News From Our Vermont Trial Garden: Thinking about Spring

Jay Leshinsky, Garden Advisor/Manager 

Here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont the snow cover has almost totally disappeared and plans for this summer's trial garden are well underway. Ever since the Middlebury College Organic Garden began in 2003 we've been doing seed trials for Renee's Garden. Last night I met with this year's summer garden interns (Shane, Hannah, Max and Sarah) and a group of 5 volunteers to determine how we will run our trials for this year.

When we do trials at the College garden we are sometimes testing new varieties and sometimes growing out our current varieties under different conditions in different parts of the garden. Renee sends us new varieties she is considering for our seed list. We evaluate flowers, herbs and vegetables for germination, early growth, disease and insect resistance, and harvest quality. Vegetables are the most popular to trial because of our taste testing. In past years we trialed Padron Peppers, Baby Persian cucumbers and Crispy Colors Duo Kohlrabi before they were included in the Renee's Garden seed list.

It is always lots of fun for the garden interns and volunteers to taste our trial vegetables right out of the garden as well as to use them in recipes of their own creation. The student's creativity produces some very unique "recipes". Several years ago when we were doing edible flowers trials with nasturtiums I worked with a student who loved the flower's peppery taste so much that she decided to experiment with nasturtium leaves. She would take a nasturtium leaf and spread cream cheese (we are from a dairy state) on it and then roll it up like a wrap. Last summer I worked with a student who made her version of capers by pickling green nasturtium seeds she picked from our trial varieties after the flowers had bloomed out.

We also run trials on some of Renee's Garden herbs and flowers for their effectiveness as pollinator attractors. Over the past four years we worked with some of Professor Helen Young's students to observe which flowers and flowering herbs are attracting native pollinators as well as honey bees. Her students have begun to assemble a list of flowers that are attracting a wide range of pollinators at different times during the growing season.

We plant the flowers at the end of each of our planting beds and during the summer and in the fall Professor Young's students record and identify the pollinators they find in the flowers and herbs. This past summer we grew "Marble Arch" salvia next to "Bridal Veil" nigella and researchers noticed a distinct preference among our pollinators. Throughout the observation period the honey bees busily worked the nigella blossoms, while right next to them the bumble bees were working just as busily in the salvia. It's a wonderful garden benefit to have these students doing research that is so specific to our garden site, and it helps us expand our organic techniques.

"Marble Arch" salvia

"Bridal Veil"  nigella

Use Your Frozen Veggies for a "Warm Up" Soup

Last Christmas season, I was yearning for a short trip to someplace sunny and completely different. My friend Pat Pacheco agreed to join me for a few days in Northern Arizona. We flew to Phoenix, rented a car, and drove to the Sedona area where we were fortunate enough to rent a little place with a kitchen.

We had a wonderful time hiking and exploring and we also did some serious cooking. Pat treated me to her family recipe for homemade chicken and vegetable soup - her family is from Northern Mexico - and she had adopted it from their version. We thought this soup was so good on cold nights after being outdoors all day that we never did make it out to dinner.

The soup combines the flavors of chicken, corn, potatoes and other vegetables in a really satisfying way with lots of color and flavor. Now I've made it three or four times and can share it with confidence. One of the reasons I like this recipe so much is that it's a good way to use frozen vegetables that you have preserved from last summer's garden. If you don't have any of those, it's good way to take advantage of economical flash frozen veggies from the supermarket.

Don't be afraid of using all the garlic and bay leaves this recipe calls for. It seems like a lot, but these seasonings plus the corn and potatoes are what make the soup savory and delicious.

Pat's Scrumptious Chicken and Vegetable Soup

You'll need: One large deep soup pot

2 large onions cut in coarsely cut in large chunks

10 cloves garlic, peeled and cut quarters

8 bay leaves

4 to 5 large carrots, peeled, cut in 1" slices

5 medium to large boiling potatoes, chopped in 1" cubes.

1 nice, plump, 3 1/2 to 5 lb. chicken, washed,
    with liver and excess fat removed

3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 Jalapeno chile, cut in quarters or one dried
   medium hot chile of your choice
1 sixteen to twenty ounce bag of frozen corn kernels
1 sixteen ounce bag of frozen sliced green beans
1 sixteen ounce bag of frozen garden peas
1 cup of chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

Put the onions, garlic, bay leaf, carrots, potatoes, whole chicken, salt and pepper and chile into the deep soup pot in the order given. Add enough water to just cover the chicken. Bring the pot to a boil, then return to a simmer and continue to cook until the chicken is completely done and the drumstick pulls away easily. This usually takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on your stove.

