 |
Jeanne is another friend that offered to do a guest post so that I could spend more time with Chris while he was home on leave. She is an amazing gardener, you only have to be on her facebook to see all of the beautiful pictures of flowers and produce she takes daily.
I think you will enjoy this peek into her life….Marye
This past weekend, we sampled the first of the Yukon gold potatoes grown not 30 feet from my kitchen doorstep. It’s been a dream of mine to grow as much fresh, organic produce as possible, and our garden continues to surprise and delight us with what it can, and cannot, produce.
This year’s experimental crop includes potatoes. I’ve never grown potatoes before, but with guidance from my neighbor (whose nickname is “the Potato King”) and a generous sack of both Yukon gold seed potatoes and sulfur, off I went this spring and planted potatoes.
Potatoes require no special care during the growing season except watering and picking off potato beetles if they threaten to overwhelm the crop. Once the vegetation dies back, it’s harvest time. That’s when things get tricky.
First, I didn’t realize how deeply the roots grow – and of course, the best potatoes are at the end of the roots! The first batch I dug up was partially ruined by my too-vigorous spading, which results in bleeding gashes on the potatoes that fermented into a gaseous, bloated mess. The woods around here are now filled with rotten potatoes hurled over the fence like missiles.
The spring this year was gentle and rainy, but the hot, dry summer came all too fast. The result is that the spring potatoes had time to develop into nice fist-sized baking prospects, while they others are what one would call new potatoes, or perhaps fingerlings.
And that’s why I developed this recipe. After sorting out several pounds worth of Yukon gold fingerlings the size of ping pong balls or smaller, I needed a recipe to use those yummy spuds. I made this on Sunday night with a loin of pork and Harvard beets, the beets also freshly picked from the garden. Our potato dish included onions and herbs grown in the garden too, but feel free to substitute store bought everything if you must. After all, cooking is like gardening. Both should be fun and nurture the spirit!
Rosemary Infused Oven Baked New Potatoes
Served 4
Preheat the oven to 375. You’ll need an oven proof casserole dish with lid.
You will need:
• 2 cups of cleaned fingerling or New Potatoes (Yukon Gold or another thin skinned variety)
• 1 onion, with skin removed, chopped into ¼ inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (substitute ½ to ¼ teaspoon dried)
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves (substitute dash of dried)
• 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil
• Dash of salt and pepper
Scrub the potatoes under cool, running water until the skins are clean, and place them in the casserole dish. Add the chopped onion and stir. Sprinkle the fresh rosemary and oregano leaves (or dried) onto the potato and onion mix, then stir it. Add the olive oil, giving it one final stir, then add a dash of salt and pepper. Cover the casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until potatoes are fork-tender. Stir at least once halfway through to prevent mixture from sticking.
Jeanne Grunert is a writer, editor, and marketing consultant who lives and works on a 17-acre organic farm in southern Virginia. She’s the author of Get Your Hands Dirty – A Beginner’s Guide to Gardening, available on Amazon.com, and blogs about her gardening adventures on the Seven Oaks blog. She also shares seasonal recipes based on what’s ripening in the garden at Recipes from the Garden . Learn more about Jeanne at www.sevenoaksconsulting.com
