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.

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.

Thinking About Tomatoes

It won't be long before every gardener in the Valley is inundated with tomatoes. August is traditionally our best tomato month, but many people are already harvesting early fruit. We have been getting good production from our Chadwick Cherry, Amy's Sugar Gem and Marglobe plants for about a week.

The Chadwick Cherry and Amy's Sugar Gem plants have been grown in straw bales, after conditioning the bales as described in my book, Idiot's Guide: Straw Bale Gardening. The book is available here. Supported by a sturdy trellis, one plant per bale, these have grown into some of the finest tomato plants we have ever produced. See the photo. This is only two Chadwick Cherry plants, and the trellis is 6'6". The reason they are doing so well is probably the absence of soil-borne fungal diseases on the leaves. Growing in straw bales offers nearly complete protection from this problem. I was pleased to learn that Holly Jones, who is in charge of the kitchen garden at UT Gardens, has had similarly good results with tomatoes in straw bales. I strongly urge anyone interested in heirloom tomatoes to give this technique a try.

We have had a bumper crop of cucumbers and squash. The early cucumber plants came down last week, and the early squash plants are showing signs of exhaustion. We have already made second plantings of these crops for harvest in September and October.

If you grow okra, pick it every day to keep the plants producing. Okra keeps about five days in the refrigerator, and is easy to freeze. Just wipe the pods with a kitchen towel, drop them into freezer containers, label and freeze. If you want to slice the okra, you can do that before freezing, but you can also cut them up after thawing. The choice is entirely yours.

The high temperatures and heavy rainfall we have experienced this month have stressed some plants. Tomatoes, in particular, have shown signs of heat stress. If the leaves on your plants curl upward but look otherwise normal, the plants are heat stressed. Apply mulch early in the morning hours to help keep the soil cool and evenly moist. Also, pay attention to rainfall patterns. A good downpour should suffice for about two days before your plants need irrigation. When in doubt, stick your finger into the soil. If it does not feel moist in the first inch or so, it is time to water. Avoid wetting the foliage, as this encourages fungal diseases. Water the plants deeply and thoroughly. Uneven soil moisture levels lead to cracking and blossom end rot. Be especially careful with watering during hot weather. It is probably best to water late in the day, as the air is cooling off, rather than early in the morning. A drenching followed by hot sun can cause fruits to absorb water so fast they split.

Our present weather pattern favors peppers. Green fruits should be setting on most varieties by now. This would be from plants transplanted around the first of June. Bell peppers and other large-fruited varieties will benefit from thinning. Multiple fruit clusters should be thinned to a single fruit. Use the removed ones in the kitchen. Thinning will lead to larger and more flavorful fruits, and helps prevent branches from breaking under the weight of a heavy fruit set. You can also thin hot peppers if you want prize-winning size fruits, but the hot varieties are so vigorous it is not really necessary. If you do thin, take care. Hot pepper juice can burn your eyes and skin, and the stems have heat just like the fruits do.

Small hot peppers, either green or fully ripe, can be easily preserved in vinegar or sherry. Select a bottle and thoroughly clean it. Place some peppers in the bottom of the bottle, then fill it with sherry or the vinegar of your choice. Apply the cap and set the bottle aside in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before you use it. The amount of heat will depend upon how many peppers you use. About half a cup of peppers for each cup of liquid will produce a product comparable to commercial hot pepper vinegar. Small fruited peppers work best for this, or you can cut larger peppers into chunks. Always wear plastic gloves when handling hot peppers, and take care not to get the juice in your eyes.

"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.

Rain, Finally

Finally! Some serious rain. According to the National Weather Service, our area has had a deficit of about six inches for the year. It appears we may be on track to make up much of that deficit during the current rain event. This could not have come at a better time for many crops, such as cucumbers, melons, and squash. These vegetables are about 90 percent water, so having enough soil moisture as the fruits are maturing is important.

The downside of the rain is the greater tendency for many of our warm weather crops to develop problems with fungal disease. Cloudy, wet weather favors mildew, blights, and other problems. If plants have been spaced properly to allow for good air circulation, you have the best defense against these problems. We can also hope that the rain will let up for a while and a period of sunshine will ensue. This is the ideal situation, allowing foliage to dry off and the pace of photosynthesis to increase.

