Golden Potato Soup Is Perfect for Fall

All the ingredients for this hearty soup may already be in your pantry. If you don't have whole mace use a pinch of ground mace or nutmeg.  Mace is the outer layer of the nutmeg seed coat. It has a subtle, sharper flavor than nutmeg itself. I ordered whole mace online for about $8 and received enough to last me a lifetime. I store it in the freezer.

The recipe makes 4 servings.

• 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 ½ cups chicken broth
• 2 cups diced potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold
• ¾ cup chopped celery
• ¾ cup sliced carrots
• ½ cup water
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme or a fresh thyme sprig
• 1 blade whole mace
• ½ cup whole milk
• Salt
• Freshly ground white pepper
• Minced fresh parsley or basil for garnish

In a saucepan or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Watch carefully and adjust the heat to prevent them from burning.  Add the broth, potatoes, celery, carrots, water, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat to maintain a slow simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add the mace and simmer 5 minutes longer. Stir in the milk, then adjust the heat to keep the soup hot, but do not allow it to boil. With a small pair of tongs, remove the mace. Taste carefully and add salt and pepper to your liking. Serve the soup hot, garnished with the fresh herb.

This soup is great with any of the cornbread recipes found in Appalachian Cooking.

End-of-Season Tomato Soup

Summer is winding down, and if you are like me you have a lot of small, less than perfect tomatoes on the older vines this time of year. Here is a recipe that makes use of them. You can use any type of tomato you like, or a combination. I find this recipe helpful when I have a bumper crops of cherry tomatoes, also. You can simply dump cherry tomatoes into a food processor and chop them for the soup. Larger tomatoes need to be cored. Also, of course, cut out any damaged areas. The flavor of this recipe is reminiscent of the famous commercial brand, only better!

Note: I like Better Than Bullion brand of chicken broth concentrate. Or use homemade broth instead of the water.

Homemade Tomato Soup

2 pounds tomatoes, cored if needed and coarsely chopped, about 4 cups chopped tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped, about 1/2 cup
1 cup water
1 teaspoon chicken broth concentrate
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Place the pan over medium heat and bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally. Adjust the heat to maintain a slow simmer and cook, stirring now and then, for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool 20 minutes. Transfer the soup to a blender and pulse to puree. Do not completely liquefy the ingredients. Strain the soup through a sieve, pressing hard on the solids to extract all of their flavor before discarding them. Reheat the soup over low heat, taste carefully, and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot.

Full Tilt Springtime

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by our table at the UT Gardens Spring Plant Sale last Saturday! It was a pleasure to meet our fellow gardeners, readers, and listeners of the radio show.

April is the biggest gardening month here in the Tennessee Valley. If you have not already planted cool season crops like lettuce or mustard, the window for success is rapidly closing. Your best bet is fast maturing greens, such as mizuna or arugula, and heat tolerant lettuces. Jericho, Anuenue and most romaine varieties are heat tolerant cultivars. Another good one is Black Seeded Simpson, a local favorite since the 19th Century.

You can also plant beans, potatoes, onion sets or plants, scallions, beets, radishes, carrots and cabbage plants with success. Broccoli and cauliflower may or may not produce a crop if planted this late.

Even though tomato and pepper plants have appeared in the garden centers, hold off until at least May 1 to plant. We will still have some cold nights that can set these plants back if they are not protected. You have plenty of time to obtain a crop even if you wait.

It is still a bit early for cucumbers and squash. Plants in cold soil have more disease and pest problems. Wait until after Mothers Day to plant these veggies.

Here's a great idea for growing lettuce, which does not need a lot of root space. Slap a coat of white primer on a citrus crate. These little crates were full of mandarin oranges or clementines when we bought them. I saved a bunch (we love citrus in the winter) and we planted them with an assortment of smallish lettuces. The result is shown in the photo. If you'd like one of these, Sweet Pea in Bearden is carrying them. Besides interesting plants, Sweet Pea stocks a wide selection of high-quality garden art and accessories.

