Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist? [Survival Today

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Kohlrabi: A Great-tasting, Great-looking Green

Plants & Gardens News Volume 13, Number 1 | Spring 1998
by Renee Shepherd

When I was a little girl in suburban Cleveland, visits to my grandmother’s wonderful garden were a highlight of summer. After I surveyed all the plants, I always helped my grandmother pull up a bunch of plump kohlrabi for a snack. While I watched with anticipation, she would carefully peel the round tubers, then slice them up in thick, juicy rounds that kept me munching all afternoon.

Now that I’m a grown-up gardener, I continue the tradition and grow both violet and green varieties of kohlrabi. I plant them in a pretty mosaic pattern and then stand back to enjoy visitors’ reactions to the eye-catching shape of this unusual vegetable. Kohlrabi plants form tubers, actually edible swollen stems, just above the ground that are shaped like tennis balls. They are green or deep violet-purple depending on the variety, with ruffled foliage that looks like broccoli leaves growing out of the tuber’s tops and sides. Many friends gaze in amazement when they first see my kohlrabi bed. Neighborhood kids call it my “flying saucer” vegetable. But to anyone with a Slavic or Asian background, kohlrabi is a familiar sight—mention the name and they’ll likely lick their lips because they know how tasty these eccentric-looking plants are.
kohlrabi

Kohlrabi’s name is a combination of the German words for cabbage and turnip, but to me, the flavor of the juicy, crisp flesh is sweeter than that of its cousins—a cross between apples and very mild baby turnips. Elizabeth Schneider, in her classic Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables, describes kohlrabi as tasting “like the freshest, crunchiest broccoli stems, touched with a hint of radish and cucumber.”

The origin of kohlrabi is a matter of debate—some plant historians date it back to the Roman Empire; others claim it was developed from the mallow cabbage in the 16th century. Although its antecedents are obscure, kohlrabi today is a staple throughout Asia and Eastern Europe. In the USA, it is harder to find, but becoming increasingly popular.

Kohlrabi is a reliable ornamental edible to grow in cool spring weather and again in fall when summer heat tapers off. The tasty tubers and leaves are good sources of vitamins C and A, calcium, potassium, and fiber. And weight-watchers will be happy to hear they are low in calories, about 40 per cup. Like all brassicas, kohlrabi is claimed to be a potent anti-cancer vegetable. The biennial plants are very quick to mature, ready to harvest in just 60 to 70 days. Newer hybrids offer much more vigorous plants that grow rapidly and produce big, crunchy tubers without the pithy or stringy qualities that plagued older kohlrabi cultivars.

Growing kohlrabi is easy and rewarding. It needs a rich soil, preferring a neutral to slightly acid pH. Prepare your garden bed for planting with lots of well-aged manure or compost. While you can grow a fine crop of kohlrabi by direct sowing, I prefer to set out seedlings started indoors from seeds no more than five to six weeks before the last expected frost date. I find that healthy, sturdy transplants are better able to survive slugs or snails and unexpected inclement weather.

To start kohlrabi indoors, sow seeds about 1/2 inch deep and an inch apart in a container of seed-starting mix. Keep evenly moist and provide good light. Germination takes 10 to 14 days and seedlings thrive in 65- to 75-degree conditions. When well established with at least one strong set of true leaves, thin seedlings to three or four inches apart or transplant them to deeper containers. Keep evenly watered and feed every 10 days with half-strength liquid fertilizer. As soon as outside temperatures reach 50 degrees, acclimate seedlings to outdoor conditions for four or five days protected from direct sun, then plant in the garden about six to eight inches apart and water well. Don’t wait too long before transplanting your young seedlings—stressed or root-bound kohlrabi will not produce good tubers. In the garden, keep plants well weeded and evenly watered. Feed every three weeks or so with a balanced liquid fertilizer or fish emulsion solution. Plant a second crop of kohlrabi once summer heat diminishes. You can start the seeds in a container outdoors in light shade, then plant seedlings in the garden, shading them until established.

Kohlrabi is not prone to pest problems, but to totally avoid predators, I usually cover the seedlings after transplanting with floating light- and water-permeable row covers. I remove them when plants are established and beginning to form baby tubers. Limit disease potential by planting kohlrabi and all its brassica relatives in three-year rotations.

I begin to harvest kohlrabi when they reach two to three inches in diameter. Cut the root an inch below the tubers. Trim the leaves to cook separately and store the tubers in the crisper of your refrigerator. They will keep for at least three weeks. I still enjoy kohlrabi sliced up raw best of all, but the leaves and tubers are great cooked, too. For greens, cut and discard the leaf stems, then drop the leaves into boiling water. Cook until just tender. Then heat olive oil in a skillet. Add garlic and sauté briefly. Toss in the kohlrabi leaves and cook a few minutes more.

Kohlrabi’s flesh cooks up to tender sweetness. Remove the outer skins and slice to sauté slowly in butter, or steam the unpeeled tubers whole, then peel and cut up. Traditionally, cooked kohlrabi is served in a rich, delectable cream sauce with nutmeg. Or stir-fry kohlrabi with carrots and scallions. Unpeeled, trimmed kohlrabi tubers can also be baked in the oven; pair with herbs or aromatics.

In planting kohlrabi, look for the newer hybrids rather than the older ‘Purple Vienna’ and ‘Green Vienna’, which tend to get pithy and tough with size. Choice green-skinned varieties include ‘Grand Duke’, ‘Eder’, ‘Komet’, ‘Express’, and the heirloom ‘Superschmelz’. Violet varieties I like to grow include ‘Kolibri’ and ‘Rapid’. The violet varieties have dark skins and leaves, and pale flesh. If you garden with a child, it’s fun to plant a bed of green kohlrabi interplanted with purple in the shape of their first name. Or, simply alternate rows of green and purple plants.

However you choose to plant this curious vegetable, it’s sure to be an eye-catcher in your garden and a hit at your dinner table. You can’t get a better combination than that!

Kohlrabi Sauté

* 4 medium kohlrabi tubers
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons chopped
* fresh parsley
* salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
* 2 tablespoons fresh low-fat
* sour cream

Peel the outer skin from the kohlrabi, then coarsely grate tubers. In a skillet heat butter and olive oil. Add garlic, onion, and kohlrabi and sauté, stirring until kohlrabi is tender-crisp. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Season with salt and fresh pepper to taste. Add sour cream, and serve hot.

Serves 4 to 6.

A pioneer in the plant world, Renee Shepherd is the founder and former owner of Shepherd’s Seeds, which she sold in 1996. Two years ago she started Renee’s Garden, a company that specializes in gourmet vegetable, country garden, and herb seeds “by gardeners for gardeners.” She’s also a popular garden industry speaker, the co-author of two books, Recipes from a Kitchen Garden and More Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, and an educator who has taught environmental studies and sustainable agriculture at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Renee’s Garden seeds can be purchased on-line at www.garden.com, or call toll-free, (888) 881-7228, for the retailer nearest you.

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Bok Choy: Avoiding Confusion at the Asian Market
Plants & Gardens News Volume 12, Number 4 | Winter 1997
by Stephen K-M. Tim

“And what did you do in New York?” “We ate in Chinatown.”

Ask any out-of-towner what he or she wants to do when visiting the Big Apple, and chances are that dinner in the city’s Asian hub will be high on the list. Why? Good question. Especially if you eavesdrop on a group of tourists as they snake their way between the serious shoppers (the ones with the multiple plastic bags, bulging with citrus and green leaves) in the crowded markets of Chinatown.

Our out-of-town friends’ visit to Chinatown bears great similarity to their stop at the Guggenheim—to look, to point, to pass comment. In Chinatown, the bins lining every thoroughfare are the novelty, mounded with edible fare of every description—none bearing any resemblance to items they’d buy at their local Stop and Shop. To the tourist who’d find a head of fennel unusual, the wall-to-wall stalls must give the impression of a Martian marketplace. Little wonder that puzzled faces are commonplace: “Heavens, Emily, what are those long, pink root-things?”

The shopkeeper is usually not much help either. “Lotus,” he or she booms, seeing the finger aimed at the bin that clearly announces the contents in very plain Cantonese. “From China.” Heads would really turn if the out-of-town shopper replied: “Four pounds, please!”

Then there are the bunches of what must be vegetables since they are green. The mystery items are examined—”Now what would you do with that?”—and guesses ventured as to their purpose: the vase, gout, or the pot.