From now until about the end of August, vegetable gardens around the region should be at their peak of variety, abundance and flavor. If you plan on doing some home canning with produce from the farmer's market, this is a great time to stock up. We have regional markets every day of the week, and the big market in Knoxville takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Market Square.

Backyard gardeners will be harvesting everything from late beets to early corn. Just about the only crop that won't be ready yet is okra, which usually waits until August to make its debut. We have had great success with heat tolerant lettuce varieties this year, and as a result we still have a couple of heads in the refrigerator for dressing sandwiches. Having lettuce past the Fourth of July has been a real treat. In case you missed the earlier post, the variety we like best is 'Jericho.' It is sort of a cross between romaine and butterhead, and remains sweet and tender despite the punishing heat we had in early July. We will definitely plant more of this one next year.

As long as the rain hold up, about the only chore you have in the garden at this time of year is weeding, which the rain actually facilitates.

And don't forget, it's time to start thinking about fall planting. If you intend on growing cabbage, broccoli or another member of that group, July 20 is the date for starting seeds. This gives you plants ready for the garden by August 20, and allows 90 days of growth before the first freeze, expected around November 20. The average first frost date for this area is October 20, so frost-tender crops will need to mature in under 90 days if they are planted now. Cucumbers and summer squash are a possibility. Virtually all the cool season crops can be planted between now and August 20. Top choices are beets, carrots, leeks, peas, and turnips. Fast maturing leafy greens, such as spinach and mustards, should wait until mid-August or the seedlings may die from summer heat.

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. 

Garden Season Begins

No kidding. The 2014 gardening season has already begun. Seed catalogs appear in mailboxes and inboxes, and despite the howling cold wind outside, some people will be starting plants this month.

If you have a small greenhouse or an indoor space with plenty of light, some of the vegetable seeds that should be started later this month include globe artichoke, celery, leeks, and onions. Cool weather ornamentals, such as snapdragon and stock, should also be seeded now. All of these are slow-growing as seedlings, and all need to be ready to transplant by March. Just remember you will need enough room to accommodate the plants as they grow. I have made the mistake of starting too many seeds more than once, and then run out of room to grow them to transplant size. If you find yourself in this situation, one remedy is to move everything outdoors during the day, as long as the temperature is high enough, and then bring everything back in before dark.

I look forward to receiving the catalog from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange every year. While I rely on Knoxville's own Mayo Seed Company for many old stand-by vegetable varieties, I choose most of the seeds for heirloom varieties from Southern Exposure. The company also has a seed rack at Three Rivers Market, for those who prefer to browse in person.

Several varieties have captured my interest this year. Here is a brief rundown.

Greasy Beans--Although several varieties are not available this year, the ones that are should be worth a try. 'Cherokee Greasy' is best as a dried bean, while 'Red-Striped Greasy' can be used green or dry. Both are pole beans. "Greasy" beans lack hairs on the pod, giving them a shiny, slippery look. They keep much longer after harvest than most other beans, allowing you to accumulate a "mess" of beans over several days, if you only have room for one or two vines. The flavor is excellent. Greasy beans may also be available from Mayo.

Cabbage 'Savoy Perfection'--This is an excellent cold-weather cabbage. I am experimenting this year with overwintering a couple of plants. The idea is for them to form heads for an early March crop. It grows well as a fall cabbage, also, and the heads are almost too pretty to harvest.

Open-Pollinated Corn--If you want to taste what "real" sweet corn used to taste like, you'll have to grow these varieties that have not had their genes tinkered with by plant breeders. Two that caught my eye are 'Country Gentleman,' in which the kernels are arranged randomly, rather than in rows, and 'Golden Bantam,' an old Burpee introduction that bears well on small plants that can be closely spaced. With either of these, however, the window for harvesting at the milk stage is very narrow. These are the types of corn that inspired the old saying, "Have the water boiling on the stove before you go out to the garden to harvest corn on the cob."

