Thursday, December 10, 2009

Corbezzolo / Strawberry Tree

I haven't forgotten about this gardening blog but considering the current state of the vegetable patch, there's nothing to share on these pages. I knew that I wouldn't have much of an interest for a winter garden during the holiday season, which in a way gives me something to anticipate come next spring's planting season.

Nevertheless, I'll continue to share what I come across by way of fruits, vegetables, flowers and plants that might be of some interest. This strawberry tree immediately caught my eye at an italian farmstay that we stayed at in the region of Friuli. Known as corbezzolo, the proprietor said that it is easy to maintain, and keeps it in a shrub style as shown below. We got to taste some of the fruit baked in a breakfast torte and it really has no particular flavor. Wikipedia notes that the strawberry tree and a bear is the symbol of Madrid.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_unedo

Today's average: 13°C / 55°F

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mi è arrivata la lettera dalla dogana

In other words...a letter arrived from italian customs. Oh happy day!

Sometime in the middle of June this year, my father had sent a gift of vegetable seeds from Hawaii. He was told that it would take a total of approximately 10 days to reach Italy, and I awaited its arrival in the mailbox. At this point I would like to say that I have never had any problems with 2 previous seed orders from the United States. If a parcel has been subjected to inspection by italian customs (and it has already happened once in my case), it is clearly evident upon delivery: a clean slit is made at the top of the package, neatly resealed with strong tape, and legibly stamped with the words Effettuato Controllo Doganale.

Imagine my horror, then, when I received a registered notice in the mail informing me that my garden seeds were being quarantined for reasons of questionable origin. As I said earlier, the seeds were a gift. My father gave a rough value estimate on the green declarations form when he sent it, but being that it was a gift, did not include a receipt for its monetary value. For all I know he could have bought seeds from Walmart and thrown them in an envelope.

Now I am aware of certain restrictions in regards to foreign seeds entering Europe, but the conclusion I have come to is that as far as Italy is concerned, as long as those seeds are not genetically modified and you heed certain limitations, your seeds will arrive intact, if not delayed, at your doorstep. Since this is the first time where I've come across problems with italian customs, the following notes might prove helpful to a gardener ordering/receiving an overseas delivery. If you receive a notice in the mail with a form like the one shown here, fill it out as best you can and send it along with the required documents to the proper address.

1. If a gift of seeds is being sent in the mail and you know about it beforehand, ask the sender to compile a list of the contents with receipt of purchase attached. The amount should match the total written on the declarations form.

2. Seeds should be packaged in commercial envelopes that illustrate what it is. I've read about an incident where a woman in Switzerland simply wanted to send garden seeds to her friend in Italy, but since those seeds were not readily identifiable by customs, they sent her a form just like the one I received and requested further information, such as the sender's address (already written on the envelope). The thing is, if the contents are a gift, there is not much info to pass on, especially if you have no idea what type of seeds are in the package. Here's the link (in italian) to this poor woman's headache with the dogana.

3. And lastly, the english translation of a form regarding small quantities (plants admitted in derogation). I had a vague idea of what derogation meant in legal terms, but here's a link to the definition. Suffice to say that I did not receive my seeds because of one reason only - the amount of seed packets exceeded the maximum limit of 5! Odd that my previous seed orders all contained more than a total of 10.

Small quantities (plants admitted in derogation)
Provided that they are not prohibited and there is no danger of spreading harmful organisms, under Article. 38 of 214/2005 the introduction of small quantities of plants is permitted.

The status of small quantity is applied to both delivered and directly transported goods by the passenger.

Considered as small quantity: plants, plant products, foodstuffs or animal feed intended for use by the owner or recipient in a non-industrial, non-commercial, non-agricultural purpose, or to be consumed during transport.

Such goods can also be subjected to agricultural inspection; is not required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate of origin; and is not subject to the ag inspection fee.

