VICTORY GARDENS: On Rhubarb Hitting Its Local Peak And What You Should Do With It

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Rhubarb season generally runs from mid-spring through summer. In our region, its prime time is May. Not only is it delicious with its acidic tang, rhubarb is also great for ornamental purposes with its massive, glorious leaves. It’s perfect in a potager-type garden, front yard garden or in a street boulevard. Technically a vegetable but widely regarded as a fruit, rhubarb (or botanically speaking, Rheum rhabarbarum) is a species of plant in the family Polygonaceae; it’s related to sorrel, another perennial edible treasure. If you’re contemplating growing some, it has few pests to speak of, and it’s super low maintenance. Rhubarb will thrive in the sun, and can grow in a container, provided it is big enough. Learn more and score a baked rhubarb compote recipe after the jump… Read more

VICTORY GARDENS: On Swiss Chard, The Long Distance Miracle Runner Of Veggies

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | You can harvest Swiss Chard right now, and sow seeds and raise transplants. But when is it in season? The question is, when is it NOT in season? You can sow chard seeds from April to August, and the harvest duration for chard is even longer than kale! Freaking kale! If you have chard in the garden right now that has overwintered, it is probably beginning to bolt with this warm (insanely scorching and uncharacteristic) weather, but as this happens, if you started chard in the garden in April, you can soon be harvesting baby chard leaves for salad mixes. Did you know that Chard is in the same family as beets and spinach? Yup, they’re known as the Chenopods. Our absolute favorite variety to grow is the heirloom “Flamingo Pink”, with its hot neon pink stalks.

Swiss chard is high in vitamins A, K and C, with a 175g serving containing 214%, 716%, and 53% of the recommended daily value. It is also rich in minerals, dietary fiber and protein. Can this possibly be true?! One seasonal culinary pairing that is particularly delectable is spring leeks with chard – sautéed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Sauteed Spring Leeks and Swiss Chard

2 bunches of chard – pick your fancy – rainbow etc.
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (you know what amount you like to drizzle in)
2 large leeks, sliced relatively thinly
sea salt and pepper to taste

- Cut stems from chard. Stack chard leaves and roll like sushi. Cut rolls crosswise to make 1-inch-thick strips of leaves. Thinly slice the white and pale green parts of the leek.

- Heat oil in a skillet over moderately high heat, then sauté chard stems and leeks with sea salt and pepper to taste, stirring occasionally, until slightly soft, about 5 minutes or less. Lastly, add chard leaves and continue to sauté, stirring frequently, until wilted. If you find that the leaves are browning, add a bit of water to the skillet.

Where to Find Chard: Yippie! The Vancouver Farmers Market opens at Trout Lake this upcoming Saturday, so go get yourself some chard! Not only that, but we at Victory Gardens are participating in the Stone Soup Festival on the same day! You could head down Commercial after Trout Lake and pick up some Chard seeds and starts.

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: Digging The Awesome Greens From Delicious Turnips & Radishes

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Before we get all excited about spring clean up and the first seeds sown (check the next VG post), let’s talk about what to eat in the garden that has overwintered and may be getting ready to “go to seed”. Enter the under-appreciated turnip. We know there are some haters out there, but today we’re focusing on the turnip’s greens, or “tops”. Note that radish tops have a place here, too.

Turnips are awesome. They stay in the garden through winter in our mild climate. The also have a quick turnaround time, as they mature like the dickens (those turnips, they grow up so fast!). What’s more, they provide a root and a salad green at the same time. Radish greens offer the same benefits. Note that some varieties of tops are smoother than others, and some are prickly (nothing a good steam can’t take care of if you have some of the latter). Combine turnip and radish tops with other overwintered garden treasures like mustards, kale, corn salad, arugula and chard. Throw in some wild foraged goodnesses like chickweed or peppercress for good measure and behold! The overwintered salad mix!

Turnip greens are a common side dish in the southeastern American states, primarily during late Fall and Winter. If you remember our post on collard greens from November, you’ll recall their culinary uses: turnip greens are typically cooked with a ham hock; the juice produced in the stewing process is coined “pot liquor”. If you’re not into the meats, stewed turnip greens are traditionally eaten with vinegar. And, obviously they’re good for you. The turnip’s roots are high in vitamin C, while the greens are a good source of vitamin A, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K and calcium.

