Do it for the crabs

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Maryland Blue Crab,
Photo from chesapeakebay.net

Today I received an invitation to join the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Gardeners for the Bay, and I signed on without hesitation. The population of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs -- the paragon of local food for us Marylanders -- has declined by an astonishing 70 percent since 1990. 70 percent! And that decline is attributed in part to pollution from farms, cities, roads - everything we do to the land that washes away down river.

As a Marylander, I cannot imagine a single summer going by without at least one opportunity to devour a pile of steamed Chesapeake Bay blue crabs; they're a delicacy. And eating blue crabs is really an experience. It's sitting down to table covered with a big sheet of butcher paper; sleeves rolled up; wooden mallet, roll of paper towels, and bucket by one's side. It's the sound of peeling into shell, the scent of sea meets spice, and the exceptional flavor of each sweet little morsel inside. For 10 minutes, its just you and that crab, your devotion punctuated with dips of vinegar and melted butter and gobs of Old Bay Seasoning accumulating on your finger tips. Add ice cold drinks and greasy-fried hush puppies on the side. This is summer in Maryland.

Photo by imageining

Shortly after we moved into our Maryland home almost a year ago, we learned about BayScaping. That's just a fancy term for landscaping set within the context of and for the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay. The concept is simple: plant native species that reduce the need for chemical pesticides and help prevent erosion, thereby keeping the bad stuff out of the Bay.

While I avoid the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides in my garden as it is, it's been a goal of mine to add more native plants. We do, in fact, have plans to tear out the entire front lawn and replace it with perennial flowers, shrubs, and native grasses. We're driven mainly by the desire to have less of a boring lawn to mow, but we also want to do our part for our beloved bay and our favorite crustaceans therein. Our yard is just one little corner of the world, but we can do our part with it, and what we do here does matter downstream. Everything is connected.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed includes portions of six states -- Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware -- and the District of Columbia. So, if you're gardening in one of those places, sign on to Gardeners for the Bay and make an effort to do something in your garden or yard to save this natural treasure. Do it for me. Do it for you. Do it for the crabs.

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Blue crabs -- How you can help
Chesapeake Club -- Learn how to "Save the Crabs, Then Eat 'Em"

How it grows on July 27, 2008

Sunday, July 27, 2008

This is how the garden looks today. We are right now at the pinnacle of the gardening year; the crops planted in the spring are bearing fruit, while the fall plants are just now emerging.

We're enjoying a steady supply of crookneck squash, green and wax beans, peppers, and... the first TOMATOES! On Friday night, we rang in tomato season with a celebratory eating of tomato sandwiches: tomatoes with mozzarella and fresh garden basil, tomatoes on grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomatoes simply sliced and topped with a sprinkling of salt. I can't even put into words how satisfying they tasted.

Our tomatoes aren't perfect; most of them have cracks or holes or blemishes of some sort. But we cut the little imperfections away and enjoy what's on the inside: deeply colored, intensely flavored flesh matched with an unbeatable fragrance that eludes the supermarket counterparts.


Here are a few more scenes from my garden and table...

Green and wax beans

Squash and beans stirred into fettuccine with fresh basil

San Marzanos, now neatly aligned on their vines and still green, are the raw material of choice for our tomato sauce.


We have a cascade of watermelon vines. There are only two plants here of the Crimson Sweet variety and they are growing like mad. Lucky us!

Ready to eat?

This is the healthiest crookneck squash plant I've ever grown. We've eaten 7 good-sized squashes from it so far, and more are setting up.

Sadly, things didn't fare so well for my Lebanese cousa squash plant. That one died a very sad death from not one, not two, but four squash vine borers that decimated its stem. It was so badly mangled; not even my Band-Aid trick could have saved it.

And then we have this one, the mysterious winter squash. I swear I planted an acorn squash in this place, but this doesn't look anything like an acorn squash. It doesn't come to a point on the bottom like acorns usually do. Whatever it is, though, it's growing splendidly. I see 5 squashes on the plant so far.

This morning I transplanted my cauliflower starts. Everything I read about cauliflower indicates it's a temperamental plant that's difficult to grow. That's not going to stop me from trying at least once.

For fall, I've also planted seeds for arugula, carrots, beets, mizuna, tat soi, bok choy, kohlrabi, two kinds of kale, mustards, broccoli raab, radishes, dill, and lettuce. Later I'll put in spinach, garlic, and more arugula. We can't have too much arugula.

Beet Harvest

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Last weekend I pulled my spring crop of beets. There weren't many to speak of, but I did have a few good-sized ones in the bunch. The largest among them were about three inches in diameter.

I baked these in the oven, placing them in an aluminum foil packet with a little olive oil and water to steam them. I thought I would make a beet salad, but I ended up just eating them plain, cold, slipped straight from their skins. Incredibly sweet, they tasted like candy, which is precisely what I love about beets!

In past years, I've left my beets in the ground too long and they turned woody and bitter. This bunch turned out so well that was inspired to scale up my fall crop. I've planted about four times as many beets to harvest by season's end. In our Zone 7, now is the perfect time to sow their seeds.

Kitty was impressed with the beet harvest, too.

Kale Tortilla

Sunday, July 13, 2008

I picked a bunch of my Red Russian kale today and sent it on a culinary excursion to Spain. Here's its transformation into a Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla (following this recipe from Epicurious.com).

I cooked the kale in salted boiling water for 3 minutes, shocked it in cold water, and then chopped it into bite size pieces.

Imagine... a lazy Sunday afternoon with the smell of onions and potatoes cooking in olive oil in an iron skillet... homey-good cooking smells permeating all nooks and crannies of the house. Then add homegrown kale to the picture.


I substituted Egg Beaters for half the recommended 7 eggs, to cut down on the cholesterol. The most challenging part of making this dish was following the last instruction listed on the recipe: "Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes." The wait was agonizing. At the 10 minute mark, I wanted to cheat, lift the cover, and start poking at the tortilla's bubbly edges. It smells so good, can I just take a peak?

Finally... let's eat!

This one's going on my short list of what-to-do-with-kale recipes. Loved it, loved it... Loved. It. Count me among the 95% of Epicurious eaters who said they would make this again. I don't know what the other 5% are thinking.

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Related Post: Russian Kale in Portuguese Soup

5 favorite things

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

My five favorite things in the garden right now are:

#5 - The Foxglove plants delivered from my Mom and Dad, straight from their garden to mine. I planted them in my new shade garden under the Bradford pear tree out back.


#4 - Two Redbud tree seedlings from my aunt. I need to find a place of honor for them.


#3 - Gobs of tomatoes hanging heavy on the vine. (Hurry up and ripen already; I have a basil that's eager to mingle with you!) These are an heirloom variety I'm trying out this year, Black Krim.


#2 - Well, not exactly "in" the garden anymore, but these are the mustard seeds we harvested from the Red Giant mustard greens grown in our garden earlier this spring. And yes, in case you're wondering, we are planning to grind them into, well, mustard. Mustard powder, that is, which is a key ingredient in the spice rub Hubby makes for his rotisserie chicken done up on the grill.

AND...

#1 - Peppers! Peppers! We've got peppers!

The last one is another new-to-me heirloom that I'm testing this year: fish peppers, which are called such because they were typically used in fish cookery in the Chesapeake region years ago - or so I've read. Check out the very interesting variegated foliage. With white and green leaves, and even a spot of purple in parts, they're beautiful plants in and of themselves. And we haven't even tasted the peppers yet. Wheee!