What's In Season - Turnips and Cukes

This is my first time growing your average turnip.  Up until now, I've only grown Japanese varieties,  which are smaller and milder.  I'm planning on roasting these for dinner sometime soon.


The cucumbers continue to come in strong despite the beetle issues we've been having.  Like every year, by mid-August all of my cucumber plants end up slowly succumbing to bacterial, which is spread by cucumber beetles.  I guess we'll just have to enjoy them while they last.  Fresh homegrown cucumbers in my opinion are infinitely tastier than the soft/bendy/tasteless (i.e. not fresh!) ones you find at the supermarket.


And what to do with all of those cucumbers?  You make refrigerator dill pickles of course.  I've had so many complements lately from friends who've tried my homemade pickles (which probably explains why they never seem to last longer than a week in the fridge).  Most of them have never made pickles before and didn't realize how easy it is.  Here's the recipe that I stick with (though I usually add an additional teaspoon of salt these days). 

What's in Season - End of Spring Harvest

It still amazes my that these small rather plain looking flowers become...


...THIS!  I really look forward to picking (and eating) fava beans each year.  They are probably up there with tomatoes on my list of most desired homegrown veggies.  My favas germinated incredibly well this year and have produced a good amount of beans. 


This past weekend, I walked by my shell peas noticed they needed to be picked as well.


My shell peas on the other hand did not germinate well for me.  But what did make it went on to produce a respectable number of pods.


I might be in the minority here but I like to pick my peas when they look like they are on the verge of bursting from their pods.  At this stage, they are starchier but I like them this way because they remind of the peas from my childhood...only they don't taste like a tin can.


The pickling cucumbers are rolling in as well.  I have a large bag of them in the fridge, which I need to turn asap into fresh dill pickles.


Ahhh, and yes, the first zucchini of the summer reared it head a few days ago.  I've cut down to two plants this year...more than enough for a family of three in my opinion.


Finally, a while back I did end up picking some sour cherries.  They were quite good on their own but some did make it onto an apple tart I made.

Mid-September Harvest

This week will officially mark the end of our summer growing season. Strangely and unlike years past, I'm actually looking forward to the fall and winter. Growing you own food teaches you many virtues, including patience, and the fact that there's a time for everything. As the colder and darker months approach, the garden will rest and I'll get to take a break from the daily chores associated with it. Maybe I'll even find the time and focus to work on that cookbook I've been neglecting. Maybe.

It's only appropriate that we should celebrate the end of summer by harvesting our one and only pumpkin. I hadn't planned on growing pumpkin this year but Jonathan suggested it during one of our many trips to the plant nursery. This will be the first time we get to carve a pumpkin we grew ourselves.

Also, I couldn't help thinking of the recent cantaloupe recall when I picked the last cantaloupe of the year.


This might also be the end of our tomatoes and cucumbers. We can't be too heartbroken because we've had a good harvest this year. I also picked most of our Poblano peppers, which are tasting quite hot. The long beans continue to produce even when the bush beans are long gone.


This is most definitely the last of our slicing tomatoes. The vines are screaming to be pulled up. Anyway, they were delicious in a BLT sandwich I made the other day.


Finally, I harvested the first of our fall bok choy yesterday and they are looking terrible. The slugs and cabbage worms are really active right now, much more so than last year. The delicate green parts of the leaves were too hole-y to eat, but fortunately for us, the white crunchy bits (my favorite part) are still flawless. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Summer's Bounty - Picks of the Week

We hand another bountiful harvest this week. The Hungarian Wax peppers are producing abundantly at the moment. I'll have to set aside a night this week to pickle and can them.


Tomato season has officially begun. (Hurray!) The near triple digit temperatures of the past few days have really helped to produce our first vine-ripened beauties. Not surprisingly, our first ripe slicing tomatoes of the year were Cherokee Purple and Amish Paste.


Our cucumber harvest was a bit out of control this week. The Tasty Jades are producing like mad. We picked at least two dozen - much more than we can consume as a family. What we didn't give away, I'll have to pickle this week.


We also picked about a dozen zucchinis this week as well.


I love Napoli carrots. They are the perfect size for kids to munch on and are reliably sweet.


The first wild blackberries were very sweet this year. I picked a small bowl-full today and Jonathan gobbled them all up before they made it into the house.


It's nice being able to pick more than one or two artichokes at a time. Our plants are producing well this year.


The chipmunks left me these two tiny ripe Seascape strawberries to pick. It's my own fault really. I still haven't covered the bed with bird netting yet.


The string beans are beginning to roll in as well. I can't wait to cook these up.


A bouquet of cilantro, (pathetic) red onions and beets. I think it would be fun to open a store that sold organic vegetable bouquets and arrangements instead of flowers. I'm surprised no one has done it yet.

Colorful Picks of the Week

The weekly harvest is finally starting to take on some serious color. Up until this point, everything has been mostly green. A colorful harvest always reminds me that summer is in full swing. Pretty soon, the tomatoes will add their shade to this rainbow until fall arrives and the greens predominate again. I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts.

As you can see, we've picked a few new things this past week. While I'm planning on making a big pot of chicken soup with the celery (soup in July, I know), most of what's remaining in the garden will be frozen for winter use. Homegrown celery in my opinion is VERY pungent and a little bit goes a long way.


Our spring sown carrots are looking very good this year unlike last summer. We've picked a couple dozen of them already and all but one or two have been perfectly straight. I've built two other carrot beds for this year's winter crop. Hopefully, the voles will stay away this time around!


I also picked the first artichoke of the year (yes!) and all of my plants now are starting to produce. The two golden beets I pulled this week were so delicious. This was the first time I've tried them and they tasted incredibly sweet.


