Cranberry Beans, photo credit: ©2010 Paulette Tavormina. All rights reserved.

Our first “farm” was on the rooftop of our New York City apartment building.  Our first “crop” was the purple cherokee tomato, an heirloom variety tomato that we thought was the most delicious thing that we had ever put into our mouths.

At the time, we didn’t really know the significance of the word “heirloom” and we certainly had no idea that there were heirloom vegetables beyond those in the nightshade family.

5 years later we were growing 110 different varieties of heirloom vegetables and enamored of the purple carrots, the snowball tomatoes, and the pale yellow cucumbers that tasted completely different than any of their counterparts on the shelves of the local supermarket.

Heirloom varieties play an important role in maintaining genetic diversity in our food supply, but a casual conversation at a birthday party spurred another thought:

How might raising public awareness about heirloom varieties and creating a greater demand for them in NYC restaurants help small scale and family-run farms?

Watermelon Radishes, photo credit: ©2010 Paulette Tavormina. All rights reserved.

When we struck up a conversation about gardening at the party, we had no idea that the person sitting next to us on the sofa was the head of marketing at Sotheby’s.    Right there, over spinach dip and white wine, we concocted the idea for an auction of “edible heirlooms”.

Just in time for the harvest season, this first-of-its-kind event, titled The Art of Farming, will celebrate edible heirlooms and the art involved in their creation.  The novel concept provides a unique platform for local farmers, purveyors, celebrity chefs, food industry experts and high-profile New Yorkers to join together for a shared interest in the vitality of the Greenmarket and raise important funds for the GrowNYC New Farmer Development Project and The Sylvia Center at Katchkie Farm.  The event is supported by leaders and visionaries in the sustainable food and farming movement, including Eric Ripert, Ruth Reichl, Martha Stewart, Bette Midler, Dan Barber, Liz Neumark, and others.

photo credit: ©2010 Paulette Tavormina. All rights reserved.

The Art of Farming evening will begin with a cocktail reception with “local” hors d’oeuvres by renowned restaurant Rouge Tomate, which strives to address social and environmental issues, taking pride in farm to table cuisine and implementing sustainable practices such as their firm dedication to composting.  Jamie Niven, Chairman of Sotheby’s North America, will lead a live auction of Heirloom vegetables from more than 20 local farmers from the tri-state area, including Beekman 1802, John Gorzynski of Gorzynski Ornery Farms, Russell Glover of Consider Bardwell, Tom Culton of Culton Organics, and Richard Ball of Schoharie Valley Farms. All seeds for the produce on sale have been donated to the farmers by Landreth Seed and Seed Savers.

Also on the block will be incredible food and drink experiences such as summer farm internships for students, field trips for school classes, celebrity chef dinners, vegetable futures, farm-to-table dinners, New York wine country getaways, Brooklyn brewmaster tastings, and a bountiful silent auction of delectable items.

Following the auction, there will be an exclusive four-course dinner for benefactors, designed by a line-up of renowned celebrity chefs, including Jeff Gimmel of Swoon Kitchenbar in Hudson, New York, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Chef of Jean Georges, Roberto Alicea, Executive Chef of Andaz 5th Avenue, and Dominique Ancel, Pastry Chef of Daniel.  The decadent menu will be created using fresh, seasonal ingredients like those on sale at the auction, donated by local organic markets and livestock providers.  Each table will be hosted by a local farmer.

To complement the evening’s festivities, earlier the same day Sotheby’s will also host a series of high-profile gallery talks illuminating how art and food, flavor and culture, and trade and sustainability all impact- and are affected by- the journey from farm to table.  The afternoon’s line-up, led by Karen Karp, President of Karp Resources, includes industry veterans Scott Exo, Executive Director, Food Alliance; Mitchell Davis, Vice President, James Beard Foundation; and others.

The Art of Farming will coincide with and kick-off the 2010 Eat Drink Local week in New York City, the annual celebration of the local food chain, co-produced by Edible magazines and GrowNYC.  All proceeds from the event will benefit the GrowNYC New Farmers Development Project, which identifies, educates and supports immigrants with agricultural experience to become local producers and establish farms in the region, and The Sylvia Center, a program that inspires and teaches children to eat well through hands-on experiences at Katchkie Farm and in school and community centers all over New York City.

For more information on The Art of Farming, to purchase tickets, or inquire about how your company can provide support visit www.artoffarming.org or email Brent and Josh.

