Michael Pollan’s fascinating book Botany of Desire has been made into a compelling documentary, scheduled for Prime Time, on PBS, October 28th. It will air at 8pm in the Boise area. Of course, check your local TV listings for the correct time where you live. If you liked the book, you’ll enjoy the show. Pollan tells how the apple’s sweetness, the tulip’s beauty, marijauna’s intoxication and the potato’s importance as a food crop has inextricably linked these plants to the life of man and civilizations. Plus, Amy Stewart’s cameo appearance rocked!

Alas, as I plant my tulips for next year, I cannot help but be amazed that empires and nations were ruined by these most humble and benign looking little brown lumps.

Take, for instance, the fall of Sultan Ahmed the Third. His extravagant tulip ceremonies were his undoing. He reigned from until 1730 yet learned nothing from the 1637 collapse of Tulipmania in Holland. I had hoped the TV program would offer some kind of photo/drawing/etching/artists rendering/depiction of the giant tortoises with candles on their backs, lighting the mirrored nighttime gardens of the Sultan where the harems frolicked and guests wore clothes to set off the colors of the tulips. And the tulips, if they had opened too wide and their anthers were exposed (heaven forbid), well, they had to be tied shut, painstakingly, by hand. Mercy.

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I received an advance copy of this documentary for my viewing pleasure. I just happened to love it. So there.

No wonder I am tired of gardening. But wait! I’m making a comeback, maybe today and tomorrow only, but a two day respite is better than no respite.

Along with my sound advice channeled via KD Lang, don’t smoke in bed, let me add, don’t research nasty giant stinging creatures just before you go to bed. To wit: this ugly bastard

This creature has been swooping around the Lily Pond, scaring the crap out of me. Apparently, mostly harmless, until you read up on it, going through all the flying insect/wasp websites…just before going to bed. Then it will creep you out for HOURS.

Back to the garden. Not much of anything is happening. I have lots of Sungold cherry tomatoes, just like last week. The gold raspberries are starting to make their autumn comeback. I harvested 5 figs. The apples that should be turning red are turning red. I have about a half dozen small green eggplants coming along slowly. That’s it, my friends and fellow gardeners. The rudbeckia Goldstrum looks like its ablaze and it still makes me smile, especially at dusk. Ya know why they painted school buses that color yellow -its a screamer.

My friends who’ve had a better go of their vegetable gardens are bringing me lots of tomatoes. Indy, you could send me some of those green beans. Dee, whatcha got over there, girl?

The artichoke plants have withered and died. They were trampled one too many times by my lovesick springer who dances back and forth along the fence trying to get the attention of the big old blond next door. Her name is Sally and she’s a yellow lab. That’s where I’d planted all my green beans. They came up about 3 or 4 inches and poof! To resolve some of the dog stepping, we’re making plans to do a good sized raised bed (fenced) for veggies next year. I am hoping we could get it built this fall so it would be ready to go in March. But you know what they say about the best laid plans?

Meanwhile, this little burst of coolth, coupled with a gander at the bulb plantings of Jacqueline van der Kloet at the New York Botanical’s Seasonal Walk, has me contemplating the bulb catalogs. I know I swore off bulbs. Just for one year. Yet, here I am, already plotting plotting plotting. Such is the optimism of a gardener.

Until Week 25,
the head gardener at Ranch du Bois

I know, I know! How boring is that post title? It is SO NOT me.

When I went to Amazon.com in search of the best vegetable garden cookbooks, I could pull up more than 200 and sometimes 600 matches. There’s a new one for sale about every other day. I should know, I own a few dozen cookbooks in this category ALONE. I decided to look no further than my own cookbook shelf. Here’s are my absolute faves:

“The Mother of all Vegetable Garden Cookbooks!” Hubba Hubba Bubba, now we are cooking. I am talking about the original Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash, published in 1982. Take a look:

If you wanna know how loved that book is, try picking up my copy. Use both hands, please. The cover is no longer attached, it just has to go along with the book. The binding glue is cracking and falling all over the place. The book itself is trying to break into two or three booklets.

The Victory Garden Cookbook was a companion piece to the television program, the original Crockett’s Victory Garden, produced by Russell Morash. Turns out, Russ’s wife, author Marian Morash was executive chef on the Julia Child and More Company show. Russ is credited with discovering Julia Child in the 60’s and putting her on the tube. A star is born. So, having been clever enough to link together the Victory Garden Cookbook and Julia Child just days before the movie, Julie and Julia makes its nationwide debut, I best be sharing with the reasons I love this book.