Remove the pot from the stove, and take the chicken out of the soup. Cool slightly, then take off the skin and meat. Chop all the meat into bite-size pieces. Skim off excess fat from soup. Add the chicken back to the soup. Bring back to a boil then add the frozen corn, green beans and peas. Stir well and return pot to a boil. Lower heat and cook gently for another 10 minutes. Add chopped parsley or cilantro. Sample the soup as it may need more salt to match your taste.
Serve hot making sure each diner gets plenty of the veggies and chicken along with the broth. The soup tastes even better the next day!
Makes 8-10 servings or more depending on the size of your appetite.
At home, I freeze the soup in individual portions and look forward to eating it for lunch, especially on long draggy days when I need a little flavorful and rewarding but virtuous comfort food.

Winter Planning In the Trial Garden

-by Lindsay, Trial Garden Manger

Winter is in full force at the Renee’s Garden Trial garden. The weather is cold and the heavy rains continue. This is the time of year when I do a lot of garden planning. I keep a detailed database of all of the trial varieties and I already have about 200 varieties on the list for the 2010 sprng/summer season. Our database helps me to keep an updated inventory of both the seed samples that I have, and what I still need to request from our seed producers.

Renee and I browse a lot of producers offering lists and want to grow everything that catches our eye. But we have to balance that with reality and space constraints. To make a sensible plan, I have to figure out how many feet I need to grow of each variety, and then plot it out on my illustrated maps of the trial garden spaces. This gives me a real sense of how we will use the space, and what I have to work with. The garden mapping is also necessary so that we can rotate our crops appropriately. For example, we do not want to grow tomatoes or any brassicas in the same place year after year because soil diseases may accumulate.

Our garden is in good shape despite the weather. Last fall in the “In the Trial Garden” section of our monthly e-newsletter, we featured the cover crop blend that we sow in all of our empty raised beds. Our soil is extremely sandy and porous, so a good cover crop to protect it and help build organic matter is very important in the winter season . I use is a mix of oat grass, vetch, bell beans and peas. The vetch, beans and peas help by gathering nitrogen into their roots, to benefit the soil. The thick roots of the oat grass hold on to the soil and protect it from erosion. The cover crop is now mature and surviving happily in the cold wet weather. Instead of tilling the cover crop into the soil in spring, we pull the plants and quickly compost them. When the plants have broken down in finished compost, we add it back into the garden to take advantage of all its benefits.

In the beds that were not given over to cover crops, there is still much to feast on at this time of year. Our northern CA trial garden is in USDA Zone 7/8. A cold winter night here is usually no lower than 22-25°F and ground does not freeze hard. Cool weather crops that were sown last fall to overwinter are still standing mature in the ground for us to finish harvesting them: Napa and Green Cabbage, Carrots, 10 different varieties of Lettuce, Spinach, Pak Choy and Kale. There are also Leek, Onion, and Beet seedlings that will mature once the weather starts to warm up in the spring.
We also have many varieties of fall -sown flowers sitting patiently in seedling stage that will start to grow and mature when the weather starts to warm. Sweet Peas look so delicate, yet we have found that they can really tolerate frost when they are small seedlings. There are eight varieties of Poppies that we had direct sown into the garden beds that germinated at the start of the rains. Once they begin to grow vigorously, we will thin out the seedlings to give them adequate room to mature. We are looking forward to this spring when there will be a fabulous show of colorful flowers!

Please -- Complain to Me. Plus Winter Squash Curry Coconut Soup

I was delighted to find Renee's Garden has earned two Dave's Garden "Five Top Garden Badges". Besides many great gardening forums and excellent services, Dave's Garden encourages members to rate garden product websites. Renee's ranks high, but when I read through all the comments about us, I saw that while there were 44 positives, there were 3 negative ones (although not very current as one dated to 2003, because "anything that plays on the web stays on the web").

