Strawberries: The Freakin' Chipmunks are Winning

Today I ate three beautiful, deep red, sugary, juicy homegrown strawberries. Mara des Bois. The ultimate gourmet berry. Picked about ten more, and tossed at least another dozen over the fence that were eaten nearly down to the hull, still attached to the plant.

Probably damaged from ants, not chipmunks,
 as THEY leave nothing behind but the hull. 

The varmints are winning again this year.  I did get a few early strawberries so far. But they're still winning. This place looks like what Chuck calls "Bambi Land" in the Spring. Idyllic green with  deer, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, chipmunks, voles, raccoons, groundhogs and even a weasel or two. Lots of birds, geese, a few mallards, field mice and even the once-a-year garter snake. Pretty. So I garden inside an 8' deer fence. Not so pretty, but does the job defending the vegetable garden from becoming a deer salad bar. It keeps everything out but unwanted bugs, squirrels that can and do climb, and those pesky chipmunks. You'd think that the foxes, snakes and weasels would keep the smaller critters in check. Um, no.

They really are adorable, tiny little furry creatures, but they are such thieves that I'm starting to consider them absolutely evil. Their tiny bodies fit through the chicken wire mesh that surrounds the bottom of the garden fence to keep out the rabbits. Last year they ate ALL the ground cherries that my friend Bobbie assured me I'd love. I have NO idea what ground cherries taste like as I didn't even get one ripe one to try. Not one. This year they've already eaten a bunch of the first, nicest, ripest strawberries.

These are mine, MINE!

These berries are my babies. A French variety called Mara des Bois. They have the flavor and scent of little wild Alpine strawberries, and you never see them in markets. You may get them in a pricy restaurant, if you're lucky. So sweet, with a heady strawberry perfume. So on Saturday, I built an elaborate double plastic mesh dome over the berry plants which  the chippies already apparently chewed through in one spot. I did get a few good berries today, and there are plenty of unripe ones still there. We'll see how it goes over the next few days. A guy at the hardware store in Paoli told me I needed to make my strawberry cover out of something called "hardware cloth". Which is really a small mesh wire fabric--like chicken wire but with 1/4" openings. When I think about working with that, I picture myself with 300 bandaids.

As a dedicated organic gardener, and a lover of small things, I refuse to consider poison. Matt, over at the Kitchen Kapers store in Wayne, who really knows his stuff, (he's got chickens!) suggested a Havahart® trap, but you know, there are so many of the little varmints, I'd be running a chipmunk taxi service every day driving them further out into the sticks. Unless he wants me to drop them off at HIS place.

Still, it totally ticks me off that I spend hours weeding, feeding, seeding, hoeing and planting and those little bastards eat the harvest. I want an Elmer Fudd hat and a pop gun. I need to deal with this now, since in a few short weeks it'll probably be me vs. the squash borers or the Japanese beetles since I won't spray. Guess tomorrow it's going to be me and 16 feet of hardware cloth and a lot of scratches and swearing. It's likely the only way I have a prayer of writing a blog post with a homegrown strawberry recipe in it anytime soon.

All these organic backyard farmers aren't telling you the truth. They make it sound so easy. After 30+ years of organic gardening, it isn't easy. Not if you have chipmunks.

Diner Chow: The Vegetable Platter Revisited

My dinner tonight: Vegetable Platter wit Fridge Door Cashew Sauce

Back in the last century, when my friend Paul Mamolou became a committed vegetarian, true vegetarian meals were pretty difficult to find. He’s the first person I’d ever met that didn't eat meat. Especially in the rarified college town west of Philly where we studied at the time. Nothing much for him to eat in the dining hall. I’m betting the pizza place down the road probably cooked their meatballs in the same sauce they put in the meatless calzones. The local diner likely cooked their French fries in lard. Nonetheless, there was always the option, back in the day, of the dreaded vegetable platter. Every Mom & Pop restaurant had one as did most diners. Some probably still do. I think Paul lived on pizza and pistachios, and not necessarily in that order.

If you aren’t from the East Coast, you may not understand about diners. They are still around most of the big cities and burgs, often close to highway entrances, and usually open 24 hours. Great places for college students to chow down when the library, or the bars closed for the night. A lot of them were owned and run by Greek or Italian families, and if you were lucky, there’d actually be a real Greek or Italian grandma supplying the diner with a good pan of lasagna or moussaka.  In 2012, you can get plenty of meatless fare. Even the worst place will have a veggie burger. Sadly, for a vegetarian, back then, the options were limited to a few things on the menu like the round-the-clock breakfast, or the infamous vegetable platter.

