Our late harvest this week

I've been busy lately, and it seems like it is really hard to make time for the garden. But thankfully we only have a small one! (and my camera is on the fritz, so now I'm posting via phone.... Text with pictures to follow).

This week we had the first of the Thai chili's (seeds from Renee's Garden) and mint picked fresh to add to a Thai chicken salad one night. It's fantastic to be able to wander out and just pick whatever I need for dinner (within reason).

We started enjoying our new Super Sweet 100 tomatoes. And also finally removed the scraggly tomato plant from last year that was still pumping out a few handfuls a week.  The size difference between the two plants is pretty significant. The tomato on the right is the old plant, and the left is obviously the new one.

And the zucchini's have started! We picked 3 on Sunday and I see 2 more for the morning picking.

We have been enjoying our kale. This week we harvested around 4 pounds, mostly given away to friends and cooked for dinner.

Also pictured is our most recent guest to the garden. I have seen him every day for the last few weeks.

I hope my new visitor eats some bad buggies! Happy gardening all.

Recent Happenings

How is it that when family comes to visit, you always think "Man, I am going to have so much free time to garden, blog, exercise, etc." and it NEVER happens?  I was sure that I would have more time since there would be an extra pair (or two) of hands around. But with the family, holidays and Christmas shopping and baking I have had NO TIME!  Every Monday rolled around and I thought "I have to post about the harvest this week!" and next thing I know it's Tuesday (or in some casesWednesday).

Well...... Let's catch up then.


The rabbit ate all of my kale... all of it... down to the stumps. I had been putting off harvesting because I was feeling lazy. And I really wanted to try kale chips with home grown kale! Arg!!!!  I bought repellent that same day.

But thankfully I didn't pull the kale out and let it try to regrow. And boy has it!  This is what it looks like today.  Hopefully the rabbit repellent will work it's magic and we can eat this batch. YUM!

 And the kiddo's bok choy has been growing fabulously. We harvested 1 pound 5 oz from a single plant I am treating as a cut and come again plant.  And it's getting fuller every day, so I see more bok choy in my future.

I also harvested some tatsoi, but we ate it before getting a photo.

What else.... all the Christmas goodies have been shipped to the family and we finally have down time!  This year the tins included Black Forest Crinkles, Chai Shortbread, Snickerdoodles, Hazelnut Crunch, Peppermint bark, Peanut butter kisses cookies, and fudge. Oh My!  I did manage to not eat everything and gain an obscene amount of weight by telling myself for every cookie I ate I would have to run a mile to burn it off (except the chai shortbread, they are only 57 calories a cookie). So I only ate 5 cookies... so far! The big tins were shipped off, but here are some pictures of the little tins for close friends =)



Top layer - Fudge, Hazelnut Crunch and Peppermint bark




Bottom layer - Chai Shortbread, Snickerdoodles, Crinkles and Peanut Butter Kiss cookies



I love the holidays!

Harvest Monday - September 27, 2010

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great opportunity to see what other gardeners are growing around the world. 

This week is a clean up week.  I finally pulled the last of the corn and not a moment too soon (I think we left them on a bit long). They were a little mushy but still delicious! Along with the corn we also harvested eggplants and kale.

 Monday's corn

 Beautiful eggplant, Gretel (white) and FairyTale (marbled)

 The definite last of the corn - ugly isn't it?

Kale

I'm still trying to out smart the rabbit and get some peas growing.  I really would like to have some in the garden again but I don't think it will be in my future unless I buy some seedlings. Since the corn is all out, as soon as the weather gets tolerable again I will cut down the stalks and free up the garden space. Time to plant some more Bok choy!  YUM!!

We had the corn with some lovely steaks one night and chicken another night.  The kale was eaten with a minced chicken salad dish called laarb. I can't wait to figure out how I want to cook the eggplants!

I'm finding that this planting season is just a big guessing game.  "Hmmm, I wonder what I planted there? Hope it grows!" I tried the write on labels, and Ryle just pulls them out of the garden and collects them.  I wrote on the concrete near them with chalk, and then realized when I watered why this isn't good. And I forgot what I planted in the time it took me to hunt down tape and a pen. Getting old is no fun.

Well, time for bed. Happy gardening!