More to the point: when I read them, I felt so frustrated! One negative complaint was that we had sent the wrong packet with the comment that while she knew companies often substituted items, we had exceeded her tolerance for that. The truth is that our two seed packet order "pickers" had made a mistake and pulled the wrong item. We don't substitute items and would not do so, because if you order something from us, I assume that you want that item, not something else. Errors in orders don't occur very often, but our order pickers are human and, once in a great while, they may mix up packets or omit one.

It is my fervent wish that customers whose orders are incorrect would call us on our toll-free number (1-888-880-7228) or e-mail us (customerservice@reneesgarden.com) as soon as they see the error, so we can properly apologize and replace the packet immediately.

One of the other complaints was of getting crushed seeds with a comment about quality control. We do ship in padded "jiffy packs", but the realities of the Post Office mean that once in a while a packet gets mashed in transit. Once again, if that person had called or e-mailed us, we would have sent them a replacement the same day.

What's hard for me to understand is: why do people with complaints make the time to post the complaint on the Internet without being willing to take the time to contact the company who made the error in the first place?  Very often the order can be corrected and they can get what they wanted and paid for. Moreover, why do people assume that if a mistake happens on their order, it's somehow an indication that as a company we don't care about quality or customer satisfaction?

My company's policy is that we treat our customers in the same way we would want to be treated as a customer -- an extension of the Golden Rule. Perhaps it's a sign of the times, but unfortunately some customers just assume that even small companies like ours don't care about their customers and don't intend to do a good job. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Soup

SOUP OF THE EVENING
Beautiful soup
So rich
 So green,
Waiting in a hot tureen
Who for such dainties would not stoop.

Soup of the evening
Beautiful Soup,
Soup of the evening,
Beautiful Soup
Lewis Carroll -- "Alice in Wonderland"

Lindsay's Winter Squash Curry Coconut Soup

Having lots of winter squash harvested last fall from our trial gardens, Trial Garden Manager Lindsay concocted this lovely soup. She's a very talented cook and often comes up with ways to incorporate her favorite Asian flavors into everyday meals. This is one of my favorites. I've made this recipe 3 different times now and can recommend it heartily. I have happily divided the soup into in lunch-size portions and then frozen it in individual containers. Then I take the individual portions to the office with me and microwave them into hot deliciousness to enjoy on cold afternoons. I particularly like to top each portion with fresh whole plain yogurt and chopped fresh cilantro. Yum.

2 large leeks, each 1 1/2 inches in diameter, long white shank portions only

3 tablespoons canola or other mild cooking oil

1 tablespoon good-quality curry powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 1/2 cups cooked hard-shelled winter squash, seeds and skins removed, flesh mashed

1 13 1/2-ounce can “light” coconut milk

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, divided into1-cup portions

GARNISH: Seeds from one large pomegranate and cilantro

Cut the leeks in half lengthwise. Wash all the layers very well to remove grit, then thinly slice. Heat the oil in a large heavy soup pot. Add the sliced leeks and sauté over medium heat for 5 or 6 minutes until they are well caramelized and beginning to brown. Stir in curry powder, ground cayenne and salt and sauté slowly for another minute or two. Add the cooked squash and entire can of coconut milk and mix in well. Add the chicken stock slowly and then add 1 cup of fresh cilantro. Mix thoroughly to smoothly combine ingredients. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and add more salt if desired. If the soup seems too thick, add a little more chicken stock. Serve piping hot in large individual soup bowls. Sprinkle the top of each serving with the additional cup of cilantro and the pomegranate seeds.

Note: If you prefer a smoother texture, blend the soup in a food processor or blender before serving.

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Season's end - with disappearing melons

Despite an epidemic of late blight in the Northeast this summer, it was a very good season for our trial garden here in Vermont at the Middlebury College Organic Garden…and the season hasn't quite ended yet even though it's early December and we still have no snow cover! Although most of the garden beds are planted with cover crops, our plantings of Lacinato kale and Catalina spinach keep on producing. A nice balance of ample rainfall and sunny days keep them re-growing after each picking. They seem to get sweeter and sweeter with each frost.

Much of the Northeast was devastated by late blight on tomatoes this summer. Lush tomato plants would turn black and die almost overnight. We were spared late blight on our tomatoes -our micro-climate and topography helped a great deal. We are on a south-sloping, windy knoll with well drained (and very stony) sandy loam soil, situated far from any other gardens or farms that grow vegetables. When farms 2 miles away got 3 inches of rain in a few hours, we got 1 inch. Although we did get early blight which affected the lower leaves on our tomato plants, our Sungold cherry tomatoes still produced a fine crop.

