How Does Your Garden Grow? The Harvest

Containing more  Lessons from my Daughter and From My Son

The End for 2010

The last of the harvest has been eaten.  Tom cut four lone pieces of okra from the garden the end of  November and ate them raw, cut up into our mixed salad.  It was not enough for a mess and some folks would have just tossed them, or put them in the compost pile.

 But Tom is a  WWII baby, whose mother’s  voice still echoes in his head.  “Waste not, want not.....   You must belong to the Clean Plate Club..... Eat your food—just think about all those starving children in Africa.”

I hear a similar voice.  I could never understand, though,  about that starving children thing.  Why in the world couldn’t we send the food—which I DID NOT WANT---to the hungry children who so needed it?

First Harvest of the Season 2010

This year we planted a limited number of crops, unlike in past years.  The tomatoes and okra were givens, though not quite as much okra as in the past.   Peppers and fields peas rounded out the garden. My three favorite summer foods are tomatoes, okra and field peas.  I could eat them every meal. 

I do not eat peppers.  To be in the same room while Tom is cutting them up makes my eyes water.  Tom puts them in everything he eats and if,  by accident,  it is something I also am eating,  my mouth burns for hours.  Taking a hint from Jeff's cheese stuffed peppers dish, Tom also makes his own unique stuffed hot peppers, stuffing them with all kinds of cheeses, smoked oysters, crab meat, chopped shrimp, smoked salmon, tuna, minced clams and other interesting and unusual things.  The two tricks to this dish are to wear gloves during preparation (the more important of the two) and to roast them well  so that the intense heat is under control.  He freezes these individually on cookie sheets so that he can pull out one or two at a time to roast for his dinner.  

The only disappointment were the field peas.  They were heavenly tasting, but almost nonexistence. We planted four rows of them, two on one side of the garden and two on the other.  The rows on the right side yielded some every now and then, so that every few days we had gathered enough to cook a mini pot full.  Tom let me eat them all each time(about 3 spoonfuls), because I was the one who had begged to plant them this year.  The other two rows yielded nothing—not one pea.  The plants looked healthy and were heavy  with dark lush leaves.  That was it.  No peas. We are going to be more careful about the exact kind of field pea we try next year.  I think we will try two different kinds, maybe crowder  and pink eye peas, and keep track to see if either does better than this year.  If anybody had a recommendation, please let us know. I don't know if I can go another summer without fresh field peas.  On the other hand, Tom may be over it and have no interest in trying them again.  If you have read my previous gardening posts, you know that Tom is the master gardener and I am the sometimes helper—except for the summer of his hip replacement, when I was the worker bee under his rigorous oversight.  So if he says it’s a no-go, then we will be pealess next year.   

The tomatoes were .......... Wow!!

Sam & Madeline pick our tomatoes

We planted many heirlooms this year, harder to grow, but so worth it.  The whole experience is an affirmation that beauty is only skin deep.  Heirlooms  are open pollinated, not hybrids,  that look like they've grown wild. They're all different lumpy shapes and sizes, with scarred splits in the delicate skin and the flesh is firm, sweet, rich, lush, and smoky tasting. I love to eat them straight out of the garden, like apples, hanging over the sink with the juice dribbling down my chin. I have been excited to learn that, besides being funny looking

Davis & Tom

and tasting scrumptious,  they are  more nutritious, packed full of vitamins and antioxidants, than are  the more common hybrid varieties. Hybrids, on the other hand,  are cross pollinated, developed for commercial purposes--a uniform size to make them easy to pack,  with thick skins to be bug resistant, and to stand up under rough handling and for travel. Hybrids look uniformly, perfectly attractive, but are mealy, juiceless and drip free, manipulated for the sake of economics, taste be damned.

