Chef Gaynol

Olympic Sculpture Park Farmers Market

Hey Seattle shoppers!  There's a new farmer's market in town with a location that can't be beat.  The Olympic Sculpture Park will be hosting a farmer's market every Thursday from 3:30 - 7:30 p.m.  They've got over thirty local farmers signed up along with some mighty fine food booths.  So you can get a little snack, pick up some produce and wander through the sculptures in the sunshine (Finally!  Thank you Mother Nature!)

Grow Your Own

It's that time of year when a not so young chef's thoughts turn to well, lettuce of all things.  The weather is (supposedly) getting warmer and I'm starting to think of lighter, summer meals.  

I'm trying my hand this year at growing some different lettuces in a sunny window box.  This is a really quick and easy way to have some lettuce on hand for sandwiches or salads. Most dishes can benefit from a little touch of green.

There are basically two types of lettuce, heading lettuce and bunching lettuce. The most common example of a heading lettuce is iceberg where all the leaves grow around a central core.  Iceberg isn't harvested until the plant has reached full maturity, usually between 70 to 80 days for a commercial head of lettuce.

The second type of lettuce is bunching lettuce, you've probably seen this in the grocery store sold as butter or red leaf. I'd recommend you try this type of lettuce for your window box.  The plant above was sold as a bistro blend and it looks and tastes like a combination of red leaf and butter leaf lettuces.  I picked it up at my grocery stores' annual plant sale but you can find similar plants at any hardware or garden store.

Legends of the Summer

I went outside this morning and what to my wondering eyes did appear?  A red, almost ripe tomato glistening in the morning sun.  My first tomato of the summer is a Legend, and after a thorough inspection, I think tomorrow is early enough to bring the crop in from the field.

Return to Tomatoes

In years past, when my knees were young, I had a fairly large vegetable garden where I grew all the usual suspects.  Peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, corn, I didn’t mind the constant weeding and watering and the perpetual state of defense against all the feathered and furred who raided my produce patch.

This year, vegetable gardening once again uncoiled its tendrils, and ensnared me via the good folks at our local CSA.  Because of the poor weather,  the farm got off to a slow start this season.  To make up for the shortfall, they told us to take three tomato plants in lieu of produce.  I took the plants home, sat them on the porch and promptly forgot about them.

Fast forward three weeks, when my schedule let up and my guilt kicked in.  Despite my gardening amnesia, the poor little plants were still hanging on. I decided to give these seedlings a chance to fulfill their botanical destiny.

I turned to local garden guru Ann Lovejoy who published a column in the Bainbridge Islander about the possibility of growing tomatoes in our soggy, foggy microclimate.  She wrote that it could be done but you needed three things; large pots, full sun and red plastic mulch. 

I dutifully ran off to Bainbridge Gardens (along with every other tomato fanatic on the island) and picked up my large pots, red mulch (which studies show will boost tomato yields by thirty percent) along with nice, new garden soil. 

June 17th.   From left to right, Jolly Elf, Legend and Celebrity.

Lovejoy said once you have the pots, they should be set in large wheeled saucers, “that way you can wheel them around to follow the sun.”  I don’t have that kind of time. I placed my pots in a stationary location and I’m hoping for the best.

Here’s what the plants look like now, a little more than a month after planting.  If this keeps up, I may actually be eating my own home grown tomatoes.  I figure if we get a good but not spectacular yield, the tomatoes will be worth about $32.50 each.

Despite the economics of raising your own tomatoes, I have to confess to a small thrill and a feeling of satisfaction as these plants continue to grow.  This is the first tomato of the season and when I check on the plants and water them it makes me appreciate how much work goes into farming and what a miracle it is that food is so fresh and abundantly available.  Maybe that's why one should garden, so you don't loose your sense of wonder.