Artichokes, photo credit: ©2010 Paulette Tavormina. All rights reserved.

About Paulette Tavormina:

Paulette Tavormina’s photography will be auctioned off as part of the Art of Farming.  See more of her inspiring and beautiful photographs at Tavorminaphotography.com or at Robert Klein Gallery

About Eat Drink Local Week:

Eat Drink Local week is a celebration of the local food chain—a restaurant week with a mission.  It runs statewide from September 26-October 6, 2010, with the collaboration of all Edible magazines in the Empire State, and involves partners from the entire food chain—including restaurants, wine shops and wineries, breweries and beer bars, farms and food artisans, and cultural institutions that celebrate food.

Eat Drink Local week is co-produced by Edible magazines and the GrowNYC Greenmarket. For more information visit, www.ediblemanhattan.com.

What the devil is a dibble?

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re sometimes a sort of perfectionists. Usually perfectionism creates more work. But sometimes we find a serendipitous approach, or tool, which actually means less work overall.

Case in point is our new dibble. Late last winter I had a little fantasy about dibbles. (Or “dibber” as they are sometimes called.) I wanted to create the ultimate dibble for our raised beds. A dibble is nothing more than a tool that creates a hole in which to drop seeds. Most dibbles only make one hole. Like this fine specimen. They’re used to poke holes in stubborn dirt for bulbs, small plants, and seeds.

But what if we created a dibble that poked dozens of perfectly spaced holes which was designed to be just the right size for our beds? Wouldn’t that make our beds look gorgeous? We would have straight grids of crops so linear that they looked like they were planted by..I dunno…a raised bed garden robot. Plus, with this level of exactitude, we’d save money on seeds…no more thinning!

As is often the case with my fantastical dream projects, the first person I called was my Dad. He gets me. Or at least when he doesn’t, he humors me. This time however, he understood what I was thinking straight away, and wasted no time in designing the perfect solution – a custom made board with 2 inch spaced protruding dowels that would press into the earth to create 187 equal depth holes waiting for seeds.

Sounds like a dream doesn’t it?

At first I thought the dibble should be large enough to do one whole bed in just one press. But Dad convinced me that such a contraption would be too heavy and unwieldy. Plus, we sometimes plant two or more crops in each bed, often at different intervals. So we settled on making a multi-pronged dibble that would cover exactly one quarter of a bed.

Here are some photos he took while constructing it. He’s a pretty darn expert craftsman, but we think you’ll be able to follow along and can probably use his same methods for constructing one of your own.

First cut two pieces of plywood to the size you've designed for your dibble. (you'll see why you need two a little later.) Draw a grid on one with intersecting points at two inches apart. (For seeds that need to be planted one inch apart, the dibble can be pressed down into the dirt, lifted up, moved a little, and pressed down again.)

Use a drill, or drill press to drill 1/2 inch holes completely through the board.

After all holes are complete, screw your two boards together – the one with holes, and the solid backing.

Next, cut 1/2 inch diameter dowels into 2 1/2 inch lengths. (1/2 inch will be inserted into dibble so that 2 inches are left protruding to make holes.)

Once the boards are screwed together, dip one end of your dowel pieces in a wood glue, and insert into holes. Gorilla Glue works well also.

All dowel pieces glued in place.

Attach two heavy duty handles to the back of the dibble, far enough apart to easily lift the dibble.

To use the dibble, rake and prepare the soil as smoothly and levelly as possible.

Then press and slightly jiggle the dibble. It helps to wiggle your butt at the same time. Why? Because doing a "dibble jiggle wiggle" just sounds fun.

And voila! Isn't that beautiful?

One bean, per hole. Can't wait to see them sprout all in rows...

We’ll keep you posted with shots of our dibble doings…

The tiny elderberry blossoms grow in flat lacy clumps, or "corymbs."

Most people drive by roadside clumps of wild American Black Elderberry bushes every day without realizing what they’re missing. Sambucus Canadensis grows wild in the hedgerows and gullies of Eastern America, and is an absolutely amazing plant. In the early summer, it’s blossoms can be harvested for making deliciously delicate simple syrups and cordials. In late summer, the lacy bunches of tiny blue-black berries can be used in pies, jellies, and wines.

Beyond simply being delicious, the berry extracts are also medicinal – having been shown in studies to reduce the recovery time of Influenza B.

