Vegetables are at the center of the longest battle ever fought between parent and child. Fighting the good fight for the veggie kingdom, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library aims to equip parents everywhere with titles that highlight veggie appreciation. The titles featured below are new to our children’s circulating collection and offer positive tales of why eating your veggies is important. So next time you say “Eat your vegetables!” it might just work!
Pattan and his wife Kanni live near the river caring for their garden and their animals. The goats, bulls, and elephants help Pattan tend to his chores, and in return, he shares his harvest. After his walk through the land, Pattan finds a plant that is need of help, so he replants it in his garden to care for it. Not too long after being replanted, the plant grows into a pumpkin. The pumpkin quickly grows larger than the goat, then larger than the bull, then larger than the elephant, and soon enough it’s bigger than a mountain! When a rainstorm causes terrible flooding, Pattan must quickly devise a plan that will carry his family, animals, and grain to safety. Based on a traditional South Indian tale, Pattan’s Pumpkin is exciting and rewarding to read! Its vibrantly colored illustrations and friendly narrative transport the reader into the story.
Carrots, string beans, black raspberries, sugar snap peas, and fresh-baked brownies are just a few of the summer highlights from today’s Greenmarket. Stop by until 3 p.m. today—and don’t forget your reusable bag—to stock up for the week!
Kale, strawberries, beets, cherries, and all sorts of baked treats—it’s the return of the NYBG Greenmarket, and it’s not far off!
We’re exactly one week away from the kick-off of this summer favorite, which opens with offerings from Gajeski Produce, Meredith’s Bread, Red Jacket Orchards, and Acevedo’s Farm next Wednesday, June 22, just two days after the official start of the new season. From that point on, you can expect to see our vendor tents set up at the end of Tulip Tree Allée—right inside the Mosholu Gate—every Wednesday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m., through late November.
‘Redina’ red leaf lettuce bolts in the heat of summer, setting flowers and then seed to save.
Along with juicy-ugly tomatoes, fresh herbs, and those peppers that made the best hot sauce, gardeners should harvest the seeds from their most prized plants of the growing season. In my Bronx community garden plot, one basil plant is reserved for setting seed, while the others are for eating with Arthur Avenue smoked mozzarella and in-season heirloom tomatoes.
Saving seeds carries on the work of our ancestors, who selected plant varieties using excellent foresight—and their taste buds. An ancient practice dating back to the Stone Age, the first saved seeds were part and parcel in man’s transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer. As plants began to be domesticated, varieties were selected for their flavor, beauty, resilience, and abundance.
Influenced by our culinary experiences, many of us likely think of basil (Ocimum basilicum) as originating in Italy. However, you might be surprised to find that this popular culinary herb is actually endemic to India, where it then spread to Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Basil is simple to sow from seed, and a cheap and easy way to include delicious diversity into your garden. We often combine several different types of basil together for an attractive display in the herb garden, vegetable garden, and sometimes a mixed border. But because basil is sensitive to frost, it is important to wait until the weather has warmed before it’s placed outdoors.
Beginning June 18, visitors to the Garden will have a chance to bring home some healthy and delicious treats from the NYBG Greenmarket! Each Wednesday through November 26, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., fresh food and produce will be available near the Garden’s Mosholu Gate from local vendors, in a collaboration between NYBG and Greenmarket, a program of GrowNYC. There is no reason not to come enjoy the beautiful summer scenery while you get some shopping done!
Whether or not you realize it, you have been eating native plants for most of your life. Most of us have enjoyed blueberry muffins or pancakes from a very young age, partaking in one of the northeast’s most commercially successful homegrown natives. But that’s only the most well-known of our local edibles.
If you’re the adventurous type, you may have tried some of the more unusual natives to be found at local farmers markets or high-end grocery stores. The more advanced among you may even have foraged some of your own, though this activity comes with an all-important disclaimer: only do so if you are an expert in plant identification or happen to be accompanied by one. As you will soon see, many of the tastiest native plants have relatives or lookalikes that can be highly poisonous. Having proper identification of these plants in hand will not only help you avoid danger, but keep you from damaging wild populations of protected or threatened plant populations. Further, you should never harvest wild plants unless it’s on your own property or you have explicit permission.
I can be very sentimental when it comes to gardening, and the subject of today’s topic always brings a tear to my eyes: onions. My favorite onions are bunching onions (spring or green onions), though they are not the culprits that make me cry. Spring onions are an incredibly versatile delight that can be tossed into a salad or sauce at the last minute. Instead, it’s their pungent cousins that get me, so let’s talk about them.
You will notice that onions are listed as three separate growing types: short-day, intermediate, and long-day varieties. Onions are sensitive not only to temperatures but to the amount of daylight, as well. Short-day onions will start to form their bulbs with 11-12 hours of daylight; intermediate types need between 12 and 18, and long-day onions only form their bulbs after receiving 14 hours or more of sunlight.
Northerners grow long-day onions that are planted in the spring, southerners plant short-day onions grown in the winter, and intermediate types are generally planted in early spring and harvested in summer.
For the beauty queen in all of us, there was Color Me Beautiful, a guide that helped you develop your own color personality, providing tips that range from makeup to clothes to camouflaging your figure. In the garden, however, Color Me Tomatoes are the up and coming trend.
I’m still trawling this year’s catalogs in search of delightful new tomatoes hitting the market. In the New York area, I generally plant tomatoes outside one to two weeks after the last frost, which ranges from April 21 to May 7 depending on whom you ask. This means your tomatoes will be planted outside during either the second or third week of May if you are conservative, or the end of April and into the first week of May if you are bold.
Sweet, savory, and that piquant point right in the middle—the Greenmarket‘s been representing our favorite flavors in equal measures of late. Judging by the number of colleagues snacking on fresh donut peaches last Wednesday, this week’s gathering should have no shortage of the fuzzy fruits out for sale. And the apples aren’t making themselves scarce, either—try the Ginger Golds if you have the chance. We’ve also seen heaps of plums, blueberries, watermelon and nectarines out on the tables of late. On the vegetable front, plan for broccoli, kale, onions, tomatoes of every shape and color, reliable radishes, a few kinds of peppers staggered over the Scoville scale, and some yellow summer squash.
There’s more, of course (fresh-baked bread, anybody?), and with each week there are new entries and exits for the various crops on offer, but this tentative list gives you an idea of what to expect. And how many bags to bring if you’ve got a stock of canvas!
Vegetables are at the center of the longest battle ever fought between parent and child. Fighting the good fight for the veggie kingdom, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library aims to equip parents everywhere with titles that highlight veggie appreciation. The titles featured below are new to our children’s circulating collection and offer positive tales of why eating your veggies is important. So next time you say “Eat your vegetables!” it might just work!
