Harvesting: Curing Hardneck Garlic

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Behold, the very glamorous stage of drying out your hardneck garlic in a dark, shaded place with airflow:

Pretty soon, I'll be able to trim the roots, brush the dirt off, cut off the stems, and store in the basement.

Harvesting: Sungold Cherry Tomatos

Sunday, August 13, 2023

The garden is still going full tilt, despite the lack of posts! We're having an absolutely horrendous mosquito season, though, so the garden is currently an unkempt jungle. However, that doesn't stop the plants from producing!!

This here is the frist time I've grown Sungold Tomatos. They're an F1 hybrid, so not heirloom, but they're known to be the sweetest...and they live up to that reputation!

Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Sunday, August 21, 2022

I needed a shareable recipe in a pinch, thankfully, I have a garden! I was able to put together this garlic scape pesto from what I had growing + lying around. You can pretty much make pesto out of anything green (such as carrot tops or parsley!), so that's also a bit handy as well.

Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almonds (or pine nuts)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped [garlic scapes*, basil]
• 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice (or juice and zest of 1/2 lemon)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* If you're serving this fresh, you'll want to sautee the garlic scapes first, or use more basil in the mix (50/50). If you're freezing this, you can just use fresh garlic scapes, no need for sauteeing or basil!

1. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan for a couple minutes, let cool.
2. If sauteeing garlic scapes: sautee in a small amount of olive oil until starting to brown on all sides, let cool
3. Combine scapes, nuts, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a food processor.
4. Pulse ~20 times, until combined, scrape the sides as needed.
5. Pour in the olive oil through the feed tube while the motor is running.
6. When the oil is incorporated, transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese. If freezing the pesto, add the cheese after you've defrosted it.

July 4, 2022

Recipe: Homemade Mayo & Ranch Dressing

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Who knew, it's pretty simple to make your own mayonnaise, in a pinch?!

Homemade Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp dried mustard (could probably swap in Dijon mustard spread)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2c neutral-tasting oil (avocado!)
• Equipment:: 1 wide-mouth 16-oz mason jar, Immersion blender, Measuring cup & spoons

1. Combine egg, lemon juice, mustard, and salt in the jar.
2. Add the oil on top. Let sit for a minute (this avoids the mayo splitting)
3. Push immersion blender into bottom of jar and turn on.
4. Add additional oil 1 Tbsp at a time to get the consistency you like (I never seem to need any extra)

I'm trying to save you from photos of mayonnaise, as mayo is a trigger for some. So, you're getting photos of mayo-based salad dressing instead! I like this homemade ranch dressing overtop of a homegrown lettuce mix with air fried chicken breasts, a slice of chopped up bacon, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, a hardboiled egg, and an avocado if I got 'em.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

This makes enough for 3-4 salads, I go pretty light on dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1/4c mayonnaise (or olive oil or sour cream)
• 0.5-1 Tbsp Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle or DIY ranch mix
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (or rice vinegar, or lemon juice, or sald-dressing-ish liquid of choice)
• Optional: 1-1.5 tsp [Dijon] mustard

1. Mix the ranch mix with 1 Tbsp water - press out any clumps.
2. Combine with mayonnaise, vinegar, and optional mustard

Harvesting: Spring Broccoli Rabe

Sunday, June 26, 2022

June 17 & 10, 2022
The first year I grew Broccoli Rabe! And I apparently really wanted to, as I have two seed packets for it somehow! As a brassica, it's pretty easy - grows faster than kale. Next year I should start up about twice as many seeds, as I'm a fan. Or maybe, the same number of broccoli rabe seedlings, but also a row of sprouting broccoli?

I prefer to eat these raw, but one can also do a simple sauteeing a la Love & Lemons: Blanch for 2 minutes first, then sautee with garlic for 5 minutes. Squirt of lemon juice at the end. Salt to taste. Soggy leaves, crunchy stems. Perhaps not everyone's preferred combo!

