These days, it seems every season comes with a superlative: it is either “warmest” or “wettest” or “coldest” or “driest”on record. The current spring is very cold. I do mind as a person who would like to start wearing cute summer dresses, but as a gardener I don’t really mind that much.

Despite the cold, the gardens are lusciously green and many crops are thriving. Notably the cool weather crops like radishes, spinach and mustard greens that tend to bolt quickly during warm springs are growing beautifully. Seriously, I have never grown spinach as tender as this year.

On the other hand, I am postponing planting out tender vegetables. Normally, I would plant out tomatoes before mid-May but though I have started hardening them off, I’ll wait for the soil to be really warm before setting them out. The eggplants and peppers are still living on the windowsill.

The weeds are thriving as well, so to save ourselves work in the future, we try to mulch as much as possible. We have already used up 3 straw bales because we are using straw to mulch the paths as well. Wood chips would be my mulch of choice for the paths as they are more durable but we couldn’t get them this year. New to me as mulch material is flax straw. Unlike wheat straw, it’s cut into small pieces and the compressed bales fall apart after you open the packiging. It’s easy to work with and I’m curious about how it will behave during the season.

In our backyard, the edible forest is a mass of green. There’s always a point early in the spring when the garden looks rather empty and  I start questioning whether we really have that many plants in the garden. And then they take off and there’s not a patch that’s not covered in plants. Most fruit trees and bushes have flowered and are starting to form fruits. We are harvesting herbs every day, for tea, salads and cooking. The perennial vegetables are growing well too, Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus henricus) a spinach relative is probably the most reliable one we grow. The small leaves can be used in mixed salads and the larger ones cooked like spinach. The young shoots can be blanched too.

Closer to the house I have many containers filled with edibles. There are pots with thyme, mint violets and “Mara des Bois” strawberries. We have a big tub that this year has two varieties tulips (edible petals) in it, undersown with different kinds of mustard greens. We have moved our two figs outside (they overwinter in the unheated shed) and there are lots of miniature figs on them already.

Happy gardening!

]]> http://www.growntocook.com/?feed=rss2&p=2093 0 http://www.growntocook.com/?p=2077&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rhubarb-streusel-whole-wheat-muffins http://www.growntocook.com/?p=2077#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 13:55:56 +0000 vera@gtc http://www.growntocook.com/?p=2077 As mentioned before, we have lots of rhubarb on our new allotment. For the first time in my life I have enough of it to make all my old favorite rhubarb recipes and experiment with new ones. I pick an armful of rhubarb every time we go to the allotment.

Rhubarb is a great plant for the permaculture garden because it not only has edible stalks, but the large (inedible) leaves are also great as mulch. So after harvesting, I cut off the leaves and use them to cover exposed soil around other plants to prevent weed growth and evaporation.

Last week my parents took the kids on a day trip to Arnhem. I baked rhubarb muffins in the morning and packed them in a paper bag for them to eat on the way. My mum said that when they unpacked the muffins on the train, the smell was so delicious it must have made everybody jealous.

And it’s not just the smell – these muffins are delicious. Often, muffins can be boring – they need something to make them stand out- a contrastingly tart fruit or a crunchy streusel topping. Or both.

In this recipe, I used half whole wheat flour for the batter and just whole wheat for streusel, because whole wheat flour makes cakes and muffin taste more “interesting” and definitely more suitable as breakfast. Same goes for wheat germ. I don’t use much sugar in the batter but the sweet streusel prevents the rhubarb from being too assertive. The orange infuses the batter as both juice and zest are used and plays off the rhubarb wonderfully.

When I want to bake muffins in the morning, to make life easy for myself, I prepare everything the night before: I mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and the wet ingredients in another and let them stand (covered) on the counter. I make the streusel and cut the rhubarb in cubes and keep both in the fridge. I even line the muffin form with paper cups. Then in the morning, all I have to do is preheat the oven, stir everything together, fill the muffin forms and scatter the streusel on top. And about 20 minutes, voila: I have the most delicious rhubarb muffins imaginable.

One year ago: No-knead pizza dough

Rhubarb streusel muffins

150 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour

150 g (1 cup) all purpose flour

50 g (½ cup) wheat germ

1 tsp soda

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup sunflower oil (or other neutral oil)

juice of 1 orange

+ buttermilk to make up 250 ml (1cup) together

100 g (½ cup) cane sugar

grated zest of 1 orange

170 g (6oz) rhubarb, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) dice (about 1 1/2 cups when diced)

Streusel:

75 g (½ cup) whole wheat flour

75 g (1/3 cup) raw cane sugar

50 g (4 tbsp, 2 oz.) cold butter, cut in cubes

½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F). Butter a standard muffin form or line it with paper muffin cups.