If a person intends to import a small quantity he should only absolve the obligation to submit to the SFR a declaration in lieu of an affidavit, in which it specifies that the products are not imported for industrial, commercial or agricultural purposes. The reference values that identify small quantities are those as specified below:

Type and quantity
Leafy vegetables and small fruits (cherries, blueberries) - two (2) kilos
Other fruits and vegetables (excluding potatoes) - ten (10) kilos
Cut flowers - one (1) bouquet, forty (40) stems max
Succulents for collection - ten (10) units
Plants of ornamental, vegetable, fruit or forest species - five (5) units
Bulbs, corms, rhizones, tubers (exluding potatoes) - one (1) kilo
Seeds (excluding seed potatoes) - five (5) commercial packets or for retail (max 2 grams per package)

Average daytime temperature: 11°C / 52°F

Friday, October 16, 2009

It's getting colder...for this island gal

14°C, 12°, 10°, 8°, 6°. Each morning has been down by 2 degrees for the past week and it's been a real chore of opening my eyelids and keeping them open. Getting out of bed is another thing altogether, and I suspect that it'll only get worse as the early predawn light becomes even less. Ugh. I find myself feeling tired all the time and know it has a lot to do with the weather change. Less light, less heat, less spunk so to speak. Too bad that it doesn't get me off the hook for walking the dogs. It can be 0° out and they don't care (the westie at least), they demand their walks! I tried to shoot some photos today but with two dogs on leashes...all I got was a picture of a very healthy patch of wild mint - not sure if it's the one called nepetella - growing on the side of the road. We passed a small fire that someone had built to burn leaves, but after I heard the familiar pop! pop! pop!, I knew then it was both leaves, twigs and chestnuts. Fortunately we were out of range...I've never heard of anyone being injured from a flying chestnut, but there's always a first for everything!

Today's average: 13°C / 55°F

Monday, September 14, 2009

2009 hits, misses and definite keepers: the Tomatoes

Despite the less than ideal weather conditions in spring, I'd have to say that this year's tomato crop was a success. The harvest may not have been as great, but what few we did get were satisfactory enough in quality to decide whether we'll grow them again or not. The one thing I've learned most about tomatoes is that they need sun. I've grown them in containers, in good amended soil, in lousy mixed clay, and in all sorts of places in my yard and garden, but the ones that did best were those that were exposed to a sunny spot for at least 6 hours a day. The ones that did better were the ones grown in amended soil (manure/compost) or where I had previously grown fava plants. I still remember the neighbor who once said that we couldn't grow anything in this tough mountain clay, but I think he just didn't believe us city folk to possess so much determination to succeed. I can't live without tomatoes, so let's begin!

Pink Brandywine

In 2008, a shaded corner in the yard was the only space I had for these and while they grew and grew and yielded beautiful, oddly-shaped and enormous tomatoes, the lack of abundant sunshine took its toll. The monsters stayed green, all the way into late October, which is when I told my husband to collect them before it got too cold (I was away) and allow them to ripen indoors on their own. They did turn color, but the flavor was definitely lacking. This year they earned a prime spot in the garden, in soil where fava beans had previously grown. The 5 plants are still reaching for the stars and producing flowers like they were on a mission. What fruit we've already tasted has been an excellent balance of acid/sweet (so good in a caprese salad) that I will be growing these again.

Ananas Noire

In the end, color does make a difference. But after reading Ananas Noir: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings, waiting it out another few days was just not going to happen for me. Like she says, this tomato is sweet, even if it doesn't taste like any pineapple I've ever eaten, or even a tomato at that. The interior, when ripened properly, is supposed to be a green, yellow and purple mix. I won't be growing it next year.

Growing notes: going against all gardening logic, I started these from seed on April 2nd just for the heck of it. Six weeks later the seedlings were stuck in the only remaining space in the garden - a hole dug into clay dirt - along with some potting soil and a little helping of bat guano. The 3 plants bravely weathered wind, rain and hail, but in the end only one would grow strong enough to produce anything. Well actually it produced only 2 - this one here at a decent 10 oz. (they are said to grow up to 1.5 lbs), and another that I promise not to pick until it passes the squeeze test.

