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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Little green things
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A few weeks ago I thought it was Poppy Awareness Week. Everywhere I went I saw poppies.  Now it's little green things. First, I pulled the last of the pea vines out of my vegetable patch. They're done, fried, crisp as a potato chip. I squeezed open the last few green pods and popped those sweet little peas into my mouth raw. None of my meager pea crop made it to dinner. Or I should say made it into the main dish.

I put them on homemade pizza. I put them in salads. Mostly I put them in my mouth. So that's one little green thing.

The second: baby figs. At last! I did my best to kill this tree but it has confounded my efforts and survived. I look forward to roasted figs with melted cheese, figs in my salad, warm figs in my mouth and best of all, FIG GELATO.

Third: grapes. Nothing stirs my inner Italian than the sight of small, hard, green grapes that I know will grow into marble-like, rose-colored, Reliance table grapes. Problem is, I'm basically supplying the bird population of Northwest Philadelphia with delectable eating grapes. I've yet to harvest one before the birds do.

But that doesn't detract from the thrill of watching this process unfold. Birds gotta eat, after all.
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About Virginia A. Smith
Ginny Smith, a Philadelphia native, worked as a reporter at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Ohio – with six short months at the end of the Bulletin tossed in – before returning to Philadelphia in 1985 to join the Inquirer. Her favorite beats here have included Center City, roving around Pennsylvania (and getting paid for it!) and alternative medicine. She’s also been City Editor and Pennsylvania Editor. Ginny has been happily writing – and learning - about gardening fulltime since 2006. She’s won two silver medals of achievement from the national Garden Writers Association and in 2011, Bartram’s Garden honored her with its Green Exemplar award for her stories about “the region’s deeply rooted horticultural history, cultural attractions and bountiful gardens.”
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