That in the pan is, like, 75% of this year's harvest. Which is why, perhaps, doubling the number of seeds I start might be wise!

Harvesting: Mâche in April!

Sunday, June 19, 2022

May 11, 2022
I've talked a little about mâche (or corn salad, or lamb's lettuce) around here, particularly, collecting the seeds and as one of the plants that is almost too accelerated by a hoop tunnel. Since they so readily self seed, and they're ready to harvest + go to seed before anything else goes in the garden, I don't really plan my mâche too much. I just let it do its thing.

March 12, 2022
In mid-March the self-sown seedlings appear, even without a hoop tunnel. And once they're decently big, it's a good time to thin out the smallest ones (i.e. eat them), so the healthier plants have a better chance.

May 12, 2022
By mid-May, the leaves are pretty much full-grown and only a week or two from going to seed. The leaves are still fine after they've gone to seed (unlike lettuce leaves, which turn very bitter when the plant bolts). I never really get a large, "salad-sized" harvest, although, if I pulled most of the plants up in mid-May (letting a couple go to seed for next year), then I might! I rather prefer sitting in the garden and sharing leaves with the dog.

Harvesting: Dried Beans

Sunday, January 16, 2022

I grew a new type (or two) of bean in the garden in 2021. Namely, beans that can be eaten as shell beans or dried beans, not just green beans! I grew Painted Pony Beans which are meant to be dried, but ~5 plants produced about 0.5 cups of dried beans. Not really enough to be eaten.

The semi-vined French Horticultural Beans from Hart's, were far more successful, with ~5 plants producing ~1.5 cups

These beans tasted good when eaten green (with just a touch of pink streaks), and could also work fine as shell beans (past ripeness for "green", but before they're fully dried). I mostly let the pods dry out all season on the vine, though. Right before frost, I pulled up the plants and hung them up in the basement for 2 weeks to fully dry out.

Once the pods were brittle, they were ready to be busted open, and the beans were ready to be stored (or used as seed again for next year).

Next year, I think I'll halve the number of Kentucky Wonder Green Beans I grow (only along the back trellis), and double or even quadruple the number of French Horitcultural Beans, so that I can have tasty beans fresh, or preserved for over winter (good for the next ~5 years)!

Preserving Leafy Garden Greens Through Blanching and Freezing

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Part of the garden winterization process is to harvest what can be harvested, before cold weather kills it all. While I love harvesting and cooking with my homegrown produce, "harvest time" often yields waaay too much at one time for me to use, and so I preserve some of the harvest. Green beans can be pickled, winter squash can be cured and stored in the basement (as can garlic), dried beans can be shelled, etc. etc. But leafy greens? The only thing to do with them is to blanch & freeze them.

For my rainbow chard, I cut off most of the leaves, except for a handful of the smallest ones (they may continue to grow into winter).

Then I get a big pot of water boiling, and prepare an ice bath. I boil chard leaves for 1 minute before moving them to the ice bath. Chard stems get 2 minutes boiling before ice bath. Then, they can all be placed in zip-loc bags, have their air removed as best as possible, and stored flat in the freezer for future use in soups and tasty dishes calling for wilted chard.

This process would not, say, be good for preserving lettuce...

Success: Squash Molasses Custard

Sunday, November 7, 2021

I decided to turn my sad little Blue Hubbard into this Pumpkin Molasses Custard from HappyAppleNaturalKitchen. I went with the higher sugar option (i.e. 0.25c molasses and maple syrup, plus maybe 0.125c brown sugar), and it came out beautifully. Not as sweet as traditional puddings, but sweet enough. I like eating it for breakfast. Or snack. Or dessert...

I couldn't find all my ramekins, so I had to adapt with two of these cast iron personal pots. Everything worked out well!
I also didn't use the food processor to mash up the roasted squash, I just used a hand masher. This creates a semi-lumpy texture, but I don't mind. It's just squash.