Now let’s segue into the soon-to-be-sown seeds of late March (keep in mind that you can sow turnips and radishes in March/April and again in August/October if it’s mild enough). The Hakurei turnip is a little cutie to grow here in Vancouver and it matures in 35 days (less than some other varieties). The heirloom Purple Plum radish is a little button as well. Now get busy!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: On The Little Green & Furry Kiwi Grown Right Here In BC (Honest)

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | What do you think of when you hear the word Kiwi? People from New Zealand, weird-looking little flightless birds, Gandalf, Marmite, and so on, right? Us, too, but then a couple of weeks ago at the Vancouver Farmers Market, we stumbled upon a kind gentleman selling his locally grown Kiwis. We came back the next week, and lo and behold, there he was again! We weren’t dreaming! And he’ll be there selling his Kiwis in Vancouver for a while yet.

How about some history, first? The fuzzy Kiwi, or Actinidia is native to Southern China. Originally called yáng táo (literal translation: sunny peach), it was never grown in BC for resale until 1986. For the most part, BC production has been on the southern coast of Vancouver Island. What happened elsewhere before this? Kiwis were first brought from China to New Zealand at the beginning of the 20th century, and weren’t commercially produced there until 1937. So what was the Kiwi called before it adopted the name of New Zealand’s national bird? Well, New Zealanders initially called it the “Chinese Gooseberry”, but then changed it for “Melonette” for exporting (due to US-China relations being contentious). An importer from San Francisco decided Melonette wasn’t suitable either, as melons and berries were high in duty – so it was suggested that this little fruit be named Kiwi – after the national bird – having a similar appearance (egg shaped, brown and furry). Cute, right?

The seller at the Vancouver Farmers Market, Petkov, grows his pesticide-free Kiwis in an Abbotsford grove. He uses sustainable drip irrigation for the vines. The BC kiwi cultivar is called Saanichton 12 and it has a tougher core than other varieties. Their vines blossom in June-July, and harvest occurs in October-November when they are still hard and sour. At this point they are left to store and ripen, and they keep about 6 months in proper storage. Petkov reported that his Kiwi harvest took place around November 9th. While the Kiwis here seem to have a bit less residual sugars, they are still delicious and fresh and have more vitamin C than oranges, more folic acid than strawberries, and more potassium than bananas. And let’s not forget fiber! Apparently, a Kiwi has more than a cup of bran! They are also rich in antioxidants and contain beneficial enzymes. Way to go, Kiwi, you overachiever! Whether you like biting into them whole or cutting them in half and digging in with a spoon, Kiwis are always bright additions to the morning. And knowing that they are grown right here, they just got a little bit brighter.

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: Getting To Know The Undersung Celeriac (& What To Do With It)

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Celeriac, Apium graveolens var. rapaceum, often called “celery root”, is a variety of celery grown for its edible, bulbous roots, or hypocotyls. Its origins lie in the Mediterranean Basin, where it is often grown wild. While it is a mild pain in the ass to peel on account of all its little nubbins and tentacles, it should be considered a food staple, and here’s why: celeriac tastes like common varieties of celery, and has that comforting texture of a root vegetable – so it’s super versatile. It already has a delicious, complex flavour, so it’s perfect when mashed or used in a soup. It’s edible both raw and cooked, so you can eat it julienned raw on a salad, too. Or, if you want the best of both worlds, you could make a warm root vegetable salad and toss it with some hardy winter greens.

Celeriac is healthier than meets the eye. Its an excellent source of potassium and a good source of vitamins C and B6, phosphorus, magnesium and iron (making it a good source of energy to boot). You gotta love veggies loaded with iron! The days might technically be getting longer, but we’re still in the depths of winter, making now the perfect time to make use of this amazing root vegetable. Check out the simple by delicious mash recipe after the jump… Read more

VICTORY GARDENS: Everything You Need To Know About The Superlative Sunchoke

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | What exactly is a sunchoke? Well, you’ve probably heard the unassuming little tuber go by a myriad of names. It’s been called a Jerusalem artichoke, a sunroot, an earth apple, the Canada potato, a lambchoke, and even a topinambour. Their botanical name, Helianthus tuberosus, indicates that it’s a type of sunflower. It’s strange that these little guys are called Jerusalem artichokes, as they aren’t from Jerusalem (they’re native to North America. ), and they aren’t even artichokes. That said, both sunchokes and artichokes are members of the sunflower family.

