Traditional Gardening

Almost everyone has a family tradition.  Many of my favorite childhood memories are tied to annual special events or practices. Wearing my grandmother's handmade Mother's Day corsages, sharing my mother's New Year's Day breakfasts with friends and family, enjoying a last-day-of-summer-vacation trip to Blowing Rock and Good Friday planting were some of our family traditions.   

Planting Beans on Good Friday is a Family Tradition

Throughout the world, many gardeners celebrate Good Friday by placing seeds or plants in the ground.  In our area, potatoes are the likely choice, but since my grandmother always planted beans on that Holy day, I keep her tradition alive and plant the same seeds she inherited from her mother.  My heirloom seed beans are White Mountain Half Runners and trace back five generations to the immigrant woman, Mary Schmidt Bean, called "Polly" by her family, who brought them to the US from Germany in the early 1800s. 

Polly Schmidt Bean, US Immigrant & Seed Saver

Last year's April 3rd Good Friday planting restored my supply of pure seed, but since the 2016 traditional planting day is a week earlier, it is likely our Western NC gardens could still expect a visit from Jack Frost; therefore, I only planted a twenty-five foot row of Granny's beans.  With luck and good weather, these seeds will produce beans to enjoy eating fresh from the vines by early summer.  When the crop is mature, the most beautiful bean pods will dry to serve as seed for next spring.  

Good Friday proved to be a glorious Spring day

Along with last year's seed, I also, just for luck, added a few beans my grandmother saved from her own garden.  Granny died in 1986 and these seeds are over thirty years old, but as I dropped seven "magic" beans into rich soil, I recited the names of all the family seed savers I know.  Polly, Dovie, Mary Elizabeth, Lora, Gladys, Cindy and Kate.  While my daughter, Kate, is not yet a full-fledged seed saver, she is making plans to grow her own garden and I have no doubt she will include Granny's special beans and appreciate these inherited heirloom treasures as much as I do.

Save seeds from the largest, most beautiful, beans

The Lost Recipe

When I was a child, my extended family gathered at my grandmother's home for holiday meals.  Granny spent days preparing for such occasions and her table groaned from the weight of heaping bowls of green beans, creamed corn, buttered carrots and peas, platters of fried chicken, ham and deviled eggs.  Gravy simmered on the stove, an array of cakes and pies lined the side counter and her fluffy biscuits, pulled from the oven as guests arrived, wafted aroma throughout the house.  Family members enjoyed Granny's potatoes, either mashed or stirred in a salad mix, but the hands-down favorite potato dish was something she called "soupy potatoes."

Preparing Field for Potato Planting

If comfort food could be defined by a single dish, it would have to be Granny's soupy potatoes.  Slices of creamy potato, thick, rich broth, seasoned with salt and buttery goodness.  When Granny gave me her recipe collection, shortly before her death, in 1986, I did not think to see if it included favorite dishes.  By the time I wished to try a hand at recreating taste memories, it was too late to ask for the soupy potato or sausage cream gravy recipes.  Granny often made these and probably never consulted a written recipe, relying on memory, texture and taste for consistent results.  Several times, I attempted to make both, with disappointing results and resolved myself to the fact that the recipes were lost.  And then, a recent visit with a relative yielded a surprising gift . . .

Soupy Potatoes Make Rich Broth

My cousin, Ruth, an heirloom seed saver and unofficial family historian, welcomed me to her home and asked if I would like to see her personal recipe collection.  As someone who should be enrolled in a twelve-step program to combat a cookbook addiction,  I jumped at the opportunity and whipped out my phone to snap photos of delicious looking recipes, recorded in Ruth's handwriting.  Turning pages of cake, casserole and pie recipes, my hands began to shake when I read the words, "Soupy Potatoes."  Quickly, I scanned the four ingredients: Potatoes, Water, Salt, Butter.  No cream?  Could it really be that simple?  Thanking Ruth for sharing a special gift, I looked forward to sharing Soupy Potatoes with my family.

Kate prepares potato "eyes" for planting

Last week, the soil at Heart & Sole Gardens was dry enough to turn and Richard and I, with help from our daughter, Kate, and her friend, Joe Kinchen, planted about 70 pounds of seed potatoes.  Although several years ago, our friend and his Belgium workhorse plowed potato rows for us, we now rely on a 1970s Ford tractor, a workhorse in its own right. 

Joe & Richard Clear Brush From Potato Field

After sunset, with darkness falling, we proudly surveyed four neat, 200 foot rows that, with optimal growing conditions, should produce around seven hundred pounds of tubers.  

Kate and Bob Plow, 2011

Kate with 2016 "workhorse"

Last night, I pulled a few potatoes we harvested in late fall from storage.  Brushing away sprouts, I scrubbed them clean, marveling at their firm texture and smooth skin.  After peeling and slicing, I followed Ruth's recipe for Soupy Potatoes.  

Cut Potatoes in Row

When Richard tasted the first bite, he breathed, "Comfort."  As we ate, he recalled elementary school cafeteria meals in Boone, back when workers actually cooked food for children.  I listened to my family's raucous laughter and chatter, a sound memory conjured by familiar taste, as I savored Soupy Potatoes.

Potatoes.  Water.  Salt.  Butter.  It really was that simple. 

*Note: For best results, avoid supermarket russets.  Those GMO spuds are waxy and lack the flavor of "real" potatoes.  If you do not grow your own, shop at local farmer's markets or make a friend who grows potatoes.   

Soupy Potatoes

 

Creasy Greens, Wild and Welcome Spring Harbinger

Recent warm days and bright sunshine encourage a vegetable visitor's return to our North Carolina fields and backyards.  Creasy greens, vibrant green leaves that pack nutritional punch along with peppery flavor, are in season.  Beating asparagus by a few weeks, these spring harbingers are delicious wild edibles credited with saving early Appalachian pioneers from scurvy, a disease caused by lack of Vitamin C.

Wild Creasy Greens & Chickweed Make Delicious Omelet

 

 

A walk through my backyard inspired me to gather creasy greens, wild onions and chickweed, a garden nemesis that happens to be delicious.  If you would like to take advantage of "free food" currently available, gather a handful of creasy green leaves, a few wild onions and several sprigs of tender chickweed and try this omelet recipe.  Beginning foragers should always harvest wild edibles with a mentor, but these ingredients are easy to identify and, sadly for those who try to eradicate them from pristine lawns, abundantly available.  

To clean, gently pull outer skin from wild onions and snip roots from bulbs

For other recipe ideas or to learn more about Spring's wild bounty, visit earlier blog posts:
Battle Wild Onions 

Walk and Eat on the Wild Side

For a delicious, wild start to your day, try this omelet recipe for breakfast.
 

Just a few ingredients combine for great flavor

Wild Greens Omelet
For each omelet:
1/2 cup young creasy green leaves and chickweed sprigs
1 tablespoon young wild onion, minced, about 4 onion bulbs and green tops 
1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
2 large eggs, beaten 
1 scant tablespoon good quality olive oil
 

Very young leaves require no chopping

In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium low heat.  Add minced onion, toss and cook for no more than one minute.
Pour beaten eggs over onion and scatter greens over egg.
Sprinkle cheese across greens and use spatula to fold omelet in half.
When omelet is set, slide onto serving plate.
*Note:   Taste omelet before adding additional seasoning; I find the salty cheese and peppery greens to be perfect.