For those who would like to purchase our hardy orchids, they are available at the following local independent garden centers:

Stanley's Greenhouse
Ellenburg's Landscaping
Mayo Garden Centers in Powell, Bearden and Farragut
Sweet Pea, on Carr Street in Bearden

Hardy orchids will be available until mid-May.

Please support your local, family-owned garden centers this season. Not only will your dollars remain in the area, you will get better plants, better advice and an overall better value than you will find at any big box retailer.

Preserving Summer's Bounty

If you are like most gardeners in the Tennessee Valley, you will have a glut of produce during the month of August. We have been canning and freezing like mad. Tomatoes, corn, vegetable soup mix, and beans have been our primary focus.

Today, however, I wanted to share our discovery regarding one of the best ways to preserve authentic summer flavor without too much work. The secret: frozen gazpacho. The recipe can easily be double or tripled.

John's Frozen Gazpacho Base
1 green pepper, trimmed and seeded, coarsely chopped
4 pickling cucumbers, trimmed and seeded, coarsely chopped
6 firm ripe tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
18 large fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
1/4 cup Sherry vinegar, or other vinegar or lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika

Working in batches, chop the vegetables and herbs in a food processor. The mixture should be a bit chunky. Do not liquefy everything. You can also do the chopping by hand. Transfer everything to a large bowl and add the vinegar, salt and paprika. Stir well to combine. Chill overnight, covered.

Transfer the soup base to freezer containers, label and place in the freezer.

To serve, allow the soup base to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Combine with an equal volume of chilled stock or water. (More or less, to achieve the consistency you prefer.) Serve cold, garnished with croutons, sour cream, and chopped scallions.

This makes a delightful substitute for a salad course. The bright flavors are a welcome change from the winter taste of supermarket produce.

Late Spring Harvest

June is a great time in the food garden. We have potatoes, peas, and tarragon in abundance, so all we need is a protein, and dinner is done. Parsley and mint are both thriving right now, too, as the oregano prepares to bloom and its flavor becomes harsh and unpleasant. We have also permitted ourselves to pluck a few sprigs of basil, although the plants remain small. Fresh basil is just too good to resist. Although we have been pulling a few for the kitchen, our sweet red onions are not yet ready to harvest. Some of them are already as large as softballs. We have plenty of green onions from our late March planting of Evergreen White Bunching seeds from Mayo Seed Company, Knoxville.

Straw Bale Update
All the bales are planted, and everything looks really good. We had a couple of bales that collapsed, but the plants in them are still looking healthy. It is too early to tell about harvest amounts or quality, but so far the plants in the bales are behaving much like plants elsewhere in the garden. We will have more to say on straw bale gardening as summer progresses.

Elsewhere in the Garden
From the appearance of our Lazy Wife Greasy beans, we will soon be canning them to enjoy later in the year. The vigorous vines are hanging full of beautiful beans. Greasy beans are Southern heirlooms that lack hairs on the pods, giving them an oiled appearance. The "lazy wife" part of the name is because the beans are stringless. They can be cooked whole or simply broken in pieces without stringing, a boon to any lazy wife (or husband) who finds stringing beans a chore.

The Tromboncino summer squash vines threaten the entire neighborhood, they are so vigorous! This is the only summer squash cultivar that is ignored by squash vine borers, a pest that in some areas makes squash production nearly impossible without extraordinary measures to prevent the insects's gaining access to the plants. We have ours confined to a trellis, but this is not really a plant for a small space garden.

We grew Irish Cobbler potatoes this year, and despite them being attacked repeatedly by flea beetles, we are going to have a decent harvest. This old fashioned cultivar, said to have been developed in New England in the Nineteenth Century by Irish immigrants, bears both red and white tubers on the same plant. The potatoes have rather deep eyes, making them a little trouble to peel. However, this is their only drawback. The flavor is superb, and they are good keepers. They also have the perfect texture for potato salad, a required side dish at every summer barbecue and picnic. At the end of this post I have included a recipe for Southern Style Potato Salad. Mine is based on a recipe from the restaurant at the Soul Food Museum in Atlanta. I have changed a few things to reflect the way potato salad was made in my family. It is important for the eggs and vegetables to be chopped into dice about 1/4 inch or a little smaller. This must be done by hand. Using a food processor will produce a mushy texture.

