Happy Halloween!

The season winds down clearing and laying down straw at Sargent-Downing and planting beds at Hiddenbrooke. As exciting a season as any other to look back on the bounty. After two seasons of Goats, I return to my vegetable garden with a full season of crops.

Sauerkraut made, I move on to Parsley Pesto (4 quarts) (Petroselinum crispum, Umbelliferae, Biennial, South Europe). I have already made two Lamb’s Quarter (Chenopodium album, Chenopodiaceae, Perennial, Europe) and one Basil (Ocimum basilicum, Annual, Tropical Asia) for a total of seven quarts. Parsley contains vitamins and minerals. The leaves and stems are used fo bouquet garni and eaten to freshen breath. The leaf infusion is a tonic for hair, skin and eyes,. The root is used in soup and stews. The leaves, root and seeds are diuretic, remove free radicals from skin and can reduce the release of histamine. Also good for rheumatism, aids digestion and tones uterine muscles after birth. The leaf poultice is good for sprains and cuts. We had an abundance of Parsley at Stone Barns one season so I decided to make Pesto. I have extra Parsley after I make the Pesto so I make Tabbouleh. The color of the Pesto is a beautiful bright green, so welcome in Winter. Winter greens!

Pesto

Peppers, Capsicum sp.

My Garlic bed (Allium sativum, Alliaceae, Perennial grown as an annual, Western Asia) rot last season so I only had half a bed (15’) this season from saved bulbs. Garlic has been grown since Egyptian times and has small quantities of vitamins and minerals. It is good for the heart and infection. I make Garlic honey which can be slathered on to butter toast or used to make salad dressing or marinate meat. I head up to the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties (www.hvgf.org) to buy bulbs to fill the bed. I went to the Garlic Festival four years ago to buy Garlic to plant my first bed and have saved enough bulbs to plant the bed and have Garlic for cooking through Winter, but not this season. I have enough for cooking but nothing else. It was sooo lovely to be back at the Garlic Festival. We had fried Brussels Sprouts with Garlic Aioli Sauce, Garlic Corn and Garlic Wings. Mmmmmm mmmmmm! I still haven’t tried the Garlic ice cream. Boost one’s immunity for the season, I imagine. I was looking for the varieties Music and Inchelium Red. I came away with Music, German Red and Nootka Rose, no Inchelium Red in sight. We have a new potential member at SDG, Sarah. She planted the bed with me.

I follow Cabbage with Garlic simply because it is the first bed I remove. I follow the Three Sisters (Corn, Beans and Squash) with Tomato because Tomato likes the Nitrogen fixed in the soil by Beans. It is the extent of my crop rotation. We have nine beds at SDG so I just rotate what is in bed nine to bed one, bed eight to bed two etc. the following season. I have read the Indigenous Peoples stay on one growing site for fifteen years. I have not figured out if and how they rotate crops.

A full crop season winds down. It is exciting and wonderful to be back in the gardens. Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season for me. The High Holidays! Dia de los Meurtos is November 2. An opportunity to commune with our ancestors. Time for revelry and fun after a season of hard work. Let your hair down baby! I leave for Miami for Thanksgiving and returning for a long Winter’s nap. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Lamb’s Quarters contains vitamins, minerals and iron. The leaves can be used in salad as well as cooked. Avoid Lamb’s quarter if you have kidney issues. A leaf poultice can be used for sore skin. The root is used as cough medicine for sheep. The seeds are used to make Shagreen (artificially grained leather). Lamb’s Quarter was banned by the Catholic Church in Europe. Highest level of iron of any green.

Basil is a well known culinary spice. I use it for Pesto, Tomato sauce and Dried Tomato. I have had Basil tea. Basil has also been used to flavor vinegar and oil. O. comosum are used to make cherbet tokkum, a Mediterranean drink. The essential oil of O. basilicum is used in condiments, liqueurs, soap and perfume. The leaf wine is tonic and aphrodisiac. The leafs can also be used as mosquito repellent, they expel worms, treat ringworm, snake bites, insects bites and acne. An infusion can be used to aid digestion and is antibacterial.

​My Peppers (Capsicum annum, Solanaceae, Annual, Caribbean, Central and South America) have not done too well this season. Thankfully I got some hot peppers from Seed Song (www.seedsong.org). Peppers contain vitamin C and beta carotene. Peppers date back to 7000 BCE in Mexico grown by the Aztecs. Columbus named them Pepper because he thought he had found Black Pepper which was extremely expensive at the time and still is today at $30.00/lb.

I fill an empty five pound honey jar with Peppers and Viinegar to blend when I want hot sauce. I grew up with my father making his own hot sauce. He adds mustard onions and carrots to his blend. Throughout the Caribbean (which includes the Latin islands), there is an ongoing contest to see who makes the hottest hot sauce. At times one cannot even taste the food because of the heat. Some hot sauces, therefore are one drop on the food. Flame on! My hot sauce is five drops and livens the flavors in my dishes. The heat is caused by an alkaloid called capsaicin, measured in Scoville Units named after Wilbur Scoville, an American pharmacist who invented the measurement.

I grow the varieties Fish from the Caribbean, 5,000 - 30,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units), Habanero from the Amazon 100,000 - 300,000 SHU, Jalapeño from Mexico 3,500 - 8000 SHU and Scotch Bonnet from the Caribbean and Brazil 80,000 - 400,000 SHU.

I also grow three Sweet Peppers, Chocolate Sweet (brown), Doe Hill (yellow) and King of the North (green). I have been getting some green peppers in recent weeks. I usually pickle them, but I don’t have enough. I wonder if our hot summer has anything to do with the low yield. The bed also got a bit weedy. And I usually stake them, which I didn’t do. We’ll see next season.

Garlic, Allium sativum