My Raised Bed Florida Vegetable Garden

Recipe - Emeril's Oven Roasted Baked Snapper with Tomatoes and Basil

My brother Bob loves this recipe and makes it all the time. Don’t skip the tomato water – it’s the best part! The recipe is from www.foodtv.com’s site. Enjoy!

Ingredients

20 (1/4-inch thick) slices Roma tomatoes (recommended: Romanita tomatoes)

1/4 cup chiffonade fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish, if desired

1/2 cup julienned sweet onions

1/4 cup pitted and sliced kalamata olives

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

4 (4 to 6-ounce) skin-on red snapper fillets

Essence, recipe follows

12 thin slices lemon, seeds removed

1/4 cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

Rice Pilaf, for serving, recipe follows

Tomato Water, recipe follows, optional

Chiffonade fresh basil, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the tomatoes, basil, onions, and olives in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Season both sides of the fillets with 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and Essence. Arrange the fish on the baking sheet, followed by the tomato mixture and then the lemon slices. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over each fillet.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the snapper is cooked through. To serve, place a portion of Rice Pilaf on an entree plate. Use a spatula to remove the fish, along with the tomatoes, onions and lemons from the baking sheet and place over the Rice Pilaf. Drizzle with tomato water, if desired, and garnish each fillet with a chiffonade of fresh basil.

Emeril’s ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 2/3 cup

Recipe from “New New Orleans Cooking”, by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch, published by William and Morrow, 1993.

Rice pilaf:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup chopped yellow onions

1 cup long-grain white rice

1 3/4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth, or chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a large ovenproof saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until opaque and nutty in aroma, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth and salt, stir well, and bring to a boil. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and transfer to the oven. Bake until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove the rice from the oven and let stand, undisturbed, for 5 to 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and stir in the green onions, if desired. Serve hot.

Yield: 4 servings

Tomato Water:

1 large heirloom tomato, roughly chopped

Few sprigs fresh parsley

Few sprigs fresh basil

Extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Add just enough olive oil for flavor and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Self Watering Raised Beds

There are many different types of raised beds that are now available to purchase. A friend told me that Costco even has raised beds now, but for $200, they’re way too pricey for what you get. Gardener’s Supply has the composite boards and corner pieces that you can purchase separately, but if I were you, I’d try out these self watering planters. They are 3′ x 3′, would work on a patio or balcony, and are attractive. Click on the photo above to view details.

Self watering planters have a water reservoir in the bottom along with a wicking device to draw moisture up into the soil. They are good for several reasons. They encourage roots to grow down to the water, they can be filled with the fill tube or just over the soil and the reservoir will fill by itself (I have no patience for the slow fill tubes) and best of all, your plants never suffer from drought, which can ruin a crop of tomatoes with blossom end rot or mutant tomatoes.

These are also self watering, and I think they’d make an ideal herb garden or carrot and onion beds, or lettuce which would also be productive as well as beautiful. Of course, flowers would work well too.

These are beautiful and would work beautifully for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant – really any vegetable would grow well in these. No matter what you choose, these planters are durable and great time savers. If you’re the type to lose plants because of neglect, try one of these out.

Happy gardening!

Recipe - Tomato Basil Drop Biscuits

Preheat oven to 425°

Makes about 18 biscuits

1/2 c. finely chopped green onions
1 T. olive oil
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes, seeded and drained
1/2 c. finely sliced (chiffonade) basil leaves

2 c. King Arthur unbleached flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher or sea salt
1/2 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
7 Tbsp. cold butter, cubed
2/3 c. milk or cream

To slice the basil, stack the leaves on top of each other and roll up into a tight “cigar.” Then slice the cigar thinly.

In a small skillet, saute the onion in the olive oil until they’re tender. Add the tomatoes and cook a minute more. Remove from heat, stir in the basil and refrigerate to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients well, then cut in the butter cubes with a pastry blender or two knives (or pulse with a food processor) until the mixture resembles coarse sand with pea sized pebbles in it. Add the milk and cold tomato mixture, and stir to combine.

Drop heaping teaspoons full onto a greased or parchment lined baking sheet, about 2″ apart and bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown.

If you want regular cutout biscuits, when you combine the wet and dry together, add enough flour so it just comes together as a dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling out to 3/4″ thick sheet and cutting with biscuit cutters or sharp knife.

Lettuce!

Speaks for itself, doesn’t it? It’s so pretty I sort of hate to pick it. But I will. The darker lettuce in the front is Buttercrunch, a nice textured butter lettuce. The lighter green ruffly lettuce at the top is one I picked up at the local home repair center. The red lettuces are also just gorgeous, aren’t they?

