Mystery Vegetable: Red Arugula

Since there are so many (also new) lovely vegetables to try thanks to the weekly delivery of my organic box, I've decided to start a new series here called "Mystery Vegetable"!

Not that these vegetables are anything exotic, after all, they do come from the region (that being Northern Germany), but they are often times not only things that I have never bought before, but things that you can't get at the normal grocery stores...or even vegetables I've never heard of before!

This series will highlight a new vegetable that I get in my box (which does seem to happen often enough to write about!) or if the supply runs out, new vegetables that I discover in the area. Here I will share with you my new vegetable experience! Hopefully you will enjoy discovering them with me and learn something new, too!

Red Arugula
This one is called "Agano-Salat" in German, and as far as my research and translation abilities can tell, it is basically Red Arugula. Arugula mostly comes in the green variety (also known by some as rocket, roquette, rucola), but this red variation is apparently a "chef's secret" (read more)!

The redish-colored leaves you see in the picture are not brown and dried, but rather a brick red color turned so by the cold weather. This belongs to the group of greens known as "post-frost" greens, which grow even after frost hits the garden.

Red Arugula is pretty robust - it doesn't wilt easily and has a bit rougher texture, but can be enjoyed (as can green arugula) with a salad. It provides a bit of a stronger taste, and the leaf tips almost tickle your tongue!

As are many leafy greens, it is also very healthy! It's full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants!

How I enjoyed mine:
After cooking a portion of buckwheat pasta, I added some fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatos, pesto, and last but not least - the Red Arugula, chopped into bit-sited pieces. Yum!

"Organic-Box" thanks to CSA

Example of one week's goodies, organic, 10€!

Although it's bitter cold outside and am itching for the time when I can finally start my seeds indoors, I think I have found a way to keep my gardening head high for now - with my Biokiste!

Biokiste is something I heard about from some colleagues here and thought sounded like a great idea - and it is! For those who don't know, the idea is that you can order a subscription from a local (!!!) farmer of vegetables, fruits, and other organic products, and you get a them delivered to your door either on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in a nice green box - thus the name "Biokiste", literally meaning "organic crate".

In the box pictured at the left that I received one week this fall, got a huge head of lettuce, plums, apples, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and green beans, yum!

And there is a similar system in the States too, available in all regions! It's called CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. To find or join a CSA near you, visit Local Harvest or Just Food - you can do a search by for example Zip Code, find the one nearest you, and see their specific offer. For my German readers, CSA is also offered in many cities by various companies around Germany - I use Biokiste (also the company name), specifically the "Regional Vegetable and Fruit Box", but I'd recommend just doing a Google search for "biokiste + your city" to find one nearby.

Besides the fact that they deliver directly to your door (and do all the other customers in your area on the  same day) and the obvious fact that you get fresh, locally-grown produce by farmers from your region, there are lots of things that I absolutely love about CSA:

1. Again, regionally-grown vegetables! I've even chosen the box with only regional produce...Biokiste offers the option of more diverse boxes with organic produce from around the world, but I wanted to go totally local.Good for the environment, and local, like I think is best to eat.
2. Since they're locally-grown, the vitamin content is high because the vegetables aren't prematurely harvested due to ensure that they don't go bad on long transits. Plus they are suited to the climate in which they are grown, which is just more as nature intended.
3. Because of this, they taste absolutely wonderful! NOTHING like from the grocery store!
4. It's a way to get your veggies - and you'll want to since they actually taste like something
5. You get to experience new varieties - can't tell you how many new varieties and types of vegetables I've gotten to experience so far (and it's only been about 5 months in so far!) - even stuff you can't get at the store! I've also gotten things that I have of course seen before, but wouldn't have bought, so my eyes have been opened :)
6. My Biokiste includes a few recipes on the back of the bill, which is nice in case you're not sure what to do with the new vegetables.
7. And best of all....it's not expensive, especially considering that it is organic produce! I get about 10lbs of fruits and vegetables each week for 10€ - unbelievable and unbeatable.
8. Not to mention they offer a great service - a nice mixture of produce every week (not just cabbage all winter), and if you don't want something one week or do want something in particular, they will honor your wishes if at all possible! So if you get sick of something or just plain don't like it, you can request something else to replace it!
9. ...and it's all supporting farmers from around the area!

So for me it's a win-win situation - fresh, awesome veggies delivered to my door, AND I get the feeling of having homegrown produce until I can actually grow some myself! And in the meantime I can enjoy lovely organic, homemade squash soup to keep me warm in the frigid cold!

