# 319: Y is for Yes

Yes is for planting in the garden, favorite books and recipes for a Simple Spring Supper.

Yes, It’s Time For Spring Planting

Yes, it’s spring and the weather is warming up or at least trying to. There are not quite as many gray wet days and, when there’s a beautiful sunny one like we had last week and the tulips are blooming, it’s out to the garden for me for a little break from writing, baking and cooking, cleaning and laundry. You know the drill. Mr B and I are outside from morning until early evening weeding, planting, mowing all of which I’ll see the benefits of in the coming months. We both were pretty tired at the end of the day.

Ripe Strawberries Not

At the beginning of the song “Who Will Buy,” from the musical comedy Oliver, a vendor cries out “Ripe Strawberries Ripe!” When gardening at the post & beam house I heard that call in my head many times as I harvested hundreds of pounds strawberries, enough to use fresh, make jam, and freeze for smoothies and baking throughout the year. Every region has different varieties that do well and Shucksans did really well for me. They thrived in the gentle south-facing slope near a tall cedar.

🎶 Listen: Ripe Strawberries Ripe 🎶

Now I garden about 1000 feet lower in elevation and try as I might, strawberries don’t do as well for me. After seven seasons of disappointing harvests I have decided that it’s time to throw in the towel¹, hoick them out, and make room to plant something else. Spinach doesn’t do well in my garden either. When something doesn’t fit, it’s time to move on and say “Yes” to something that does. Right? I've had ongoing success with garlic, greens, radishes, parsnips, potatoes, squash and, in warm summers, I harvest wheelbarrows full of tomatoes. But each year is different and it’s unknown if this year will bring a broccoli summer (cool) or a tomato summer (warm).

Volunteers are Wonderful

There's an old saying in the Northwest that peas should be planted by President's Day but, when I do that, many times it results in rotting seeds that need to be replanted, so I will wait…patiently. But this year I’m delighted to see that some volunteer peas from last year’s end of the season blossoms that stayed on the vine and made seeds are now popping up! Whether they will be edible or sweet, I don’t know but in either case I welcome them. And near one of the garlic beds I see the green stalks of a clump of onion starts. I carefully dig it up, separate them out and count twenty-eight red onion starts to plant. Yes! New leaves from potatoes that spent the winter deep in the soil are stretching upwards, too. Another yes!

Waiting for the Soil to Warm and Outdated Seeds

Gardens are great teachers so waiting for the soil to warm up for the main planting of seeds is another opportunity to practice patience. Until it does, I will pull out my seed box to see what likely candidates are there for planting. I don’t discount outdated seeds either because often they do surprise me with unexpected longevity and vitality, something I aspire to have as well.

From A Gardener’s Alphabet by Mary Azarian

On my birthday, which is coming up soon, and many days during the year, I repeat one of my favorite affirmations: To be the youngest old person I know. I invite you to do the same. 😉

What I’m Reading

I’m always thrilled when a book I am interested in reading is available at my local library. Currently that book is The Heirloom Gardener: Traditional Plants & Skills for the Modern World by John Forti. The essays, arranged alphabetically, are a lovely way to begin my morning. I read several while sipping tea.

Forti includes a John Muir quote in his essay “Biodiversity” that seems so timely about…well, everything and everyone.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. —John Muir

Perhaps this inspired him to write “I am more comfortable trusting my gardener’s instincts for living in a reciprocal relationship with the land than I am trusting a corporation to do the right thing. …The voices of diversity all need to be heard in solidarity. Voices of women, children, indigenous, elderly, minorities, and impoverished. …the green path is medicine for our mind, body, and spirit.”

Included in the pages are beautiful wood cut illustrations by Mary Azarian whose work I have loved for years, too.

I’ve included recipes for a Spring Supper below and there’s a special offer for new annual subscribers this month, too. Enjoy!

What I’m Listening To

A Song for You by Leon Russell and sung by Ray Charles

Spring Supper

Easy Cream of Asparagus Soup

What You Will Need

• 1/2 to 1 pound asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces

• 1 potato, diced

• 1 onion, sliced thin

• 1 medium carrot, sliced

• 5 cups water

• 1 cup whole milk, half and half, or heavy cream

• 2 tablespoons butter

• Salt and pepper to your taste

How To Make It

1. In a medium sauce pan bring the water to a boil and cook the vegetables until they are tender. Let cool and purée the veggies and water in a blender or a food mill.

2. Return the purée to the saucepan with milk or cream, butter, salt and pepper. Bring to just below a boil while stirring. Cover pan, lower heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

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Treasa’s Irish Brown Bread

Here’s a recipe I brought home from Kilmurvey House on the island of Inis Mor in Ireland and, yes, it really does bake at just 300F!

What You Will Need

• 14 oz (400 g) whole wheat flour

• 2 oz (56 g) all purpose flour

• 2 fistfuls (about 3/8 cup) of wheat germ

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (if you want a darker bread use 2 tablespoons of treacle instead of sugar)

• 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

• 1 egg

• 14 ounces (395 ml) buttermilk

How to Make It

1. Preheat oven to 300F/150C.

2. In a medium bowl, place whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, and wheat germ.

3. Sift (Treasa says “sieve”) baking soda, salt, and brown sugar and place in bowl.

4. Mix together dry ingredients.

5. In another bowl, fork beat egg. Add sunflower oil, and buttermilk, and mix.

6. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. It will be a wet mixture.

7. Place in a 2 lb. greased loaf pan (tin).

8. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from pan for the last 10 minutes and return to oven to crisp up the crust.

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Cheese and Onion Pie

What You Will Need

• One disc pie dough of your choice

• 1 and 1/2 cups onion, chopped

• 3 tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted

• 2 cups greens, washed, dried and chopped (kale, collards, spinach, chard etc.)

• 1/2 pound (227 g) cremini mushrooms, sliced

• 4 eggs

• 3/4 cup (175 ml) milk

• 3/4 cup (175 ml) cream

• 1/2 pound (227 g) Gruyère cheese, grated

• Nutmeg, freshly ground

• Black pepper, freshly ground

How To Make It

1. Make dough and set it fridge to chill for an hour. Roll out dough, place in pie pan and return to fridge for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 425F.

3. Sauté onions in butter until soft. Set aside.

4. Put 1/2 inch water into a saucepan and heat until steaming. Add greens, cover and let steam for a minute. Drain.

5. Add mushrooms and greens to onions, and gently stir. Set aside to cool.

6. Par-bake chilled pie crust for 10 minutes at 425F. Remove from oven and lower temp to 350F.

7. In a bowl, fork beat eggs and add milk, cream, cheese, a grating or two of nutmeg, and black pepper.

8. Spread cooled veggies on partially baked pie shell and pour milk and cheese mixture over them. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes until center of pie is set.

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Salad with Roasted Rhubarb, Goat Cheese, and Pine Nuts

It’s still weeks away before I can harvest my rhubarb but if yours is ready this is a wonderful salad! Recipe here!

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Dessert: April Fools

It wouldn’t be April without a Fool, right? Recipe here.

Link to Full List of Recipes

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Nice Things To Do

This is my birthday week and the best gift you could give me is to like this post and leave a comment…they’re open to all! IF your budget can handle a paid subscription, that would be a really big birthday gift. To celebrate, please enjoy 20% off new one year subscriptions which is 57% cheaper than a monthly subscription! 🩷

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1. The phrase "throw in the towel" is a popular idiomatic expression that refers to giving up or admitting defeat. The phrase is believed to have originated in the late 19th century from the world of boxing, where a towel was literally thrown into the ring to signal the end of a fight. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-expression-throw-in-the-towel#