visualize whirled peas...and fava beans

so i debated whether to include the following tidbit about myself. i thought about it long and hard, and decided to just put myself out there. plus, i figured that those of you reading this now are either friends or family, so the following won't come as a huge surprise.

when i think of fava beans, i immediately reflect on the slapstick humor of jim carrey and jeff daniels in the perennial comedic classic, dumb & dumber. why? you might ask.

harry: check out the funbags on that househound.
lloyd: i'd like to eat her liver with some fava beans and a bottle of chianti.

no set up for those lines needed. the randomness and hilarity of this movie is just so great.

if you're still reading, first - thank you for not judging me; and second, let's move on to the meat of this post. i wanted to write about fava beans and snap peas for a few reasons - these vegetables are beautiful and so easy to grow.

forget the beans (they're not yet mature), fava blossoms are wonderful sights. the transformation from flower to food is really something to see. we only have a few pods right now, maybe about 2 inches long. these guys will get huge in a short time. ah, and courtesy of jamie oliver, i learned this weekend that fava beans are extraordinary nitrogen fixers, which does wonders for the soil. he suggested planting as a cover crop - i think we'll give that a shot later this year, perhaps in the corn bed (since corn's a heavy nitrogen feeder).

anyway, jamie oliver is awesome. his new show, jamie at home, focuses on eating seasonally, growing your own food, and making wonderful, simple creations. enthusiasm in the garden and in the kitchen is inspiring so many. last saturday, the show featured peas and broad (ie: fava) beans, hence the inspiration of this post. he shared his "incredible smashed peas and broad beans on toast" recipe (link to the recipe and beautiful photo) - cannot wait to try this once the favas are up to speed. it features fresh mozzarella and gobs of olive oil - yum.

with this recipe, i'll segue into the other topic at hand...peas. funny story (at least to me and my siblings). one day, i came home from school late and found my dad in the living room watching the news and eating dinner. his meal of choice? a giant bowl of peas. cooked, frozen peas. i think my mom must have been out. a favorite food of his and a point of family humor. hi dad!

so with that...we planted a ton of sugar snap peas earlier this spring. two varieties - cascadia and oregon giant. they're maturing now, so we've been able to enjoy small handfuls out in the garden and at the dinner table over the past few days. tender, sweet, and snappy (as their name would suggest) - these guys rock.

i snuck some pea vines into dinner the other night - they have a similar flavor and the little curly q's that form on the ends are just so cute and whimsical. one thing i'd note about our pea-planting endeavors...we (alright, by "we" i mean "me" - er, i suppose that would be "i") may have situated them a bit to close to each other, which might be putting some stress on the plants. whoops. next time, we'll thin them out once they sprout up - give em some room to stretch out. a learning process, but at least we get to eat our mistakes along the way.

palatable progress

out in the yard yesterday, it was gratifying to see how far the garden has come in the past few months. it was also amazing to see and feel the sun, and to finally greet summer with open arms. we set out to complete a few projects - mainly to build a couple of bamboo staking structures to support some cucumbers and a kiwi plant. we're most interested to see how this kiwi fares, given it seems like such a tropical fruit. we've gotten a lot of use out of the forest of bamboo in our backyard - it's also holding up the fava beans, and was used to create a tomato trellis. here's an overview shot of the garden where you can see it all (well, everything except for the kiwi):

the closest bed right here has about 6 rows of corn going - planted in mid-may. every seed shot up a little stalk, but once that happened, we lost about 1/3 of the plants to an unknown critter. we've also been noticing little bites missing from our strawberry patch. both beds are doing well to date, though. here's a close up shot of some berries i picked earlier this evening. (more on corn soon. those who know me, know of my obsession on this one)

i love that the berries are not uniformly shaped. and because they're so much smaller than conventional strawberries you'd find at the store, they're terrificly sweet. mmm. strawbries (i love how the brits say it - just rolls off the tongue). these guys didn't last too long - just ate 'em over a bowl of ice cream - perhaps the best way to end a monday.


ah, and speaking of eating (we do a good amount of that here), we were able to integrate a ton of green goodness into tonight's dinner - pasta w/fresh basil, arugula, sorrel, snap peas and some pea vines, and of course, lots of cheese (pecorino romano). let's hear it for left overs.

we were recently introduced to sorrel via our good friend, adam. i'd describe it as a plant that looks a lot like spinach, but as soon as you take a bite of it, it releases an immediate lemony tang. it's really quite unexpected, but has become a welcome addition to salads and other dishes. i bought a couple of sorrel starters at the seattle tilth edible plant sale back in early may, and they've taken off. here's what it looks like:

it's been great to be able to try something new, and then decide to plant it. this process has really expanded our palates and broadened our knowledge of food. things that just a year ago we wouldn't have bought at the store, we're planting like crazy - kale, chard, broccoli raab. man, do we love kale and sausage - the best, jerry, the best.


