The Garden On October 7, 2009

I like to photograph the whole garden at times so that I can go back and see the progression over time and I haven't done so in a while so here goes. It's a long post with lots of photos.

The beans are climbing their trellises but are not as vigorous as I would have expected. I think that the oak trees are sending their roots into this bed and sucking up a lot of nutrients, this bed has been requiring more water than the other beds as well.


One of the pole beans is Petaluma Gold Rush, chosen by Slow Food for its Ark of Taste. I planted out the last of my beans this summer and fortunately it looks like the plants will produce enough beans to save for planting next year. I got my original seeds through the Seed Savers Exchange but the member who offered the seeds is no longer offering seeds through the exchange and these seeds do not seem to be available anywhere now.


There is a pot with two chiles in it at this end of the bed. Those little yellow chiles are Pimento de Chiero. They are quite hot and have a wonderful fruity aroma. Most of the heat is in the ribs and I found that I can remove the ribs to reduce the heat but not lose the wonderful flavor and aroma.


Sharing space in the pot with the Pimento de Chiero is a Datil pepper. Slow Food has added this pepper to their Ark of Taste also. None of my peppers have ripened yet.


Also at this end of the bed are a few bush beans, Rolande filet beans and a tricolor mix from Renee's seeds. These plants are also not very vigorous. There are a few beans setting so I might get a handful one of these days.


The Red Florence fennel is nearly done blooming and has tons of seeds. The Vida Verde amaranth mix is towering above the fennel now and is even getting taller than the bean trellises.


Here's one of the amaranth flower heads.


Carrots are growing at the base of the amaranth. I pulled all of them after I photographed them, the crowns were full of aphids being attended by ants, yuck. The aphids don't damage the carrot roots but I just don't want that kind of infestation in the garden.


Scallions, some of them are getting a bit big.


Carrot seedlings growing under the protection of overturned nursery flats. I seem to have to protect the seedlings of everything these days.


My only surviving Diamante celery root.


On to the pepper/squash/eggplant bed. The brown stuff in back is the tomato bed.


Looking down at the pepper and tomato beds. You can see how some of the tomato plants are getting crispy, the leaves rustle in the breeze... But there's still lots of tomatoes left on the greener plants.


The Magadalena Big Cheese and Berrettina Piacentina squashes are running rampant in one corner of the garden. You can see them climbing up the garden fence.


Magadalena Big Cheese squash. I wonder if this is true to type, the photo on the Native Seeds Search site shows a larger more round squash.


Berrettina Piacentina squash.


The Berrettina Piacentina female blossoms are huge.


A few close ups of peppers. This is Piment Doux Long des Landes, a sweet pepper from France.


Marconi Purple sweet peppers. They start purple and ripen to red.


Aji Angelo, a baccatum chile with medium heat. I've only tasted one so far and it seems like it would be good in salsa.


The Palace King cucumbers have grown to the top of their trellis. They seem to be slowing down a bit now and I've seen the first spots of powdery mildew on a few leaves.


Pancalieri a Costa Bianca frisee nestled in near the squash.


And next to the frisee are a few beets that survived the rats. I'm trying to get a few more going under the nursery flats. There's Chioggia and Dewings Early Blood Turnip shown. The Burpee's Golden beets that I've been trying to grow just don't seem to make it. I think one surviving plant is hidden in there somewhere.


Diamond Eggplant. This variety is from the Ukraine and is great for cool or short season areas. It is one of the best eggplant I've ever grown, not only because it does well in my cool climate but because it is delicious. Even the mature eggplant that I've picked have had few seeds and have not been at all bitter. I'll be growing these again next year.


The plants are a bit scruffy looking and had a lot of the lower leaves chewed off by rabbits, but they are still producing a lot of good quality fruits. There were some spider mites on the leaves earlier but they don't seem to have done too much damage to the plants. I've also noticed powdery mildew on the caps of some of the fruits, but that also doesn't seem to be problematic.


The Thai Round Petch Parisa plants are huge, covered with flowers and fruits. My husband announced to me one day that he wasn't really crazy about those little eggplant... There's only just so much eggplant curry that I can eat. Oh well.