Southern Style Potato Salad

1 pound Irish Cobbler potatoes

3 eggs

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup finely diced onion

1/2 cup finely diced celery

1/2 cup finely diced sweet pickles (not sweet pickle relish)

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes until they offer only slight resistance when pierced with the point of a knife. Drain in a colander, and when cool enough to handle peel and cut them into small dice. Reserve the potatoes in a large bowl.

Place the eggs in a saucepan and add cold water to cover them by one inch. Bring slowly to a boil, remove from the heat, cover the pan, and let stand 20 minutes. Drain, fill the pan with cold water, and let stand until the eggs are cool. This may require two changes of cold water. Peel the eggs, and cut them into small dice like the potatoes. Add to the bowl with the reserved potatoes. Stir gently to combine.

To the bowl add the mustard, vinegar, sugar, mayonnaise, onion, celery and sweet pickle. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more mustard and/or mayonnaise, if desired, for a creamier salad. Chill overnight to blend the flavors. Garnish with paprika and parsley just before serving.

Welcome Rains

We had an unusually dry March, typically our wettest month. The rain that arrived this week to start the month of April has resulting in visible growth in the garden. Plenty of time remains for planting early crops, and some venturesome folks are planting cucumbers and summer squash. This is risky, not only because we could yet have a frost, but also because the soil remains cool and seeds may simply rot.

Cucurbits can be started indoors in peat pots, allowing them to be transplanted without root disturbance. Cucumbers, summer and winter squashes, melons and gourds can all be handled this way, giving you the earliest possible harvest. As with all such attempts to "beat" the season, you run the risk of losing the plants to a late cold snap, but you do have the opportunity to replant should that happen.

If you do start warm season transplants indoors, make sure to give them as much sun and/or artificial light as possible. Cucurbits, tomatoes and peppers all need strong light to develop properly. If you cannot provide good light for the seedlings, you will have better success with plants purchased at the garden center. Weak seedlings seldom recover their full potential, even after transplantation.

Plenty of time remains to plant lettuce, other greens, beets, radishes, carrots, potatoes, leeks and onions. Continue succession plantings of annual herbs, such as parsley and cilantro, but hold off on planting basil, which requires warmth. Parsley established in the garden now will continue to provide leaves for cutting until next winter, if not harvested too heavily. Try to have enough plants so you can gather a nice bunch with only one leaf taken per plant. If you use a lot of parsley, make room for a dozen. Flat-leaved Italian parsley grows best through summer heat.

Good Friday, April 18, is the traditional time to plant beans in the Tennessee Valley region. As a hedge against a cold snap, choose a brown-seeded bean for your early crop. These varieties are less likely to rot in cold soil than are white-seeded beans.

If you choose to push the season on warm-weather crops, it may be worth investing in floating row cover, available at most garden centers. This lightweight artificial fabric provides a few degrees of frost protection while allowing light and air to reach the plants. It is best to support the cover with metal or plastic hoops across the growing bed. Complete kits are widely available, or you can fabricate your own using PVC pipe.

Root Crops and Dwarf Berries

Get those root crops in the ground! March is a great time to plant beets, carrots, onions, turnips, potatoes and radishes. If you planted radishes last week, chances are they are ready to thin. As we discussed on "Garden Talk" this morning, thinning is essential for many types of food crops. Although it is often difficult to convince beginning gardeners to do so, thinning actually increases yield, because each plant has enough room to perform at its best.

