There have been alot of double rainbow sightings lately. This particular full-on double rainbow sighting happened in the produce aisle at Fiesta Farms where Grow for the Stop vegetables have finally arrived.

Grow for the Stop veggies aren’t just special because of their incredible (so intense!) hues and (so bright, so vivid) flavours. When you buy them, ten percent of what you pay goes to The Stop to help ensure quality produce is available to those in need in Toronto.

That’s a full-on, all the way, win-win for everyone.

Rainbow carrots, rainbow beets, as well as Japanese cucumbers and Salad turnips from The New Farm’s organic farm, are in the store and ripe for the taking.

If you haven’t seen  the original, wildly viral, Double Rainbow video that inspired our own version, check out the full on video below.

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2. All Hail the New Mayor of Fiesta Farms!
3. Stop for Food Chefs ♥ Fiesta Farms

The more the merrier when it comes to tulips, large clumps work best.

1. If planting daffodils, get them planted early. The sooner you get your bulbs in the ground the sooner they will start to make roots and get growing for next spring. Daffodils need more time to make roots than tulips, in fact you can still plant tulips until the ground freezes

2. Squirrels love to eat freshly planted bulbs and especially love tulips and crocuses. Remedies against squirrels include using cayenne pepper and chicken wire over where you’ve planted. But cayenne washes off in the rain, and some squirrels are not deterred anyway. Chicken wire can be annoying to use. I find the simplest way to foil the critters is to use a physical barrier. I collect flat rocks and cover the areas where you have planted to stop the squirrels from digging them up. It also helps you remember where you planted them. You can always move them slightly out of the way in the spring when they start to come up.

3. Cover freshly dug soil. You never want to have a spot in your garden that looks smooth and freshly bare. It’s a like putting out a neon sign for squirrels saying: “Bulbs Here, Come & Get It”. Disguise your work as much as possible with mulch, leaves, rocks.

4. Add bulb food and/or bone meal with soil underneath bulb when you plant to give bulbs some extra nutrients to keep them going.

5. Water your bulbs, make sure they are well watered before frost. If winter is dry, and above zero for a prolonged period during winter, water again.

6. Plant in large groups, rather than singly. Dig large hole and put tulips of same type close together, in uneven amounts, like 7, 9, 11. They make a much better show this way.

7. Plant very early and very late varieties to have your bulb show last a long time. Especially nice are very early bloomers like species crocus and snowdrops. Great thing about these is that they multiply over time, and snowdrops might even bloom in February. Try growing some blue scillas in your lawn, eventually you’ll have a whole swath of bright blue—a feast for the eyes. I know I really appreciate having something bloom in March, makes me believe winter is ending soon. Plant alliums which bloom later and really extend your season.

Fiesta has many varieties of bulbs in stock right now, so check them out next time you are at the garden centre.

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2. 5 Tips for Success Growing Plants in Containers
3. Ironweed — Purple Glory

This cake is all about different coloured plums. You can of course make it with all purple or all yellow if you want to be boring as hell. But honestly, if you care at all about beauty and colour and magic you will use a big jumble of different colours.

I did just that and then went and ruined the damn thing by tossing some blueberries and raspberries in with the plums and they stained the whole cake red. It still tasted incredible though, the pink flamingo asked for seconds.

Learn from my stupidity, never be nonchalant with a Stained Glass Cake. Follow the recipe and you will be rewarded.

Stained Glass Cake  or Plum Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup sugar, divided

3 Tbsp orange juice, or if you’re feeling wild use Triple Sec

2 each of green, yellow and red-skinned plums, halved & pitted

3/4 cup all-purpose flouor

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1 Tbsp butter, melted

1 tsp grated orange rind

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large egg yolks

4 large egg whites

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup sugar and orange juice, cook until sugar dissolves.
3. Remove from heat arrange plum halves, cut sides up in skillet.
4. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl. Add milk, 1 Tbsp melted butter, orange zest, vanilla & yolks. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
5. Beat egg whites at high speed of mixture until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Gently stire 1/4th of egg white mixture into batter, once incorporated gently fold in remaining egg white mixture.
7. Pour batter over skillet and spread evenly over plums. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool in skillet 5 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of skillet and invert cake onto plate.
9. Cue celestial music and serve 8 heavenly slices to your beatific guests.

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Herb gardens are going crazy all over town and we want you to make use of that bounty in every meal. Here we present a series of recipes and ideas for putting all those delicious plants to good use.

With an aroma that fills the yard when you brush against it, lemon thyme, is the most deliciously fragrant herb in the garden. It’s lemony grassy scent is so refreshing and subtle one is tempted to turn it into a perfume.

This herb grows up nice and bushy, it suits hanging planters perfectly but can spill out of a terra cotta pot on the ground just as easily too. Thymol, an essential oil found in thyme, is the main active ingredient in Listerine mouthwash.

The leaves just need to be stripped from the stem, no chopping required, before adding to salads, soups, egg dishes and especially pastas.

Lemon thyme is the perfect finishing touch to a simple macaroni & cheese or spaghetti and meatballs but my favourite pasta dish of all time would not be complete without this herb.