Durian fruits elicit special attention. They are the football-sized, viciously spiky objects guarded by a sign that warns: DON’T TOUCH. You may think this most considerate of the store, protecting its customers from impalement, but it’s actually to prevent them from bruising the fruits.

The love/hate relationship with the durian bears telling. The odor of this fruit has been described as a mixture of onions, old cheese, and turpentine or, more picturesquely, as a “custard passed through a sewer.” So penetrating is the odor that the fruits are forbidden from being eaten aboard airlines, the result, perhaps, of an interchange between a pilot and an air-control tower: “We request emergency landing. We have a durian on board.”

The reaction to the store windows festooned with hanging ducks and chickens, beautifully browned, is equally fascinating. The heads, still attached to the birds, serve as the conversation piece and the factor that inhibits most tourists from savoring these delectable items.

So, how come the universal memorable experience of a visit to New York is the Chinatown meal, which rarely includes the real delicacies like sea cucumber, periwinkles, and water convolvulus? Maybe because good ol’ won ton soup and those egg rolls are reminders of home!
Baby Bok Choy

Here’s how to prepare bok choy (or broccoli) with taste, texture, and health in mind.

4 cups baby bok choy
1 medium-sized tomato, skinned and coarsely chopped
1 medium-sized onion, diced
2 slices fresh ginger
2 or more cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp. sugar
olive oil

Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large pan. Brown ginger lightly. (Ginger is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.)

Add the onions (medium heat) until just transparent. Add garlic. Do not burn. (Garlic lowers blood pressure and cholesterol and reduces the clotting tendency of blood.)

Add tomato and sugar. (Sugar tempers the acidity in tomatoes. Lycopene in tomatoes may reduce the risk of cancer.)

Add bok choy (a source of fiber) and a dash of hot water. Blend ingredients, cooking until soft but not mushy.

Stephen K-M. Tim is the late Vice President for Science, Library, and Publications at BBG.

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Cooking With Borage

Plants & Gardens News | Volume 22, Number 1 | Spring 2007
by Scott D. Appell

The leaves and floures of Borrage... make men and women glad and merry, driving away all sadness, dulnesse, and melancholy.
—John Gerard
General Historie of Plantes (1597)
Borage

Borage (Borago officinalis) is a sturdy annual with dark green leaves and cymes of blue, white, or pink blossoms.

I have a clear memory of the first time I served my family my homegrown cucumber-and-borage-blossom salad. They looked at me—dare I say sheepishly—as if I’d set a plate of fodder down in front of them. “Don’t flowers harbor bugs and organisms?” one parent inquired. With a mind-set like that, it’s a wonder my sister and I were conceived in the first place.

An old-fashioned herb native to the Mediterranean region and central Europe, borage (Borago officinalis) makes a wonderful addition to the culinary garden. It is one of the foolproof edible plants, growing with ease and abandon in any spot with full sun and average soil. And it’s delightfully tasty and versatile in the kitchen.

A sturdy annual plant, borage is covered all over with stiff, fairly prickly white hairs. Its round, hollow, generously branching stems grow between one and two feet tall and produce large, oval dark green leaves with pointed tips. Cymes of pretty star-shaped bright blue (sometimes white or pink) blossoms sit atop the plant throughout the summer.

Borage lends its name to its taxonomic family, the Boraginaceae, which includes such familiar cousins as comfreys (Symphytum), lungworts (Pulmonaria), alkanets (Anchusa), and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). As to the origins of the name itself, theories abound. Some say it derives from the Latin word borra, meaning “rough hair”—a reference to the plant’s hirsute stems and leaves. Others believe the name is linked to the Celtic word borrach, meaning “courage,” and refers to the plant’s curative properties.

The specific epithet, officinalis, translates roughly to “of the apothecaries” and is a direct reference to the historical importance of the plant in herbal medicine. Since ancient times, borage has been employed as a diuretic, diaphoretic (fever reducer), and anti-inflammatory. It was also thought to impart comfort and courage and—in the words of famed 16th-century English botanist John Gerard—”increase the joy of the minde.”

Two cultivars are available to gardeners. Borago officinalis ‘Alba’ is white-flowered and comes true about 50 percent of the time when allowed to self-seed. The other strain, B. officinalis ‘Variegata’, is very hard to find but worth the legwork. It produces yellow-mottled leaves (which add a nice touch to salads) and blue flowers.

Borage requires little more than full sun in a moist but well-drained soil. Seeds are widely available from mail-order nurseries and should be planted in situ in March and covered with two inches of soil. (Because of its long taproot, borage doesn’t react well to transplanting.) Germination is quick, and even young seedlings are easily recognizable by their fuzzy foliage. Borage adapts well to containers and window boxes and even does fine indoors in south- or southwest-facing windows.

The fresh leaves of borage have a mild cucumber taste and may be added to salads, used as a potherb, or brewed into tea. They are also great cut up in cream cheese or added to yogurt. (Don’t be nervous about “prickles”; once in the mouth, the leaf hairs quickly dissolve.) The flowers are delicious eaten raw in salads. (Yes, they are, Mom!) They can also be preserved, candied, or used fresh as edible garnishes. The blossoms yield a whitish honey with a mild herbal flavor much appreciated by apiarists.

The dried stems are used to flavor a number of alcoholic beverages, including the British mixed cocktail Pimm’s No. 1 Cup. In Spain, the succulent petioles (leaf stalks) are parboiled and fried in batter.

A Platter of “Weeds”

This recipe emulates a typical Mediterranean dish of cooked wild greens, but in this case we are using cultivated plants.

* 2 big handfuls of tender borage leaves
* 1 clove garlic (finely minced)
* 1 red cayenne pepper (seeded and minced)
* 2 big handfuls of mixed greens, featuring some or all of the following: young comfrey leaves, Shirley poppy leaves (gathered before the plant blossoms and soaked several hours in ice water), chard, beet greens, escarole, dandelion, leafy (nonheading) radicchio, chicory, arugula, purslane, garden sorrel, clary sage, flat-leafed parsley, ferny fennel foliage, orach, watercress
* 3 tablespoons of high-quality olive oil
* Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Chop the greens into manageable mouthfuls and thoroughly wash in cold water. Toss them into a pan of salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drain and refresh under the cold tap. Drain them well.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until hot, add the greens, and toss to coat. Add the garlic, cayenne, ground pepper, and sea salt, and cook until tender. Serve with a grated sharp cheese and good crusty bread.

Serves two people.

Scott D. Appell writes, gardens, and teaches horticulture in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

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Cilician Parsley—The Story of a Lost Cuisine

Plants & Gardens News Volume 17, Number 1 | Spring 2002
by William Woys Weaver

At first glance, Cilician parsley is easily recognizable as parsley. Yet it is different, clearly different, in its delicate leaf—so suggestive of a maidenhair fern. The aroma of the bruised leaves is intense, even sweet; the fragrance is almost overwhelming. This is a plant that prefers shady glens or moist locations exposed only to the early-morning sun. It is not like the robust flat-leafed variety of Italy (Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum), which often waxes bitter in the baking Mediterranean sun. This is a woodsy plant, a delicate ingredient in the cookery of a bygone age when piquant green sauces reigned supreme on the tables of medieval kings, and when parsley was first among all other green vegetables, not the afterthought garnish it has evolved into today.

The medieval context is important. Picture, if you will, a dainty Yuan Dynasty celedon bowl brimming with rich, fragrant green puree, a sauce verte, food for knights, still hot from a nearby brazier. A genteel hand, delicately poised, spears a small grilled pheasant sausage with a finely wrought two-tined fork, dusts the meat with poudre d’ermenesque (ground cumin and fenugreek), then plunges it into the sauce. The very act of disturbing the puree releases aromas redolent of the golden sweet wine used to temper it. What heavenly sauce is so intense that its aroma still rises above the musty pages of history long forgotten? A sauce composed of Cilician parsley.
Cilician Parsley

Cilician parsley

As philosophers through the ages have reminded us over and over, it is the small things that survive longest. Cilician parsley is a living embodiment of this aphorism, for it is a direct lineal descendant of a lost kingdom, of a forgotten cuisine, of a taste-memory that lives on in the hearts of a people long since dispersed from the setting where my imaginary meal took place. Not surprisingly, the plot to this story is also somewhat convoluted.

