The Bountiful Container

I’m happy to announce the fourth printing of McGee & Stuckey’s, The Bountiful Container is now available. This 432 page book is a complete guide growing container gardens of vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers. We’ve included recipes for using your home grown goods. Maggie and I researched soils, containers, fertilizing and every aspect [...]

Tarragon Roasted Chicken

Tarragon is growing by leaps and bounds and the delicate, fresh anise-like flavor pairs beautifully with salads, eggs, fish and chicken. Today we made a simple roast chicken stuffed with tarragon. I picked a small handful of tarragon shoots cutting to the soil line to encourage new growth. As mentioned in earlier posts I grow [...]

Earth Day 2008

April 22nd marks Earth Day, a world celebration of our beautiful planet. With so many shared world concerns let us pause and enjoy what we have. Stop for a moment, get outdoors and look around at the amazing wonder of spring. Plant seeds, set plants and soon you have a garden.
With all the discussion [...]

National Zucchini Bread Day

Surely there is no recent holiday with a more obscure origin. The date is listed as both April 23rd and April 25th. It seems to have no presidential decree or any notable history. It reminds me to use the shredded zucchini frozen last fall. It’s almost time to plant more zucchini! Our current favorite variety [...]

Northwest Flower & Garden Show

We’re heading north to Seattle for the annual Northwest Flower & Garden Show. This year the show runs now through February 24th. http://www.gardenshow.com/ It’s showtime across the country, and it’s the best place to hear speakers, buy new plants and especially in Seattle we always find inspiration from the fabulous show gardens. I’ll be speaking [...]

In My Garden

Suddenly the days are longer, the skies are brighter, and it’s a joy to be in the garden. This week I sowed Cascadia Snap Pea seeds in a straw bale. Legume inoculant will provide all the nitrogen they need. Gardeners in the Pacific Northwest once had to plant peas in January to get a crop [...]

From Edible to Incredible - Photos

Take a glance through these eight images by Australian photographer Carl Warner on BBC news. These imaginative foodscapes are all made of foods we eat. Amazing, creative work sure to open your eyes a bit wider and make you smile.

Unsweetened Pumpkin Tart - “Citrouillat”

It was in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook that I first encountered a very old recipe for a savory, unsweetened pumpkin pie. While this tart contains a bit of butter it’s far less rich than Ms. Toklas’s with a cup of heavy cream and rich crust.
Last night we cooked a magnificent 8# Queensland squash and [...]

Is This Really “Organic”?

Today, I read that “organic” made it onto a list of over used words. This product called “The Batter Blaster” bills itself as organic, certified by the USDA. Packaged in an aerosol can that serves eight, this seems like the over packaging that is exactly opposite to the resource conserving spirit of the organic [...]

Christmas Menu 2007

The Christmas menu changes a bit every year but over time ours has evolved to everyone having the opportunity to make what they like with a little attention to balance. This means vegetables and some dishes not too full of butter, cheese or sugar. When my sister said she wanted winter squash, I knew this [...]

High Omega-3 Pumpkin Cupcakes

Each cupcake contains two grams of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids from canola oil, flax seed, squash, and walnuts. Eggs may or may not be high in Omega-3’s depending on how the hens are fed. A good reason for free range hens to have a mixed diet that’s high in greens.
I developed this recipe after [...]

Salad Greens & Edible Flowers

As we move into cooler weather I see our salad garden is a bit uneven. We have lots of greens for cooking, mesclun, racdiccio and arugula but sometimes I begin to crave a crunchy salad that’s packed with flavor and color. So I broke down and purchased some lovely local Romaine lettuce. The garden pantry [...]

Tarragon Beet Salad

Today I made “essence of tarragon”. To do this, cut the plants back, carefully rinse the foliage, spin or shake away excess moisture and strip leaves from the stem. Pack the leaves into a jar and cover with hot white wine vinegar or rice vinegar. I store this in a cool pantry and that’s it. [...]

Stuffed Pumpkin “Smiling Jack”

Tomorrow is Halloween and we have a porch full of squash and pumpkins. We’ll be offering trick-or-treaters mini pumpkins along with candy.
Stuffing
1 5 to 7 pound pumpkin
1 # Country “breakfast sausage”, ground turkey, or
crumbled veggie burger
1 large onion, diced
1 cup long grain brown rice
1 3/4 cups water or stock
2 cups chopped kale or mixed greens, [...]

Fire Roasted Peppers

Last Saturday at our Corvallis Farmers Market many of us were following our noses to a special attraction, flame roasted chiles. A metal mesh roaster was full of peppers turning over a propane flame. The vendor, from Crossroad’s Farm, was filling plastic bags with chiles all carefully labeled.
 

The beauty of a tumbler roaster is [...]

Soup au Pistou, a Vegetable Soup Recipe

Soup with Pistou is a fragrant mixture of herbs and vegetables which originates from Provence France. In my mind it is an” end of the garden” soup, with a few basic ingredients and then a little of this and that is incorporated. It’s always served with a large dollop of Pistou. The Italians have Pesto [...]

Those Terrifying Thai Peppers

Some days begin with a good chuckle. This morning I opened BBC news and read about a terrorist alert in London. You can go to this url for the full story:Burning chilli sparks terror fear. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7025782.stm [...]

Broccoli & Aphids

I’ve had several questions come to our Nichols Garden Nursery website asking what to do about aphids on broccoli, kale and other cole crops. The critters gather in the crevices and are not always removed with a stream of water. Insecticidal soap prepared according to the recipe on thecontainer works for plants growing in the [...]

Papalo or Summer Cilantro

Papaloquelite, Porophyllum ruderale known as papalo or summer cilantro, is a Mexican and Central American herb. The leaves have a warm pungency like cilantro with a hint of citrus and a more powerful flavor. I recommend using about 1/3 as much papalo as cilantro when preparing salsa and then adjust flavor to your taste. In [...]

Queensland Squash Scones

This recipe originates from Queensland Australia. Sir Joh and Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen were a tireless and colorful part of this regions history. He served as premier of Queensland for many years. Her constant support advanced his career. She was known for baking and serving these tasty and most economical scones that are based on Queensland [...]

Blogging Again

It seems I forgot to do something this summer. Caught up in gardening, harvesting, guests, travel and cooking my blog has been sadly neglected. We still are bringing in trays of produce and pleased to have discovered some new varieties for our 2008 catalog. Our current favorite summer squash is a tossup between the delicious, [...]

Basil & Pesto

It’s time to plant basil when night temperatures are staying above 45 degrees. Put it in too soon and temperature sensitive leaves can blacken and plants become sensitive to fungus like botrytis. Come early to mid-July when soil is warm try sowing directly in the ground for a bumper crop in late summer.
I’m often asked [...]

Chicken Vegetable Curry With Yacon

This Indian style curry includes Yacon. These Andean tubers cook to a tender/crisp translucence and absorb the curry flavors. For a vegetarian dish simply omit the chicken. Serve with rice and a side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumber seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper. Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground [...]

Thai Chicken Curry with Yacon

Thai curries are fast and easy when you use a commercial curry paste. For this recipe I used Mae Ploy brand green curry paste. It comes in a 14 oz. plastic tub. Other ingredients like fresh basil and Kaffir lime leaves are optional but they do provide extra flavor and aroma. Yacon in this recipe [...]

Yacon Carrot Salad with Wasabi

Peeled and cut yacon discolors when exposed to the air. Acidity from citrus or vinegar maintains the white color. When making this salad, prepare the dressing first so you can quickly add the julienned yacon to it and preserve the color. Note my suggestion for using the food processor to speed preparation. As I keep [...]