Carolee's Herb Farm

Carolee's Herb Farm

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Carolee’s March E-Newsletter

Spices on display at a Sarasota, Florida shop
   
   March madness—and it’s more than basketball!  This is the time of year when I am trying to squeeze every inch of space in the greenhouse and coldframe.  There’s never enough room, and it’s always too risky to move quantities of plants outdoors in this month of unpredictable weather.  It’s crunch time and we’re working dawn till dusk in the greenhouse or coldframe, and often after dark in the barn putting up new displays and unpacking boxes.
     We’ve also been making containers of early salad crops and some early planting of snow peas and cole crops in the Cook’s Garden.  And, of course, all this “farm stuff” is interfering with my NCAA basketball viewing!  

WEBSITE UPDATE
     There are lots of new articles, the 2011 Events Schedule, the 2011 Workshop Schedule and other information on the www.caroleesherbfarm.com website.  Take a few minutes to decide which events and workshops to attend and mark your calendar now.   You can register for Fairy Days and the exciting appearance by Shawna Coronado, The Naked Gardener on April 30th there, too. 

OPENING DAY—APRIL 1!!!
     Carolee’s Herb Farm & Gardens will open for the season on Friday, April 1st.  We’ll have special refreshments, door prizes, and some other surprises.  Look for lots of new, wonderful, hard-to-find items for your garden and home.  The Big Barn Gift Shop will be filled with treasures, and Carolee’s Cottage will be an herbal country delight.  Look for the Bargain area featuring discontinued lines and other finds.  Although the plant selection will be limited compared to later in the season, you’ll still find lots of wonderful culinary herbs, cold-tolerant annuals, and more.  Some of the perennials are beginning to wake from dormancy, too.  Come stroll through the coldframe and enjoy the early blooms.  After April 1, we’ll be open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10a.m.-5p.m.  Closed Sundays (except for workshop attendees) and Mondays.  Remember, we will only be open April 1-July 10th this season.

Fairy Days, April 9 & 10
It’s a magical day for all who believe!  E-mail your reservation now.  Be sure to specify how many adults and children for either Saturday, April 9 or Sunday April 10.  We need to know which day you plan to come.  There will be fairy refreshments, the fairy parade, a fairy hunt, and May Pole dancing (weather permitting).  Visit the Fairy Garden and the Enchanted Forest. We have new fairy crafts and lots of new ideas, and some really beautiful miniature plants and accessories for fairy gardens.  Make your reservation today!

 

Fun in Florida
     We made our annual trip to Florida for my daughter’s birthday recently.  Of course, we combined as many horticultural experiences as possible into the short visit, lots of good food, and just fun in the sun!  This trip, I wanted to visit the award-winning Wayne Hibbs Garden Center, a family-run business that began in 1953.  It was in full swing, with gorgeous displays of herb plants, annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines and trees.  This is a garden center and farm supply store that has been selling organic products and fertilizers for over twenty years, long before it was politically correct to be “green.”

 

If you are in the Sarasota area, be sure to visit.  And while we were in Sarasota, we strolled through many downtown shops.  I especially liked the shops selling spices, teas, garden products, and gelato!  I couldn’t resist trying a beautiful lavender-colored “Violet Flower” gelato and I’m happy to report that it tasted even better than it looked! 


    

Saturday mornings always finds us at the St. Petersburg Farmers Market, which not only has produce, but also lots of food booths, bakeries, tea booths, and crafts as well.  Of course, I have to check out any booth that has herb plants or products.
     Many of you have seen the wonderful glass sculptures and works of Dale Chihuly.  Recently, a permanent exhibit opened at the Morean Arts Center.  The colors, shapes, and scale are just amazing, and the film showing his exhibit in Jerusalem was worth the price of admission in itself!
     It was just great being outdoors in the sunshine, enjoying all the plantings and flowers that are already well-underway in that area.  I loved watching the water birds and the dolphins that swam by our deck every evening and the butterflies that were visiting the plants in my daughter’s herb garden.  Sure was hard to come home!