Cilicia was a tiny medieval kingdom on the coast of Armenia. It existed from 1198 until 1375 and was a vassal state of both the Holy Roman Empire and of Rome. But the Cilician parsley I grow did not come to me from Armenia. In fact, the parsley has not been cultivated there for a very long time. The path of its arrival to my Pennsylvania garden is much more roundabout. The original seed was brought to the United States in 1965 by a Cypriot from Kyreneia (northern Cyprus), who settled in the Greek community in Astoria, New York. Since then, the parsley has been grown in gardens in and around Astoria as a cherished reminder of the homeland and of a rich culinary heritage blending many strands drawn from the eastern Mediterranean.

The Cypriot obtained his seed from a relative in Templos, a village established in the Middle Ages near Kyreneia by the Templars (and from whom the feudal village took its name). In the early 1300s, the village passed to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. A choice estate, Templos became one of the important commanderies of the order, and as such, a center of intensive and highly innovative agricultural activity. The Order of St. John, which owned properties and hospices (auberges) all over medieval Europe, was responsible for introducing many Near Eastern foods into European gardens, among them eggplants, spinach, romaine lettuces, and cauliflower (the “Cypriot cabbage” of old).
Finding Seed

At the moment, Cilician parsley is not available from any commercial outlet. The best way for gardeners to get hold of seed is through seed-saving organizations like Seed Savers Exchange (3076 North Winn Road, Decorah, IA 52101; 319-382-5990). Mary Burns at Heirloom Gardens (13889 Dupree Worthey Rd., Harvest, AL 35749; 256-233-4422) is growing the plant and should have seed for sale by the end of this summer.

Templos also faces the sea. On the opposite coast lies Asia Minor and more specifically, Cilicia. Culturally and politically, Cilicia was intermeshed with the kingdom of Cyprus, with which it shared the greatest portion of its commerce. This commerce, as well as intermarriage between Cilician and Cypriot nobles, provides a historical backdrop for Cilician parsley and offers a possible explanation of how it happened to end up on Cypriot soil. It is well documented that Cilician grapes were planted in Cypriot vineyards, so an exchange of other plants is entirely plausible.

Though the parsley could have arrived in Cyprus at a much earlier or even a much later time, in oral tradition it has always been associated with the golden age of aristocratic cookery (both Cypriot and Armenian) and highly prized for its refined taste. Oral history, of course, offers no firm evidence of a connection, yet here it is supported to a degree by the fact that the genetic origin of all parsley is now thought to be that very same region of Asia Minor once occupied by the Cilician kingdom.

Cilician parsley has one more journey to make—toward a precise scientific nomenclature. Taxonomically speaking, we have yet to determine, probably through molecular analysis, whether the plant is a landrace (an ancient cultivar), a subspecies (a population that evolved in the wild), or something else. For now it’s certainly safe to call it just Petroselinum crispum, but I prefer to use the common name, with its wonderful Old World resonance.

The region formerly known as Cilicia has seen many man-made upheavals over time. Today it is a haunting landscape dotted with ruined castles, churches, and manor houses, a silent testimony to the Greek, Armenian, and Syrian gardeners who centuries ago filled that once-rich land with opulent produce. If the term “heirloom vegetable” were ever in need of a concrete example, there is no better one than Cilician parsley, a tenacious survivor with a flavor that recalls a lost civilization and an ancient cuisine.

William Woys Weaver is a food historian, author, and contributing editor of Gourmet Magazine. His many books include Heirloom Vegetable Gardening and 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From.

Illustration: Paul Harwood

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Sweet Rewards
by Lee Reich

The crispness of the autumn apple, the buttery smoothness of the persimmon, the mellow flavor of a ripe blueberry or pear and the piquant flavor of a currant or strawberry.... Just think of the range in textures and flavors of fruits, Mother Nature’s original desserts.

Full flavor in any fruit is achieved only when that fruit is grown well, then harvested at the right moment—and the way to experience that rich flavor is to grow the fruit yourself. Although commercial fruits must be picked while they’re still underripe to be firm enough to survive the rigors of shipping and storage, plums you grow yourself can hang on the tree until they’re bursting with ambrosial juice. And no need to pluck that blackberry until its final moments of ripening, when a mere touch stains your fingers. Fortunately, such blackberries need travel no farther than arm’s length—to your mouth.

Planting your own fruit trees and bushes is an expression of freedom, the freedom to choose, for example, which from among the 5,000 or so varieties of apples suits your fancy. There’s a slew of fruit varieties, even kinds of fruits, that you rarely, if ever, find in markets. What Liberty Hyde Bailey, the doyen of American horticulture, wrote almost 100 years ago about apples could apply equally well to all fruits: “Why do we need so many different kinds of apples? Because there are so many different kinds of folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate tastes. If he wants 20 or 40 kinds of apples for his personal use, running from ‘Early Harvest’ to ‘Roxbury Russet’, he should be afforded the privilege....There is merit in variety itself. It provides more points of contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony.”

Fruit growing in America underwent a dramatic change just after the middle of the 19th century. More Americans began planting the best European varieties of apples, peaches and pears, rather than relying on seedling trees whose fruits were fit only to feed hogs or to ferment into beverages. At the same time, interest developed in American varieties of these traditional European fruits-apple varieties such as ‘Esopus Spitzenberg’, ‘Newtown Pippin’ and ‘Winesap’, for example—as well as in native American fruits such as persimmons, pawpaws and juneberries.

I believe that we are now entering a new era in fruit growing, an era fueled by the desire for old-fashioned flavor and the joy of cultivating plants. Many people also grow their own fruits to limit the amount of pesticides in their foods, which is possible with backyard fruits because those that you grow yourself need not meet the stringent cosmetic standards demanded in commercial markets.

This handbook is for you, the backyard fruit grower, who might not plant an orchard, but might have just one row of dwarf fruit trees, perhaps a currant hedge enclosing the vegetable garden, a grape vine clambering up an arbor to shade a terrace or a stately cherry tree in the lawn.

Within these pages, you will find enough information to get you started in growing fruits of temperate zones or to expand your horizons—in knowledge or plants. Individual chapters are not meant to be encyclopedic, but rather to reflect the enthusiasm and biases of the authors, all of whom have extensive experience with the fruits about which they write.

Fruit growing can be a challenge, but if you plan ahead and then closely observe your plants as they grow, the challenge can be rewarding, both to your mind and your tongue. After a quarter century of studying and growing fruits, I am still making “adjustments” to my fruit garden, digging up plants whose fruits did not meet my expectations or that I overplanted, and setting promising new plants in their places. When my garden has yielded an overabundance of fruits, I am reminded of the words of Andrew Marvell, written over 300 years ago:

What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and exquisite peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Overabundance has been the result of poor planning on my part; but what a sweet learning experience.

Lee Reich is devoted to fruits both as a vocation and avocation. He earned his doctorate in Horticulture at the University of Maryland, and since retiring from fruit research at Cornell University has been a horticultural consultant and writer. In addition to magazine and newspaper articles, his books include Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention (1991), A Northeast Gardener’s Year (1992) and The Joy of Pruning (1996). He also has an extensive planting of backyard fruits—both common and uncommon varieties.

Getting Started: Fruit Garden Basics
by Lee Reich

If you plan your fruit garden carefully, and tailor your plant selections to your site and needs, you’ll find growing fruits rewarding and enjoyable. The first and most important rule in garden planning is to choose fruits you love to eat. But don’t be afraid to experiment and try new varieties of familiar and unfamiliar fruits. No matter what you grow, you will be pleased with the different—and superior—flavor of home-grown fruits.
Pollination

Once you’ve made a list of the fruits you’d like to grow, find out whether they require “cross-pollination,” or fertilization with pollen from a different plant of the same species in order to produce fruit. If you have chosen a fruit that needs cross-pollination, but lack space for two plants, don’t despair: your neighbor might be growing a suitable pollinator, or you could put a pollinating bouquet, kept fresh in a bucket of water, near your plant-or you even could graft a single pollinator branch onto your plant.

