Lady in Red - Cabbage Revisited

We're having another wave of surplus cabbage in the garden.  If you remember last month when I harvested the Savoy cabbage  and made one (which turned out OK) and then a second batch of sauerkraut. Well the second batch is percolating along just fine, in fact it’s fantastic – what an improvement over the first batch - way too much salt.

The last of the cabbage is ripening in the garden and giving us a magnificent harvest of blushing red beauties.  And tasty - much better than the Savoy which we let grow too long.

Obviously sauerkraut success has gone to my head.   With my first attempts turning out so well, I thought what the heck, lets see what red cabbage will do.

Success again - this time with a nice tinge of ruby.

I’m amazed at how easy making sauerkraut has been, practically the easiest thing I’ve attempted yet as far as letting beneficial bacteria grow and ferment. 

I guess we’ll be eating lots of brats and sauerkraut this winter. If I get really ambitious choucourte garni.  Seriously though, easy or not, I've got to stop making this stuff or I'll be forced to give it away, kind of like zucchini.

Life is good – bye for now.

Evelyn

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French Salad

Saturday evening I topped off summer by serving French salad to several of my closest friends. The tradition started when a friend, who has family living in Provence, France, shared with us this delicious salad. We could not let summer pass without enjoying this perennial favorite at least once. The dish is very similar to Salade Nicoise (or Nicoise salad) but not quite the same.  I'm saying not quite the same because I have found that the French can be very particular about what you do with their classic cuisine.  

What’s authentic and what’s not is very controversial when preparing this Nicois classic.  Should one use fresh or canned tuna?  Are both green beans and boiled potatoes to be included?  Is lettuce or other greens included or should they be left out?  Should it be mixed or composed?

The salad got it's start in the city of Nice located in Southern France, near the Italian border.  Nice has a distinct cultural and historic heritage that can be traced back to the Middle Ages and includes Greek, Italian and French influences.  Here authenticity is sacred, the preparation of their distinct traditional cuisine is staunchly guarded -  ingredient by ingredient.  

Although all sorts of variations on Salade Nicoise are served all over France, each claiming to be "authentic", the purists in this region would insist on a composition of a Niçoise salad as follows: tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, salted anchovies, tuna, spring onions, small black Nice olives and basil. And if in season, you can add young, tender broad beans out of the pod, young, raw artichokes and thin green peppers. 

Our salad includes all of the above plus thinly sliced roasted beets, roasted peppers, green beans, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and garlic - so we just call it French salad.  

Aside from the ingredients, my friend also brought back from his French relatives the tradition of serving the meal as a communal partaking, gathering together around the table, passing the individual ingredients starting with garlic clove, and ending with grilled tuna.

You take what you want, composing  your own salad and then you just kind of mash it up, tear it up, cut it up and eat it.  It's fun, delicious and healthy. 

Included in the meal -  what else but some crusty bread and a chilled Rose.  

Then to complete the evening and the summer properly - blackberry pie.

Bon Appetit!

Evelyn



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Garden Time

This spring a friend and I decided to put in a vegetable garden on her place in the country. 

This has worked out well for both of us, being single women of a certain age we have been able to depend on each other to care for the garden during the summer. 

At this time my friend is away on vacation so I''m sending her this garden update.  

Dear Juds, Since you been away the garden has done quite well, although there have been a few discouraging developments with the gopher.    

As soon as you left he took care of the remaining beets and when I last visited the garden our number one gourmet cipollini onions growing next to the green beans have disappeared completely. 

I've actually taken to flooding his tunnels just for fun, although I know I'm making little impact on his life.  He's probably enjoying the water in this hot weather. 

For now we're going to have a bumper chop with the green beans on the purple trellis- the tomatoes - of course the zucchini - unbelievably the eggplant - the purple cabbage is gorgeous, and the sunflowers are the sentinels of the garden - pleasingly garish.  I guess I got carried away with those seeds.  The chard is still with us and the kale that you planted is coming on nicely. And we still have savoy cabbage! I tried to make sauerkraut and I think it worked!

The tomatoes are coming on like gang busters and I expect to get lots of ripe ones by the end of the week. In fact, one of the heirlooms (Brandywine) ripened and yes I eat it - it was the most delicious tomato I've eaten in a long time (childhood comes to mind)

I cleaned up the spinach, arugula, and lettuce that was bolting and was hoping to put in another crop of lettuce. Now that it's so hot I'll wait awhile.  Hopefully I can do it and there would be a nice little crop when you return.

The squash growing back of the greenhouse are struggling (the soil is too thin) but I'm determined that we will have a crop and haven't given up on they - yet!  

Betty is always hanging around the house and follows me out to the garden loyally.  She's a sweetie.  The old yellow cat is always stealing her food, along with the Blue Jay.

Today, she didn't come out to greet me right away.  I was a little concerned until I found her under the house where it's cool.

Given your absence, she's probably wondering what's going on in her world!  

Say good-bye Betty.  

See you soon.

Evelyn

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