In the case of radishes, they should be thinned early, before true leaves have appeared, for the best quality roots. Leave about two inches between plants. Carrots also demand thinning, and the delicate seedlings should not be left crowded too long. Carrots planted this week will probably not appear above the surface until early April. Besides the approaching cold snap, natural germination inhibitors keep the seeds dormant until they have been wet a few times. Thin carrots to stand three or four inches apart for the largest, most uniform roots, unless you are growing a smaller variety, such as 'Little Finger.' Do this as soon as the feathery true leaves begin to appear. In the case of both radishes and carrots, it is best to snip off the excess seedlings at soil level, rather than pull them, because pulling may injure the roots of neighboring plants.

Radishes and carrots may be planted together in the same row. By the time the carrots germinate, the radishes will be almost mature. The emerging radish seedlings break the soil surface, making it easier for the weaker carrots seedlings to follow them. When you harvest the radishes, you will automatically thin some of the carrots.

For gardeners who just hate to thin, I suggest using seed tapes. They are available for many popular varieties of vegetables with small seeds or that are difficult to thin. Essentially, seeds are evenly spaced out between two thin strips of paper tape. You simply lay the tape in the row and the seeds end up at the correct spacing. This is a big time saver, but the tapes are expensive compared to loose seed.

March and early April provide perfect weather for transplanting nursery stock, and all varieties of fruit and flowering trees and shrubs are showing up in local garden centers. This year, check out the Brazel-berry varieties of blueberries and raspberries that have only recently been introduced into the market. "Brazel-berries" are dwarf varieties of raspberry and blueberry, suitable for small garden spaces or even patio containers. 'Raspberry Shortcake' offers the added benefit of being thornless. Grow it in neutral soil in full sun and harvest berries in mid-summer. The two new brazel-blueberry varieties being offered at Stanley's Greenhouse this year are 'Peach Sorbet' and 'Jelly Bean.' Like standard blueberries, these shrubs prefer acid soil, and can be included in the landscape alongside sun-loving azaleas, such as Encore(TM) types. All the brazel-berry fruits can be grown in large containers, making control of the soil pH simpler than in-ground growing. Besides the obvious benefit of fruit, all these shrubs add color and interest to the landscape. Blueberry foliage turns pink and purple in the fall, too. More information and images at www.brazelberries.com

Happy Birthday, George!

Today is George Washington’s 282^nd birthday, and my thoughts turn to cherry trees. Growing cherries for fruit is not an easy task in the Tennessee Valley region, as hot summer weather stresses the trees and leaves them susceptible to disease. Nevertheless, for the gardener willing to expend some extra effort, cherry trees will produce a delicious crop for a decade or more.

The most popular cherry variety in North America is ‘Montmorency,’ named for the region of France where this cultivar originated. Trees are available on dwarf rootstock, an important consideration for the home gardener because you will need to cover them with bird netting when the fruit begins to ripen. Otherwise, your feathered friends will get the lion’s share of the crop. Although Montmorency is self-fertile, plant two if you have the room, as cross-pollination will increase fruit set.

Sweet cherries are even less accommodating than sour varieties, but can be grown here with diligence. Care is the same as for sour cherries. Many varieties of sweet cherries exist.

Cherries need full sun and organically rich, well-drained soil. Waterlogged soil will kill them quickly. A layer of mulch around the base of the tree, extending to the drip line, is beneficial. Make sure you do not pile mulch at the crown of the tree, which encourages bark damage. Mulching the base helps to prevent bark damage from lawn mowers and string trimmers. Keeping the tree’s bark intact prevents infections.

Plant cherry trees anytime after fall dormancy and prior to spring bud swell. February is your last chance, in most years. After your cherry trees have been in the ground one full year, you should begin an annual pruning program. Prune during winter, and before the buds have broken dormancy. Aim for horizontally spreading branches with space between them. This promotes good air circulation and allows sun to penetrate into the canopy. Each year, prune out any drooping or weak branches. These won’t produce good fruit, anyway.

Brown rot is a fungus disease that is a problem for all types of cherries. Control is possible using sulfur sprays, which must be applied multiple times during the spring season. Brown rot is an important pathogen of all types of stone fruits, and numerous chemical controls are also available. Managing brown rot also means removing all unusable fruit from the trees at harvest time, rather than leaving it to drop, and scrupulously cleaning up plant debris and fallen leaves in the winter. Cherry debris should be burned, not composted, to help control the brown rot fungus.