Plants that do not need cross-pollination are “self-fruitful” (sometimes called “self-fertile”), and can fruit in isolation. Some plants will even bear fruit without any pollination whatsoever-either with their own pollen or that of another plant. As with self-fruitful plants, you can grow just one of these plants, and their fruits will be seedless.
Spacing & Yields

The next factors to consider are how much of each fruit you will want to eat and how the plants fit into your garden. Plants need adequate spacing not only to make harvest easier, but because crowded branches tend to get less light, water or nutrients. You’ll need to know the planting distances and approximate yields of the various mature fruit plants you want to grow. Note that dwarf trees listed bear full-sized fruits.
Site & Soil

For all their differences in geographical and botanical origins, fruit plants are remarkably similar in their site and soil needs. The ideal site for most fruits is bathed in gentle, drying breezes and full sunlight (at least six hours per day of direct summer sun), and offers some shelter from frigid winter winds. Avoid low-lying areas, where cold air collects in spring and can subject early blossoms to killing frosts.

Don’t let a less-than-ideal site discourage you from growing fruit, though. If your site is adequate but not perfect, you should still reap some harvest, albeit a smaller one. Tailor the fruits that you plan to grow to the microclimates in your yard. You might plant late-blooming medlars in that frost pocket, for instance, heat-loving peaches against a south wall, or shade-tolerant currants in the dappled light beneath a locust tree.

Wherever your site, you can alter the soil itself to suit fruit plants. Most of them thrive in a well-drained soil that is rich in humus and moderately fertile. Your first consideration is adequate drainage, which you can determine by digging a test hole and filling it with water. If your soil drains well, the water will be gone within 12 hours. If the soil is poorly drained, install ditches or underground perforated pipe to carry water off to a lower location, or else plant your fruits atop wide mounds of soil.

Abundant amounts of organic materials, such as compost and rotted leaves, hasten drainage in clay soils if mixed into the top 12 inches. While digging the soil, also mix in ground limestone or sulfur to raise or lower the soil pH, if needed.

In fact, organic materials are beneficial for all soils. They keep soil biologically active, hold moisture and air and buffer acidity. Once you have planted, continue to enrich the soil with organic materials by laying them on the surface as mulches. Mulches protect roots from hot sun, slow evaporation of water and smother weeds; leaching and earthworm activity gradually work these materials down through the soil. Replenish mulch whenever bare ground is beginning to show.

For many fruit plants, the mulch, especially if it is a nutrient-rich material such as straw-rich manure, provides all the nutrients needed. But keep an eye on growth. If leaves lack a vibrant green color or show burning at their edges, supplemental fertilizer might be necessary. Nitrogen is the most evanescent of soil nutrients, and a general rule is to spread 0.2 pounds per 100 square feet (the same area as the spread of the plant’s leafy canopy). The actual amount of fertilizer to use depends on the percentage of nitrogen it contains, so if you have a fertilizer that contains 7 percent nitrogen, use it at the rate of three pounds (0.2 pounds divided by .07) per 100 square feet.
Training & Pruning

Annual pruning is a must for most fruit trees, bushes and vines, beginning right when they are planted, so that the plant’s branches are always bathed in sun and air and are sturdy enough to support bountiful yields.

Fruit trees are trained to one of two basic forms. The central-leader tree is shaped like a Christmas tree, with a single main stem—the central leader-off which grow progressively shorter scaffold limbs. The open-center tree is shaped like a vase, with three or four scaffold limbs growing upward and outward atop a short trunk.

A nursery tree is usually sold as a “whip,” which is just a single stem, or as a “feathered tree,” which is a single stem with side branches. Right after planting, cut back the whip by a quarter to a third to stimulate growth of side branches, some of which will become scaffold limbs. As the tree grows, select as scaffold limbs the basic structural branches of the tree, side branches that originate in a spiral fashion around the leader and are at least six inches apart. Remove all other growth as soon as you notice it. If there is a wide angle between a scaffold limb and the leader, the attachment between the two will be stronger, so select wide-angled scaffolds. You can also widen the angle by weighing down the scaffold branch or by wedging a piece of wood between the limb and the leader. The feathered tree already has side branches, so save ones that meet the above criteria and remove the rest.

After this initial shaping of the tree, your pruning technique will depend on the form of tree you desire. In the central-leader tree, growth from the top bud becomes a continuation of the central leader. In subsequent seasons, shorten the leader, as if it were a whip, to keep new scaffold limbs developing and the central leader growing. Choose three or four vigorous limbs as main scaffold branches for an open-center tree, then shorten each of them after a season of growth in order to get them to branch. In subsequent seasons, remove any branches crowding too close to the trunk along a scaffold branch, and shorten any limbs that you want to branch more.

Train a fruiting vine to have a permanent trunk and, perhaps, one or more permanent horizontal extensions called cordons. Temporary fruiting arms grow off the trunk or the cordon(s). When you plant, begin developing the trunk by cutting back all stems except the sturdiest one. Tie the stem as it grows to some sort of support, pinching back any side shoots that attempt to grow along its length or from the ground, except, of course, side shoots destined to become either fruiting arms or cordons.

Fruit bushes do not need training because none of their stems are permanent; over the years they are renewed by young sprouts from ground level.

As fruit plants-trees, vines or shrubs-attain maturity, prune them each year in order to keep them within bounds and open to light and air, to thin out excess fruits and to stimulate enough new growth for the coming season’s fruit. Tailor your pruning to suit the growth and fruiting habit of each plant.

Lee Reich is devoted to fruits both as a vocation and avocation. He earned his doctorate in Horticulture at the University of Maryland, and since retiring from fruit research at Cornell University has been a horticultural consultant and writer. In addition to magazine and newspaper articles, his books include Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention (1991), A Northeast Gardener’s Year (1992) and The Joy of Pruning (1996). He also has an extensive planting of backyard fruits—both common and uncommon varieties.

The first link goes with my last post....granny

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/fruit/2.html

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/fruit/13.html

Fruit Trees

Nursery Sources

Brittingham Plant Farms
P.O. Box 2538
Salisbury, MD 21802
410-742-1594

Burnt Ridge Nursery
432 Burnt Ridge Rd.
Onalaska, WA 98570
206-985-2873

Degrandchamp’s Blueberry Farm
15576 77th St.
South Haven, MI 49090
616-637-3915

Edible Landscaping
P.O. Box 77
Afton, VA 22920
800-524-4156

Fedco Trees
P.O. Box 520
Waterville, ME 04903
207-873-7333

Fowler Garden Center & Nurseries
525 Fowler Rd.
Newcastle, CA 95658
916-645-8191

Harmony Farm Supply
P.O. Box 460
Graton, CA 95444
707-823-9125

Hartmann’s Plantation
P.O. Box E
310 60th St.
Grand Junction, MI 49056
616-252-4281

Hidden Springs Nursery
170 Hidden Springs Ln.
Cookeville, TN 38501
931-268-2592

Johnson Nursery
Rte. 5, Box 29J
Ellijay, GA 30540
706-276-3187

Lawson’s Nursery
2730 Yellow Creek Rd.
Ball Ground, GA 30107
770-893-2141

Louisiana Nursery
Rte. 7, Box 43
Opelousas, LA 70570
318-948-3696

Mellinger’s
2310 West South Range Rd.
North Lima, OH 44452
216-549-9861

North Star Gardens
2124 University Ave W.
St. Paul, MN 55114-1838
612-227-9842

Northwoods Nursery
27635 S. Oglesby Rd.
Canby, OR 97013
877-353-4028

Nourse Farms Inc
41 River Road
South Deerfield, MA 01373
413-665-2658

Oregon Exotic Rare Fruit Nursery
1065 Messenger Rd.
Grants Pass, OR 97527
503-846-7578

Plumtree Nursery
387 Springtown Rd.
New Paltz, NY 12561
914-255-0417

Raintree Nursery
391 Butts Rd.
Morton, WA 98356
360-496-6400

Rocky Meadow Orchard & Nursery
360 Rocky Meadow NW
New Salisbury, IN 47161
812-347-2213

Southmeadow Fruit Gardens
Cleveland Ave. 10603
Baroda, MI 49116
616-422-2411

Stark Brothers
P.O. Box 10
Louisiana, MO 63353-0010
314-754-5511

Tripple Brook Farm
37 Middle Rd.
Southampton, MA 01073
413-527-4626

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/2001su_fruitcouture.html

Fruit Couture—Edible Plants that Look Great in the Garden

Plants & Gardens News Volume 16, Number 2 | Summer 2001
by Scott D. Appell

In an age when space is at a premium, who can afford to cultivate the separate flower, herb, and vegetable gardens of old? Forced to make do with the less-than-capacious confines of the typical urban or suburban setting, many gardeners are combining the three into an American version of the French potager fleuri.