Our earliest harvest is always green tomatoes, picked  to thin the plants so that they will yield more. I have searched all my cookbooks and the internet for the best green tomato recipe to be had.  I am glad to share it with you.  The secret is the mustard mixture that you spread on the tomato before you fry it.  It is messy, but the spread adds a tang that makes this dish special.

Fried Green Tomatoes

This recipe is from Robert Lorino of The Irondale Café in Irondale, Alabama.This restaurant is the inspiration for Fannie Flag’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.  The recipe is world famous.

2          Medium hard  green tomatoes, chilled

1          Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1          teaspoon sugar

½         teaspoon salt

¼         teaspoon paprika

1/8       teaspoon ground red pepper

 1 ½     teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

½         cup yellow cornmeal

¼         cup hot bacon drippings or vegetable oil

Cut tomatoes into ½ inch slices

Stir together mustard and next 5 ingredients.  Spread on both sides of tomato slices.  Coat with cornmeal.

Fry tomatoes in hot drippings (or oil) in skillet over medium heat 3 minutes on each side or until browned.  Drain.

Yummmm!!!

  We planted less of everything this year, so we only froze a few of our tomatoes and gave away those we couldn’t eat at three meals a day sliced, diced,  minced and roasted, in sandwiches, sauces, and stews.  The office attorneys and staff got lots and we had enough get ripe at once during the summer to serve them on Sunday in Finlay Park at Food Not Bombs.

Our wonderful preacher,  Neal, got the lion’s share though.  In fact, he called every Saturday night to remind us to bring him some. “You know my favorite food is a BLT sandwich,” he would say. He even wanted us to bring a bag of them and hang them on his office door on the Sundays he was not preaching.  There was a little catch in his voice the Saturday night we had to tell him the yield was  over and there would be no more tomatoes in the morning. He is a tomato glutton and I threatened to tell the Board to reduce his salary,  as we were paying part of it in produce, the old fashioned way. LOL.

He did not LOL.

Okra was our most prolific crop this year.  Originally from Africa, okra is a hot weather plant.  We put the seeds in the ground later than any of our other crops and it is the last to stop yielding—when the weather is below freezing for several nights in a row, usually in late November.  We use it in stews and gumbos and soups, but primarily we coat it with corn meal and deep fry it.  Fried okra is as Southern as fried catfish, fried chicken, fried pork chops, fried squash, and….fried green tomatoes.  Good as it tastes,  Tom and I have stopped eating fried food of any kind, switching to broiled or baked, for the sake of our health.  But fried okra--we just have not been able to give it up. Until this year.  In yet another of the Lessons From My Daughter, Jeny introduced us to a new way to cook okra.  It is healthy, less messy than fried,  and so tasty that we are never looking back. Sauteed okra is simple.

Sauteed Okra

Cut okra in slices as for frying. (If you have just washed it, pat it dry with paper towels, or wait for it to air dry).   Coat the sauté pan well with oil. On medium high heat, sauté the okra in pan  until brown on edges and slightly crisp, 4-6 minutes, stirring constantly so as not to burn. Lightly salt if desired.

There are more elaborate recipes with onion and various spices, but we all like it so well  plain we’ve not tried to fancy it up yet.  Maybe next year.

  Both of our children have turned into master gardeners and master chefs and their gardens include a wide variety of herbs to use in their cooking. Our garden in no way rivals theirs.   Jeny grows a wider variety of crops than we do, including a fall garden.

 Jeff plants cucumbers, and pumpkins, in addition to most of the same things we do. He plants  pumpkins and such for fun for the kids. Sam loves cucumber cookies. The Lessons from my Son in this blog post involve his turning his garden produce into highly sought-after gifts. His cucumber and okra pickles and  fresh salsa, made with his own tomatoes and peppers, are to die for and he makes many of us happy with his homemade Christmas and birthday gifts. The marvel of this is that he manages it at all, in a teeny plot on the side yard, raided frequently by their two large, rowdy family dogs.

