I always sow my beets, radishes, dill, cilantro, basil, lettuce, and other greens really thickly. This technique has several advantages. First, I don’t have to be bothered with trying to space small seeds at an exact distance. Second, by sowing extra seed, I have an opportunity to dig up clumps of seedlings and transplant them to other areas of the garden or fill in rows with spotty germination. Best of all, after the seeds sprout and get their first set of true leaves, I go through and thin out the seedlings to about two inches apart. These super tender microgreens are delicious and one of the best benefits of gardening at home!

Yesterday before lunch, I popped out into the garden and thinned out rows of radishes, ‘Ruby Streaks’ mustard, and ‘Green Fortune’ baby pak choi. With the exception of radishes and beets, I like to snip seedlings off at the soil line with a pair of needle nosed scissors rather than pulling them out. This prevents disturbing the plants I want to stay in place and keeps the greens from getting super gritty.

Spring Microgreens Salad
Serves 2

Delicate microgreens are appreciated best when used as a garnish or as the centerpiece of a salad dressed with a light vinaigrette. If you don’t have a ready supply of seedlings waiting to be thinned in your garden, check your local farmers market. Microgreens are becoming increasingly popular, as are sprouts—seedlings that have only their first leaves.

You’ll need:
2 cups of thinnings or microgreens
4 small potatoes, well-scrubbed
1 carrot, thinly slivered
2 scallions, white and light greens parts thinly sliced
Crumbled feta
Lemon thyme vinaigrette

Directions:
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, put in the potatoes, and let them cook until tender (about 10 minutes).  Meanwhile, load the greens into a salad spinner and wash and spin them dry two or three times to make sure they are fully clean and free of grit.

Pile a cup of greens onto each plate, fluffing them up like a pillow. When the potatoes are done, drain and cut them into small chunks when they are cool enough to handle. Arrange the potatoes, carrots, scallions, and a bit of feta cheese over the greens. Drizzle on a bit of vinaigrette moments before serving.

Seattle Tilth’s Edible Plant Sale is coming up this Saturday and Sunday. The folks at Tilth carefully choose varieties that will perform well in the Pacific Northwest and they have an astounding selection. 50 varieties of tomatoes! 20 kinds of peppers! Plus, a great assortment of unusual heirlooms and hard-to-find herbs like salad burnet and lovage. It is pretty much vegetable gardening nirvana.

If you plan on going to the sale, you should consider volunteering. Volunteers get to shop at a special pre-sale on Friday evening, which means they get access to the best selection of plants without the crowds. Tilth still needs a few more volunteers for the sale. To find out what positions they are looking for, just visit their volunteer sign-up page. I’ve volunteered and shopped at this sale for the past 5 years and it is really one of my very favorite events of the year.

Last night I downloaded the herb and vegetable plant lists and made my plan of attack (click on the following links to download the Herb List and the Veggie List) . Here’s what I’m planning on growing:

‘Violetto’ artichokes
‘Satsuki Madori’ and ‘National Pickling’ cucumbers
‘Fairy Tale’, ‘Swallow’ and ‘Fullness’ eggplant
‘Forellenschluss’ lettuce  **It’s my all-time favorite lettuce!!**
‘Fish’, ‘Early Jalapeno’, and ‘Bulgarian Carrot Chile’ hot peppers
‘Jimmy Nardello’, ‘Beaver Damn’, and ‘Klari Baby Cheese’ mild peppers
‘Trombocino’ and ‘Eight Ball’ summer squash
‘White Currant’, ‘Jaune Flammee, ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Urbikany’, and ‘Black Krim’ and ‘Principe Borghese’ tomato
‘Mexican Strain’ tomatillo
‘Anise Hyssop’
Angelica
Salad burnet
Garlic chives
‘Fruit’, ‘Honeydew Melon’ and ‘Pineapple’ Sage

I’m volunteering at the sale on Friday, so be sure to say hi if you see me!

Last week I stopped by one of my favorite neighborhood coffee shops and asked if they had any extra burlap coffee bags. The barista said, “Sure, how many do you want?” and then disappeared into a back room. He returned with a stack of bags and handed them over, free of charge.

