To Plate

Last week Lindsay and I made our first dish using substantial amounts of homegrown produce. I wanted to do something nice with the chard I had harvested, and the recipe we settled on was from Vegweb, simply called Millet with Red Swiss Chard Leaves and Carrots. Before I go on with the details, I'd like to mention that I'm using this post for Grow Your Own, a monthly food blogging event hosted over at Andrea's Recipes.

Now, it so happens that I'm a pretty big fan of millet (and carrots), so this looked like a good recipe to me. I decided to modify it a little, because I didn't believe the millet would cook through properly as described. As it turns out, I didn't modify it quite enough. Millet, in my experience, is best prepared at a little less than a 1:3 ratio of grain to water, cooked covered for 30 minutes, and then left to stand slightly uncovered for around 10 more minutes. If I try this recipe again, I will probably cook the millet through separately before mixing with the vegetables. Speaking of the vegetables, though I didn't grow these I just had to include a picture of the onion and carrots.


Pretty, no? Anyhow, everything seemed like it was going quite well. For soup broth, I used a cup of Trader Joe's Carrot and Ginger soup and added a cup of water as well. I thought this would complement the ingredients well, but again I think I would do things differently. The dish ended up being a bit bland to my taste. I think a saltier broth would have provided better contrast within the dish when all is said and done.


I cooked the millet separately for about 15 minutes before adding the vegetables and cooking for another 15 minutes. The millet didn't seem like it was done, so I continued to add water and simmer for awhile. I would say another full cup of water was added to the dish during this time.


Unfortunately the millet just didn't quite finish cooking. We didn't want to leave it on any longer because we were afraid the chard and onions would just turn to mush.

I'll probably try this dish again, but first cook the millet through and let it sit a bit before later mixing it with the vegetables. I'll also use a different broth, with hopes that this will minimize the need for Braggs and nutritional yeast, which we ended up using this time around. I do like the combinations in this dish, as well as the fact that it uses the entire chard leaf, including the stem.

For anyone who hasn't tried millet yet but is interested, I encourage you to do so. Around these parts you can pick it up at the Peoples Food Coop and probably at other places as well. I regularly enjoy cooking this with soup broth instead of water to give it a richer flavor.

Swiss Chard, Rapini: Harvest and Reflections

My grow shelves were beginning to feel a little cramped. My chard was getting too tall, and I didn't have any room to raise the lights higher. Besides for this, my rapini, having been unattended for a couple of days, was also pushing its spatial limits. What to do? Harvest!




I'd already taken a few chard leaves for a salad last week, but these were mostly unharvested plants. I transferred them into the Earthbox clone on March 2, but had planted them previously in flats. Part of me wanted to wait until they grew to the size of those I saw at Plum Market. Part of me realized that was silliness. It was this latter part of me that held the scissors.




What's left behind still looks rather happy and healthy, so I assume there will be further harvestable growth. Despite the still somewhat full appearance of my planter, I made out with a fair bit of chard:


So what do I think about growing chard indoors under lights? Well why don't I reflect on that for you...

REFLECTIONS: Swiss Chard

When I read that chard roots can go six feet deep, I knew I hadn't made the optimum choice for an indoor crop. Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with how it has gone. Despite the limited root space, all of the plants are producing well. In addition to this, they're just beautiful. The leaves range from green to plum in color, even within a single plant. Some are bright and shiny green, some are a solid, beautiful purple color, and most of them fall somewhere in between, sporting green to purple leaves with red veins.






Even the small ones are on the bitter side when eaten raw, and I'm not a big fan of bitter. I've never cooked with chard, so I think I'll be scouring the web for some good recipes to help me figure out what to do with my bounty. If any passing reader has a nice chard recipe they'd like to share, I'd love to see it in the comments.

I don't know the exact planting date for these plants, but I'd guess they spent around six weeks in a flat before beign transferred to the self-watering container (in which they really took off). I'd say these plants are therefor around two and a half months old. The seeds were a 59 day variety, but considering their excessive time spent in flats, they seemed to mature indoors at about the normal rate, though not mostly to the projected height of 2 feet.

I will definitely be planting more chard outside this spring. They're a really beautiful edible plant. I'm less likely to grow it indoors, but if I do, it will be the colors of the plant that persuades me.






REFLECTIONS: Rapini

Boy was this an interesting plant. I got the seeds for this from a lot on eBay awhile back. The pack that had my rapini was labeled "Sprouting Broccoli", but they're certainly not that. Rapini, also known as Broccoli Rabe or Broccoli Raab, among other things, is a less common cousin of standard broccoli.