Winter is here, the temperature is in the 20’s and  the garden is only a memory, except for a few frozen quarts of tomatoes in the freezer and some of Jeff’s pickles in the cupboard. We are already looking forward to next summer and so, I am told, is Neal.  He misses his BLT sandwiches. 

HOMELESS HELPING HOMELESS

I am so proud of our Food Not Bomb folk.  They have just started Homeless Helping Homeless, have organized two service projects with more in the works, and have gotten wonderful positive publicity. We are all working to change the stereotype people have of the  homeless.  This organization is going to do so much to open peoples' eyes to the humanity of us all and to help people understand that the homeless feel part of the community and want to contribute to it. Here is the lovely article from The State that was printed July 5th:

  

Homeless Help Themselves

New group works to improve image of city's street-dwellers

By NOELLE PHILLIPS

 John Holmes knows the look Columbia's homeless people get on the street.  

He is one of them.

John Holmes and area homeless and formerly homeless have formed the group Homeless Helping Homeless.

Holmes, 54, is trying to change that perception through a new group called Homeless Helping Homeless.

He and a handful of other homeless men and women started meeting in May at the old Fox Theater on Main Street. Since then, they have sponsored two service projects, and Holmes has made a presentation to Columbia City Council about their needs.

“Our overall goal,” Holmes said, “is to present ourselves as responsible, respectable members of this community.”

On a recent Saturday, Holmes and 24 other homeless people gathered on the 1600 block of Main Street to pick up trash. They roamed an alley with rakes and shovels, scooping up mounds of cardboard, foam cups, beer bottles and cigarette boxes.

Sweat poured down Holmes’ face as he and three other men climbed over a barbed-wire fence to clear trash surrounding the air-conditioning system of Sidney Park Christian Methodist Church. The men filled three bags with garbage and tossed them over the fence so they could be loaded into a pickup truck on loan from City Center Partnership.

The nook is a hiding spot for homeless people looking for a safe place to sleep, said Holmes, who said he once was assaulted while trying to sleep in the open.

“With limited shelters and places to sleep, we try to find secure places,” he said.

More than 1,000 homeless people live in Richland and Lexington counties, according to a 2009 count. Of those, Holmes estimates about 25 percent are willing and capable of working. They have either fallen on hard times in the bad economy or past mistakes are hindering job searches.

“Some of us want to be employable,” he said.

Troy Pierce, 50, was limited in the amount of heavy lifting he could perform because of a heart condition that forced him to lose his job. But the burley man slung a pouch of medicine over his shoulder and did what he could.

“I want to work, but seeing as how I can’t work, I can’t pay rent,” Pierce said. “I can’t pay rent, so here I am. I don’t do drugs or drink myself to death. I used to drive my car through here and think the same things y’all say. Then I walked a mile in their shoes.”

Pierce said he is waiting to qualify for public housing and disability payments. Until then, he will be homeless, and he plans to be involved in the new group.

“It may be a month, or it may be a year,” he said. “Until then, I’ll be here.”

Christy Lane, 25, who lives in a tent with her husband, said she joined the group to prove that not everyone living on the streets is an addict or mentally ill.

“We’re not bad,” Lane said. “We’re trying to live.”

They lost their home after her husband was laid off. She was a college student. Now, their two children live with grandparents while they search for jobs and a permanent home.

“As my husband says, ‘It’s not always about you,’” Lane said. “I believe there is a way to make it better. I’m not looking for anything back. I want to help.”

After two hours of work, volunteers from agencies who regularly support the homeless fed the group bologna sandwiches, fruit cups and cookies. Those volunteers did not help with the trash pickup, saying they only attended to show support for a group of homeless people trying to help themselves.

“I’m trying to be supportive,” said Jean Denman, a downtown resident who helped secure shovels and rakes for the cleaning project. “I’m not part of anything, but I’m supporting from the sidelines.”

