Category:Garden

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Mas Porno Del Jardin

So… I can’t help but wonder what the title above is going to do to my web analytics… (yes, I’m a data nerd.)

Anyways, here are the baked dinner and slow-roasted tomatoes we made in the gas BBQ (’cause the oven is still broken) from last week’s harvest (in case you were wondering — pepperoni, bacon, okra, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers and garlic are a fabulous combination!):

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This weekend’s harvest was nothing to sneeze at:

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So, we decided to make tomato sauce to freeze:

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You know, all the tomatoes that will fit, plus garlic, some basil, some olive oil. Boiled down for a while:

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And eventually put into containers for the freezer:

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Delicious (if a wee bit too acidic, if we are honest — we will have to bear that in mind and use with carmelized onions, or some other form of sugar to cut it).

In other news, the world’s slowest growing plants, the hot peppers, have finally begun to put out a decent harvest (just in time for the cold fall… we shall start earlier next year):

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The top one? That’s a squash pepper — it looks like a habanero for a reason. Amazing flavor, but *very* hot. Supposedly we’re supposed to leave it ’til it turns red, but even green they have great flavor and almost too much heat, so it’s hard to be patient.

The long slightly wrinkled peppers? Yeah, Pimiento D’espelette — we haven’t had the patience to let a single one turn red. They are flavorful, but not very hot at all. More smokey. Complex. I like ’em. E thinks they are useful for fiber.

The jalapenos? Well, if you grow ’em in your garden, they will be hotter than the ones you buy in the store. But effort to reward ratio? It’s likely that next year we’ll add some other wacky peppers like the squash peppers instead of the jalapenos.

And, I think that’s a wrap.

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Belated Harvest

With everything that has been going on in our lives, E and I have not been paying too much attention to the garden.

But, this year, we were much more professional than in years past, so we have an irrigation system (plus it’s *raining* right now, weird!).

Turns out, that even as your life is spiraling into its own random course, the garden, if properly planted, fertilized and watered, will continue to grow in your absence.

This morning, I finally had time to harvest after about 3 weeks of neglect (this was the haul minus the bag I packed up for E2, and without any okra, radishes, or cucumbers, all of which are also ripe):

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Yes, I will be giving away some serious gift tomatoes at work tomorrow…

This awesome harvest is very unfortunately timed, as the heating element in our oven took the liberty of entertaining us with a very spectacular failure yesterday evening. I wish, in hindsight, that we had taken pictures, but at the time, we were watching the arc travel the filament despite the oven being turned off with E at the ready with a fire extinguisher, so the camera was nowhere near the top of our list. Bummer — this would have been a good week to return to the slow-roasted tomatoes… And, of course, while I’d scheduled a weekend to can at the G’s as they recovered from burning man, somehow that didn’t make the cut due to our other obligations (duh!). So, we’re stuck with entirely too many tomatoes. I suspect I’ll find a way to turn this problem into a blessing. Perhaps I’ll have to make and freeze sauce…

Anyways, in case you couldn’t tell from the larger picture, one of the hilarious things about the garden is what happens to small-to-medium sized summer squash when left on the vine entirely too long:

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Yes. That is my arm for scale.

So, the moral of the story is that a well-tended garden will just keep growing and producing in September even if you completely neglect it. No matter what else is going on in your life, the garden will grow.

I find this very comforting.

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Summer = Tomatoes

For me, Summer is tomatoes. Tomatoes are summer. And that’s pretty much it.

So last week’s harvest made me very happy, and confirmed that it was Summer, my favorite season:

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And E making his mother’s slow-roasted tomatoes made me even more jubilant, and reminded me that it was still Summer, still my favorite season (mmm… if only you could slow roast without the oven in the Summer…):

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Gazpacho? Yet more proof of the awesomeness of Summer, and why it’s my favorite season:

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And Caprese? Is there anything more indicative of Summer? Seriously? Italian anything and tomatoes? That’s just the essence of Summer:

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And camping, this weekend? Yeah, that’s Summer. But even moreso is returning to this harvest:

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And, from the harvest, I was inspired to make a Summer soup. The only ingredients not from our garden? Salt, olive oil, and a red bell pepper.

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup

First, slice tomatoes into 1 cm steaks, and layer in a baking pan. Then, top with sliced peppers from the garden (Pimiento D’espellette and jalapenos) and garlic from the dried harvest. If you are lucky, some random genetic mutation may have happened in your garlic harvest, and you can just use *one* clove (i.e. not a head of cloves, just one). The largest clove you’ve ever seen:

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After the garlic, add strips of a red bell pepper and sprinkle with salt and olive oil, and bake for 20 minutes at 350:

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Turn and mix the tomatoes, and allow to bake for another 20-30 minutes. Puree in a blender. Serve into bowls and top with minced basil. Enjoy!

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Food and Garden Update

The plants are growing like mad — every weekend there’s work to be done to catch up — harvesting, pruning, spraying, weeding, pulling up old plants. Our butternut squash is taking over the fence:

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We’ve had two more great harvests since the last one:

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(Chrysanthemum greens, a gift plant from Cynthia, are a tasty addition to tomato salads).

