Garden, Cook, WriteMiriam Rubin

We are thrilled that the weather has finally changed. It’s gone from cold to hot, from rainy to not-rainy, but thankfully not dry. Tonight it’s supposed to get chilly, which is good for all manner of growing things, and the lilacs, which perfume our world. And the mushrooms, which we don’t usually look for. But these guys found us, on a walk with the dogs.

This is not recommendation to eat things you find in the wild, especially mushrooms! But we checked these out with our neighbor, and he knows his mushrooms.

Also doing great is the rhubarb.

Here is the rhubarb a few weeks ago, and now it’s long and lanky, nearly wilting when it gets just a little hot. I am going out into the garden to cut some stalks and gently stew them with raspberries, frozen from last year.

Spring finally made it to our hill, in the form of 80+degree weather that is almost strange. David tilled the garden several times over, dug up, with a digging tool, the old manure from the goat barn and spread it in the garden. So we’re ready and fertile.

Well the soil is. And we’re waiting for it to dry so we can plant peas, radishes, beets, chard and spinach.

At the bottom of the garden, below, here, is the garlic which was planted last spring. It’s made it through the freezes and thaws and the countless rains. It’s looking great.

I’m off to plant. Hope the seeds sprout.

Lisa Cherkasky is my good friend and a most talented food stylist. She and I met when we worked together as the fish cooks at a tony Washington, DC restaurant. She emailed me one day, asking for Chioggia beets. I explained that there was  nothing growing in the garden just yet. But I had an idea, and sent Lisa to a connection who helped her to source the beets. The rest is history. Or in my latest story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Please go to this link:

These are photos that Lisa snapped as the story was being shot. For the beet face, she used a chile for the nose, pink peppercorns for the lips and crystallized ginger for the teeth.

Play with your food!

The frogs are once again croaking in our pond. They’re called Wood Frogs, named, I believe, because they live most of the time in the woods. They search out water in which to breed, often shallow ponds, known as vernal ponds.

In our yard, they breed in the deep pond my husband dug to catch water for the garden. Right now, along with the frogs, the red-winged blackbirds are singing and squeaking to each other. They’re massed in a tree just near the pond, over the frogs.

Time’s getting short, it all seems to say. There’s so much to do right now. Seeds to start, a garden to spread manure over and till (my husband’s tasks). For me, there are stories to finish, shortcakes and biscuits to bake–book proposals to wrangle.

With an orangey-pink sunset, and the promise of more sunshine tomorrow, all one can do is keep on. Really.

Our 11 and 3/4-year-old Norwegian Elkhound, Windy. In recovery after her surgery for bone cancer. It’s nearly 3 weeks now since, and she’s doing so well, but she makes me cook for her. It’s the least we can do for a dog that gives so much love.

This is one of my husband, David’s “Garden Series,” pastels. Last summer we grew all these gorgeous but small cabbages. I started them indoors and transplanted them into the garden, close together so they wouldn’t get too big. Large cabbages have a tendency to split and taste “hot,”mostly because they have been around too long–and there is too much to use up, so unless you make kraut, they end up as compost.

Small cabbages, on the other hand, are enough for a salad for two or four and they are tender and lovely. The cabbage pictured is a Savoy cabbage, which has these gorgeous, ruffled leaves and a more subtle flavor. The day I cut this cabbage and brought it out in my basket, David and I were both inspired. I wanted to cook it, or make a sweet-and-sour cabbage salad, really not a slaw, and he wanted to draw it.

We each had our way with it, though his was more permanent. Mine, just a memory.

I’ve been baking up a storm since the first of the year, hard at work on a pie story for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The story is coming out this Thursday.

I’ve always loved pies more than cupcakes so when they were announced on all the Hot Trends lists, I wanted to talk them up a bit too.

This is a Tar Heel pie from Mrs. Rowe’s Little Book of Southern Pies. I had the ingredients on hand so I baked it to bring to neighbor Wendy’s house last snowy Saturday.

She took the picture and served it with fabulous cherries from her orchards. She’d simmered them on the wood stove with a good dose of bourbon. The combination was amazing.

My latest story, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Take a peek to learn all about New Year’s Day traditions, from Hoppin’ John and Good Luck Pretzels, to why you can’t eat lobster.

Happy and Healthy!

Please go to this link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10357/1112667-34.stm

This is 2010′s last installment of my column, Miriam’s Garden. It was published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on September 9, 2010.