Blueberry: Pie of the Month

June's Pie of the Month

Starting this month, I will be trying something new: featuring a pie of the month (What are the criteria for determining the pie of the month? Whatever sounds good at the time, although I do try to keep in mind what is in season). This time around, the pie of the month is blueberry pie.

Blueberries are a super food, full of antioxidants, fiber, and other healthy benefits: good for the heart and the brain (if someone looks at you quizzically while you are enjoying the blueberry pie, you can always say, "Don't worry: I'm getting my antioxidants") . Plus, they are delicious.

Recipe for Blueberry Pie

Pie Dough

You can either make your own or buy the commercially-made crust that rolls out

Pie Filling

4 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh
3/4 to 1 cup sugar, to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer the mixture until thickened. Let cool and then scrape the mixture into a bottom crust that has been perforated with a fork. Roll out the top crust and place it on top of the pie; flute the edges to seal. Slash the top crust at several points so that pressure does not build up in the pie while baking. Brush the top crust with an egg wash (1 egg, thinned with a splash or so of water and then beaten) to encourage a shiny crust; sprinkle the top with sugar if desired.

Bake in a 400 degree oven (Fahrenheit) for 35-45 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown. Let cool for awhile (anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours: in my household, there is no way that pie is cooling for a full two hours, uncut). Enjoy with a dollop or so of vanilla ice cream. Bon appetit!

Homemade Blueberry Pie

Top Twenty List of Plant Ideas for the Small Garden

Limited Vegetable Garden Space? Try These Top Twenty Plant Picks

As gardeners, we often have grandiose dreams about creating the perfect garden that expands as far as the eye can imagine, let alone see. However, we may be limited by time, space, or both. Yet, we long for truly fresh vegetables as well as the unique kind of therapy that only a garden offers. Some plants, such as corn and full-size watermelons, will gobble up valuable garden space, so we need plants that are space-wise and productive: hence, my top twenty list of recommendations of vegetables and the occasional herb, in no particular order.

1. Beefsteak tomatoes
2. Roma tomatoes
3. Zucchini, bush variety: one or two plants will be plenty
4. Yellow crook neck variety: again, one or two plants will suffice
5. Green beans, bush variety or pole variety: the latter will make excellent use of vertical space
6. Wax beans, bush variety or, better yet, pole variety, for the reason mentioned above
7. Yard-long beans: these are a pole variety that produce well and look impressive
8. Swiss chard: once established, it is hard to kill and can withstand warmer temperatures
9. Jalapeno peppers
10. Sweet banana peppers
11. Baby watermelons, grown vertically
12. Japanese eggplant
13. pickling cucumbers, grown vertically
14. slicing cucumbers, grown vertically
15. dill, to go with all of those cucumbers
16. asparagus: these perennials, once established, will produced for up to thirty years
17. basil: this herb enhances nearby growing tomatoes, and it is a must for fresh pesto lovers
18. spearmint: grow this in a pot; otherwise, it will invade the rest of the garden
19. rosemary
20. Greek oregano

Feel free to mix and match from these ideas for a successful summer garden, small yet productive.

Are there any other space-saving plants I did not include here that I should have? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Potager_en_plate-bande.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Potager_en_plate-bande.jpg 

Friday the 13th Fears? Create Your Own Lucky Garden

Bring Luck to Your Garden with Lucky Plants

There's nothing like the appearance of Friday the 13th to jangle the superstitious nerves of folks and to cause a fear known as Triskaidekaphobia. Of course, luck--good or bad--tends to be what we make of it, and we can create our own luck, rather than be doomed to a self-fulfilling prophecy of ill fortune.

As gardeners, we can invite good luck into the sacred space of our gardens. Here are but a few ideas to help facilitate good luck and prosperity in the garden.