The bags smelled faintly of coffee and had charming logos on the front and pretty blue and pale green stripes on the back. Burlap is made from natural jute fibers that are woven into a loose, breathable, biodegradable cloth. It’s a super handy material in the garden and now that I’ve found a free—and endless—supply, here’s how I plan to use it:

Aid Germination. Carrot and parsley seeds take for-ev-er to germinate. Laying a damp layer of burlap over the seeds after you sow them helps keep them moist. When the seeds germinate, you simply pull off the burlap and expose the seedlings to the light.

Block Weeds. To keep weeds down in pathways, I’ll layer burlap bags over the soil, overlapping them slightly, and then spread 3 inches of wood chips on top of the bags.

Build New Beds. This fall I am going to sheet mulch big sections of my backyard to make way for new garden space next spring. Sheet mulch is an easy way to kill grass and build good soil. Basically, you lay down a thick layer of damp cardboard and then spread grass clippings, chopped leaves, and compost on top. Placing burlap over the pile helps keep everything in place and speeds decomposition. By spring, you’ll have nice, nutrient-rich soil to plant into.

Protect My Compost. In my wet climate, winter rains can leach nutrients out of compost if you leave it exposed to the sky. I think that I’ll cover my fall compost piles with burlap and then cover them up with a plywood lid for good measure.

Make Compost In Place. We used to garden at the Interbay Community Garden in Seattle. A popular way to compost there is to mix disease-free vegetable garden debris with some leaves, pile this combo over a garden bed, and then cover it all up with burlap. By spring, the pile has composted and all you have to do is dig it in. Genius!

Outdoor Tablecloth. I just can’t get enough of the burlap’s lovely, handmade texture. It is so pretty, I almost hate to use all of it in the garden. So, I’m going to cut a few of the bags up and use them to make outdoor tablecloths and pillows. If they get wet or dirty, no big deal! I’ll just recycle them in the garden.

It seems like 2009 will be the year of the vegetable. Seed sales are up. Nurseries are selling out of veggie starts as soon as they arrive. People (including me!) are digging up their front yards so they can grow more food. Theories abound on why all this is happening. People want local food. They want to save money. They are concerned about pesticides on conventional crops. Yes,  yes, and yes. These are all reasons why we like to grow our own food. But most analysis completely leaves out a very compelling reason why people sow their own carrots and plant their own tomatoes: it is fun! Really fun!

So in the honor of all the gardens out there—and all of the fun that will be had in them—I have decided to share some decidedly amusing illustrations by the wonderful Erica Mulherin. I love Erica because she clearly doesn’t take her food too seriously. Thank goodness! Her illustrations make me smile every time I see one. I’m particularly in love with her tomato character in the top illustration. Don’t you think he looks like a garden variety Tony Soprano?

And the carrots crack me up…especially because planting purple carrots is on my to-do list for today!

To check out more of Erica’s illustrations, you should definitely head over to her website, and while you’re there be sure to take a peek at her blog, where she posts photos that inspire her and writes about what’s happening in her garden and her kitchen.

I found this cute little toadstool outside of our tent last summer when we were camping in Alaska. Can’t you just imagine a little gnome taking a nap underneath it? I think it is pretty much the cutest fungus ever. It puts the yucky late blight that always shows up on my tomatoes to shame.

Lately I’ve been noticing toadstools popping up everywhere…and not just in lawns. When we were in the Bay Area last month, I found toadstool tea towels, stationary, even pencil holders! And Etsy is full of cute toadstool stuff. Here are a few of my favorites:

Adorable tea towels from Atomic Garden in Oakland, California.

Toadstool pencil bag and stationary from Atomic Garden.

Wool felt toy from Little Seedlings and a mini ceramic mushroom for terrariums and containers by Mudpuppy.

Woodland mushroom stationary at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco.

A very cute shirt from Dame Star Baby…if only I were a little bit smaller!

