First Fruit Tree Blossom of the Year!

February 29th and this brave little plum tree is starting to bloom.  

Will the warm weather hold or is it in trouble?  

Georgia Organics Conference

Fun, good food, learning, growing, community and a great collection of people interested in all of the above.  That is the Georgia Organics Conference, a gathering of farmers and folks interested in food issues that just wrapped up its two day run.  Robert, Brad Fowler and I are just back from the 15th annual conference, which was held in the Columbus Georgia Convention and Trade Center (a wonderfully restored old iron factory on the river).  This was my seventh successive conference and, once again, I came away with the satisfaction of having spent a couple of days learning as well as connecting with others who share a common interest.

At the conference, you become aware that growing healthy sustainable food can be a community building process.  And you leave the conference determined to further share with your community and work on ways to broaden the availability of good food for all.

I focused my time at the conference on the growing process and had a wonderful in-depth first morning learning more about growing mushrooms.  That afternoon I visited a small farm run by a determined young couple. Seminars on the second day provided more information on managing CSA programs for the benefit of both farmers and consumers, best handling and packaging practices of crops post harvest, food safety issues and how to squeeze the most out of a small garden.  Robert and Brad attended some of the same sessions and branched out into other areas involving livestock in Brad’s case (he also made a presentation in one of these workshops) and Robert spent time learning more about raising fruit in Georgia as well as the challenges of bringing fresh produce to food banks.

And then there was the Farmers Feast on the last night: Thought-provoking keynote addresses, lovely food and great company.  It was all good and we all came away feeling we had not only learned, but also realized we were already doing a lot of things right at Elm Street Gardens!

Here’s to the good folks at Georgia Organics and their efforts toward “plowing forward” to fill the food gap that still exists in so many communities,  

Suzy

Home Grown!

A newborn has arrived in our midst.  The Fowler’s long awaited baby is here and welcomed by all.  Here are Megan’s words announcing her arrival: 

“On January 24, 2012, at 12:26 AM, Brad and I welcomed a little baby girl into the world. With a head full of dark hair and a wonderfully brave howl she announced herself: Mary Emolyn Fowler. We can't believe we had a hand in creating someone so spectacular.

Still in the first 48 hours of parenthood, we are spending as much time as we can resting up, getting better acquainted with Miss Emolyn, and preparing to take this little one home to meet the cast of characters out at the farm.”

The wonder of new life stirs the hearts of all.  We are pleased to welcome Mary Emolyn to our farming community.

Suzy Currey

The Winter Garden

Elm Street Gardens Hoop House in Winter

So often, we think of winter as a bleak, bare time in the garden when everything is brown and dead.  But I am pleased to report that Elm Street Gardens does not “die” in the winter.  It just changes.  And it is not dead and brown; it is very much alive and green.  There are the lovely soft greens of the lettuces, the smoky greens of collards, the colorful greens of Swiss Chard and the hardy greens of turnips and cabbages.  And then there is the broccoli . . .

How can you ask for a time when there is more green in the garden?  Maybe we’ll save the answer for that until the spring when there are new delights in the garden to be enjoyed. 

Now in January, we are in the depths of the winter days.  And here we are still growing and going strong with all our winter greens.  This is the time in middle Georgia for lovely salad greens. We protect those from the more intemperate days with plantings in our hoop houses and row covers outside.  Lettuces and broccoli and a number of other winter greens just do not like the heat of summer so now is our time to grow and enjoy those greens.

This winter we have been especially delighted with the wonderful new Elm Street Gardens Salad Mix we have created from a variety of baby greens that we plant and harvest weekly in one of our hoop houses.  It is a mix of cress, kale, red mustard, arugula and mizuna. You need to try a few bites of it without any dressing on it and savor the flavor in this mix of greens.  Add some of your favorite dressing and our baby carrots and radishes and it will be a salad to be remembered.  

Introducing Lady Beauregard

November is rounding third base, and December is running quickly behind it. The final months of the calendar year are an interesting time for a garden. For some, late fall and winter are a rest period. For us, it is still a very active time. Middle Georgia has a relatively mild winter, leaving both the garden and gardeners outside to brave the elements and soak up each and every daylight hour. 

While our kitchens are already starting to benefit from what was planted this fall, this time of year is also good for dipping into some of the "storage vegetables" of summer, like sweet potatoes and winter squash. Because both of these items often grace the Thanksgiving table, some people think of them as being in the ground now. The truth of the matter is that they were harvested months before. Once harvested these vegetables, particularly sweet potatoes, have to be set out to cure. The curing process is when they take on their characteristically sweet flavor. Without being cured, you might think something was amiss.

So, without further ado, we're sharing some of our recent kitchen experiments: Sweet Potato and Rosemary Drop Biscuits. I find I like their texture better if they're dropped by the spoonful into a greased mini-muffin pan instead of rolled out and shaped with biscuit cutters, but to each his own.

 

Rosemary and Sweet Potato Biscuits (adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
• 2 tbsp light-brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
• 3/4 cup Sweet Potato Puree, chilled
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• A splash of whole milk
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary 

Directions:

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree, sour cream, and milk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).
2. Shape the biscuits: Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).
3. Bake the biscuits: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.