 

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
     This is probably the time of year that I miss my old farm most, for it was during this month that I began planting garden, beginning in early February with snow peas, spinach, radishes, and lettuce.  I have to admit that one of my favorite plants to grow is lettuce.  Not because it is easy, although it IS one of the easiest plants anyone can grow, or because it is tasty—although it certainly is, and so appreciated early in the season.  That first harvest of tender green leaves is something to celebrate!  I love to grow it because it is so very pretty in the garden, and there are so many varieties to try!  I love edging flower beds with chartreusey black-seeded Simpson.  I love using the contrasting varieties with red leaves, green leaves or speckled leaves around other, plainer and slower growing plants to make the garden showy at once.  I love using the ruffly loose leaved-varieties next to the tightly balled, rounded leaf buttercrunches, backed by a soldier-straight row of romaines.  I even just love the names of some of the varieties.  Who doesn’t want to grow some of the heirloom types named “Strawberry Cabbage Lettuce,” or “Merveille des Quatre Saisons,”  “Bronze Arrowhead,” “Red Lephrechaun,” “Webb’s Wonderful,” or “Rouge d’Hiver.”   I just love growing lettuces!
     Lettuce probably takes its name from the Latin lactuca, or milky juice.  This white liquid is most noticeable when the plant’s seed stalk is broken, but can also be observed when the older leaves of the plant are broken.
The Roman gourmet Apicius watered the lettuce in his garden with honey-based mead every evening so that it would taste like “green cheese cakes.”  Old lore says that the lusty Frenchmen began their meals with meat and cheese, but ended it with mustard and lettuce to make them more virile.  There is an old saying “Mustard after dinner is good for saint and sinner.”
     The looseleaf varieties are some of my favorites.  Some of them are named because of their color.  There’s “Australian Yellowleaf,” “Mascara,” and “Red Velvet.” Many of them are named because of the shape, such as “Deer tongue,” “Oakleaf, and “Bronze Arrowhead.”
     The Bibb types came along later.  Although many people assume Bibb lettuce got its name because the leaves are shaped like a baby’s bib that is not the case.  Actually, amateur gardener John B. Bibb developed this variety by selection and hand-pollination in his backyard garden in Frankfort, Kentucky around 1850!  It has continued to be an American favorite, although over the decades many other buttercrunch lettuces, as the type is termed, have been developed.  Breeders have continued to improve the original Bibb lettuce to get more heat tolerance.  Today, even a miniature variety called “Tom Thumb” and a red-leafed one called “Susan’s Red Bibb” is available   
     Even the Romaine types now come in Red, speckled, and red-tipped colors.  I love the Romaines because they tolerate the heat a bit better than some of the looseleaf types.  The leaves have a heavier texture that hold up well in salads.
    Breeders have worked hard to extend the lettuce season for those of us with hard-hitting heat fairly early in the season.  Now there’s “Heatwave,” and “Summerlong.”
    Years ago, one was lucky to find decent heads of  iceburg type “head” lettuce in the stores in mid-winter.  Now, 365 days a year there are beautiful loose-leaf lettuces, romaines, and recently, buttery Bibb lettuces are now available as individual plants in clear plastic boxes almost year-round.
     I doubt that anyone here has never grown lettuce.  You all know that it thrives in cool weather, so it is planted just as soon as the soil can be worked.  It works very well in hotbeds and coldframes, and can be successfully grown in containers of all sizes.  Good, fertile, loose soil and adequate moisture guarantees that the crop will grow quickly, which produces the most tender and flavorful lettuce.  By planting different varieties and doing successive sowings, any home gardener can have months of tasty salads and sandwich fixings.
     My mother taught me to pull out lettuce as soon as it became too bitter or tough, to make room for another crop, such as beans or swiss chard.  But, recently I’ve begun leaving some lettuces to mature in the garden.  They make frilly towers that make me smile, and if I am watchful, I can collect seeds to sow again in the cool weather of September for another autumn harvest.
      I emphasize that I must be watchful, because I am not the only one that is interested in my lettuce maturing.  In many areas, the goldfinch is called the “Lettuce Bird” because the seed of that plant is one of its favorites.  Allowing lettuce to bolt and produce seed is a good way to attract this bright yellow songster, also often called a “wild canary” into your yard.
     So, I hope I have whetted your appetites, and set your gardening urges to flowing.  If you have not already ordered a wide variety of lettuces, do so now……..or, of course you can always come out and find some at the farm!  I have over twenty varieties in my seed box and can’t wait to get them planted!
Sore Muscle Relief
     Gardening time is right around the corner, and we’ll be using some muscles that haven’t seen that kind of action for awhile.  Why not make an herbal muscle rub now so it will be ready when you need it?  Simply fill a glass jar ½ full of fresh herbs or 1/3 full of dried herbs, then fill with unscented rubbing alcohol.  Allow it to steep for two weeks, then strain. Be sure to label “for external use only”.   Some good choices are basil, lavender, mint, scented geraniums, lemon thyme, marjoram, lemon balm, lemon verbena, or crushed coriander seeds.