Italian settlers to the USA used to call sunchokes girasole (“Sunflower” in Italian), as the plant is similar in appearance to a sunflower, and they are both in the same genus. One explanation of the “Jerusalem” moniker is that, over time, the name girasole morphed into “Jerusalem”. Another is that when the pilgrims settled in the New World, they named the tuber in relation to the “New Jerusalem” they were forming. The artichoke piece of the puzzle originates from the taste of a sunchoke, as it’s often likened to a cross between a potato and an artichoke. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain was someone who felt this way about the tuber, and the name stuck. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the name “sunchoke” was coined by a produce wholesaler named Frieda Caplan. Read more

VICTORY GARDENS: New Year’s Resolution For 2013? Eat A Lot More Brussels Sprouts!

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Feeling a little post-holiday food and drink-related lethargy whilst wearily contemplating your New Years’ Resolutions? Embarking on a cleanse/health-kick along with everyone else you know? If you said yes to either question (or both), join the club. Our inability to write today reflects our own lethargy, so let’s just cut to the goodness… 

Brussels sprouts – like kale, collards, and broccoli – are part of the species Brassica oleracea. They’re all big time winter species, so we can’t help but mention and promote them often. They contain a decent amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fiber, plus they’re believed to protect against colon cancer. We all know that they are good for us, even though we may have doubted them when we were kids.

To showcase them this week, we’re posting a restorative slaw recipe of Black Kale, Apple and Brussels Sprouts from Alexander McNaughton and Chashma Heinze (the two wizards behind Pastiche Culinary Concepts). Check it out in all its delicious, uncomplicated glory after the leap… Read more

VICTORY GARDENS: Give Seeds, Tools, And Knowledge To The Green Thumb You Know

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | One of the best gifts, in our totally biased opinions, is the gift of growing food. Why not facilitate this awesome gift of the green thumb? Are you perhaps wondering what to give the aspiring gardener who doesn’t know where to start? Or the person who is super stoked on getting an early start in the garden for spring? Thankfully, the needs of a vegetable gardener can be pretty simple. With them in mind, we’re putting a few basic gift ideas out there…

1. The gift of growing – SEEDS

Put together a cohesively themed Seed Collection – you want to give someone some seeds? Theme it accordingly. We like Westcoast Seeds and Stellar Seeds, as they are local and have seeds that are perfect for our Pacific Northwest climate. For example, you could put a pack of three seeds in the beginner gardeners’ stocking: Arugula, Kale, and Mesclun Greens. Get a gardener excited for spring with an “Early Start on Spring Collection”, a grouping of seeds that includes Mustard Greens, French Breakfast Radishes, Sugar Snap Peas, Cilantro, and Corn Salad. Other possibilities include the Heirloom Collection, the Container Collection, te Edible Flowers Collection, the Beekeepers’ Collection, the Herb Collection, the Pizza Topping Collection…and you get the idea. The list is pretty much endless.

Where to Find: Westcoast Seeds and Stellar Seeds.

2. The gift of practicality – TOOLS

Every gardener needs a few tools, even if you’re one of those “hands on” gardeners who use the tool called their hands for most garden tasks. What gardener can even maintain composure when stepping into a place like Lee Valley Tools? Tools are hot. Here are a few we feel a gardener must have:

1. Hand rake
2. Weed fork
3. Trowel

*Or, score this “all in one” Hori Hori knife that does it all  (Find it at Westcoast Seeds orLee Valley Tools)

3. The gift of knowledge – BOOKS

A book is the perfect gift for a gardener of any level of experience. One thing to consider is finding a book that references our local climate if choosing a guide. Here are our collective top 3 favorite, all-round “bibles” that gardeners of various levels of experience can reference:

The Self-Sufficient Gardener, by John Seymour
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, by Steve Solomon
Backyard Bounty, by Linda Gilkeson

Where to Find: Homesteaders Emporium has a wealth of homesteading guides on growing food, composting, preserving and the like. Westcoast Seeds has a few of our favorite gardening books as well, including many books on veggie growing in small spaces.

And, lastly, in shameless self-promotion, we are available for hire if you want to give the gift of a one-on-one coaching session. Just sayin’. Happy Holidays!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: How To Protect Your Crops In The Winter By Using Fallen Leaves

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | As you may have noticed, there is currently no shortage of fallen leaves on the ground. And we at Victory Gardens encourage you to make use of some of them as mulch in your garden beds. Often, they are already raked and bagged by a lawn-loving neighbour next door. They’re just sitting there, ready for the convenient taking.