yeah, we're eating a lot, but at least it's all leafy greens, right?

lactuca sativa

lettuce (Lactuca sativa): a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family (daisy family - who knew?!)

likely the most utilized and visited item in our garden are the many varieties of lettuces. nearly everyday, we're able to enjoy a fresh salad. to run out in the morning to pick fresh greens and wash them up for a packed lunch is really quite wonderful and rewarding. cut lettuce relatively close to the soil, but be sure to leave enough stump to have access to sunlight for regrowth. that's right - new lettuce will come up! it will take a couple of weeks to catch up, so in addition to this, we've been sowing in other areas of the yard to create a continuous supply. photos above are tom thumb heirloom (head) and mesclun baby greens.

through lettuce in particular, i've really come to realize the economical advantage of growing one's own food. we've been harvesting since early may on less than $5 worth of seeds. with the rising cost of food and fuel, backyard farming may well play a viable role as our nation and the world respond to these issues. being able to grow and eat our own organic greens has been worth it - economically, environmentally, and perhaps most importantly - gastronomically.

a beautifully reddish oak leaf lettuce -
from my mom's favorite seeds that she harvests herself.

merely a vehicle

though i've never been the hugest of radish fans, i decided to give them a fair shot in the garden. they create an unparalleled vibrancy and contrast against the dark soil and verdant greens, as they push above the ground. did i mention that they're quite delicious with fresh butter and salt, or dipped in homemade aioli (recipe below)? consider them a vehicle for simple indulgences. they are also lovely when sliced thinly in simple green salads, if you enjoy a little bite.


cherry belle radishes - photo from a couple weeks back; planted in mid-april. i sowed some french breakfast radishes yesterday. they're a bit different - shaped like little sausages with white tips on the root end. i've found radishes to be one of the easiest things to grow, as they come up so quickly. peppery, spicy, crisp. the greens are also edible.

Aioli (from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food)
2-3 small garlic cloves, peeled
salt
1 egg yolk
1 cup olive oil

Pound garlic and pinch of salt with mortar & pestle, or crush them together with a knife.

Put egg yolk in a bowl, add about 1/2 of the garlic paste and 1/2 tsp of water, mix well w/whisk.

Using a cup w/pour spout, slowly dribble in oil, whisking constantly. As egg yolk absorbs oil, it will thicken, lighten in color, and become opaque. This will happen rather quickly. Then you can add oil a little faster, whisking all the while. If the sauce is thicker than you like, thin it with a few drops of water. Taste, and add more salt and garlic, as desired.

Yield: 1 cup

it begins

we began the garden planning process many months ago, but it wasn't until today that i decided to start a blog to share this satisfying project. so bear with me as i go back in time and reflect on the beginnings of the schwartz family farm...attempted abridged version, of course.

eager to play with our new home and yard, brian and i set out to create raised beds in the backyard this past March. items needed - wood, dirt...that's pretty much it. but then of course we had to build the beds, figure out exactly where we wanted them, what would go into them, and where we'd get the soil from (our little compost bin isn't producing quite enough - maybe because we're not turning it as we should. blast.).

we picked up some untreated lumber at home depot. since building the beds, we have used scrap pieces of salvaged wood to create other planting areas in the yard (free wood is always best, just make sure it's not treated).

i found cedar grove compost to be reasonably priced for the amount of organic soil we ordered (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 cubic yards - enough to fill 4 - 4x8 beds plus the rest of our gardening beds - A LOT). we decided to get a couple of blends - the veggie mix (sandy soil and compost) and pit-washed dairy manure (really light, not too stinky, and very high in nutrients). of everything i've read online and in books, good soil is essential to plant growth. not a brainbusting thought, but often overlooked.

next up...what to plant? i had spent a couple of months before this time researching this question. then one day in february, i found myself at the downtown whole foods - they'd just gotten in a shipment of "seeds of change" organic and heirloom varietal seeds. i bought several types of tomato seeds, lettuces, herbs, radishes, corn, kale, arugula, broccoli raab, chard. we had some cucumber, carrot, and fava bean seeds already at home - gifts we'd been longing to plant since the holidays. we bought some seeds and starts at city peoples (sorrel, bell peppers, strawberries, huckleberries, rhubarb) and shared/traded seeds with my pal libby.

yeah, that last paragraph makes me sound like a nut. i probably over did it, but it's hard not to.