I'm skipping a closer look at the tomato bed this time around. There are plenty of photos of tomatoes on my harvest posts and you get a good idea of the state of things from the big view.

The snow and snap peas are getting going. I managed to protect them as seedlings with a light weight row cover. It's still rolled up around the base of the plants just in case... The Opal Creek Golden Snap are in the foreground, they are larger plants than the Kefe Beinwil snow peas.


Although, the Kefe Beinwils are already starting to bloom.


The kales pretty much survived the summer aphid infestation. One of the Cavolo Laciniato plants has started to bolt. I cut the top off and have been harvesting side shoots for the chickens. They do love kale.


The Piracicaba broccoli is still pumping out the side shoots.


I'm trying a new kale this winter, Cavolo Laciniato (Smooth Leaf Kale).


And I'm still trying to get a Romanesco broccoli plant going. I don't think I'll be getting anything like the harvest I got last winter.


And here's some chervil sprouting that I sowed at the base of the kale plants.



And now I have to get back to tomato preserving. Come back Monday for the harvest post to see my treasure trove of tomatoes!

Harvest Monday - 10/5/09

I've still got plenty of veggies coming out of the garden to share for Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday. Once again, though, I was playing hooky for a long weekend so I didn't harvest as much as I could have.

First up is a bunch of Vida Verde leaf amaranth. The stalks are reaching for the sky now and forming flowers but some of the side shoots are still easy to harvest. This mix also produces lots of edible white seeds although I've never grown enough plants to harvest enough seeds to eat.


Next is a box with Todd County Amish and Hillbilly tomatoes.


And here are mostly Blue Beech paste tomatoes, one Chocolate Stripe and a few Paul Robeson tomatoes.


And the Pimento de Padrons are still producing like crazy, although they are growing more slowly now.


And lots of cherry tomatoes still.


The cucumbers are plentiful as well. The Palace King cucumber plants are growing next to the patch of Magadalena Big cheese squash which are becoming covered with powdery mildew but the cucumber vines seem to be unaffected.


Diamond eggplant which were made into my version of Eggplant Parmigiana. Delicious!



Thursday was a day of rushing around trying to get out of the house for the long weekend so I didn't take the time to photograph the boxful of Caspian Pink, Giantesque, and Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes that I harvested that day. The second picking of Pimento de Padrons didn't get photographed as well. And you don't get to see the second harvest of cucumbers either.

My pet sitter got a bonus of a bunch of tomatoes and basil. And my shift mates at the Aquarium got to enjoy some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.

If you've got some harvests to share or just want to see what some other garden bloggers have got coming out of their gardens, head on over to Daphne's Dandelions.

Preserving My Tomato Harvest

The last couple of days have been filled with harvesting more tomatoes and preserving them to consume later.

I filled 5 trays in the dehydrator. Each tray will hold about 2 1/2 pounds of sliced tomatoes. I cored the tomatoes and then cut the tops and bottoms off of them and then sliced each tomato into 2 fat slices. The tops and bottoms got diced and made into sauce for pasta tonight and a sauce for an eggplant dish last night.


You can see how much they shrink down. I pack the dried slices into a jar and keep them in the refrigerator. Refrigerating the dried tomatoes preserves their color.


Here's a roasting pan of Blue Beech paste tomatoes that I simply sliced in half, arranged in the pan cut side up, sprinkled with a touch of kosher salt and a drizzle of olive oil, and roasted at 300F for an hour. They were then put through a food mill and then packed into 2 cup containers and frozen. I ended up with 3 containers full from this batch and 4 from a couple of previous batches. The frozen puree gets popped out of the containers and sealed in food saver vacuum bags for long term storage in the freezer. Sometimes I make an easy sauce for freezing by roasting the tomatoes with onion halves, peeled garlic cloves, and herbs, then putting it all through the food mill.


My freezer is starting to get rather full so I pulled out my pressure canner and put up a dozen pint jars of Blue Beech paste tomatoes. Here's eleven of them, one of them didn't seal. Dang, there's always one.


I'm tired, it's time to go to bed and there's more tomatoes to pick tomorrow...

What joy to have such bounty!

