The Poison Garden

photo courtesy The Alnwick Garden

A while back, a group of preschoolers visited my garden during their afternoon walk. While most of them pointed out butterflies, identified plants they grew in their school garden, or told me what vegetables they liked and hated, one young fellow came over and asked, "Do you have any poisonous plants?"

Kid: if you're a reader of this blog and haven't showed up on any no-fly lists yet, ask your parents to take you to the Alnwick Castle and its gardens the next time you're in northeast England. You might recognize the castle already; it showed up as Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter movies. The Alnwick Garden is even better — quite possibly the coolest castle garden around. It boasts one of the world's largest treehouses, night time light shows, and The Poison Garden, where skull-and-crossbones gates guard over 100 plants of varying deadliness. (And also marijuana.)

The Duchess of Northumberland says on the garden's website, "I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants rather than their ability to kill... I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you ate it and how gruesome and painful the death might be." My kind of lady.

Warm kale salad with roasted butternut squash, parsnips, and caramelized red onions

Recently, someone told me she'd cancelled her CSA box after one too many deliveries of kale and butternut squash. Those of you in similar situations might want to bookmark this warm winter salad. Kale's assertive, slightly bitter flavor can be too much on its own, but provides the perfect balance for the sweetness of roasted winter squash and parsnips, caramelized red onions, and maple-balsamic dressing.

Full recipe at our new site: Plant and Plate.com!

Continue reading Warm kale salad with roasted butternut squash, parsnips, and caramelized red onions on PlantandPlate.com

Growing my own garlic

As I was editing the photos for this post, a friend of mine posted on Facebook about the 25 lbs of garlic he was getting ready to plant. That's about a thousand plants. My garlic patch has maybe three dozen plants. This is the difference between gardening and farming; the difference between growing something for variety and growing it to supply your next year's needs. That, and a few orders of magnitude of labor. 

Still, I'm pleased with my garlic. I've got three different kinds going, and they should be ready for harvest next summer, assuming the squirrels don't dig them all up first. 

November stew

I am generally not a fan of cold, gloomy days. On the other hand, they do provide a good incentive to make stew. Just browning the onions makes the house smell warm and inviting. Plus, if you deglaze the pan with red wine right after you brown the meat and onions, you can pour yourself a glass at the same time and enjoy it while the stew simmers. Just don't forget to stir the pot once in a while.

Now planting: ginger

Every time I visit my dad, I return home with a few choice new vocabulary words and a renewed appreciation for ginger. Mind you, he doesn't put it on everything. It's just that he might put it on anything. In multiple forms, and generous amounts. With excellent results, more often than not. (When they're not excellent, they're at least interesting.) And let me tell you, breakfast porridge wakes you up a lot more quickly when it's been dosed with fresh grated ginger, dried powdered ginger, and candied ginger.

At home, I mostly use fresh ginger. With a ginger grater (or even a fine cheese grater) it's as easy to use as the dried or preserved kind, and I prefer the flavor. I tend to be pretty generous with it — occasionally more than my guests would like, but at least I come by it honestly. Still, I occasionally find myself with unused stumps that sit around long enough to sprout.

This time I decided to plant them. Sure, ginger is readily available at all grocery stores and has a pretty good shelf life. On the other hand, now that I know how much better homegrown potatoes are than store-bought, I'm curious to see how fresh-picked ginger root compares to the store-bought version.

Yes on CA Prop. 37, and Food Policy Action

Yes on CA Prop 37

If you're in California, remember to vote yes on CA Prop 37, which requires that GMO foods be labeled as such. Because no matter where you stand on GMOs in general, consumers should have the right to know what they're buying.

Opponents (lead by Monsanto and DuPont) are putting out a staggering amount of misinformation around this one, so please take a few minutes to review the facts at:  http://www.carighttoknow.org/

Got similar issues on the ballot in your area? Post them in the comments. 

Food Policy Action

For anyone concerned with food policy in the U.S.:www.foodpolicyaction.org makes it easy to see where your senators and representatives stand on food policy issues. The site also covers pending bills, rules, and guidance.

Full disclosure: A friend of mine is a scientist working for EWG, whose president sits on the board of directors of Food Policy Action.

How to avoid eating all the halloween candy

Option 1: Put all the candy in a large zip-lock bag and seal it carefully. Put that one in another zip-lock bag, along with several cups of mayonnaise. Ask yourself if that miniature bar of cheap chocolate is worth getting mayonnaise all over your hands and the furniture and everything. If this doesn't work, use live spiders instead of mayo.

Option 2: Put the candy away where you can't see it and make yourself an apple crisp. It's infinitely more delicious than most halloween candy and substantially less unhealthy, even if you eat the entire crisp yourself.