On this very day last year, I woke up in the morning, sat down at my computer, and launched DigginFood. I barely even knew what a blog was, let alone how to start one, but I had a lot of ideas and wanted to share them. I settled on the name DigginFood, because I dig eating food and because I also happen to dig in my vegetable garden all the time. On that first day I wrote:

My hope is that DigginFood persuades people who love to cook and eat good food to try out growing some of their own—and that it provides lots of inspiration for people who already have a kitchen garden.

At the time, I didn’t have even the slightest inkling that DigginFood would introduce me to such an amazing, talented, generous community of people who would inspire me every day and persuade me to grow more of my own food.

So I just want to say thank you. Thank your for your ideas, your encouragement, and your good advice. Since I can’t share a piece of cake with all of you, I thought I’d give you a peek at some of my favorite moments from the past year. Thanks for reading and Happy Earth Day!

Our Garden is Born!

Adorable Arugula Seedlings

A Lovely Radish Bouquet

The Pepper Palace and Its Results

Making Applesauce with the Neighbors

Homegrown Pesto

‘Satuski Madori’: The Best Cucumber Ever!

Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the Feed Me Recipe and Seed Swap that I am co-hosting with Renee from Wolfie and the Sneak and Modish! Don’t miss out on the fun. We’ve got swappers signed up from coast-to-coast and Renee designed some great recipe cards that you can download and print!

The idea behind the swap is to exchange a favorite recipe, plus seeds for one of the recipe’s ingredients. This is a great swap for beginners because it is inexpensive and easy, plus you eventually get to eat the results.

To find our more about our swap and to sign up, just click here.

And be sure to visit Wolfie and the Sneak, where Renee writes about her garden, her artwork, and design. She also has several beautiful free downloads available, including composting instructions and a no-till gardening how-to. Renee also blogs about gardening every Friday on Modish, a really lovely daily blog devoted to handmade goods.

I thought I’d end the week with a recipe that is perfect for a lazy weekend brunch: asparagus with pomegranate syrup. I was first introduced to this delightful combination by our friends Demet and Onur, who grew up in Turkey. They had us over to their house earlier this year and served us a fantastic Turkish feast. The evening started off with drinks and steamed asparagus served in a pool of olive oil and pomegranate syrup.

I was completely taken with the asparagus and ate more than my fair share! I decided to serve this dish for Easter brunch and made a few adjustments. First, I roasted the asparagus, rather than steaming it, because I like how roasting emphasizes asparagus’ earthy flavor. I also made my own pomegranate syrup because I couldn’t find the bottled brand that Demet used. And, because I was short on olive oil, I just drizzled a bit over the top. I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

The dish is quick and easy to fix and really very good. I could easily eat the entire plate by myself!

Roasted Asparagus with Pomegranate Syrup

I adapted the Pomegranate Syrup from this recipe by Alton Brown.

For the syrup you’ll need:
2 cups Pomegranate juice
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice

For the asaparagus you’ll need:
1 bunch of asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt

Instructions:
To make the pomegranate syrup, stir together the pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice in a sauce pan over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves. Then, turn the heat down to medium and cook, stirring often, until the juice reduces by half and forms a thick syrup (it should coat the back of a spoon, but still flow in a nice stream). Try not to let the syrup boil, because it gets very foamy. Remove the syrup from the heat and set it aside.

Wash the asparagus and break off the dry ends. Then arrange it in a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Roll the spears around to coat with oil and then sprinkle them with salt. Slide the pan into a preheated 450 degree F oven and roast, shaking the pan every couple minutes to make sure the spears cook evenly. I like my asparagus fork tender, but with a little bite to it (about 8 to 10 minutes), if you like your asparagus softer, let it roast for about 15 minutes.

Pull the asparagus from the oven and pile it onto a platter. Drizzle it with your very best olive oil and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of warm pomegranate syrup. Store the remainder of the syrup in a clean glass jar in the fridge—it makes a great addition to salad dressings.

