Eating My Garden: Beetle-Mania

July 10, 2011

Beetle-Mania

Has it really come to this? Am I truly at war with the wretched flea beetle?

You may have read the earlier post in which I happily blogged about planting tomatillos and my raised expectations for this summer's salsas. That was then, when I was still blissfully ignorant of the amazingly destructive powers of one tiny insect, or, to be accurate, an onslaught of these tiny creatures.

All four tomatillo plants were growing well, but many of their leaves were displaying a pinhole effect, as if they were being repeatedly poked with a needle. So I took a few damaged leaves to the local nursery, where the nurseryman and I consulted his really big book of bugs. We found the source of the trouble right away--the flea beetle.

The bug book advised poisons as the remedy, which was a non-starter. Fully committed to organic methods, I picked up some marigolds to plant in the immediate tomatillo vicinity. I also grabbed a bag of live lady bugs to release into the yard that evening, in the hope that the trustworthy ladybug beetles would be willing to dine out on their smaller, opportunistic cousins. My third strategy was more reconnaissance. When were the flea beetles attacking and what did my enemy look like?

All of which explains why Dennis and I found ourselves in the yard on a recent Friday evening engaged in a search and destroy mission. Flea beetles are very tiny, about the same size as the fleas who live on household pets, and they jump just as fleas do, both of which make them nearly impossible to stop.

So, again, has it really come to this? Am I truly spending the waning daylight of my summer days hunting for tiny brown bugs, so I can smash them between my thumb and forefinger? But what's the alternative. Apply poisons? Being sort of organic is like being sort of pregnant. You can't have it both ways and turn to pesticides when the pest is an especially crafty one.

So Dennis and I fight on, picking off flea beetles one by one, motivated by visions of tortilla chips and green tomatillo salsa, served with a margarita, in the waning daylight of a summer day.

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Preface

Following a diagnosis of breast cancer in October 2007, I launched a blog that chronicled the ups and downs of illness and treatment. The readers of that blog (http://merelyadetour.blogspot.com/) accompanied me as I conducted medical research, dealt with hair loss, talked to doctors, and generally slogged through the day-to-day experience of being a breast cancer patient. Hopefully, the readers of the first blog found it to be informative, occasionally smile-inducing, and worthy of their attention. Once my medical sidetrip wound down and I regained my strength, I imagined I might have a new perspective, but did I? Still unsure where my detour had left me, I returned to the familiar, like my job as a legal investigator, but I also tried some new approaches, like supplementing my interest in cooking with growing as much organic produce in our yard as possible. Admittedly, this blog has sputtered at times, but it still inches forward, just like the tiny green worms who are eating my garden, one basil leaf at a time.

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. of tomatillos, husked and washed
2 jalapeno chilies, stemmed and seeded
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 medium onion
handful of cilantro
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Roughly chop the tomatillos and the jalapenos and place in a blender or food processor with the water. Pulse a few times until the mixture is chunky. Add the onion, cilantro and the salt and puree until no more large chunks remain.

This salsa stands up on its own to chips or tacos, or you can add some avocado and lime juice to this mix to achieve a smoother, tangy salsa. The base recipe is from Mesa Mexicana by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.

Eating My Garden