peashoots!! an amazing winter-time green

brrrr...it snowed night before last, snow's still on the ground this morning and looks like it's staying icy cold out there for a few more days.

But tho' it's frosty on the greenhouse roof, the peashoots seem to be chill with the cooler temperatures...makes them so juicy, crisp, sweet and flavourful. With just a little bit of cover, they'll happily grow during our west coast winters, in low light, even when it goes sub-zero.  

They seem to love growing in our mostly unheated greenhouse these days.

In my little world, pea shoots are the absolute best homegrown fresh young n' juicy salad green around in the winter time...amazing that such a tender green grows so well when it gets cold.

And full of good things for ya too.....very high in vitamin C, vitamin A and folic acid.

I really think everyone needs to be eating lots of pea shoots this winter (and every) winter!

And y'all know where to get the ones I grow, right?!

But if you have some time, grow your own, I think you will love it! 

Just when I start thinking pea shoots might not be anything special (silly me), they somehow remind me that they go with absolutely everything and make everything seem very very special.  Especially when it's cold outside and no other fresh green things are growing.

Here are a few recipes that might give you some pea shoot eatin' inspiration for the winter...(but there are so many, if you go looking around online)

....and of course, you don't have to follow any of them exactly  :)

pea shoots with roasted pumpkin and avocado! (I'm going to add some pomegranate seeds to this too, next time I make it)

from lushloves.com

pea shoots with roasted cauliflower

from 101cookbooks.com

In any sandwich.
But I'm so making time to make THIS ONE!
look at those beauty pics of pea shoots in the naan'wich :) yum yum.
from sproutedkitchen.com

and of course, tacos! (don't these look delicious and good for ya)
from dollyandoatmeal.com

a healthful winter salad (LOVEly photos!)
from cannellevanille.com

One day, I'll stop growing a market garden and I won't grow pea shoots for others anymore, but I just can't imagine not growing pea shoots for us, EVER...they've become a staple in our house and I don't think we could do without them again, as long as we live. Year-Round.  But especially in the Winter-Time.

cherry tomatoes of many colours

Folks here on Mayne Island often ask me what my favourite cherry tomatoes are and if they can get plants for their gardens from me in the springtime.

So here are my favourites (for now).  These are the varieties that I'll be growing in my own garden this year.  I've linked them to where I got my seed, in case you don't live near me or if you'd like to start your own seeds. If you live near me and would like to get plants from me, I expect to have some available for sale end of May.

from left to right:  

Green Doctors, Snow White, Sungold, Black Cherry

not pictured but always grown in my garden: Tumbler for a nice rosy red.

And this year, I'm trying Fahrenheit Blues for the first time.  I'm excited to see if I can get a nice dark blue-purple cherry tomato to add to the mix!

All of these except for Tumbler are big indeterminate vining plants and need good support.  With a nice tall round remesh cage like the ones I use, they can do very well in large pots.

And in case you'd like to know, Tumbler and Sungold are hybrid seeds....all the rest are open-pollinated.  If you'd like to find an open-pollinated golden tomato to replace Sungold, there are some options but I think sometimes there's a place for hybrids and Tumbler is a really good choice, especially on our cool west coast where it can be a challenge to ripen a red tomato early.  If you'd prefer a big vining red cherry instead of a determinate like Tumbler there are good choices for that too.

And in case you're interested in getting clear about the difference between open-pollinated, hybrid and genetically modified seed this is a good read to start with.

Cherry tomato seedlings in the hoop house a couple years ago just after being potted up into their first pots....that's Jamie in the background there, she helped me pot these all.

...look at how big and strong those plants got in their 4" pots in just 3 weeks!

....and here they are again, potted into their larger litre pots....ready for sale!

I was really surprised by Green Doctors. It was delicious, so flavourful and tomatoey with such a nice texture too.  It was my big favourite last year.  But then again, they're all favourites.

Delicious sliced in half (so the juices mix when tossed) with olive oil and feta cheese....and sunflower shoots!

remembering summer and getting ready for another one!