Cherokee Purple

Last year I grew these both in a container and mixed clay soil and they did so-so. Small harvest, but really great fruit, and my husband saved seeds as an experiment for this year's planting. That said, I started Cherokee Purples in mid-March with the sole intention of seeing if his seed-saving experiment would work. Of course it did, and managed to produce 2 tomatoes on a 3-foot tall plant. They tasted as wonderful as they had in 2008, but again, were victims of spring's bad weather — the plants didn't grow as big as they should have. The tomatoes have a smoky, sweet/tart flavor and again Hanna saves my day with her Cherokee Purple Tomato Tastings 2009. Bless that woman! I'll be growing these in a prime spot next year.

Marmande

At Baker Creek where I purchased the seeds from, the description of Marmande was too tempting to resist:

Scarlet, lightly ribbed fruit, have the full rich flavor that is so enjoyed in Europe. Medium-large size fruit are produced even in cool weather.

Produce they did, but I didn't care much for the higher ratio of seeds to flesh as you can see here in the photo. Not a keeper.

Black Krim


What more can I say about this tomato? Love its flavor, its juiciness and its color. I loved it so much that I even stripped it down naked to prove to myself that sometimes, beauty is not only skin deep. A definite keeper.

Rouge d'Irak

The seeds for these were from another seed-saving experiment that my husband did last year. I didn't grow them for production (they did fantastic in 2008), but just as a test to see how they'd do in the soil (mixed clay) in our back garden. As you can see, Rouge d'Iraks came through with flying colors, even with the wet weather in spring, so I will grow these again in 2010. For production purposes this time.

Japanese Black Trifele

My only big disappointment for 2009. Baker Creek described them in this way:

Attractive tomatoes are the shape and size of a Bartlett pear with a beautiful purplish-brick color. The flavor is absolutely sublime, having all the richness of fine chocolate.

Well mine were perhaps, the size of half a pear. Color-wise they looked like the above for the whole season. And fine chocolate? Not in the least bit...for me anyway. But I'm cutting Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes some slack because they were on the front line when it was cold and rainy, stuck at the top of the garden slope where it's more exposed to the elements. They also got nailed by hail, poor things, and didn't stand a chance when the slugs came along. If I can manage a free spot in the garden next year, I'll grow at least two plants to see how they do again.

Average daytime temperature: 19°C / 66°F
Snow has already been reported at higher elevations in the region of Trentino!

Monday, September 7, 2009

From garden to table: Black Aztec success in the kitchen

Blueberries, move over. There's another blue food to earn a spot in the garden, but it's no berry and the name is Black Aztec corn.

I thought it would take more than a week to be able to share results on a so-not-yellow corn experiment, but I didn't realize that at the time of the last post, the cobs were just about 99% dried and ready to be ground into meal. What do I know about drying corn? I've only ever harvested them when they were ready for boiling, so with a little intuition, a quick test trial in the grinder, and lots of dry, hot weather for 3 days in a row, all of that corn pictured in the previous entry became the makings of a really great meal. You know how they say that you learn something new everyday? Well now I can add making my own organic blue cornmeal to the list — never thought I'd be able to say that.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have worried about knowing when the kernels were dry enough to work with. A coarse, stoneground-type texture is what I was aiming for, and a pinch test between thumb and forefinger was the first indication used (if it held up then it was definitely dry). Each day I ran a few kernels in a spice grinder to check if all moisture had evaporated. Really nothing to this at all!


I harvested the corn when the husks were completely parched and devoid of any green color. The kernels were removed (still plump as you see here) the following day, but after 3 days under a hot sun, they shriveled quite noticeably and were dry enough to spin in the grinder.


Ready to cook. A very modest yield of 3½ cups total. The old spice grinder did the trick in small batches, but a large coffee grinder will prove indispensable if I'm to cultivate more corn next spring. 3½ cups is not enough! I keep the cornmeal in an airtight container in the freezer.


Blue tortillas from scratch. Insanely great stuff, and it was so quick to make that my husband took an interest and watched intently as I rolled out the pieces of dough. I used this really easy tortilla recipe from Hillbilly Housewife, following the directions down to the last word. Her recipe makes 10 but I wanted smaller rounds and divided the batch into 12 balls, rolling each to about 7½ inches in diameter.


