I have felt the darkness so close to me this season. Not darkness that blinds you while you struggle, but darkness that covers you like a soft blanket; peaceful, restful darkness – darkness with a gentle heartbeat, where you can rest and dream. It was right after Thanksgiving I began feeling the quiet and the…
Creamy Oyster Mushroom Soup
The night of the first frost I came home from the market, unloaded, and then in the dark began pulling big sheets of frost cloth over the plants I hoped to save. The wind whipped around me, tearing at the edges of the cloth as I scrambled to secure it down. The campers who had…
FIVE FLAVORS BITTER MELON STIR-FRY
Ok, I know i just did a post about how inedible bitter melon is, but this is actually becoming a recipe I crave. I love the way all the flavors blend together! In Chinese medicine the flavors influence our different organ systems. Having a balance of all the five flavors brings balance to your whole…
LATE SUMMER VEGETABLE GROWING AND EATING GUIDE #4: Cucuzzi Gourd, Zucco Gourd, and Edible Bottle Gourd
Summer squash actually hates the summer here in Florida. As soon as mid- June rolls around it starts it’s slow, painful curling-up-and-dying routine while the squash bugs, stink bugs, and stem borer moths get more and more prosperous and happy. Even if you replant, the new plants look little and sad and won’t set fruit.Luckily…
LATE SUMMER VEGETABLE GROWING AND EATING GUIDE #2: Bitter melon
Most people I’ve met who have had a culinary adventure with bitter melon share stories of horror. When I first tried to feed it to my family years ago I got the same reaction I get from trying to feed the piggies something they don’t consider food: outraged squealing and disgruntled criticisms. I didn’t grow…
LATE SUMMER GROWING AND EATING GUIDE #3: Callaloo
Callaloo or amaranth greens, are of if my favorite summer vegetables. They cook down to be very tender, and have such a delicious flavor. When cooked they are very much like spinach. Apparently any amaranth leaves can be eaten, even the thorny wild one if you’re so inclined, but some are better eating quality than…
LATE SUMMER VEGETABLE GROWING AND EATING GUIDE #1: Late Summer Asian Cucumbers
Let’s be honest – the late summer garden vegetables are gorgeously colorful and tasty, but they are definitely unusual. For a long time, I thought nothing would grow this time of year, and it rested in my gardening mind like a deep winter of sorts. That was before I discovered the wonderful selection of vegetables…
New Season
This world of dewIs only the world of dew —And yet…..oh and yet….. – Issa Kobayashj, written on the death of his little daughter I had to move very hastily last September, and all our stuff has been haphazardly stored at my parent’s house in Gainesville, waiting for an unknown time when I am not…
Sky Blue Sticky Rice With Blue Butterfly Pea
I just love the wild and twisting shapes, the intense, slippery flavors, and the bright colors of the late summer garden. A good late summer garden in Florida should look and feel like anything could happen, like a loud Saturday night party scene. The crickets and cicadas blare their loud music day and night, and…
The Bad Dog
I’ve been having some adventures lately with the dog. She’s incredibly sweet and well behaved and affectionate – but like all livestock guardian dogs, she has the inbuilt vice of absolutely loving to abandon all duty and run away. She doesn’t go far. She mostly creeps across the road and sits under the neighbor’s trampoline….
Summer Omlette with Malabar Spinach and Garlic Flowers
At last the summer rains have come to wash clear the everlasting skies… I was working in the garden the first afternoon they began, sweating rivers in the baking hot afternoon. Hand clearing this wild land and making a garden is a tedious and thorny task, more daunting than difficult however. It feels pleasant in…
Breakfast Parsnips And Bacon
We are in those baking hot, long sun days now, the hard drought time of the early summer when even the wild plants wilt and long for rain. At my new farm, the dry afternoon wind blows through the herby meadows and smells fragrant and good from the wild croton and the skullcap. This year…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 