This morning I harvested 3 heads of cauliflower, about 2 pounds of broccoli, and the first cabbage head, measuring in at 11″ in the longest diameter of the compact head. Because the cauliflower and cabbage plants will not produce any more, I pulled them, giving the other plants more room and sun. I’ll replant once the remaining cabbage is a little bigger. The broccoli will stay where they are for about another 3 weeks, at which time they’ll probably just be sending up little weird shoots and flowers. The advantage of planting like this is that it’s still early enough to put in a few squares of radishes or herbs – something that is a short season producer, as it gets too dang hot down here for me to be out there working.

This morning a man knocked on our door. He was a worker with the landscaping crew that was working next door. He was an older man and wanted to know if I was selling any of the “greens” I had growing! He mistook all the harvested broccoli plants and pulled cauliflower plants for collard greens (an easy mistake – the leaves are very similar.) I told him, no, I didn’t have collards this year, that those were broccoli and cauliflower plants. He said that my garden was beautiful, that I was doing a great job of growing vegetables. He went back to work and I went back inside and looked at this huge bowl of cauliflower and broccoli in the sink, wondering what I was going to do with it all. I thought it might bless the man who complimented my garden. I picked the prettiest head of cauliflower and a couple of big broccoli chunks and took them to him outside. He was so grateful you’d have thought I’d given him bars of gold.

One of the greatest benefits of growing a vegetable garden is that I always have enough to give away. Isn’t abundance grand?

Happy gardening!

Buying Pre-Made Raised Beds

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: raised beds are the best way to grow vegetables. When it comes to raised beds, the deeper they are, the better. Soil levels settle with rain, and I like at least 10″ depth for growing most vegetables. My beds are 18″ deep, mainly because the greater height makes for easier weeding, planting and harvesting. Rick built them with 2′ x 6′ boards beneath 2″ x 12″ boards. They have shifted a bit over the years, but still give me a good 18″ of soil depth. I can do all my weeding while sitting on a 5 gallon bucket.

As you can see, with a decent depth of soil you can cram a lot of plants into a small space. This was taken the first year when the beds were still new.

If you don’t want to build your own beds, there are a number of types of pre-made beds that you can purchase. They’re easy to assemble and some are even self-watering. I prefer 4′ x 4′ beds, but any length is ok as long as the width is no more than 4′. If your beds are any wider, you won’t be able to reach into every part of the bed. This is important so you can avoid having to step inside the bed, compacting the soil and damaging growing roots.

For growing vegetables, you need a southern exposure, with lots of direct sunlight. Check the lighting in the spot you’d like to put your beds throughout the day to ensure that no trees or houses will shade your garden. Bear in mind that you want an adequate walkway between your beds, wide enough for a wheelbarrow or lawn mower. Here are some choices for raised beds that are reasonably affordable. Click on the pix for the links.

Whatever type of bed you use, it’s important to line them with landscape fabric so weeds don’t grow up into your beds. Make sure you’ve picked a well drained spot (check after a hard rain for standing puddles – don’t plant there!) in direct sunlight. Fill them with Mel’s mix (1/3 coarse vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost) and get ready for the easiest gardening you’ll ever do.

Happy gardening!

Plan Your Garden

My thoughts are turning to all of you wonderful gardeners to the north of us who should begin planning your spring gardens now. Those of you in Zone 9 and even parts of Zone 8, including northern Florida, the Gulf Coast, south Texas and southern and coastal California can all plan on setting your seedlings out in April, and in some places (like central Florida) even before April. That means that the time to get your seeds planted is NOW. Well, at least within the next week or so you should get those seeds planted. The rest of you gardeners should be planning and ordering your seeds soon as well.

Seed starting is easy if you have the right setup. When we planned our raised bed vegetable garden, we also set up a seed starting station. We went to the local hardware store and purchased a 3 shelf wire rack that’s about 3 1/2′ wide, a fluorescent light housing and a grow light bulb, and some chain to hang the light from the top rack. We hung the light and left enough chain so that I could easily raise or lower the light as the seedlings grew. We put the whole thing outside in the screened in lanai. In Florida, that’s acceptable, but you northerners need to set up your seed station where it’s reasonably warm. Seeds need warmth to germinate, and seedlings don’t tolerate cold well at all. You’ll also need a timer for the light, to ensure that the seedlings get a full 14 hours of light daily. Or, you can purchase a ready-made light station like this table top one. You can click on the photos for a link to the Gardener’s Supply site.