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(The lame-looking cucumber is just a little dirty on a white spot — he tasted great. The troubled tiny squash, however, yeah, he went straight to the compost.)

And, from these harvests we’ve made many delicious meals — BBQ pizzas are a regular treat (no dishes!), plus tomato salads galore.

Also, C introduced us to the awesomeness that is quark by showing up with lemon quark and garlic quark.

We took the leftovers and made a delicious garlic quark squash risotto:

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And here are some sliced Romano Squash to be baked with red onions on top that were marinated in olive oil and herbs:

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Eventually, they were joined with baked tomatoes and a mini pizza for each of us topped with harvested goodness:

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Have I mentioned how much I love the summer garden?

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More Garden Porn

Today, a mere three (3!) days after my last garden post, we’re thrilled to brag about our harvest. In fact, we’re even proud of everything that is not tomato-related, which is impressive, since we’re like 70% tomato-focused. Regardless, this is what I harvested from the non-tomato plants today, and I couldn’t help but think…yummm!

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Altogether, however, our tomato-based harvest outweighs the rest:

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Let’s celebrate the squash (the striped green and the yellow), the misshapen red onion (ahhh… the adorable foibles of the un-knowledgeable gardner) and its perfect small red onion companion (planted by a more knowledeable gardner 1-2 seasons later…), the garlic, the okra (seriously, you are missing out if you don’t have okra in your life), the eggplant (hell yeah!), the cucumber, and of course, after all of this, we’ll get to the tomatoes.

First: Our cherry and small size tomato harvest has begun to reach epic proportions. I dare you to declare otherwise:

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Second: Our larger slicing tomato selection has started to become educational:

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In order, starting at the top left, we have:

– 2 stiletz tomatoes (why? why did I grow these? I have plenty of sun and heat?); followed by
– 1 brandywine red lantis (so sweet. Smaller than expected, but we may save seeds and grow again, nonetheless).
– 1 thessoloniki waiting for full ripeness. If I can, I’ll post photos of the slices.
– Next row: 1 super marzano (paste); 1 marvel stripe (gorgeous when sliced, can’t wait), 2 orange russian 117 (oxheart/pear-shaped!!! woo-hoo!); 1 white oxheart.
– Last row: 2 black krim (purple black); 2 black from tula (lighter brown-black); 2 Paul Robeson (full chocolate black)

Finally, I am disturbed by the beauty of red current — it produces much teensy tiny, impossible to harvest, frustrating fruit. Delicious, but annoying fruit that refuses to ripen on the same schedule and each one is entirely too small to deal with. And yet, how gorgeous is she?

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Tomato Time is Coming!

We aren’t at full production, but we’re definitely seeing ripe fruit on at least half of the varieties. Today’s harvest was impressive:

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It inspired me to make an all-tomato lunch. E and I each had the pleasure of tasting and comparing large slices from several beauties:

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In clockwise order, that’s White Oxheart, Thessoloniki, Ananas Noir, Kentucky Beefsteak, Brandywine Red Lantis, Green Zebra, and Black Krim. All delicious. E’s favorite for taste was Thessoloniki, then Brandywine Red Lantis, then White Oxheart. I couldn’t decide between White Oxheart, Ananas Noir, or Black Krim for overall taste, but truly, they are all excellent, it just depends on what you want (more/less acidity, more/less gel sacs, seeds, or meat, more/less sugar).

This year, Cynthia introduced me to the awesomeness that is oxheart tomatoes — pointed on the end and shaped more like a bell pepper, often with whispy droopy foliage. Thanks to her glowing reviews, we’re growing several: White Oxheart, Orange Russian 117, Sweet Horizon, and Japanese Black Trifele.

So far, White Oxheart is the only plant that has ripe fruit:

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What a pleasure — the fruit production is prolific, and they are slightly sweet with medium acid. The best part, though, is that while they are the size of a beefsteak, they have the consistency of a paste tomato (lots of meat, little seeds). In other words, we look forward to roasting these, slicing them for sandwiches (won’t make the bread soggy!), and eating ’em easily with a knife and fork all summer — if there are too many at the end, they’ll make great fried green tomatoes and sauces.

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How Do It Know?

Remember the great garlic planting back in October?

After following the Gourmet Garlic Gardens instructions, every single clove sprouted in November (bonus — check out the sprouts in the far part of the box — those were the baby artichoke plants, back when we thought perhaps we could fit more than one in our raised bed):

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From there, each sprout grew to be a stalk of grass-like leaves about 4-5 feet tall, eventually, some sent up scapes and finally, it was harvest time:

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Towards the end of their growing season, I commented to E that garlic was somewhat anti-climactic and quite a bit of effort for a fairly easy to obtain return. Last weekend, at the Farmer’s Market they had California Early Garlic Bulbs–one of the varieties we grew–for 50 cents each.