Greens--Seems like Southern Exposure constantly expands their offerings of greens. Cress, kale, mustards, Swiss chard, and more for the greens lover. Many greens are great cool to cold weather crops for the Tennessee Valley. I plan to harvest 'Lacinato' kale from an outdoor bed this afternoon, as soon as the leaves thaw. Of particular note, "Winter Bloomsdale' spinach, which has been unavailable for a while, is back.

Okra--Another veggie where the selection of heirlooms seems ever-expanding. For those with limited space, try 'Lee,' a 1978 release from the University of Arkansas that bears well on 5-foot plants. You might also want to consider one of several red-podded varieties. The contrasting color makes them harder to miss when picking. Leaving pods on the plant to mature reduces production.

'Polecat' Pea from Southern Exposure

Southern Peas--Depending upon where you live, these may be called cowpeas, crowder peas, field peas, or black-eyed peas. They are actually not native to the Americas, like regular garden beans, but made there way here from Asia via Africans who were brought here against their will. Well-adapted to warm southern summers, the numerous varieties of southern peas result from four hundred years of selection. In some cases, as with 'Piggott Pea,' the family who developed the strain kept it to themselves for most of its history. The ability of southern peas to thrive in poor soil (red clay!) is remarkable.

Squash--If your zucchini is plagued by squash borers, try growing butternut winter squash instead. The borers leave it alone. Three varieties to investigate are 'Burpee's Butternut' (bush), 'Tahitian Melon,' and 'Waltham Butternut,' the latter two both vining types that need plenty of room to run or a sturdy trellis.

Tomatoes--For tomato enthusiasts, Southern Exposure offers nine pages of listings. Have fun, but bear in mind that heirloom tomatoes may not be as productive or as easy to grow as hybrid varieties with multiple disease resistance. Every time I grow heirlooms, I have some successes and some failures.

Those are the high points, but I have barely scratched the surface of this one catalog. Many more will soon arrive, each with some irresistible new seed to tempt me. Perusing them is a great way to spend time while the outdoors is in the deep freeze.

Plant Garlic Now

Summer's unofficial end is this weekend, with the Labor Day holiday, even though the autumnal equinox is a few weeks away. From now until about the middle of September is the perfect time to plant garlic and shallots for next year's harvest.

You can purchase seed bulbs of both garlic and shallots from many garden centers, but I just shop for mine at the local market. I select organically grown, large, healthy bulbs and, in the case of the garlic, separate them into cloves, planting only the largest ones. Do not remove the papery skin, which protects the cloves against rot. Just press them into prepared soil, spacing garlic cloves about six inches apart, and shallots about a foot apart. Keep well-watered until the weather cools down and growth slows in November. Add organic fertilizer to the planting bed, or side dress after the shoots emerge. Feed them again in the spring and once more when they are about a foot tall. Keep the growing bed free of weeds, which can severely limit production. They will be ready to harvest next July.

Fall vegetable starts will appear in garden centers this week. Now is a great time to transplant starts of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale. Lettuce plants can also go in the ground now, or you can direct seed for a row of cutting greens. September is also a great time to sow cilantro and chervil, two herbs that can add flavor to your cooking all winter. Growing either one in an unheated greenhouse or coldframe will assure a long harvest. Cilantro seldom does well in a pot, but chervil will grow into a specimen in a ten to twelve inch wide container. Keep both herbs well-watered if rainfall is insufficient, or they are growing under cover.

Our Plant of the Week on this morning's edition of "Garden Talk" was lilyturf, Liriope muscari. This is a tough plant for creating a border between a flower bed and a lawn, as grass has difficulty invading an established clump of lilyturf. Ideal conditions are rich, moist soil in partial shade, but this is a durable and tolerant plant that grows just about anywhere, yet remains non-invasive. A large number of cultivars are available, including some with variegated foliage, gold foliage, and flowers in white, pink, and various shades of purple. The size range is from about a foot tall to over two feet. Plants form clumps a foot or so across, and do not spread. Creeping lilyturf, L. spicata, is also available for use as a groundcover, as it does spread by underground rhizomes.

Among the most abundant veggies in the garden this time of year is okra, and frying is one of the favorite ways to enjoy it. You can cut down on carbs and fat by frying okra without breading. Breading okra was invented, possibly, as a way to spruce up pods that were a bit beyond their prime and therefore less flavorful than freshly picked. If you have okra in the garden, you can capture all the flavor by frying it without breading. After picking, simply wipe the pods with a kitchen towel and leave them at room temperature until you are ready to cook them. Do not wash the pods. This will encourage mold if they need to keep for a day or two, and if done prior to slicing will make the okra slimy.

Fried Okra
2 cups sliced fresh okra
1 tablespoon bacon drippings (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
seasoned salt (recipe follows)

In a heavy cast iron skillet, heat the oil (with the bacon fat, if used) until it ripples and a small piece of okra sizzles as soon as it is dropped in. Dump in the remainder of the okra and cook, turning occasionally, until most of the okra pieces are as well-browned as you prefer. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Serve immediately.

Seasoned Salt
Combine 1/4 teaspoon each of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Use a much or as little as you like on freshly fried okra, and store the rest in an airtight container.

Frog Update and More

In case you did not see my Facebook post, we have determined that our resident frog, whom we have affectionately named, "Gladys," is actually an American bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. She's a female, for sure, because her throat is marked with brownish gray markings over her white skin, whereas male bullfrogs have yellow throats. Bullfrogs are generalized ambush predators, and are unique among our native frogs in having the ability to catch underwater prey. Demonstrating this several times each evening, Gladys feeds voraciously on the little fish attracted to the surface of our pond when we add food pellets for the goldfish. She can leap a foot or more to pounce on the distracted guppies. She supplements the fish with insects. I was trying to photograph a mating pair of dragonflies when Gladys appeared out of nowhere and snapped up them both before I could snap the shutter.

Male Tiger Swallowtail

One of our favorite late summer insects is the tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus. This is the largest butterfly in our area, and is unmistakable as it flits from flower to flower, preferring to be out and about when the weather is hottest in mid-afternoon. Nevertheless, it remains active until almost dark. In our garden, it feeds on Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum), Texas sage (Salvia coccinea), scarlet sage (S. vanhouttenii), marigolds (Tagetes hybrids), and the tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. The butterfly lays its eggs on tulip poplar trees, and the enormous caterpillar is rarely seen outside the tree tops. In our area, we mostly have the black form of female tiger swallowtails, and only the males are yellow. That is because we also have the pipevine swallowtail, which the female tiger swallowtail mimics. Birds that try a pipevine swallowtail will quickly learn that it is not good to eat, and they react to the imposter tiger swallowtails by avoiding them. Some other butterflies also practice this form of deception, known as "Batesian mimicry."

Beans, okra and peppers dominate our garden harvest this week. We are picking okra every day and beans about every three days. The current bean crop is 'Provider,' and, boy howdy, is it properly named. We have made three pickings already and a fourth will soon be ready. The beans get amazingly long, up to eight inches, before the seeds swell much, and they remain completely stringless even if a bit over-mature. They are easy to pick and the flowers are a decorative pink color, too. We will grow this one again next year. It is great for any recipe calling for green beans.

We have not been impressed with the productivity of the dwarf okra cultivar, 'Baby Bubba.' We pulled this one off the Burpee rack just to try. While it definitely bears okra while remaining under three feet tall, we should have twice as many plants as we do in order to provide a reasonable harvest. By "reasonable harvest," I mean three or four servings of okra every three days. Picked pods keep only about three days from harvest, so unless you have lots of recipes calling for a little bit of okra, I suggest sticking with a small planting of old standby 'Clemson Spineless.' After we received 3/4 inch of rain last Thursday, the pods have really begun to set, forcing us to pick daily. This variety is also tops for flavor, according to many people.

From now until the week after Labor Day is the preferred time to plant garlic. Choose the largest bulbs from last year's crop and plant the largest cloves from these bulbs, to insure the biggest and best crop next season. Garlic needs fertile, weed-free soil, but thrives here with little extra attention. Purchase seed garlic from your favorite independent garden center, or just plant organic garlic from the grocery store.

The Frog Files

I have written repeatedly about my fascination with the frogs that have managed to find our new pond. We do have permanent water, a tiny creek, about 100 yards away from the house, but when you think about it, 100 yards is a long hike for a little frog. Especially since it must run the gauntlet of household pets lurking between the creek and our backyard. Frogs also need to keep their skin moist, so they must travel when the weather is damp. Perhaps our unusually wet summer has facilitated their migrations. We had spring peepers, a couple of kinds of tree frogs, and the lady in the photo.

I am no herpetologist, but I suspect this is a common green frog, Rana clamitans. It occurs throughout the Southeast wherever there is adequate water. Apparently our 1500 gallon pond is sufficient. Of course, the pond offers something the frog will not find everywhere, small fish. Earlier in the season I added about two dozen livebearers from the aquarium store. Now we have hundreds. We are in the habit of feeding these and our two goldfish every evening an hour or so before sunset. The frog has gotten used to this ritual, and gorges herself on fish. I thought frogs only ate insects, but a quick search of the Internet revealed the green frog eats all sorts of prey, including birds. The American bullfrog, Rana catesbiana, which looks like the green frog on steroids, also preys on fish, birds and even small mammals. With concern growing that some frog species are threatened with extinction, it is nice to know this droll-looking little predator seems to be thriving.

Vegetable Notes

Vegetable gardeners should be thinking about sowing seeds for fall greens, if you haven't already done so. We started cell trays with kale, savoy cabbage and lettuces this week. I also planted a pot of leeks. All these should be ready to transplant within about 30 days, with the exception of the leeks. The leek variety is 'King Sieg.' It was bred to overwinter for spring harvest, and last year's crop was excellent. They are good keepers, too. We ate the last of the stored ones in July.

The kale variety is 'Lacinato.' It is highly cold tolerant, and I expect to harvest leaves all winter long. The cabbage will be transplanted to the coldframe in September. Lasy year, 'Savoy Perfection' was our best winter cabbage, and we are aiming for an even better crop this season.

I planted heat tolerant 'Jericho' lettuce, in case we have a warm fall season. I also planted a tray of 'Tom Thumb,' a delicious butterhead that makes midget heads about the size of a softball. This time of year, it is important to check and water lettuce seedlings every day, as one bout of hot, dry conditions can kill them all.

Late August is a good time to sow beets, carrots, turnips, and scallions. By the end of the month, you should get good results with direct seeded spinach, too.

Cucumbers planted a couple of weeks ago have succumbed to a pathogen. Rather than try to figure out why, we just ripped them out and planted 'Sugar Snap' peas instead.

Today we are continuing to pick beans and okra, and we have the most beautiful sweet basil that we have grown in years. With the cooler, less humid weather, we are shaping up to have a spectacular autumn season, both in the garden and in beautiful East Tennessee.

Gumbo!

Is there a more quintessentially Southern dish than gumbo? USA Today this week ran a feature on Southern foods that tourists should not miss. Barbecue and fried green tomatoes made the list, but so did some questionable entries, like tamales. But they left out gumbo. Given that okra is difficult to grow north of the Mason Dixon line, you would think the traditional stew of meat, veggies and tomatoes would have made the cut.

"Gumbo" is thought to derive from the African word for okra, something like "quingombo." There is no doubt that the vegetable made its way into the Southern cook's repertoire via Africans who were brought here against their will in the 18th Century. It is a member of the hibiscus family, a fact revealed when the large, showy flowers open for a single day, typically as the weather gets really hot and muggy in late July or early August. Okra will not germinate in cool soil, so gardeners typically wait until Memorial Day to plant the BB-like seeds. Soaking them overnight helps to insure complete germination, and they will fairly leap from the ground within a few days of planting. They need little in the way of attention once they are about six inches tall. Irrigation is necessary only now and then, and too much fertilizer will result in large plants with few blooms.

Once the pods begin to appear, the plants will continue producing non-stop until the first hard frost. It is important to pick each pod as soon as they become large enough at 3-4 inches. Leaving pods to mature on the plant will reduce subsequent yield. Store the harvest at room temperature and use within three days. If dark spots begin to show, it is over the hill. Individual plants will bear from one to three usable pods every day.