But what is the purpose of mulching? Well, it’s kind of a big deal for your veggie garden. When you mulch by adding a 2-3 inch layer of leaves over the surface of your soil and around your plants, it insulates your winter crops throughout the cold months by preventing the top layer of soil from freezing. That way your plants can continue to take in water. It also regulates the temperature of the soil, thus minimizing stresses on plants from temperature flux. When the soil freezes and thaws, it expands and contracts, potentially tearing apart all the fine roots in the soil.

Mulching with Fall leaves is essential for good soil structure. Mulch increases soil fertility, encourages earthworm activity, provides aeration, and decomposes over time. So even if you’re simply “putting your garden to bed” for the winter, your soil can benefit from a layer of leaves on its surface. Mulch minimizes soil erosion and compaction from heavy rains, too (some people shred their leaves with a push mow first to encourage faster decomposition).

Ah, but what kind of leaves does one use as mulch? Use whatever you’ve got! We have heard, however, that black walnut leaves are a no-no due to a low toxicity level to other plants, so avoid those if you can.

With a little mulch, most winter veggies can survive in up to -5 degrees Celsius without cover, and the hardiest overwintering plants such as corn salad, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, and brussel sprouts can survive up to about -10 degrees Celcius without cover. Sometimes a little more winter protection is in order. For instance, covering lettuce and swiss chard aids in accelerating growth during the winter months. But this is another topic of discussion involving remay, hoop houses, and cold frames, and we’ll get to that. But for now, we bid you adieu!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: On The Delicious Versatility Of Local Pumpkins And Squash

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | The air is crisper and the days are noticeably shorter. It’s perpetually raining, the ground is covered by a blanket of leaves in a spectrum of reds, oranges, and yellows*, and squirrels are packing away the last of the remaining sunflower seeds. It seems us humans are also in hibernation mode, craving hearty foods and marathon television series watching sessions, whilst nestled under a blanket.

Oh, and today is Halloween.

What autumn crop represents this time of year best? Pumpkins! They’re an integral facet of the autumn harvest, ripe with seasonal nostalgia for jack-o-lantern carving and that festive pastime of teen angst, smashing pumpkins (not to mention running through corn mazes and scrubbing fake blood off of your face).

Botanically speaking, a pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae (which also includes gourds). They are native to the Americas, with the oldest evidence of pumpkin-related seeds tracing back to between 7000 and 5500 BC in Mexico. Pumpkins come in an array of colours and shapes. Our favourite is a luminescent pale blue number called the Blue Hokkaido. A few other pumpkin varieties include Dills Atlantic Giant, First Taste Kabocha, Kakai, Lumina Pvp, Galeux D Eysines, Howden, Big Max…and the list goes on. Typically, pumpkins are capable of reaching a weight of over 75 lbs (34 kg). That’s the size of a large dog! In the competitive pumpkin-weighing sector, the current world record holder is Chris Stevens’s October 2010 harvest of a 1,810-pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin. Whoa!

What to do with all of these pumpkins? It’s not too late to consider having a jack-o-lantern carving party (listening to heavy metal while doing so is completely optional). You can save the innards and make a pumpkin pie, and roast the seeds for day-after snacks. You can also make pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin soup, or a pesto from the seeds, and you can always team up with a beer-producing friend to make pumpkin beer. Pumpkins exemplify the nose to tail dining philosophy, so use your imagination.

Where to find: UBC Farm had some beautiful pumpkins last we saw – and they are still available while supplies last. Also, hit up the farmers market this weekend, as there are pumpkins-a-plenty.

*consider saving these leaves to mulch your veggie beds.

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: On What You Need To Know About Saving Your Favourite Seeds

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Saving seed is a rewarding exercise in self-sufficiency of the utmost kind. People actually used to save their seeds to continue their vegetable gardens instead of continually purchasing their seeds from suppliers year after year. Thankfully, there are several local and sustainable seed companies that can do the work for us and provide non-hybrid, organic, non-GMO and heirloom seeds. But if you feel like giving seed saving a try, now is a good time to be collecting seeds, as the wet season is still only looming (or is it?), and many plants are set to go dormant for the winter. Corn, tomatoes, broccoli, beans, herbs, et cetera are all whispering at you to collect their seeds now to re-sow for next year.

Alternatively, you could always collect seeds for their many culinary uses. The approach of winter nicely coincides with the drying and preserving of herbs, and it’s pretty satisfying to have a kitchen stockpile of both when cooking (a couple of our favourites are fennel and coriander seeds).

What do you need to get started? Just some seed saving envelopes and a pencil to label your findings.

