Story Photos
 Photo courtesy of the McGees Rose Marie Nichols McGee will talk about container gardening Friday. She's pictured with her husband, Keane McGee. |
'The Bountiful Container' author to speak at Longview market on how to grow favorite foods in small spaces
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 7:13 AM PDT
By Cathy Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleAnyone can grow food in containers, said Rose Marie Nichols McGee. "Anyone can enjoy it. In almost any space, there's a solution.
"You can get a lot of satisfaction and flavor in growing a little bit of what you eat," said Nichols McGee, a nursery owner and author who will give a talk on container gardening at the Open Air Market Friday morning at Canterbury Gardens.
"Grow the things that are of the highest value to you, the things that offer the greatest convenience to have a few feet away."
Nichols McGee is from Nichols Garden Nursery, a 50-year-old family business in Albany, Ore. With Maggie Stuckey, she wrote "The Bountiful Container," a guide to growing vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers in containers.
In a phone interview, she said she'll talk here about "what people need to do to plant a tomato in a container and be successful. That's the thing -- anyone can plunk a seed in a container, but how do you get things to grow?"
She and Stuckey drew on personal experience to write their book on container gardening.
"I started doing this to help my mother, who had severe arthritis in her later years," the nursery owner said. "She was very frustrated. She had a nice deck off her kitchen, and we started moving things" to allow accessible gardening there.
"Maggie, my co-author, had moved from a large house in Portland, with a lot of space, to a condominium," Nichols McGee said. "She was really stuck for space." As the two women talked about containers, she said to Maggie, "Maybe there's a book here."
In Longview this week, she'll demonstrate the sizes of containers needed for greens, herbs and tomatoes; and talk about sunlight, drainage, pruning and dealing with balcony containers and wind.
She'll also suggest various themes.
"I'll really focus on growing herbs and some greens, and putting together little ethnic gardens," she said.
For a Thai garden, for instance, people might grow "lemon grass, cilantro and hot peppers, even a Kaffir lime," she said. An Italian grouping would include arugula, tomatoes, parsley, basil and garlic.
The end result provides bursts of bright, flesh flavors for cooking.
The following recipes are from the Nichols Garden Nursery Web site, and people can visit the site for additional seasonal dishes.
FRESH REFRIGERATOR PICKLES
We often double or triple this recipe and enjoy it for several days. You can never make too much. Use long cucumbers, short ones or even the round lemon types. If seeds have developed, scoop out the centers with a spoon before slicing.
3-5 cucumbers
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 medium sweet green or red pepper
1 tablespoon celery seeds or 1 teaspoon fresh dill
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 medium onion
Cut scrubbed cucumbers into 1/8-inch thick slices, peeling optional. Cut pepper in half, remove seeds and thinly slice pepper and peeled onion. Mix together with salt and celery seed. Let stand for one hour and drain. Combine sugar and vinegar and stir. Pour over vegetables and mix well. Cover and refrigerate. Pickles are ready to eat in about a day. Store in refrigerator. This makes about 5 cups of very good tasting bread and butter type pickles.
ASIAN STYLE COLE SLAW
We've known for some time that cabbage is packed with vitamins, but recently scientists at the British Institute for Food Research found evidence suggesting eating cabbage or related brassica family vegetables two to three times a week may fight colon cancer. This seems another good reason to serve more of these nutritious vegetables. This low-fat colorful salad is especially good with grilled salmon.
6 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (1/2 medium head)
2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow or green bell pepper, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
4 large green onions, sliced lengthwise and then sliced crossways
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped, roasted peanuts
Dressing
(Prepare and add just before serving)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon Asian style sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
Mix salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss with dressing just before serving. If dressed too far ahead of serving moisture is drawn out of the greens and it loses some of its delightful crunch.
POTATOES WITH ROSEMARY
2 pounds potatoes, young non-russets best
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and slice potatoes. Place potatoes, rosemary, and garlic in an oiled roasting pan. Sprinkle olive oil over and add salt and pepper. Bake, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are crisp and golden brown -- about 30 minutes. Check seasonings and add an extra sprinkle of rosemary if needed.
FRENCH CARROT COOKIES
Makes 30 cookies.
A great favorite of ours. They are moist and cake-like with a tasty orange frosting.
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cooked and mashed carrots
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Orange Frosting
Juice of 1/2 of an orange
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and carrots. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the carrot mixture and combine well. Drop generous teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie or baking sheet. Bake 18-20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Remove from cooking sheet to rack. Frost the cookies while they are slightly warm.
To make frosting, in a small bowl cream butter with powdered sugar. Add juice and grated peel. Mix together well.
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