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.

Potatoes

Traditionally, St. Patrick's Day was the day to plant potatoes in East Tennessee. However, this year the day falls on Sunday, and none of my ancestors would have approved of tater planting on the Sabbath.

Thus, today would be the perfect day to plant potatoes. They will be ready to dig anywhere from three to four months from now, depending upon the variety you select.

Some good options for East Tennessee are:

Kennebec--A standard white potato with brown skin, Kennebec is a good keeper.
Red Pontiac--Red-skinned, white-fleshed Red Pontiac is good for potato salad.
Yukon Gold--Yellow-fleshed Yukon Gold is an all-purpose potato that keeps well.
All Blue--The name says it all. Blue potatoes are similar to Russet. They make good bakers and fries.
Irish Cobbler--This old heirloom produces both red- and white-skinned potatoes with excellent flavor.

Buy seed potatoes from a garden center. They will have been certified free of potato viruses that can infect your growing beds if you use potatoes from the grocery store. About five pounds of seed potatoes will produce an abundant harvest from a small space. Potatoes are not picky about soil fertility, so long as the soil is deep and contains lots of organic matter. Cut seed potatoes into chunks, each of which should have two to three eyes. Place the chunks, eyes up, in the bottom of a trench dug three inches deep in the garden bed. Space potatoes 12-18 inches apart.

When the shoots are 6 inches tall, pile compost or soil around them so that just the tips are exposed. When another 6 inches of shoots are visible above the soil, hill them up a second time. Then leave them to grow until you are ready to harvest. Potatoes need an inch of water per week, and should have a side dressing of balanced fertilizer after the second hill-up.

When blooms appear on potatoes, you can steal a few new potatoes from the hill by carefully digging in with your fingers. For storage potatoes, wait until the tops have died and shriveled.

I don't consider potatoes an essential garden product. In spring, if you have limited space you are better off growing spinach, lettuce, green onions, radishes, and miscellaneous leafy greens instead of using the space for potatoes. You will harvest many more servings per square foot.

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.

The Joys of June

Ah! The joys of June are upons us! I speak specifically of green peas, beets and new potatoes, all of which we harvested in abundance last week. Together with plenty of fresh herbs that are also now flourishing in the garden, these fresh veggies have made for some great meals. This week, we share a favorite recipe for each one.

If you don't have these veggies in your garden, visit one of the many area farmer's markets, where you are sure to find them.

Creamless Cream of Pea Soup

This technique vastly reduces the calories in a springtime favorite.

1 cup shelled peas
12 pea pods
1 tablespoon safflower oil
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced celery
2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon leaves, plus additional for garnish
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Drop in the peas and pods. When the water returns to a boil, set a timer for 2 minutes. When the timer sounds, remove the peas and pods from the heat, strain them through a colander, rinse well under cold water and reserve them in two separate bowls.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onions and celery and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent. Add the stock, the rice and the tarragon. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the pea pods and about half the peas and cook three minutes longer. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. Transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and puree. Strain the soup through a sieve and into a clean soup pot. Add the remaining peas, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Heat through. Serve immediately, garnished with more tarragon leaves.

Roasted New Potatoes
This recipe works best if all the potatoes are the same size.

1 pound new potatoes
2 tablespoons bacon drippings (preferably from Benton's bacon)
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Wash the potatoes and remove any damaged or soft spots. Drop the potatoes into a pot of rapidly boiling salted water and cook 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and refresh under cold water. Allow the potatoes to cool enough to handle, then rub off loose peelings.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the bacon drippings in a baking pan and set the pan in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes. When the fat is hot, add the potatoes, shaking the pan to coat them well. Return the pan to the oven and roast, shaking now and then, until the potatoes are golden brown, about half an hour. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the potatoes with the rosemary, salt and pepper, tossing them to coat well. Serve at once.

Flourless Chocolate Beet Cake
For those who claim to dislike beets, we offer this, which we have modified from a recipe given in Vegetables by the late master chef, Charlie Trotter. This is one of the richest chocolate cakes you will ever eat. A food processor makes shredding the beets a breeze. Use a kitchen scale to measure the chocolate and cocoa accurately.

Cherries are also in season now. Serving this with some pitted fresh cherries and a scoop of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream will take it totally over the top.

2 1/2 cups shredded beets (about 10 beets, each an inch and a half in diameter, peeled and trimmed)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
5 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup water
3 ounces dark chocolate chips
3 1/2 ounces baking cocoa
9 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs

In a large saucepan, combine the first three ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Strain the beets through a sieve, return the juice to the saucepan, and reserve the beets in a bowl. Bring the beet juice to a simmer and cook another 30 minutes, or until it coats a spoon. Pour half of this syrup over the beets, saving the remainder for garnishing the plate later.

In another saucepan, bring the 5 tablespoons of sugar and 1/3 cup water to a boil. Add the chocolate and cocoa. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Add the butter and stir until the mixture is uniform. Remove from the heat.