Last summer when we were installing some new flower borders around the front of our house I unearthed a circa 1975 plastic plant tag for petunias. I swore off using plastic plant tags then and there. The only problem was I didn’t come up with an alternative plant ID plan. So when I labeled my garlic last fall I used sturdy cardboard markers with the intent to quickly replace them with something more durable. This was a totally dumb idea. I never got back out there, the cardboard tags have all disappeared, and I now have garden beds filled with mystery garlic. So I’ve gone back to my old, bad habit of cutting up plastic jugs and repurposing nursery labels in my vegetable garden.

Then, yesterday I came across a great post about plant tags at Heavy Petal.  Andrea likens plastic tags to little plant tombstones, but recognizes that some plants (like tomatoes) just need labels. So she’s put together a round up of plant tags that are worthy of our gardens. She’s got pictures of sweet little plant tags with birds on them, and lovely metal herb markers, and a whole host of DIY ideas. She whipped up these adorable hand stamped tags in just a few minutes and for just a few dollars. So clever! So cute! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m finding my way to a stamp store and replacing the mismash of plastic tags in my garden with these  homemade ones stat.

A couple weeks ago I was stuck in rush hour traffic and I came up with the bright idea to host a seed swap, but with a little DigginFood twist. Instead of just sending seeds, I decided it would be way more fun if everyone sent their favorite recipe and a packet of seeds for one of the recipe’s ingredients.

I’ve been wanting to organize a swap ever since I participated in the Punk Rock Garden Swap that Renee Garner organized last year. It was so, so fun and I got some really cool stuff. Renee is an amazing gardener, graphic designer, and artist who blogs at Wolfie and the Sneak and at Modish. Renee has created a series of really beautiful, free downloads at Wolfe and the Sneak, including Easy Peasy Compost Instructions, a garden planning worksheet, and a set of lovely recipe cards! So I asked Renee if she would be willing to share the recipe cards for this swap and she most generously agreed (Thanks, Renee!).

To help manage the swap, I’m using Swap Bot, which is a website that makes organizing swaps easier for people who are slightly disorganized (like me). Here’s how it works.

1. To sign up for the Feed Me: Recipe and Seed Swap click on this link: http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/35078

The password for the swap is: DigginFood

2. You’ll need to register on Swap Bot (don’t worry, it’s free, quick, and simple). The last day to register is next Tuesday, April 21. On April 22nd you’ll get an email from Swap Bot with the address of your partner.

3. For the swap, you’ll need to choose a favorite recipe. Then,  download the recipe cards designed by Renee (just click on the recipe card image above to download the PDF or click here). Print the recipe cards on matte card stock. Write your recipe on a card, get seeds for one of the ingredients, wrap everything up nice and pretty and send it off to your partner by April 28.

4. I have just a few swapping hints. It’s probably a little late to send seeds of warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants that need to be started indoors. Consider choosing a recipe that highlights fresh vegetables or herbs. If you sign up for the swap, be sure to send off your recipe and seeds by April 28, otherwise you’ll leave your partner hanging.

I’m planning on setting up a Flickr group so swap participants can upload photos of their seeds, of the plants growing in their gardens, and the dishes they make with their new recipes. If you’ve never done a swap before, you should try it! It’s a great way to connect with people who share your interests and getting your package in the mail is super, super fun!

My friend Lorene built the coolest cold frames ever earlier this spring. They look like she spent hours measuring and cutting and screwing wood slats together. But she didn’t. Instead, she built the frames by repurposing some old IKEA shelving units. Genius!

The sides of the cold frame are simply shelves from a corner unit from the GORM storage system. She used four foot long pieces of wood to form the back of the frame and another to join the sides together at the front (see below). If you don’t happen to have spare shelves hanging around your basement, you can buy the corner shelves new for $9 at IKEA.

Lorene decided to help preserve the wood by paint the frames a spiffy barn red. To keep the frame toasty warm inside, she cut rigid Styrofoam insulation to fit and then wedged them into the inside of the frame. She covered the top of the frame with a double layer of 4.5 mil clear plastic. To make the plastic easy to roll up, she stapled the end to a piece of wood (see top photo).

All in all, it is by far the best DIY cold frame I’ve ever seen. It’s attractive. It’s really functional. It’s super inexpensive to build. And it holds a lot of salad.

