The Canadian Garden

This is the twelfth posting for the Canadian Food Experience project.  The Theme for this blog is the Canadian Garden.

A recent email listed signs that indicated one is addicted to Gardening !  The one I identify with is: When your co-worker shows off her freshly-painted manicure, you proudly present the dirt under your nails.

It is the first week in May and Mother's Day is around the corner and I am so itching to get into my garden, but there is still snow on the ground and more to come!  

There is something so special as the snow melts and everything comes to life.  The seed catalogues that came in the middle of winter have been used for planning this year's garden with eager anticipation! 

My father was always experimenting with different vegetables.  I remember him planting Celery seeds into a framed box in the garden to protect it from the elements.  My father also did winter planting of radishes, lettuces and spinach in a sandy area.  The taste of the early harvest of lettuces, spinach, radishes was so welcome after a long winter. 

This year, my brother had ordered Sweet Potatoes from Vesey's to plant in Northern Manitoba.  Last year, he planted the Asian Long Beans I had purchased for him.  There is no comparison in freshness and taste of these beans to those bought in the Supermarket!

Asian LongBeans in Northern Manitoba

Picking Cucumbers in Northern Manitoba

Jalapeños in Northern Manitoba

When I look at my tiny garden plot in the city, I remember my Mom's huge garden on the farm that she planted every year and preserved the huge yield of vegetables by canning, freezing or storing the root vegetables in a root cellar.

Nellie's garden

Excess garden yields were commonly shared or swapped with others for something that may not have been as plentiful in one's garden. Nothing was wasted!

Tons of Pickling cucumbers in Northern Manitoba

My gardens have always been most successful in other provinces, until moving to Calgary. However, every spring, I am optimistic in planting my garden, especially with tomatoes as I try different strategies.  I am usually pleased with the results until I taste a sun kissed tomato from Saskatchewan or Manitoba and weep!  Tomatoes just don't like the cool evening temperatures in Calgary.  Yet, the small yields from my Calgary garden are most appreciated!


In recently years, I have starting growing garlic.  In travelling through the Okanagan Valley, I picked up two garlic bulbs, Persian Rose and Yugoslavian White at a Farmer's Market in Penticton which I planted that fall.

Garlic growing this year inspite of the snow

 Gardening is very Canadian.  I grew up with gardening as a necessity to now being a hobby for me.  

Everyone at this time of the year is talking Backyard gardening! 

Last week a new immigrant from Vietnam was asking me if the tomato that she took from her neighbor's garden and planted last fall would produce tomatoes for her this year!

While on my recent trip to Toronto, the Hotel Bell Hop from India was eagerly waiting for warmer weather to plant his vegetables.  The smile on his face while talking about his garden was full of expectation!

This year I look forward to planting with my grandchild, her first garden.  She is ready to go!

My recipe for this Blog brings many memories when my Aunt from Thunder Bay would visit our farm and make soup using the fresh vegetables from the garden, that she picked that morning.  I remember waking up and hearing her busy in the kitchen as she chopped the vegetables for the soup.

Spring Borscht

as dictated by my Aunt Florence

2 pork chops or a small pork roast 
3 cups of young beets, julienned, use the whole plant 
Use any new vegetables you may have in the garden
carrots, peas, onions, string beans, small baby potatoes
Fresh parsley and dill
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream
vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper
Garnish with fresh dill

The beauty of this soup is the julienned matchstick sized vegetables and the rich colour and clarity of the broth, not to mention the delicacy and taste of tender young vegetables.  

Place meat in a stock pot; cover with water. Bring to boil; cover pot, turn down heat and gently simmer.  Patiently skim off the soup until broth is clear.  When meat is tender, remove meat from the bone.  Strain the broth through a double layer of cheesecloth.  Add herbs and the prepared vegetables that have been julienned to the meat stock.  Add more water to cover the vegetables.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer until vegetables are cooked. Check vegetables often as young vegetables cook very quickly.  

Finishing touches before serving:

Remove the dill and parsley. Remove soup from the heat, add the cream slowly to the hot broth as you stir it.  Do not let the soup boil. Add a dash of vinegar, season with salt and pepper.  Garnish each bowl of soup with fresh chopped dill.

Enjoy!

Backyard Gardening and Harvest Time

In the Calgary Herald Thanksgiving weekend edition, there was an article that made me leap with joy, "Harvest Time in your Backyard".   Christina Ryan makes me laugh as she writes about harvest and "acting strange".  Yes, I too snuff my nose at other products at this time of the year than those that  come out of a local garden, especially my garden.. I laughed at my son who after biting one of my garden fresh carrots, eagerly asked his wife to try the carrot and yes, he did get a very strange look!

Every year I plant a small garden with great expectations. Something wonderful about planning, buying news seeds and planting in the spring, then waiting for the garden to come to life.  How exciting was to see the arugula seeds that I bought this winter in New Jersey come to life.  The seeds grew vigorously but the larger they grew the more pungent the smell became. How can I best describe the smell, skunk like !  We certainly do not experience this smell in the packages of baby arugula, although there is a bitterness to the leaves.

Since living in the foothills, every spring I have planted tomatoes with great expectations. Once again only a hand full of sun ripen tomatoes was harvested this fall. Not to mention, a few of my ripen tomatoes in the potted pots on my deck were eaten by my wheaten terrier.  The evenings in Calgary are just too cool to have a bomber crop of tomatoes. 

Calgary growing season is known to be a short one. My winter garden experience did not fair too well,  I eagerly planted an assortment of seeds based on researching this and also remembering my father's success in fall planting of radishes and lettuce in a sandy sunny area.  I planted carrots, peas, beets, spinach, lettuce , only to have sparse growth of beets, carrots, spinach and lettuce.  I remember seeing our husky lying in the garden and also digging in that area, which could have caused this strange germination.  The problem with this planting I found it was that it was difficult to weed before the plants germinated and by then the weeds had taken over. 

Most of my perennials herbs have been thriving well for the last couple of year, the Greek Oregano, Thyme, winter onion, chives, Sage  and French Tarragon.  For some reason my thyme plants did not survive last winter. 

I did preserve the French tarragon in white wine for the Bernaise sauce that my husband like to make for steak. 

The Rosemary and Lavender that thrived in the summer on my patio are now in my Kitchen. 

For some reason, I have not been successful growing Dill Weed in this province. This year, determined to have fresh dill and not have to buy huge bundles of dill, I sprinkled all my packages of left over Dill Weed seeds and still had very scrawny,  stunted  plants. 

However, I did preserve the fresh dill from the farmer's market in butter.  The dill stayed beautifully fresh and green in the butter  for sauces or for simply tossing potatoes or vegetables.