Grow Your Own: The Farmer’s Market Vodka Garden
The clever people at Log House Plants have put together a collection of plants that blend oh-so-well with vodka-based cocktails. They’re a wholesale nursery, so they’re growing the plants for sale at retail garden centers and gourmet grocery stores on the West Coast. Look for them in your local indie garden center/grocery store, or order them online from the Territorial Seed Company, who has joined in this effort and put together a great collection of cocktail-friendly plants and seeds. We called this first collection The Farmers Market Vodka Garden, because vodka can be made...
Read MoreTomato
The tomato to grow in a cocktail garden, in my opinion, is a small and flavorful cherry tomato that you can muddle into a drink and also use a garnish. Cherry tomatoes also happen to be a little bit more tolerant of cooler temperatures, and they do better in containers and hanging baskets. You’ll be seeing more and more grafted tomatoes in garden centers this year, and if you haven’t tried one yet, I highly recommend that you do. The idea behind grafted vegetables is that a flavorful but somewhat finicky tomato can be grafted onto a sturdier tomato rootstock to help it resist disease and...
Read MoreMamani Gin & Tonic
1.5 oz gin 2-3 fresh jalapeño slices (or, if you prefer, a milder pepper), seeds removed 2-3 sprigs cilantro or basil 2-3 chunks cucumber 1 chunk celery stalk 4 oz high-quality tonic water (Fever Tree or Q Tonic) 1-2 cherry tomatoes, along with a basil or cilantro leaf, on a pick for garnish Ice Fill a mason jar, Collins glass, or short tumbler with ice. In between the ice cubes, layer in a slice or two of pepper, a sprig of cilantro or basil, and a cherry tomato. In a cocktail shaker, combine the first five ingredients. Use a muddler or wooden spoon to gently crush the vegetables...
Read MoreThe Farmers Market
1.5 oz vodka (Try Glacier Potato Vodka from Idaho) Gin or tequila would also be lovely in this drink. 2-3 ‘Mexican Sour Gherkin’ cucumbers or regular cucumbers 1-2 stalks ‘Red Venture’ celery 2-3 sprigs cilantro or basil 2-3 slices small spicy or mild peppers 6 cherry tomatoes or 1-2 slices large tomato Dash of Worcestershire sauce (try Annie’s for a vegetarian version) 3-4 oz Q or Fever Tree tonic water Reserve a celery stalk, cherry tomato, or cucumber for garnish. Combine all ingredients excep the tonic water in a cocktail shaker and gently crush the vegetables and...
Read MoreGardeners Who Drink, Drinkers Who Garden
Turns out Martha loves them both. Two of my favorite gardeners-who-drink are featured in Martha Stewart’s March issue: the brilliant Ivette Soler of Germinatrix (also author of a very hot book, The Edible Front Yard), and Marie Viljoen of 66 Square Feet, the Manhattan garden blog through which I live out my New York fantasies. New to me in this issue are Lee Clippard and John Stott of The Grackle. They all offer up their garden-inspired drinks–serviceberry! Lemon verbena! Heirloom tomatoes! –and by the time the issue hits the stands, I will be ready to plant all of...
Read MoreBooks by Amy Stewart
The Drunken Botanist
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