Woohoo! It's blue! I really don't know who was more excited about the cornbread, me or my better half. Make that my better half because after one bite with turkey chile, it was seconds, then thirds. I made the sweet cornbread from All Recipes, substituting an equal amount of blue cornmeal for the yellow, but cutting the sugar to 1/2 cup.


The tortilla cone. My husband's answer to Konopizza, only there is nothing here that you'd find in a pizza cone. Leftover turkey chile, plain yogurt and homemade tomatillo salsa. I didn't get much from my tomatillo plant, but I do know that I will grow them again next year. The purple ones this time.

Today's high: 23°C / 73°F

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Collective Farm Woman and Black Aztec trials

I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record with yet another reference to spring's less than ideal weather conditions, but the outcome on Collective Farm Woman melons and Black Aztec corn ends on a positive note! This 4-ounce melon decided to turn color and fell off the vine all by itself while we were away on vacation - it was like the Easter bunny come to visit! Smooth, blemish-free skin with a sweet fragrance, it may have been a good thing that we were absent while it matured because now I know that I should just let them slip off the plant by themselves. The pale flesh was very sweet, with the texture of a properly ripened cantaloupe.

And now for Black Aztec, a blue corn that caught my eye because of its heirloom status. I have only known yellow corn in my entire life so the idea of making blue tortilla chips was a new experiment. I have the corncobs drying outdoors and when the kernels are ready to be shucked, I'll grind them to make this Golden Sweet Cornbread recipe, substituting yellow cornmeal with my homegrown blue.

Average daytime temperature: 21°C / 70°F

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tigger melon trials

Given the wet, cool weather earlier on, I wasn't expecting much success with these tigger melons. I had read that they are particularly susceptible to powdery mildew, and that the best conditions for growing them was sun and heat. Tiggers are said to reach about a pound in weight but the one on the right was barely 4 ounces!

Tastewise...oh brother. I snipped these off the vine because their perfume fragrance was so sweet! Unfortunately, that did not extend to its flavor - bland as bland can be - but then again, they weren't matured to an ideal size/weight. Next year I'm growing these in the ground instead of containers. And I'll pray for reliable spring weather...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Tomato roulette: I'm placing my bets on Black Krim

In a perfect world there would only be 3 types of tomatoes: the canning kind, the slicing kind, and the kind you pop into your mouth while working in the garden. Naturally, they would only be in a single color - red - so figuring out when to snip them off the vine would never pose a problem. Tomato sauce, BLT's and stolen bites of cherry-sized orbs would continue to live happily ever after, that is, until word got out that not all tomatoes are created equal. Boy am I ever glad that the world isn't perfect.

The Black Krim tomatoes (first two in the photo) measured up to everything that I had seen written in tasting reviews. Smoky, intense, exotic tomato flavor, with a coloring so sexy that I had to strip one naked just for you to see. Certainly they aren't black in the truest sense of the word, but more of a dark, burnt, orangish-red color that I tried to capture best in natural light. The shoulders are greenish and typically cracked, a minor "blemish" that is easily dispensed of with the swipe of a sharp knife. While the harvest from two plants was very small this year, I expect to grow at least 5 or more the next. The third tomato in the image is a Pink Brandywine, and while I am not totally sold on the flavor, I love the funky, weird shapes that they develop into.

The tomatoes were quickly blanched and skins slipped off to recreate a dish seen on KennyT's Chic Eats. While his was a greenhouse tomato in wasabi-sesame sauce, the idea of blanched tomatoes with an asian-influenced cream sauce was too good to put on hold. The one that I put together was basically sautéing minced shallots, deglazing with white wine, then adding heavy cream and cooking on low until heated through. Sesame seeds (toasted) were quickly spun in a spice mill before adding, along with wasabi paste, at the very end. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and for a really special touch, shiso flower makes a delicious garnish. Black Krim is the one to the right in the image below. Check that gorgeous color!

Average daytime temperature: 25°C / 77°F

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Black Trifele Harvest

One hundred seventy-five days from seed (sown February 10th). Even if this won't be a banner year like 2008, I'm satisfied with the outcome of our new tomato trials. The flavor of these japanese black trifeles weren't anything spectacular like how I'd seen in product/grower descriptions, but I'm more than willing to bet that this spring's abundant rain had a hand at turning Trifele into a bland gal. The only "black" that seems to have beaten the odds is Black Krim, and there are two left on the vine.