I have tried several different seed starting kits, along with making my own little seed pots out of styro cups. Because I like to start about 120 plants every season, I’ve come to love the 2″ pots in this kit. This system is also reusable from year to year. It’s a complete system with bottom tray, water wicking mat, and pot holder insert with, of course all the pots. The smallest size works best because three of them fit under my grow light, and each one holds 40 seedlings. (I like to plant several extra plants of each variety in case I lose a few.) All you need to add to this kit is a bag of potting soil. The kit was actually designed to transfer tiny seedlings into; I don’t see the point of starting them in separate containers. I plant once into the pots, then transplant into the garden 8 weeks later.

After filling the pot with soil, using a pencil tip, poke a little hole in the soil about twice as deep as the size of the seed. Using the same pencil tip, pick up the seeds and drop them into the soil. I always plant two seeds per hole in case one doesn’t germinate. Once the seedlings are about an inch tall, I cut the smaller one off at the soil level with a pair of scissors. Plant the seeds directly in these little pots, stick a label in them and put them all in their holders under the grow light. Water daily and fertilize with a liquid kelp fertilizer once a week.

It’s a good idea to draw out your garden plan. I make a separate grid plan for every bed. I know what I want to plant and where I want to plant it before I even order my seeds. That way, I don’t get carried away and buy seeds that I won’t have the room to plant. When planning, try to keep the tomatoes and peppers in a different bed than the broccoli and cauliflower. I do a cruciferous bed every year and move it from bed to bed, rotating the crops to avoid disease and other problems that occur when crops aren’t rotated.

Gardener’s Supply has a terrific online kitchen garden planner that even tells you the proper spacing per square foot for every crop. They have several pre-planned gardens as well. It’s easy to use and you can print out your final plan. Click on one of the sidebar ads to get to their site.

I like to start at least 6 of each variety of tomatoes, peppers, and most other veggies. It’s important to label your plants when you sow the seeds. Those little plastic plant markers work well. Make sure you use a Sharpie or other waterproof pen to label them. When it comes to planting, it’s important to know your varieties, as Roma grow only abut 4′ tall, while beefsteaks can grow up to 10′ tall! When they’re seedlings it’s impossible to tell the variety, so take the time to mark the variety on all your seed pots.

Make your plan, buy your seeds and seed starter kits, and get those seeds planted.

Happy gardening!

Recipe - Curried Broccoli and Cauliflower Casserole

At some point in the ’60s my mom got turned on to curry powder. She began putting it in her cheese sauce, chicken salad and other chicken dishes. I remember watching Julia Child teach how to make a roux, and the next night, Mom had come up with her always great cheese sauce. She used Velveeta, which does melt beautifully, but I prefer real cheese. Other than that, this is her curried cheese sauce recipe.

I promised you great recipes for your abundant harvest. This one will come in handy when the cruciferous plants all reach harvest time together. You can use Brussels’ sprouts, kohlrabi, or rutabagas as well, but I like the combo below.

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 375°

1 head of cauliflower
1 large head of broccoli
1/2 c. croutons, any flavor, or leftover crusty bread, cubed

Cut both heads into bite sized florets/pieces. Put into a buttered 8″ casserole and toss with croutons and a little salt. Pour sauce over it and bake for 45 minutes, or until it has bubbled for at least 30 minutes to cook the vegetables.

Sauce:

4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
1 – 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup kefir, plain yogurt or sour cream*
8 oz Mexican blend shredded cheese, or cheddar
2 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. red curry powder (if you have it; if not use 3 tsp regular curry)
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Make a roux by melting the butter, adding the flour, and stir while it cooks for a couple of minutes. When it begins to turn light tan, add the curry powder. Let it “toast” for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add the milk, bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in cheese and kefir, yogurt or sour cream*. (If using sour cream, you must temper it or it will curdle. Simply add a couple spoonfuls of the hot sauce to the cold sour cream until it’s warmed up to where it feels hot. Then stir it back into the hot sauce.) Season to taste with salt, bearing in mind that your vegetables are already salted.

The Harvest Has Begun

It is amazing what a couple of days’ worth of rain can bring to a growing vegetable garden. I stepped outside this morning to find that the one of the second plantings of broccoli is just about to burst into blooms! I think the plant knows that even though it sat almost dormant as a seedling for an extra month, it’s an old plant and should bolt to flower to seed now. Two days ago it was a moderate sized head. Now look at it!

Broccoli about to bloom.

