Harvest Monday(s)

 Welcome to Harvest Monday, a lovely idea hosted by Daphne.  Head on over and see what others are growing.

We've been a little hodge-podge on recording our harvests lately.  This past week we were out of town  exploring wonderful San Francisco. One of my absolute favorite places to visit.  The hubs needed to be there all week for work, and the rest of the family decided it was a good time for a little vacation.  But living in a hotel room for a week with two rambunctious boys, no matter how luxurious, is TOUGH!

Last Sunday morning was a flurry of activity as I put away things I had been planning on using during the week.  We had 2 small bell peppers that I julienned and tossed in the fridge.

 Some beans and cukes were made into fridge pickles.

Some nearly ripe cherry tomatoes were picked and left for my friend who would come by to feed the fishies.

2 enormous zucchini were shredded and tossed in the freezer.

And of course we had to pick more stuff... some Cherokee Purples, a Green Zebra, more cherry tomatoes, cukes and some beans.

A week of garden neglect produced some figs (so delicious!), some Roma and yellow wax beans,  a jalapeno, a big cuke.....and...

2 pounds 9 oz of tomatoes.

We also finally had some fruit set on our Yellow Brandywine tomato.  It has been shooting up to the sky, but we have had all blossom drop. And I came home to find 5 little green tomatoes.

And that's all for now, but stay tuned to see what we managed to do in San Francisco last week!  Happy Gardening.

Happenings in my garden in July

Somehow I seem to miss harvest Mondays in July.  We are usually visited by family during the month, my oldest son and my husband are both July babies and we have family in to celebrate both birthdays. And even though you would think I would have more time to blog with someone to help wrangle the kids, I have less time than normal! So this is to play catch-up.

The first Japanese eggplant is nearly ready.  The ones we planted out first were chewed down to the nubs and haven't bounced back very well. This one was planted in our raised bed filled with city compost.  And if you were wondering, city compost sucks.  The plants we put in the raised bed kind of stalled out and I had to heavily trench fertilize everything to get growth jump started.

First Japanese Eggplant

The cucumbers we started from seeds are almost ready to give us some snackers, and maybe some pickles as well!  Our nursery bought cukes were heavily cut back due to powdery mildew. We will see if they survive.

Pickling cucumbers sizing up.

Our beans in the raised bed are also WAY behind schedule. But we have our first sightings of baby beans!  I have dreams of beans.... no, not really. But I can't wait to eat some home grown ones. We planted Roma beans, Yellow wax, Asparagus long, and Royal burgundy. Not to mention the Fava, Edamame and Scarlett Runner beans...

Roma Beans

Volunteer Runner beans need to be picked

The Little Gem lettuce is FINALLY sizing up.

Little Gem Lettuce

 My figs have been taunting me for weeks.  Still no ripe figs.  Our tree is heavily loaded this year and I can't wait!  I have prosciutto just waiting in the fridge for "go time."

Brown Turkish Figs



But wait, it isn't all taunting and teasing, we also ate good stuff from the garden this week too.   We had an unexpected night in for dinner and absolutely nothing planned. I think we were planning on going to "Wine Wednesday" at a local restaurant, but Ryle started acting up and we didn't want to have deal with him in public. So I had to punt for dinner. We had a pasta with shrimp, tomatoes, lemon juice, garlic, and fava greens. The greens were so good. It was my first time tasting them, and they did great in the pasta.

Oh, and we had some fresh basil for the pasta as well.

Another night we had black beans and rice.  And a lovely heirloom (Cherokee Purple) tomato salsa made with home grown tomato, jalapeno, onion, garlic, and pimiento de patron (since the jalapeno was not the slightest bit hot). And since there was just one tiny heirloom tomato, I made up a second batch with a store bought "vine ripened" tomato. The comparison was interesting.  The store bought tomato made a bland salsa, the Cherokee Purple was so sweet and complex simply amazing.  I cannot wait to make more.

Salsa fixings (sans Pimiento de patron - it was an after thought)

Rosemary - used to poach chicken

zucchini - that big one ended up being over 2 pounds

Zucchini and first crook neck squash

All in all it was a good week in the garden. I can't wait to start planning for my fall garden.  Well, today is a garden day for me, so I hope it will be productive!  Happy gardening all.

Harvest Monday 6/27/11

Harvest Monday is a great chance to see what everyone around the globe is harvesting.   It is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. Pop on over if you have a chance and see what is growing!

This week we had an assortment of things come from our garden. We started with something to put back in, seeds! Some of my scallions planted early had flowered and were so pretty we just left them. And now look, we have seeds for planting!



Scallion seeds


Also from the garden we harvested German Stripe tomatoes, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Sorrel, lemon grass and our first cucumber!

German Stripe: 10 3/4 oz
Cherokee Purple: 1 pound, 5 oz
Sorrel: 10 1/8 oz
Cucumber: 1 3/4 oz
Favas: 3 - unweighed



Sorrel and a carrot

The leaves are huge

Lemon grass

Lemon grass sliced - I like the rings

Thai chilis, tomatoes, and first cucumber!

Stripe German and Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Fava beans

We had the favas grilled with dinner last night, in addition to a super delicious salad of slice heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and basil (from the garden). The sorrel we attempted to saute with some bok choy and serve with fish, I thought the tart lemony flavor would pair well with the fish. It was a disaster. The sorrel did not cook up well, turned brownish and the flavor was too strong. Oh well, now we know. The lemon grass was minced and mixed into a Thai chicken salad - delicious!

I was so excited to see that first cucumber. I love fresh cukes and the first was long awaited.  But I'm not sure how many this plant will produce, I had been battling some powdery mildew, I thought I had gotten rid of it... but then I looked on the underside of the leaves. Blast! Covered. So off they went. The poor plant looked nude afterwards. So if this plant goes to it's maker, I have 3 other kinds of cukes in the garden to wait for.

Happy Gardning all.