New bed

Yesterday I finished buiding the new planting bed, replacing five smaller beds. To give you an idea of how much more planting space this will give me, the five beds were 160 square feet. This new bed is 432 square feet! This new planting space will be put to good use one I add some more compost and organic fertilizer.

On another note, I planted an additional 75 feet of beets yesterday. Beets take 60 days to mature and like the cool weather, so now is a good to plant. There is a risk that the weather will be too cold and the seeds will fail to germinate, or spring rains will rot the seeds in the ground (like last year during the historic floods in Rhode Island). But, seed is very inexpensive and I will plant a row of beet seed each week in order to hedge my bet against crop failure.

St. Joseph's Day

Before I moved to Rhode Island in 1990, I had never heard of St. Joseph's Day. But in RI, St. Joseph's Day (March 19th) is as big, if not bigger, than St. Patrick's Day which falls two days earlier. St. Joseph's Day is a day of feasting on the Roman Catholic calendar and is celebrated as Father's Day in countries like Italy and Spain. Here, SJD is celebrated by wearing red and eating an Italian pastry called a Zeppole. Pictured above, zeppoles are similar to donuts with fried dough and filled or topped with whipped cream. They often have a cherry on top. I've seen recipes with chocolate or savory zeppoles with anchovies, but I've never seen these zeppoles in a Rhode Island bakery.

People often have a traditional Italian dinner on St. Joseph's Day. Karen made mashed fava beans (very traditional on SJD) and pasta with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Some grilled olives and white wine were perfect accompaniments.

An Italian friend told me years ago that it is good luck to plant something on St. Joseph's Day. I searched the Internet, but couldn't find anything to support this. The closest came when I found a quote that said to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day. Not wanting to tempt fate, I prepped a bed and planted beets today. I also found a quote supposedly from the Farmers Almanac that says if St. Joseph's Day is clear, you will have a bountiful garden. Today started out cloudy, but by afternoon it was sunny. So I guess we're in for another good growing season!

Garlic Scapes

I've posted about garlic scapes here and here in the past. But, I've always posted during the time of year when I am harvesting them. Whenever I display them at the farmers market, people always ask me how to prepare garlic scapes. My favorite way to use garlic scapes is in pesto. Stored in sterized jars or freezer bags, garlic scape pesto can be frozen and enjoyed year round. I always have several jars in the freezer and one in the fridge for everyday use. We drop spoonfuls of garlic scape pesto in sauces (it's wonderful in marinara) and soups. We use garlic scape pesto in rice, couscous, omlettes, pizza and bread.

Today, I made a bean soup inspried by a dish I saw prepared on TV. I took some Italian bread and grilled it with Garlic Scape Pesto. Beans with Rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper goes on the grilled bread. Some vegetable broth moistens the grilled bread and beans. Try it with different kinds of beans (I used white beans) and pestos.

Bulbs!

You know spring is close when bulbs start popping up. The very first are alway the crocus. If you look at the yellow stamen, these are what are picked and called Saffron. Saffron is ued to add flavor and color to Indian dishes and rice dishes like risotto. I've never picked home grown Saffron, but maybe this year I will give it a try. I also posted a picture of some lilies that are starting to pop up. Next weekend is St. Joseph's day, so we will be planting some stuff on Saturday!

New planting beds

Little did I know when I posted about an early November snow storm that we would be starting one of our snowiest winters in recent memory here in Rhode Island. But today was beautiful with warm temps and sunny skies. So I spent the day outside doing a little clean up and looking at the projects for the upcoming season. This year I decided to continue the project of increasing planting space by creating long rows out of space occupied by smaller beds. Last year, I used bricks when I made long rows in a different planting area

This year I am going to use 6x6 lumber instead of the bricks. While the bricks work well, they do have some drawbacks. In the picture above you can see a part of the brick wall that fell over. Since we don't use mortar, the brick walls fall and have to be repaired fairly regularly. So, we are going to try the 6x6 lumber. I will post pictures as the project progresses.