The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #11

One of my favorite winter vegetables is the sweet potato. They are easy to grow, produce pretty, shiny leaves that beautify the garden and offer opportunities for creativity in the kitchen. They add fiber, potassium, Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron to your diet. And they taste good!

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #10

I’m just in from picking another small batch of surprise tomatoes, one of the gifts of our garden this year. My hands smell of the fresh fruit and they hold the promise of something yummy for supper this evening.
Every spring and early summer, plants begin to grow where I didn’t drop seeds. At least I didn’t plant them intentionally in the year they sprout. Sometimes they come up from seeds dropped the previous year from a bird or another source. Other times they arise from compost I buried. They grow to be healthy vibrant plants, sometimes more so than the new seeds I planted intentionally.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we go through life unknowingly planting seeds. When we follow our path and give our best to the world we might or might not see immediate results. For example, it’s easier for someone who is teaching a child to read to see quick results than for someone who is advising a young person about career choices to see the results of that advice. Those offers of help are often intentional, but all of us also plant seeds without thinking about what we’re doing.
This year in our garden, we harvested butternut squash that grew from old seeds. Beautiful, purple flowers that I don’t remember ever growing sprouted near where we had a tree cut down in the spring. Next to them came the tomatoes that have continued to produce fruit through the fall.
To me, they all feel like little miracles, ways that nature is showing me how life goes on, often unplanned.
I’ve seen something similar in the book events I’ve been doing for my debut novel, Rooted in Sunrise. I recently participated in the Kentucky Book Festival in Lexington. The first person to approach my table was a young woman.
“You probably don’t remember me,” she said.
“You look familiar but I can’t place you,” I admitted.
She went on to tell me that she had been in the afterschool writing group I facilitated at Garrard Middle School. In that group, she said, she learned to write differently than she had in classes where she completed English assignments within the required guidelines of the class. In our group, she learned she could use writing to express emotion. She still writes that way to this day.
That seed blossomed into a beautiful, expressive young woman.
I am the gardener and writer, the woman I’ve become, because of the many seeds people planted in me. Some were good, some were not. Life is about sorting those sprouts and learning which to dig up and which to tend. I am thankful for the opportunity to make those choices.
I’ll be thinking about that as I cut into those November tomatoes tonight. And as the days get too cold for tomatoes to grow, I’ll keep my eyes opened for other shoots that are growing unexpectedly. There are miracles everywhere.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #9

After all these years of gardening and cooking, I should know the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber.
So should the people who label the vegetables at the farm store.
Nonetheless, after a busy day of work on Friday, I went by my favorite farm store to see what fresh vegetables I could get for the weekend. Seeing the zucchini sign made me think of one of my favorite soups, Chunky Minestrone. I felt lucky to get the late-season squash and added it to my bag of fresh vegetables.
On Sunday, I gathered my ingredients for the soup and began to chop. Once I got the onions, carrots and garlic into the hot olive oil, the fragrance turned the kitchen into the most welcoming room in the house. I added some of our garden-canned tomatoes, broth, seasonings, rice and set the pot to simmer for 20 minutes.
Next came the zucchini. I looked at it and saw small bumps where she skin should have been fully smooth. I cut off the end then another piece taste. I could tell by the seeds that I was not about to bite into a zucchini. Indeed, it was a cucumber.
I momentarily wondered what I could add to the soup instead of the green squash. I have butternut squash so that would be an option, but I knew the sweetness would vastly alter the flavor.
Soup is one of the easiest dishes to make with substitutes. I frequently switch among chicken broth, garlic broth and vegetable broth. I vary herbs according to what I have. I’ve used quinoa or barley rather than rice. On this Sunday, my husband even urged me to use the cucumber in the soup but I feared it would be mushy, maybe even slimy, and ruin the texture.
I feel blessed to live in a place where I have easy access to the missing ingredient. So, I headed to the store to replace my misidentified ingredient. I finished the soup and enjoyed another bowl of this healthy meal that I’ve been making for years. Try it and see what you think. And share your favorite soup recipe so we can add it to our fall menu.
Chunky Minestrone Soup
2 tsp olive oil
1 ½ C chopped onion
1 medium carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced (about ¾ C)
1 clove garlic
½ C long-grain rice, uncooked
1 tsp dried Italian seasonings
1 ½ C water
1 (14 ½ oz) cans no-salt added whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (10 ½ oz) low-sodium chicken broth
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced (about 2 C)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 (15 ½ oz) can cannellini or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2/3 C grated Parmesan cheese
Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic. Saute 3 minutes. Add rice and next 4 ingredients; bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add zucchini and next 4 ingredients; cook an additional 5 minutes. Ladle into individual soup bowls, and sprinkle with cheese. 10 servings.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #8

When I was a child, every playground had a merry-go-round. Some of them were divided into pie slices of various colors with a metal bar in between each section. Once every daring child jumped on, someone strong would push the merry-go-round and keep us spinning until we were all dizzy.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #7

It’s that time of year when the kitchen is ripe with the sweetness of cooking jam, the boldness of simmering tomato sauce or the freshness of a just picked basil. I feel wealthy with this abundance because nature’s gifts remind me of the wonder of the earth.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #6

In this part of the world, the heat, humidity and lack of rain have been a constant for the past month. If you’re experiencing the same thing, you might read “preservation season” and think about hours inside a comfortably air-conditioned house that keep your energy and health preserved and protected from the elements.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #5

“Everything I launch into the world doesn’t produce immediate payoff. Some things take time.”
That’s so true for everything in the gardening life, and in life in general. I wrote that in February in regard to my new bird feeder. I wasn’t sure if the birds would ever come. For a while, they didn’t. I checked the package of the food I bought and decided I should trade it out for another that is specifically for smaller birds.
Now I have chickadee and purple finch visitors every day!

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #4

Spring is a season of creation at our house. The soft sun invites me outside where I cannot resist digging up weeds here, removing dead leaves there, hoeing the soil to prepare for vegetable seeds and flowering plants.

I spent most of the first two weekends in May in my yard taking care of the little patch of earth we nurture. The piles of wood chips that the tree trimmers left slowly shortened as I filled up the wheel barrow and buckets to haul the mulch to one of the gardens where I’ve weeded and planted.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #3

One thing that gets me through the transition from late winter to early spring is visions of shiny, plump, red tomatoes. I get those beauties started with planting the seeds.

It’s rejuvenating to put hope into a tiny seed and watch for it to break through the surface of the damp soil to show off its little bit of green. No matter how the cold soil on my fingers, the work promises to pay off in delicious sauces, sandwiches and soups.

The Goodness of the Garden . . . All the Year Round #2

The Joy of Fresh Ricotta. I abhor waste, especially when it comes to food. One of the joys of winter is that when we have a little of this and a little of that left in the refrigerator, I can usually find a way to combine it with a few fresh ingredients to make a soup or casserole to warm us.