FEBRUARY 4, 2010 ISSUE
Mountain Living
New Vegetables for Your 2010 Garden
2010 CatalogsThe first vegetable seed catalog arrived in our mailbox on October 17 last fall. This was a new record for earliness and most of the catalogs are now coming before the new year. Although other gardeners complain about rushing the season—like Christmas lights on the shelves before Halloween—any mailbox trip that includes a seed catalog is a good one in our house.
I’m glad there still are seed catalogs printed on paper with extra information about growing unusual vegetables, how to deal with pests and recipes that make the most of the harvest. Some sellers are just online now but plenty still send summery promises during the darkness of winter. If you want catalogs but are not on the lists you can go online where some companies still have a ‘request catalog’ button or look in the back of the garden magazines.
There are new vegetables each year. This year brings Tie-Dye Tomatoes, RSVPeas, Champion Pumpkins, Moctezuma Cucumbers and Flamingo Chard. Many of the new listings are heirloom varieties that are newly available, including Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomatoes, Munchener Bier Radishes, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce, Lebanese White Marrow Squash and Ragged Jack Kale.
Lowell and I enjoy trying new vegetables each summer and some of our 2009 trials were a big success. We still have plenty of fresh pumpkins that are storing well in the attic, including Marina di Chioggia, Jumbo Pink Banana, Black Futsu, Rouge Viv D’Etampes and Jarrahdale. It is wonderful to have food storage that does not require freezing or drying or canning.
Frozen corn is greatly appreciated and we expanded from just the yellow Mirai in previous years and added white and bi-color. They are all incredibly sweet and delicious with a tender crisp texture that is wonderful fresh and holds up well frozen.
Perhaps you branched out and grew the yellow Yukon Gold Potatoes last year. They are very good and now you may be ready to grow Russian Banana Fingerlings with their little yellow tubers that are really shaped like fingers. German Butterball, Yellow Finn, Rose Finn Apple and Red Gold also have yellow or golden flesh and, although some don’t yield as well as Yukon Gold, their flavors and textures provide wonderful variety in the kitchen.
I enjoy each catalog that arrives in our valley but here are some of our vegetable favorites: Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Burpee, The Cook’s Garden, Park Seed Company, Seed Savers Exchange, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Totally Tomatoes, Vermont Bean Seed Company, Jung Seeds and Plants and R. H. Shumway’s Garden Guide.
What a thrill it is to combine vegetables from the root cellar, freezer and windowsill for winter meals from the summer garden. One of the best parts of growing a vegetable garden is dreaming with the catalogs where there are no weeds or pests, just promises.
Potato Corn Gratin
Think about this dish more as a method than a recipe. It was delicious with stored Yukon Gold Potatoes from our root cellar, frozen yellow Mirai Corn, fresh leeks dug just before the big snow and fresh herbs from the windowsill. In the summer you might make it with little new potatoes, sweet fresh onions, fresh corn cut off the cob and fresh herbs, along with some of our wonderful local goat cheese from a farmers’ market. You can use sweet potatoes or winter squash instead of the Yukon Golds and another vegetable like carrots or peppers instead of or in addition to the corn. Remember this combination when you have leftover cooked baked potatoes. The reason it calls for such an odd amount of cheese is because that’s how it is packaged in the grocery store. The goat cheese adds a wonderful creamy tangy flavor but you could also use a blue cheese, feta or cream cheese. Use heavy cream for the most wonderful texture and flavor but you can use half and half or milk. Pecans are wonderful with the corn and leeks but consider using almonds or hazelnuts or...
Ingredients:
4 cups cooked cubed potatoes
2 cups corn kernels
3 cups thinly sliced leeks or onions
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt and sugar
1 tablespoon of fresh herbs or 1 teaspoon dried: rosemary, thyme sage or a combination
5.5 ounces soft goat cheese
1 cup milk or cream
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you are starting with raw potatoes begin cooking them first. You can roast or steam them. Use them with the peel on if it is tender or peel them if it is old and tough. This time of year you are probably using frozen corn. Remove it from the freezer and let thaw a little while you continue.
Cut the leeks or onions into thin slices. Remove the tough outer leaves of the leeks and rinse the slices very thoroughly because they can have dirt or sand between the layers. If you are using onions, peel them, cut in half if they are large and slice thinly.
Heat the butter and some of the oil in a large skillet, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and sugar and cook until they are golden. Add more olive oil as they cook if they seem a little dry. When they are almost ready chop the fresh herbs and add to the pan. If you are using dried herbs they can be added now, too. Let the leeks cook with the herbs for a couple of minutes to bring out their flavor.
While the leeks are cooking toast the pecans. Put them into a dry skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until they are fragrant. Be careful because they go from toasty and wonderful to burned very quickly.
Use a little of the olive oil to coat the inside of a shallow baking dish. Layer the potatoes, then the corn kernels, then the leek or onion and herb mixture. Cut the goat cheese into thin slices and distribute over the vegetables. Pour the cream over everything, sprinkle with the pecans and bake.
Since everything is cooked you just need to heat and brown everything. This will take about half an hour if you cooked the vegetables right before you assembled the casserole or up to an hour if the potatoes were cooked and chilled and the corn was frozen.
To make a comment, ask a question or find out more about sources, contact Amy at amycookehcp@bellsouth.net.
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