Success: Purslane Tomato Omelette

Sunday, September 26, 2021

When one has lots of garden produce, you end up with some interesting garden-based dishes. For instance, with lots and lots of purslane, as well as bunches of Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes, you end up with this Purslane Tomato Omelette from India1948. 'Would definitely make again - it's a very good spin on an omelette, with no cheese, and turmeric in the eggs to give it that orange color. But there is lots of purslane and tomatoes from the garden in there. And when I mean lots, I mean:

August 13, 2021
I have this habit of picking up the purslane that appears all over a yard and transplanting into open spots in the garden. From there, it fans out, and with a bit of annoying cleaning, one ends up with this healthy green in the fridge for all sorts of additional meals...

Do others treat purslane as a weed? Do I see it growing in the cracks of people's driveways? Yes, but it's still edible. Much like dandelion, but perhaps not quite as persnickety about when to be harvested! However, it is fairly easy to confuse purslane with it's (sort of) look alike toxic friend, spotted spurge. I have both of these growing throughout my yard, so it's helpful to know how to identify purslane from others.

Harvesting: Sugar Snap Peas

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Welp. I've finally done it. In my third year of having a vegetable garden, I finally got everything set-up early enough to plant peas directly in the garden (they super flopped in my winter sowing this year) and...get peas. Like, the full harvest of peas.

I grow Cascadia Bush Sugar Snap Peas (from High Mowing Seeds) and Sugar Snap Magnolia Tendril Pea (from Baker Creek Seeds). Can you guess which one is easier to harvest?

While the Cascadia peas are sweeter and more compact, the Magnolia peas are beautiful with lovely flowers and easy-to-spot pods.

Plus, Monty Don of 'Gardener's World' fame grows purple garden peas (Blauwschokker variety), and so this is just one thing we almost have in common ;)

My peas are tucked in the north side of my 18' raised bed, behind the pole bean trellis. This does mean they do not get maximum light, once the beans start being tall enough (around early July), but they still get plenty of sunlight. And I hope having protection from the hot, mid-day sun will help prolong their life a bit. They don't like summer heat too much!

Sugar snap peas are one of the main reasons I garden. I looooooove how fresh garden peas taste! I eat them fast enough, they usually don't make it into the house!

They're also super easy to collect seeds from, which I do regularly to share with others, as well as for me to use next year. As the bottoms of the plants start to dry out, leave a handful of each variety of pods on the stems to dry out, too. Leave the stems & pods until they're completely dried, and then store in a cool, dark place for pea seeds for the following season!

Success? Fermenting Garlic

Sunday, April 18, 2021

I was intrigued by FoodInJArs' Seer Torshi, or longterm fermented garlic. The description sounds ?good? So, anyways, several months later here we are! I ended up using a large portion of my hardneck garlic harvest here, maybe about 12 heads of garlic! The cloves that weren't a good size got thrown into a mini batch of hot water bath pickled garlic.

First, the garlic must ferment in the vinegar, honey, salt solution for ~2 weeks.

And then the garlic must age on the shelf for 1+ years, without any hot water bath canning. The vinegar + fermentation process should keep the bacteria at bay. I also like to wipe off some of the salt from the rim of the jars at this stage so it doesn't corrode the plastic lid.

A few months later, this stuff smells potent when opened! Here's to hoping in 7 months it all turns out well!

Success? Diced Tomatoes

Friday, December 18, 2020

Saved up 6lbs of Little Mama Tomatoes for FoodInJars' Diced Tomatoes recipe. Super simple. Just peeled, chopped tomatoes with a bit of lemon juice. I fekt like this format was the most versatile and easy as they can just be plopped right into a veggie sautee, or can be simmered on their own with spices to make more of a sauce. Easy peasy. Let's hope they taste as good as they look! (I actually snuck in 1-2 Cherokee Purple tomatoes that were super ripe as well, but you don't want to add too much slicing tomato as it increases the water content considerably over paste tomatoes).

If these go well, I think I might consider growing 2 paste tomato plants next year!

I actually made this recipe twice, once in late summer, once in early autumn. So now there's 11 pints of diced tomatoes!