To make the streusel, mix sugar and flour in a small bowl. Add butter and use your fingers to rub it into the flour until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Keep streusel in the fridge until needed.

In a medium bowl, mix together both flours, wheat germ, soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix the wet ingredients (eggs, oil, orange juice and buttermilk) with sugar and zest. Pour the wet mix into the flour mixture and stir until just combined but still lumpy. Fold in the rhubarb and divide the mixture between the muffin cups. Sprinkle the streusel on top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden.

So today, instead, I would like to take you on a little walk through our street. Because we’ve got tulips, too! 2 years ago we got a small grant to set up our plant swap and when there was a little money left, we bought tulip, narcissi and allium bulbs and distributed them among the inhabitants of our street. There are many planters throughout the street, usually cared about by those who live closest and this is where the bulbs went.

The first time I was in Hengelo, we cycled around a lot and I remember telling my then-future-husband that this was a street where I would like to live. About three years later we bought a house here. It is still my favorite street in the whole city. I am proud to have contributed a little to making it even more beautiful.

Today I ditched my schedule, grabbed the camera and captured the fleeting moment. I hope that there are some tulips flowering where you are!

One of the most fun and most rewarding projects I did last year was initiating a community garden.

Every year we organize a neighborhood plant swap and plant sale, which is great, but I thought it would be nice to have something more permanent. A small vegetable garden that would show people from the neighborhood how much food you can grow in a small space and how little work it actually involves if you do it right.

I presented the idea in our plant group and everybody was immediately enthusiastic. We got a piece of ground behind the football cage at the playground, and within weeks, we made it happened. To prevent the regrowth of weeds, we covered the ground with cardboard, put raised beds on top of that and filled them with clean soil. We sowed, planted, mulched, watered and the garden flourished.

We shared many harvests and at the end of the season decided to add couple more beds. The garden became a place where we get to know our neighbors better, where we share knowledge and a good laugh. The kids playing football like to come and see what we’re up to. They ask:“What is this?” and we let them pick and taste.

Now it’s time for a new season. We have harvested the last kale to make place for new sowings. I made a kale salad with apples, hazelnuts and orange dressing.

You might think that raw kale is something people eat because they believe it’s good for them, not because they actually enjoy it. But let me tell you: we had to stop our son from eating his sister’s portion before she got home. Really. It’s a great tasting salad. And it is good for you.

Kale salad with orange dressing

Bunch of kale, about 170 g (6 oz.) after removing the ribs

50 g (1/3 cup) hazelnuts

1 juicy apple

80 g (3 oz.) hard cheese (I used Dutch cheese with cumin, but use anything you like)

Dressing:

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

60 ml (¼ cup) fresh orange juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp honey

salt, pepper

Whisk all ingredients for the dressing together. Roast hazelnuts in a dry pan on a medium fire stirring frequently, until slightly browned and smelling “nutty” delicious. Let them cool.

Remove the ribs from the kale and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Quarter and core the apple and slice quite thinly. Cut the cheese in cubes of about 1 cm (½ inch).

Put the kale in a large bowl and massage it gently (this will tenderize the leaves). Add apples and dressing, mix well. Scatter cheese and hazelnuts on top. Serve.

As you might or might not know, the Netherlands is a monarchy, a constituent monarchy to be precise. That means the monarch is the head of the state but though he or she has to sign all laws, the parliament really makes them. Thus the role of the monarch is mostly representative (read: decorative). The Royal House costs a lot of money but provides the folks with some entertainment and the tabloids with something to write about and we get one day off every year to celebrate the monarch’s birthday. Yesterday was the last time this was celebrated on the 30^th April. Because yesterday queen Beatrix signed the deed of abdication, making her son, Willem Alexander, the Dutch king.

Big changes lie ahead of us, namely the date of the birthday celebration will be moved from 30^th April to 27^th April!

So: The queen’s not dead, long live the king!

p.s. The Dutch Royal House is called House of Orange-Nassau, orange being its symbolic color and the fruit being its symbol. At this moment, shops are selling everything in orange packaging. If I had thought of it on time, this would have been the perfect dessert for the occasion:Blood orange custard tart

Luckily our neighbour’s allotment grows lots of nettles, in fact, there’s nothing but nettles. In the fall he enthusiastically started cutting back all the weeds but ran out of steam and this spring the nettles grew right back and are as lush and green as can be. So we pick lots of them. The first nettle dish I made this year was this soup. It’s a soup brimming with chlorophyl, that looks and tastes like liquidized spring. It’s simple enough, just nettles and a few pantry staples: onion, garlic, potatoes. Instead of adding stock, I added a handful of lovage shoots, that have a very strong celery-like flavor. You could use stock, if you don’t grow them. But especially if you are a moderate-climate gardener, considering planting lovage in your garden. It’s very easy to grow, it handles part shade well and just one plant will usually be enough for a family. It is great for adding flavor to soups and stews, but I also like to add the young leaves to mixed salads.