It covers 37 vegetables. Anytime you have a pile of fresh zukes, eggplants, kohlrabi or leeks, open this book. The simplest of preparations are laid out for you, as well as a dozen or more straight forward delicious recipes for each veg. Under “Finishing Touches for Hot Snap Beans” is our all time favorite …”With Warm Salad Dressing.”

You will find page 111 all puckered with dashes of olive oil, red wine vinegar and the no doubt the juice of fresh tomatoes. This is the page for our beloved Caponata, a cold eggplant salad that is also fantastic over hot pasta. Fresh cold tomato basil sauce for pasta is a 15 minute wonder. The page with “Tabbouleh with Tomatoes” is also dog-eared. Corn? If you find yourself with a bushel of corn, this is the book for you. Dressings for raw celeriac? Right here. I discovered I loved fresh celeriac salad 15 years ago, in Los Angeles. I could get celeriac in Boise, but how to make it into a salad? This was before Google was a household word. I turned to Marian.

Second on my list, or the brother from another motha, is Jamie at Home, Cook Your Way to the Good Life. Yes, I have the DVD as well and probably the last season or two spooled up on TIVO. I like to drink and watch him cook mushrooms on a bed of straw in the forest. As many times as I have seen this episode, I am – every time – convinced he is going to set the woods on fire. I covet his handmade stone oven and his gardener Brian. At least he confessed to having a gardener. And that little garden hut, where he cooks up a storm? I want one of those, too. A blob, a mash, a nob, some lashings and gobsmack me right on over to the dinner table.

I am taking the fixin’s for Jamie’s (we are on a first name basis whether he knows it or not) Rhubarb Bellinis to a party tomorrow. Rhubarb juice, champagne, sugar and mint. Regular readers know my passion for rhubarb, and I have a nice batch of rhubarb juice all made up and resting in the freezer. If any rhubarb survives my penchant for reducing it to juice for cocktails, I might try making rhubarb and sticky stem ginger crumble. Someday. Maybe.

This cookbook is all about the seasons. It includes recipes for fresh spring lamb, chickens raised at home (or elsewhere if you must), preparations of fresh fruit and pickles. Make the Ultimate Mushroom Bruschetta, Amazing pickled and marinated veg, and someday, if it ever cools down, Italian bread and cabbage soup with sage butter. Promise me you’ll try the bread and cabbage soup. Its all about the good life.

Start with these two books. You’ll be glad you did.

ps, the idea for this blog template was borrowed from Jamie Oliver’s TV show. I love the notebook paper background he uses for his handwritten recipes.

Not to be left out of the big doin’s, here’s my little upload for Bloom Day, July 2009-a small selection of what is blooming in the garden at Ranch du Bois. It is blazing hot and hard to photograph all the lovelies right now. Heck, its hard to even LIKE the lovelies when it is 100 degrees in the shade.

Here and there you will also find: Veronica ‘Royal Candles’, persicaria ‘Firetail’, miscellaneous salvia greggiis, a brown turkey fig, delosperma ‘Table Mountain’, hesperaloe, eryngium, penstemons, agastaches, and tomatoes.

Dear Carol and Dee,

Once again, I am amazed: WEEK 18??? What the heck? July 5th? Where do the days go? Days, where do the weeks go?

Not a great deal to report from Ranch du Bois. Rasberries still producing in spite of high 80’s/90/s heat.

I cannot WAIT till the day I can write to you two and tell you I am in knee deep in tomatoes and getting sick of them. I find myself staring at the tomatoes, saying to them under my breath, “Grow, dammit!” I am one of those people would not be caught dead buying tomatoes from a grocery store. If I buy them, ever, they are locally grown and from a farm stand. We just don’t use sliced tomatoes out of season. So, it is with bated breath I wait for the warm ripe tomatoes from the garden. All I can think of is how good some Insalata Caprese would be right now. That’s the simple salad of sliced tomatoes, torn basil, and sliced fresh mozzerella. I have the fresh basil and some mozzerella on hand. Come ON tomatoes!

I pruned the apple espaliers yesterday. I filled up an entire garbage can with the branches. There aren’t a lot of apples, in fact, I was pretty darn disappointed. There might be a couple of dozen apples, and that’s the extent of it. I do know the dog has made off with the Granny Smiths from the bottom branches. I noticed some of the cottony mildew in the congested, areas – those places really needed to be cleaned up and opened up to the air and sunlight. I sent a boatload of earwigs scurrying. I hate those critters.

