Savory Sunday: Roasted Beets

By Anastazja Kolodziej

While rummaging through the fridge a few weeks ago, I noticed I still have some beets that we harvested from the community garden plot. I’ve already made soup and warm tortellini salad with the beets and beet greens, so for this recipe, I’ve kept it simple: roasted beets. 

Ingredients: 

·    Beets, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

·    Olive oil

·    Salt

·    Pepper

Steps:

·    Heat the oven to 420 degrees.

·    Arrange the cut beets in a baking sheet or dish and toss with oil, salt, and pepper. 

·    Roast for 30 minutes or until soft and tender. Serve immediately. 

This is my final post for this column as I wrap up my internship with Washington Gardener for this summer. Thank you all for reading!

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

 Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback.

Savory Sunday: Quick Warm Tortellini Salad with Chard (Beet Greens)

By Anastazja Kolodziej

After last week’s soup, I still had some chard (beet greens) left over for another meal. This recipe, warm tortellini salad with chard, is great for busy days—it’s ready in 15 minutes!

Ingredients:

·  Cheese tortellini (store-bought or homemade)

·  2 cloves of garlic, fresh chopped or in olive oil from a jar

·  3 tablespoons of pesto

·  2-3 bunches of Swiss chard or beet greens

·  2 tablespoons oil

·  Water

·  Salt

·  Shredded cheese

·  Basil

 

Steps:

·  Put chard stems into a pan with a few tablespoons of water and cook for 10 minutes. The stems take longer than the leaves and will be crunchy if you skip this step

·  Once the stems are soft, remove the remaining water and pour oil onto the pan. Add chard leaves and sauté for 3-5 minutes

·  Meanwhile, in a pot, boil salted water. Add tortellini and boil until cooked. I often use pre-cooked tortellini, which only needs to boil for 2-3 minutes

·  Once the tortellini is ready, drain it in a colander. Then, pour the tortellini into the pan with the chard

·  Add pesto and garlic and mix thoroughly

·  Top with basil and serve with shredded cheese. Mozzarella and parmesan work best

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

 Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback.

Savory Sunday: Polish Beet and Chard Summer Soup (Botwinka)

By Anastazja Kolodziej

This Polish soup, called botwinka, uses both the beets and the greens (chard) that come from a beet plant—so if you’ve recently pulled some beets from your garden, you already have the main ingredients for the soup! Here is the bountiful beet harvest from our community garden plot.

Note: This recipe makes 10-12 bowls, which was enough for one dinner for 5 people.

Ingredients:

·  4 whole carrots, peeled and chopped

·  8 medium beets, chopped

·  1 pound chard, chopped

·  4-5 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

·  5 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters

·  2 bay leaves

·  2 vegetable stock cubes

·  1.5 tablespoons salt 

·  Pepper, to taste

·  4 tablespoons heavy cream, and more to taste

·  Egg (optional)

Prep:

·  Remove chard from the beets, washing everything thoroughly

·  Cut chard (stem and leaves) into bite-sized pieces

·  Peel and chop carrots and potatoes

·  Chop beets

Cooking:

·  Boil water with bay leaf, garlic, salt and vegetable stock cube

·  Add chopped carrots and cook for 10 minutes

·  Add chopped beets and cook until soft, approximately 15 minutes

·  Add chopped chard and potatoes. Cook until potatoes are soft, approximately 20 minutes

·  Turn the stove off, add cream and sprinkle the soup with pepper, to taste. I added about 4 tablespoons of cream into the pot and served the soup with cream on the side so people could add more as they desired

·  Optional: This soup can be served with an egg (hard-boiled or sunny-side-up) on top of the bowl

Optional: Sprinkle fresh dill on top

PIN THIS FOR LATER:

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

 Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback.

Fenton Friday: You Can't Beet Them!

'Badger Flame' Beets

'Chioggia' Beets 

We pulled the Beets this week that were planted earlier this year by the spring interns. I do not like to eat beets myself, but have to admit their colors are amazing--practically glowing!

Elsewhere in the plot, the Okra seedlings are already up as are the Marigold seedlings and Cucumber seedlings, the latter of which we thinned to the best few plants per hill.

We also pinched out the flowers on the Basil plants so they would grow bushier.

I finally pulled the Peas and planted some Beans in their space--'Burpee's Tenderpod' bush beans. I also planted a hill of Icebox Watermelon 'Sugar Baby' seeds and out in a couple of Potato 'Clancy' seedling plants, next to the potatoes I had already put in. I have never started potatoes with a plant before rather than a tuber, so I am eager to see how they compare.