My chamomile is now flowering. Better late than never I guess.


The Fava beans continue to roll in and we picked our first string beans this week. The greens ones are 'Contender'. This is my second year growing them and what a disappointment they have been. I think I'll try a different variety next year. I also picked our early sowing of Dragon's Tongue beans. I love them. They have a nice flavor and keep their crunch when cooked.


The cukes and zucchini plants continue to be productive. I also picked my first head of savoy cabbage today, albeit a small one. It was about the size of a grapefruit. My cabbages are taking FOREVER to grow and the heads are stalling at the moment. I just hope they don't bolt before they reach full size.


Finally, this was the haul from my five potato plants. I was afraid that the voles may have gotten to them but to my relief they didn't. Only one potato showed signs of being chewed on so I think I harvested these just in time. I sliced up a few and cooked them up in a gratin for dinner tonight. Boy were they good!

Picks of the Week

The garden is producing well these days. I don't remember the last time I've had to buy the bulk of our veggies aside from the random onion or packet of cherry tomatoes. We should enjoy it while it lasts I guess as November (the customary end to our growing season here in New England) has a tendency to approach faster than we would like. Here are pics of some of the things we harvested this week.


Fennel is something that is definitely growing on me, which is why I only grew two bulbs this year. I like it sliced thin in a salad. Last year, they bolted before I got around to harvesting them. This year, I caught them just in time.


In an ideal world, I would always be diligent enough to pick my zucchini when they are this size. Unfortunately we had a couple of whoppers this week. There's nothing worse than a tough stringy ginormous zucchini. At the moment, we are averaging about five or six of these beauties a week - certainly within our capacity for consumption.


I picked the last of our shell and snow peas this week and pulled up the plants. It's always sad to see them go but at least now we'll have more room for our fall veggies in the coming weeks. I also picked the last spring cauliflower.


I transplanted these Asian greens in early June. I was really surprised by how well the tatsoi held up under the heat as opposed to the Shanghai bok choy.


Our beets are ready as well. Transplanted beets like these are not as perfectly round as direct seeded ones but they are just as tasty.


Our fava beans continue to roll in. It will be at least another week before our crimson flowered ones are ready. The harvest so far this year has been fair and much better than the lone handfuls we got last year but I haven't been able to grow that bumper crop I've been aiming for. Maybe next year.


Finally, our cucumber plants are recovering from the groundhogs attacks and beginning to produce again. I harvest the first two Tasty Jade cukes of the summer this week. They have a nice snap to them and are mild tasting, which is what we like. I am really happy with the varieties I chose this year and will most likely grow them again.

Picks of the Week - Favas, Shell Peas, Peppers and Zucchini

This week was all about the Fava beans and shell peas. We also picked the first Hungarian Wax peppers and the last broccoli of the season.


I was finally able to grow a decent amount of shell peas this year. Boy it takes a lot of pods to fill a bowl of shelled peas. As you can see, I like to harvest my peas on the mature side - when they are plump and crammed inside the pod. They remind me of the peas of my childhood at this stage, before sweet baby peas became the popular choice.


We also picked the first three zucchini of the summer. Already, I'm letting them get too big.


I also harvested a nice-sized Red Detroit beet and more pickling cucumbers.


These pickling cukes are VERY crunchy and mild tasting. I think I'll make a batch of refrigerator dill pickles and peppers with this week's pickings.

Pick of the Week

Greatings from Washington, DC. I'm just here for 24 hours but already I can't wait to fly home and eat some of the veggies I picked this past weekend. I ended up harvesting both heads of cauliflower.


They're each about the size of a large grapefruit - perfect as a sidedish for two. The big difference between growing cauliflower and broccoli is that with cauliflower, once you cut off the head, that's it. There's nothing left to do but pull up the plant. Our broccoli on the other hand is still producing sideshoots. I wonder how far into the summer this will last. I feel like everytime I cut them off, the plants get weaker and weaker.


My cilantro bolted prematurely a couple of weeks ago and is now beginning to produce seed heads. I love harvesting them at this green coriander stage. They have a flavor in between cilantro leaves and dry coriander seeds. You just pick them off and stick them in the freezer for future use. They last a very long time that way. I might leave a few to fully mature and dry.


Finally, I picked 9 pickling cukes from my four plants. I have a feeling they will be prolific for the next few weeks and then trail off as the plants slowly succumb to beetles, powdery mildew and bacterial wilt - at least this is what happened to my cukes last year. I do have a game plan to try and prevent this from happening this year. I'll spray the plants with multiple applications of pyrethrin at the first sign of the beetles. Hopefully, this will prevent them from eating the foliage and infecting the plants with bacterial wilt. I'll also remove the lower leaves as the vines spread to help prevent the spread of blight, signs of which have already appeared. If anyone has any othe advice on keeping cucumber plants healthy, let me know!

Anyway, I did have time to snack on one before I caught my plane. They are REALLY crunchy, mild tasting and only slight sour on the ends. I can't wait to make pickles!

Cauliflower and Cukes

Success! This weekend, I cut the string around my cauliflower plants and noticed that sizable crowns had formed. By the looks of things, I caught it just in time as the curds were starting to pull apart.


Not huge, but considering that all of my plants last year either died unexpectedly or bolted prematurely, I am pretty satisfied with this year's efforts. Now it's time to get the fall crop started.


Today, I also noticed that the first pickling cukes of the summer are ready for picking. This variety is called 'Diamant'. It produces tons of blooms and best of all, the flowers don't need to be pollinated in order to fruit.