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Garden Mats® wants to kick off 2010 with a new addition to our newsletter: “Made from the Garden Recipes.” This year we are starting off with two of the most requested traditional recipes which we make from our garden. The recipes can be found a the bottom of the newsletter.

We also encourage you to send us your favorite “Made from the Garden” recipes and enter our contest. The top two winners this summer will each win $100 worth of Garden Mats, and their recipes will appear in our next newsletter.

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I’ll never forget the garden of 2002. Teri and I had gotten married the previous August. This was our first garden together since the wedding—and the wedding day fire. Yes, our house burned down at 7:14 p.m. on August 4, 2001, on our wedding day during our reception! We didn’t even try to harvest the garden that year. Our entire focus was on the burnt rubble of an 1834 Cape that we had to rebuild.

As one would expect the garden was a jungle that next spring. First I pulled all of the big weeds and what remained of the big plants that the deer didn’t eat – corn stalks, Brussels sprouts cabbage, kale, squash vines, cabbage. I pulled and yanked on anything large that my hands could easily grab. Next, I prepared for some serious rototilling. Even with my trusty thirty year old Garden Way rototiller I knew it would take maybe four or five passes over the whole garden. I was not looking forward to it. But as the previous months had taught me, you do what you have to do. To continue reading article, click here.

The Potato

It is hard to believe that the potato, the workhorse of most gardens, is native to the Americas. All indications are that they probably originate somewhere around ancient Peru, which is why I love Peruvian blues! Just think, in a little more than 200 years, all varieties and colors of this original upland Peruvian plant became a staple vegetable crop throughout the entire temperate world. The high starch content and food value make it a most important nutritional source. Potatoes are also one of the most productive of all vegetables when it comes to food per unit area of land. To continue reading article, click here.

The Birth of the Potato Chip

Up State New York is the original home of the potato chip. In 1853 railroad & steamship magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt complained that his potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to the kitchen at a fashionable resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. To spite his haughty guest, George Crum, the Black and Native American Head Chef, sliced some potatoes paper-thin, fried them in hot oil, salted and served them. To everyone's surprise, Vanderbilt loved his "Saratoga Crunch Chips." Potato chips have been popular ever since, and sure are good home-made, eaten off a brown paper bag where they’ve been placed to cool.

Peter's Dilly Beans

Note: I prefer wide mouth pints and quarts. They are easier to stuff and fill with brine. I also prefer quarts, because if you have a lot of beans, they take a lot less work.

Use 4 to 4 ½ lbs. of fresh string beans – enough to stuff 8 pints or 4 quarts. (If you don’t use a scale, stuff all the jars before making the brine, and adjust the amount of brine that you make once you know how many jars you have to fill. Or just make extra brine, and toss out what you don’t use.)

In each pint put: (For a quart, double these amounts.)

• ¼ tspn crushed red pepper
• ¼ tspn whole white mustard seed
• ¼ tspn whole black mustard seed
• ½ tspn dill seed
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill or more if you like dill
• 1 large garlic clove (or two smaller ones)
• 1 slice or ring of green pepper

Peter’s Scalloped Red, White and Blues

Preheat oven to 350◦. Grease a 10-inch baking dish.

Next, leave the skins on and thinly slice 3 cups of red, white and blue potatoes. Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the dish. Dredge this first layer with a tablespoon of flour and then dot two tablespoons of butter over the flour. Place another layer of potatoes on top of the first and repeat the step with the flour and butter. Place a third layer of potatoes, and repeat the step with the flour and butter.

Sometimes I like to put some tidbits between the layers. Crispy bits of cooked pancetta, or cooked bacon are favorites. Onions or shallots or even chives are also good. Or Swiss cheese. Anchovies are a classic, but if you use them, you might want to reduce the salt in the next part of the recipe.

Heat: 1¼ cups of milk or cream, or a combination. Season the milk with 1 teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of paprika and ¼ teaspoon of dry mustard. Pour the milk mixture over the potatoes. Bake them for 1½ hours, covered for the first ½ hour and uncovered for the rest.

You can also sprinkle the top with dry bread crumbs and dot the top with more butter. Or you can sprinkle the top with Swiss cheese.

Enjoy!

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