This dish, made famous at Kingston’s popular Chez Piggy restaurant, has only six ingredients and is moronically simple to throw together.

Don’t let it’s simplicity fool you, the end result is greater than the sum of its parts. Want to impress the in-laws? Cooking for your lady friend for the first time? Just walked out of a cave into the bright lights of the modern world never having cooked anything in your entire life?

This is the recipe for you.

Linguine with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, rehydrated in water & chopped

1 1/2 cups 35% cream

1/2 cup brandy

3 Tbsp butter, chilled & chopped

1 lb. linguine cooked & drained

fresh lemon thyme leaves

Steps

1. Mix tomatoes, cream and brandy in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
2. Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced by half.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in butter just before serving.
4. Toss with hot pasta and garnish with a sprinking of fresh lemon thyme leaves.

Related posts:

1. Herbs — Dill
2. Herbs — Mint
3. Herbs — Fresh Coriander

September 4-10th, 2010

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1. August 28– September 3, 2010

A large container with verbena, pelargonium and as a dramatic touch, a fuzzy foliage specimen.

1. Soil & Mulch. It’s best to use a professional potting mix rather than actual soil—never use soil right out of the garden. The lighter professional potting mixes give excellent root stability and allow for lots of air around growing roots. Promix is a good variety, but there are other mixes that contain perlite for drainage and some peat. Once planted, mulch the soil on top of the pots to conserve moisture, about an inch will do. If soil becomes bone dry it stresses plants out—especially on a very hot, sunny day. Stick your finger through the mulch to see how wet the soil is to know when to water.

2. Use the biggest pots available. From a practical standpoint, the bigger the better when it comes to containers. Large pots dry out more slowly and keep roots cooler, so less stress on the plants. Bigger pots make watering less of an issue: No matter how cute a series of small terra cotta pots look on a windowsill, unless you are prepared to stand there with a hose on the hottest days, it’s often a  death sentence for plants. (Unless they are succulents and cactus.) Make sure all pots have holes for water drainage, by the way.

3. Position your pots close to a hose, or have a big watering can. It sounds ridiculously obvious, but more plants have died because the owner was too busy to run and get a hose coiled up way at the end of the garden. With a conveniently placed hose, watering can be done in a matter of minutes, on your way to somewhere else. Mine often call to me as I’m walking to the car, and I can quickly squirt some water at them. It’s quick and easy. Your success increases by making it as easy as possible for yourself to do the Do Things. Get a large size watering can if you don’t have a hose nearby, not too big that your arms are falling off, but not too small either, so you don’t have to make so many trips.

Sample of the interesting shapes and colours of pots available, these are from Fiesta Gardens.

4. Choose drought hardy plants. As far as flowers, geraniums (technically Pelargoniums) are the old standby, they can take a lot of heat and drought. There are some great new hybrids out now, with interesting leaf variegation and shapes. Some are snobby about geraniums, thinking them too common, but I love them. (I always think of the lovely effect of a single pot of geraniums on a window sill in Paris.) Casading geraniums are particularly drought tolerant. Other drought hardy annuals are verbena, nasturtium, portulaca, cosmos, scaveola, cleome, and butterly-attracting lantana. Petunias can withstand a bit of drought, but if they are let dry out too many times, they will suffer. You can grow perennials, like sedum, in pots as well, but the flowering season is shorter. You can mix edibles and flowers in a container, but make sure they all have the same level of drought tolerance.

5. Fertilize and rejuvenate. Every two weeks, give your containers an addition of organic fertilizer, like fish or seaweed fertilizer that you mix with water. Rejuvenate means cutting plants back part way through the season when they start to look leggy, like petunias, or violas. Also, many plants need deadheading: taking off the old flowers to clean the plant, and also to stop it from making seeds. You want plant energy to go to flowers, not making seeds. New growth will be spurred and your container will have a new lease on life. If anything looks bedraggled, you can pull it out and pop in a small pot of something new and fresh. Fiesta Gardens has plant material right through the season, so check there for refills.

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Fiesta Farms has a new Mayor! Didn’t know that our little grocery store had an official head of state?

If this notion is confusing to you, you might not be using Foursquare. Foursquare is a free  GPS based service you can access on your iphone, blackberry or smartphone. It’s under a year old in Toronto, so don’t feel like a newbie.

Once you sign up for a Foursquare account, you can use your mobile device to “check in” at various locations across the city and share your local travels + tips with your online network of friends.

If a person checks in more than anyone else over a period of 60 days, they are crowned the “Mayor” of that location. And that’s exactly what happened when Andrea Chiu last checked in at Fiesta Farms. Andrea runs a food blog and podcast at Tongue + Cheek and is a loyal Fiesta Farms customer.

Not only did her loyalty get her the Mayorship on Foursquare, but  the staff of Fiesta Farms were proud to fete her as well.