European lore claims that cutting the elder wood releases the wicked spirit of the Elder Mother. Elderwood is used in all sorts of witchcraft stories, and is historically the material out of which “magic wands” are crafted. Burning the wood is considered quite risky, as superstition says it might be followed by the death of a loved one.

Elderberry bushes are terribly easy to grow. They seem to pop up wherever bird droppings containing seeds land. But even though they are found near many roadside ditches, it’s not because they like their feet wet, it’s because they like the constant even flow of water the ditches edges provide. Chances are you can convince a farm neighbor to let you dig some up to replant, but if not, you can purchase some here.

Our most impressive elderberry bush grows in the least impressive place. Between the silo foundation and the barn.

We don’t seem to have too many wicked spirits around the Beekman but we do have several outcroppings of Elderberry bushes. The most prominent one squeezes out from between the base of the old silo foundation and the barn. Because the birds seem to get the berries long before we have a chance, this year we decided to harvest the blossoms instead, to make an old European favorite: Elderflower Fritters.

The beautiful lacy stems of the elderflowers are still visible after frying.

This is a fairly simple recipe, but for good reason. The flavor and fragrance of the elderflower is quite mild, so the fritter batter is very lightly seasoned. For added sweetness, we drizzle a little clover honey over the fritters before serving them as part of a weekend morning brunch on the Beekman porch.

The stamens of the tiny flowers form pretty little brown dots in the fritters.

ELDERFLOWER FRITTERS

Five large elderflower bunches

1.25 cup of flour

2 small eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup of very cold seltzer water

3 T of Cointreau or other flavored liqueur

Clover honey or confectionary sugar for drizzling/dusting.

Light canola oil for frying.

Cut the elderflower clumps into florets. Not too small. About the circumference of the top of a tin can.

Fill heavy pot with about 2 inches of oil. Heat to 350F.

Sift flour into a small bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs. Stir until just combined. Add in liqueur, stir. Pour in seltzer water slowly, while mixing with wooden spoon. The fritter batter should be the consistency of a very thin pancake batter, or like double cream.

Once oil is heated, dredge an elderflower floret through the batter, covering thoroughly. The delicate flowers will seem to clump together in one messy blob. Don’t worry. As you drop the battered flowers into the oil, they will pop and separate again, resembling their original form. It’s important for the oil to be the correct temperature, or they will not separate. Fry in small batches, adding the fritters to the oil one by one, being careful not to crowd.

Fry the fritters for about one minute before turning over. Fry the other side for another minute or until golden brown. Remove from oil, and place on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Drizzle with honey, or dust with powdered sugar. Serve hot.

A plate of Elderflower Fritters, drizzled with honey on a bed of elderflowers and leaves.

This week’s guest blogger Noelle Weaver was born and raised in Goshen, Indiana amidst corn and cow fields. Noelle now lives amidst the exploding artisanal food scene in the urban area of Brooklyn, New York. A marketing consultant by day, during nights and weekends she pursues the life of an incidental foodie and cook exploring all the various flavors and tastes that cultures both old and new have taught us about who we are, how we live and the importance of history and ritual that are handed down through the foods we eat. Follow her on twitter @FoodieLore.

Growing up in the Midwest, the flavoring of food in my family never really went much further than the alphabetized glass jars of spices lined up on two small shelves in the local grocery store and the blue Morton Salt girl.

It was a magical transition when I moved from home to attend college in a major city and began to cook for myself. I grew up in the kitchen, and it was a joy to take the many family dishes and foods that my mother had also grown up with and make the handed-down recipes all my own. I quickly discovered the enhanced flavors and many uses that fresh herbs and spices could add. Basil grew to become my first love.

During those post-college summer months Saturday brought trips to the farmer’s market in Lincoln Park, Chicago and the purchase of a large bunch of sweet basil for a dollar. Some of it I would cut up and freeze with bits of water in ice cube trays for later use in the many winter stews and soups Chicago’s frigid winters demanded. Others would be torn up and added to a bowl of sun warmed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and sea salt for lunch. And a few of the big rich green leaves would be added to a bouquet of brightly colored asters and sat next to the window where the breeze would fill the small studio apartment where I lived with that wonderful pungent sweet clove-like aroma.

