by Margie Siegal
The tomatoes are a beautiful red, the zucchini is producing nicely and you just can’t stop posting photos of your lettuce on Instagram. The time has come to eat what you worked so hard to grow, and it will be worth the work and the wait. Your back yard produce will be so much more tender and flavorful than what you buy in the store.
When to pick: Gather your produce as close to dinnertime as possible. The exception is zucchini, which will grow baseball bat size if you don’t watch it closely. Pick zucchini when it is the size you want it to be, because tomorrow it will be a lot bigger. Put it in the crisper in the refrigerator in a paper bag and don’t wash it (wet produce rots quickly).
If you are growing lettuce, kale or chard, you don’t have to pick the entire plant. Take not more than 1/3 the leaves, starting at the bottom. Be careful not to damage the growing point at the top.
Cleaning your produce: Equip yourself with a clean bucket and a wire mesh or plastic colander. If you are growing carrots, beets or potatoes, get an old fashioned bristle brush scrubber. It’s best to wash produce outside – that way, any bugs won’t end up in the house and you can use the wash water to water your garden. A salad spinner will quickly dry your greens.
Preparing your vegetables: The important thing to remember is to let the good natural taste shine through. If you are making a salad, add a minimum of dressing. Here is one idea for a fancy salad:
PEAR SALAD
- You need two pears for four people. Peel the pears, cut them in half and core them. Heat a half bottle of red wine (can be Two Buck Chuck) and add the grated rind of an orange, the orange’s juice, the juice of a lemon, 1/4 cup sugar and a good sized pinch of cloves. Simmer the pears in the wine until you can just get a fork through, then remove them with a slotted spoon. [You can strain the wine, and drink it after it is chilled] Let cool (recipe from Simca’s Cuisine, (1972) by Simone Beck).
- Gather enough greens (try adding some baby chard and beet greens if you have them) to make four individual salads. Wash and dry the greens, then tear into pieces and arrange attractively in individual salad bowls. If you want, toss with a small amount of vinaigrette, but if you do, you have to serve the salad immediately – it will get soggy if it sits. Slice the pear ¼ “ thick and arrange on top of the greens. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and blue cheese.
Vinaigrette: The basic salad dressing recipe is ¼ cup good wine or cider vinegar to ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Optional ingredients are basil(minced if fresh), thyme, garlic (minced), a bit of mustard, a little hot sauce or whatever else strikes your fancy. Put the lid on the container and shake it up.
If you go to a fancy grocery store, you will see “haricots verts,” – baby string beans, about a quarter inch wide. They cost an arm and a leg. These gourmet beans are just the regular beans you are growing in your yard, picked when small. The extra cost is due to the extra labor involved.
HARICOTS VERTS (Baby String Beans)
Pick enough small string beans for your family. Cut off the tops and tails. Steam until they are just tender (keep checking, this will not take long!) Meanwhile, melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan and add freshly ground pepper and either diced mushrooms or slivered almonds. Cook either the mushrooms or the almonds in the butter – the mushrooms should be cooked, the almonds should color up a bit. As soon as the beans are done, immediately dump them in the pan, mix gently and serve up.
Recently, people have been doing awful things to poor, innocent kale. They are putting the leaves in a blender and trying to drink raw blended kale. This is an injustice. The purpose of kale is to be gently braised with some olive oil and lots of garlic. Much better that way.
KALE
Wash the leaves, stack them, roll up sideways, then cut into fettuccine (¼ inch wide) crossways.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan (with a lid) big enough to hold all the kale and add minced garlic. How much you add is up to you, but at least one clove. Warm the garlic in the oil and add the kale. It should be pretty wet from when you washed it, but if it isn’t, add a tablespoon of water. Put the lid on the pan, turn down the heat and set a timer for 5 minutes. Then take the lid off the pan, add a good grate of pepper and a little salt, give the contents a stir, and continue to cook with the lid on, checking every five minutes. When the kale is soft, check the seasoning and serve with a good grate of parmesan cheese.