Tiny Plot's Bounty in Action

What's the fun in gardening if I can't enjoy the fruits of my labor?  Flowers are pretty to look at but I'm more interested in eating the effort.  Since I don't have a balcony or a back yard in which I can grill delicious beef ribs, I broiled some of my mother's excellent galbi and used the perilla, mint, and lettuce from the tiny plot to eat ssam.  That's ssam as in farm, not ssam as in ham.

Ironic then, that today came about trying to be free from these people:




Meat still sizzling:

Mint just picked, piled high above baby lettuce:

Basil bounty, washed and just before being turned into pesto:

Excess mint means Moroccan mint tea.  Refreshing.

Thanks Jennie!

Here's your lovely mint in action!

Lovely creamy luscious summery fragrant ambrosial delectable Eton Mess.  Yum yum.  Various recipes can be found but it's basically strawberries, cream, and meringue.  So easy to make!  Go to my Flickr page to get my recipe.  Here's Nigella's version:

Flowers, Seeds, and General Optimism

As I write this, Wimbledon is on, my new ac is on full blast, and I'm examining the upside down Y's marked with dirt on my sunburned feet.  There was an early morning brainstorm session on the next stage of the hand-built compost bins with the Sustainability Committee, then I skipped over to my tiny plot to water the parched darlings.  I'm guessing it was a total of 10 minutes my un-sunblocked feet was exposed to sun.  I wish I didn't burn so easily.  I'm not looking forward to the bumpy rash.  My poor toes.

But I discovered a few gems to share with you here!  I'd noticed teeny purple buds on my eggplants last week but here they are in full bloom:

Here's another one:

Pretty, aren't they?  I'm not sure if the variety my mom got me are the bulbous Italian kind or the long skinny Japanese kind.  I just hope they produce edible eggplants of some sort.

Before I go on, an apology for the high contrast photos.  It was very sunny out (aforementioned poor toes), and I took these with my iPhone.

Also exciting is that my cilantro have gone to seed.  I didn't know this until I googled to find out why my cilantro started to flower and didn't look like all the other gardeners' cilantro.  Apparently, I'd not harvested it properly.  Since I had no recipes I wanted to cook just yet that needed any, I decided to leave the flowers alone.  Many have now turned into coriander seeds:

I picked one to taste and it was deliciously pungent!  This might be a better shot of my thumbnail than the seed, but here it is split open:

This is what the cilantro looked like a few weeks ago, haphazardly growing with little white flowers on top:

The basil also flowered:

What were once cute little perilla seedlings now have strong thick stalks:

The lettuces look like they need some chopstick and twist-tie therapy.  I had no idea they'd get so weirdly tall.  Here they are flopped over, bowing to the mint:

And speaking of mint, they've gone crazy, as I'd expected:

Here's the whole thing as of this morning:

From the other side:

It looks like a crazy jumble of green now.  Remember when it looked like this?

Mint!

My friends Jennie and Will have a lovely garden in the back of their semi-detached Victorian in Jersey City.  It's lush and there's plenty of room to grow lots of lovely things, unlike my tiny plot.  We did a swap last week: some of their mint for a couple of my perilla.  As I was digging my guys up I thought of an impoverished mother giving her kids to a rich couple who would be able to give them a better life.  "You'll have a chance in Jersey City... sniffle... there's better soil and more sun... sniffle..."  Actually, it wasn't that sad but I did think my two perilla were going to a better environment, where J&W have other edible goodies growing.

I planted the generous tangle of mint in its own winebox where I could contain its out-of-controlness - mint has a tendency to do that.  I mixed the soil with a little poo water (by now fermenting in the plastic container I left outside - the stench was unbearable let me tell you) first.

If you run your hand over the top, even the gentlest graze will release a cool minty fragrance.  It makes me want to brush my teeth again.