Lush herbs and ripening "fruit"

The basil at the farm is so lush and prolific, you almost want 

to dive in and bury your face in it. 

Besides the beautiful leaves, the scent is certainly intoxicating enough to do that. 

Happy times at the restaurant as this and the other herbs 

from the farm begin to proliferate. 

Our chefs rely on fresh herbs so much that in addition to 

what we grow at the farm, we of course have planted herbs at all the restaurants,

 including our new culinary event space, Suite D. 

basil in herb beds at Suite D

It is so great in summer to go outside and pick fresh herbs 

or easily get them at the farmer's markets. 

We wait all year for this time and then we want to "bottle it," 

so we can have that experience year round. 

There are a lot of great tips for freezing fresh herbs so you have them 

later to enliven your cooking. 

And making herb-infused oils is another idea we recommend. 

There are tips on creating herb-infused oil in Sondra's book, 

Plats du Jour: the girl & the fig's Journey Through the Seasons in Wine Country 

or here's a recipe courtesy of Once Upon a Plate

The ratio of olive oil to flavoring ingredient is one cup of oil to two cups of tightly packed soft leaved green herb. Since herb infused oil should be used within a week, don't make too much— maybe use 1/2 cup of oil and one cup of herbs.

Fill a large bowl with ice water, set aside.

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the herbs, blanch for 5 seconds (make sure the leaves are submerged.) Drain into a strainer and immediately plunge the herbs into the bowl of ice water until cold. Drain the herbs well and squeeze out all liquid.

Puree in a blender with olive oil (blender works better than a food processor here.) Strain puree immediately through a fine-mesh strainer. Strain again through three or four layers of cheesecloth (rinsed in clear water and squeezed dry before straining the herbs.) Put the oil in a sterilized glass bottle, cover tightly and refrigerate. For best flavor, use within one week

This technique can be used for making infused oil whether the ingredient is basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic, chiles, chervil, chives, cilantro, mint, mushrooms or citrus fruit. 

And an important tip: It is imperative that no fresh herbs (or any other flavoring ingredient you are using) are added back into the oil before bottling because this could introduce the risk of the food borne illness, botulism.

Now that we are seeing the tomatoes starting to tease us at the farm, 

it will soon be challenging to think about doing anything with the basil 

other than tossing it with these heirlooms once they are ready, 

but we still have a little time until we are in "tomato heaven..."

heirloom tomatoes at the farm

tomato starts at the greenhouse in April

tomatoes at planting party in May

So while you wait for the tomatoes to ripen, go ahead and 

try making some herb oil this summer with herbs from your garden.

And then, in a few weeks you can drizzle the luscious oil 
over the tomatoes and basil!

Also, soon to appear on our restaurant menus is eggplant. 

We are growing several at the farm including 

Listada de Gandia, Rosa Bianca, Black Beauty and Aswad

photo by Steven Krause

first of the Black Beauty eggplants at the farm

Aswad is the Arabic word for eggplant. 

We are especially excited about planting this one.

Available from Iraq, this season is the first time 

these are available in the United States. 

A very heat tolerant fruit, we expect this eggplant variety to fare very well in Sonoma 

(like tomatoes, an eggplant is really a fruit—in fact many vegetables 

are considered fruits—check this out).

Aswads are dark and satiny, almost black and can weigh up to 3 pounds! 

They are perfect for grilling or baking. We wonder what the chefs will do with them?

 This Aswad eggplant will soon be over 3 lbs!

Aswad eggplants growing behind ESTATE

And, talking about proliferation—in last week's post, we talked about 

preparing for Fall with our planting of winter squash in the lower beds. 

Beginning of Autumn plants side by side with our Summer bounty. 

Well, the chefs may be incorporating those squash into menus sooner than we thought: 

Look how much growth occurred in just a week!

Check back at this blog to see what is growing next week 

and what the chefs have created with the gems 

they found at the farm this week.

Best time for gardeners

This is the best time of year for anyone's farm project, no matter how big or small. 

If you haven't gotten everything you want in the ground, there is still time to plant. 

Or, if all the hard work of prepping, amending soil, tilling, 

and then the actual planting is behind you, 

now you are experiencing the daily surprises 

when a blossom appears one day, becomes fruit the next 

or you see your plantings multiply in size and height from day to day.

beams at ESTATE last week

and now!

For our farm project, which encompasses several different areas in Sonoma Valley, 

our work at the biodynamic farm at Imagery Estate Winery has been ongoing 

since March as we harvested our winter garden and 

transitioned to spring/summer plantings. 

We are looking forward to seeing how much different 

these beds look from the planting party in May. 

Stay tuned and check back here to see our progress.

But,  perhaps like many of you, we are also still in planting mode. 

There is a completely new addition to the girl & the fig farm project—

we've added herb beds on the patio of our brand new culinary event space, Suite D. 

These herb beds are almost arms reach out the door of our catering kitchen 

so the chefs there can have the same convenience as our restaurant chefs. 

That motivated the choice of what we planted, but of course, 

the herbs are also a part of the ornamental design of the patio space. 

We are growing parsley, thyme, oregano, chives, 

rosemary, basil, chocolate mint, amaranth and pineapple sage.

Hummingbirds love pineapple sage for the beautiful red flowers. 

There is some debate as to whether that is really true, 

but one theory about why hummingbirds are attracted to plants with red flowers 

is "that since insects don't see the color red, they avoid the flowers, 

leaving more nectar for the hummingbirds." 

We aren't sure if this is true, but we do know how much we will enjoy the red flowers 

and the hummingbirds when the pineapple sage is blooming at Suite D. 

Here are some recipes using pineapple sage 

Pineapple sage are the tall plants with chives, thyme, rosemary and oregano

in the same bed is parsley and chocolate mint

Amaranth is a striking plant and has been cultivated for centuries.
According to GardenGuides.com:  "Native peoples of both North and South America
once considered amaranth a staple food crop.
First cultivated several thousand years ago, the plant peaked
in agricultural importance during the 1400s when it became a mainstay
of the Aztecs in central Mexico. In the 1970s, American researchers rediscovered
amaranth's potential, particularly as a protein-rich gluten-free grain."

Amaranth plant at Suite D

If the leaves are harvested when they are young, 

they taste like beet greens. You can also use the seeds. 

Wonder what the chefs will do with them?

With the amaranth are chives,basil, chocolate mint, oregano and rosemary in this bed

The other great thing about this time of year 

aside from the simultaneous planting and the harvesting, 

is the simultaneous "picking it fresh from the garden and eating it the same day!" 

Summer is all about these fresh herbs, vegetable and fruits, 

which we pick in the morning, bring to the chefs for them

 to transform for you to enjoy at the table later that day. 

as long as we can, we grow radishes at the farm for one of our signature salads

And of course, you can do the same at home. 

It doesn't matter how big your  farm project is, for you to have this experience. 

Gayla Trail, one of the first gardening bloggers, is called the "garden guru."  

In addition to her inspiring books, here is an interview she did about  

"small space gardening" with emphasis on herbs. 

No backyard or window sill? How about a rooftop garden? 

Check in and let us know if you are still planting or now beginning to harvest.

What are you growing and how are you using it?