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| Wild mustard |
The
little farmhouse kitchen, redolent in winter of soup and fresh-baked bread,
lively with stirring and bubbling, falls still as summer comes on, with
bookstore and yard and garden demanding unceasing attention.
Few
Parisians can afford the space for private gardens. For outdoor relaxation they depend instead on
large public green spaces, such as, near my old friend Hélène’s apartment, the
Luxembourg Gardens. (A world in itself, that!) But even without a burgeoning potager (kitchen garden, as
the English call it), Hélène cultivated pots of herbs in a sunny window. And by
the way, it’s smart to restrain perennial herbs in pots, no matter how much
ground you have available, as some of them, given garden room, will develop
Napoleonic ambitions and try to take over your entire world, making much more
otherwise unnecessary work.
Taking
a leaf from Hélène’s book, then, and because time and energy allowed me to reclaim
only about half of my former vegetable garden, neglected for the past two
years, I have done some of my food planting in containers this year – tomatoes,
radishes, even collards (I have my doubts about the collards in a container,
given the size of a full-grown plant, but if we eat away at the outer leaves
fast enough, perhaps they can be kept in check) – as well as, among the
flowers, nasturtiums, a colorful edible addition to summer salads.
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| Tomato plant and radish seedlings |
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| Radish thinnings |
Our
first summer salad supper was Thursday evening. The radishes needed thinning,
and the young sprouts were far too tasty to throw in the compost pile. Since
the thinning task coincided with the last blooming of a local wild mustard –
another delicate, edible, peppery cruciform, much like the spring’s toothwort
in flavor – radish sprouts and pepper blossoms made a nice addition to the
green salad, strewn atop after Greek dressing had been drizzled over lettuce
and tomatoes.
Ah,
summer! Supper on the porch! Flowers on the table and on our plates! Now, if
ever, come perfect days....