It was a fine summer for Endeavor pickling cucumbers. In a year when so many people needed help from the food shelf, our pickling harvest was a favorite at our local food shelf. Some also went to Weybridge House, Middlebury's environmental dorm where the students had a goal of eating locally (food grown within 100 miles of the campus) for the school year. Summer nights were full of the smells and tastes of their preserving efforts. Besides cucumber pickles, favorites were "dilly" beans (using our Slenderette and Rattlesnake green beans), pickled Super Sugar Snap peas and even pickled green cherry tomatoes.

The great mystery of this summer was the "disappearing watermelon". With great anticipation, the interns and I were really looking forward to enjoying our crop of sweet Rainbow Sherbet watermelons. As the melons neared perfect ripeness, they mysteriously started disappearing. We would arrive in the morning to find a melon missing from its spot in the patch and a neatly cut stem as its reminder.

This phenomenon coincided with the return of students to campus for the fall semester. Through the student grapevine, we heard that some students thought these tasty treats were there for students to pick and enjoy whenever they got the urge. So it was watermelon connoisseurs rather than vandals who took the melons!

We got the word out: we would have ripe melon available for each and every student who volunteered to work at the garden. Our volunteer numbers jumped up as we cut up the just picked melons at each day's break time. Those melons were the source lots of smiles and great discussions as we all ate together.

- Jay Leshinsky

Our multi-talented photographer

Do you ever wonder who takes all the pictures featured on the Renee’s Garden Seeds online catalog? With hundreds of trial varieties to shoot, it’s certainly a challenge, but it’s a dream job for our seasoned photographer Karen Bailey, who has worked for Renee’s Garden Seeds for the past five years. She sat down with me one recent sunny fall afternoon to share a little bit about her life and art.

Not only does Karen take great pictures, but she also is a painter and musician who plays the ukulele and the banjo in a Bluegrass/Cajun/Celtic/Jazz/Pop band called Relative Insanity. “We sound a lot like the music from the film ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’,” she says, describing the band which includes her brother-in-law, sister and cousin.

"I never met an instrument I didn’t like, except for the piano. That’s just one I don’t play,” she added. “All I ever wanted to do growing up was to play music with my sister, and now the whole family gets together to jam -- it's great.” Karen's husband Bob is an accomplished amateur luthier who makes the instruments she plays as well as fine custom instruments for other musicians.

Karen graduated from San Jose State with a B.S. in Graphic Design and has been painting for over 30 years. Her first career was as a biological illustrator and her work was published in numerous biology texts and professional journals. Then, in the 1990’s, Karen turned her attention to fine art and plein-air painting and her work appeared in diverse galleries, in both Southern California and as far north as Mendocino, California.

In recent years, she has developed a strong interest in digital photography and has taken a lot of courses in digital effects. This started her in a new direction, combining oil paintings with photography to create mixed media paintings and handmade books.

We're proud that Karen brings these considerable and diverse artistic talents to Renee's Garden as our trial garden and web photographer, enabling her to incorporate a unique artistic aesthetic into her photographic style.

Announcing the 2009 Photo Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 6th Annual Renee's Garden Photo Contest. We received so many beautiful entries and enjoyed seeing them all. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest -- we are sending out your complimentary seed packets this week.
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1st Place Winner: "Super Bush Tomatoes"

-Katie Neumann, Woodland, CA

"I took this photo of one of my Super Bush Tomatoes (GREAT for small space gardening!!). I had just finished watering my garden and was struck by the beauty of this particular tomato. The contrast of colors between the red tomato and green leaves in the early evening light really caught my eye.

The past few years I have enjoyed starting my plants from seed. There is a huge difference in the quality of your plants when you start them from great seeds—my friends, family and even our chickies can attest to that! I always give away my extra plants to friends and family and it has been fun to see them have great success in their own gardens."

Second Place Winner - Asclepias Bright Wings
- Liane Doxey, Brookfield, IL

Liane puts it simply: "This one is a family favorite."

Second Place Runner-Up - The Joy of Sweet Peas
Shirley Ward, Big Sur, CAf

 "Wonderful sweet peas! Chiffon Elegance, Royal Wedding, Regal Robe,Queen of the night, Watermelon, April in Paris, Painted lady, Mary Lou Heald, Zinfandel, and Cupanis Original.