I also tucked in a Rosemary 'Arp' into one of the plot corners as I never could find a good spot for it.

The bunny deterrent I spread around the Sweet Potato slips seemed to be working as they are leafing out again and hopefully will recover well enough.

Back home, I planted Pumpkin 'Blue Prince' seeds in a side bed that I  am crossing my fingers it gets enough sun there for these to develop. I wanted them at the plot too, but just couldn't find the room for a another vining plant that may reach out 7 ft. in diameter in a 10x20 plot!

What are you growing and harvesting this week in your edible garden? 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Freeze Scares

beet seedling - red

This past week has been really chilly. We had freeze warnings on two nights and I was worried about my Strawberries, which are already setting fruit, but they seem fine.

I harvested a handful of Asparagus, two bags of Kale, and several radishes.

Everything else is growing nicely. The edible Peas and Sweet Peas are taking off, so are the Beets, Carrots, Spinach, Lettuce, and 'Purple Moon' Kale seedlings.

It is interested to look at the small Beet seedlings and see the red and yellow (gold) veining developing.

The Garlic is getting crazy big. I am wondering if I should harvest them in May this year!

beet seedling - yellow

In the rest of the plot, I am slowly beating back the weeds and have started Nicotiana seedlings indoors that I hope to transplant out in a few weeks along with direct-sowing a bunch of other cutting-garden flowers like Zinnia, Cosmos, and Gomphrena.















What are you planting this month in your edible garden? 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

lettuce seedlings

'Viroplay' Spinach seedlings

Beet Reporter

Beet Seedlings

By Ashley O’Connor

I’ve never been inside a community garden prior to interning at the Washington Gardener, let alone grow something myself from seed. But this experience taught me everything from the importance of composting to the terror of finding a baby bunny in the plot.

With the guidance of editor and publisher Kathy Jentz, I decided to grow beets: a vegetable tempered for the cool-season. We later added a third row of Swiss chard for good measure.

I was forced to replant after a September day of heavy rains that washed away my seeds.  And a hailstorm in November froze portions of the Swiss Chard plants.

Swiss Chard

Because of the weather issues, the results weren’t extraordinary; many of the red variety didn’t grow beyond tiny roots. (The roots are still edible) But there were enough fully formed white beets and Swiss Chard greens to make a nutrient-packed salad, dressed with EVOO, salt, and pepper. Eating something that came from my own efforts—digging in the hot summer sun, watering in the cold fall winds—was truly special. In the future I would like to start a small garden of my own.

About the Author:
Ashley O’Connor, a senior multi-platform journalist at the University of Maryland. This autumn, she is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener.

Fenton Friday: Beet Babies

It has been another scorcher of a week with scant rain, so I have been over almost daily to water the community garden plot. The tomatoes and cucumbers are still producing well and I even harvested a handful of green beans!

The mystery is the Mexican Gherkin aka Mouse Melon aka Cucamelon. The vines are growing rapidly and it sets many flowers, but I have yet to find any fruits on it. Very strange.

The beets we planted last week are up. The tiny seedlings have a red stem and that helps to differentiate them from other seedlings that are popping up, such as the arugula that I had previously planted in that same spot and let go to seed. We also added a row of Swiss Chard to compare those with the beet greens.

I hope that this weekend's promised rains and lower temps allow me to get over to the plot to rip out the orange cosmos that is running rampant throughout the rest of the plot. It is not even the pretty cosmos, it seems to have reverted to some weedy distant cousin with tiny yellow flowers and needle-like seeds that snag on your clothing. Once gone, I'll replace them with winter root crops and salad greens.

What is growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 7th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above

April 2018 Washington Gardener: Reblooming Azaleas , Year of the Beet, and much more...

The April 2018 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine is now out.

Inside this issue:

·         Reblooming Azaleas

·         5 Tips for Surviving Allergy Season

·         A Visit to Jefferson’s Poplar Forest

·         Your Garden Task List

·         Being Green with Adele Kuo

·         Garden Hats Reviewed

·         DC-MD-VA Gardening Events Calendar

·         & 12+ Springtime Garden Tours

·         2018 is the Year of the Beet

and much more…

Note that any submissions, event listings, and advertisements for the May 2018 issue are due by May 10.

Subscribe to Washington Gardener Magazine today to have the monthly publication sent to your inbox as a PDF several days before it is available online. You can use the PayPal (credit card) online order form here: http://www.washingtongardener.com/index_files/subscribe.htm

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