Lorene has a tutorial for building this cold frame—plus more photos of it—at her blog Planted at Home.

I thought that I’d start the week off with a little eye candy from the wonderful Rhode-Island based photographer, Angel Tucker. This still life completely captivated me because it looks so much like a painting, but it’s a photograph! It almost seems to me like Angel traveled back in time to take this photo, but she didn’t. She just carefully chose her props and then lit the photos with Tungsten “hot” lights. Angel told me that she set up an elaborate system using cards and tin foil to block and steer the light to and from certain areas of the photo. She chose to use Tungsten lights because they create a warm light if you keep the digital camera’s white balance set on natural light.

Angel started doing these fine art photos as a challenge to herself. She was inspired by the 19th century American painter, Raphaelle Peale, whose food still life paintings “riveted” her when she discovered them. I definitely recommend procrastinating a little bit on your week’s work by heading over to Angel’s website and admiring more of her still life “paintings”!

To check out past posts from my occasional guest food photographer series, click here. Next week, I’ve got more photos from Angel to share and they are a real treat, so stay tuned!

When I was kid, we would usually go out for hamburgers if my dad was in charge of dinner; but sometimes he would open up a can of Campbell’s tomato soup, heat it up, and serve it to me with cheddar cheese grated over the top and a side of buttery toast. It was the best.

I haven’t had canned tomato soup in recent memory, but I have to say I was intrigued when I heard that Campbell’s is giving away seeds of the tomatoes they use in their soup. So I went to HelpGrowYourSoup.com, and it turns out that for every packet of seeds you request, Campbell’s will donate seeds to community and school gardens and to Future Farmers of America (FFA) clubs. Campbell’s also apparently contracts with farmers who practice Integrated Pest Management and use sustainable soil care practices like conservation tillage, cover cropping, and crop rotation.

Even though the seed giveaway is clearly a marketing ploy, I was pretty surprised that Campbell’s is even remotely sustainable and happy to hear that they are supporting FFA—which is a super cool organization for high school kids interested in working in agriculture (we had FFA at my high school and a rodeo team!).

I’m a little curious to see what kind of tomatoes they give away. Clearly they are red. But are they paste tomatoes? And do they taste good? I’m not planning on starting any tomatoes from seed this year, so I’m going to pass on the free seeds. But if any of you grow them, let me know how they turn out.

The fact that a little butternut squash seedling can grow into a 15-foot long vine and produce loads of fruit in just a few months always astonishes me. I love their big, heart-like leaves and the fact that the fruit lasts so long (I’ve still got half of a homegrown butternut squash in the crisper drawer of my fridge). The only problem with squash is they are total space hogs. Leave them to their own devices and they will quickly take over your entire garden and smother every vegetable in their path.

I get around this issue by growing squash up the super sturdy trellis my Organic Gardening colleague, Pam, designed a few years ago. This pyramid-shaped trellis is really easy and inexpensive to build. I grew three butternut squash up one side of it last year. I had planned to also grow three summer squash up the other side, but they turned out to be a bush variety (whoops!).

Squash Trellis in May

The trellis is very simple: it is just two triangular ladders propped against each other. To build each ladder, hook two 8-foot long 2×2 cedar boards together with a carriage bolt, spread the legs out into a triangle shape, and then screw 1×3 cedar rungs at regular intervals onto the legs. When we installed the trellis in our garden we made the base about 4-feet wide. I added an extra layer of stability by pounding wooden stakes next to each leg and then tying the legs to the stakes with twine. Also, I want to add at least one more set of rungs to the ladder this summer, and I’m going to make sure they aren’t quite so crooked!

Since growing space is at a premium in our garden, I grew spinach underneath the trellis and lettuce and arugula around the sides during the beginning of the season. By mid-summer the squash had completely covered the trellis—and shaded out the greens—and it looked like a big, leafy pyramid in the garden.  I think the trellis would make a super fun hideout in the garden for kids, especially if you built one more ladder and made the trellis three sided.

Squash Trellis in August

For complete step-by-step instructions and more photos head over to OrganicGardening.com and watch the slide show that details how to build this trellis.