Barely Alive

As a follow-up to the last post, of indoor plants that are doing well right now in my apartment, unfortunately the edible ones are not doing that great at al!

My chili pepper, is on its way out (pictured here left) - I had started it indoors last spring, taken it out on the balcony to flower and fruit last summer (picture below from the same plant outside on the balcony), and brought it in late this fall, at which point the fruits ripened and were delicious.

My favorite way to enjoy a chili that I grew myself is to make a spicy butter Parmesan cheese sauce for pasta -basically just melt some butter in a pan, then add the chopped chili, allowing it to sizzle in the pan for a minute (longer and the yummy flavor is not preserved), then adding some grated Parmesan cheese to it right before pouring over your pasta - you could even add some garlic (either freshly-pressed, slightly fried in the butter, or a little garlic powder) if you want!


Unfortunately at some point I think the heat from the heater underneath the window sill was too much - it seems to have some sort of spider mite and can't seem to get get over its droopy and browning leaves. Not sure how to rescue it! Even if I can't, I will soon be able to start the next generation indoors!

I also have another potted experiment which was...well, at least an experiment for now! I had gotten some mini eggplant seeds last spring, and wanted to keep an eggplant on my window sill as well.

The grown plant is supposedly suited just for a balcony or window sill, so I thought it would do better than it did - but here is how it looks today:

Haha, I know, VERY sad. Not only did it go through a major aphid epidemic a few months ago (which I was able to pretty much get rid of by wiping the entire plant with soapy water), but it now seem to not like living on the dry heater.

I was about to give up on it, but after watering it a few times anyway (they say here in Germany "hope is the last thing to die"), and then letting the soil get really dry, it re-sprouted some leaves (arrow is pointing at one) - gotta love those cute furry thick leaves! I guess it isn't ready to go just yet!

Getting it to fruit has proven to be a whole other issue....it actually produced two small eggplants (about golf ball size) earlier this summer, but despite multiple hand-pollination when there are flowers, I haven't been able to get it to do anything much since then.

Guess it's sort of a project for now!


And so it can also enjoy its glory days on this post, here is a pic of what this plant looked like in July on my window sill (pic right):

Here's to new starts coming up soon for the season....and hanging on to hope for the what you still have!

Here are some tips to start off with for growing this "finicky crop", which I will also take into consideration:
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/how-to-grow-eggplant.aspx

Deadly Alive

While I cannot do any outdoor gardening yet, I am still astonished at how well some of my indoor plants are doing! My apartment is fairly warm and dry (at least compared to other ones in the city here), with moderate natural light coming from a large living room window over my balcony, which seems to be favoring tropical and desert plants right now!

I've been wondering for while what this plant (right) is for a while now...I got it as a small (almost) seedling with about 3 leaves and only about a foot tall a year or two ago, and now it's doing very well, about 3 feet tall! As far as I can tell it is a variety of Dieffenbachia, or "dumb cane", which is a tropical plant that loves wet ground, semi-warm air, and moderate lighting (perfect for my place!), which would explain why it's flourishing. At one point it started losing its bottom leaves, but I repotted it into a container with better drainage, and off it went!

What I also discovered online was - this plant is highly poisonous! Geez! Luckily I've stopped my cat from chewing on it before he made a habit of it, but good to know! Here are a few tips if you would also like your dumb cane to do better: http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/dumb-cane.html

And surprisingly enough, I actually have another plant that is flourishing on my living room window sill and is also poisonous:

Yep, the aloe plant! While is juice soothes burns, it is supposedly poisonous to injest. I say supposedly because although I don't want to test it out, my cat has indeed eaten this plant (when I was gone once) almost completely down to its roots - I really thought it was gone, but I continued to water it and hope for the best - look at it just today! Starting to outgrow its pot (again!) and growing lots of new sprouts!

Aloe has always seemed fairly easy to grow, and especially loves sitting here on the window sill because it gets lots of light and is directly over the heater - a built-in desert climate.

And luckily my cat is still around to tell about it, maybe he didn't eat enough to be lethal....needless-to-say, the plant is blocked off from a certain orange-furred predator....

"My Garden"

"Mein Garten" make-over yard show on RTL

Was surfing the German TV shows on the internet the other evening, and came across a gardening show on "normal" TV (meaning amongst the channels you get with your usual TV reception) called "Mein Garten", or "My Garden". Cool! I had to check it out, especially since I miss being able to watch HGTV from time to time. Luckily I didn't have to wait til it came on live on TV, which I probably would miss anyway due to my evening working hours - RTL, the channel, has an online archives of some of its shows, including this one.

