Sopa de Mora (harvest recipe)

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Sopa de Mora (harvest recipe)

Last summer I hired my neighbor’s gardener to create a pea gravel walkway in my back yard. The morning of the job, he showed up with his wife Doris* and another friend and got to work. It was one of the few occasions when I was willing to sit back and let someone else handle all the labor for a change. While the guys were working, Doris took a break to show me a frog she found in the yard, and like two giddy schoolgirls, we fawned over the poor thing (who had almost ended up flattened under one of the guys’ boots) and shared our insights into the nature of these creatures in her broken English and my broken Spanish. As the men continued to work and I came out again to respond to their questions and look at the progress of the walkway, Doris pointed out a weed that was growing in my yard and told me it was mora. She said that you could eat it and that in her country (El Salvador), they cooked it in a soup. Intrigued, I resolved to find out more.

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Veggie-stuffed zucchini boats

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Last summer and fall I struggled with my zucchini plants, and if you’ve been a regular reader of the blog, you may remember that my first *perfect* zucchini was followed by months of disappointment in which none of my zucchinis grew to maturity. This year started out much better, with my zucchini plants growing happily in their raised bed home and producing an abundance of vegetables. Finally, I seem to be getting that bumper crop that I have heard so many other food growers talk about! This means that in addition to the piles of fried zucchini squash blossoms I ate last year, this year I’m able to enjoy meals made with the actual zucchini from my garden.

Growing zucchini can be a challenge

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Easy Peasy Meals Your Kids Will Love

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Easy Peasy Meals Your Kids Will Love

As a parent, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Work, homeschooling, and juggling everyday chores are just a few tasks that might be bogging down your to-do list. You don’t have time to cook a fancy dinner every night, but at the same time, you want your family to have a home-cooked meal. The solution? A handful of healthy meals for kids that you can whip up at the last minute. Here are some of our favorite healthy dishes that you and your kids will love.

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Fried zucchini squash blossoms

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Fried zucchini squash blossoms

This summer’s zucchini harvest started out so promisingly.

The leaves of my 3 zucchini plants grew to monstrous sizes. The largest plant produced what was probably the most perfectly shaped and tastiest zucchini I had ever grown. I quickly overcome a squash vine borer problem by carefully monitoring the plants every day and, in an emergency operation, cutting out the 2 small borers I found inside one of the plant’s stems and then injecting the stem with Bacillus Thuringiensis (bt, used in organic farming) to kill any others I might have missed. When powdery mildew struck, I applied neem oil diligently every week. I created better air flow and eliminated the possibility of rot undermining my plants by staking them to keep them off the ground, trimming all of the leaves that were growing underneath the budding squash. And yet…

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Four Mint Iced Tea (harvest recipe)

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Four Mint Iced Tea (harvest recipe)

If there is one plant anyone can grow, it’s mint. This perennial, hardy herb isn’t very fussy: it needs moist soil and prefers partial shade, although it will also grow happily in full sun as long as you keep it watered and fertilize with a liquid fertilizer every 6 to 8 weeks. Left to its own devices, it will take over your growing space, so it’s usually best to grow it in containers. Even a small container of mint can provide you with an ample amount of herb to use in teas and culinary dishes, and clipping once the stem has produced several sets of leaves will encourage the plant to send out produce more. In fact, it’s best to clip the leaves on a regular basis for a healthy plant that will offer you an abundant harvest.

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Simple Tomato Harvest Sauce

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Simple Tomato Harvest Sauce

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh organic tomatos, basil, and oregano that I'm able to grow. Last year's harvest was ok, but traveling for part of the summer and asking my neighbors to take care of the plants in my absence meant that I didn’t get to enjoy most of the fruits of my labor! That, coupled with my hasty assembly of a drip irrigation system without taking the time to test it before leaving town resulted in waterlogged plants. Some were able to recover and produce abundant harvests after some weeks of babying, but others never did.

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Stir-fried cabbage and bok choy

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Stir-fried cabbage and bok choy

Many of us have been doing a lot more cooking now that we’re observing some level of lockdown and social isolation. Whether you’re working from home, out of work, currently on furlough, or newly retired, you may have found yourself eating home-cooked food more often than usual. Although I cook on a regular basis, having to cook 3 times a day most days has been wearing on me (as I’m sure it has for many of you who are now cooking more than usual!) For that reason, I’ll be publishing a series of blog posts every Friday this month that focus on making quick, healthy dishes that even mediocre, reluctant, or bored-with-the-usual cooks can easily create. Looking for something new to add to your repertoire? Then keep reading!

