Cometh the shade, cometh the greens

I am still learning about the light on the Harlem terrace. Generally, there is just Less. The greens are dealing with it. I now have an interesting collection:

Left to right: lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album - closely related to quinoa, this a 'weed' I am actively cultivating); a mesclun salad mix, from Botanical Interests; below those, quickweed (Galinsoga parviflora) - a very nice cooked green, and also very weedy, but it has its own pot; nasturtiums; parsley; malabar spinach (Basella alba - actually a vine. I am hoping it will take off when it gets really hot; I bought three plants as potted seedlings from the Union Square Market - the leaves are almost succulent, and quite mucilaginous); and at the end fava beans (broad beans) whose tips are still tender enough to be eaten raw. And yes, there will be some beans, too.

This little heap was our supper salad, with couscous and fire-grilled and very herby chicken.

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* Summer Botanical Walk Schedule *

Back to Brooklyn

I went back to Brooklyn, to lead an edible plant walk in Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was a hot day. There's New York Harbor. I do miss it. We saw it from our old silvertop roof, every evening. 

A berm has appeared, and down on the ground it really does cut the roar of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Massive construction is taking place beneath the suspension bridge connecting the Promenade with the water level park.

The serviceberries were just beginning to turn. 

And suddenly there is a beach. No swimming allowed, but you may paddle board.

Six years ago this was just a dream.

Summer Walks: Prospect Park, Central Park and Dead Horse Bay

Support

Hang on tight!

This is the Gloriosa lily (southern African native), with its intelligent leaf hooks. As fast as I add wires, it latches on.

Pimm's No. 1

The tail end of a bottle of Pimm's has been living in the fridge for at least a year. It's a drink I forget about easily. Good, two days in a  row, then suddenly cloyingly sweet (the Pimm's is mixed with ginger ale), and one shunts it back behind the bottle of Cassis (which turns glasses of white and sparkling wine pink, and makes Mississippi Mules, with good gin), the field garlic pickles and the tall jar of black currant chutney. Till a friend writes about drinking  a Pimm's Cup, and suddenly, in the first warm evenings, it seem like a good idea, again.

The scarlet month

After visiting  a beautiful garden on a high floor yesterday, I stopped at the Union Square Farmers Market, where I exercised restraint (one box of strawberries - my first of 2014, and three holy basil plants.)

In 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life, I wrote:

JUNE

This is the scarlet season.

In Brooklyn Bridge Park the slender branches of serviceberry trees hang low with ripe fruit early in the month. The little pomes - inverted coronets - taste sweet when red and apple sauce-ish when purple. It is easy to browse quietly for a secluded hour here on urban fruit within arms’ reach. At Pier Six an MTA bus driver waiting for the start of his shift beside his bus asks, as he sees me reaching up for more, Are those things edible? Yes, Sir, I say, they are indeed. 

As I walk up the low hill at the western extremity of Atlantic Avenue and turn down shaded Henry Street towards home, I think about serviceberry pie, a highlight of my foraging year. I think the bus driver might like it. He might like serviceberry pancakes, better, though. What is more American? Pie, period? Or pancakes for breakfast?

And that is where I will be today. Walking that route (if you're quick on the draw, you can still come), looking for those fruit, and perhaps finding some mulberries at the tail end of the expedition. Our delayed spring means that the ripening may be off by a week or two. And I can always return for the serviceberries. Friends will visit us from Virginia, mid-month and I'd like to bake them a serviceberry pie.

Walk on the Botanical Wild Side...

Serviceberries

This Saturday:

Brooklyn Bridge Park Walk
7 June 2014, 1pm - 3pm

On a stroll from Pier 1 to Pier 6 and environs, come and discover the wild edible plantings of Brooklyn's most botanically rich and Northeast-native inclined park. It has the best view in New York, too.

From sassafras and blueberries, cattails and pickerel weed, bayberry and sweetfern, to sumac and sweet serviceberries (pie recipe on p107 of 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life), here is an outdoor classroom that allows us to spot and identify a wealth of indigenous wild edibles.

Mulberries

On the parks edge's we'll find edible invasive such as mulberries and day lilies.

Day lilies

We meet in the park in at Pier 1, at the entrance to the wine bar and cafe near the pond (straight in line with Doughty Street), off Furman Street - see map link: look for red markers).

The closest subways are the 2/3 at Clark Street, from where it is a 10 minute walk downhill to the park, or the F to York Street, which is about 12 minutes away on foot.

The walk will end at the foot of Atlantic Avenue. There is plenty of good shopping upstream, and at Sahadi's you can purchase foraging-related items for the kitchen, such as powdered sumac, and mahlab (wild cherry kernels)...

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The Move, on Gardenista

for Gardenista

I was very happy to be asked by Gardenista to write about our move from Brooklyn to Harlem, in terrace terms.

In case you missed it, here it is: 66 Square Feet (Plus).

I think it fills in some of the gaps.

Other gaps I'll fill in here in the next week or so. Perhaps a kind of State of the Terrace speech...