Homeless Helping Homeless got its start after a similar organization in Charlotte brought members to Columbia for a Finlay Park rally. Holmes said he saw a flier for the event, and it was a time when he felt especially down about his situation.

“I was asking God to deliver me and show me what to do,” Holmes said. “And 48 hours later a pamphlet dropped in my lap.”

Now, he is pouring energy into the group.

People who are involved in homeless issues are becoming used to seeing Holmes at meetings and other events.

Larry Arney, executive director of the Midlands Housing Alliance, which is building a new shelter on Main Street, said he has run into Holmes at a neighborhood meeting and while giving a presentation at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Woodrow Street.

“Right there on the third pew was John Holmes,” Arney said. “I asked if he wanted to say anything, and later I joked that I’m kind of tired of being the warm-up act for John Holmes. He speaks so effectively.”

Holmes, a Navy veteran, moved to South Carolina five years ago to find work. But he was addicted to crack, and that led to life on the streets, he said.

“I don’t do anything now except smoke cigarettes,” he said.

He said he has filled out nearly two dozen job applications for hotel and restaurant work, but no one has hired him.

Holmes leads the group’s regular meetings, where about 20 people show up.

To be on the leadership team, a member must be a registered voter, attend 12 meetings and adopt a project.

The group’s first project was to help a West Columbia church set up a large tent for a revival. Four members of the group ended up getting temporary jobs that paid $12 per hour from that gig, Holmes said.

Kevin White, 54, serves as the group’s co-director with Holmes.

He became homeless after being released from the Lexington County Detention Center, and his wife refused to allow him back into their home. He already had a felony charge from 1980 that also makes it hard to find work.

White said he has been searching for a job and working to save his marriage. During the cleanup, his wife joined the group’s effort and stood by White’s side while eating sandwiches.

He hopes Homeless Helping Homeless reverses the stigma associated with people who live on the streets.

“We still have goals in our lives,” he said. “We’re still trying hard. I’m being blessed in taking a positive attitude that homelessness is something that can be overcome.”

LESSONS FROM MY DAUGHTER 2

If you scratch Jeny, she bleeds green.  She is conscious of her family’s carbon footprint on the planet at all times.  She composts, plants a garden, recycles everything—glass, plastics, paper, clothes, toys, books. The family uses cloth napkins, one for each family member for three days, instead of stacks of paper ones.

We have been doing many of the same things for a long time, but Jeny always seems to be ahead of the curve. Just when I think I am doing pretty well, she will mention something that has yet to occur to me, or something I have thought about, but which has seemed too much trouble so far.

Both Jeny and I switched from plastic to canvas grocery bags long ago—with her leading the way. Tom and I bought a number of Publix bags and were off and running. For the longest time we had the bags, but would forget and leave them at home--in the house or in the garage--and be forced to use plastic again.  Finally we got in the habit of taking them back out to the car as soon as we emptied the trunk  and put up the groceries.  We felt really good about that. Problem was, we keep misplacing them.  We would leave one at Finlay Park when we went to feed the homeless on Sunday, or another at Penn Center at the church conference, or wherever……

I was complaining to Jeny one day about how much I was spending on replacing canvas bags because of our carelessness. “Mom, really! Are you buying canvas bags? There’s another whole way for you to think green!”  Well, that was sure beyond me.  What more could we do?  I was not quite willing to put the groceries into the car one by one without using a bag at all.

“Go to the middle bedroom and look in your closet”, she said. What was that all about, I thought? Clueless, I marched in and took a look.  There they were shoved up on the corner shelf.   The stack of empty, canvas bags I had collected from conferences, recently, and over the years.  C-Span, Trial Lawyers, The Democratic Party, Palmetto Health, Interfaith Alliance, Pro-Law, and, the most recent one from just two weeks ago, Robert Ford for Governor. All colors, all shapes, all sizes.  Waiting to be recycled. Waiting to be filled with groceries. 

Why hadn’t I thought of that? Another lesson from my daughter.