If you propagated your basil from cuttings like I did this year, no doubt you have a boatload of basil to contend with. Here are some recipes that go beyond the norm and help that basil last throughout the year.
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Growing Basil from Cuttings
June 28, 2012 by 12 Comments
It’s a great day when you get to work with people you like and admire and today is one of those days! Steve Asbell from The Rainforest Garden is an amazingly talented illustrator so when he asked if I’d be interested in collaborating on an DIY post I jumped at the chance. To see more of Steve’s work check out his illustrations board on Pinterest.
First Harvest of September
September 6, 2010 by 9 Comments
It’s harvest season. There are piles of produce filling my fridge, tabletop, counters, bootroom and basement. I have bags and bowls and boxes of fresh food overtaking the house, overflowing the allotted foodstuff spaces, making it so I need to step over it all to just get through a doorway. It’s definitely harvest season.
Here is what I’ve harvested from my community garden and home gardens. While I don’t grow a lot of any one thing, I grow a few of a lot of things. Over 100 varieties of edibles making this definitive season of plenty.
From my community garden plot:
- Potatoes: Red Chief, mystery white variety
- Tomatoes: Black Russian and La Roma
- Beans: Kentucky Wonder Brown, Kentucky Wonder Wax, Fortex Filet, Orca, and Purple Peacock
- Grapes
- Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas (the last of them this week due to powdery mildew taking over)
- Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden
- Squash: Small Wonder spaghetti, yellow spaghetti, Little October pumpkins
From my home garden:
- Tomatoes: Siletz, La Roma, Green Zebra, Red Zebra, Sungold Cherry, Sweetheart Grape, Isis Candy, Gold Nugget, Patio, and Moneymaker. I recently saw a recipe for roasting them in a dutch oven and now I have one on my kitchen gadget wish list along with a food strainer for making roasted tomato sauce.
- Green onions
- Italian Prune Plums
- Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden
- Fairy Tale eggplant
- Basil: Organic Sweet Basil, Thai Basil
- Peppers: Filius Blue, Thai Dragon, and Garden Salsa
- Aunt Molly’s ground cherries
- Wild arugula and lettuce
- Rainbow chard
- Soybeans
I took some time this week to reflect on this abundance and the colder months to come. While the days are long and busy now, I’m growing as tired as my plants are from a healthy growing season. But the glut of produce is available now to enjoy. The rainbow of colours and fresh flavours will soon be a fond memory so I best savour this season. With these thoughts I planted my winter seeds and regained my energy for picking and packing away summer’s bounty.
thanks to Daphne’s Dandelions for hosting another wonderful Harvest Monday.
Harvesting in Early August
August 9, 2010 by 8 Comments
This month my neighbours and I have more growing than we can harvest and eat so there is quite a bit of food sharing going around. Almost daily I get a delivery of somthing, like a giant bowl of fresh figs, that I turn into some lucious creation. I have also now organized a farm fresh egg delivery in my city neighbourhood and been out picking wild berries – all making for a crazy first few weeks in August.
I’m currently harvesting the following veg from my home garden and the community garden plot:
Beans: Purple Peacock, French Filet
Peas: MammothMelting Snow Peas
Tomatoes: Black Russian, Siletz, