Walking with the onion again

My garden has been busy during all this rain. While I wasn't looking, the rhubarb went from too small for picking to sending up a flower stalk. The walking onions are developing flower heads. The comfrey is three feet tall. The weeds are rampant.

If celandine was a cash crop instead of an invasive weed, I'd be rich -- I have it in every garden, as well as covering the compost heap.

And the lawns? Out of control. Some parts are still too deep in water to mow.

I found a few surprises, like some pink forget-me-nots popping up where they were never planted, and this parrot tulip (I think it's a Professor Roentgen):

The strawberries have taken over the sandy garden. I had to take up well over 150 plants just to make room for vegetables. The rest of the berries are blossoming.

I managed to get in a dozen tomato plants and some cucumbers so far, and planted seeds for bush beans, pole beans, pumpkins and peas.

Now that my walking onions are established in the garden, there are plenty of mature onions to harvest. On the other hand, the leeks have petered out and are going to need replanting.

So when I went out to get ingredients for asparagus soup, I ended up with one leek and two walking onions. I think it came out just as tasty, but I typed up the recipe for folks without the unusual bulbs:

Cream of Asparagus Soup

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 large leek OR 1 small sweet onion*
1-1/2 lb fresh asparagus
1 quart plus 1 can chicken broth
Fresh herbs of choice (I used about 1/2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp garlic chives)
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/4 cup flour
1 cup Land O'Lakes fat-free half-and-half**

Heat 2 Tbsp butter or olive oil in large soup pot. Add leek or onion and saute until soft.

Meanwhile, cut tips from asparagus and set aside. Cut the rest of asparagus into 1/2" pieces and add to onions in pan. Saute about 3 minutes.

Add broth; bring to boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer until asparagus is very soft (15 minutes or more).

Remove soup from heat; allow to cool enough to put in blender and puree. If you have an immersion blender, you can puree in the pot. You can also use a hand mixer if you're careful, or just skip the puree step altogether.

Return soup to medium heat. Add asparagus tips and herbs. Bring back to a simmer.

Melt 4 Tbsp of butter. Remove from heat. Whisk in flour until smooth.

Add butter/flour mixture slowly to simmering soup, stirring constantly until soup returns to a low boil. Simmer until asparagus tips are done.

Slowly stir in half-and-half, mixing thoroughly, just before serving.

* I actually used one small leek and two "walking onions," each about 3/4" diameter. I used the white and green parts of the leek and the white parts of the onions.

** LOL brand fat-free is the only brand I've found that will mix instead of separating when added to hot liquid.

The REALLY dark tea-time of the soul

That's what my garden is in now. And, consequently, where I am, too. The dark season of destruction, endings and death. Most people know it as autumn.

I haven't blogged because it was just too depressing -- first the rain, then the tomato blight, then the frost.

Oh, woe is me; self-pity, sadness and sorrow. I didn't even want to go outside after the first frost, and we've had a few this month.

We had plenty of beans and cucumbers through the summer, and I even got a few strawberries off the first-year plants. My rosemary did beautifully and is now in pots on the front porch, along with some scraggly basil and a wilting Stevia.

The thyme never recovered from its early-summer haircut, though, and the sage died in situ. I managed a few tomatoes before the blight, but never got to do my salsa or the tomatoes, basil and mozzarella that I look forward to every year.

My pole beans, yellow squash and beautiful Lungo Bianco di Sicilia zucchini vine made it through the first light frost, but I didn't know about the second (harder) frost until midnight. I tried to cover the vine, but it was too late.

I did pick a few beans just before the hard frost, and one yellow squash, which awaits shredding and freezing.

Overall, especially with the tomato blight, I'd say this year's garden was a bust. The high point, however, was this white zucchini (actually light green), my only fruit from the many yards of vine:




I let it grow on the tomato cage until it touched the ground, then picked it so it wouldn't rot. I don't know how big it would have gotten if I'd had a taller tomato cage; it was over 3 feet long at harvest. I used half of it to make this confetti casserole, and the other half went into the freezer (shredded):



Confetti Casserole

2 small to medium zucchini*
1 medium summer squash
4 or 5 carrots
1 good-sized shallot
3 or 4 Roma tomatoes
1/2 lb. shredded cheese (mozzarella or mixed)
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup couscous
1 tsp. herbes de Provence (or Italian seasoning)
olive oil

Grease 11"x13" casserole pan with olive oil.
Finely shred zucchini, summer squash and carrots in food processor or by hand.
Finely chop shallot and tomatoes.
Mix vegetables, cheese, couscous, broth and seasoning in large bowl. Spoon into casserole and smooth surface flat.
Bake at 375 F for about an hour. Serve hot.

This can be made vegetarian with vegetable broth, or even vegan with soy cheese. Or it can go the other way with the addition of cooked chicken or other meat for a main dish.

*or half of a 3-foot Lungo Bianco di Sicilia!

I'm baaaaaack

What's the record for longest time between blog posts by someone who isn't actually dead?

I think I broke it.

Yet another gardening season has rolled around and I am in the thick of it. Thick, as in you can't see my garden because of the weeds.

I had a rototiller once, but it conked out, then got stuck in a spring flood. Twice. Anybody want a third-hand, early 1990s, flooded Troy-Bilt for parts? You haul it away, it's yours.

So I dig. And fork. And spade. And trowel. And power up big rocks with a shovel or a pike. It's called aerobic gardening. :)

One fine crop of dandelions has already flowered and gone to seed. I got about a third of them out of the veg bulb garden before that happened, so my leeks and walking onions got to see the sun.

The walking onions are kind of fun. If you like nice, neat rows of well-behaved plants, you would not like these at all. But if you like something a little quirky, they may be for you.











Instead of flowers, they have lumpy and twisted clusters of new onions growing at the top of a fat, hollow stalk. The bulblets fall to the ground (or the stalk softens and falls over), starting new plants where they hit the dirt. Thus they slowly "walk" around your garden!

And yes, you can eat them. I only planted mine last year, so I let them grow, but I may harvest some this summer. I'll let you know. Really. The same year.