Onion sets and cool season transplants are appearing in garden centers now. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, along with onion sets, scallions, and leeks can go into the ground any time over the next month. The earliest plantings may be threatened by late cold snaps, so it is good idea to have a row cover available to toss over them, in case of severe cold. A light frost does no harm to established plants.

Sow pea seeds now for the earliest crop. Snow peas, snap peas and shelling peas all produce excellent crops in the Tennessee Valley, when planted early. Make sure to provide a sturdy trellis. Some varieties can grow over six feet tall.

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.

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.

Growing Undercover

With the arrival of the first frosts comes the time for season extenders that permit gardeners in the Valley to continue harvesting right on up until Christmas and beyond. By judicious selection of crop varieties, coupled with the use of a coldframe or unheated greenhouse, backyard farmers can continue production at least until the days grow short around the winter solstice.

Some crops have varieties bred to be planted out now for overwintering. Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, leeks and onions are often grown this way. Transplants moved into the garden now will grow slowly and establish roots during the winter, before providing an extra-early harvest next spring. We have had great luck, for example, with the leek cultivar 'King Sieg,' when grown this way, and with the cabbage 'Savoy Perfection.'

The best way to extend the season is with a coldframe. This can be a very simple arrangement of straw bales with a couple of recycled window sashes on top, or a factory built structure. While we like the convenience of a walk-in space, a traditional raised-bed coldframe with a slanted, transparent top facing the sun will grow plenty of veggies. Don't imagine that you will produce tomatoes or cucumbers with such crude equipment! You will, however, be able to enjoy delicious lettuce, green onions, and various other salad greens in abundance. The key to coldframe salad production is to choose varieties that grow quickly and lend themselves to cut-and-come-again harvest. Arugula not only reaches harvestable size in about six weeks, it can be cut at least three times. Compact-growing bibb and buttercrunch lettuces are great choices for coldframe cultivation. Leaf lettuce varieties, like Black Seeded Simpson, are good for cutting more than once.

Take measures to protect coldframe crops from slugs. The warmth of the frame attracts the mollusks, which should be deterred with copper tape or wire and lured elsewhere with poisoned baits in the vicinity  of the coldframe. Do not place bait inside the frame or you will invite slugs in! Aphids sometimes invade coldframes. Spray plants with insecticidal soap to help deter them, and be prepared to thoroughly wash your harvest. A drop of dish detergent in a sink full of cold water will eliminate the aphids from your harvest on the first rinse. Rinse the leaves at least two more times to remove soap and any stray insects.

Our best outdoor crop following the frost is 'Lacinato' kale. This dark-leaved heirloom shrugs off the coldest weather we are likely to receive here in the Tennessee Valley, and can be picked at will throughout the winter months. I have learned the importance of letting plants develop a good root system in the garden before the first frost. They should be started, therefore, in August and transplanted in September. After a month, you can begin harvesting a leaf or two from each plant as you wish to use them.

Time remains to plant perennial onions, shallots and garlic for the rest of the month. Cover the bed with a layer of mulch to help protect emerging shoots. If you already have these crops growing from an earlier planting, mulching them now will result in improved production next spring, by helping to moderate swings in the soil temperature.

Frost Ends Summer Season

After taking a few days off to visit Washington, DC, last week, we are back with the blog. One of the highlights of our visit was the National Botanic Garden, where we strolled through the conservatory filled with tropical plants. See the photo below.

Last night saw the first killing frost we have received here in the Tennessee Valley, thus marking the end of the summer gardening season. Basil leaves hang blackened and mushy from the stalks. The okra stalks are similarly festooned with dead foliage. Nevertheless, the garden is not done yet.