February's almost over and very soon, there'll be less time in my days for desk and paper work.  In a little more than a week it'll be March!

In 2013, I only made 2 posts on this blog, whoa!!....and I learned that when I suddenly stop posting on my blog, some of the folks who follow regularly will worry and think that perhaps I've quit gardening or even that I'm not well.  oops! not so good.  Last year, I had to devote my time to the real nitty gritty of what needs to be done in the garden to make it what I want it to be...

......and what it seems to want to be too!  There was a lot of figuring out to do.

  Looks like I didn't have time to take many photos either since when I went back to look in my albums, I found a very small and incomplete collection. 

Anyway, in case you'd like to see, here are a few things that went on at the garden last year:

Shoots, of course!  Lots and lots of shoots!

sunflower shoots on their shelves, ready for harvesting

pails of pea seed soaking before planting

Emily planting up a sea of pea shoot grow trays in the greenhouse

endless harvesting and packaging!  We really produced a whole lot of these last year.

...and I worked on beautiful flowers for summer-time weddings on Mayne Island too

bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for 

Amanda and Nathan's wedding at Ag Hall, Mayne Island.

photos: Jean Cueta 

wedding table arrangements in process at the garden

and specially ordered flower arrangements.....

made with flowers from my garden and delivered
to welcome some Mayne Islanders back home

a beautiful peony, pea vine and lady's mantle  'thank you'  bouquet from someone in Victoria to someone on Mayne Island.
That's Sara holding it, she's one of the wwoofers who came to experience life in the garden last summer.
She's from Tokyo. 

Clementine also 'wwoofed' in the garden last summer.  She's from Brittany, France and here she's making mayonnaise in the garden kitchen.

....and lots of other growing things.....

a big potato crop growing in big pots 

yummy food for us too:  new potatoes with dill and garlic chives

flavourful and juicy cherry tomatoes in many different colours, one of my favourite summer-time things to grow...and to eat!

Our new pup's first summer in the garden: what an adventure. Here I'm teaching her how to lie beside the parsley patch, instead of on top of it (which she prefers).

coming home on the ferry after a trip to town to make deliveries and get supplies....a beautiful commute

So in January, I created a new Facebook page, just for Christina's Garden....you can follow along there, if you don't find much here.  It's way easier to do quick posts there when I'm busy...but I do hope to be here more often this year too.  
We're designing a new website and blog with a shop too!!  Exciting! It might take forever tho!  When looking around my blog stats a while ago, I saw that this post on my golden hops vine, (from almost exactly three years ago) is the most visited post on my blog, thousands of visits (amazing).  This post  and  this post  both on the tumbler cherry tomatoes that I sell as plants to other home gardeners were a close second place  and this post on how I grow pea shoots in the winter-time is third.  This post on mouse melons was fourth.....I'm not sure what all this means but I suppose it's sort of interesting.

So the ornamental cherry tree outside our house is blooming right now and I sure do know what that means:  seed starting time for the coming summer season is NOW!

purple daikon radish microgreens

I have some extra purple daikon radish shoots ready for harvest right now so I thought I'd package them up and offer them to everyone here on Mayne Island...I'd like to start up the idea of a once-in-a-while special that I offer when I try growing new varieties or try new ideas for mixes.....so why not start now with these purply beauties?!  

These are the purple-coloured microgreens that are in the shoot salad mix and I love 'em!  I wonder if I should pack them up on their own more regularly for folks?....well, we'll see....they were very popular a couple years ago when I sold them on their own at the farmer's market.  If you're on Mayne Island, you can find them at Farm Gate Store and Happy Tides this weekend.

Here's an inspirational recipe I found on-line for a beautiful, yummy, good for ya winter-time salad using purple daikon radish shoots  Doesn't it look good?!  I might just have to make this with braised black tuscan kale instead, even tho' it's no problem finding dandelion leaves in my garden right now, and some perennial arugula....a mix could be delicious, I think.  This idea and the photo are from http://kitchentonirvana.com which you might enjoy visiting for some vegan and gluten free ideas.

roses

I took a little time to stop and smell the roses a couple days ago and made this quicky rose bouquet just for me.  A mini rose vine in a vase, bringing the garden into the house for a little indoor beauty and aromatherapy.  such a joy!

