Garden On, Vashon

First, the News:

Cathy Fulton of Mariposa Gardens will hold an Open House & Potluck this Saturday, July 3rd to show her many sustainability projects such as the aquaponic (fish-growing) system, the permaculture guild, frugal container gardening, and bed-turning with a Broadfork. The Open House starts at 4pm, the Potluck at 6pm: bring a dish and maybe musical instruments for some jammin’ later. The address is 228 SW 209th Street, about 100 yards down Monument Road where you can park and walk up her rough gravel driveway. If you just want to help, she’s having a work party Friday to prepare, or you can be a “docent.” To contact her, visit http://mariposagardens.org. 

Greens on a Deadline

Are we on the cusp of real summer?

One hint is that the cool-weather crops, mature for a few weeks now, are showing signs they’re getting ready to bolt. My loose-leaf lettuce sprawls open, some spinach plants have seed-pods in their top-knots, the mustards and choi wave yellow flowers in the air. Even the Langley Farms’ cabbage, which over-wintered well, has chosen this moment to head up and keel over.

Yes, there’s a LOT of leafy greens out there, thanks to all the rain we’ve “enjoyed.”  After eating as much as two households can, Bill Green and I gazed over rows still stuffed with produce and decided to donate lettuce, spinach, cress, pak choi, and armloads of Komatsuna, an Asian mustard spinach, to the Food Bank. 15 pounds worth—felt good. 

And I wasn’t the only one: as I was loading bags out the front door into the Food Bank’s delivery van, another gardener heavy-laden with greens walked in the back door and called out “Can you use these?”

Who knew Spinach would be good with Strawberries?

Henry, head of Thriftway produce, approached me as I was digging for the second day in a row through the flats of Sakuma Brothers strawberries. “They’ve been flying out the door ever since we decided to sell by weight and put up the ‘take as much as you want’ sign.” He said the store will be getting Sakuma Bros. raspberries later today (Wednesday, 30th), with blueberries later, finally blackberries and boysenberries. 

If you’re lucky, you might also score some locally grown strawberries at the farmer’s market or at farm stands this weekend.

I’ve been enjoying the California organic strawberries this spring—in a green salad dressed with a fruity vinaigrette, they add good color and a tart, refreshing taste. In fact, they’re better this way than in a dessert.

But these are WASHINGTON berries, from Sakuma Brothers, the largest berry grower in Skagit County. And while not organic, these strawbs are truly Dessert-Worthy—all the way red, sweet and soft, and ripe THIS MINUTE. 

And only with such ripe berries can you understand why Italians love strawberries in balsamic vinegar. Here’s two recipes that marry the berries to this magic dark elixir.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Wash and cut fresh spinach across the leaf into ribbons. Top with slices of plain feta cheese or dollops of creme fraiche (I’ll explain how to make that below). Place 6-8 sliced strawberries on top of the cheese and drizzle a vinaigrette of 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, S & P and a bit of sweetener.

Black-Tie Strawberries & Creme (fraiche)

You start this the day before with a pint of yogurt and two empty plastic containers, one a pint, the other just large enough to hold the pint with room below (We use pint and quart versions of salsa containers). In the pint container, cut a slit in the bottom that’s 3/4″ wide and shaped like a half-opened eye, not quite all the way across the bottom. Put a coffee filter on top of this, then the pint within the larger jar. Here’s your creme fraiche maker, cheap and simple.

Buy or make a pint of plain, rather stiff yogurt: Nancy’s yogurt works well. Pour yogurt into the coffee filter in the pint container until nearly full, then place the whole contraption into the refrigerator to let the yogurt shed its whey into the “well” in the quart container. In 24 hours, you’ll have a yogurt cheese that’s remarkably like creme fraiche, thick enough to stand up a spoon. Sweeten with sugar for a sweet treat, or season with savories, garlic salt, or herbs for a cracker spread.

(DON’T pour the whey down your plumbing: Cindy Morrison confessed in her recent cheese class that when she did that, cheese formed up in her pipes! So toss it into your garden beds or compost, or use the whey in bread-making.)

The next day, in the hour before dinner, wash strawberries, sweeten, and over them drizzle a scant tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Mix and set aside for flavors to develop. 

After dinner, sweeten 1/4 cup (per person) of creme fraiche and layer in the bottom of dessert bowls. In a separate small bowl, make a chocolate paste with that squeezeable Hershey’s chocolate sauce you bought (for your kids, yah RIGHT!) and a tablespoon or two of powdered cocoa (sweeten if bitter); dollop a spoonful of that in each dessert bowl. Finally, artifully arrange the strawberries over the chocolate and sprinkle on a “snow” of sweetener if needed. A sprig of mint will dress this up nicely. And if you want to really amaze your guests, ask them if they’d “like a grinding of black pepper on that?”