Author Archives: diary of a tomato

5.5.14 Foraging Wild Garlic — Allium vineale

Posted on May 6, 2014 by diary of a tomato

There’s a patch of garden next to the back door that’s a little less kempt and where straggly clumps of grass reappear every spring. In our sporadic attempts to tidy it, we’ve pulled these weedy plants up by the handful, only … Continue reading →

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4.29.14 Pea seedlings and other garden sightings

Posted on April 29, 2014 by diary of a tomato

“Though other crops in their season — fine lettuces and radishes, green beans, tomatoes ripened on the vine, or fresh-picked corn — justify the vegetable garden and all the labor it entails, peas, really fresh peas picked at the briefest … Continue reading →

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Spekkoek — Thousand Layer Spice Cake

Posted on April 25, 2014 by diary of a tomato

My mother used to make something we would call 10-Egg Cake, a name based on the number of eggs baked into it. Spekkoek, or Thousand Layer Spice Cake, is a similarly egg-laden concoction. Though the name is more poetic than actual, it’s composed of multiple … Continue reading →

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4.21.14 Cultivated Shiitake Mushrooms + Ramps

Posted on April 22, 2014 by diary of a tomato

As soon as last week’s snow melted, we poked around the garden and came across one of the shiitake logs fruiting. We’d long given up on them, but they’ve proven tenacious. Two logs were inoculated in 2010 and left in wooded part of our garden. They usually … Continue reading →

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4.14.14 Sprouting Garlic + Planting Peas and Favas

Posted on April 15, 2014 by diary of a tomato

The last clove of Music garlic, sprouting, an intimation of what’s happening in the garden. When we poked through the garlic bed, we found the ground still frozen. The top mulch was removed to give it a chance to thaw, and we found the … Continue reading →

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Roasted Mushroom Soup with Potatoes and Leeks

Posted on April 11, 2014 by diary of a tomato

The thing we like best about soup is how well it takes to improvising, and a recent visit to the farmers’ market had us imagining a rustic mushroom soup, almost chowder-like, with chunks of potatoes and curly leeks rounding things out. The appearance of a new … Continue reading →

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4.7.14 Growing Duborskian Upland Rice in Maine

Posted on April 8, 2014 by diary of a tomato

“Whether grown with Western machinery or Eastern backbone, rice is not the easiest grain to produce. It prefers a long growing season and warm humid weather. It is grown profitably in our country only in the Southwest, mostly in Arkansas, … Continue reading →

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