The rest of the cruciferous bed is full of bounty as well. I counted two more cauliflower heads that are ready to pick and pull, the cabbage is now huge and ready to harvest and pull as well, and the broccoli plants from which were harvested big heads already have sent up big shoots that need to be harvested as too. The secondary shoots are sometimes shaped oddly like this one. The heads take on a fractal look, which of course, I like. They all taste the same, though.

It’s time to make a vat of cheese sauce, I guess. I think I’ll just do a broccoli cauliflower casserole for dinner. I’ll post the recipe later. That’s the thing about gardening. I don’t like to freeze my harvest or even store it in the fridge for very long. I like to use it while it’s fresh. So I need to figure out how to use all these wonderful cabbages. Mayhaps my brother Bob can send me his sauerkraut recipe. Yum. Fermented cabbage is so good for you. Those fermentation enzymes are very beneficial, too.

With the first head I think I’ll make cabbage soup. I have a hankerin’ for it. It’s a wonderful way to use vegetables of almost every kind. I’ll definitely post that recipe after I make it.

Back to what’s ready to harvest, I counted about 40 ripe cherry tomatoes, and look at the lovely lettuce! Like I said, what a difference a couple of rainy days makes.

Remember when I told you how I love to grow lettuce. This is why. Beginning tonight, I’ll begin harvesting a few leaves from every plant, and pulling a few whole plants to thin them a bit. Then every night, I’ll harvest a few more outer larger leaves from each plant, and we’ll have the most tender, wonderful lettuces in our salads. I love how pretty Butter crunch lettuce is when it grows. It looks like beautiful green flowers!

I also love looking at the red romaine and red oak leaf lettuce as they grow. These four lettuces along with fresh basil and parsley will make a great greens base for our salad. I’ll be able to continue to harvest salads from this bed for several months.

I love growing lettuce!

Happy gardening.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It’s a dark, overcast, rainy Monday here in South Florida, and I was just commenting to Rick that I so love this weather! It’s calming, the rain generates negative ions, the sound is soothing, the rain much needed… It’s a perfect day to sleep in, even though I didn’t.

Rick said that if I love the rain so much, I’d love Seattle. I laughed, knowing that it’s only because we get so few of these dreary days here that I appreciate them. I remember living in Indiana when winters took on a grey pall for weeks at a time. No thanks. I love living in the Sunshine State. It makes for great gardening!

Looking out at my garden, I see all kinds of cherry tomatoes that are ready to pick, along with a ton of lettuce. When the rain stops I’ll photograph it all before I pick our dinner salad. The main heads on the latter planting of broccoli are now ready to harvest, along with numerous shoots from the previously harvested heads. I haven’t looked at the cauliflower in a couple of days, and the first head cabbage is probably ready to harvest as well.

Rick has a ton of cayenne peppers on his two plants. The other plant is growing but not yet producing fruit. This rain will help the onions and carrots mature. I can’t wait. The onion/carrot salad I make with fresh lemon is just superb. I have lots of yellow and purple carrots growing this year. After all, I can pick up fresh orange carrots anywhere.

My granddaughter Kailey is coming over today so I can watch her while her mommy shops with our step-daughter Katie. She is visiting for a week from Seattle. I can’t wait to see both Katie and Kailey. Look how cute she’s getting!

She’s 11 weeks old this morning. What a little punkin.

Happy gardening!

Recipe - Marian's Pesto

Pesto is one of those basic Italian sauces that is exciting to the palate. It can be made with basil, cilantro, even parsley and dill. Most recipes use toasted pine nuts; I prefer lightly toasted raw almonds. I think they have a better texture. It’s all a matter of taste, really. Here’s my version. Enjoy!

Makes about 3 cups of sauce.

2 cups fresh basil leaves and tender stems, well packed
4 oz. Parmesan cut into 1″ cubes
4 oz. Romano or Asiago also cut in 1″ cubes
2 cups olive oil
1/2 c. whole raw almonds, lightly toasted
6 large cloves of garlic.
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt to taste**

In a food processor, place the cheese cubes, the garlic, and half of the almonds. Whaz until it’s all small and crumbly. Remove half to a separate container.

In same food processor bowl, put the basil with the half of the cheese mixture and remaining almonds. With food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil, alternating with the rest of the cheese mixture until it’s a smooth creamy green paste.

**Wait until this point to add salt to taste as the cheese is salty.

Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month; in the freezer for several months. I keep a container in the fridge and add a tablespoon to lots of things, not just over pasta, which is where it belongs, of course. But it’s good drizzled over raw tomatoes, in with any tomatoes really. Like I said before, basil loves tomatoes, and vice versa.