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By feral, on October 8th, 2011%
It is that magical time of the year when everything turns orange. The air itself must be tinted — just look at this photo. We don’t get to observe the setting sun directly from our windows but its bright orange reflected light provides some truly dramatic lighting for Midtown skyscrapers in the fall.
Where have all the flowers gone? – you might ask this New York’s leading florist… Well, obviously, they have all turned into pumpkins.
 Last year I, too, planted some pumpkins and was very excited about cooking all kinds of stuff with them. They grew big and pretty but turned out to be completely inedible. So, this year I decided not to plant any; yet, this one somehow grew on its own!
 And I’m very happy it did. First of all, it proves that my feral gardening method works. And secondly, even though it isn’t large enough to turn into a carriage or round enough to be carved into a jack-o-lantern, it . . . CONTINUE READING → Orange, orange everywhere!
By feral, on September 26th, 2011%
I planted them kind of late (mid-July) and kind of ferally (just a few seeds here and there on an undeveloped part of the slope), and still they grew!
They aren’t gigantic, these butternut squashes of mine — some are rather petite, to be honest. But I’m still pretty impressed with the harvest. I picked almost all of them, except for the tiniest/greenest ones, because it’s getting too rainy and they will otherwise rot. Or get eaten by one of my furry competitors.
Lined up on the counter, they looked very cute, sort of like Russian nesting dolls that haven’t been painted yet… A new Halloween tradition, perhaps? — Instead of carving pumpkins, make some Matryoshkas out of butternut squash?
The photo below came out overexposed and i really liked the effect, so I’m posting it too. Although the first one is true to color.
Favorite butternut squash recipes, please?
By feral, on September 11th, 2011%
Helen and Russel visited us for lunch today and we fed them pizza. 2 pizzas, to be exact, James and I designing a pie each. (There was also some leftover tuna casserole involved, served as a semi-cold appetizer, but we don’t speak of it.)
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to log the pizza crust technique — because it was a success! (Helen even asked me to email her the recipe but I said she’d have to look it up on FG, so there…) Here’s the dough recipe I used (twice now), loved it, and am adding it to my list of notable recipes. It’s pretty fast — took about 20-30 minutes to make and 1 hour to rise – light, tasty, and soft. To bake, I preheated the oven to 475F with the pizza stone inside, for about 20 minutes, arranged the pies on parchment paper dusted lightly with cornmeal, slid them onto the pizza stone, one at a time, and baked each for 15 minutes.
And now on to the artistic part. James’ idea was to use squash flowers that are still blossoming in abundance, and so we did! He picked some (butternut squash, I . . . CONTINUE READING → Feral Pizza — it’s all in the dough
By feral, on August 25th, 2011%
I was away from the garden for long three weeks. Finally, we escaped the city, shaken up by yesterday’s seismic tremors, and safely arrived in Canaan late last night. (Although the earthquake was most noticeable in the neighborhoods of Twitter and Facebook, I did feel it in Soho and James, who was at home, says that 5.8 magnitude translates into quite an unnerving sensation on the 37th floor…) And if Manhattan, fortunately, did not sustain any damages, in the garden this morning I witnessed scenes of devastation.
The tallest sunflowers collapsed.
Tomato plants fell to they ground, many with their support structures.
 None of these catastrophic damages, however, were due to tectonic shifts. The sunflowers grew too tall for their own good and tomatoes too heavy, although I do take partial responsibility for a somewhat faulty deficient job staking the latter. In any case, it won’t hurt to get more earthquake-resistant varieties next year.
But it only looked dramatic. The was almost no real damage. Quite the opposite, actually — I spent the rest of the day . . . CONTINUE READING → Back in the garden – harvest time!
By feral, on February 27th, 2011%
A large deposit of frozen blueberries was discovered in the upstate downstairs freezer last weekend. Remember last summer’s blueberry rush? Well, we have somehow forgotten about the loot we had frozen in ziploc bags to sustain us through the winter.
Now the winter is almost over (I keep insisting on that) and we have barely made a dent in what was meant to be a year’s supply of vaccinium cyanococcus. So, we brought one bag back to the city and I just used a few handfuls to make a smoothie for breakfast. (both are pictured, left an right, respectively) With some soy milk, banana, almond butter, raw honey, a little maple syrup and some frozen açai pulp that’s been waiting for its moment in our urban freezer for about 2 years now.
Now waiting for all the health effects to kick in. Wikipedia promises alleviation of cognitive decline, lowering of brain damage, enhanced memory (all very pressing concerns), prevention of urinary tract infections and cancer, reduced blood sugar, cholesterol and symptoms of depression, as well as lower blood pressure . . . CONTINUE READING → frozen blueberry smoothie
By feral, on August 23rd, 2010%
My most sincere apologies for leaving you alone for several days with nothing but images of slimy gastropod romance. They were definitely not the theme of our weekend — and, hopefully, not of yours.
 The last several days in the life of feral garden have been dominated by an abundance of tomatoes, more squash, and — most notably — squash blossoms. My anxiety over their delicate nature has been successfully replaced by a total obsession with using these beautiful yellow flowers for all kinds of edible arrangements. A special series of posts on squash blossom cooking (with even more photos) is forthcoming.
For now I give you these 2 dishes from our lunch on Friday:
Roasted Pattypan (Scallop) Squash and Chickpeas With Anchovy and Herbs Dressing — based on this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini. (You might remember its alien-ship shape from this post.) Not the most obvious combination of ingredients — but a real breath of fresh air in the world of pattypan squash, especially if you — like myself — love anchovies. But even if . . . CONTINUE READING → the art of squash
By feral, on August 17th, 2010%
A scary tropical monsoon poured down on Canaan today. All of a sudden lights were flickering, and there was a real Donnerwetter with loud thunder, lightening, and chickpea-sized hail. I wailed preemptively for my poor tomatoes. But luckily, the hail lasted for only a few minutes and caused almost no damage.
chilled cucumber soup, presentation by James
 The torrential storm arrived almost simultaneously with Richard and Fran who were stopping by to see us for lunch on their way from Boston to NYC. Thanks to said lunch, I now have photos of the chilled cucumber, mint and yogurt soup (on the left) and I also tried my first Alice Waters’ zucchini recipe from Chez Panisse Vegetables — the zucchini fritters (on the right).
I diverged a little from Chez Panisse recipe. I definitely used more than a pound of grated zucchini, and the zest of only 1 lemon (instead of . . . CONTINUE READING → lunch update
By feral, on August 15th, 2010%
 I think I ate at lest 8 tomatoes today. And this is what’s left in the basket. I am one happy gardener.
white pattypan (scallop) squash
In other news: an alien flotilla landed on the squash patch.
I used 2 of these flying saucers in a squash casserole for dinner (with onions, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, basil and garlic). I’ve never cooked with pattypan squash before (I have, however, used it for venturing out into the outer space), and was a little nervous. But it turned out lovely, with a sweet buttery taste and a wonderful texture. Except that the skin on some of the chunks remained a little tough (that’s right, I didn’t bother peeling it) – so, I figure I could have cooked it a little longer.
I was very relieved when James pulled out Chez Panisse Vegetables book tonight. I was beating myself up for forgetting to bring it upstate but, luckily, I’m not the only one concerned . . . CONTINUE READING → tonight’s basket report
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