Begonia colors at the National Botanic Garden

The Sugar Snap peas remain harvestable. Frost sometimes damages the pods slightly, but there is an easy remedy for this. Instead of eating them raw or cooking them gently, simmer them in stock with a little onion and celery, a few leaves of lettuce, and a sprig of parsley until they are really tender, then puree and strain for a delicious green pea soup. All the ingredients, except the celery, will do very well here even after a light frost. Celery grows well as a fall crop if started in early summer, but is ruined by frost damage. I prefer to purchase organic celery at the market.

As an experiment this year, we planted peppers in one of our 6 by 8 plastic walk-in coldframes. (The frames shelter two plots of garden soil that we use for various off-season crops.) Peppers love growing in close proximity to each other, and thrive with the light shade afforded by the frame cover during the hot summer months. Earlier this week, we closed the windows and door to protect the peppers from frost. It will be interesting to see how long this extends our harvest. We have certainly had a bumper crop already.

We are thinking about next year already, and considering a similar experiment with determinate tomato varieties in one of the coldframes.

From the unprotected garden beds we will be able to harvest bak choy, cilantro, kale, lettuce, onions, parsley and spinach for a few more weeks. We have salad crops growing in the coldframe, also. With the protection of the frame, we expect to harvest arugula, corn salad, and radishes until Christmas. Arugula and corn salad are two winter crops worth growing indoors, either under lights or in a south-facing window. The "window box" style planters we use will accommodate enough arugula for six servings, and can be cut three times before the plants wear out. I cut two servings every other day this past week, and the plants will regrow in ten to fourteen days. Similarly, corn salad will yield several nice bunches that can be harvested over a period of weeks. Either of these tasty greens provides a lift and added nutrition when combined with salad from the market.

You still have time to plant bulbs of perennial onions, winter onions, shallots and garlic. All of these should be watered well and mulched to protect them from the harsher weather soon to arrive.

Please check out The New American Homestead Store for books and plants. There is still time for fall planting in the Tennessee Valley!

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.

Get Ready For Spring

If you have not already done so, sow your first cool weather salad crops indoors between now and February 24. You could also sow in a coldframe outdoors. I planted 12 varieties of lettuce yesterday. Other early crops like mache, mizuna, tatsoi, scallions and spinach can also be started indoors if you wish. All these latter veggies will germinate in cold soil, and so can be planted outdoors, if you'd prefer. If you go the direct seed route, be especially vigilant for slugs and flea beetles. Cooler temperatures favor the latter, in particular.

The last half of February is also a good time to plant peas. Although we enjoy English, or shelling, peas, we prefer to buy them frozen. When we grow peas, it is always an edible-podded type, as these provide about twice as much food in the same space. We have found Sugar Snap peas to be unsurpassed for flavor, but this year we are trying a new one from Burpee, 'Super Snappy.' This variety produces extra-large peas, which can be shelled if you let them go too long on the vine. An added benefit is the compact growth habit, making them ideal for our raised beds. Burpee suggests this variety does not require a trellis, but in our experience, all peas do better with some support. Tomato cages work fine for the compact types.

Ancient Chinese gardening advice recommends, "When you pull a radish, plant a lettuce." This wraps the essence of succession planting and crop rotation into eight words. Spinach could substitute for lettuce in this scenario. Later in the year, put in tomatoes after the greens have been harvested. The best way to insure a ready supply of plants is to start them yourself from seeds. The best choices are all those mentioned in the first paragraph above, along with leeks, mustards, parsley, cilantro, dill, celery, and chervil.

If you start seeds indoors for early planting, you will require artificial lighting. A windowsill, even a south-facing one, will produce pale, elongated seedlings that lean toward the sun. To produce straight, stocky seedlings that transplant well, you need more light. We can go on all day about lumens and PAR values, if one wants to get technical, but the simplest approach to plant lighting recommendations is to talk about watts of fluorescent lighting per square foot of growing space. For vegetable crops, I recommend using six 40-watt T8 fluorescent lamps over a space 18 by 48 inches. The T8 (8-tenths of an inch in diameter) is the most common and least expensive lamp type, and is often supplied when you buy an inexpensive hanging "shoplight" fixture at one of the big box stores. Three shoplights, for a total of six lamps, will illuminate two standard 10 X 20 flats of plants, with a little room at the back for rooting herb cuttings.