Today's average daytime temperature: 23°C / 73°F

Friday, July 31, 2009

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


Plucked from the garden just this morning - 3½ pounds of heirloom tomatoes and a few other goodies. Beginning from right of the lens cap: 1 pink brandywine, a bunch of french marmandes off to the side, hot peppers, a couple of black krims at the bottom, 1 round pugliese cucumber just under the lens cap, and the zukes. At this stage in summer, I'll take whatever vegetables (toms especially) that come my way, blemishes and all.

Yesterday's high: 29°C / 84°F
Today's average daytime temperature: 25°C / 77°F

Friday, July 17, 2009

Mirabelles for a rainy day


There was no telling at 7:30 this morning, but by 11, the heavens parted to let the light shine through. The first thing I check each morning, almost to the point of becoming an obsession, is the weather forecast. Case in point: yesterday we picked mirabelle plums looked to be ripe enough, even if the color wasn't dark yellow color. I was already sick to my stomach at the thought of the plums getting hit with more hail, so I told my husband, it's plum pickin' time! Heck, I knew that it wouldn't be more than a couple of handfuls.


It was a celebratory event of sorts as we were told that it would be a wait of 2-3 years before the tree was ready to bear fruit. We purchased this Mirabelle de Nancy plum tree in 2007 (at a nursery in Milan) after having discovered them in Alsace one summer. They are very sweet and juicy, in the shape and size of a cherry, and I've read somewhere that the flavor is similiar to greengages.


Not supermarket perfect, but 100% organic nevertheless. The color is more chartreuse...probaby a few days shy from obtaining the deep yellow like we had seen in France. We tasted a few and they were so delicious even with a hint of tartness. The rest were pitted, quartered, and baked in a short pastry crust with sugar. With softly whipped cream they were simply sublime!


Yesterdays high: 29°C / 84°F
Today's average: 25°C / 77°F

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

After all that rain

Complete turnaround in weather today, and thankfully not much damage to speak of. It amazes me that some plants come through quite well even in the worst conditions, but I was definitely surprised that the Black Aztec corn was still standing.



Lau's leaf lettuce and Black Aztec corn

Average daytime temperature: 24°C / 75°F

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I can just imagine how Noah must have felt...


And the hail too. Looks like it'll be another day spent indoors with the dogs.

Average daytime temperature: 18°C / 64°F

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Baker Creek brightens up the day and more rat-tails


After another soggy weekend with more wretched hail, receiving my order from Baker Creek earlier than I had expected was like the fairy godmother come to visit. Of course the harmless act of buying seeds for next year is that you end up visiting a couple more of your favorite sites and getting more stuff to grow in a garden where you have only so much space.

I'm glad to report that this time around, the delivery time took only a mere 17 days! Customs must already know about the crazy american gardener who thinks she can grow anything in tough mountain soil, so I hope that they're wishing me the best instead of laughing at my foolishness. Well actually, at least I can say that I am VERY successful at growing podding radish. That's 26 ounces in the bowl below, and if I sold them for a dollar a branch like I had read somewhere in a gardening forum, I'd be laughing all the way to the bank. There are hundreds of branches out back, and it's a tedious work to harvest the pods from the tangled mess. The real dilemma has been finding different ways to cook them, and pickling was a success. I have also experimented with freezing them by blanching for one minute in boiling water, then plunging them into an ice bath before draining and freezing in 1 quart ziploc bags. Come this winter we shall see if they do mighty alrighty in a hearty gumbo or stew.


Average daytime temperature: 25°C / 77°F

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

3.25 inches in one day & il bruco verde


Look at that lovely color of clay. That's what I get for excavating and ripping out a whole area of wild strawberries, and in turn, received payback in the form of erosion. The downpour this past Friday totaled almost 3½ inches in a few hours, and I was worried for the damage that would inevitably happen on our garden slope. Thank goodness only torn leaves and nicked tomatoes during an instance of hail. The strawberries, looking more robust than ever the day after, are about the size of a fingernail and very sweet. They flourish like weeds in the back lot - I was so excited the first time I tried them (they grow all over the mountainside) and would raid the patches every season. That was pre-garden, because as our edible eden took shape, the strawberries were always in the way. We don't have any wild critters to curb the berry population. Come to think of it, we don't have a problem with birds either, but I credit the dogs for chasing them out of the yard during the day.


