The Friday before last (sorry for the lag time) was a busy day. And POD’s hoping for a bumper crop of French fingerling potatoes, lettuce, parsley, basil, provider snap bush beans, and French hybrid melons; tomande, gold nugget, and patio princess tomatoes; and white wonder, Adam F1, and spacemaster cucumbers.
POD put the parsley to good use last weekend.
Just a few weeks ago, the French fingerlings emerged. Finally. It’s amazing what three weeks, a little Bennett Compost, and some natural rain can do.
Plants on Deck enjoyed some much-needed attention on Friday and these potatoes were first up on the to-do list. As they had shot up from no inches to eight inches in just 14 days, it was time for the first application of additional dirt.
A layer of compost and potting soil was gently hilled around the potatoes, covering 2/3 of the exposed plant, leaving just a few inches exposed. And wouldn’t you know it? Just four days later and they need (make that “desperately need”) another hilling.
Which means the stroller’s going to be doubling as a wheelbarrow tonight.
Note to future self: the deeper the container, the better!
The problem with cooking, and in the Endurer’s case, cooking very, very well, is that one tends to lose one’s taste for certain types of takeout (Indian, Thai, Mediterranean are always welcome). Namely, Chinese. Specifically, General Tso’s chicken. That delightfully gooey, spicy-sweet concoction, which used to spark cravings, now leaves us feeling not-quite-sated and strangely bloated and oozing in sugar-coated guilt.
All of this leads us, by way of Seoul and back, to Margaret Xu’s Lemon Chicken.
Peas, POD, where do the peas come it?! Well, standing in for the greenish-gray mountain of soggy broccoli that usually accompanies the good General’s dish, are a few of POD’s bright, crisp sugar snaps. Seeds that the hurricane planted back in early March.
Margaret Xu’s Lemon Chicken, Serves 2
Recipe from Phaidon’s Coco Cookbook
For the preparation and marinade
400 g corn-fed chicken fillets
1 tsp water
1 tbsp egg white
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 egg, beaten
60 g cornstarch
For frying and finishing
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 shallots, sliced
225 ml chicken stock
juice and zest of 1 lemon
salt and white pepper, to taste
120 g. rock sugar, crushed
2 tbsp organic honey
1 tsp cornstarch (cornflour) dissolved in 1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp lemon liquor (optional)
The plural is misleading…but here’s the first of the strawberries. Shared with the hurricane, it offered little more than the essence of strawberry, but after months of California and then another month of the only slightly better Florida berries, both the girl and the gardener were quite favorably impressed.
Happily, there’s more to come.
These days, POD’s all about trying new things. For years, the Endurer’s been asking for berries. For years, he’s been ignored. Suddenly, though, there seemed to be a new wisdom in his request: they’re perennials. One and done. Just like babies! But, one hopes, less noisy and more tasty.
Anyhoo, this dwarf Top Hat bush found a home alongside a semi-dwarf Sunshine Blue about a month ago. In the intervening month, both bushes turned burning-bush/toddler tantrum crimson and I feared the stress of shipping and replanting had already gotten the best of them.
It seems the tantrum has passed.
Bonjour!
It only took about a week longer than anticipated, but the French fingerlings say, “‘Allo!” Vigilance has been employed and the soil has been kept (more or less) consistently moist, yet somehow not soggy.
Happily, Plants on Deck just received a delivery of Bennett Compost, so in other couple of weeks, rich handfuls of Bennett’s best will be hilled around the growth.