A vegetable platter usually consists of 3 or 4 of the side dishes of the customers choosing. Most places were not known for their enlightened menu of side dishes back in 1976, so generally you had your choice from canned green beans, canned spinach, canned pickled beets, canned applesauce, coleslaw, mashed potatoes or French fries. Yum. 

Since I brake for farm markets, and have a decent vegetable garden myself, my own crisper can usually supply the fixings for a wonderful colorful vegetable platter. Just about any vegetables will be easily glorified in this sauce. But the star of this vegetable platter is the sauce. A creamy cashew sauce that’s sharp, sweet and unctuous over just about any vegetable, grain, pasta or even fish. Since we are decidedly not vegetarian, we especially like this cashew sauce over fresh steamed broccoli with...meatloaf.

My version here is NOT vegetarian, although if you just leave out the Thai fish sauce, it IS. Better yet, if you have a well-stocked fridge, you’ll probably have all the ingredients on hand. I had it all on the fridge door. Feel free to substitute peanut butter for the cashew butter but please use unsweetened and unsalted. This sauce should only take a few minutes to prepare while your vegetables steam.

Beets, asparagus and cauliflower

I chose cauliflower, beets and homegrown asparagus; the cauliflower and asparagus were steamed, the beets wrapped in foil and roasted for about 1-1/4 hours at 425°F.  A small processor or a stick blender will make short work of the delicious sauce.

Fridge Door Cashew Sauce

1/3 cup unsalted, unsweetened cashew butter

4 tsp soy sauce

2T rice vinegar

1T Thai fish sauce

½ tsp granulated garlic

1 T minced ginger (jarred is fine)

2 tsp hot sauce (I prefer Cholula)

2 T sugar

Optional: chopped cashews for garnish

Whisk together or blend everything except for the chopped cashews with a mini processor or stick blender and serve with vegetables, grain or fish. Garnish the plate with the chopped cashews if desired.

About 2-4 servings depending on how saucy you like things. Ahem.

Can We Have a Growing Season Do-Over, Please?

Have you ever procrastinated on a job that you hoped would just disappear if you ignored it? I have, and it occasionally works. It’s time to pull down what remains of the vegetable garden, and frankly, my heart is not in it. I want a growing season do-over. I have trouble getting excited over pumpkin this, and cider that when I didn’t even get a real summer harvest, let alone fall stuff.

Granted, there is really nothing left to pull down. The mid summer drought and the torrential rains at the end of the season pretty much wiped out most of the tomato crop, the squash, the sage and both the pole beans and bush beans. No late broccoli this year or Brussels sprouts. Just skeletal remains on trellises and stakes. The removal job should be easy, but it makes me so sad thinking about it that I just can’t do it. I want to wake up tomorrow and it’ll all be there waving in its leafy July glory. Feeling gypped this year. I wanted a pantry full of jars of beans, beets, and tomatoes.

We have nothing to complain about, though, in the grand scheme. So many farms here in Pennsylvania, and neighboring New York and New Jersey were virtually destroyed by the flooding. My friend Kasha’s family farm in NY was under water for weeks. My table will be a bit shortchanged, but my livelihood is intact. Not a disaster here, but reminds me to be grateful for what is instead of fretting over what was. Fact is, it IS a cycle, and it can be vicious at times.

In spite of my gloom, there are some things growing. Hot peppers, bell peppers, and basil still survive and produce, and celeriac is still in the ground. Swiss chard and scallions are tall and green. Picked the last few brave tomatoes today to ripen in the house. The last taste of summer will be good. Will post the results here soon, if the recipes are blog-worthy.

Mother Nature will force my hand with a frost in a week or two, tops. No slacking then. Down and away it’ll all go. Bean poles in the shed and the composters will be bursting full. I’ll be furiously canning the last of the peppers, and blanching and freezing chard. By the time the first snow comes, with any luck, after the holidays (especially since I work in retail), the first seed catalogs will arrive, and with them, a chance to get it all right next season. Gee, I feel better already. Nothing like a good rant.