Cooks who find themselves with an over-abundance of okra, a not uncommon condition, can easily preserve the harvest by freezing. Simply wipe whole pods with a kitchen cloth to remove any foreign matter, drop them into containers and freeze. Blanching is not necessary. Don't bother to cut or trim the pods. You can do that after you thaw them later. Okra also makes great pickles. Follow the recipe for raw pack dill pickles on our In The Kitchen page substituting okra for the cucumbers. Do not cut the okra, leave pods whole.

Some folks say they don't like okra because it has a slimy texture. This effect results from pectins and complex sugars within the pod, and can be avoided by several techniques. First, do not wash the pods, always wipe clean with a kitchen cloth or paper towels. Otherwise, the added water will activate the gummy contents as soon as you cut the pod open. Second, cooking okra in hot oil or in a dry skillet will prevent the juice from turning slimy. Third, acid also inactivates the slime components, so pickled okra loses this tendency. Tomatoes also reduce the effect.

What you want to avoid is dropping raw okra directly into a liquid that is neither scalding hot nor acidic, like soup stock. This will result in thickening the liquid, and is probably how the stew, gumbo, was originally thickened. French and Native American influences on gumbo, however, have led to different methods of thickening.

Native Americans no doubt introduced the use of dried young leaves of the sassafrass tree as a thickening agent. This is filé (pronounced FEEL-ay) powder. Gumbo thickened at the end of the cooking process by the addition of a bit of filé  powder is often called "filé gumbo."

The other thickening technique, and the most common in my experience, was contributed by the French. Cooking fat and flour together to produce a roux, as is done with many types of sauces and gravies, allows the cook to control not only the thickness of the gumbo, but also its flavor. Depending upon how long the roux is cooked, it gives a different character to the gumbo. Longer cooking produces a progressively darker roux that loses thickening power as it increases in robustness of flavor. This can provide many opportunities for experimentation and customization. Gumbo can truly be any cook's special, personal creation.

Here is a generalized recipe for gumbo that can be varied endlessly, depending upon what you have on hand and what is in season. You can substitute any protein for the shrimp and sausage, keeping the total amount to about one cup. Any type of stock will work, also. Keep the "trinity" of onions, green peppers and celery, however, for true Creole flavor, along with the tomatoes.

John’s Creole Style Gumbo

 

8 servings

 

1/2 pound small raw shrimp

1/2 pound Andouille sausage (can substitute kielbasa), cut in 1/4" rounds

1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon drippings

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/4 cup chopped green bell peppers

1/4 cup chopped celery

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup sliced okra

1/4 cup peeled, seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning (recipe follows)

freshly ground black pepper

3 bay leaves

3 cups chicken  or seafood stock, fresh or canned

1/2 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

hot sauce, such as Tabasco

3/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

1 teaspoon shredded fresh basil leaves

 

cooked rice

chopped green onions

hard boiled eggs

 

Peel and devein the shrimp.  Refrigerate. In a heavy cast iron skillet, heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Fry the Andouille sausage until it is lightly browned, remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Reserve. Pour the fat into a heatproof measuring cup, discarding all but 1/4 cup. Return the fat to the skillet, add the flour, and stir continuously with a wire whisk until the roux is the color of milk chocolate, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan and incorporating them into the roux. Take care not to splatter the roux on your skin! It is extremely hot. When the roux is the right color, add the onions, peppers and celery, turn off the heat, and continue stirring until the mixture stops sizzling. Set aside.

 

In a large stew pot, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil until it ripples. Add the okra, and stir fry until most of the okra has brown spots. Add the tomatoes, garlic, Creole seasoning, a few grinds of pepper, and the bay leaves. Stir fry for one minute. Add the stock, Worchestershire sauce, a few drops of hot sauce, and the fresh herbs. Bring to a simmer, then add the reserved roux-vegetable mixture by spoonfuls, stirring with each addition. The stew should become slightly thickened. Return the stew to a gentle simmer. Add the reserved sausage and the shrimp, and cook just until the shrimp turn pink, about 2 or 3 minutes. Taste carefully and adjust the seasoning

 

Serve the gumbo over cooked rice, garnished with chopped green onions and hard-boiled eggs. Pass additional hot sauce. All you need is a salad for a complete meal.

 

Creole Seasoning Mix

 

1-1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

 

Combine all ingredients and store tightly sealed in a cool, dark place for up to one year.