Butter 6 one-cup ramekins. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the remaining sugar and eggs on high speed with an electric mixer until the mixture is light in color. Stop the mixer occasionally and lift the beaters above the mixture. When the eggs run off the beaters in a continuous ribbon, they are ready for the next step. With a spoon, fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs, stirring to produce a uniform mixture. Fold the reserved beets into the batter. Fill the ramekins about 3/4 full of batter. (Do not overfill. Use extra ramekins if you have too much batter.)

Set the filled ramekins on a baking sheet, place in the oven and bake undisturbed for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. As they cool, the cakes will pull away from the sides of the ramekins.

To serve, tap a cake out of a ramekin and onto a plate. Add a dollop of ice cream and/or some fresh fruit, drizzle some of the reserved beet syrup over all, and enjoy.

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.

Out of Hibernation

After a month's hiatus due to family issues, I am back at the keyboard. We had an especially wintry February, but the current week has given us the first taste of 70-degree sunshine, and the vernal equinox is Thursday. The garden looks great, and we have lots of transplants waiting in the wings.

Yesterday we planted peas, transplanted spinach seedlings, and added compost to the bed where potatoes will be planted, on the traditional date, Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day. Appropriately enough, we are planting Irish Cobbler again this year. We will plant some radish seeds here and there, also. Cherry Belle is the variety we have chosen for spring planting. It produces roots about the size of a nickel.

Waiting in the wings are lettuce seedlings of several varieties, leeks about the diameter of a string, and a Greek basil, 'Bush Spicy Globe,' that we plan on keeping in containers.

We have been harvesting lettuce, parsley and cilantro from our windowsill garden, and will be replanting it with lettuce seedlings this week. As more and more crops become possible outdoors, we tend to focus on achieving "perfect" lettuce under the pampering conditions of our indoor garden.

I had the pleasure last Saturday of presenting a talk on spring vegetable gardening, as the guest of Stanley's Greenhouse.  Stanley's is also the sponsor of "Garden Talk," the radio show I co-host with Dr. Sue Hamilton and Andy Pulte. Please join us on Saturday mornings at 8:00 on 94.3 WNFZ-FM.

We have been forcing our Bletilla orchids for early blooms this season. You can find them at these local garden centers:

Stanley's Greenhouse
Ellenburg's Nursery and Landscaping
Mayo Garden Center, Emory Road
Mayo Garden Center, Bearden
Sweet Pea Garden and Gifts, Bearden

Please support your local, independent garden centers!

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

Spring Planting Tips

Tonight the Full Worm Moon will illuminate the landscape, provided the clouds clear out to enable us to see it. Spring arrives officially this Thursday, and, coincidentally, Thursday, March 20 is one month prior to the average frost date (for my location), April 20. Rain began overnight and continues to fall, irrigating our raised beds, now bursting with green onion, leek, shallot and garlic tops from last fall’s planting.

Lettuces that were started in cells trays last week are now up and will soon have true leaves. I am growing them under the LED light I have mentioned previously. I note that the red-leaved varieties color up soon after germination, an indication they are getting plenty of photo-energy.

St. Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 17, marks the traditional time to plant Irish potatoes in East Tennessee. I also find this memory aid helpful in reminding me when to place a sweet potato root into a jar with water, so that I will have slips ready to plant around Memorial Day. Sweet potatoes require heat, so sprout them in the warmest, sunniest spot you can manage indoors. Otherwise, you will be better off to purchase slips, which will appear at better garden centers at the appropriate planting time. Two good bets for the Knoxville area are Mayo Garden Centers (several locations) and Knoxville Seed and Greenhouse Supply (Rutledge Pike).

This week is a good time to plant root crops, according to the traditional practices based on the moon. When the moon is waning, plant vegetables that bear below the ground: beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, radishes, and turnips. Note that Asian radishes are likely to perform better here if fall-planted, but salad radishes seem to do best in spring.

You still have time to transplant cabbage and broccoli, but the window is pretty much closed by the equinox. Spinach, also, will soon not have time enough to mature before the weather gets hot.

If you have not planted asparagus, you should get roots in the ground by the equinox, also. Otherwise, you may find the stock at the garden center has already begun to sprout. Not a good thing, because if you break one of those tender shoots, you rob your plants of vitality needed to establish a healthy root system. Good roots are crucial to productivity during the second season of growth. If you already have an established asparagus bed, now is the time to apply a balanced organic fertilizer, topped with an inch or so of good compost or composted manure, such as Black Kow™. Top that with an inch of mulch, such as straw, pine needles, or shredded bark. Doing so now gives the nutrients time to be decomposed by soil bacteria, making them available to the asparagus plants when they begin sprouting a few weeks hence.

Don’t forget to tune in to 94.3, WNFZ, Knoxville, for “Garden Talk,” every Saturday morning at 8:00 AM. I’ll be there to talk about vegetable gardening and other topics with Dr. Sue and Andy the Garden Guy. Our sponsors are Stanley's Greenhouse and Ellenburg's Nursery. Visit your local, independent garden center for plants, supplies and good advice!