Improved cooking skills, elevated gastronomic sensibilities, and increased knowledge of plant material have led to the coinage of a new adjective: “hortoculinary.” I don’t know many people who use it, but it seems like a good catchphrase for a horticultural aesthetic that views our food plants not only in terms of their nutritional value, but also for their decorative appeal.

Following is a selection of exciting cultivars of some common food plants that, in my opinion, are as pleasing to the eye as they are tasty to eat.

Stylish Solanums
arbor

The Nightshade Family, Solanaceae, includes some of the most agriculturally important yet exquisitely fruited plants on the planet. Perhaps the most familiar of these edible plants are the ornamental cultivars of the pepper, Capsicum annuum. They are available in a wide variety of shapes and colors, from the blue- to red-, conical-fruited ‘Filus Blue’, to ‘Starburst’, which bears long peppers that turn from pale yellow to orange and finally red. ‘Tri-fetti’ is a very striking ornamental pepper with variegated green, white, and purple foliage, and small purple fruits that turn red when ripe. Remember that in this case the word “ornamental” doesn’t mean “innocuous”—these peppers are infernally hot, comparable to Jalapenos and Scotch Bonnets. Use them in salsas, sauces, and moles.

The common bell pepper has achieved new artistic heights as well. ‘Ariane Hybrid’ produces gorgeous blocky orange fruit. ‘Chocolate Beauty Hybrid’, as the name implies, bears chocolate-colored peppers that are incredibly sweet and delicious. ‘Bianca Hybrid’ is known for its premium quality ivory-hued bell peppers.

In the same plant clan, the familiar eggplant, Solanum melongena, should also be seen in a new light. It presents pale lavender nodding flowers, which are followed by decorous fruit. The cultivar ‘Easter Egg’ bears three pure white egg-shaped fruits; ‘Violette Firenze’, an Italian cultivar, produces large pale-violet eggplants striped with purple.

Even tomatoes, Lycopersicon esculentum, can be incorporated into an attractive utilitarian garden. Select smaller-sized cultivars that don’t need unsightly staking, such as ‘Fargo’, with its 2-inch golden-yellow plum-shaped fruit, or ‘Orange Pixie’ (18 inches tall!), which produces 1 1/4-inch orange tomatoes.

From the mountains of the Andes comes Solanum muricatum, the pepino dulce or melon pear. Growing up to 3 feet high, it has leaves up to 6 inches long and bears 3/4-inch, bright blue flowers and oval, 5-inch, purple-striped yellow fruit, with a fine melon fragrance and flavor. Melon pears should be chilled before serving and are best eaten fresh. The plant needs a long, frost-free season to mature fruit—northern gardeners might grow it as a container plant and bring it inside in the fall. Cages are required for support. Seeds for the cultivars ‘Miski Prolific’, ‘Temptation’, and ‘Toma’ are currently available.

Belle of the Berries

Strawberries have reached a new aesthetic zenith. Introduced in 1989, Fragaria ‘Pink Panda’ is familiar to most gardeners. The first pink ever-blooming strawberry (actually a Potentilla/Fragaria hybrid), hardy to USDA Zone 3, it was a breakthrough in its time, but the fruit is rather dry and sporadic (clever chefs can use them in ice creams and semi-freddi). A far better recent development is F. ‘Viva Rosa’. A French introduction, this continuously blooming cultivar has larger pink flowers and good-sized, well-flavored fruits that can be eaten out of hand.

Few gourmands realize that their beloved alpine strawberry has a variegated twin, Fragaria vesca ‘Variegata’. This comely counterpart has white-margined foliage and comestible fruit. It is a perfect groundcover or edging plant and is hardy to USDA Zone 4.

Fragaria x ananassa ‘Variegata’ is a bi-colored cultivar of our commercial strawberry, and fares quite well in alkaline soils. It succeeds in full sun or light shade and well-drained ground. It may revert to plain green if the site is too fertile. Be sure to use the attractive foliage of these varieties as garnishes for strawberry mousses, bavarians, and junkets.

Most gardeners relish raspberries and blackberries for pastries and desserts, while confining their errant brambles to the wayward, unsightly berry patch. However, several exceptional, beautifully flowered, delectably fruited Rubus selections are now available. Hardy to USDA Zone 5, ‘Helen’, ‘Sylvan’, and ‘Veronique’ don’t have any thorns. They produce attractive pink flowers and tasty blackberries. When intelligently pruned, and kept under control with the help of rustic cages and hand-hewn wattle fencing, they are quite worthy of the border.

Rubus fruticosa ‘Variegata’ has neatly white-margined foliage with pink stems and petioles (leaf stalks), as well as clusters of good-quality blackberries. Light shade in areas with hot summer climes helps prevent sunburn. Average pH and fertile, well-drained soil is desirable. Try to avoid windy areas that are subject to early spring frosts.

R. spectabilis ‘Olympic Double’ is the double-flowering form of our native salmonberry. Hardy to USDA Zone 6, it produces fully or semi-double cerise flowers followed by early salmon-colored fruit. Fresh fruit tarts or macedoines show off their color to the fullest.

Flavorful Fuchsias

Most American gardeners are unaware that fuchsia berries are luscious. In fact, because we are instructed by gardening manuals to remove the spent flowers of these floriferous favorites, few people have seen or tasted the green, red, or dark purple, 1/2- to 3/4-inch juicy, slightly acid, refreshing fruit. They are best eaten out of hand and served with clotted or whipped cream, but make fabulous fresh fruit tarts, too. Species such as Fuchsia splendens, F. corymbifolia, and F. venusta produce large fruit, abundant enough to be worth harvesting. F. procumbens or trailing fuchsia is a terrific small shrub with heart-shaped foliage, purple-tipped chartreuse flowers, and delicious, 1/2-inch, red fruits.

Single-flowered fuchsia cultivars are more fruitive (upright selections are best for bedding out) than the double and semi-doubles. Fuchsias prefer compost-rich, well-drained soil and a site with good air circulation. They will not tolerate high summer heat, drought, or high humidity—preferring cooler, less humid conditions. Most are hardy to USDA Zones 8 to 10. Colder temperatures kill the stems back to the ground. With extensive winter mulching, Fuchsia magellanica is root hardy to USDA Zone 6. Although the fruit of this species is less appetizing than that of others, cultivars ‘Globosa’ and ‘Tresco’ are heavy producers of sweet, succulent, slightly peppery berries.

A Very Fine Vine

Gardeners requiring an exquisite flowering vine (which produces large quantities of perfumed fruit) to cover a pergola, gazebo, arbor, or length of perimeter fencing, must consider our native hardy passion vine, Passiflora incarnata. Commonly known as maypops or apricot vine, it is the hardiest of all the passion flowers—known to survive in protected locations as far north as USDA Zone 5. They die back to their large fleshy roots every autumn. The lovely, sweet-scented, white to lilac or mauve flowers are followed in late summer by 2 1/2-inch lime-green to yellow fruit. These are best eaten fresh or made into conserves, granitas, or sorbets. Passion vines tolerate surprisingly lean soils, but demand a well-drained site. A sunny location with average soil pH is satisfactory.

Nursery Sources:

Tomato Growers Supply Company
P.O. Box 2237
Fort Myers, FL 33902
Phone: (888) 478-7333

Seeds: peppers and tomatoes
The Cook’s Garden
P.O. Box 535
Londonderry, VT 05148
Phone: (800) 457-9703

Seeds: eggplant
Oregon Exotics Nursery
1065 Messinger Road
Grants Pass, OR 97527
Phone: (541) 846-7578

Seeds: pepino dulce
Heronswood Nursery
7530 NE 288th Street
Kingston, WA 98346
Phone: (360) 297-4172

Seeds: strawberries,
blackberries, and fuchsias

Although Scott D. Appell hasn’t had much chance to cultivate tomatoes and blackberries since moving to a Manhattan apartment, he still describes his outlook as “fruitopian.” He has grown a wonderful array of citrus cultivars at home (you can find these oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and kumquats profiled in the BBG handbook Indoor Landscaping, which Scott edited last year). He’s also grown pineapple, yams, and sugar cane as houseplants.

