Grist for the Mill
It’s growing season on Cape Cod! It’s amazing how quickly the temperatures heat up, and life responds. What were little seedlings are now developing into the vegetables we love to eat. The early season lettuces have given way to the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, squash, beets, leeks, and onions. Our gardens are running at capacity, but soon we’ll have room for late season plantings once the garlic (72 heads this year!) come out of the ground in a few short weeks.
The vegetable growing season may be short, but there is no off-season when it comes to growing in knowledge. Once again, our contributors have brought us a collection of stories that are as informative as they are entertaining. It seems like with every issue, I find myself saying “I had no idea!” more than once. This issue of Edible Cape Cod is no exception.
Luff a is one such example. That scrubby pad hanging from either a kitchen cabinet knob or shower valve that scours away last night’s dinner, or the top layer of your skin, makes for a delicious side dish if you harvest it early enough. Karen Bento enlightens us on the vegetable (not a sea sponge) and how you can incorporate it into your meal instead of relegating it to the post-meal clean-up.
Friend and past contributor to these pages, Tamar Haspel, shows us a different way of fixing a meal in her new book, To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard. Haspel and her husband Kevin Flaherty relocated from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She chronicled their endeavor to supply themselves with “firsthand food” every day, and the resulting tale is both witty and thought provoking.
Haspel learned, like many of us, by doing. Getting off the couch and getting into action. If you’re one who’d like to grow your own vegetables but resign yourself to “black thumb” status, don’t worry, there are people out there ready to help. Andrea Pyenson learned all about the Master Gardener Association and what a valuable resource it is for all of us fledgling horticulturists, no matter the skill level, in “How Does Your Garden Grow?”
The Master Gardener Association probably doesn’t field a lot of calls about growing olives, but the story and science behind Monopati olive oil is a fascinating one. In “A Taste of Greece”, Michelle Koch introduces us to Georgios Tselepis and Maria Lemanis who return to the family farm in Greece each fall to help with the olive harvest. You can find the resulting oils and other products at farmers’ markets throughout Cape Cod, seven days a week during the summer months.
Becca Miller is foraging for red clover in the latest “Eating Wild”. John Carafoli has a summer meal fit for a brunch, lunch, or dinner. John Greiner-Ferris is back with a story of the next generation farmers who are using regenerative techniques. Vanessa Stewart highlights The Barley Neck in Orleans. Looking for more? Jeff Avery returns with a story of garlic in “A Little Kitchen Chemistry”. There’s just so much to absorb in this issue.
Soak it up, let it sink in, and get growing.
Enjoy the day,
Larry