"This is a 60 foot row of fragrant and delicious blossoms."
Shirley is from Esalen Farm and Garden

Kids Contest Winners

JoAnne Wallace, Hershey, PA
These kids know how to cool off: popsicles and the shade provided by an enormous "Trombetta di Albenga" Italian summer squash plant.

Saniya with Trombetta Squash

"We love your seeds and your company.
We have a half acre of edible garden for our restaurant and just ripped out our lawn in our new house to plant the garden where these photos come from. Saniya loves the garden and I love that she eats anything from it.   She spends the day chewing up basil leaves, green coriander seeds and picking cherry tomatoes.  She also loves freshly pulled beets and radishes (I have to remind her that they taste better with the dirt washed off!)."  
-Kelly Majid, Berkeley, CA,
(Their restaurant is Zatar Restaurant in Berkeley, CA)

Click below to view and download the desktop wallpapers made from our winners' pictures.

To add as your desktop wallpaper, click on the image below to get the full-size, right click on the full-sized image and click "set as desktop background."
Desktop Wallpaper - Asclepias Bright Wings  and Super Bush Tomato

Renee's Seeds "do the show" in Chicago

-by Nellie Boonman, RGS Marketing Assistant

A few weeks ago I took the opportunity to venture back to my hometown, Chicago, to work at the Independent Garden Center show at Navy Pier Exposition Center. Renee and I met up with our East Coast sales manager Jay (who also works as our Vermont trial gardener), to set up our booth. The empty, carpeted space would transform into the home for Renee’s Garden Seeds for three busy days.

If you’ve never been to a trade show, just imagine a space the size of 2 or 3 football fields filled with enormous cardboard boxes, tubing, wire and forklifts. Within a matter of hours, the entire place transformed into a wonderland for gardeners, filled with fire-breathing pots, enormous gushing fountains, and all sorts of plants, trees and every kind of garden tool. It's the place to see the latest and greatest in products for the garden, and we saw a lot of people looking like kids in a candy store.

Companies exhibited at the 2009 Independent Garden Center show for several reasons: to talk to their current wholesale customers, to introduce new products, and to find prospective new independent garden center customers. Attending the wholesale-only show were buyers and owners from garden centers and nurseries from all across the country. Because the IGC is specifically targeted to independent garden centers; no discount or "big box stores" enter in the picture. These independent garden center buyers look hard for products (like Renee's Garden seeds) that help differentiate them from their "big-box" competition. Many retailers also brought their families – after all, many independently run garden centers are family-owned so it’s only natural to bring the kids along!

Renee’s Garden showcased several of our handsome Garden Trellis and Garden Gate displays filled with our watercolor seed packets. For seed companies, well-designed and attractive displays are absolutely crucial. Seed packets aren’t like garden hoses – you can’t just stack them on a shelf or expect people to rummage through a bin to find what they want. Buyers, bloggers (like Mr. Brown Thumb and Linda from Garden Girl) and press people stopped at our booth to “shop” our displays and to look at Renee’s new varieties for 2010. They asked questions about our seeds and talked with Renee, who is a wealth of information and suggestions for encouraging and supporting home gardeners.

Being in Chicago also gave us an opportunity to enjoy some great restaurants and the wonderful atmosphere of this exciting city. We also attend several other major garden trade shows across the country during the year - an excellent opportunity to meet our customers and keep abreast of innovations and trends in the garden world.

It's raining Summer Squash in Seattle

-by Sue Shecket, webmaster and NW trial gardener

Now that our reputation for cool wet summers and grey skies has been ruined, I'm happy to report that this sunny warm Seattle summer has provided me with an excellent tan and a bumper crop of heat loving veggies. Of course my bounty has been shared with my neighbors and friends, but at a certain point, they start to hide behind the curtains when I'm spotted roaming the street with another bag of summer squash.

Fortunately, Renee has a wealth of ideas for coping with an excess of those little darlings, and provided me with an easy, quick way to make a huge pile of summer squash into a delicious (and reasonably sized) dish that is a great meal in itself. We've been happily eating this all week, and have yet to tire of Oven Baked Squash with Cheese. Here's how to do it:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (this is important!)