You can buy brighter lighting sources that will illuminate a larger area or allow you to grow plants that need more light than lettuce and spinach, such as broccoli or chard. Among the choices are T5 fluorescents (only 5/10 inches in diameter, so you can squeeze more into the same space), high-output fluorescents, metal halide, and LED lighting systems. All cost more and offer various advantages and disadvantages over shoplights. For the hobby gardener needing only a few dozen plants per season, shoplights should do the trick. If you only use the lights for a couple of months each year, the lamps will last about 5 years, assuming you run them for twelve to sixteen hours per day. Twelve hours is sufficient for spring greens. Members of the onion and celery families will appreciate the longer days.

Two flats will supply you with anywhere from 18 to 72 plants, depending upon what size cell insert you place in the tray. For lettuce, greens, scallions or spinach that will be promptly transplanted, we use 72-cell trays. Later in the season, when we may reasonably expect to hold the lettuce a little longer, we will start them in larger cells. Leeks do better in 36-cell trays. Members of the celery family need to spend a longer time in the flat, and should be grown in 18-cell trays or small nursery pots.

Fill trays with seed starting mix and wet them down the day before you intend to plant. Use a drainless flat to support the cell trays. You can fill the flat with about an inch of water and float the prepared tray on top. This will allow the starting mix to soak up as much water as possible before you plant. The mix can be difficult to wet initially. After sowing your seeds, cover the tray with a clear plastic germination cover to maintain 100 percent humidity and to allow you to observe the seedlings. They need to remain under the cover only until all cells are showing green. As soon as all the seedlings have emerged, remove the cover, but take care that your seedlings do not dry out. This usually spells disaster if they are small. To keep them growing as rapidly as possible, add timed-release fertilizer, or a complete organic formulation, to the starting mix. You can also water with compost tea or kelp extract, but I find this more trouble than adding fertilizer to the mix.

Early lettuces thrive in a cold frame.

Most of the crops mentioned will require about two weeks to reach transplantable size, after they emerge. Thin to one plant per cell as soon as true leaves start to appear. Simply clip off the losers at soil level with a pair of nail scissors. Transplant them to the garden when you see the first roots emerging from the drainage hole in the bottom of the cell.

It is not necessary to plant an entire flat at once. You can save some cells for succession plantings. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his garden journal that lettuce seed should be planted by the "thimbleful" and "weekly." Most modern households will need far less than a thimbleful, more like a pinch, for a weekly supply. If you plant in succession, you may find it convenient to start new seeds under the germination cover as soon as the first trays are removed. The older trays need to adjust to cooler temperatures and lower humidity, anyway. As a rule, you should not grow plants with markedly different germination times in the same flat. Celery, dill, cilantro, parsley and chervil all take up to three weeks to germinate. By then, lettuce, which germinates in a day or three, will be ready to transplant.

We find it helpful to rotate the flats underneath the lights, because the intensity of illumination is far less near the ends of the lamps than it is in the center. Rotating the flats helps insure all plants grow at the same rate, and that none wastes energy stretching toward the light.

We purchase flats, cell trays, germination covers, growing mixes and much of our seed at Knoxville Seed and Greenhouse Supply on Rutledge Pike. Even though this is a large wholesale/retail company, you can purchase only one or two trays at a time if that's all you need, and the friendly staff will answer all your questions. They offer a good selection of organic fertilizer and pest control products. Plus, it is an independently owned, local company.

And speaking of great local companies, I will be giving a presentation on vegetable garden planning and starting seeds at Stanley's Greenhouse on Saturday, March 2. The public is invited to attend free of charge. I will have copies of The New American Homestead available for purchase. (The book is specially priced at $20, tax included. Cash, checks and all major credit cards are gratefully accepted.)

