Urban Thai Garden

It's still hot down here in Georgia and Florida. This week I was able to experience an urban Thai veggie garden in Gainesville, Florida. My sister-in-law Puki (or Pooki) has a beautiful little garden on the patio outside their apartment.

This is half of it. The little tree on the left is a lime tree. She uses the leaves to cook with and they smell wonderful. She says the fruit isn't very tasty, not like the limes we know, but is better used to make her hair shiny. Then she has some basils and mints in pots (in the center), lemon grass seen in the back corner, and the larger bushy thing is a "snake loofa". She would use the snake loofa fruits in her cooking but didn't have any large enough, so she cut the tendrils and cooked them instead.

She also has (in the other half not seen to the right) tomatoes, three or four kinds of peppers, aloe, and a couple of experimental plants. She is extremely inventive with her containers...across the back are old drawers she found, filled with soil, and planted cilantro and "thai morning glory".

This are the limes.

This is the drawer full of "thai morning glory". She cuts them off when they are about a foot tall (as seen here) and then they send new leaves up for the next cutting. Sort of like we do with our spinach.

She took the snake loofa tendrils and the thai morning glory shoots and put them in a wok with a little water and steamed them lightly so they still had a little crunch. Then she made a delicious concoction (not sure what all was in it) as a sauce. It was super tasty.

This is Puki at work in her kitchen. She will probly kill me for posting this photo, but I think she is beautiful even while cooking!

I have to say that she has a good green thumb as well as being a great chef too. Her little garden is beautiful and inspiring. I think I'll ask for some seed for these to do some of my own thai cooking! Thanks Puki!!