With the first frosts only weeks away, it is time to update progress at the Nevada Appeal Garden at the Community Garden on Beverly Place. Well, there has been some progress. We've harvested some misshapen pumpkins. A few tomatoes and eggplants. But most of the garden is still in the midseason stage, lots of green tomatoes, lots more of squash and eggplants.
We've even got a beet plant growing outside the defined garden plot. How come? Best guess is that is from one of the seeds which we planted, of which up to now none have germinated. Wind or overflowing water must have moved it.
There's also a healthy parsley plant outside the garden proper and next to the fence adjoining the cemetery offices.
The tomato plants are land grabbers, and when the Greenhouse Garden Center contributed tomato plants to community gardeners, we rushed to add them to our piece of land.
Which may have been a mistake. Nestled between earlier tomato plants and monster squash, these new plants didn't get much sunshine so they lag in bearing fruit. Yes, plenty of small green tomatoes, just like their older siblings, but no red fruit, unlike the older plantings. These now are bearing "love apples" of a reddish hue, and with luck we'll have a basketful before that frost.
Some generalizations:
Watering in Carson City is practically a daily duty. It's important to build earth dikes around your plot of land. Otherwise the water just runs off the hard dirt here. Early on a spray nozzle works well, but once the plants are well established, just the end of the hose spreads a lot of water In a hurry. It's easy to overwater once the plants are up and sturdy; water begins sloshing over the low dikes and into the walkways - wasteful.
Tomato plants work. But it's smarter to buy a variety, some early bearers, some late so the fruit doesn't come all at once. (So OK, a tomato isn't a fruit?) Staking or caging is critical. Many of our plants are bending to the ground, putting the tomatoes in peril of rot. And you have to keep checking on the stakes or cages; earth loosens and stakes bend.
Equally critical is to give tomato plants room to grow. We put ours so close you can't tell where one ends and the next begins.
Squash and pumpkins. These are the elephants in the room. The seeds may be small, but our squash and pumpkin plants spread out into the tomatoes and out of our plot into the walkways and through the fence to the cemetery offices next door. Sadly, the squash blossoms were mostly eaten by our ferocious rabbits so one tasty snack disappeared.
It looks like we'll have plenty of small squash but probably no more pumpkins .
Eggplants. The do very well here. The smaller Japanese and Chinese grow early and don't bend down the plants like the Italian monsters. A nice thing about the smaller eggplants is that you don't have to salt and drain them before cooking; they don't have that bitter taste.
Thai red peppers. These are those little firecrackers one finds in Thai and Chinese cuisine. We got a late start with them this year but the bush is bearing plentifully. Most are still green, but red ones have already disappeared into Thai red curry. These are winners, small bush, large output.
Seeds. We did something wrong here. Only the strays sprouted, suggesting that maybe nature knows better than we how to plant seeds.
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The recipe we included in our article about our affair with egg plants was a kind of moussaka, but far from the traditional dish.
Here's a more standard variety used in our kitchen. You'll note that the measurements are kind of casual. That's because we never got the "tablespoon" directions from that Greek chef on Crete. It was "some of this" and a "little of that." Fear not, frequent tasting will tell you when you need more salt.
Moussaka A La Appeal
You'll need:
6 or 7 narrow eggplants, Japanese or Chinese
Lots of olive oil (doesn't have to be extra virgin for the sautéing process)
A couple of cups of chopped up onions
Some extra virgin olive oil
Maybe two pounds of ground lamb (beef is a poor substitute, yetch)
Salt and sugar
Cinnamon (gently)
Nutmeg (not as gently)
Some butter (nonsalted, please)
Tomato sauce (homemade is best but you can use canned)
Parmesan or Romano cheese (fresh ground is best but you can sneak in store-ground stuff and most won't know the difference, but you will)
Eggs
The action:
If using the small eggplants, slice 'em lengthwise. If using the big ones, slice them in quarter-inch rounds. Peel if you like. Dust the rounds with salt and let them drain in a colander to reduce the bitterness. Small ones don't need this.
In a large skillet heat olive oil until it shimmers. Sauté the eggplant slices until slightly brown, drain on paper towels
Drain the oil and add fresh in skillet. Sauté onions in the olive oil and a little salt until clear. Add the ground lamb, salt, pepper to taste, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar and tomato sauce. Add a couple of pats of butter. Reduce to concentrate flavors. Set aside.
The build:
Light up the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a large baking or square glass casserole pan. Scatter some Japanese bread crumbs (OK, so the Greeks don't use Japanese crumbs, but they do work very well) across the pan and lay a layer of eggplant slices down. Spread some of he cheese over it all. Spoons some of the sauce over it. Add another layer of eggplants, more cheese and more sauce.
Strew some more of the cheese on top of things. Mix eggs and milk (1Ú2 and 1Ú2 if your diet permits) and slosh over the cheese. Dribble some melted butter over the milk mixture.
Cook in the oven for maybe 40 to 50 minutes or less. Up to you. Slice it up and serve hot.
We add a Greek salad (with the dreaded anchovies) and some good hard-crusted bread. It's near impossible to find retsina wine around here, so you're on your own for beverage. In Greece, a bottle of the local Fix Beer was fine, but you can't find that here either. So experiment. And enjoy.
• Contact Sam Bauman at sbauman@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1236.