growing salsify would be fun, but your kids may want tomatoes or strawberries. Make a list and let everyone vote. If you are a novice at food gardening, limit yourself to three or four crops until you get the hang of growing those, then branch out. My top four choices are beans, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. If I could grow only four vegetables, I would grow these, lettuce in spring and fall, and the others as summer crops.

Choosing a site for your vegetable garden can be the most critical decision you make, in terms of success or failure. Of primary importance is sunshine. Veggies need at least six hours of sun a day, and the more sun, the better. Don't locate your food garden in a low-lying spot where water stands for more than a few hours after a heavy rain. No vegetable likes wet feet, although they all need about an inch of water a week. Speaking of which, be sure you can reach your vegetable garden with a hose, or you will be toting water in buckets during high summer. Your soil should be well-drained, moisture retentive and organically rich. Work in composted organic matter in late winter, as soon as you can work the soil. For a small plot, you can buy compost, peat, or pine bark fines to work into the bed. I suggest adding 3 two-cubic-foot bags of this material per 100 square feet of growing bed, unless your soil is already in great shape. Add more each year, and in five years time you will have the best veggie beds on the block. Good soil is the key to great veggies.

Late winter is also a good time to incorporate organic fertilizers into your garden soil. Doing so gives the weather and beneficial bacteria a chance to decompose these materials into a form your plants can use. I add a cup of cottonseed meal per 10 square feet of growing space, along with a similar amount of bone meal and two tablespoons of pelletized dolomitic limestone. (I leave out the lime if I am growing potatoes.) These amendments are best added around the first of February, if you intend to begin planting in March. That allows a month for breakdown to begin. If you determine that plants need more nitrogen later on in the season, I suggest using a balanced organic fertilizer mix available commercially, rather than more slow-release amendments. When plants are really growing the nutrients will not be released fast enough.

I should also say that, although I prefer organic fertilization wherever possible, I see nothing wrong with using a soluble fertilizer, such as Miracle Gro(TM) in order to salvage a crop of veggies. Doing so is less likely to cause harm than allowing the plants to get stressed and attract insect pests.

Regarding succession planting, this is the key to growing a lot of food in a small space. The most important point to remember is that here in the Tennessee Valley, we have three growing seasons. Two cool ones in spring and fall, and a warm to hot season in summer. Once you have your veggie list in hand, divide it into cool season and warm season crops. The most popular warm season crops are beans, corn, cucumbers, okra, peppers, tomatoes and squash. Greens of all types are the easiest cool season crops, including arugula, lettuce, mustards and spinach. The cabbage family also needs cool temperatures, as do green onions and leeks. Plan on growing cool season crops from March 1 to June 1, warm season crops from June 1 to September 1, and cool season crops again around Labor Day. for the ones to be grown from transplants, either plan on purchasing them from a garden center (recommended for beginners) or start seeds about four to six weeks before you will need plants.

When your early crops of greens and scallions are done, remove plant debris and move in the summer crops. When these are up and growing well, fertilize. Start moving in the fall plants as the summer veggies start looking exhausted. Feed the fall crop when all the summer crops are gone and the fall plants are established. 

By following these simple guidelines, you should be able to grow enough food to eat, and perhaps have some extra to can or freeze this summer. 

The First Seeds of Spring

Now that the January full moon (and a beautiful one it was with Jupiter beside it) has come and gone, it is time to plant leek and onion seeds. These plants grow slowly when they are young, do well when transplanted, and are universally required in cooking. It therefore makes sense to start a bunch of seeds in January for transplanting about six weeks hence.

We are growing a "generic" leek from Knoxville's own Mayo Seed Company that we have had good success with for years. I sow the seeds rather thickly on the surface of moist grow mix in a 6-inch square plastic pot, cover them with about a quarter inch of vermiculite and water them in. I keep the pot in the garage, and move it under artificial lights as soon as the first seeds break the surface. When the plants are an inch and a half tall, I begin watering with soluble fertilizer once a week. They will need six to eight weeks to reach a suitable size for transplanting, about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter at the base.

Onions can be started from seed in the same manner. Many gardeners prefer to start bulb onions from sets, but if you want many plants, seed is much cheaper. I will be doing sets this year, for red "summer" onions.

Our overwintered leeks survived the bitter cold of the Polar Vortex without much noticeable damage. This variety, 'King Sieg,' was developed specifically to overwinter from fall planting for the earliest possible spring crop. Last season, they were the best leeks we grew.

It is worth noting that the onion family, in general, is probably the best possible use of your garden space during winter. When spring or summer crops have been cleared, garlic, shallots, perennial onions, leeks and scallions can move in. Leeks can be transplanted any time, although they fare worse during July and August. Scallions will grow throughout the season, but they are at their best in cool weather. Garlic is typically planted in July, shallots in October, and perennial onions in November. Fall planted leeks and onions are transplanted in September for overwintering. All of these crops, with the exception of scallions, keep very well after harvest. Leeks need refrigeration, but garlic, shallots and perennial onions should be stored dry at cool room temperature, about 60 degrees.

Unless you have a coldframe, the month of January offers little in the way of harvest. Parsley usually overwinters and can be picked when it isn't frozen. Some other herbs, like rosemary, struggle along. This is a great time to turn to frozen vegetables from last summer. Here's a recipe for corn pudding that is made from "cream style" corn. That is corn that was scraped, rather than cut, from the cob, producing a mixture of smashed kernels, milky juice, and whole kernels. That is how I prefer to freeze it. You can also use commercially frozen corn, mixed with a small can of cream style corn, for approximately the same effect.

Southern Style Corn Pudding

2 cups frozen cream style kernels from homegrown corn, thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch of cayenne pepper or a dash of Tabasco
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an eight-inch baking dish with a teaspoon of the butter, reserving the remainder. Place the thawed corn in the dish and dot with the remaining butter. Drizzle with the cream, distributing it evenly. Sprinkle with the cayenne, salt and pepper. Bake until golden at the edges, about 30 to 40 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

Summer Sweet Corn

Nothing says "summertime" like fresh sweet corn.

Here's a great way to enjoy it.

Sweet Corn Pudding

3 ears fresh sweet corn, such as Ambrosia
1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy cream
salt
white pepper
butter

Generously butter an oval gratin dish. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Scrape the corn off the cob. Do not cut the kernels off! You will want to do this outside, over a large bowl, using a sharp paring knife. The scraped corn will have lots of milky juice and not many kernels will remain whole. Combine the corn with enough cream to give the mixture the texture of a wet batter, about 1/4 cup cream per cup of corn. Season with a pinch of salt and several grinds of white pepper and transfer to the prepared gratin dish. Dot the top with butter. Bake for 1 hour, or until almost all the liquid is gone and the pudding is beginning to brown at the edges. Serve immediately.

Fall Planting Continues

We planted more bush beans earlier this week, along with a couple of hills of cucumbers and some sugar snap peas. All should have time to mature before cold weather arrives. It is also time to plant cole crops for transplanting if you have not done so already. Seeds started now will be ready in about three weeks. Look for 'Thompson' broccoli for a fall crop. Not only is this variety cold-tolerant, it produces many side shoots after the main flower is cut. Cabbage 'Savoy Perfection' is a great choice for a fall cabbage crop, and this one is not only easy to grow but beautiful with its dark green, deeply crinkled leaves.

Start Romaine lettuces now for transplanting at the end of the month. By the end of August, it should be cool enough to start buttercrunch and looseleaf lettuces, also. Carrots, beets, Swiss chard and spinach can all be planted after the middle of August.