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| Tasty Treat and Green Fingers Cucumbers |
I've been guilty of growing too many cucumbers for a number of years. They are so prolific when the plants are happy. Once upon a time I would cover an entire 3 x 5 foot trellis with cucumbers, and one year ages ago it was 2 trellises. In 2015 I grew only 4 plants, 2 each of Tasty Treat Japanese and Green Fingers Persian. I harvested over 35 pounds of cucumbers from July through October and even though I was giving them away it was still too much for fresh eating. I'm not a big fan of pickles and even though Dave claims to like pickles he doesn't get around to eating them when I make them, and besides, these varieties are not good for making pickles anyway. Next year it will be only 1 plant of each variety.
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| Candystick Dessert Delicata |
The two varieties of winter squash this year were stellar performers. Both Candystick Dessert Delicata and Honey Nut Butternut produced healthy and vigorous vines. The Delicata was especially vigorous and productive. I tried to train the vines up a 5 foot trellis but had to give up on that after I went away on vacation for a week and came back to find the vines spreading all over the place. My four plants produced 30 pounds of mature squash, 20 squash averaging about 23 ounces each. Productivity isn't their only asset, they are as sweet as their name implies and delicious.
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| Honey Nut Butternut |
The Honey Nut Butternut vines were more manageable and I was able to keep them mostly confined to their trellis. They produce individual sized squash, most are actually big enough for 2 people the way we consume them. I got 19 mature squash averaging about 14 ounces apiece for a total of 17 pounds. The one surprise with the Honey Nut Butternut is that they not keeping as well as I expected. The squash are already starting to shrivel up a bit and the necks are getting hollow. The squash that I've baked recently are still excellent eating but I need to use them up. The Delicata squash is keeping much better, they are all still firm and heavy, but I probably need to use them up before too long before they lose their sweetness and flavor.
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| Tromba D'Albenga and Romanesco |
Zucchini. There's two varieties that I've found that perform exceptionally well in my garden. If you've read my blog for a few years you might recall reading about how wildly successful the F1 Romanesco zucchini from Renee's Garden Seeds can be for me. It grows like a
monster and one plant can provide me with 100 pounds of zucchini. This year it wasn't quite so vigorous and the plant died earlier than usual but not before it provided 26 pounds of zucchini. I didn't mind though because I had planned to remove it early and let a later planting of Tromba D'Albenga squash carry on it it's place. The Tromba squash plants, two of them, produced 83 pounds of zucchini-like squash over their life, so I still ended up harvesting 100+ plus pounds of zucchini. I liked that rotation this year and I think I'll try to do the same next year.
I don't mind having a glut of zucchini, it's one vegetable that we eat a lot of when it's fresh and I also have a couple of ways of preserving it that we enjoy eating throughout the rest of the year. Both the Romanesco and Tromba squashes are good dehydrated, some varieties of zucchini get bitter when dried, but both of these keep their good flavor. I use a lot of the dried zucchini in the frittatas that are Dave's favorite lunch item. It's also excellent in soup and cooked in a tomato sauce. The rehydrated zucchini has a nice texture, pleasantly al dente, not at all mushy like cooked fresh zucchini can be.
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| Frittata with dried zucchini and other preserved garden veggies |
The other method of preserving zucchini that we love is Zucchini Sott'Olio, an Italian method of preserving zucchini that involves salting thick slices of zucchini to draw out moisture, then briefly cooking the slices in a vinegar solution, then draining and drying the zucchini, and finally packing it in olive oil with seasonings. It's a great method for reducing a big pile of zucchini into a few modest jars and it keeps forever in the fridge, but most importantly it's delicious. I won't go to the work of preserving something just for the sake of using up a glut if it isn't something that won't get eaten. I had to admit to having tossed lots of jars of old flabby pickles that we never ate, so I don't make pickles anymore.
Melons. Total failure for 2016. I didn't find space for them in the garden until very late in the season but decided to take a chance since we were having a particularly warm fall. The plants grew and set melons, but it was definitely too late in the season to allow any to fully mature and ripen. That's one succession that I'm still refining.
There's still a few review posts to go, root vegetables are next.
I've never thought of dehydrating zucchini/courgette before. What a great idea. Do you use en electric dehydrator, or just oven dry them?
ReplyDeleteI've used both methods, but the dehydrator is the easiest. It's tricky in the oven because it is easy to dry them too much. And if you dry them on trays in the oven you have to turn the slices over at some point, which is a pain. And they have a tendency to stick unless you put them on parchment paper or a non-stick cooling rack. And then they have a tendency to fall through the rack as they shrink. The dehydrator is decidedly easier!
DeleteHave you ever used butternut squash as a salad? You roast the slices and add a dressing with oil and an almost equal amount of flavorful vinegar. You want it tangy, but not overwhelming. Sprinkle with mint leaves, salt and pepper, maybe some finely chopped garlic. That and butternut soup are my two most requested recipes after lemon chess pie.
ReplyDeleteI've used it in Winter Panzanella, a salad of roasted squash, brussels sprouts, croutons, red onion, and parsley. Your salad sounds delicious too. And once in a while I can get Dave to eat a pureed squash soup, he tends to like brothy soups.
DeleteHere's a way to eat Butternut or similar squash (courtesy of Yotam Ottolenghi): Peel the squash and cut into slices 1" thick. Arrange on a baking-sheet and drizzle with oil (e.g. Pumpkin oil). Roast in the oven until soft, and brown at the edges. Serve drizzled with Pomegranate Molasses and crumbled Feta cheese - plus maybe a salad of rocket and Gem lettuce.
ReplyDeleteBig Yum! I love Ottolenghi recipes. I do something similar with slices of Delicata squash, but I like to add a sprinkle of roasted cocoa nibs for a savory chocolate crunch.
DeleteI quite enjoy pickles too, but also find that we don't eat many of them & they tend to languish in the refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteThat is a surprise about the storage on squash - we love delicata squash, but those we got from the farm started turning within a month or two. Would you say the Candystick delicata stores longer than other delicatas?
Having to find a way to preserve zucchini is a problem that I've not had yet, although I did freeze some grilled zucchini last year just to see how it did - I'm hoping that next year will be THE year :)
I don't have much experience with Delicata squash, this was my first time growing them and I hadn't used them much in the past. From what I've read Delicata is not supposed to be a good keeper so it has been a surprise to me that it has kept as well as it has. I should go back and read Carol Deppe's description and see if better storage was one of the things she bred for.
DeleteCarol doesn't mention breeding for longer storage, she says it stores indoors through December, but I suppose that depends on when it is harvested. I start my winter squash relatively late because of the long warm autumn weather here. I still think I need to work on using it up soon.
DeleteEvery time I read your posts about drying veggies for storage, it inspires me to buy a dehydrator. But then I don't get around to it. So it's on my list again and maybe I'll make it happen this time!
ReplyDeleteOnce I use up my current seed packet of Waltham Butternut, I am definitely looking for Honey Nut - they look wonderful!
I don't grow winter squashes because I don't have the room and their carb content, so we rarely eat them, but I enjoy looking at them. Johnny's has a useful chart on their storage characteristics (bit.ly/1n7qnUb) plus their descriptions often include storage behavior. The Zucchini Sott'Olio looks like a great way to turn zukes into something interesting. I'll have to try it next year.
ReplyDeleteMy Candystick plant suffered from the wet growing conditions last year and the vine died without fruiting. I'm giving it another shot this year. Honeyboat and Bush Delicata did better and gave us quite a few squash, though not as much as your Candystick gave you. We like the Delicata so much they never stay around long enough for me to judge their keeping qualities!
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