The dog has also helped himself to the low hanging fruit on my new fig tree. I’ve raised it up on a double stacked pot until I can figure out a stable, out of reach place for it. Bad dog.

True confessions: I counted yesterday, before I hid them from the prying eyes of my gardening friends, 21 small pots (4 inchers) of plants that need to go in the ground pronto. Let me put it this way, if they don’t get planted this week, I might as well kiss them goodbye. I am not going to do the math on this, but suffice it to say, if I blow it, I might as well light a match to a C note. Will I ever learn not to buy a plant if I don’t have a place for it?. Arrrrrgggggh. Its definitely akin to my fabric habit. I hoard fabric. There. Out in the open. Is there a 12 step program for plantaholics?

I am planning to spend the next few mornings in the garden taking advantage of the cooler temps. The afternoons will be for catching up on my writing about Idaho Gardens. Next weekend, a big treat for me: the Sawtooth Botanical Garden tour in central Idaho. My chance to be a tourist in OPGs. Other Peoples’ Gardens. I am so looking forward to it. I’ve also been on the prowl for gardens for the 2010 garden tour in Boise. Man, you get some strange looks when you start cruising the alleys, the same ones, again and again and again, trying to get a look inside the back fence.

Until next week, be cool.

Your pal,
MA

ps, I forgot to tell you, my Cueball squash bit the dust. Actually, the little darling was yanked out of the bed by its head and left to wither and die in the heat. We are not even gonna talk about who committed such an offense, just know it wasn’t me.

Your poor ears and eyes have been bombarded forever now with the admonishment/encouragement/plea to think, eat and buy local. I know that, so here are a couple of handy little tips and reference points to help you along in your never ending quest to do the local thing:

Check out Local Harvest on the web: these folks who will deliver fresh local organic produce to YOUR DOOR! It’s a Boise couple who will gather and deliver the best of the best to you.

I saw loads of fresh berries being carried out of the Saturday market last weekend. Strawberries and raspberries from our valley. These are fab in shortcakes and desserts right now, but don’t forget to whip up a batch (a SMALL batch of freezer jam) for remembrances of summer in say, January. (I’ll post some recipe ideas later today so you have time to gather up what you will need).

Book recommends for this eating local bidnez: Cooking outside the box: easy, seasonal, organic by Able and Cole, published by Collins, 2006.

And more:

Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver
Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes by Jeanne Kelley.

Reader, let me be the first to apologize for leaving you turning in the wind, without ballast, these last few weeks. I know, I KNOW! It’s prime gardening season and I have been MIA. Sorry. So sorry. We all get busy busy this time of the year. Seems we always go from a frosty standstill to 100 miles an hour overnight. Just a month ago, it was 27 on a Tuesday night and the next Monday registered 94 degrees. This is why it’s called the Wild Wild West.

Top it off with a pollen count of 360 a couple weeks ago and yours truly couldn’t take it another minute. Long story short, I’ve been under the weather, and mostly under the radar. But I have some garden snaps to share with you.

First up, I crawled onto an airplane on May 28th for the trip to Chicago. I was lucky enough to attend the first annual Garden Bloggers’ Spring Fling in Austin last April. It was decided then, to meet up in Chicago in 2009. Meet up we did, all 51 of us. (Blotanical shows 600+ gardeners, I don’t know how many in the US).

We were squired around and hosted by the Chicago Botanic Gardens, saw Rick Bayless’s garden, the Lurie at Millenium Park, conservatories, and private gardens. Here are some photos and comments on Rick Bayless’s garden.

[caption id="attachment_8501" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lush ornamental plantings for relaxing in the garden"][/caption]

Next: the incredible Lurie Garden at Millenium Park.

Finally! Here’s my Bloom Day post, for Carol over at May Dreams Gardens.

Since everyone was getting fancy w/you tube videos and background music, I put mine in a collage. So there.

left to right: top row: wisteria & Boise; wisteria; ad euphorbia
2nd row: snowball viburnum with purple and white lilacs in the background; snow in summer + geum; and rosemary w/bees
3rd row: allium Purple Sensation in front of Baileyii redtwig dogwood (shrub); unknown tulip variety, ajuga Black Scallop w/Ivory Prince hellebore in the back.

