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Astoria Giveaway: Brunch for 2 at Vesta

I just wanted to let my local NYC readers know that there is a terrific giveaway happening on another blog I write for, We Heart Astoria.  We are celebrating the season with an aptly named title, 12 Days of Giveaways. The giveaway is brunch for 2 at Vesta, the wonderful Italian-inspired restaurant that I’ve written about here before.

I love their focus on local, organic, sustainable produce and humanely-raised meats.  Not to mention a great wine list, and you can even get local wine on tap! The guys that run the place are really nice, and the space is wonderful and cozy.  I go there to indulge a bit, too, in the form of the Baby Jesus Cake.  It’s a date-based cake with a toffee sauce, and it is beyond delicious.

Brunch items that I particularly like are the L’Italiano and the Warm Bankie, that latter of which is perfect for a cold winter morning.  Their coffee is very good, too.

All you have to do is head on over, tell us in the comments what your favorite brunch item is, and you’ll be entered into the drawing for brunch at Vesta!  This is a great giveaway item, for sure. We’ll pick a winner on Monday 12/13, so you still have plenty of time to enter.  Hope to see you there in the comments!  Note: commenting on this site will not qualify as an entry.

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The End of Summer

Although it’s still warm here in NYC, since Labor Day it’s really felt like summer has ended. Once the temperatures become more moderate, it will really feel like fall.  I am of mixed feelings about this – normally I don’t care much about or for fall, in my mind it’s just the transition season to The Dreaded Winter.  I am not big on the frigid weather of the Northeast.  However, this year’s summer was so terribly scorching hot, with multiple 90+ degree temperature days in a row, cooler weather can’t come soon enough.  I am eager for fall.

First tipoff to the transition out of summer – I received an acorn squash in my CSA share this past week.  I’ll save it for a cooler day, though – I absolutely love winter squash of all kinds, so this is an awesome score!

I expect I’ll have some green tomatoes to fry later in the season.  To my surprise, my paste and Prudens Purple tomatoes are still producing!  I really thought the Prudens Purple tomato was on its way out for sure, but there are a few little tomatoes on the plant, and none have blossom end rot so far.

I think the BER problem really was with me – I don’t believe I watered the tomatoes nearly enough this year, which would explain how nutrients couldn’t get to the fruit.  I’ve been watering more intensely this past few weeks, and all the tomatoes are doing much, much better.  I have close to a dozen little paste tomatoes hanging on, too!

The mystery plant – the one that looked like a cucumber plant – is not a cucumber at all.  I think it might be a melon or a winter squash – the fruit is small and hard, about the size of a large fig.  I have no idea where it came from, but I’m enjoying watching it grow and do its thing.

In general, the garden is looking quite rag-tag. The lemon cucumbers are at their end; the tomatillos did not fruit one whit; the tomato plants are looking scraggly.  It’s a little scary looking out there right now.

I’ll be in Portland OR for a few days and hope to enjoy some of the delicious food in the Pacific Northwest.  I’ll bring my camera and take pictures and share some of them here after I return.

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CSA Bounty – Week Eight

week eight collage

So far this season, this week has been my favorite week with the CSA.  The share was quite varied, as you can see.  From the top left, clockwise:

Basil, cherry tomatoes, blackberries, peaches, yellow plums, radicchio, fennel, cucumbers, apples, and summer squash. Not pictured: lettuce.

Last night I made a salad of the tomatoes, cucumbers (from the CSA and the monster lemon cucumber from my garden), basil, scallions, all dressed with olive oil, salt & pepper.  I added sherry vinegar to my serving, as T does not like vinegar.  It was a fantastic salad.  I ate it with eggs and goat cheese for protein.  Such a lovely summer meal.

csa salad

The weather has calmed down some, and for the past couple of days it’s felt like a normal NYC July.  People seemed in a better mood, in general.

distribution week eight-2

I mentioned above including my lemon cucumber in the salad, and I just have to say, what a delicious cucumber!  It actually tasted a little lemony and not at all bitter.  The flesh is really tender, too.  These cucumbers are a winner in my book.  No wonder my grandfather grew them every year.

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Garden Update – Waiting for Red-o

Well, my garden is still pretty green – foliage is thriving, though no red tomatoes are to be seen.  I did spy my neighbor’s garden from the back deck Sunday afternoon, and saw only one red tomato amongst the urban-vast stretches of green, so perhaps our little microclimate is just sluggish in getting our tomatoes to turn red.

The tomatoes that are on the vine are green, firm and healthy… except for another small tomato found with blossom end rot (BER).  This tomato was on the same plant, in the same part of the plant as the other tomato with BER.  Both tomatoes were sharing a branch that created “big bertha”, as I endearingly call her – a gigantic tomato, probably 5 inches across.  I wonder if that tomato is just sucking up all the nutrients, denying the other two tomatoes any chance of thriving.   This question will be answered perhaps if this gigantomato turns red without any rot.

I also picked this beast of a  lemon cucumber last weekend:

lemon cucumbinator

It’s about 3 inches across, by far the largest lemon cucumber I’ve ever seen.  It was hiding under the leaves in the corner, so I’m glad I found it when I did.

