Who knew that 30 years later, I would find myself growing leeks up at an old farm house, so that I, too, could make batches of vichychoisse!

I only planted a few leeks this past summer not knowing how many of them would survive  but every single one of the leeks I planted made it!  I started digging them up a few weeks ago, and they were absolutely the biggest and prettiest leeks I had ever seen.

Lovely Leeks

Since leeks are fairly expensive (think $3 a stalk) in my supermarket (if they even have them at all), I was pretty pleased I was able to grow this vegetable on the Red House property. I started thinking of some of my favorite leek dishes. They are:

Carmelized leek and goat cheese pizza

Leek and swiss cheese omelettes

Macaroni and cheese with sauteed leeks

Roasted chicken smothered with leeks

Salmon with leeks and cream

And finally my own “warm” version of vichychoisse — an awesome potato and leek soup with freshly snipped chives. This tasted especially yummy a few weeks ago after a 5.5 hour drive up to the house with a thermostat inside that said it was 59 degrees! (And 44 degrees outside!)

Warm Potato and Leek Soup

Oh yeah, and since I’m trying to convince VW to make me their spokesperson since I love my TDI (when I get to drive it that is…I have a teenage daughter), I sent them this shot of our other VW.  I am still waiting to hear from them…

Leeks on VW

I suppose most of my fondness for the Red  House is actually the property.  I love being outside as much as possible even if I’m eaten alive by the mosquitoes and itching for days afterwards.  I love looking at the garden and seeing what’s growing.  I love watching the sumac trees wave in the wind.  I love watching the clouds move quickly across the sky and am constantly amazed at how quickly the weather can change.  I love seeing deer on the property at night, and watching the hammock we hung up last summer sway between the tall pine trees.

I like the fact that kids still walk in this town; I see them carrying their towels to the community pool in the summer, a sled or plastic dish to go sledding on in the winter. I love hearing the freight trains tooting their horns at all hours down in the valley, and the Amish horse and buggy trotting by the house on Sunday mornings. I don’t even mind the occasional RV lumbering its way up to the mountains, and the more than occasional band of motorcycles rumbling their way down from the mountains.

In other words, there always seems to be a lot happening outside the Red House.  So, once it stopped raining Labor Day weekend, and it was dry enough for me to venture outside,  I looked at my garden and thought, it didn’t look like summer was over, not with all the flowers still blooming!

End of Summer Garden

The marigolds, in particular, seemed to be doing exceptionally well.

Red House Marigolds

But there were an incredible amount of weeds in the garden which I tried to pull up, along with branches that had fallen during the storm, so I started tossing everything into the wheelbarrow.

Once I got through most of the weeds (really, no garden is ever totally weed-free), I was able to find a few eggplants, hanging.

Also hiding underneath some thick vines, I discovered two acorn squash which I promptly picked, a single jalapeno, yellow squash and quite a few green tomatoes. I picked the tomatoes only because I knew if I didn’t, they would be gone by the morning.

What They Left Me

I, in turn, left the critters (that would be the deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and the occasional raccoon), a pile of what I thought were perfectly edible (for them, not us) yellow cucumbers, but not a single animal touched my artistically arranged pile the entire weekend!

What I Left Them!

I still have tons of basil, lots of celery, and a few leeks.  I’m going to pick the basil and make batches of pesto.

The celery, I ended up cutting as many stalks as I could transport home, figuring I could toss them into salad (namely chicken or tuna), in batches of homemade chicken soup, and if I got really ambitious, into some sort of stuffing for a roasted chicken.

Definitely Not Supermarket Celery

And because I absolutely LOVE LEEKS, they will get their very own story, in addition to my doubling (or even tripling) the amount I plant at the Red House garden next year.

First Time Growing Leeks!

When we started the garden and planted asparagus and green beans, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, some leeks, and yellow and green squash, too, neighbors repeatedly told us that even if anything did grow, the critters (namely deer, chipmunks and squirrels) would eat it. I didn’t want to negate what they were saying, but realized they might be right when I looked at our tomato plants and thought they looked like well, a tad clipped.  In fact, it looked as though some sort of animal had taken to biting off all the good parts, namely the flowering part, without leaving us humans with anything to eat.

I, however, wasn’t going to give up. Working on the theory that sometimes if you just keep pruning it will eventually grow back, I did just that.  Unfortunately, the tomatoes weren’t the only vegetable the animals seemed to like;  the green beans that usually grew so abundantly everywhere else, were shriveled and tiny and didn’t bear any resemblance to the healthy plants I knew.  The eggplant in particular seemed to be suffering from some sort of bug infestation with all the leaves chewed in various places.

I kept watering and looked at the abundant sunshine and hoped for the best.  The good news is that what I’m left with looks very pretty.

Like this single green baby zucchini that I can imagine selling for $7.99 a pound at a Greenmarket in Manhattan, and the zucchini blossoms stuffed and fried and served on a plate at Eataly.

Then there’s the  single, slightly dark jalapeno, that no animal has claimed.

The Lonely Jalapeno

And a nice crop of basil and celery, too.

Celery

My biggest discovery working with a garden this size are the weeds.  They are prolific, constant and truthfully add some charm to the plot.  I don’t want to admire them so much that they become an integral part of the landscape, similar to the overgrown acreage of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut, with only the bare minimum being plowed and plucked, but it is fairly tempting to go that route.  Ironically these weeds, since they originated from the hay we lay down to purposely keep the weeds at bay, have very pretty yellow flowers.

Pretty Yellow Weeds

These “flowers” are not to be confused with everything else I’ve got going, interspersed as they are between the vegetable beds.

Lovely Flowers

More Lovely Flowers

And Again...

I also have the beginnings of a very long cucumber vine, with a lone and chunky cucumber hanging off.  I know he just wants to be a pickle already.  I mean look at him, he already looks like a pickle!

So even though the few tomatoes that I have are still green.

Tiny Green Tomatoes

And my eggplant looks like it’s been attacked, I do have the beginnings of some lovely strawberries and asparagus.

Iffy Eggplant

The Beginnings of Strawberry Fields?

I Love Asparagus

My leeks, unfortunately, look like they’ve battered by a windstorm, or maybe I just stepped on them by mistake!

The Leeks

While my chives prefer to hang out in a pot filled with pansies!

Pansies and Leeks In An Old Barrel

So even though some of my plants are being stubborn or eaten by the animals, like my green beans for example…

No Jack And The Bean Stalk Here!

I, at least, have newly painted chairs (red, of course!) to sit and watch everything grow….

But not until all my work is done.

These Are Real Wood, Painted Red