Dry Climate Vegetables

April 17, 2014

Gardening, rainwater harvesting, Vegetable Gardening, Water and Power

...e summer, so I suspect most of these plants will fade out if I don’t water them. And the mustard is already going to seed. My big regret with this unintentional garden is that I did not take notes as to when these plants sprouted. A little citizen science would really help when it comes time to figuring out when to plant things in our quirky, rare and changing climate. What volunteers do you have in your climate?...

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Feral Tomatoes on the Bayou

Mr. Homegrown

February 29, 2008

Food, Foraging

5 Comments

While walking along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, just next to a concrete plant and under a bridge we stumbled on some feral tomatoes. We theorized that some fast food meal pitched in the gutter found it’s way into this meandering, heavily industrialized waterway. The tomatoes separated from the cheeseburger, floated to the surface of the water and were deposited on the muddy banks of the bayou. Houston’s hot and humid climate sprouted the seeds and t...

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Nettle Mania

Mr. Homegrown

April 25, 2008

Food, Foraging, Herbal Medicine, Herbs

7 Comments

...inging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a common weed with a bad reputation–the plant has tiny spines that inject, as Wikipedia puts it, a “cocktail of poisons.” Miraculously when you boil the plant the spines lose their punch and you’re left with a tasty green consumed plain or incorporated in a number of dishes, from soups to ravioli, to the German cheese pictured above (thanks to Berlin corespondent Steve Rowell for the photo). When dried, the leave...

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Book Review: A Feast of Weeds by Luigi Ballerini

Mr. Homegrown

February 26, 2013

Food, Foraging

7 Comments

...al heirs pursue that same design. Each chapter profiles a common foragable plant and includes a set of Italian style recipes for what to do with them such as spaghetti with nettles and purslane frittata. The wild plants Ballerini writes about are found in Italy, but most (minus capers, sadly) can be found all over North America. This is not a guide book–it assumes you already know how to identify the plants Ballerini is discussing. I had one quibb...

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A White House Vegetable Garden

Mr. Homegrown

August 4, 2008

Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Vegetable Gardening

3 Comments

...n garden: I’ll note that the last person to try to convince a president to plant veggies was the always forward thinking Alice Waters, the proprietor of Berkeley California’s Chez Panisse. Waters asked then president Bill Clinton to grow some vegetables at the White House. Clinton responded, “send me the seeds Alice” only to renege on the idea, claiming that it would interfere with the historic and formal White House garden plans. But what about t...

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