Tales from a Novice Gardener

It has been almost 4 years since my sweetie and I bought our house. It was also January and we had about 2 pieces of furniture to bring with us, so I was way more concerned with the inside of the house than the outside. As we settled in and the weather warmed up, my other half (who has a very green thumb) announced one sunny Saturday morning that it was time to ready our garden. Now, let me be clear about a few things. We live in Jersey City about 3 blocks from the PATH train so "garden" is a loose term for the L-shaped strip of dirt that runs along the side and front of our house. It's probably about 14-inches wide, and I really didn't think we would be able to grow much of anything. That first year we just turned the soil to get rid of all those huge rocks that like to get in the way and added about 1,000 pounds of top soil and 700 pounds of mulch. I counted the bags. The next year it was flowers. The next year I added basil, thyme and some cucumber sprouts that were calling my name at Lowe's. When my cucumbers grew into a huge bush that I thought was beyond possible, I realized that I could try something a little different next year. So this year I saw a 6-inch little shoot at Lowe's and the tag read tomatillos. Great. Perfect.
As a chef, I have used tomatillos in a bunch of different ways, although there is nothing wrong with a good old salsa verde. I thought I would get a few dozen fruit, make some salsa and maybe some preserves...you know, play around. Things did not go exactly as planned.
The plant started to grow well...a little too well. The tag said 60 days for fruit and around that time I did see a few husks forming, but for the most part I had a huge bush seemingly growing several inches each day with tons and tons of flowers all over. The bees have been very happy...and a little territorial.

See the little husks growing...cute, no?



Yeah...it's even bigger now. That fence is about 5 and half feet tall.

So I ended up with a big tangle of cucumbers (you can see their big leaves on the right hand side of the photo) and tomatillos but was surprised to find that it was several weeks from the time a husk would form to the time I had a tomatillo ready to pick. I would go to this giant plant with my scissors and find only one or two ready in all this greenery. Perhaps if I had pruned the plant back I would have had a better yield, but these are the things you learn when you try something new.
For the past few weeks I have been collecting the tomatillos and today I finally had enough to make a salsa.



Garlic, onion, Fresno pepper, tomatillos




So nice and charred under the broiler.




Blended up with lots of fresh cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Spicy!

With the warm weather holding out, there are still tons of baby husks popping out all over the plant, so I'm hoping I will get an end of the year bumper crop. If not, that's ok too. I'm still proud to have grown a lovely garden this year full of life and learned a few lessons for next year.

Bright and Breezy

The hurricane has passed. The water is ebbing, the power is being restored, businesses are reopened and people are back to work.
Most of us in New York City, the surrounding boroughs and across the Hudson in Jersey City embraced the usual jaded, whatever attitude. It's not that there wasn't concern about the severity of what could have been coming, but we couldn't stop the storm, don't experience this very often and besides posting out of boredom on Facebook, didn't know what to do except to eat and drink. I admit, I was caught up in it as well. Saturday afternoon I had a sudden flash that if power went out and I didn't want to cook in the dark  I didn't have enough snacks! Off to my local 7-11, which as both open and well supplied. I didn't lose power (gratefully) and just ended up with a weekend of too many snacks and perhaps a few too many glasses of wine. This seemed to resonate with many of my friends.
So if the official drink of last weekend was the Hurricane and perhaps a close runner up should have been the Dark and Stormy, I propose a post-hurricane drink: the Bright and Breezy. It's a refreshing and alcohol-free way to embrace a little personal recovery. After all, it's almost Friday of a holiday weekend and that will certainly be a new reason to celebrate.

Bright and Breezy
Makes 1 drink

4 small cubes watermelon, about 1/4 cup
1/4 lime, cut into small pieces
4-6 basil leaves
1/2 to 1 teaspoon honey, to taste
1 cup chilled seltzer, flavored or plain

Place watermelon cubes in the freezer until just frozen, about 30 minutes. In a glass, combine the lime, basil and honey. Crush them together with a muddler or a spoon until the limes have released their juice. Add the frozen watermelon cubes and top with seltzer.