There are some drawbacks to living right downtown (for example, we would love to have a yard) but other times it’s really great. Whenever our little town hosts a community festival or market they do it in the square across the street from our house. They generally close the road, and little tents and booths pop up overnight. Yesterday was the annual spring herb market. This year our landlords are fixing the overgrown “garden” behind our house. Most of it will be grass, but per my request, they are leaving me a little area where I can do a vegetable garden. We’ve already started planting some things (radishes, peas, lettuces, herbs, and strawberries) in pots on our patio, but I’m excited to have a real garden space of my own. We went to the market right after breakfast yesterday and bought 7 tomato plants, a zucchini plant, a butternut squash starter, cilantro, two kinds of basil, and a couple more strawberry plants. We also bought some jam, a few different locally produced goat cheeses, and a couple of slices of cake. We then spent the afternoon outside on our patio planting and turning a plastic tub into a mini-composter. I’m excited to show Annika where our food comes from and how we can turn waste back into food for our plants.
A view of the market from our back patio- you could see it much better from the front, but I was taking pictures out back and just snapped this one.
We also noticed that some of the things we planted a few weeks ago were ready to harvest. Annika has been slowly eating our radishes, but we picked the rest of them yesterday.
and then roasted them with some rosemary (also from our garden.) I’ve never been a big fan of radishes, but roasted they were phenomenal! Roasting them brings out their natural sugars and makes them a little bit sweet. We immediately went to the store and bought three more bunches because we couldn’t wait to eat them again. I was also thinning my peas and before I threw away the little pea sprouts I remembered seeing a recipe online for pea tendrils. I’d never known that you could eat the actual pea plant, but I mixed them in with some of the lettuce we are growing. I could have eaten it without dressing – the pea tendrils were just a little bit sweet and crisp and were wonderful on their own. Is it just me, or does food you grow yourself taste so much better than anything you buy from a store? Brad made fruit smoothies to round out our lunch.
Radishes ready to go in the oven
Lest you think we are some kind of culinary snobs all the time, we grabbed some bratwurst from the stand outside our door for dinner and ate it while we went on another walk around the lake. Pea tendrils for lunch and glorified hot dogs for dinner — it all rounds out, right?
Roasted Radishes with Rosemary from Tartelette
1 bunch radishes
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 -2 sprigs rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oven to 400F – 425F.
Wash and pat dry the radishes to remove fuzzy hairs and dirt.
Place the radishes in a 8×8-inch roasting pan (or other you prefer), drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast until they start getting golden on the edges. About 20-25 minutes. Enjoy warm or room temperature.
Cistine - Wow….. you have quite the green thumb! You’ll have to teach me your secrets!
Taniel - It is full blown summer there! You are already harvesting food? I didn’t know that you could eat the pea tendrils. Look at you go. I love radishes, so those roasted ones look great.
Mary Anne - I didn’t realize we could have already planted things in our garden! Our landlord told us that May 15th is the day where there should no longer be frost, so we were thinking next Saturday we’d plant ours. Seeing your adorable little radishes makes me so happy! I have some questions for you…did you guys add anything to your soil? We have always added steer manure (I know, that sounds gross) but can’t find anything like it over here. Suggestions from someone who had had success would be nice. And awesome that you have a little market square right there by your house. That is awesome. I’d love to buy our plants from somewhere like that, but I just don’t know where one is! We were just going to buy them at OBI or something. Anyway, your recipes and creations sounded fabulous…as did your bratwurst
A while back you asked about Paris with children. I’d definitely do the Versailles palace gardens…that was the best, the Eiffel Tower (duh), a river boat tour was good with them (we kept Canon in a stroller during it), Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, okay now I’m just listing everything we did on our trip. Seriously, I thought what we did went well. We took time to play at parks and have picnics, which I know you guys are good at doing. Sacre Couer would be good, and I would have loved to do Pere Lachaise. I think it would have worked with kids, even though it’s a cemetery. Are you planning to get around on the Metro? I couldn’t imagine any other way. That part was a workout with the double stroller. I’m sure you already have a game plan. If you have any questions, though…ask away. Not that I’m an expert!
Britteny - I totally agree with things tasting better when you grow them yourself. I am so excited for our garden this year. My bean, peas, lettuce, amd spinach just sprouted a couple of days ago and I was so excited. It looks like you are already a green thumb. We planted some radishes, when they spring up I will have to try out you recipe.
Deja - Roasted radishes!!! I had no idea such a thing was possible or wise, and now I’m excited. That is just very exciting. I love me the radishes anyway, but roasted?! Everything is better roasted. My socks would be ready roasted. Am I right?
I am in a swoon, generally, for your German street fair and vegetable garden and sweet pretty life. Swooning, here.