This soup feels like medicine (but tastes great!), just what we need to be eating in the spring: lots of vitamins and minerals. It’s also fast to make which is important these days when I’m spending more time in the garden and less in the kitchen.

One year ago: Ricotta al forno with spring herbs (more weeds and also a couple perennial vegetables)

Nettle lovage soup

If you don’t have lovage, use vegetable stock instead of water.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 smallish onions, peeled and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces

200 g (70 ounces) nettles (just the tops), washed

a handful of young lovage shoots, both stems and leaves, roughly chopped (optional)

1 ½ l (6 cups) water

salt and pepper

100 ml cream, to serve (optional)

In a kettle, bring water to boil. In a large pan, melt butter and olive oil. Add onion and fry until translucent. Add garlic and potatoes and fry for a couple more minutes. Then add nettles and lovage (if using). Stir until they start to wilt. Add boiling water and salt and cook everything for about 15 – 20 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through. Liquidize the soup in a blender or with a hand-held mixer. Check for seasonings and serve with a bit of cream in every bowl.

Back at the beginning of February, in a spell of mild weather, the plants started growing and we covered one with a black bucket to blanch it. After that the weather turned arctic and the plants outside hardly grew at all. But the one that was covered continued to grow in the cozy environment under the bucket and last Sunday it was so big it was pushing the bucket up, despite the brick we put on top. We picked our first rhubarb and immediately covered another plant.

left: unblanched plant, right: blanched

We had this for dessert and I totally irritated the kids by saying “Isn’t it delicious?” about ten times while we were eating.

Poached rhubarb with yogurt cream

serves 4-6

450 g (1 pound) young rhubarb stalks (after removing the leaves)

90 g (½ cup) raw cane sugar

juice of 1 orange

2 cardamom pods

2 start anise

125 ml (½ cup) whole milk yogurt

125 ml (½ cup) cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp sugar

Cut the rhubarb in pieces about 5 cm (2 inch) long. In a medium heavy-bottomed pan, dissolve sugar in orange juice. Add rhubarb and spices and simmer gently over a low heat until tender to the point of a knife. With a slotted spoon, take out the rhubarb and set aside. Boil the remaining juices for a couple more minutes, until the syrup starts to thicken. Remove spices and let cool completely.

In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, cream and vanilla until the cream thickens and starts to form soft peaks.

Divide the rhubarb between individual glasses, spoon over the syrup and top with the cream.

So, here are a few things we’re up to these days.

The seedlings of tender annuals on the windowsill need to be repotted regularly, as soon as they fill their pots. The bigger the plants the richer I make the potting mix, adding our home-made worm compost to the bought potting mix. I mix in some builders sand, too, to improve the structure and a little lime.You can literally see the plants growing, bellow peppers (“Nordholandse Lange”) and eggplant (“Diamond” and “Ukkie”).

Our raised beds warm a little faster which means we can start direct sowing a little bit earlier. So far we have sown spinach, carrots, lima beans, several kinds of mustard, lettuce and snow peas. We are adding 4 more raised beds, made from Douglas fir. I am painting them with linseed based paint, not because it’s necessary (Douglas fir is naturally pretty weather-resistant) but mainly because it looks good – an important consideration for us, since we take most of the pictures for our articles in our own garden.We are still moving some plants from our old allotment to the new one, those we did not manage to move before winter, mainly cut flowers. Our edible forest garden has to do with very little care at the moment but since it’s filled with mainly perennial plants it will produce lots to eat even if I don’t touch it for moths. We are already picking some hardy herbs and fruit bushes are beginning to flower. As soon as I get to it, I will empty one of our compost bins and spread the compost in the garden.Some of our less hardy perennial vegetables did not survive the unusually cold and long winter so I am sowing sea kale and herb fennel to replenish the stock. My son was sick for a few days, sick enough not to go to school but not sick enough to lie in bed (I don’t really remember him being sick enough to want to lie down) and getting bored so I got him to help with the sowing. Learning to sow vegetables might just prove more important for his future than what shool has to offer anyway…And finally, we’ve added a bokashi to our composting system. We are participating in a municipal project trying to get people to compost more of their waste. We have a worm composter and a couple of compost bins in our backyard and several compost heaps at the allotment, but I wanted to try bokashi, too. Bokashi is a great alternative for people without a garden. The waste is actually not composted but fermented and you can even add things you should not put on your compost heap like cooked and uncooked meat. If any of you has experience with bokashi, I would love to hear about it!

