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Spring Gardening Tips for a Flourishing Garden
As the vibrant colors of spring burst forth and the air fills with the sweet scent of blossoms, it's the perfect time to roll up your sleeves and tend to your garden. Whether you're a seasoned gar...
Boys and Girls Clubs of Manteca/Lathrop
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Recipe: Provençal salad with herb-spiked lemon vinaigrette
This colorful, flavorful salad combines vegetables from late summer and early fall. Kathy Morrison
Early fall is a time of harvest celebrations throughout southern France – and Northern California, too. It’s when a bounty of fresh vegetables are still available before colder months ahead.
A trip to Provence – and its famous farmers markets – inspired this colorful, flavorful salad. The same ingredients also can be found in Sacramento-area markets. (After all, we share very similar Mediterranean climates and grow many of the same crops.)
With an abundance of textures and tastes, this salad makes the most of late-season summer vegetables (the last of the fresh tomatoes, green beans, red pepper and zucchini) and combines them with the first potatoes and radishes of fall. Garbanzo beans, Mediterranean-style black olives and hard-boiled eggs add more flavor and substance.
A lemon vinaigrette seasoned with herbs de Provence ties it all together. Herbs de Provence is a mix of dried herbs typical of southern France (and Sacramento): Oregano, savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme plus lavender (what really gives it that Provençal accent).
Haricot verts – skinny French green beans – are perfect for this salad, but other varieties of green beans will work, too. If beans are small enough, use this blanching method to preserve their crispness and bright green color: Wash, string and trim beans. Place in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over beans. Let sit for 5 to 6 minutes. Add ice to cool water. Let sit another minute or two, then drain.
Provençal salad with lemon vinaigretteServes 4
Ingredients:1 cup green beans (preferably small haricot verts)6 cups lettuce (preferably loose leaf), torn into pieces1 carrot, grated8 fingerling or baby potatoes, boiled until tender and cut into 1-inch pieces1 beet (roasted or boiled), cut into 1-inch pieces¼ cup cooked garbanzo beans¼ cup Mediterranean-style black olives4 radishes (preferably French breakfast), thinly sliced1 small zucchini, thinly sliced1 large or 4 small tomatoes, chopped or quartered½ red bell pepper, chopped4 eggs, hard boiled and halvedLemon vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Instructions:Blanch green beans. Set aside and let cool.
Cover serving platter with torn lettuce. Sprinkle grated carrot over lettuce.
Arrange on top of lettuce bed the blanched green beans, chunks of boiled potato, the beet pieces, garbanzo beans, olives, radishes, zucchini, tomato, red pepper and eggs.
Make lemon vinaigrette. Drizzle over salad. Serve immediately.
Lemon vinaigrette
Makes about ½ cup
Ingredients:
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon herbs de Provence
¼ teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Put lemon juice, oil, herbs, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
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A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 19
Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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