German really has come a long way as far as entertainment - when I was over here for the first time 11 years ago, there really wasn't much modern on TV - just a few really cheesy German soaps and if you were lucky, some poorly-dubbed movies or varies sitcoms from the US. Now, although there is still a lot of crap on, they are making their own versions of a number of our reality shows and are doing a MUCH better job with dubbing the shows that they import directly.

This is why I was somewhat astounded and positively surprised to find this show on average TV, so I checked it out! Not bad - the premise is a team of gardeners, landscapers and yard workers will turn your backyard or garden area into your dream garden, make-over style - this episode was about a family that just moved into their house and their backyard was a mess!

After the make-over according to their wishes (an Asian-inspired theme), they got a bamboo pavilion, a rock garden, a manicured lawn, and various other Asian flare...and it looked great. The mom of the family even got the terra cotta stone warrior that she'd brought back from China once in there!

So for your German-philes and yard/garden lovers, check out the show! Here's the link to the online video library where you can watch: http://rtl-now.rtl.de/mein-garten.php. Just some inspiration until it starts to get warmer outside!

Rosemary Parsley Pesto

As you can see, Winter is back and my outdoor balcony herbs are not looking great! Winter was already here for a while before Christmas, and then subsided for about week, during which we got above freezing temperatures and my parsley tried to grow back, only to get covered in snow once again!

Since it and my rosemary were still looking pretty good around Christmas, I decided to harvest them and make something so they didn't freeze, die, and in essence, go to waste....but how could I store them? 

Wasn't really interested in drying them, since I like the fresh taste so much better, so after googling for a while, I came upon this recipe at food.com, which uses both the rosemary and the parsley - and it is so yummy!

Rosemary Pesto

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups fresh parsley, rough chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 cup walnuts (or favorite nut variety)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Thoroughly wash fresh herbs and pat dry. Strip rosemary from stalk and chop.
2) Combine rosemary, parsley, garlic, cheese, nuts and oil into food processor and blend well.
3) Season to taste. Yield: 1.5 cups.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/rosemary-pesto-307438?oc=linkback

I used walnuts like they suggested, and the mild nutty flavor was wonderful! I also used kitchen sheers to cut the herbs, and used a hand blender to mix the ingredients since I don't have a food processor, which still worked pretty well. Don't forget to store in the refrigerator. You can see my result next to the recipe above!

Not bad for my first pesto! Great on meat or fish due to the stronger flavor (of the rosemary) compared to a normal basil pesto.

And now my herbs have also been put to good and found a way to survive (at least part of the) winter!

I'd recommend making pesto using a number of different herbs...what's your favorite way to preserve your home-grown herbs?

Happy Planning 2013!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

I hope you all made it in safely (and didn't get hit by too many fireworks and the like) and are looking forward to this year as much as I am!

After somewhat of a hiatus, I am back on the garden blogging scene again, and must admit, that I am *already* looking forward to spring. Is that bad to admit?

Because it is not yet the right time to be doing much gardening (at the most some indoor potted planting), this is the best time of year to do some planning and reflecting  - while you have the time to think before you'll need to start buying seeds and planting, planting, planting! Maybe it's time to ask yourself a few questions, I know I will be thinking about the following:

1. What are your garden goals for this year compared to last? My main goal this year is to get things out early enough - last year a few things just didn't ripen before the rainy, fall weather set it. Otherwise I was pretty happy with my selection of vegetables from last season. Maybe I can find room for some more!
2. What can you do differently this year, or at least try out, to see that some of your plants grow and produce better? I need to add some wind protection to my balcony - several plants suffered from wind/sun burn and didn't fruit as a result!
3. What grew particularly well last year, and why? Surprisingly, my chili pepper plants did pretty well - started them indoors early enough, hardened them outside for a while, and ripened them up inside again in the warmth!
4. Is there anything new you'd like to try out, maybe a new variety of something you've already grown, or a completely new vegetable? Be creative! This year I'm gonna be pretty creative; I have 2 varieties of habañero chilies I'm going to attempt to grow -  a purple variety and a one called "white lightening".
5. Do you need to order a seed catalog? Burpee's 2013 Catalog is available per online request!
6. Take an inventory of your gardening supplies - is there anything you used up last year or still need? Now may be the time to get some things ready in advance.

Happy Planning 2013!