Scott is no stranger to BBG publications. Currently, he is editing the fall 2001 installment of our 21st-Century Gardening Series, a handbook on container gardening entitled The Potted Garden.

Scott is Director of Education for the Horticultural Society of New York and a member of the Publications Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He is the author of three books, Pansies, Tulips, and Lilies, all published by Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. Scott has a private consulting company called The Green Man and can be contacted by phone at (212) 966-4745 or by email: hortny@aol.com

>>>>(Although 900 acres for 2.2M by CA standards is pretty cheap!<<<<<

Gee my adopted one... You would be hard pressed to find land much cheaper - $2.2M/900Ac.=$2,444 per acre.

Of course there are other considerations like water, topography, salinity, location, etc. etc. If it weren’t for the abysmal political environment in California, it might be doable - without that, you might be able to subdivide to more manageable tracts, but then there would probably be a three spotted hyperniated angiodactrus warbler that once perched on a branch there and was observed, so we nasty humanoids are forever barred from disturbing a single blade of grass on the whole acreage in case it wants to come back sometime.

I still can’t get my mind to accept some property values around here... Farm to my East was bought about 1950 for $3,800 which was $50 an acre - everyone thought he was nuts and that $20 an acre was more in line. Well, they are selling 1/2 acre lots off in the back section of it for $98,000 now and those along the mill pond for $198,000 and up. (They don’t even say how much up is...) Even now, there are three houses under construction there.

At those prices, maybe I should sell out and retire - - - Oh, that’s right, I already am retired.......

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/2002fa_garlicmustard.html

Garlic Mustard—A Palatable Pest
Plants & Gardens News Volume 17, Number 4 | Winter 2002
by Niall Dunne

At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, it’s usually our policy to discourage people from harvesting wild plants for their garden or kitchen. Irresponsible collecting or foraging can degrade wild plant communities, so we generally recommend the use of nursery-propagated or farm-grown material instead.

However, in the case of certain plants—namely invasive exotic weeds—we do make an exception. Indeed, we actively encourage you to get out there and harvest with a vengeance. You won’t just be doing the environment a favor; some of these exotics are actually edible, taste great, and can add an interesting dimension to your meals.

One species we’d like to see culled to oblivion is garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Native to Europe, this cool-season biennial is wreaking havoc on deciduous forests from New England west to Wisconsin and south to Tennessee. First introduced here as a winter potherb in colonial times, it is gradually displacing many native woodland wildflower populations. The damage isn’t confined to disturbed habitat, as it is with many other invasives; this plant spreads readily through healthy forestland as well.
Garlic mustard, basal rosette.

Garlic mustard, basal rosette.

Garlic mustard is not an unattractive plant. In the first year of its life cycle, it develops a ground-hugging rosette of toothed, kidney-shaped leaves that persist through the winter in most regions. In its second year, the plant sends up one or two flower stalks, this time with toothed, triangular leaves. Growing from one to four feet high, these stalks produce numerous white blossoms in May that eventually develop into elongated seedpods.

A number of factors contribute to garlic mustard’s success as a weed. Since there’s no winter dieback, the plant gets a head start over the competition. It thrives in partial shade and moist soil but seems to tolerate sunny conditions as well. It’s also a prolific seeder. And it has no natural enemies (though we hope that’ll change once you’ve read this article).

Garlic mustard is not difficult to find or identify. As well as being a scourge in woodland areas, it’s a common roadside and garden weed. The winter rosette of green makes it easy to spot, and its spring flowers have four distinct slender petals each, a characteristic of members of the Brassicaceae or mustard family. Probably the most distinguishing feature, however, is the scent the leaves give off when crushed. It is, as you’ve probably figured out already, somewhat akin to garlic, with a little onion thrown in for good measure.

It’s no mystery why settlers thought to bring this particular herb with them to the New World—it was something fresh to flavor their soups and stews with during the cold, drab winter months. Both the roots and leaves of the plant are edible.

But the culinary potential for garlic mustard shouldn’t be limited to its Old World uses. Think delicious winter invasive-plant salads, mouth-watering invasive-plant omelets, or perfectly cooked pastas infused with invasive-plant pesto (see “Garlic Mustard Pesto,” below, for more details).

The New York Invasive Plants Council, a coalition of public and private organizations dedicated to controlling invasive species, lists garlic mustard among the top 20 problem weeds in the state. The group recently started its own campaign to get more mouths munching on the plant.

If you take a look down the top-20 list, published on the council’s web site, you’ll also find Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), which causes major problems in native wetland ecosystems. But guess what? This plant’s edible too. Its early-spring shoots taste like rhubarb and can be used in a similar fashion.

Knotweed shoots are even tastier than rhubarb, according to Steve “Wildman” Brill, author of The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, who has concocted such tantalizing confections as apple-and-knotweed pie, knotweed sherbet, and strawberry-knotweed cobbler.

There you have it, folks: invasive-plant dinner and dessert. Bon appétit!

Garlic Mustard Pesto

* 4 cloves garlic, peeled
* 3 tablespoons garlic mustard taproots
* 3/4 cups parsley
* 1 cup garlic mustard leaves
* 1 cup basil
* 1 1/2 cups low-sodium olives, pitted
* 2 cups walnuts
* 1 cup pine nuts
* 1/2 cup mellow miso
* 1 1/4 cups olive oil or as needed

Chop the garlic and garlic mustard roots in a food processor. Add the parsley, garlic mustard leaves, and basil and chop. Add the nuts and chop coarsely. Add the olive oil and miso and process until you’ve created a coarse paste. Makes 4 cups.

Recipe reprinted with permission from The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, by Steve Brill (Harvard Common Press, 2002). The book is available in stores or can be purchased on Steve Brill’s web site. For more information, call Steve at 914-835-2153.

Niall Dunne is the associate editor of Plants & Gardens News.

Photo courtesy Dan Tenaglia, www.missouriplants.com

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/gourmetherbs/3.html

[live links at url]

Colors, Scents, Contours, and Contrasts: Designing an Herb Garden

by Gwen Barclay and Madalene Hill

* Herb Garden History
* Plan Ahead
* The Dirt on Soil
* Formal Designs
* Informal Plantings
* Combining Herbs

Herb Garden History

Mention herbs and many people think of medieval monastery gardens. In most of these gardens monks planted neat, individual beds of small vegetables and fruits, always making sure to include medicinal herbs, so important to them in their healing arts. The early monastic herb garden design probably served as the basis for the classic potager of Europe, and especially France, a utilitarian garden of vegetables and kitchen herbs. Its name is derived from potage, the French word for thick soup, a primary food in the Middle Ages. The monks’ approach is well suited to a collection of herbs today, provided you have enough space for individual beds devoted to a solid planting of a single herb.
culinary herbs and edible flowers

By tucking culinary herbs and edible flowers in among the chards, carrots, and squashes, gardeners with small plots can create a lush and fragrant landscape.
Photo: David Cavagnaro

But it is the traditional four-square design, favored for cloistered gardens at large churches, that has become the standard for modern herb gardens. Sometimes called the four-quarter or quadripartite motif, its origin is shrouded in the dim mists of antiquity. This simple ancient design has long been imbued with the rich religious and literary symbolism of the number four. The four beds originally represented the four rivers of paradise as described in the bible and later came to symbolize the four elements—fire, water, air, and earth. The Botanical Garden at the University of Padua, Italy (1543) uses the motif in a circular form.

Following European explorations in the 16th and 17th centuries, the four beds came to represent the four continents known at the time—Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

The basic quadripartite geometric configuration, interpreted as squares, rectangles, circles, or triangles, with the center often marked by a pool or water fountain, has remained popular throughout garden history because it is pleasing to the eye, easy to maintain, and readily adapted to garden spaces of any size.

But gardeners in the new millennium needn’t be bound by tradition. In many gardens today, culinary herbs and colorful, edible flowers are arranged artistically in the vegetable garden among the carrots, beans, and tomatoes. The popular cottage garden design enables people with small lots to create a lush, informal landscape that’s perfect for the soft colors and textures of herbs—with the heavenly fragrance thrown in as a bonus. You can also tuck herbs in among the shrubs and flowering plants in Border beds or grow them alongside a walkway or even the garage wall.
Plan Ahead

It is always wise to begin garden planning with an accurate drawing of the site, especially if you envision much actual construction. Drawing a picture of all the available space may help you arrive at unexpected design solutions. Take into account the architecture of the house, existing trees and shrubs, and the topography of the site. Consider the available sunlight and air circulation. Ideally, you want to incorporate a structure that can help frame or enclose the garden, such as a garage, summerhouse, greenhouse, or barn. Divide large spaces into smaller sections and add pathways to provide access for maintenance and harvesting. Finally, be sure the garden is located where you can enjoy it as much as possible in each season of the year.

