Wishing Tree

LA Green Grounds found a couple of ways to celebrate the end of a year that made us feel unmoored at best. We considered authorities’ advice to remain at a distance. And we tried to look ahead, with a wishing tree and seeds.

In a red, decorated box at the garden, there are seeds for the taking if you would like to plant fava beans, which are delicious and great for fixing nitrogen in the soil, or if you would like a pigeon pea bush that provides beautiful flowers as well as food.

And in a less concrete but deeply felt way, we are looking toward 2021 with a wishing tree, or in our case it’s a bush. Florence and volunteer Ruth set it up at the eastern edge of the garden, with small slips of paper hanging from branches. Each one carries someone’s wish.

If you want to hang a wish but find the supply of paper out, just use what you have. And then tie it on to one of the twiggy branches of the Mulefat shrub (Baccheris salicifolia).  That's the graceful, tall shrub at the curve of Carmona Avenue and Boden Street. 

I left my wish last week, but I’d happily endorse the others I read, too. One asked for “less divisiveness and more kindness in the world.” Another: “peace in your thoughts, strength in your words, joy in your heart.”

When it’s time for the paper to come down from the bush, it will go into our compost pile.

Like the wishing tree idea? Check out the one at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, which has more than 10,000 wishes on it.

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Waste is a 5-Letter Bad Word

COMPOSTING


Waste is a bad word, certainly when it comes to food.

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Bay Area News Group Webinar with Florence Nishida

Gardening Episode 1: Growing Herbs

November 12, 2020

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Never Heard of Sunchokes, Much Less Cooked Them?

Chad harvesting sunchokes in LA Green Grounds Teaching Garden

There's more to eat than seeds from some of those tall yellow sunflowers you may have seen at LA green Grounds over the summer.

After the flowers bloom, when the stem is dry and looks ready for the compost pile, a gentle pull will yield a bunch of sunchokes -- a delicious vegetable rarely seen even at farmers' markets.

Obviously a root vegetable, sunchokes also are called Jerusalem artichokes and earth apples. They are native to central North America and were widely grown for food before the arrival of Europeans.

Sunchokes are distantly related to artichokes. But it's distant, and there's no connection to the city of Jerusalem. But Los Angeles has a role in the sunchoke name: Frieda Caplan, an L.A. produce wholesaler, invented it in the 1960s when she was trying to revive the plant's appeal.

Two reasons come to mind when wondering why sunchokes are not more popular. They're rather ugly and misshapen. And they are rather expert at producing gas.

But they are so delicious, with a delicate, sweet flavor a little reminiscent of potatoes. And they could not be easier to cook.

 

 

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Kabocha Squash

Kabocha is a delicious, easy to cook winter squash. While roasting* some last night, I asked LAGG Founder Florence Nishida if I could save the seeds for planting. I thought I'd share her response with all our LA Green Ground followers!

cut open kabocha

"Yes! But not now.  It's a summer crop, so you'll plant the seeds in April or May. They will grow for about 3 months before you can harvest.  Usually it's harvested at the end of summer - it needs plenty of sunshine.

"Wash off the fibers and pulpy stuff, then dry the seeds on a clean plate or pie pan.  Make sure it's really dry before you store them - in a moisture-proof container like a glass jar with lid.  Label and date.

 

 

"You'll have a lot of extra seeds - you only need about 12 or 15 seeds - you'll plant a hill with 3 seeds in each.  Or you can plant in rows, with 3 seeds planted about 3 feet away from the next group of seeds," shared Florence.

 

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Growing Asia Vegetables Video

LAGG Founder and Master Gardener Florence Nishida Gives Talk on Growing Asian Vegetables in Los Angeles

Webinar sponsored by Southern California Horticulture Society
October 9, 2020

Florence presented a program on growing Asian vegetables in Los Angeles. She will show us how gardeners and lovers of good food can expand their palette of home-grown vegetables beyond “peas and carrots” by growing Asian vegetables, which have a wide range of unusual shapes, textures, scents, and colors.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW ON YOUTUBE.

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Recipe: Pui Shak

Pui Shak

(mamata pramnik)

INGREDIENTS

300 gm (10.5 oz) Malabar spinach chopped
2 T. green chili paste
1 tsp. Nigella seeds
½ tsp. turmeric powder
To taste salt and sugar
As needed oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil and brown nigella seeds and green chilies.
2. Add chopped Malabar spinach and saute, adding salt and turmeric powder and cover till it is soft (no longer than 3 min.)
3. As it gets soft, add sugar and mix well
4. Serve.

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Recipe: Chinese Stir-Fried Malabar Spinach

Chinese Stir-Fried Malabar Spinach

(tsuru murasaki)

INGREDIENTS

14 stems Malabar spinach
175 gm (ca. 6 oz) Maitake mushrooms
150 gm (5.29 oz) thinly sliced beef
1 large garlic clove
2 T. sesame oil
100 ml (0.42 cups) water
50 ml (0.21 cups) cooking sake
1 T. chicken soup stock granules
1 T. oyster sauce
½ tsp. sugar
1 T. potato starch with 3 T. water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mince the garlic, shred the mushrooms, cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Combine.
2. Separate the leaves from the stems of the Malabar spinach.
3. Diagonally slice the stems.
4. Put sesame oil and garlic in frying pan, heat at med high until aroma has released. Add the meat. When the meat is halfway cooked, add the mushrooms and spinach stems, saute.
5. Once the sautéed ingredients have cooked through, add the leaves, saute until tender (about 2 min.) then pour the seasonings in a circular motion and toss.
6. Push the sautéed ingredients to the side of the pan, add the potato starch dissolved in water, briskly mixing until the sauce thickens, even coating the ingredients, then serve.
The method and seasonings can be used with different vegetables, e.g. cauliflower, yard long beans.

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Recipe: Malabar Spinach Prawn Curry

(Sabitri pramanik, Bengal)

INGREDIENTS:

500 grams (1 lb) Malabar spinach
300 grams (10.5 oz.) prawn
1 onion chopped
4-5 cloves garlic chopped
1 tsp. red chili powder
½ tsp. turmeric powder
½ tsp. ginger paste
1 tsp. five spices
2-3 green chilies chopped
To taste – salt and sugar
Oil as needed.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil and lightly brown five spices and green chilies.
2. Add prawns and lightly fry, adding onions and garlic.
3. Add chopped Malabar spinach leaves and stems.
4. Saute well, adding salt and turmeric powder.
5. Cover it till it becomes salt (less than 5 min.)
6. Add red chili powder, stir well.
7. Add sugar, mix well.
8. Serve the dish with rice.

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Recipe: Malabar Spinach Stir Fry

Malabar Spinach Stir Fry 
(Trisha pramanik, Bengal)

malabar spinachINGREDIENTS:

2 big bowls of Malabar spinach chopped
1 onion chopped
2-3 garlic chopped
4-5 green chilies chopped (or less)
1 tsp 5 spices
½ tsp turmeric powder
Oil as needed
Salt and sugar to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil and lightly brown 5 spices and green chilies.
2. Add garlic (crushed or chopped) and saute well, adding onion.
3. Add chopped vegetables and saute well, adding salt and turmeric powder.
4. Add spinach and saute well.
5. Cover and let it cook well. (I would skip this step. Longer cooking makes the spinach slimy).
6. Add sugar, stir, turn off heat.

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