Harvest Monday August 8, 2011

Well, we missed Harvest Monday last week again, but we have been utilizing the garden! And of course I have no recollection of where I recorded the weights.  We had a nice variety of things from the garden.

Scarlett Runner Beans

 Favas were a last minute addition to our al fresco dinner one night, it is so nice to be able to step out the door and pick what I need to get some vegetables for dinner.

Fava Beans - I can't believe they are still going strong.

 I think I did a bad, bad thing.  I enjoyed our stuffed zucchini dinner last month, but the giant zucchini was from my girl friend's garden, so i decided to try my hand at growing a "big boy". We have 2, from 2 plants, but now the plants are pretty sad looking. And we haven't had a single additional zucchini from either plant in a while. Good thing we have 1 more plant!  One came in at 4 pounds 15 oz and the other at 3 pounds 13 oz.

Pickles, Japanese eggplant, Super Sweet 100's, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and 2 mammoth zucchinis

We also harvested some pickle fixings.  All from the garden. Now I have to try and get a recipe that I like. Trial and error period starts.

Home grown cukes, grape leaves (pilfered from neighbor, but growing on my
side of the fence!), dill, jalapeno, and garlic = YUM.

Finished product.

 And some more yummy yummy goodness.

More Scarlett Runner Beans, SS 100's, cukes, and my first Yellow Pear tomatoes.... and my first FIG of the year!

So visit Daphne's Dandelions to see what people are harvesting!  Happy gardening all!

What gives? And something new.

I always wonder why two plants grow so differently.  These two plants were started on the same day and kept in relatively same conditions (watering schedule, size of pots, fertilizer, etc). Yet the Super Sweet 100 plant is 11 inches tall and starting to produce. The Yellow Pear is still 3 inches tall and not a flower in sight.







My SS 100 plant, she even has a teeny tiny baby tomato on her






My teeny tiny Yellow Pear plant

I am pretty excited by the SS 100's first little teeny tiny tomato.  It will be the first tomato that we have produced from seeds we planted. We have done other plants, just never tomatoes. I've always been too impatient and just buy from a nursery

And now for something new.

Every visit my mom makes to California she shows me something new and wonderful at our local Asian market. Last time it was Chinese Okra aka Luffa.  It does seem weird that you can eat a luffa, I mean, you use it to exfoliate, right? You shouldn't be able to eat it. But if you pick it young it is sweet, tender and delicious.  I am hoping that this:

Chinese Okra seedling



 Will produce lots of these:

Store bought Chinese Okra

One of the ways I prepare the okra is peeled (you don't have to, the skin adds a crunchy texture that I like) as  much or as little as you want. Then chop it into bite size pieces.

Inside of the okra

All chopped and ready to be cooked

And stir fry it with some pork or chicken and garlic



Yum! 

I would have taken an after picture, but we were too hungry. The little one likes the okra, the big one doesn't like to try anything new so he never tasted it.

I hope this works!!!  Happy gardening all =)