Everyone who works with me loves our Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits. Our meal-kit delivery service is full of delicious, wholesome dishes that can be on the table in 40-minutes.
Every week, I order several Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits to enjoy at my farm. If I am away traveling for business, I like to ask members of my team to take various dishes home to try. Over the weekend, while I was away at this year's Big Game, my operations manager, Stephanie Lofaro, tried the Spanakopita Stuffed Peppers with Quinoa, Pine Nuts, and Melted Fontina. She found it flavorful and easy-to-prepare. And, as always, all the ingredients are pre-measured, pre-packaged, and included with the meal. All she needed to provide was olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Our Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits are great. All the ingredients are sourced to local quality purveyors and growers – just choose the dishes the week before, and pick the day of delivery – it’s that easy!
Stephanie quickly glances over the menu car and the easy-to-read step-by-step instructions.
Quinoa is a gluten-free, whole-grain carbohydrate and whole protein. If you are unfamiliar with quinoa, it is made of the seeds from the Chenopodium quinoa plant and provides many vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B and magnesium. The first step is to combine the quinoa with some water and bring it to a boil. The quinoa will cook for about 15-minutes until it tender and all the water is absorbed.
Meanwhile, Stephanie prepares the peppers. She halves them and discards all the stems and seeds.
Then, she places them all on a rimmed baking sheet and rubs them with olive oil. They are then seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and placed on the top rack to broil until tender – about 12 minutes.
Half way through, the peppers are flipped.
While the pepper continue cooking, Stephanie finely chops the shallot that’s included with the kit. It’s so convenient to have all the ingredients included, so there is no need to shop.
She also chops the dill fronds and stems.
Here’s Stephanie after finishing the mis en place – a French culinary phrase which means “putting in place” or “gather” all the ingredients required before cooking.
Pine nuts are also very nutritious. They’re about a 1/2 inch long. When raw, the seeds have a soft texture and a sweet, buttery flavor. They are also called piñón, pinoli, pignoli, bondoq or chilgoza. This recipe calls for one-ounce of pine nuts.
The pine nuts are placed into a skillet without oil and toasted lightly until they are slightly golden and fragrant. Once they’re cooked, they’re removed from the pan and put aside.
Here are the cooked peppers – perfectly browned around the edges.
Next, the shallots and spinach are cooked over medium heat in the same skillet with two tablespoons olive oil.
Once the spinach is wilted, she adds the vinegar and removes from the heat.
She adds the quinoa, dill and pine nuts to the pan and mixes them together.
Then she crumbles the feta cheese – also included with the meal kit and tosses to combine.
She fills all the broiled peppers with the spinach-quinoa mix – there’s enough to generously fill the pepper halves.
These meal kits can be ordered for two or four servings – and each is enough to satisfy even the hungriest of eaters.
Finally, Fontina cheese is sprinkled on top and placed back into the oven to melt.
Here’s Stephanie’s dining room table – she purchased it from my Great American Tag Sale last year. It used to belong to my mother, Big Martha.
And here it is – perfectly cooked just like the photo on the large recipe card. It was so delicious. Stephanie says it’s one to definitely make again. For tasty, fun, and easy-to-cook meals, be sure to try Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon. You and everyone in your family will love them!
One of the many tasks we complete this time of year is the pruning of my rose bushes. Proper pruning improves the health of the plants, prevents disease, and encourages better flowering.
There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to control the plant's shape, to keep the bush fresh and open, and to allow for better air circulation. This week my gardener, Brian O'Kelly, has been busy pruning the rose bushes on the perimeter of my flower garden. I have grown roses for more than 30-years. Many of the rose varieties I've purchased are highly prized for their petal formations and fragrances, so proper maintenance is very important to keeping them healthy and productive.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
During summer, my flower cutting garden is full of roses. Many of the rose cultivars growing at my Bedford, New York farm were transplanted from the gardens at Lily Pond, my former home in East Hampton. I also have various David Austin roses – all highly prized for their lovely petal formations and beautiful fragrances. This photo was taken in mid-June.
Most of the roses in this garden grow along all four sides of my garden fence.
Many of the roses are old fashioned and antique varieties. They include: ‘Alchymist’, ‘Boule de Neige’, ‘Cardinal de Richelieu’, ‘Charles de Mills’, ‘Constance Spry’, ‘Dainty Bess’, ‘Pierre de Ronsard’, ‘Ferdinand Pichard’, Konigin von Danemark’, Louise Odier’, Madame Alfred Carriere’, ‘the Reeve’, ‘Pearlie Mae’, and ‘Sweet Juliet’.
These roses look fuller every year – in part because of regular pruning. We regularly prune all the roses and cut any superfluous branches or shoots for better flowering and good health. A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They come in many different colors, such as pink, peach, white, red, magenta, yellow, copper, vermilion, purple, and apricot.
Here is what they look like just before any of the pruning begins.
Brian starts on one side and works his way around over the course of a few days. In general, pruning is done before the plant breaks dormancy. This will be early in the year in warm climates, and anytime between January and April in cold climates. Every few minutes, he stops to evaluate the work he has done and to make sure he hasn’t missed anything that needs more trimming.
Brian cuts out any of the “three Ds” – dead, damaged, or diseased branches first.
Cutting away the dead wood first helps to see the shape of the plant without distraction.
Dead wood is typically brown in color, so it is very easy to identify.