Madalene Hill and her daughter, Gwen Barclay, wrote Southern Herb Growing, (Shearer Publishing) and their work has appeared in The Houston Post’s Houston at Home magazine, The Herb Companion, The Herb Quarterly, Neil Sperry’s Gardens, Texas Gardener, and several other publications. Madalene Hill is past president of The Herb Society of America. Gwen Barclay chaired both the Society’s South Texas and Pioneer units. Together they were instrumental in the formation of the Texas Herb Growers & Marketers Association; Gwen served as its organizational chairman and first president for three years, and is now director of food service for the Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas.

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/gourmetherbs/3d.html

Colors, Scents, Contours, and Contrasts: Designing an Herb Garden
Combining Herbs

If you are planning a new garden area, make a wish list of plants you would like to grow, noting each plant’s sun and moisture requirements and growth habit—including height and width at maturity. First-time gardeners often do not allow enough room for perennial plants to develop to their full potential. Some herbs eventually tower at several feet, while others remain low and creep along the ground. For the first few years you can fill in any gaps with annual herbs and flowers while the perennial herbs put down good foundation roots and get ready for expansion.

As in any garden, plants in an herb garden should be arranged in aesthetically pleasing combinations. Contrast rounded and soft plants with stiff and spiky growth—and take full advantage of the many shades of gray and green foliage. Bear in mind, though, that some herbs require more frequent watering than others: moisture-lovers, such as all varieties of basil, mints, lemon balm, monardas, nepetas, parsley, and tansy, should not be grouped with drought-tolerant sages, thymes, lavender, rosemary, and oregano, which all like drier feet. Also, beware of exuberant herbs, which can take over a garden, crowding out less aggressive varieties. It’s a good idea, for example, to grow all species of mint in large containers, and never more than one variety to a pot! Herbs such as Artemisia ludoviciana ‘Silver King’ and many monardas also deserve a wide berth in the garden and ruthless control.

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/gourmetherbs/2b.html

Southern Europe: Bruschetta

This popular Italian appetizer from Tuscany is so good that you may want to double the recipe and forget about a main course. The bread can be toasted in the oven, or you can toast it outdoors over a gas or charcoal grill. To taste its best, bruschetta must be made with high-quality bread and olive oil, and with vine-ripened tomatoes.

For the flavored oil:

* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 2 tsp. finely chopped oregano

For the topping:

* 6-8 fresh plum tomatoes, or 2-3 large tomatoes
* 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
* 1 Tbsp. olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* salt and pepper to taste
* 12 slices Italian bread

To make the flavored oil:

In a glass bowl, combine oil, basil, garlic, and oregano; cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours.
To make the topping:

Chop tomatoes and place in a glass bowl. Add basil, oil, garlic, and salt and pepper and let stand at room temperature about 1 hour. Pour off liquid before using.
To prepare the bruschetta:

Brush bread with flavored oil. Toast bread on both sides until golden. Serve hot with topping. Serves 4-6.

NORTH AFRICA: Chickpea & Lentil Soup

Peas and beans are the mainstay of hearty soups in North Africa, including this one. The secret of this simple recipe lies in the herbs and spices and in the quality of the chicken stock. If the word chickpea is unfamiliar, you probably know this legume as garbanzo bean, its other common name.

* 2 Tbsp. olive oil
* 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 6 cups chicken stock
* 1 cup dried lentils
* 1 cup canned chickpeas, not drained
* 1 tsp. cumin
* 2-3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh mint
* 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
* 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
* zest of 1/2 lemon, finely chopped
* 1 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
* salt and pepper to taste
* lemon wedges for garnish

In a heavy saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil over medium heat until the onion turns golden. Add lentils and stock, lemon zest, and a generous pinch of freshly ground pepper and simmer, uncovered, over low heat until lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. Add chickpeas, cumin, mint, and parsley, and cook for 10 minutes longer. Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice and cilantro. Add salt to taste, garnish with lemon wedges, and serve.

Serves 6.

SOUTHEAST ASIA: Saté

A saté, or satay, is a popular Southeast Asian dish of skewered, grilled meat that is traditionally served with a peanut dipping sauce. The marinade in this recipe—every region in the area has its own version—comes from Indonesia and can be used with chicken, beef, lamb, or pork. The word saté comes from the Javanese verb meaning “to stick.”

* 4 shallots, chopped
* 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
* 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
* 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
* 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
* 4 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 tsp. coriander
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1 pound meat (chicken, beef, lamb, or pork) cut in cubes

In a glass bowl, combine the oil, shallots, soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, garlic, coriander, and salt, and mix well. Pour over the meat cubes and cover; let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Thread the meat cubes on bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water and grill over high heat until meat is thoroughly cooked. Serve with peanut sauce. Serves 2-4.

Peanut sauce

* 2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
* 2 serrano or jalapeño chiles, seeded and finely chopped
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 3 scallions, finely chopped (including tops)
* 1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
* 1/3 cup coconut milk
* 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
* 1 Tbsp. lime juice
* 3 tsp. brown sugar

Combine the ginger, chiles, garlic, scallions, peanut butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a small pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add more coconut milk if the sauce is too thick to pour. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve at room temperature.

THE AMERICAS: Arroz Verde

Arroz verde, or green rice, is a visual treat from the Puebla region of Mexico. This recipe comes from Karen Hursh Graber, a native New Yorker who maintains a web site crammed with recipes and information about Mexican cuisine (www.mexconnect.com), as well as a great guide to the herbs and spices used south of the class=”border”r.

* 1 cup raw rice
* 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
* 3 small or 2 large poblano chiles, roasted, seeded, and peeled
* 1/2 medium onion, chopped
* 2-3 sprigs fresh parsley
* 2-3 sprigs fresh epazote
* 2-3 cloves garlic
* 2-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
* 1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen peas (optional)

Soak the rice in hot water for 15 minutes, then rinse in a strainer under running water. Drain rice and let dry.

Purée the chiles, onion, garlic, parsley, epazote with 1/2 cup of the broth in a blender or food processor.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add rice and sauté it, stirring frequently, until golden. Add the purée, mixing well; add the remaining 2 cups of broth. Cover and simmer over low heat until all the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat and add peas. Salt to taste.

Serves 6.

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/gourmetherbs/2a.html#southamerica

A Taste of Europe

Many North Americans are most familiar with the herbs and spices popular in European kitchens. Thyme, tarragon, oregano, marjoram, parsley, sage, basil, bay, garlic, and rosemary are common in French and southern European cooking. A bouquet garni, which is nothing more than sprigs of thyme, bay, and parsley tied together, is de rigueur in countless French stews and other dishes. Fines herbes, equal amounts of fresh chopped chervil, chives, parsley, and tarragon, is used in soups, stews, meat dishes, and more, and so is herbes de Provence, a mix of equal parts dried basil, fennel seed, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, sage, summer savory, and thyme.
Different varieties of basil

Different varieties of basil (Ocimum basilicum) [Photo: David Cavagnaro]

In Italy, oregano, basil, and garlic are a near-holy trinity, commonly used in both fresh and cooked dishes. Spain and Portugal use fewer herbs than most of their Mediterranean neighbors, but no one should take a trip to Spain without sampling paella, the traditional rice and seafood dish that is seasoned with saffron. Or leave Portugal or Madeira without having tasted espetada, beef kebabs flavored with bay, or laurel.

In Northern and Eastern Europe, dill, mint, parsley, caraway, thyme, horseradish, sorrel, fennel, and paprika are everyday ingredients—as well as garlic, that ubiquitous kitchen herb. Dilled horseradish-mustard sauce is popular in many regional cuisines in this area of the world, served with cold meats, fish, hard-boiled eggs, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Garlic is the predominant flavor in tarator, a cold Bulgarian soup made from cucumbers, ground walnuts, and yogurt, while the Russian cucumber soup rassolnik is made with fennel. Beet soup, or borscht, is traditionally flavored with dill, parsley, and lovage; Romania’s traditional clear-broth soup, known as chorbe, depends on lovage for its tang but may also contain dill, parsley, coriander, chives, and garlic. New potatoes dressed with dill are a popular dish in Finland. Dill is everyday fare in many Scandinavian dishes—in fact, the word dill comes from the Old Norse dilla, which means “to lull to sleep.”