Edible Vegetables Associated with Luck and Prosperity

Beans
Cabbage
Eggplant
Lettuce
Peas
Pumpkin
Spinach and other greens
Sunflower (seeds)
Tomatoes (yes, I know that botanically, tomatoes are fruits: let's run with this)

By Sengai Podhuvan (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Edible Fruits and Nuts Associated with Luck and Prosperity

Almond
Bananas
Blackberries
Figs
Grapes
Hazelnuts
Kumquats
Lemons
Orange
Pears
Pineapple
Pomegranate

By Rosendahl [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Edible Herbs Associated with Luck and Prosperity

Basil
Chamomile
Dill
Garlic (more to ward off bad luck so that good luck can arrive)
Ginger
Oregano
Parsley

By H. Zell (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Non-Edible Plants Associated with Luck and Prosperity

Aloe vera
Bells of Ireland
Bluebell (not the ice cream, although eating some Blue Bell ice cream while hanging out in the garden couldn't hurt)
Clover, especially the four-leaf variety
Daffodil
Honeysuckle
Money plant (also can be and is often grown indoors)
Periwinkle
White heather

By Phyzome under the GFDL. (Phyzome) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Do you have any other plants in your garden that you would consider lucky? Please feel free to share in the comments section.

Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Mango-Pineapple Salsa: A Recipe of Opportunity

We had some mangoes and pineapple that were dead-ripe and needed to be used. With that in mind, I came up with this salsa on the spur of the moment; every single household member, even our resident curmudgeon--loves this salsa. In this spirit, I give this recipe to you, for your enjoyment.

The Recipe

6 large,very ripe mangoes, cubed
2 medium ripe pineapple, cubed
3 orange sweet bell peppers, chopped
1 to 4 chopped jalapenos, to taste
2 small white onions, diced
1 handful or so of cilantro, chopped
2 cups vinegar
the juice of 3 to 4 limes

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes,until the vegetables are tender. Let cool for about 10 minutes and then blend part of the batch, enough to make a chunky salsa, or to taste. 

Take a cue from Blue Bell Ice Cream: eat all you can, fresh,  and then can the rest. 

With this batch, I was able to can 1 quart and 2 pints of salsa. For pints, process in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes; for quarts, process for 25 minutes. 

This salsa is fabulous teamed with chicken, turkey, or fish. Bon appetit! 

Homemade Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Garden of My Dreams?

Ultimate Garden? Dream On! 

Each year, at the end of the academic year in late spring, I, like many gardeners, go through the same mental process. We think that this year is going to be different, that our garden will be bigger and better, with more space devoted to what we euphemistically call a hobby. Our garden dreams may very well end up looking like this:

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Or this:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hever_Castle_rose_garden_with_fountain.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Hever_Castle_rose_garden_with_fountain.JPG

Or even this:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buenos_Aires_Entrada_al_Jardin_Botanico_Carlos_Thays.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Buenos_Aires_Entrada_al_Jardin_Botanico_Carlos_Thays.jpg

However, a common mistake is to overestimate the time and energy involved in creating and maintaining a garden. Are watering needs being met? Is enough time being devoted each week to everyone's least favorite task, weeding (yes, according to Ella Wheeler Wilcox, "A weed is but an unloved flower," but most gardeners choose to shower love elsewhere)? Is enough energy being spent in dissuading pests from your precious plants? Are compost and/or fertilizer needs being met? If plants need to be pruned or staked, is enough time and energy being devoted to these tasks? Finally, will your schedule allow time to simply be in the garden, to sit, relax, and/or meditate in the positive space you have created?

 If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it is time to scale back that dream a bit. This is not settling for "second best": it is being realistic. It is far more gratifying to start small and expand that garden as time and energy permit, throughout the growing season, than to try to keep up with a grandiose gardening plan that will leave you burned out and feeling frustrated. Trust me on this one.

Gardening is supposed to be a fun, emotionally-rewarding pastime, not a drudge or a chore; that said, anyone who wishes to garden needs to expect to put time and sweat into any gardening aspirations. According to Liberty Hyde Bailey, co-founder of the American Society for Horticultural Science, "A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them."

. And starting small and then building up the garden gradually allows the gardener's imagination to flow more freely, according to Mrs. C. W. Earle, in Pot-Pourri from an Surrey Garden, 1897: "Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination."