Garden Update - August 4th
WOW! What a busy but wonderful month. We have had a lot of harvesting and making wonderful dishes with our fresh vegetables. Not only is it extremely rewarding, it is so fabulous not having to go to the grocery store for fresh vegetables and yes, also saving a lot of money.
Below are the vegetables we have been harvesting:
We have harvested bok choi several times this month. I used it to make Korean Beef. As you can see, flea beetles chewed holes in the leaves, but it didn’t affect its growing process. Bok choi does tend to bolt, however, so its harvest cycle can be short. What is bolting? Bolting is when a plant sends up shoots that prematurely goes to seed. The plant spends alot of energy turning to seed and not producing new leaves. The best thing to do is to remove the shoot as soon as you see it. The shoot may be in the middle or may be a branch. Next year I will plant my bok choi in part sun in an attempt to have a longer growing cycle. One of the many reasons I enjoy gardening is that there is always something new to try. Every garden is different, and so you sometimes need to change gardening strategies. There is no need to ever give up; just keep tweaking what you are doing. Mother Nature will continue to help you through the process. That, reading books, talking to others and trusting your instincts also helps.
I stir fried the bok choi with the other vegetables and added them to the sauce. I can’t wait to harvest my heirloom carrots instead of using store bought carrots. Their rainbow of colors will look beautiful and more delicious than those bought at the store!
I also started harvesting my beets. I was super excited because this is the first time I grew beets, and I even grew them from seed! I roasted the beets in tin foil in the oven, cooled them, and then peeled them. This easy method quickly gives you this sweet and versatile vegetable. I made a spring mix salad with kale and swiss chard (that I also harvested), added beets, goat cheese, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts with a dijon balsamic dressing. I also peeled and sliced some kohlrabi that I harvested a few weeks ago and kept in my refrigerator. I over heard one family member say that they thought the beets were large cranberries. I heard another say that kale and swiss chard was like adding hay. But trust me, the salad was super delicious and did not taste like hay! Next time I am also going to add grilled shrimp for a wonderful lunch!
I am so excited that I have begun harvesting my tomatoes! The small and medium varieties are ripening in huge numbers, but my large heirloom tomatoes take a little longer because they are so large, but trust me, they are worth the wait. As the song goes, “there is nothing like a homegrown tomato…only two things that money can’t buy and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes.” Do you remember that song by Guy Clark? My father-in-law reminded me of it. Find it on YouTube; it will make you smile and you will be singing it all day long!!! One of my beloved Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes (which got more sun that my other Cherokees) was perfectly ripe. Yes, this is one tomato! Isn’t it gorgeous? But most importantly, how does it taste? It is sweet, savory and somewhat smoky all at the same time! If you don’t grow these, RUN - DON’T WALK, to a farmers market and buy some! Even though they are $6/pound in Chicago and $3/pound in rural America (that’s why I grow them from seed!), they are worth it. We eat them on BLTs (don’t use mayo because it just drowns out the flavor), mix with other tomatoes (to give a unique taste) for bruschetta (just add salt, cracked pepper, and basil), and of course eating them like apples. I can’t wait for my other cherokees to ripen! I’m excited for ALL my tomatoes to ripen of course! Beginning the middle of August they ripen faster than we can eat them, and believe me, we eat plenty. We also make roasted tomatoes, fresh pasta sauce, salsa, chili, tomato pie, etc. etc. So what do I do with all the tomatoes that we can’t use immediately? What do I do with them all? Canning! I can about 30 quarts of “Grandma’s Tomato Soup”. Why do I can? Because I can (get it?). I am going to pressure can this year instead of hot water bath canning. After all these years of being nervous about the pressure canner blowing up (I know this fear is unfounded), Uncle Tony gave me one and patiently walked me though the process last year when I canned pumpkin puree. Believe me, the pressure canner cans in a fraction of the time it takes to use a hot water bath canner. And it doesn’t heat up your kitchen! This year I am also going to can whole peeled tomatoes and salsa to lovingly enjoy (in addition to my tomato soup) all winter long!
Check these out! Thanks to Uncle Harvey, who graciously gave me some new varieties that he grew from seed with his “magic dirt” I am super excited to taste these. I am sure they are delicious. These are Wisconsin 55 . The other varieties from Harvey are coming in nicely as well! You can see where deer have chomped off a few of the branches. But tomatoes want to grow, and of course, other branches grew and are producing gobs of tomatoes. What are those pellets around the tomato base? The 1st week of July I put Preen down to prevent weeds. Preen doesn’t kill the weeds, it just prevents new ones from growing. I want to spend time eating my vegetables rather than weeding. Who doesn’t?
My Midnight Snack tomatoes are out of control! They grow like other cherry tomatoes hanging on clusters with about 10 on each. I must have 100 almost ripe with about 100 more that haven’t started to ripen. They look gorgeous in bruchetta and taste like Cherokee Purples with is perfect because those are just starting to ripen. What a great shortcut for my favorite flavor!!!
The Midnight Snacks are ready to harvest when the bottoms are red. You would think that that the whole tomato would be purple just like other Black/Purple cherry tomatoes. It takes what seems like forever for the bottoms to turn from green to purple! Apparently because the bottoms don’t get as much sun as the tops (obviously), it takes longer. I think it is this unique mixture of colors that gives it that unique taste. That is my theory, and unless I hear otherwise, that is my story.
Look at these beauties. Next time I am at the garden, I will cut off the yellowed branches that have a little blight. Why? By cutting them off, the tomatoes get more sunlight and don’t use the energy on these branches and can focus more on creating new buds!
So what is next in my garden? I go to both my gardens every morning. I spend a few hours snipping branches, deadheading (just like flowers), weeding, watering and harvesting. I have found that my gardens are the most productive when they get an inch of rain each week. My gardening partner installed a rain gauge so it is easy to see how much & when I need to water. So between Mother Nature and me, that is the amount I give them. My family and friends think that I spend so much time in the garden to procrastinate doing my housework and enjoying the country peace and quiet. Maybe if I stopped bringing my morning coffee with me, they wouldn’t think that!
I hope you all enjoy your gardens and/or visiting your local farmers markets to help support local farmers and hobby farmers. Talk to them, buy something you don’t normally buy, make a new dish with your new-found vegetable, and soon you will be thinking about not only expanding your garden but also growing something new.