Spring Feedings & Tips
      It’s time to begin fertilizing houseplants!  I usually get stocked up on organic fertilizers to begin on March 15.   Check for insects, and pinch the tips or trim back sprawling growth.  The plants will respond to the nourishment, and to the longer, sunnier days with new growth and a perky attitude!
      It’s also a good idea to spread a little fertilizer on bulbs, such as crocuses, dwarf iris, tulips, etc. as soon as they finish blooming.  I like to do it on a rainy day, so it is automatically “watered in”.  That feeds the bulbs as they ripen their foliage, and builds up the bulbs so they will bloom even bigger and better next spring.  I try to fertilize each clump as they finish, and stick a colored toothpick there, so I know it’s done.  Otherwise I forget where they were, or if I did them or not.   A warning, if you use granular chemical fertilizers and put it on foliage, it will burn the plants, often killing them.  Use organic, or you can use a  liquid fertilizer mixed with water.
     If you want cannas & dahlias to bloom earlier in the season, now is a good time to pot them and get them started.  They’ll bloom almost a month earlier than if planted directly outdoors after the soil is warm.     

WE NEED YOUR HELP
     If you are a fan of Carolee’s Herb Farm, help spread the word.  Mention us on Facebook and other social networking sites, Twitter during your visits to the farm, visit our website, and tell your friends about workshops and events.  If you enjoyed “Herbal Beginnings” write a positive review on Amazon.  We appreciate everyone’s help!

 

BASIL SEED CAVIAR
     I had just sewn a flat of basil seeds and watered them thoroughly.  By the time I’d written a label, the seeds had swollen, forming the gelatinous covering that helps hold moisture until the seed germinates.  They looked like caviar, and I immediately thought how delicious those pungent seeds could be.  It took some experimenting, but I found that soaking the seeds for at least 30 min. softened them nicely, but still left a little crunch in the texture.  Sprinkle them on a cream cheese spread cracker, or use them to garnish a deviled egg.  Make a salad of tomato and mozzarella slices with a thin stripe of “caviar” down the center, or to garnish around an elegant tomato aspic (ala “Shop Around the Corner, where Tom Hanks spoons up all the caviar to Meg Ryan’s horror!)  Let your imagination be your guide!  It’s a great way to get basil flavor until the seeds you’ve sown produce enough leaves to harvest, or to use seeds left from last year that may not germinate well.  So, the next time you buy seeds, purchase an extra packet or two to make a tasty caviar.  If you don’t buy organic seeds, be sure to give them a good rinse.  Seeds should be black.  If they are pink, purple, blue, green, or some other color, they have been treated with a fungicide and should not be used for culinary purposes.

Basil Seed Caviar
     If you’ve ever sprinkled basil seeds on the soil and then watered them, you’ve seen that they form a gelatinous coating.  This reminded me of caviar, and I began experimenting using basil seeds to make a mock caviar.  Use it to garnish deviled eggs, aspics, or canapés.
     Simply put 1 tsp. basil seeds (If you don’t purchase organic seeds, be sure they are black.  Pink, purple, blue or green seeds have been treated with a fungicide and should not be used for culinary purposes.) in a small bowl or cup and place 1 ½ tsp. liquid over them.  Use water, wine or orange juice and allow to set for at least 30 min.  This gives them a nice texture with just a little crunch left, which they will still have even if left overnight.  This will make a little over 2 tsp. of “caviar.”

Basil Seed Caviar Spread
     Drain 1-15.5 can cannelloni beans.  Place in bowl and mash with pastry blender or potato masher until beans have lost their shape.  Add 1 T. olive oil; generous grinding of black pepper; 1 T. lemon juice, 2 tsp. finely chopped onion; 1 tsp. dried basil finely ground; and two dashes hot sauce.  Mix well.  Spread about ½” thick on round sesame or whole wheat crackers.  Cut narrow strips of roasted red peppers to make an interesting curve and place on top of spread.  Add a small dollop of “caviar” in the center.  12-14 servings.

Don’t forget, the farm opens on April 1 closes on July 10, so plan your visit now!
The next time we talk, the farm will be open and we’ll be preparing for the Central Indiana Herb Society’s Symposium (see www.easysite.com/HerbSocietyofCentralIndiana for details)  In the meantime, I’m enjoying having my hands in the dirt and watching March Madness! 

Herbal blessings,

Carolee