http://www.growingchefs.org Food Education from Field to Fork! Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:22:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This weekend's culinary adventure was a cooking party with a secret ingredient.  Twenty-four hours before the party began, our host reveled we were to battle for the palate with carrots.  Fall icicles of sweetness (too much? But so true!) in dizzying orange, white and purple, the carrots from our garden ... http://www.growingchefs.org/carrot-pizza/ It's almost a dirty word around here, and it's certainly a dirty substance: oil.  Who knew, though, that olive oil could be as political as petroleum?  Last year, the Italian olive oil industry was slammed with impurity charges that challenged their fruits; being a big fan of dirt myself (real ... http://www.growingchefs.org/the-good-kind-of-oil/ With the Dow heading south like a migrating goose, the fall theme for my kitchen is soup.  A cheap and effective way to stretch vitamins and flavor into a worthy recipe, soups can be made easily, with little skill, attention or time, and save well in the freezer or fridge ... http://www.growingchefs.org/recession-depression-soup/ Year of the Rabbit and Fall’s Finale at the Family Garden Annie Novak is coordinator of the Children’s Gardening Program.Sun-Tzu tells us “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Two thousand years later, the Family Garden recently took the opportunity to follow the familiar adage with the latest addition to our ... http://www.growingchefs.org/rabbit/ In a combination of ethnobotany, craftsmanship and madness, this Saturday marked the first annual Halloween celebration at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.  Nearly one hundred students and a dozen "game" adults combined recycled objects and plant parts into costumes ranging from crowns to caterpillars.  A band of elephants, with ... http://www.growingchefs.org/giant-caterpillar-attacks-garden-teaches-children/ This post appeared this week on the New York Botanical Garden's blogsite, "Plant Talk" (www.nybg.org/wordpress/?p=772). Two years ago, two men named Eric built a second home. It wasn’t a vacation spot nor was it particularly accommodating for men of their height. At first, the only inhabitants were chipmunks, squirrels, and the ... http://www.growingchefs.org/indian-summer/ This growing season, I've started a little project.  It's called "One Pot Pizza," and it's based on both square-foot gardening and, well, a love of pizza.  In my one pot, I planted a tomato plant, an eggplant plant, oregano and basil. Alas, here's what happens when you cram so many desperate, ... http://www.growingchefs.org/one-little-eggplant/ Come September in New York,  with days alternatively  insufferably hot and anticipatorially cold, only the tough (of our veggies) can survive.  Broccoli's gone to flower (you can almost hear it shrieking, "Must be pollinated! Must seed!" as the summer sun begins to get lower...and lower....), and all the green tomatoes ... http://www.growingchefs.org/bean-season/ This poem by Robert Paul Smith is my last farewell to this year's tomatoes.  I found it in one of my favorite books, Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables.  It immediately stuck a chord, for me, as a gardener, tomato lover and locavore.  I was suprised to find ... http://www.growingchefs.org/and-another-thing/ In these long days of Indian summer, we're often found lying on the lawn.  But I don't like grass.  I like thyme and clover.  I like tall stands of these zebra grasses.  I also like chamomile, a beautiful herb the Romans used to pave their own famous roads with.  Hence ... http://www.growingchefs.org/great-grasses/