Three other things you should know…

1.) There are “dry” and “wet” seeds. Dry seeds are typically found on the stalks of some plants, grasses, grains, or in a seedpod. A wet seed is found inside fruits such as apples and tomatoes.

2.) Open pollinated vs. hybrid seeds: open pollinated means that the seed is the true or singular genus of a seed variety. The seed has not been cross-pollinated, so it will produce the same variety of plant as the preceding year. A hybrid seed is one that is the result of the cross breeding of two cultivars by humans. Widespread use of a relatively few mass-marketed hybrid seed varieties is said to be eliminating many open-pollinated varieties, especially the local variations that were naturally developed.

3.) Within open pollinated varieties, self-pollinating plants do not cross-pollinate and tend to remain the same as their predecessors. Open pollinated varieties that rely on the hard work of bees to pollinate are called “outcross” varieties, and have a greater chance of their seeds differing in characteristics from the original plant. Self-pollinators include tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, eggplant, lettuce and chicory. Outcross varieties include beets, cabbage, spinach and parsley.

Need a seed saving mentor? Check out the book, Saving Seeds As If Our Lives Depended On It by Dan Jason, founder of Saltspring Seeds.

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: On Where To Find And What To Do With Autumn’s Awesome Pears

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | It’s all about fall fruit at the moment. Who doesn’t appreciate biting into a crisp, tart apple (see last week’s post), or a sweet and perfectly ripe pear? There are two main classifications of pear – European and Asian. European pears are soft, buttery and juicy, and have a typical “pear” shape (or, in botanical terms, a “pyriform” shape). Asian pears are crisp, juicy and sweet, and often milder in flavour; they are typically apple-shaped, or “pomiform”. Pears, like apples, are a human-survival-staple and super-storage food, as they store well and sustain us through winter. Remember to refrain from putting these gems in the fridge – a pear is best at room temperature – which equates to more space in the cooling unit for what needs to be there, right? If the pears you scored at the farmers market could stand to ripen more, store them on the counter in a re-used paper bag, and they will come along nicely.

Pears are so awesome for biting right into, baking with, and in salads – they pair favorably with bitter greens, such as endive and mizuna, and they are excellent next to walnuts and almonds, not to mention cheeses, especially the blue-veined kinds, like Stilton and Morbier.

Where to find: The remaining Vancouver Farmers Markets are currently loaded with vendors selling pears.

Here we have a recipe for baked pears, a simple dessert when having guests over for dinner…

Marsala Wine Baked Pears (serves 6 lucky individuals):

6 medium Bosc pears
1 ½ cups Marsala wine
¼ cup local honey
Pinch or two of cinnamon to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice off the bottom of each pear, so that the pears will sit flat when upright in a dish, and so they will be nice and snug with their pear neighbors. No fuss, no muss – no need to core or peel these babies. Pour Marsala over pears, and then drizzle with honey. Bake pears for an hour, basting them in their delicious juices every 15 minutes. You’ll know they’re done once they look golden and caramelized, and you can easily pierce them with a fork. Serve each pear drizzled with some baking juice, then add a dollop of mascarpone, crème fraiche, or drizzle with chocolate ganache-y goodness.

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

VICTORY GARDENS: On The Corn Harvest And How To Make A Really Good Corn Soup

by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Corn cakes, corn salad, corn chowder, corn salsa, corn bread, and so on – corn is one of the staple foods of the world, not to mention a source of bio-fuel. Maize (the Spanish and widely used word for corn) was originally cultivated by the Olmec and Mayan peoples, beginning as early as 7000 BC throughout Mesoamerica.

These days, with corn being genetically modified all over the place (otherwise known as Transgenic maize), growing your own old heritage varieties and bringing it back to the simple life can be super rewarding. Interested? Check back with us in mid-May or so next year.

For the time being, enjoy the corn harvest and, as well as eating it grilled off the BBQ, try making some simple corn soup with a garnish of cilantro, basil, chili oil, garlic butter, or what have you. Corn soup is so very underrated. Freshly picked corn has a tendency to lose a lot of sugars if left too long on the counter, so make it ASAP!

Simple Corn Soup (feeds 6 peeps)

2 tbsp butter, unsalted
1 diced onion
4 1/2 cups water
5 ears of delicious, freshly picked corn with kernels cut from cob
s&p to taste
Garnish – cilantro, chili oil, garlic butter, you be the judge

Melt butter in a soup pot, add onion and ¼ cup water. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the water and bring to a boil. Add the corn kernels and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, then sieve into a pot. Add the s&p, then heat, serve, and garnish. Bon appetit!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.

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