While I'm waiting for the tomatoes to ripen, I've been using another item I found in the garden: Rosemary. It's my favorite herb for roast chicken.

Some fun tidbits about rosemary:

• Hungary Water, an infusion of rosemary into wine or alcohol, was created for the Queen of Hungary, in a attempt to revitalize limbs. We're not talking rosemary-scented riesling, however -- this water was more of a rosemary perfume, used topically rather than accompanying dinner.
• Rosemary has a reputation for improving memory, but even more interesting is it's use in inspiring love: tap your beloved's shoulder with a blooming rosemary spring, and s/he will fall in love with you. Effective? I'm not sure, but it certainly seems less risky than shooting them with cupid's arrow.
• One more note from Wikipedia: "Somehow, the use of rosemary in the garden to repel witches turned into signification that the woman ruled the household in homes where rosemary grew abundantly." Oh really? Rosemary in abundance means I rule the house? Excuse me while I go nurture a few more bushes ...

When life gives you blueberries ...

Blueberries! I discovered the first surprise blueberry bush in early summer, then found another smothered by our overgrowing mint (the mint is now gone, the blueberries are happier).

But even two small bushes do not produce more than a couple handfuls of berries at a time. What to do with this delightful, but minimal, discovery?

The easiest thing was to eat them plain. And a few went on salad. Most were wonderfully sweet, but some -- so tart! So the rest went into homemade lemonade. :)

Blueberry Lemonade, shown above with our garden's hydrangeas.

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup lemon juice

4 cups cold water

A handful of blueberrries

Stir first three ingredients till sugar melts. Add blueberries. Drink.

* I think if Martha Stewart made this, she'd add a generous splash of vodka.

Garden Party

I thought nothing would grow -- as new homeowners, I feared we'd turn the front yard into a wasteland of wimpy carrot tops and inch-high broccoli.

Apparently I was wrong. The garden's far from perfect (I wish I had more variety, and more of everything), but it's definitely growing. The last two weekends I've filled the Yard Waste bin with heaps of who-knows-what, enormous weeds that sprouted up uninvited and threatened to take over the "real" vegetation.

The actual foodstuffs: We have enough chard, lettuce, and arugula to actually eat regularly.

The fennel (top right, in collage below) is growing successfully -- which is great, considering I stuffed it carelessly into a broken pot in the corner of the garden and then forgot about it. The broccoli is mostly huge leaves, but seems promising.

We ate all the radishes before I thought to plant more, and I accidentally "weeded" the beets (oops). But the carrots might be fabulous -- they're teeny, but I needed to thin them and the few I pulled out were barely bite-sized.

Last year's enthusiastic gardener left us blueberry and strawberry plants, each with more teeny fruits than I expected. The one red, ripe strawberry mysteriously disappeared -- I suspect squirrels or the newspaper delivery person.

Tomatoes are what I really want. My six plants should be more than enough, but they're slow to grow. I realize it's only June, but I'm impatient. I want last year's surplus.

Eating (very) local

The garden grows slowly. Tiny lettuces, broccoli leaves, and carrot tops are nowhere near harvest, but a few things are actually ready for the table: I pulled my first radish today (and ate it in the kitchen: spicy and crisp), and the cilantro has just enough leaves to sprinkle a few over tomato salad.

We also have large, rumpled bushes of chives that were already here when we moved in. They have lots of purple flowers, but plenty of usable stems if you pick through them. I've used them on salad, eggs, and over chicken. The easiest way I've found to mince herbs is with kitchen scissors.

My New Motto for Spring

I like this poster. It makes me want to pull up all the grass in our front yard and start a veggie garden (hopefully my husband is not reading this).


I started some of Renee's Garden "Rainbow Blend" heirloom tomato seeds indoors about 2 weeks ago which I will hopefully find time to blog about soon. Some might be an understatement. I planted over 50 seeds. 52 to be exact. Oops. I may very well be able to quit my job and become a full-time tomato farmer. The little seedlings have already begun to sprout, and I need to start moving them out of their tiny seed starter trays and into some larger containers. That's my project this weekend. I can't bring myself to abort them, so I will be looking for homes for the little seedlings soon. If you know of anyone that wants a beautiful, healthy tomato plant, let me know. I just want to make sure they find good homes.

Seeds of change

This has not been a foodie week. Big projects at work plus a paper due meant many hours in front of the computer -- not blogging. I won't embarrass myself by discussing last night's dinner in detail, but it's amazing what edible things one finds in desk drawers at 8pm.

Fortunately for my food-oriented sanity, I found a few moments to combine my favorite distractions: food and shopping. Behold, the seed catalogue. For only $2.75, companies with old-fashioned names like Burpee, Gurney and Johnny offer happiness by the packet. Bored with bagged carrots and blah beets? Take a look at some heirloom varieties: bright-colored and leafy promises of summer.

I absolutely love this Chioggia beet:

A dead houseplant or four could have killed the gardener in me, but the dirty appeal of outdoor vegetable-growing is different. A long conversation with my mom regarding pole beans, leaf lettuces, and other varieties of easy-to-grow vegetables spurred my interest for spring.

While I haven't ordered yet, I think I'm going with Seed Savers Exchange. This non-profit co-op offers most of the standard varieties found on commercial sites, plus an array of heirlooms in some categories, particularly tomatoes and lettuce. Below, the Hillbilly Potato Leaf and Nebraska Wedding -- called "The ultimate love apple."

The heirloom trend has great benefits to gardeners and cooks. But with variety comes the need for moderation. My mom gave me a copy of Square Foot Gardening, which emphasizes starting small -- as in, 4x4" of vegetables, and only a few seeds of each. (If anyone wants my other 245 tomato seeds, email.)

A bushel of greens, beans, and root vegetables would certainly improve this week's crackers-and-beer diet. So maybe next weekend, work done and spring forming brightly on the horizon, I'll move past Weekend Weed-Puller and take another step toward Real Gardener.