Remember this?

mystery plants

This is a mystery plant that appeared under my ground cherries and in the middle of my tomato plants.  I thought it was summer squash but now believe it to be more cucumber plants; the flowers are quite similar to the cucumber flower on my lemon cucumber plants.  I’ll know for sure once it starts fruiting.

I’ve also started harvesting ground cherries.

lemon cucumbers and ground cherries

These ones beat the pants off of the ones I grew last year – they are sweeter, tastier, and bigger.  I believe the quality of soil I’m using is just much better than the soil I had access to at the community garden.  The weather – hot, hot, hot – probably has something to do with that, too.

I really can’t wait until the tomatoes ripen!

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CSA Bounty – Week Three

Wow, this week is like Christmas!  Everything is green and red.  Well, except for the lavender.

lavender

As gorgeous as it is, I have lavender growing on the back deck. So, I traded mine with a woman who loves lavender, for more chard!

chard

We got a couple of spicy greens – cress and green mustard greens.

cress

green mustard greens

I’ll need to find a recipe for these greens – on an initial search I came across a recipe for balsamic-glazed chickpeas and mustard greens, but I’d need to make a number of adjustments, as fat-free is not my kind of thing.  I could add some of my pastured chicken broth, naturally fermented tamari, and use coconut sugar.  I’ll definitely post about it if it turns out well!

We also got a bag of sugar snap peas.

bags of snap peas

I ate a bunch tonight, all raw and some dipped in homemade mayonnaise – so good!  It’s a nice lemony mayo, which tastes great with these peas.

This was the first week of the fruit share!  We got cherries and apples.  Haven’t tried the apples, but the cherries are divine.

cherries

apple

We weren’t sure we’d get cherries, as at this growing season has accelerated a lot of the traditional spring fruit. I’m so grateful there were cherries for us!

Can you tell that I like cherries? Heee!

I look forward to good eating this week.

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Truly Local Apricots

backyard apricots

I picked these the other day in the backyard – three little apricots.  The stone fruit trees in the backyard aren’t producing much of anything this year (the former tenants told me about lack of production a couple of months ago), and I wonder if it’s because the spring flowers bloomed primarily on the suckers instead of on the more main branches; suckers don’t seem to be able to provide enough sustenance for fruit, they are so thin and spindly.  We will prune again in the late summer (trees like apricots can be pruned mid-season), most likely, or at least into fall.  Next year I hope there is a bumper crop!

(I did check on the fig trees – which lean over onto the property from neighboring yards – and I think there will be a ton of figs!  Hoping the birds don’t eat them all…)

Anyway, just wanted to show off these gorgeous specimens.  They are shaped differently from most apricots I’ve seen – these are much more round than I’m accustomed to. I wonder what kind of variety they are?  Whatever they are, they’re delicious!  I’ve eaten them at lunch for the past couple of days and they really brighten the second half of the day.

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Garden Update – Happy Growth

Happy Summer Solstice! Hope you are enjoying the first day of summer. Summer is my favorite time of year!

garden overview

Well, we’ve had more hot days, which means great growing environment for my plants, even though it might be uncomfortable for me (however, I’m in a large air conditioned office building M-F).  I’ve spent time watering, aerating soil, and feeding the plants with compost when necessary.  They are looking great!

First, tomatoes.

june tomato collage

I’m growing 7 tomato plants total.  From the top left image, clockwise:

Amish Paste, Pruden’s Purple, Yellow Pear, Amish Paste, detail of Silver Fir, Silver Fir, mystery volunteer, Pruden’s Purple flower.

Both the small paste tomato and the Yellow Pear looked just awful Saturday afternoon – droopy and flaccid, and just not in good shape.  I sturdied up their dirt, added compost, and plenty of water.  On Sunday they looked great!  I think they are on the mend.

I’m particularly impressed with the Pruden’s Purple flower – it doesn’t look like any tomato flower I’ve ever seen, and it’s a gorgeous shape.  I’m looking forward to seeing it in bloom.

Cucumbers – my lemon cucumber isn’t fruiting yet, and I found a volunteer cucumber plant across the yard!  That was a very fun discovery.

june cucumber collage

The lemon cucumber is in the top left corner photo, and the rest are of the volunteer.  Looks like the volunteer will produce a more classic shaped cucumber.  I’m happy with this discovery and can’t wait to see what happens with it.

Ground cherries and tomatillos continue to increase in size, and I’ve even seen one or two flowers.

ground cherry

vibrant tomatillos

I’m going to have to stake the tomatillos, or perhaps get a tomato cage for them.  Tomatillos are very sprawling plants and need support early on.  I’ve inserted a bamboo post for right now, which is helping  with support.  I can’t wait for tomatillos!  I plan to make lots of salsa verde.

There’s plenty of wild stuff in the garden, too.

wild june

Although they are a bit of a pest, these morning glories sure are pretty.  I’ve seen a number of ladybugs in the garden, which makes me happy.  Saw a bunch of yellowjackets, too, and honey bees!

Thyme is slow growing but steady, and tatsoi is steady and fast growing! It makes for a delicious salad, simply dressed in lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper. I like it a lot – it’s like a gentle arugula as far as the peppery taste goes.  It’s delicious.

thyme update

abundant tatsoi

I spent time weeding on Saturday and there were far less weeds than a couple weeks ago.  This is a good sign.  Hoping that my weeding efforts here in June will make for a mostly weed-less summer.

Happy for all this growth!