Hey all! I want to send you over to see what ELSE is going on the wild world of Idaho gardening. Here are some kindred spirits. Stop by and say hey!:

Seasonal Wisdom
Small Goat Garden

and if you know of other folks, out there, writing and planting, let me know and we will add them to the list. I am trying to pull a comprehensive list together for all of us….

Wow! Can you believe we are on week eight?

Dear Carol and Dee,

Dear Friends and Gardeners,

Things are really starting to pop here at Ranch du Bois. We had three days of 80+ temps and bright sunshine which makes the spring plant world do the happy dance. My Perestroyka, Negrita, Orange Lion and Impression tulips are glorious.

The little species Persian Pearls are in full bloom in several clusters in the front garden. For some odd reason, I have a single stately fritallaria persica. It’s a gorgeous thing, but I don’t know why there aren’t at least two more. Squirrels?

Enough stalling, I have a confession. I hate starting plants from seeds. I know, I know, how cool it is to take something the size of a freckle and later make a meal out of it, i.e. a Brandywine tomato seed. I just don’t have enough commitment to the process to be any good at it. Earlier in the week, I put the seedling tray on the patio and when I looked a couple hours later, only two of the 5 tomatoes wisps were still standing. Everything else had disappeared. A little too much heat and poof! they expired. I swear the basil and flower seedlings crawled right back into the soil. At that point, I thought I had just two of the Sungold cherry tomatoes intact. Today, with my 2.50 power reading glasses, lo and behold, there were 2 Kentucky Beefsteaks, 4 Turkish Orange eggplants and a single nicotiana mutabilis making their debuts. Johnny Appleseed I am not.

Having shared that with you, I am thrilled to report we ate from the garden last night. Yessiree-bob, we had a salad that was only minutes from the flower pot to the table and oh-so-tasty. A couple weeks ago, I planted a half packet of micro-greens in a 16 inch wide ceramic flower pot. Last night, just before dinner, I “thinned” them to make a salad. There were little bitty radishes in the mix which made it look great on a plate and zingy to eat.

My newest raspberries are leafing out (thank God I didn’t kill them). The old, established rhubarb has small red stems and makes me hopeful for rhubarb-tinis in the near future. The apple espalier is still blooming on the top rung, the Gala apple rung. I won’t know for awhile whether my apricot tree will produce this year. It was covered in blossoms.

Last fall, I planted a couple dozen cloves of garlic at the last minute. I really want some garlic scapes. They are so cool when they appear at the top of the stalk, all swirly and curlicued and tender in a stir fry. The garlic blades are up about 6-8 inches so far.

The hideously priced Mara des Bois strawberries – that’s another story. I planted them the day they arrived and have kept an eye on them. I can only see 4 of the seven crowns. At almost $10 a pop, if they don’t make it, I am gonna be one cranky gardener. Unlike the tomato seedlings, I have devoted myself to their happiness. I’ve been out there talking to them, coaxing and wheedling. Don’t laugh.

I just read an article about talking to plants. Wisley is the experimental station for the Royal Horticulture Society in England. They had 45 people audition to speak to the plants, and whittled it down to 10 different voices to use on the plants. Very scientific and no doubt a fine investment in plant research. Can I vote for Scotland’s Susan Boyle?

I attended the Idaho Botanical Garden’s plant sale on Friday and tho I didn’t buy anything, I made a date with a friend who grows 102 varieties of tomatoes. She will be selling them from her home next weekend, and I will be there with my cash. Many, many moons ago we went to Italy. Everywhere we ate, they served insalata Caprese, the tomato/water buffalo d’mozzerella/basil salad. Interestingly enough, the tomatoes were often a medium pink color. The tomatoes were perfectly ripe, pink was their mature color. Betty grows several pink Italian heirloom varieties so you know what I will be bringing home. All is not lost in my quest for a huge crop of tomatoes.

We still have 19 days until our last frost date. There can be surprises after that, but I am ready to seed some of my annual flowers directly into the ground where it is already nice and warm and holding some warmth up against the house. Peas are going in the ground in a few minutes. Its warm enough and dry enough they won’t rot now.

I look forward to reading your tales of garden thrills and spills this week. I do believe these weekly check-ins are making me a better gardener. There’s always that nagging little voice in my head saying, “you better get hoppin’ so you have something to write about NEXT week.” Speaking of hopping, Carol, how’s the rabbit situation?

Until next time,
MA