Rapini is fast growing and most of the plant is edible, two nice features for indoor growing. Clipping off the first cluster of flower buds and it's stalk will result in a bevy of side shoots. Once the shoots start to come up, they come up fast, often growing right up into the light fixture. For this reason, they require frequent harvesting. Because many of the flower clusters are relatively small in size, I suggest either having a good number of plants from which you can harvest large amounts frequently, or a lesser number of plants with frequent harvests and short-term storage, until enough of the buds have been collected.


The buds are best before the flowers emerge, but remain edible for a while after. The stalks are supposed to be edible, but I have yet to successfully enjoy them. I find that they grow tough rather quickly. I'd like to try some of these after blanching them.


The leaves are also edible and, while slightly bitter, provide a brocolli-like taste, as do the buds and (presumably) the stalks.

This may be a plant worth growing indoors, thanks to its quick growth and large degree of edibility. I will surely be planting it in the garden this spring.

Garden Log - March 12, 2008

These pictures were all taken yesterday evening. The little seedlings are all coming along well. One of the Okras died, but the other is thriving. I'll probably split the tomatoes up into separate containers soon.








I really like these pea plants. They're growing so quickly, I might have to pot them up in some larger containers before it's time for them to go outside. They're supposed to be a bush variety, so hopefully this will work out.


The onion that sprouted in the kitchen has perked up quite a bit.


These rapini are in need of harvesting. I keep meaning to make myself a salad, but just haven't gotten to it.




This tray, which is actually the second one I planted in, is doing real well. The chard is looking great, but I'm not going to be able to grow it as big indoors as out. I recently read that chard roots go as deep as 6 feet, which obviously isn't going to happen in here. Radishes are coming along well through the middle of the container.




I've gotten a lot of Cherry Belle Radishes out of this container. The rapini hasn't quite developed yet, but I'll be eating a lot of it when it does.




I'll have some more in depth thoughts on everything up soon.

Edibles

I've got a few posts brewing, so check back tomorrow and in the next few days for a Garden Log update, some reflections on my experiences so far, and my plans for this growing season.

Hello to You & Garden Log - March 5, 2008

Gardening is pretty new to me. In fact, my first gardening experience was just this past spring and summer. Prior to that, I hadn't even had a houseplant. Since then, I've put many hours into learning about how to grow things, both through reading and first-hand experience. I've got some grand plans for this growing season.

Currently, besides for a jungle of houseplants, I'm growing edible plants in my basement under fluorescent lights. I've been keeping a log of what I do and how the plants are coming along on my computer, just for personal reference, and now I'm going to do so on this blog as well. Besides for pictures, I will do my best to share my impressions, thoughts, and knowledge, all as it comes to me.

Without further ado, here's my March 5 update. These pictures were all taken late last night. I will provide some information on these plants today, with perhaps some more in-depth examinations in future posts.

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You can see some earlier pictures of this first plant in previous posts. I got the seeds some time ago in a lot on eBay. They were labeled "Sprouting Broccoli", but that is not what they are. My current guess is that they're Rapini, also known as Broccoli Raab/Rabe. I have a number of these plants growing, but so far just one has come to flower. As seen in the previous post, that flower-stalk was removed (and eaten, yum!) so as to promote side shoots. As you can see, there are now two healthy side shoots, and probably some other smaller ones as well.





I had two things sprout today: Russian Tarragon and Little Marvel Garden Peas, both from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. The peas are a dwarf bush type. I don't yet know how practical they will be as an indoor plant, or if I will end up transplanting them outdoors.





On my shelves, I have two Earthbox clones from the Gardening Supply Company. In the first I have some Rhubard Chard transplants (seeded in flats, then in home-made pop bottle containers, and now transplanted into their third container), as well as a couple of the Rapini(?)s.





In the second Earthbox clone I've got Cherry Belle Radishes growing intermixed with more of the Rapini(?). I've had one of the radishes and will probably harvest a number of them later today.





The following are Geranium seedlings. I have a Geranium that came from the Botanical Gardens, which I'm rather taken with, so I'm looking forward to these guys. Their discoloration around the edges of the leaves leads me to believe they're over-watered at this point. It's probably time for them to move out of the pop bottle into some starter pots.





And, finally, Lindsay's Daisy. She tells me these are her favorite flower. This one was left at my house after moving around from place to place and dealing with the winter air. I've been trying to get it to re-flower for her, and it looks like it soon will. What you see now in the pictures is very different from when I started taking care of it. It has a whole new set of leaves, with the old ones cut off, that actually look somewhat different from before. It's also sending up flower-stalks, and so I should be able to post some pictures of Lindsay's new daisies before too long.

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So keep an eye on this page if it interests you, it should have a significant update at least once a week. You can watch my plants grow along with me.