Harvest Monday - 9/28/09

It's time to report on what I harvested from the garden in the past week. Daphne is hosting Harvest Mondays on her blog Daphne's Dandelions. Head on over there to see what she and other gardeners have harvested.

This has been the week of the tomato. Pimento de Padrons and Purple Tomatillos are still playing significant supporting roles, and the cucumbers are starting to hog the camera as well.

Starring on the 22nd of September were, starting at the top and working clockwise: Padrons (2 LB +/-) and a few runty Purple Marconi (ripen red), Japanese cucumbers (Palace King), Purple tomatillos, a Diamond eggplant, assorted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes.


The freezer is now well stocked with roasted purple tomatillos and Padrons. The Diamond eggplant has turned out to be a great variety for me. The plants have recovered from the rabbit attacks and are covered with fruits. The eggplant that I've harvested so far have had very few seeds, tender flesh, and no bitterness at all. So far I've just prepared them very simply: peeled and sliced lengthwise about 1/4-inch thick, pan sauteed in olive oil (can't use too much in my opinion). One of them I served with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a drizzle of my best balsamico. The other was topped with diced tomatoes that I briefly heated in the pan after the eggplant was done, then a bit of shredded basil.

On the 23rd I picked a box of tomatoes to give to friends (very good friends, my babies and I are not easily parted). They got Hillbilly, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Giantesque, Caspian Pink, Paul Robeson, and Black Sea Man.


I harvested the first seeds from the Red Florence fennel and some more pollen. I like to harvest the seeds when they are mature but still green, they are more flavorful and aromatic then. These seeds are so aromatic that I can smell them every time I get within a few feet of them.


And still on the 23rd, more Padrons, some ripe Guindilla chile peppers (those are being sun dried), Purple tomatillos, and Palace King cucumbers.


The really serious tomato harvesting started on the 25th. Starring in this box, from top left and going clockwise: Caspian Pink, Paul Robeson, Hillbilly, and Chocolate Stripes.


And featured here are Aunt Ruby's German Green and Todd County Amish.


And in this box, Giantesque.


And on the tray, they usual cherry tomato suspects.


On the 26th, still in a supporting (or should that be paternal) role, Padrons and Palace Kings.


But wait, there's more, Purple tomatillos, that is...


And finally coming into the spotlight, Blue Beech paste tomatoes.


Not shown were another half dozen Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes, numerous sprigs of basil, one Donkey Ears sweet pepper, a few Christmas Bell mild peppers, a few Pimento de Chiero hot peppers (hot but incredibly aromatic), Piracicaba broccoli shoots, a green Piment doux Long des Landes sweet pepper, and a couple of green Guindilla hot peppers.

So, what better way to celebrate the harvest than a party. Last night we had a group of friends over to feast on dishes that starred tomatoes. We started with what I called Green Rubys, a take on a recipe I found for Golden Marys only featuring Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes. I made juice from some Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes which was then blended with some good reposado Tequila, lime juice, ginger, and cilantro. Served in glasses rimmed with salt mixed with ground cumin and black pepper. Very good, very interesting.

Then we had gazpacho that one of the guests made. She used heirloom tomatoes and it also had chipotle chile which added a wonderful touch of smoke and heat. That was a winner. And then the feast continued with sliced tomatoes topped with crumbled ricotta salata mixed with fresh herbs and a balsamic dressing. A tart of puff pastry topped with carmelized onions, seared tuna, and sliced tomatoes and a garlicky balsamic dressing. And a tomato and bread salad. And a corn and tomato clafouti. Good wine, good bread, good company...

Everyone left with tomatoes and peppers.

So now that I've whittled down the piles of tomatoes by simply feasting, it time to get to work making sauce, puree, paste and dried tomatoes.

I'm finding my Harvest Monday posts to be quite useful. Even though I'm not keeping track of weight and value, the visual record of what is coming out of the garden is informative. I have only the vaguest memory of what I harvested and when from past seasons. I do weigh some things out of curiosity. Like the boxes of tomatoes that I picked on Friday, they each came in at about 8 to 10 pounds.

Tune in same time, same place next week to see the continuing drama...