Cécile Brunner has just started getting her bloom on in the garden and I'm loving it.  Summer's almost here!

I really like her care-free wildness, it blends in beautifully with the wild forest all around my garden.  This climber produces piles of nice stems with a few blooms and buds in different stages of growth on them, it's one of my faves for arrangements and every year, I make a few special order bouquets with this beauty.  Even after cutting and cutting, there are still many blooms left on the vine to enjoy in the garden.

So now everyday while she's blooming, I'll remember to sniff the air every time I walk by.

33 days 'til spring!

Shoot Salad Mix:  pea shoots, sunflower shoots and purple daikon radish shoots.....this mix is really popular with customers in Victoria.  And I love them too.

Hi everyone!  I've been away from the blog for quite a while...and I have so much to write about but it's really a challenge to make the time to get here.....

"What do you do in the winter?" That's what many folks ask me at this time of year.

Nowadays I say:  I'm Growing Shoots!  Lots of them...all day, every day, from before dawn 'til after dusk.....my petzl headlamp is the fashion accessory du jour because it can get really dark out here during these short days of winter.

  So sorry to all of you in and around Victoria who've emailed me to ask where you can get my shoots....I probably haven't answered, I just can't keep up with my emails.  

I hope you're all still visiting this blog because here's a list: 

Lovely Deep Cove Market on West Saanich Road, near the ferry terminal and the pretty town of Sidney.  In Victoria,  Niagara Grocery in the friendly and beautiful James Bay neighbourhood and Fairfield Market near the corner of Fairfield and Moss streets.  I love the 'bringing back the neighbourhood grocery store' vision the folks who own and operate these two shops have!  Charming places with awesome things, a lot of them from local growers and makers. 

I'm so happy that The Root Cellar in Victoria also carries our shoots now!  Great people, great store and  it's a real town-trip-treat for me to get to shop here because they have such a fabulous selection of some of the freshest veggies around.  

Checking out the shoot display at the Root Cellar last week while I fill my basket with blood oranges for Valentine's Day mimosas : )

And on the mainland,  they're at The Organic Grocer. The owners of the Organic Grocer are Mayne Island community members and are devoted to taking the shoots back with them to the mainland and their store....so nice! 

And of course, when you visit Mayne Island, you can always find them at Farm Gate Store and Happy Tides Health Foods.

So anyway......about what I'm doing nowadays.....

This year, January flew by while I worked on building my micro-business...winter has been busy....soaking seeds....

and planting them in trays with soil.....

During the cooler weather at this time of year,  I put the freshly planted trays on heat mats with domes to quick-start germination.  This is a row of sunflower.  The pea shoots are on the shelf above.

Carefully watching them grow and managing their needs at their different growing stages is important....I really have to keep up with these tasty little morsels, they demand it.

Sunflower shoot greens, ready to harvest!

In the garden kitchen, rinsing and packaging them up for store shelves.

labelling, labelling, labelling......

All the containers are packed into cardboard boxes......

.....and at 6:30 am on Tuesday mornings I put all the boxes into the back of my truck so I can take them to the ferry terminal to meet Shanti in the Farm Gate Store van for their trip into Victoria on the 7:20 am boat.

One big challenge of my small shoot-growing business on my small island with it's small population is  the reality of not having enough customers  on-island and so therefore, the need to transport off the island to more customers.  Don and Shanti, who operate Mayne Island's Farm Gate Store have been so helpful...not only do they sell the shoots at Farm Gate but they also take them in to town and deliver them for me when they go in to get supplies for their store.....and they've introduced me and my shoots to some fine fellow grocer-folks too!  

Pea shoots on Chris's pasta dish at the Bennett Bay Bistro on Mayne Island sometime last summer.  I've been delivering pea and sunflower shoots to them since they opened last year and I'm very happy that the folks there are so enthusiastic about using the shoots we grow!