So the kids are shuffling back to school with no lack of grumbling and the chill in the morning air has you rethinking a light jacket. No matter! Summer still reigns on Wednesdays at the NYBG, where our weekly Greenmarket takes center stage from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s free to park and peruse, so why make excuses to stay home?

Each week’s fresh offerings are something of a surprise, depending on the month, so we can’t make any guarantees as to what our growers will be bringing with them. However, based on last week’s bounty, we’re looking at a bevy of heirloom tomatoes in reds, yellows, and purples, along with beets of all hues. To that end, I’ve listed a sampling of simple recipes to put your haul to its best use (because I’m nice like that). Alongside the vegetables, you’ll also find Red Jacket Orchards selection of fruit juices, and of course Millport Dairy’s pickled eats (habanera pickles among them). Round out the menu with some moon pies and you’re looking at an envious shopping list.
read more »

It’s not often I get the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden to myself, but last week, before the school groups arrived, I snuck a peek at what was happening in Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens ahead of the coming Edible Garden Festival. The sun was high and bright, yet the sight of ripening vegetables, familiar varieties tucked in among the somewhat more exotic heirlooms, made it easy to deal with the summer heat.

I picked my way around the garden plots, noting leafy greens and sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, flowering artichokes, and a few ready globes of garlic. And dangling in friendly groups above them all: new tomatoes, plump and prolific in the sunshine. Some are already settling into that quirky adolescent phase, not yet ripe, blushing with spots of bright reds and oranges on one side while still a shy green on the other. Certain varieties are lumpy and rustic-looking, others smooth and plum-shaped, and all of them have been hand-selected by Mario Batali’s top chefs–some of the finest culinary minds in New York.
read more »

It’s tomato time, and that can only mean one thing, that it is also gazpacho time. Gazpacho (or gaspacho) is a cold soup from Spain. It is refreshing, healthy, delicious, and a great way to showcase the intense flavor of summer’s most perfect tomatoes.

Gazpacho generally consists of a few basic ingredients; tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, garlic and olive oil, but as with most “simple” recipes, the variations are endless. We have rounded up a handful of our favorite gazpacho recipes below. Do you have a favorite variation we haven’t mentioned? Feel free to tell us in the comments!

Summertime is also a good time to brush up on your food safety smarts. To that end the Cornell Cooperative Extension will be at the Greenmarket this week 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. to offer tips and answer all your food safety questions.

The weekly NYBG Greenmarket occurs every Wednesday through November 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. near Tulip Tree Allée. Admission and parking for the weekly Greenmarket is always free, and EBT, WIC, and FMNP and NYC Health Bucks are accepted.

read more »

From August 27 – September 25, families can explore Mario Batali’s Edible Garden in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden and enjoy daily gardening activities and cooking demonstrations showcasing kid-friendly recipes with the chance to sample and search for ingredients in the garden. We are posting the recipes from Mario Batali’s Edible Garden here on the NYBG blog, Plant Talk, so check back often.

Caprese Salad with Genovese Pesto

Recipe courtesy of Mario Batali

There are about 150 varieties of basil, but basilico genovese makes for the best pesto. It’s also essential to making authentic pesto genovese. In Italy, basil is a symbol of love and I love this recipe for a summer caprese salad with ingredients fresh from the seasonal garden.

Basil Pesto

3 garlic cloves
2 cups lightly packed fresh Genovese basil leaves
3 tablespoons pine nuts
Generous pinch of Maldon or other flaky sea salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3 tablespoons grated pecorino romano

10 ounces fresh mozzarella
1 1/2 pounds assorted ripe tomatoes (choose a combination of colors, types and sizes) including Italian Heirloom and bicolor Pineapple

With the motor running, drop the garlic into a food processor to chop it. Add the Genovese basil, pine nuts, and salt and pulse until the basil and nuts are coarsely chopped, then process until finely chopped. With the motor running, drizzle in the oil. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the Parmigiano and pecorino. Set aside. (The pesto can be stored in a tightly sealed jar, topped with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil, for several weeks in the refrigerator.)

With a sharp knife, cut the mozzarella into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Transfer to a serving platter.

If using cherry or grape tomatoes, cut them in half. Core the remaining tomatoes and slice them. Arrange the tomatoes with the cheese.

Pour the pesto over the salad, sprinkle with salt, and serve.

Four of the Garden’s six Science programs, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics, the Genomics Program, the Structural Botany Program, and the Graduate Studies Program are housed in the beautiful Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory, which sits at the northwest corner of the Garden overlooking Twin Lakes.

Rachel Meyer (left) and Natalia Pabon-Mora (right)

In the Genomics Program, curators, post-docs, graduate students, and technicians, along with undergraduate and high school interns are studying how genes make plants different from each other–for instance why the seeds of some species are enclosed in an edible fleshy fruit like a tomato, whereas the seeds of other species are surrounded by a pod (also called a capsule) that dries and splits open to release the seeds. Graduate students Natalia Pabon-Mora (Judith and Andrew Economos Fellow) and Rachel Meyer and I are studying what makes a tomato fleshy and edible rather than dry and woody by comparing the genes that are active during the formation of tomatoes and closely related capsules.We  have identified several interesting-looking genes that act differently during the formation of tomatoes and capsules, and are testing them to see how they contribute to tomato formation.

Rachel and Natalia have tested one of the genes so far, and have found that if it doesn’t function properly, the plant produces tomatoes that are large and lumpy, instead of small (we are working with a cherry variety) and smooth.

Even more interesting, the tomatoes have a very strange uneven blotchy coloration.

We noticed immediately that although these tomatoes are still relatively small, they resemble the large and lumpy shapes we often see in cultivated tomato varieties including oddly colored heirloom varieties. We think we may have found a gene that is responsible for some of the dramatic shapes and sizes of the tomatoes we buy at the grocery store and farmer’s market!

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center.

Tomatoes originated in the Andes Mountains of Peru, where eight different species of tomatoes still grow in the wild. They were first brought to Central America and domesticated by the Aztec, who grew a yellow form of the cherry tomato (Lycopersicon cerasiforme) that they mixed with peppers and salt to create the first salsas. 

The Aztec named these little fruits xitomatl, which translates into “plump little thing with a navel.” Subsequent Central American tribes renamed the fruit tomati.  It was brought to Europe by Spanish and Italian explorers, including Hernando Cortez and Christopher Columbus.  

When the tomato first arrived in Europe it was viewed with suspicion. Tomatoes are members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), and their foliage is similar to deadly nightshade (Atropus belladonna), which was a well-known poisonous plant used as a hallucinogenic drug and a beauty aid. It was fashionable in medieval courts for women to dilate their pupils with drops made from the plant. When taken as a hallucinogen, the drug induced visions and a feeling of flying that were associated with the practice of witchcraft.

To make matters worse, the upperclass ate off of pewter plates that contained a high lead content. Tomatoes, being high in acid, would cause the lead to leach out, resulting in lead poisoning. The first tomatoes, renamed pomi d’oro or golden apple by the Italians, where thought to be inedible; they were viewed as ornamental plants. Only the poor, who ate off of wooden plates, consumed the fruits. read more »