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Why you should be drinking hibiscus water

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Why you should be drinking hibiscus water

You might recognize the large, colorful red, yellow, white, or peach flowers of the hibiscus plant, especially if you live in one of the tropical, sub-tropical, or temperate climates in which it grows. In the Caribbean, hibiscus is used to make sorrel, a sweet drink that is made from the dried boiled leaves of the hibiscus sabdariffa species, flavored with spices like cinnamon and ginger, and frequently consumed around the Christmas holiday season. Did you know that aside from adding a rich and vibrant display to your garden that attracts beneficial pollinators, or providing a delicious beverage for the holiday season, hibiscus has several different medicinal uses? The flowers and leaves of this plant have been used for millennia for culinary purposes, and to make teas and liquids that can remedy a number of medical conditions, including high blood pressure, upset stomach, and bacterial infections.

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Yogurt Bread

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Yogurt Bread

In my last year of college, one of my housemates and best friends was a guy who knew how to make the best potato breads I’ve ever tasted. That was my introduction to bread making, and I’ve loved it ever since. Making bread at home is a pretty basic DIY skill that anyone can master with a little practice, and basic bread requires few ingredients – flour, water, sugar, salt, and yeast. Check the store brands you buy – most have added ingredients, and if you see a lot more ingredients in that list than the ones I’ve named above, then you know the bread is over-processed, full of preservatives, and possibly contains chemical substances – like phosphates -- that have been linked in clinical studies with intestinal inflammation, kidney disease, osteoporosis, and heart problems when they are eaten on a regular basis. Store-bought breads are also not cheap, and a single artisan loaf or “healthy” brand can cost $5 or more.

So learning to make bread at home can not only save you money, it can also help you avoid some of the health problems that come with regularly eating processed foods.

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Honey-roasted carrots with sesame seeds

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Honey-roasted carrots with sesame seeds

This is one of my go-to quick and easy recipes for busy weekday nights. My kids love it, and it goes from the oven to the table in about 20 minutes. If you have kids who aren’t crazy about vegetables, this one might win them over with its sweet and salty taste. It goes well with rice and chicken, fish, or potatos. Alternatively, use it to add a light and sweet balance to heavy entrees. You can also make it a day ahead of time.

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Turkish lentil soup

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Turkish lentil soup

This fast, easy, and healthy recipe for kırmızı mercimek çorba, or (Turkish) red lentil soup, is one of my family’s favorite. My 8-year old requests it every week. It’s one of several ways that this soup can be made: you can omit the carrots and Hungarian paprika if you prefer, or take more time and strain the soup through a sieve if you like, creating a thinner consistency (which is the way you will usually find it being made in Turkey). You can also add more water to make it less thick and hearty.

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creamy potato-sweet potato soup (recipe)

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creamy potato-sweet potato soup (recipe)

(vegan option)

This is a thick, rich, and creamy soup that is perfect for the cold season. Even better, it is quick and easy to make – 45 minutes from start to finish! It has a number of different variations you can try to suit your particular tastes, variations that range from the sweetness to the thickness to spices used in this soup. You can even choose to make it vegan by skipping the last part, that adds a dollop of plain yogurt to the finished soup.

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Jeff's Luscious Red Pepper Sauce

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Jeff's Luscious Red Pepper Sauce

This was a recipe invented by my ex-husband Jeff, who besides being a gifted gardener and landscaper who could revive even the saddest-looking plants, is also a great cook. This recipe is fast and easy to make, and the sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in in the freezer for up to 3 weeks.

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Paprika chicken wings (recipe)

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Paprika chicken wings (recipe)

This is one of my favorite go-to recipes for a quick and healthy dinner. It doesn’t require any marinating beforehand (although you can do that if you like for richer flavor), and with a few simple ingredients you can have it on the table in under an hour! It’s a favorite with my kids, too, and we rarely have leftovers!

The real secret to the rich taste, though, is good-quality Hungarian paprika. Hungarian paprika is one of several kinds of paprika (including sweet, smoked, and Spanish pimentón) used in cooking. It has a complex flavor (with at least 8 varieties) and ranges from mild (flavor) and bright red (color) to spicy and pungent with a pale orange color.

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What Everyone Needs to Know about Arsenic in Rice

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What Everyone Needs to Know about Arsenic in Rice

Exposure to arsenic is a growing global health problem, but there’s a lot that scientists and health workers still don’t know about the extent to which it is affecting the health of vulnerable populations.

What exactly is arsenic, and how does it affect your health? Is there anything you can do to reduce your exposure to arsenic in rice and other food you eat? These are a few of the questions that this week’s blog post aims to answer.

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