I was going to ask for help in identifying this orange & black-spotted caterpillar, but after googling bruco verde (green caterpillar), I eventually found the connection to Old World Swallowtail. The only butterflies that I've ever known are monarchs, so this is somewhat of a thrill as there are two caterpillars on the wild fennel. This one in particular stayed in the same position all day long! Neither camera-in-its-space or petting its back made any difference whatsoever. He must have had too much to eat and fell asleep right away.

Average daytime temperature: 24°C / 75°F

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Passa the pomodoro


A sharp eye and quick wit will tell you that I'm just-ah poking fun-ah at the word passapomodoro. It also helps to know that passa is from the verb passare (to pass) while pomodoro is well...a tomato. This is an old tomato food mill made by Bialetti, and soon we should be passing tomatoes right/left, up/down at the rate the plants are growing. Perhaps that's why my inlaws gave their passapomodoro so willingly. I could tell that they hadn't used it in ages, and knowing my mother-in-law, she'll just say that it's easier to buy canned stuff from the store. I know that she isn't physically up to canning anymore, but she also said something similiar upon giving me her manual pasta machine!

Gardening work has been nothing but weeding in this period. In between the last post, the temperature dropped to 17°C / 63°F and it rained for several days straight. When the sun came out today I checked the tomatoes and found a baby Black Trifele, and then another! The plants are located in an area that is first to see the sun, even if I didn't intentionally set them there. This is the first time that I've tried growing the Japanese Black Trifle, and thanks to a post from Hanna's Tomato Tastings, I feel lucky to have chosen this one on a whim. Can you imagine the look on my inlaws' faces when I tell them that I'm making Japanese black tomato sauce? Haha!


Average daytime temperature: 22°C / 72°F

Friday, June 5, 2009

Italian growing zones: blue, red or possibly even yellow

At the very beginning of this blog I was concerned about knowing what specific growing zone that I was in, but to tell the truth, I really haven't heard or seen it discussed a whole lot in the local gardening forums around here. This led me to believe that gardeners simply go by instinct, by the signs of nature (the birds have arrived!), or by what their favorite garden shops tell them. My father-in-law, for example, wouldn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, and the last time he called for an update on the garden, all I knew is that he felt I had started my tomatoes too early. You see, he thought I had transplanted them into the ground whereas I had only started them indoors.

You might be thinking, well then how can they tell when the time is right? Not everyone is a born green thumb, so there must be some written indication, some credible source in which to refer to. In the previous post, Maybelline posed a couple of questions. Using an example of raperonzolo seeds (Campanula rapunculus), I thought it would make an interesting topic in a little show-n-tell:
  Are there growing zones in Italy or is that just an American thing?
  If there are, I'm curious to know what zone you are in?


On the map I've added a large dot where I'm at, and as you can see, it's in the blue as is most of the rest of Italy. Taking that into account, and the micro-climate of Lake Como, all I have to do is check which growing months (gotta love the roman numeral system) that blue corresponds to. Those rapunzel seeds could have gone in earlier but I'm waiting it out until summer is over. Nothing could be easier but just to be sure, I always look to see if my neighbors have started planting their gardens, and from there I take my cue.

These are just a few recent shots of what's been growing and/or harvested from my little spot in the woods.


Stella Alpina purchased at a nursery for only 1.50 euros per plant (I bought 3)

Rattail radish plant

Can't wait to serve these to my father-in-law. He'll never guess what they are.

Peas (that should have a trellis or something better to climb)


These could be either green or purple tomatillos because most of the seeds germinated late or never germinated at all, and so I saved the best of those that did make it (three!) and stuck them in a pot.

The allium keeps amazing me in all of its various stages.

Average daytime temperature: 21°C / 70°F and a thunderstorm is brewing.