Vegetable Garden-Week 2

June 16th, 2009

by Amy Stevens Adams

GardenWeek2

Two weeks ago, John and I planted a vegetable garden on our back deck, with the help of our container gardener, Fiona. Every week I’m snapping pics of the garden so I can document the progress. It has been a very rainy couple of weeks here on Cape Cod and everything in our yard has been growing like crazy, garden included. The planter is filling in nicely and I’m excited to think I’ll have some veggies in just a few more weeks. If you’d like to track our garden along with us, you can see the initial photos, a list of what was planted and info about our gardener, Fiona by reading John’s post, “The Container Gardener”.

This week, the biggest change was the garlic. It hadn’t even begun to sprout last week, and now it is 4-6 inches tall! Very cool.

GardenGarlic

In the middle of the garden are half-moon rows of basil, lettuces (bibb, mesclun mix and romaine) and carrots and radishes. They are all sprouting up and will soon fill in the garden.

closeupoflettuce

Here is my rose bush on the bedroom side of the deck.

rosebush

One of the most important things I planted was Chives. We eat them in almost anything I make with potatoes; baked potatoes, loaded mashed, potato salad, etc. This week I made my mom’s recipe for potato salad for the first time this season (I think of it as a summer dish, although it is certainly good year-round) and filled it up with fresh chives from the garden. The chives were one of the herbs I bought already grown so it has been ready since day one, but continues to grow and fill-in. I sniped off several straws of it to chop up for the salad.

Here is the recipe;

Potato Salad

2 lbs Red Bliss potatoes, boiled

3/4 cup mayonnaise

2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

2 TBSP chopped fresh chives or scallions

1TBSP unseasoned rice wine vinegar

1 TBSP lemon juice

1/4 tsp each salt & pepper

Slice the boiled potatoes into 1/4″ thick rounds. Allow potatoes to cool in a large bowl. Combine all other ingredients into a dressing, and toss lightly with potatoes. Check seasoning and chill until ready to serve.

Since there are only two of us that I cook for, I have a couple hints for the recipe. I make the dressing ahead (with just the mayo, lemon juice, vinegar and salt & pepper) and store it in a container in the fridge. Then when I make the salad, I just boil two small potatoes, slice them, shock them in ice water to cool them then add the parsley and chives and mix in a couple spoonfuls of the pre-made dressing. This way I can make fresh potato salad for lunch without it taking too long.

To read last week’s tip on how to dry fresh herbs and store them for winter use, read my article, “Vegetable Garden-Week 1″.

Check back weekly for more updates, pictures and recipes!

-Amy Stevens Adams of Cape Cod Branding