It has been written that in Italy, basil is a symbol of love. A woman only needs to put a pot of it in her window to symbolize that she is ready to receive suitors. The Italians, in my opinion, always had it right in their belief of the importance of combining food and love. Today’s kitchens have come a long way from sprinkling a little dried basil from one of mom’s Durkee tins in the Wednesday night pasta sauce, and I for one, look forward to combining my own mix of food and passion with the herbal flavor I love so much.

Pesto.

I was surprised to learn that pesto, is actually a relatively new addition to the U.S. food scene. While it was quite popular in Italy during the 1800’s it wasn’t until 1954 that the New York Times published an article that mentioned an imported canned pesto paste and it took another two years for Angelo Pellegrini, author of books about the pleasures of growing and making your own food and wine, to publish a recipe for pesto in Sunset magazine. 40 years later, the sauce began to gain popularity on American menus.

With the recent rise in pine nut prices I started experimenting with various flavors of nuts – - I found that if you roast the walnuts in the oven (350 degrees, 5 minutes, shake pan, another 5 minutes) before making the pesto, the walnuts add a deep rich flavor to this summery sauce.

Basil Walnut Pesto

3/4 cup finely chopped roasted walnuts

4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

1 1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano

1 1/2 cup grated pecorino Romano

4 cups of packed Italian or sweet basil leaves

1 cup of loosely packed fresh lemon basil leaves

1 cup of loosely packed fresh parsley leaves

3-5 tablespoons high quality olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional), black pepper (optional)

Directions

Place basil and parsley leaves, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, walnuts, garlic and salt in food processor. Blend until thoroughly combined. Add cheeses and blend 5-10 seconds more. If you need a little more moisture add additional bits of olive oil until Pesto is the consistency of molasses. Let the pesto sit for half an hour to an hour for flavors and fragrance to blend and come out in the sauce.

Pesto will store in the refrigerator for several weeks. In addition to adding it to both hot and cold pasta dishes, I’ve also spooned some on to baked potatoes, warm French bread, grilled fish or shrimp and used it as a base coat for homemade pizza.

Basil Tea.

Basil is a heat loving plant. So as the mercury rises, it seems only natural to celebrate the days of summer with a tall glass of sweet basil and mint iced tea. You may not think of basil as an herb used for tea, but being in the mint family, it shares many of the same properties. This iced tea is cool, refreshing, just a tad sweet, and aids in digestion. Feel free to tweak the basil to mint ratio below (I tend to actually add a little more mint) – I also have a friend who cuts this recipe in half and adds it to her normal sun brewed black tea as a flavoring.

Sweet Basil and Mint Iced Tea
20 leaves of fresh mint

20 leaves of fresh basil
2 tsp Honey
8 c water (1/2 gallon)

Put 4 cups of the water on to boil. Rinse herbs and tie up in cheese cloth to let steep. Pour the water over the herbs and let them steep for at least 10 minutes. Strain the tea, boil the other 4 cups of water and steep the leaves again.

The tea from the first round should be very strong, so this second steeping gets additional taste out of the leaves but also waters down the batch. Mix all of the tea and honey together in a large pitcher. Taste test, if it’s still too strong add a bit of water to your liking. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Garnish with additional mint.

These simple covered hoops serve a multitude of uses in the garden.

Because we have such a short growing season at Beekman 1802, we have to give our seedlings every chance possible. Watch the slide show below to see how we construct our protective hoop coverings that save our plants from cold and pests.

Materials:

recycled 3/4 in pvc pipe

3/4 inch fabric clamps

Floating Row Cover

Rebar lengths

Click on first picture to begin slideshow:

The Beekman Heirloom Garden is primarily made up of 52 raised garden beds.We got a great email recently from someone who was inspired by our Beekman Heirloom Garden Design, and he asked us all the right questions about how to build his own. So we thought we'd share our answers.

Q.  How tall are they, what are their dimensions, and did you use any internal braces to keep the boxes from collapsing?
A. They’re 18 inches high, 4′ X 6′, and no, they have no braces. With the thick wood and heavy nails they can withstand leaning, kneeling, and the occasional frustrated kick when the cabbage moths show up.

Q. What did you use for weed suppressant ground cover?
A. Well, confession time….we used landscape fabric under the gravel pathways between the beds. We know, we know, it’s not the most environmentally conscious choice. If we were re-installing today, we’d probably forgo the fabric. The detritus from spilled soil and decaying plants builds up quickly anyway, and the weeds sprout just fine on top of the fabric (as weeds will do.) Lately we’ve looking at investing in a flamethrower. Seriously. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and trying to keep things tidy for visitors isn’t easy. One other option is to simply allow just enough room between beds for a push mower to pass, and let the grass grow.

