Experiments

It was with great pessimism that I sunk a shovel in the ground last week and began to gingerly poke around for any evidence that my sweet potato experiment which started so many months ago was worth the time, effort, and space I devoted to it. A few weeks ago, I’d begun checking on them, moving the soil away from the base of the plants, poking a finger or two into the earth, revealing nothing save a pinky size tuber or two. So, I was quite surprised to dig up the bed and find that I actually have a crop of potatoes. They are now curing for a couple of months to convert starches to sugar. We ate a few straight out the ground, and confirmed what our friends at Ayers Creek Farm had told me, and that is that they taste like nothing really, but starch, until they’ve been cured. So, we wait.

It has been a month of mustering the courage to pull plants: the cucumbers, some peppers, some tomatoes, some beans. Even after gardening for many years, it is still hard for me to pull a plant when it has life in it, even if it is no longer fruiting or giving anything edible. But, it is necessary in a small garden like mine. It is the only way to make room for the next crop and ensure future harvests. Death makes way for life as the saying goes. So, out with the spent and in with garlic and shallots and cover crops and daikon radish and chicories and favas. The key is to plant something new right after pulling something out. It helps you get over the fact that you just terminated something.

This week I also dug up summer’s endive to bring indoors, blanch, and hopefully eat in the middle of winter. Here’s how to blanch endive (this is my first time, so take this advice with a grain of salt).

1. Dig up the roots, chopping off and discarding the greens to about an inch of the top of the root.

2. Put some sawdust in a bucket. Wedge roots into the sawdust, putting as many roots into the bucket as will comfortably fit.

3. Put more sawdust around the roots to cover them to the top of the roots. 

4. Put the bucket in the basement for a couple of months. 

5. In late November or December, bring the bucket to the kitchen sink and fill with water to saturate up to the shoulder of the roots. Cover the bucket with another bucket or tarp to keep light out and put in a dark place (perhaps under the kitchen sink). Within a few weeks new growth will have sprouted. Cut the chicons off just above the root and enjoy blanched endive in the middle of winter!