Category: Harvest

Some garlic

A small portion of my garlic.

I have two more hardneck sets like this, some loose pieces, and a pretty braided soft-neck for last.

Harvest!

It’s been HOT here, and dry, so I’ve been watering things, and today this bounty!

I lightly stir fried it with some onion, basil, and garlic, with some salt, feta, and vinegar over cous cous. Yum!

I planted some more arugula, Brussels sprouts, leeks, cilantro, and cover crops in the bare spots. Hopefully I get more sprouts.

Argula and cilantro sprouting… First yellow bean!

It’s been HOT and I’ve been watering my seed beds everyday. The Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, and leeks are showing nothing, but I have arugula and cilantro popping up

Arugula

Cilantro in pot. I ran out of packaged seeds, so I pulled out the ones I dried last year for coriander- they are viable! Yay!

There’s also basil popping up inside from seed.

Pulled some more onions to cure, and a hand full of squash and a couple of snap peas (they never make it inside)

Also not inside is this first yellow bean. It’s inside my tummy.

more yellow and green beans on the way, though!

More progress shots. Red ribbon tomato almost ripe- have had a couple of sungold already. Both are happier than this tomato plant growing out of the side of whole foods.

I had a crazy raptor day last week- saw a bald eagle making Red (the redtailed hawk) mad, saw 3 osprey over the studio, and a group of swallows chasing a kestral across the field. One of them left us a little pellet filled with scales and bones on the deck.

Here’s our usual morning soundtrack (plus truck traffic, usually)

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Planting roots and sprouts and arugula

Today I did some fall planting- Brussels sprouts, leeks, green onions in South C (soil well fluffed with amendment), cover crop on South D…

Peas, beets, and carrots in West E.

Arugula and leeks in upper A.

I made up a bowl of future-salad. I also planted some basil seeds with my plant (and spilled dirt on the floor!) and replanted some cat grass for the kitties.

I cooked up a big stir fry up work on this week (Garden: yellow squash, zucchini, garlic, hot peppers from the freezer, beets, beet greens, chard, kale. + beans) This is my favorite way to eat up a bunch of greens, and makes a lot of food (:

oh! And I’m out of cilantro seeds, so I’m trying out some of the ones I harvested last year for coriander while my plants bolt.

Strawberries are still nuts, blueberries are starting but the robins won’t share.

Holy Garlic, Batman!

So the garlic wasn’t as happy as last year, in general. The bulbs are smaller- and I truly think they just got rained out. Poor guys.

Here’s the haul,

Yes- that is 12 linear feet of garlic curing.

The hard neck definitely fared better- duganeski and metechi being the best. I’ll try just one different soft neck next year, and do what I can to ensure the beds don’t get as flooded

First braid.

Food!

We’ve been gone a couple of days, and came home to our first real harvest.

Which I fried and braised

Into this

Yum!

Includes beet greens, Swiss chard, kale, romaine, squash, peas, onion, and garlic from the garden; peppers from the freezer, and beans salt oil from the store.

Also

Strawberries a plenty!

Things are starting to happen.

It’s been hot and sunny, and I had a nice looooooong day rearranging the studio today, then stopped by to water B’s lovely plants. Where our land is wild and jungly- hers has a polished garden feel. It was a nice change… and I may have eaten some peas, before I knew what I was doing. It was part muscle memory, part desperation.

Some of our jungle. It needs trimming and weeding, but boy are the bees happy.

We do have a couple of pea stragglers. I am most grateful for their sacrifice.

The purple peas do not taste purple.

Other things are starting to happen too!

Strawberries are happening for real. This was today’s haul.

First blueberry!

Summer squashes

The ugly duckling nova tomato has the first non-cherry fruit. I’m glad I made room for it.

There’s also the start of a healthy pepper.

Sungolds coming soon!

Okra buds. I hope I have enough plants for pollination. They make really lovely flowers too.

Green bean monster!!

Artichoke taller than me!! More than a dozen heads. (I did get up early to spray it with water and been oil, but I’m not confident we’ll ever get viable good out of it. I’m curious about cardoon since you eat the stem on that. I wonder if it tastes similarly.)

The huckleberries are larger this year, but the tree looks like it’s ailing.

The solal underneath it INSANE.

Its cooling down. The birds are singing.

Garlic Escape

The second best thing about planting “too much” garlic is an abundance of scapes.

I split them into 4 parts- trimmed and put some in the fridge in water, made basil pesto (basil, salt, pepper, hot peppers, garlic, vinegar, touch of sugar), oregano pesto (“), and salsa (cilantro, hot peppers, salt, pepper, lime juice, a few tomatoes). The salsa is definitely the winner.

P weeded and mowed while I did that- and discovered a treat- salmon berries hiding in the bramble!

Yum.