Q. What about irrigation?
A.  We sank a few 4X4 posts into the ground and mounted sprinklers on them. They are connected to hoses which run to a pumped well. Overhead watering isn’t good for all plants, though, and can lead to fungus and mildews on tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squash and others. So we plant those varieties out of range of the sprinklers and rely on soaker hoses for them. We use a timer since sometimes we’re in the city for extended periods. (If not easily removed, all hoses must be drained completely for winter storage.)

Late fall and early winter have always been the saddest time of year for me. This is the furthest point in the calendar year from tending to growing fruits and vegetables. I think this must be why somebody bunched so many holidays together at this time…to help us forget the bleak frozen dirt outside our doors.

But I’m never one to give up easily. Which is why I keep planting well into fall, and make sure that at least a few of our 52 garden beds have something hardy and green in them for as long as mother nature-ly possible.

We’ve had many frosts this year, but luckily they’ve been fairly shallow. We were able to harvest a full range of garden fresh vegetables for the Thanksgiving table. And we hope to continue through Christmas with a little sun and continued luck.

Then in January, the seed catalogs start coming…and I can spot the light at the end of the tunnel.

Take a look at our garden as of the end of November in the slide show below. (Captions below pictures.) Maybe you’ll get some ideas to extend your own garden next winter:

Winter Spinach

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Last year, our Bloomsdale Spinach lived through the winter. A heavy snowfall that doesn't thaw can actually serve to insulate plants. We're hoping for the same this year.

Alice Waters

September Contest: The Best Recipe from Your Garden

Celebrity Garden Judge: Alice Waters

Prize: A full set of tools from OXO that will take you all the way from the garden to the dining room table

When we first conceptualized America’s Oldest Largest Garden Party, the idea was to inspire as many backyard gardeners as we could.  We had know idea that the little monthly contests originating from the kitchen table at The Beekman Farm would reach so many people in so many different places.

Of course, this success was really dependent on two things:  the amazing tips submitted by all of our readers and the white hot star power of our panel of celebrity gardening judges.

As you know, the Garden Party contests have followed the growing season.  The first contest was about getting your seeds started, then getting the plants in the ground, then controlling for weeds and so forth.  It seemed fitting that just as we are making final preparations for our first annual Harvest Feast (click here for ticket information), that the final contest this season was all about the best recipes you’ve created from your own garden.

How excited were we when one of the gardeners (and chefs) who inspires us the most agreed to step up to judge the contest?

One of America’s most influential chefs, Alice Waters created a revolution in 1971 when she introduced local, organic fare at her Berkeley, California restaurant, Chez Panisse. Credited for helping change the food landscape in America, Chez Panisse was named best restaurant in the United States by Gourmet Magazine in 2001. Waters has championed sustainable farms and ranches for more than three decades  (our hero!), and brought her vision to public schools through the Chez Panisse Foundation (www.chezpanissefoundation.org). The Foundation operates The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, where students plant, harvest, and prepare fresh food as part of the academic curriculum. Waters is the Founder of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, and Vice President of Slow Food International. She is the recipient of the Natural Resources Defense Council Force for Nature Award, 2004 and the Harvard Global Environmental Citizen Award alongside Kofi Annan, in 2008.

Having such a farm-to-table pioneer as a judge meant that we had to make this month’s prize extra special, so we went back to our friends at OXO and look what they provided:

Not only all of this...

...but ALSO all of this!

It’s everything you need to work the garden and whip the harvest into something amazing.

To enter the contest, all you have to do is submit your best original recipe.  Alice won’t be able to prepare each and every recipe (she has a restaurant and foundation to run!), but she’ll base her decision on creativity, originality and the ingredients used.

Submit your recipe in the comments section below and be sure to tell us which ingredients  you grew in your garden.

Good luck!!

Suzy Bales

August Contest: The Best Ideas for Giving Gifts from The Garden

Celebrity Garden Judge: Suzy Bales

Prize: Signed copies of Suzy’s last three books!

August is the time of year when all of that work in the garden finally starts to pay off.

If you are anything like us, you always have more than enough to go around after the harvest, even accounting for all the freezing, canning and pickling.