Live, healthy wood is always bright green.
Rose stems are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
This rose has different sized prickles along its stems – they vary according to variety. And, while most roses have prickles, there are actually some that don’t have any at all.
Here, Brian shows where the cut should be made – always just above a bud eye. The “bud eye” refers to the area on the stem where branching occurs.
This is a rose hip or rosehip, also called rose haw and rose hep. It is the accessory fruit, the seed pod, of the various species of rose plant. It is typically red to orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips remain on the plant after the rose blooms fade. Rose hips are actually edible and many birds enjoy them. They also make great jellies, sauces, syrups, soups and seasoning, and even fruit leather.
Brian also looks at the overall shape of the plants. Here he is working on the top of one of the older climbers. Climbers take some dedicated work, but the end result is always so satisfying.
This is one of the older canes of the plant – quite thick, but still very strong and healthy.
Newer growth is green. This is also from the same rose plant.
And look how long it is, climbing and holding tight to the fence.
With the mild weather we’ve had this year, there are even some leaves on a couple of the branches.
Here one can see how pruning improves the shape of the bush. This one is well shaped in height and width.
Of course, all the cuttings are collected and taken to the pile for chipping.
There are still lots to do, but they’re all looking great. I am so proud of how well we maintain all our roses here at the farm. The basics of rose pruning are not difficult to learn, and the process triggers new buds to push at the base so that new vigorous canes can form. I can’t wait to see them all in bloom again come spring.
Be sure to tune in to The Roku Channel today to see my latest episode when I demonstrate the best ways to collect, store, and sow seeds. You can stream "Martha Gardens" for free on The Roku Channel.
We start sowing seeds indoors soon after the New Year. We sow thousands of seeds - all those wonderful seeds I enjoy purchasing during my travels, and seeds we order from our favorite sources. Many of this year's seeds, seed trays, and other supplies are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in central Maine - a company I’ve been using for quite some time. Starting from seed isn’t difficult. They can be planted closely together in seed starting trays, and then pulled apart easily when they're ready to move into larger pots or outdoors.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Here at my farm, we keep all our seed packets in plastic envelopes, and plastic bins – all are labeled and filed for easy reference. Mason jars with tight-fitting lids, or glass canisters with gasket-type lids also work. Humidity and warmth shorten a seed’s shelf life, so we store the organized seed packets in a greenhouse refrigerator.
Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a privately held, employee-owned organic seed producer. Johnny’s offers hundreds of varieties of organic vegetable, herb, flower, fruit and farm seeds that are known to be strong, dependable growers.
When buying or ordering seeds, be sure to read the hardiness of a plant. And know your hardiness zone, so you can select the right seeds for your area. Here in Bedford, we are zone-6b. It is easy to look it up online. Here, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, writes the seed variety on markers, so he’s ready to place it in the trays after planting the seeds. It’s also helpful to put the date of planting on the back. Ryan determines what order they will be started in trays depending on how long it takes each plant to germinate.
Ryan chooses all the necessary seed starting trays. These can be saved from year to year, so don’t throw them away after the season. Seed starting trays are available in all sizes and formations.
Select the right kind of tray based on the size of the seeds. The containers should be at least two-inches deep and have adequate drainage holes.
It’s best to use a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. Seed starting mixes are available at garden supply stores.
When possible, prepare several trays in an assembly-line fashion, and then drop all the seeds. Doing this saves time and simplifies the process.
Ryan spreads the soil mix across the seed trays completely and evenly, filling all the cells of each tray.
Each of these trays has 128 cells – perfect for planting small individual seeds.
Here is a packet of seeds with its corresponding marker.
This hybrid Kelvin celery is a farmer’s favorite. It performs well under heat and moisture and grows thick and juicy with dark green stalks. I love celery and use it every day in my green juice.
Ryan drops one to three seeds into each cell. It’s always a good idea to keep a record of when seeds are sown, when they germinate, and when they are transplanted. These observations will help organize a schedule for the following year.
These seeds are pelleted. Each seed is coated with a layer of clay to increase its size for easier handling.
Next, Ryan covers the tray with a layer of vermiculite. Vermiculite is a mica-like mineral often used as a soil amendment. It is mined out of the ground, exfoliated, treated with high heat and pressure to force it to expand. The porous surface is great for retaining moisture and nutrients.
Here is a tray marked for herbs. Using his fingers, Ryan makes a hole in each cell, and then drops seeds into each one.
Seeds are small, so be very careful when pouring them out of the packet. These are sage seeds, Salvia officinalis, an aromatic herb of the mint family.
Again, Ryan begins to drop the seeds evenly into each compartment.
Look closely and one can see the seeds in the cell. These seeds will be selectively thinned in a few weeks. The process eliminates the weaker sprout and prevents overcrowding, so seedlings don’t have any competition for soil nutrients or room to mature.
Next, Ryan covers the seeds by leveling the soil and filling the holes back in with the medium.
This tray is also covered with a layer of vermiculate. Fortunately, my greenhouse is large and can accommodate lots of seed starting.
Ryan places the trays in our Urban Cultivator growing system – it has water, temperature and humidity all set-up in this refrigerator like unit. And then it’s back to seeding more trays – there are a lots and lots of seeds to plant. Seeds are usually started about two months before the last frost – we will be planting seeds well into March. Learn more about seed starting on “Martha Gardens” streaming free on The Roku Channel.
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