Cold Soups From the Summer Garden

With summer turning up the heat and the garden bursting with produce and herbs, why not try some cold soup recipes? I thought soup came out of a red and white can until I went to college. It was on a trip to Atlanta, sometime in the early 70s, that I learned to enjoy the most famous cold soup, gazpacho. I have been making it and other cold soups ever since.

Gazpacho has ancient roots. It began as a way to use stale bread, which, when combined with garlic, salt, olive oil and water, could be converted into a stiff paste that would keep a long time. Columbus packed a few barrels of this mixture on his voyages of discovery, for example. The Romans may have added vinegar to the mixture, which probably originated among the wheat-eating cultures of the Middle East during the earliest days of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago. The cucumber, cultivated for at least 3000 years and introduced to Europe by the Greeks or Romans from its native India, became an ingredient at some point, and when Spanish explorers brought back tomatoes and peppers from the New World, these found their way into gazpacho, as well. The "classic" version of gazpacho with tomatoes is generally associated with Andalusia, southern Spain, which includes Gibraltar, the gateway to the Mediterranean. Today, however, gazpacho turns up on restaurant menus with all sorts of non-traditional ingredients, from apples to grilled shrimp. There is even a version that is served hot.

One of my gardening goals is to have all the fresh ingredients needed for gazpacho available in the garden by August. Here is my recipe for a classic-style gazpacho. Keep in mind that all amounts are approximate. The soup will be delicious as long as you maintain the ingredients in roughly the same ratios. The quality of the bread matters. If you don't have some leftovers of really good bread, leave out the crumbs altogether.

Gazpacho is a great way to use all those cherry tomatoes!

Gazpacho Andaluz

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 medium red onion, chopped

3 tablespoons breadcrumbs, from stale country-style bread

1 clove garlic, minced

Juice of 1 lemon

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

A handful of mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, chives, tarragon, chervil) minced

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

3 cups water, tomato juice, chicken stock or vegetable stock

Sour cream

Minced red or yellow bell peppers

Chopped scallions

You can use a food processor to chop the vegetables, but the texture will not be as good as if they are chopped by hand. Combine the chopped vegetables, breadcrumbs, garlic, lemon juice, olice oil, herbs, salt and paprika in a large bowl. Cover the mixture, and place it in the refrigerator to chill. Separately chill the 3 cups of liquid. These components can be held in the refrigerator overnight, if desired.

When ready to serve, combine the vegetable mix with the chilled liquid.   Stir well and serve topped with sour cream, minced peppers and chopped scallions.

This recipe is a variation on traditional gazpacho, in terms of both ingredients and technique. You can find an authentic Andalusian recipe here.

Here's another cold soup, a refreshing starter for a late meal on a hot night.

Uncooked Cold Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

2 cucumbers, peeled and seeded

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, or to taste

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a food processor or by hand, finely chop the cucumbers. Pieces should be 1/4 inch or less in diameter. Combine the chopped cucumber with the other ingredients in a large bowl and chill until very cold. Serve garnished with additional fresh dill, if desired.

Let's conclude with one more cold soup recipe. This one is for gazpacho's cousin, ajoblanco, made with almonds. Although like gazpacho its exact origins are unknown, ajoblanco is thought to have appeared first in Seville. Certainly the almonds, which are native to the Middle East, arrived in Spain with the Moors. Use a kitchen scale to accurately measure the dry ingredients.

Ajoblanco de Granada

Ingredients

3 1/2 ounces raw almonds, blanched and skins removed

1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 ounces breadcrumbs, from stale country-style bread 

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon Spanish olive oil
1 to 2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar
About 1 quart chilled water
Anchovies
Baked potatoes
Butter
Chopped parsley

Grind the blanched almonds with the salt in a food processor until you have a coarse meal. Add the breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil and vinegar and process to a smooth paste. With the motor running, slowly add the water until the soup is the consistency of heavy cream. Chill until very cold.

Serve the soup in chilled bowls, garnished with an anchovy or two. Buttered baked potatoes garnished with parsley are a traditional accompaniment.