And, if you are anything like us you’ve learned that giving some of what you’ve grown to friends or family (or, in the case of zucchini, perfect strangers) can be equally as thrilling.  Maybe it’s because it makes you feel generous but it also helps you brag a little in a very furtive way:  Look what I did!!

We love to come up with creative ideas for giving gift from the garden and we’re sure you have some great share.

We couldn’t think of a better person to take a look at your ideas than Suzy Bales.

Suzy delights in sharing her garden with friends and family. In her book, Garden Parties she inspires fancifully fun parties that transform outdoor spaces into enchanting playgrounds for the senses—the plants, the décor, and the food intermingle to create truly memorable themes.

Suzy had her own weekly gardening column in Newsday for two years before joining Family Circle as their contributing garden editor for twelve years. She wrote a column for The New York Times for a year before joining Better Homes & Gardens as the Senior Editor for Gardening and Outdoor Living from 2004 until early 2007.  She has been featured in Ladies Home Journal, House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, Horticulture, Beautiful Gardens, and Easy Gardening.

Get inspired for your own garden gifts (and contest entries) by taking a browse through Suzy’s own website.

Submit your ideas for giving gifts from the garden in the comments section below.

Submit any photos to:  beekman1802@beekman1802.com

Win these!!

Radish Seed Pods

Maybe the tastiest joys of early summer are baby turnips. Most of us associate turnips as one of the stoic, tough, hard-boiled root staples that get us through a long hard winter. But when planted and harvested earlier in the year, they’re like little amethyst jewels which can either be steamed, roasted, or even grated raw into a slaw.

Baby Turnips are an early garden treat.

If there’s one thing you’ve probably learned about us, it’s that we really don’t like to waste anything – especially food.  So what makes harvesting “premature” turnips even more wonderful is that their greens are also at a great stage for eating. They’re not yet at that hafta-boil-the-hell-outta-em stage.

Below is one of our favorite recipes using baby turnips, their greens, and a few other great leaves of summer. You’d be hardpressed to find a healthier salad anywhere, and this one can be served either hot or room temperature.

3-GREEN BABY TURNIP SALAD with Honey Mustard Dressing.

1 bunch of baby turnips, with greens (each turnip 1-3 inches in diameter.)

1 bunch swiss chard

1 bunch early mustard greens

(any type of early cooking green can be substituted – baby kale, baby collards…)

2 T olive oil

zest of one lemon

For Dressing

2 t honey

1 t white wine vinegar

1 t lemon juice

1 t dry mustard

2 t olive oil

salt, pepper to taste

First separate turnips from greens, remove root. Be sure to leave 1/4 of stems left on turnips. (Never slice root top off any root vegetables before cooking – beets, turnips, rutabagas, etc. The flavor and vitamins will drain while cooking.)

Always leave a little of the tops on when roasting root vegetables.

Place turnip bulbs in shallow pan, coat with oil, cover, and place in 400 degree oven for approx 20 – 30 minutes. They’re done when easily pierced with knife.

L to R.: Ruby Red Swiss Chard, Lucullus Chard, Osaka Purple Mustard, Purple Top turnip greens.

While turnips are roasting, wash all greens. This sounds simpler than it really is. Chard, mustard, and turnip leaves have deep ridges that hold a lot of sand, dirt, and bugs. The easiest way to thoroughly wash these greens is to submerge in a sink full of cold water then rinse each one separately as you remove them. No need to dry them. They’ll be boiled. Slice away and discard any tough stems on anything other than the chard. On the chard, slice away the beautiful stems and cut into one inch segments.

Chop remaining greens coarsely.

Bring pot of water to boil, add chard stems first, then three minutes later add chopped greens. Cover. Boil until just tender – only about 10 minutes, tops. You’ll want them to retain a little more texture than the more familiar wintertime boiled collards.

Combine ingredients for dressing, and shake vigorously.

Drain greens (save juice for soups or even drinking,) and allow to cool with finished turnips. Then arrange in bowl or plate, top with turnips, sprinkle with lemon zest, and drizzle with dressing.

Sweet, earthy, sharp and a little bitter...like ourselves!

Enjoy this dish on a rainy summer day…maybe one with a slight chill. The earthy, warm taste of the greens and turnips might be a little reminiscent of cooler seasons, but the surprising brightness of their younger flavors will remind you to celebrate summer even more.