I must admit I was somewhat skeptical about the buckwheat-groats-crust and were Barbara Damrosch not one of my most trusted sources of gardening wisdom I might not have attempted it all.While making the quiche my inner monologue went something like this: “Will this work? This won’t work – the groats won’t cook! But it’s Barbara Damrosch… If it works it’s brilliant! But what if there’s not enough moisture to cook the groats?”Well, it worked and it is brilliant. Of course it worked – it’s Barbara Damrosch! The Barbara Damrosch of the Four Season Farm, who writes the “Cook’s Garden” column in The Washington Post and the author of the encyclopedic The Garden Primer. Who not only knows about gardening but is also a brilliant and amusing writer. And apparently a great cook as well.

Her newest book, written partly together with her husband Eliot Coleman (and if you are a vegetable gardener and don’t already have his books then you really should get them) is actually two books in one. The first part is all about growing vegetables – improving the soil, planning your garden and how-to on growing the individual crops. The second part (written by Barbara) is about cooking from the garden. Most recipes are fairly uncomplicated – when your ingredients are homegrown and super fresh you don’t want to mess with them, you want them to shine. Which is just as well because after working in the garden till sunset you want your meals to come together quickly.Because the recipes are based on the harvest they combine vegetables that are available at the same time plus most recipes have a “Try this too” section where possible seasonal substitutions are suggested.

As a gardener you don’t start your meal with a recipe, your starting point is what you’ve just picked from the garden. So the recipe for this spinach quiche will also work with fresh peas in spring, broccoli in summer, or leeks in winter. I’m planning to make them all during this growing season!

Spinach quiche with buckwheat crust

adapted (a little) from The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook

3 large eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup creme fraiche (or use more cream)
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves or ¼ tsp dried
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
¾ cup buckwheat groats also called kasha
6 ounces fresh spinach, chopped (about 4 cups)
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 F).

Combine the eggs, cream(s), nutmeg, thyme and pepper in a bowl and set aside. It is best, but not essential that the mixture reach room temperature.

Using your fingers smear 1 tablespoon of the butter over the bottom and sides of 9 (23 cm) ovenproof round glass or ceramic baking dish. (I used a fluted glass tart pan with 24 cm diameter -slightly bigger).

Pour the buckwheat groats into the pie plate, and turn it while holding it at a tilt to coat the sides and bottom with the groats. Then hold the pie plate flat and shake it to distribute the remaining loose groats over the bottom.

Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet over medium – low heat. Add the spinach and saute, stirring until it has wilted, about 5 minutes.

Gently distribute the spinach over the bottom of the pie plate without disturbing the buckwheat. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the spinach.

Beat the egg mixture thoroughly with a whisk or eggbeater until it is uniform but not foamy. Carefully pour it over the spinach.

Bake until the center is firm and the top is rounded and golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes, the quiche is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cooked quiche sit for 5 minutes or so, it will sink slightly as it cools.

Cut the quiche into wedges and serve while it is still warm.

But it’s Easter and we’ll celebrate, whether it’s snowing or not.

Today I’m baking the Easter lamb. Not a real lamb, but a surrogate from enriched yeast dough. I have a vintage baking form that was my grandmother’s and because I am more likely to actualy use it than the rest of the family, I inherited it. In the old days, these sweet lambs were made by people who couldn’t afford an actual lamb. We make it because we’re vegetarians and because it’s so pretty. When my daughter was about four she insisted that the lamb was a dog which lead to some funny looks when she told people we bake a dog for Easter.

We’ll decorate eggs, of course. Some we wrap in onion skins and boil them, some we decorate with beeswax. We’ll undoubtedly end up with a lot of hard boiled eggs and these can be turned into an egg salad or deviled eggs later. Tradition dictates to eat lots of wild herbs and I usually make a nettle spanakopita but as nothing’s really growing yet, not even weeds, I’ll have to wait. But in case you live in a warmer climate and your weeds are thriving in the spring sun, see the recipes bellow. For the Easter brunch with my in-laws, I’ll either bake the braided bread rolls, or mazanec, the sweet Czech Easter bread.

May your Easter be happy and eggs plentiful!

Egg salad with curry and Dijon mustard

Deviled eggs

Nettle spanakopita

Ricotta al forno with spring herbs

Aparagus frittata

Potato pancakes with cold herb sauce

Mazanec

Braided bread rolls