Foursquare does more than make you look busy and well-travelled. So how can you use Foursquare at your favourite grocery store? Using Foursquare at Fiesta Farms will allow you to share tips with your network. Here are a few ideas how:

• Tell your network about a favourite product you found on our shelves
• Know we’ve got the best deal on something? Let your friends know too (that’s what friends are for)
• Is there one aisle not to be missed?
• Shout out to your favourite Fiesta Farms employee who makes your visit brighter
• Recommend another stop in the neighbourhood

Foursquare curious? Here are a few resources to check out before you check in. Have a peek at Getting Started with Foursquare for Dummies and Mashable’s tips for getting the most out of Foursquare.

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1. Stop for Food Chefs ♥ Fiesta Farms
2. Stop for Food Chefs ♥ Fiesta Farms
3. The Heart & Soul of Fiesta Farms

Succulent filled pots and concrete forms add interest to this window sill.

1. They make your garden bigger: Growing plants in containers is a great way to expand your garden space. Pots can go anywhere: on pavement, a window sill, a deck, up a flight of steps.

2. Allows you to control the soil your plants grow in. Your garden soil may not be the greatest but when you plant in a pot, you control the soil and can provide excellent growing conditions that the soil in your garden may not have. My garden is sandy and full of tree roots. My pots give me a dream garden of rich soil.

A large planter with a sculptural plant makes a statement in a side entranceway.

3. Adds to your garden design by creating structure: Get the biggest pots you can afford and make it a statement, they can really add to your garden design.  Pot design has come a long way, and you don’t have to choose between plastic and terra cotta.There are so many interesting shapes and materials. New types look like cement or terra cotta but are winter hardy, a huge bonus, as terra cotta pots will crack in a winter freeze.

4. Adds vertical space to your garden. Use the wall to attach pots to the wall, increasing the space you have for gardening. Foliage cascading from pots always gives a lush feel.

5. Takes advantage of your sunny spots. You might have a shady front yard, but a sunny spot along the side of your house, a great place to put a large pot filled with flowers, foliage or even vegetables. There’s nothing like having a walk through your garden and being able to pluck a fresh tomato out of a pot.

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Top chefs from around Canada converged on Toronto recently to duke it out for best grilled cheese. Chef Paul Olgarski from Rouge in Calgary, Melissa Craig from the Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler, Corbin Tomaszeski from Toronto’s Holt Renfrew Cafe and Michael Howell from Tempest in Nova Scotia.

This is a dish that doesn’t get the spotlight very often, an easy standby for lunch.

Two pieces of bread, some  cheese, butter and a hot pan. Simple right? Think again.

You’ll never settle for that again after you try the award-winning recipe from Chef Michael Howell.

This might seem like a daunting recipe but each component is quick and easy to whip up and the end result will make you swoon.

Panini Toscano

By Chef Michael Howell

Ingredients:

1 fresh ciabatta bun, about 5“ (12cm) square

1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon aioli

1 ripe fig cut into 4–5 slices

2 slices of Parma prosciutto thinly shaved

2 slices 1 oz (30g) each Canadian Havarti cheese, 1/8“ (2mm ) thick

1 oz (30g) fresh baby arugula

½ roasted red pepper, peeled & cut into ¾“ (2 cm) slices

1 tbsp (15 mL) balsamic vinaigrette

Lemon Aioli Ingredients

¼ cup (60 mL) prepared olive oil mayonnaise

Juice and zest from ½ a lemon

1 clove garlic

Balsamic Vinaigrette Ingredients

1 tsp (5 ml) balsamic vinegar

Pinch of salt and pepper

½ tsp (2 mL) Dijon mustard

Pinch of sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

¼ cup (60 mL) extra virgin olive oil

Preparation & Cooking

1. 1. Mix aioli ingredients together and let flavours mingle for ½ an hour.
2. 2. Split the fresh ciabatta in ½ and brush both sides liberally with the lemon aioli.
3. 3. Layer one slice of havarti cheese on the bottom of the bun, then top with the sliced figs, prosciutto, couple sprigs of arugula and finish with other slice of cheese.
4. 4. Top with the other side of the bun, place in a pre-heated panini press and grill until cheese is melting and bread is lightly marked.
5. 5. If using a grill or barbeque, place a weight on top of sandwich and flip halfway through cooking.
6. 6. While sandwich is grilling, make vinaigrette by combining first five ingredients in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in oil until incorporated.
7. 7. In other small bowl, dress arugula with 1 tbsp of vinaigrette and place on a plate.
8. 8. Toss two slices of red pepper in same bowl to dress lightly and place on top of salad.
9. 9. When sandwich is ready, remove from press and split in ½ diagonally.
10. 10. Place around salad and serve immediately.
11. 11. Lightly brush the bun on both sides with extra virgin olive oil and If using a grill or bbq place a weight on top of sandwich and flip ½ way through cooking.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

Suggestions & tips: You could also use Canadian Provolone or smoked Mozzarella to replace Havarti

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Energy 654 Cal.

Protein 32 g

Carbohydrate 51 g

Fat 37 g

Fibre 5.1 g

Sodium 1542 mg

Calcium 591 mg

Cheese lovers across Canada can receive a free copy of the ‘All You Need Is Cheese’ magazine with an array of grilled cheese recipes (including the recipes featured at the Grate Canadian Grilled Cheese Cook-Off) and tips for making the perfect grilled cheese by visiting www.allyouneedischeese.ca/grilledcheese.

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