RECIPE: Bruschetta
North African and Middle Eastern Flavoring

Europe has lost some of its glamour as the culinary Mecca these days. With the shrinking of the globe through international travel and advances in communication, food lovers have developed a zest for the cuisines of other parts of the world, such as North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. So, empty your bottles of herbes de Provence and refill them with dukka, an Egyptian spice blend of sesame seeds, roasted chickpeas, coriander, cumin, and mint, or with garam masala, a blend from northern India that includes cinnamon, bay, cumin, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

Middle Eastern kitchens use a wide variety of flavorings, perhaps a reflection of the many cultures that call the region home. The emphasis is on spices, aniseed, allspice, caraway, cardamom, cassia, coriander, clove, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, ginger root, nutmeg, saffron, sumac, and more. Basil, cilantro, garlic, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme are commonly used fresh herbs. Hilbeh, a Yemeni sauce, derives its flavor from fenugreek and coriander; harissa, a tongue-searing sauce from Tunisia, contains garlic, caraway, cumin, coriander, and mint as well as chile peppers. Falafel, the popular Middle Eastern street food made of puréed chickpeas, is seasoned with garlic, parsley, coriander, and cumin, shaped into small patties, and fried in hot oil.

Garlic is probably the most common flavoring in Greek and Turkish foods, essential to the olive-based sauces skorthalia (Greece) and tarator (Turkey). Garlic and mint are used to flavor the familiar cucumber-yogurt dish, which is called tzatziki in Greece, and çaçik in Turkey. In the more moderate climate of Greece, dill, marjoram, oregano, and mint are widely grown and used; in Turkey, spices tend to predominate, especially allspice, cumin, and cinnamon.
Cilantro

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) [Photo: David Cavagnaro]

In North Africa, saffron, cumin, paprika, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cassia, mace, chiles, nutmeg, and garlic are standard fare. Moroccan cooks purée cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, and saffron with lemon juice and olive oil to make chermoula, a sauce well-matched with grilled chicken or fish; la kama, a mixture of ginger, cumin, nutmeg, turmeric, and black pepper, is used to flavor stews and soups. Couscous, the North African dish that is now a common offering at deli counters, is typically made with coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric.

Couscous looks like a grain but it’s actually a type of pasta. Pasta and grain dishes are very common throughout the world. Rice is used in India to make pilau or pilaf, which is flavored with a five-spice mixture (cumin, black cumin, mustard, fennel, and fenugreek) called panch phora. Jollof, a pilaf-like dish from West Africa, can be made with cloves, cumin, garlic, ginger, mint, paprika, thyme, or other herbs and spices. In Indonesia, nasi kuning, a yellow-rice dish prepared to mark happy occasions, uses lemon grass, turmeric, and salam leaves.

In Iran, even simple rice dishes such as chelow are prepared with saffron, while in Mexico you may encounter green rice, arroz verde, made with chiles, parsley, epazote, and garlic.

RECIPE: Chickpea & Lentil Soup
Southeast Asian Flavorings
Lemon grass

Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) [Photo: David Cavagnaro]

Garlic is an essential ingredient in many Thai recipes, as are chile peppers (prik nam som, or chiles in rice vinegar, is a well-known condiment); tamarind, zedoary, lemon grass, ginger, basil, cilantro, and mint are also common ingredients. Thai chefs often mix a half-dozen herbs and spices with coconut milk to produce complex flavors in curry dishes. Vietnamese cuisine is distinguished by the very large amounts of herbs used, especially dill, lemon grass, cilantro, mint, and basil. Pho bo, a beef-and-noodle soup that is eaten any time of day, is served with lime wedges and generous bowls of fresh herbs, including chiles, cilantro, mint, and basil. Com hung giang, a spicy Vietnamese rice dish containing shrimp, is flavored with lemon grass, garlic, chile peppers, scallions, onions, Vietnamese fish sauce, and shallots, and garnished with cilantro.

Even an abridged list of spices and herbs used everyday in Indonesian cooking is impressive: Cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, curry leaf (Murraya koenigii), chiles, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, nutmeg, and turmeric are the names most of us know. Less familiar—or completely unfamiliar—are kenchur root, laos root, and tamarind. A typical dish is a vegetable soup made with coconut milk and flavored with garlic, ginger, chiles, lemon grass, and turmeric. Tamarind, which has a sour, fruity flavor, is also used in the Philippines, as are garlic, chiles, star anise, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, rosemary, and dill.

RECIPE: Saté
A Taste of India, China, and Japan

Indians use almost as many herbs and spices as languages (15 major and more than 1,000 minor languages). Tradition has it that to be a good cook in India, one must first be a good masalchi, or blender of spices. Basic curry blends, most characteristic of southern Indian cooking, are likely to include chiles, coriander, cumin, curry leaf, mustard, peppercorns, fenugreek, ginger, and turmeric. Garam masala, one of the primary spice blends used in the north, contains cinnamon, bay, cumin, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, and mace. In eastern India, cooks blend cumin, fennel, mustard, nigella, and fenugreek to form a mixture called panch phora. Which flavorings are used most often throughout India? Probably garlic, mint, cilantro, and ginger.

Two of the world’s most popular cuisines—those of China and Japan—are nearly herb-free zones. In Chinese cooking, ginger, chiles, cloves, star anise, and garlic are used sparingly; herbs are even rarer in Japanese kitchens, where the emphasis is on unadorned flavors. Korean cooks add herbs with a heavier hand, especially garlic, ginger, and chiles, which are combined with fermented soybeans to make kochujang, a popular flavoring.
The Flavors of South and Central America and the Caribbean
Epazote

Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides) [Photo: David Cavagnaro]

In the Caribbean and South America, the chile is king, with cilantro, parsley, annatto, allspice, and garlic playing secondary roles. In Mexico, annatto, avocado leaves, bay, cinnamon, cilantro and coriander, epazote, garlic, hoja santa, onions, and Mexican oregano (Spanish thyme) are used often, but none as often as chiles. Serranos are the favored pepper for guacamole and salsa de tomate verde cruda, which is made with green tomatoes. Jalapeños are used for stuffing and smoked to become chiles chipotles. Poblanos are typically charred and peeled before they’re stuffed with meat or cheese for chiles rellenos or added to salads and soups. When ripe and dried, the poblano is called a chile ancho; it is the most common chile in Mexican kitchens. Güeros are used for pickling and to flavor stews; and habaneros are used to produce sauces hot enough to make a gringo cry for mercy.

A final generalization: few things have traveled the globe more widely than herbs and spices. Basil, cilantro, dill, garlic, parsley, and mint, to mention only a half dozen, are common culinary commodities everywhere. No surprise, perhaps, for the spice trade began at least 5,000 years ago. So it’s only a matter of time until American garden centers offer tamarind trees and we’re all tucking epazote and zedoary between the rosemary and the thyme in our gardens.

RECIPE: Arroz Verde
Herbal Broth

You can use an herbal broth instead of chicken or beef stock in almost any recipe. The result will be just as delicious.

Simply simmer vegetables and herbs in water until they are soft and their flavors and nutrients have been released. While you’re chopping vegetables, decide which herbs you’re in the mood for. The options are endless: a bouquet garni, fines herbes, or herbes de Provence simmered with the vegetables impart a lovely flavor. Some herbs, like basil, cilantro, parsley, and dill are very good sprinkled on the finished broth. For a more assertive taste, add some garlic cloves. For Asian flavors, try ginger or lemon grass.

To make 2 quarts vegetable stock add the following ingredients to 10 cups of water in a large pot, bring to a boil, and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Strain.

2 large unpeeled potatoes, cubed; 2 large carrots or parsnips, peeled and sliced; 1 large onion, quartered; 1 celery stalk or celeriac, chopped; 1 apple or pear, seeded and chopped; 1 bay leaf; 10 peppercorns; and herbs of your choice.

Sigrun Wolff Saphire

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/handbooks/gourmetherbs/2a.html#india