However, the satisfaction I got from pulling each large head out of the ground and the wonder at its reproduction changed my mind.

Just put a clove in the ground. With water, winter, spring, and summer, it’ll clone itself into multiple cloves, each associated with a huge blade of energy producing monocot leaf.

DNA, and the miraculous replication of life is so amazing!

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June Bloom

We’ve got fruits galore!

Tons of Tomatoes:

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Baby Eggplants:

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More Artichokes (’cause the plant is out of control! Look closely. How many can you find? It’s like one of those hidden treasure pictures, I swear…):

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Overall, in the last two weeks, we’ve gone to this:

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From this:

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Which means they look different *every* day. It’s fun!

In other news, we’re still waiting (not so patiently), on a few laggards.

Peppers (refer to the tomato plants on the left for scale):

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Okra:

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And Winter Squashes, a vining and non-vining cucumber, and onions:

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And finally, remember our Very Californian Easter Sunday? Well, this is what San Gregorio looks like in late spring. Absolutely breath-taking:

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Have a great week!

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LOOK!

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Tomatoes! (even on plants that have gotten a wee bit sick — see the purple tint to the stem and leaves? Bummer.)

The garden has grown quite a bit (and ideally, will grow much faster now that I fertilized with fish/kelp emulsion ’cause my plants were just not as green as most of my friends’ plants…).

As you may recall, it started out like this:

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A month later, it looked like this:

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And now, 2 weeks later, we’ve got this:

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The biggest tomato so far is a little 1 inch diameter fruit, hanging off of Brandywine Red Lantis (I have no idea what the Lantis stands for, that’s just what Cynthia called it):

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And much to my surprise, the most prolific fruit producer, in terms of total mass so far has been White Oxheart. Weird. I would have thought some of the earlier maturing varieties would be kicking its butt at this stage.

In the meantime, while we salivate over the future tomatoes, we get to enjoy good stuff while we wait:

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The fruits of the ridiculously prolific artichoke plant, the mint (which we transplanted out of the raised beds because it was taking over and threatening Gold Nugget), baby basil leaves, the end of the parseley, and the first garlic to fall over, which has now been hung to dry.

Other than that, the garden is coming along as gardens do. We’ve got aphids. We’ve got some fungus. We’ve got ladybugs, bees, earwigs, and worms. I spent several hours on Sunday fertilizing, pruning, tying tomato plants to stakes, and harvesting. The plants appeared to very much appreciate it in less than 24 hours, which is very gratifying.

G & C gave us a cucumber seedling that is infinitely superior to the one remaining living cuke I’m nursing along (I planted 2, one died). I think, if there’s one thing I learned this year, it’s that seedlings don’t like direct sun until they are a little bigger than the first true leaves. Oh, and that I probably should have watered the seedlings more while they were small. So I’ll be planting that cucumber and taking out a couple of squash plants to give to them in return.

Finally, I made a Worm Castings Tea and plan to spray tomorrow in the hopes that it will help ward of pests and encourage additional growth.

Oh, and E (with the help of C) built me a new compost box in the back yard. Our plastic bin is completely full of black gold. I turned it and watered it on Sunday and found that the only identifiable matter were some egg shell pieces. The rest was just dark, almost tar-colored, soft dirt-like soil. I can’t wait to use it for the winter garden! Finally, after 3 years of composting…

Because the bin is full, we’ve been donating our kitchen scraps to the city compost, but I wanted to save them and use them in the soil. Thankfully, E & C were in a handy mood after the afternoon at the Maker Faire. So now we have a new two-cell compost bin made of pressure-treated wood. Yay!

In short, the gardening hobby grows. Literally. And we’re having much fun.

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Better Late than Never

E sent me the adorable story of Shizo Kanakuri, who dropped out of the 1912 summer Olympics marathon only to finish it later. Much later. Like 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, and 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds later.

Also, our garden keeps growing:

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All of the summer plants are still alive. Although, if I am honest, I will admit that I fear I may lose Green Giant, and Japanese Black Trifele who are not perfect, and may be sick. But the rest appear to be fine.

And, since we planted 34 total varieties, I think we’ll be okay.

In other news, the theory that artichoke plants from seeds do not produce until the second or third year is crazy. Check it out:

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That artichoke plant? It’s a single plant. It’s 4 feet tall. It’s given us 2 huge artichokes, 2 smaller ones, 1 more huge and is incubating 3-7 medium sized chokes.

Plus, those huge 4-foot tall grass-looking things to the left? That’s garlic. Garlic we planted back in October.

And, as if the freakish huge garlic wasn’t enough, the onions have started to send up “flower stalks” or “seed stalks” which is ordinarily something that happens after 2 years, but for me, no. We’ve got 4 foot tall seed stalks on onions that haven’t even been harvested after 1 year:

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So, yeah. That’s the garden.

Also, given the increasing size of the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, onions, garlic, eggplants, etc. We discontinued the CSA. E gave a cheer when I announced the last delivery. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…