-Slice summer squash (zucchini, crookneck and/or scalloped) into 1/2 inch thick slices

-Spread in one layer in a large roasting pan and toss to coat with olive oil

(they will shrink a lot, so you can crowd them in there)

-Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste

-Bake for 20-25 min. -do not turn or stir- until flesh is very fork tender and tops are beginning to brown and carmelize.

-Remove from oven and immediately top with chopped fresh basil and freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese.

Serve with crusty bread to soak up juices. YUM

Sizzling in Seattle - by Sue Shecket, webmaster and NW trial gardener

Mother Nature is having a lot of fun playing tricks on Northwest gardeners this year. After sharing in the cold temps and snow of Alaska all winter, we’ve now seemingly traded climate with our friends in the Northeast.

With no real rain since mid-May, and now suffering through a record breaking 100 degree heat wave, my salad greens are just a memory and the "Sungold" tomatoes and "Asian Trio"eggplant are growing like they are on steroids.

In the spirit of recycling, I found a use for this old Renee’s Garden seed rack frame, which has a new life as jailer for my rampaging tomatoes.

On the bright side, we’ve also traded our usual attire of fleece for cool surfer shorts, and are experiencing the pleasures of sitting outside on warm summer evenings while mastering the art of grilling all that summer squash along with our great NW salmon.

Once again I am kicking myself for not getting around to installing that drip irrigation system for my veggie beds, as it’s been a real challenge to keep things alive and hydrated.

Here's the view from my back deck - it's a very long climb down and up from garden to kitchen, so I get lots of additional exercise points just getting there and back multiple times daily.


I’ve been enjoying experimenting with color combos in the containers on my east facing deck. Here’s a shot of some of my favorites from seed - “Stained Glass” Salpiglossis, “Chantilly” Snapdragons and “Blue Ensign” Morning Glories.

I’m also a big fan of these tuberous begonias that especially enjoy my filtered morning sun and afternoon shade.











My neighbors always expect something spectacular to bloom in my front garden, so this year I went for lots of poppies - the French Flounce definitely got the most attention.


My garden also benefits greatly from the post-meal contributions of our 2 horses. Here's my boy Tazo, who is definitely the Cute One in our equine family.

As soon as our “normal” weather returns, I’ll be doing my fall planting of greens, lettuce, etc. I’ve already got a good stand of "Lacinato" Kale, "Bright Lights" Chard and "Jewel-Toned" Beets, which will be long term garden residents through the fall and winter.

Planting Out Peppers and a Recipe for Chicken Santa Cruz with Fresh Peppers

The Renee’s Garden office staff got their hands dirty planting pepper plants into our trial garden’s prepared beds a couple weeks ago.

Harvesting spinach

We’ve been learning the growing process for tomatoes and peppers this season and the pepper seeds that we sowed in March had grown into plants big enough to transplant into the ground. Plus our weather is now nice and warm – perfect for growing lots of delicious peppers.

We’ll be back in a month or so to start harvesting our bounty!

Here's a recipe making good use of peppers from one of Renee's cookbooks, Recipes From a Kitchen Garden.

Chicken Santa Cruz (Printable Recipe Click Here)

The aromatic, subtle flavors of this dish have drawn more raves than many other entrees we've prepared. Slow sauteing brings out the sweetness of the spices, herbs and onions and the rich mellow flavor of the ripe peppers. Please do try it. Don't forget crusty French bread. By the way, leftovers make great sandwiches.

4 boneless chicken breast halves, skinned and cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 large fresh bell peppers -- use red, yellow, or deep green peppers (or any combination)
4 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, finely sliced
2 teaspoons whole cumin seed or 1 teaspoon ground
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon ground
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot chile pepper or 1 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley or chopped cilantro

Sprinkle chicken strips with lemon juice and set aside. Cut peppers in half and remove seeds and ribs. Cut into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add garlic and cook one minute on moderate heat. Add the pepper strips, sliced onion, cumin, oregano and chile pepper. Stir the vegetables to coat evenly with oil. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Uncover pan, stir mixture, add chicken strips and stir to distribute them evenly in the vegetable mixture.

Cover skillet again and cook gently for 10 more minutes. Uncover; chicken should be cooked through and vegetable mixture should be tender and very aromatic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or cilantro and serve.

Serves 4 to 6.

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