prizewinner indeed.

WHOA BABY big zucchini. egads, garden…..

the green grass grows all around all around

Last week all of Carleton’s grass was sprayed by a dude in a gas mask with a pesticide wonder-wand. All the grass except that immediately surrounding Eat the Lawn, that is. So an unintended benefit of the garden has thus been to save that one little slice of turf from the unnecessary, likely expensive, definitely soil/air/water-destructive forces of chemical lawn preservation. Do recall that such chemicals are almost always applied in larger/stronger doses per acre than they are applied to agricultural acreage–so yes, backpack sprayers trump crop dusters. Our lovely fluffy front yards are even more toxic than the industrial corn and soy.

And another thing. Is there anything more obnoxious than a lawnmower shattering the rustling leaves/birds/sunshine of a Sunday afternoon?

the disenchanted asparagus lawn

The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, adopted.

apologies to Mollie Katzen

use quantities to suit your needs:

wild rice

dried cranberries

walnuts, rough chopped and lightly toasted

large onion

many cloves of garlic

feta cheese

asparagus *when in season. substitute with broccoli, cauliflower, or small kale

1.  Make pilaf: saute onions, add garlic, saute wild rice, add cranberries, add enough water, boil til rice is tender.

2. Spread pilaf in a potluck/casserole dish. Sprinkle with feta cheese and toasted walnuts.

3. Blanch preferred/seasonal tree-ish vegetable (asparagus, broccoli). Stand upright in pilaf.

4. Enjoy! …and please veggie-hating children forevermore…

salad thoughts

Confession: unlike what seems to be the vast majority of the population, I do not love salad. In fact, I don’t really like it at all. I think lettuce is a beautiful plant–so many shades of green and red, so many sort of ruffled, speckled, curly, smooth leaves–but I think it is relatively worthless in terms of meal satisfaction. If I’m going to eat salad, I want beautiful lettuce, but I also wan 90% of my bowl to be filled with other things. So then. Some thoughts on salad, as a great portion of Eat The Lawn happens to be perfect for creating a beautiful bowl of more-than-lettuce. And the lettuce is all gone anyway (although we just seeded some newbies in the greenhouse so lettuce lovers have no fear!)

First, the best non-lettuce salad ingredients: grated beets, grated carrot, toasted walnuts, toasted pumpkin seeds, any/every kind of dried fruit, cubes of bread, cubes of toasted bread (aka croutons), nasturtiums*, raw beans*, purslane* (the green/purplish succulent weed), sprouts (make your own!), fresh herbs: basil, dill, mint, lamb’s quarters (soft triangular-leaved weed)*, olives, hard-boiled egg, violas, chunks o tomato, cukes, fresh berries, feta cheese…

* = available in Eat The Lawn

Second, how to make salad great: keep it at 1/3 lettuce, 2/3 other stuff. dress it before you eat it, with GOOD DRESSING (see below). serve it in a glass bowl. celebrate the fact that you are EATING THE RAINBOW.

Third, interesting things to do with normal salad: Chop it all up, even the lettuce. Or arrange all the ingredients in rows or lovely piles on a big platter/plate (a la salade nicoise). Make grain/bean salads (those ideas to come)! Have everyone eat it off the same giant platter (spanish style).

GOOD DRESSING and it’s easy: pour a couple Tbsps of honey and spicy mustard into a small bowl. Whip them up with a fork. Add oil, keep whipping with the fork so it stays creamy, then add vineagar-of-choice (balsamic is great of course) and salt and pepper and any combos of fresh berries or fresh herbs. It’s also fun to do this in a mortar and pestle, starting with raaw cloves of garlic and then adding the herbs, oil and vineagar. Or a schwanky food processor works fine too.

ta-da: More than lettuce!

kale consumption 101

(Kale is abundant in the Eat the Lawn garden on campus at Carleton. To harvest, just twist off the larger outer leaves. Then make this recipe!)

1 large bunch of kale: cut out the veins and chop them. Roll the leaves into a long kale-cigar and then finely slice them ( = kale spaghetti)

1 large onion, halved and sliced thin

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large handful of dried fruit, preferably dried Michigan sweet black cherries

1 large handful walnuts, lightly toasted on the stove or in the oven

olive oil

butter

a lemon

wine

3 Tbsp any 1-2 of the following (fresh): marjoram, summer savory, thyme

1. Saute the sliced onions in about 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp olive oil, on low heat, until they begin to become golden and carmelly. When they do (after about 10 minutes), add the minced garlic. Fry for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the kale spaghetti strips and dried fruit and stir so that they are coated in liquid.

3. Squeeze in the juice from your lemon (both halves) and a couple glugs of any sort of wine, then cover the pan to let the kale steam briefly, only about a minute, until the kale just turns dark green. If you like mushy greens, let it steam longer.

4. Remove the lid, stir in the fresh herbs and toasted walnuts, and voila!

what’s growing

There is a vegetable garden in the middle of Carleton College’s campus. it was planned in my independent study, Growing Public Art, designed collectively with Farm Club members, and planted by every person who picked up a shovel when they walked by this spring.

Here’s what’s growing: genovese basil, red russian kale, all sorts of cherry tomatoes, moon & stars melons, diva cucumbers, many kinds of winter squash, fall-bearing raspberries, marigolds, jewel mix & alaska nasturtiums, pingtung long eggplants, fish peppers, jalapeños, zinnias, mixed sunflowers, bright lights chard, mustard greens, scarlet nantes carrots, detroit dark red beets, chamomile, rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, cilantro, royal burgondy beans, jasmine-scented nicotiana, jester mix chrysanthemums….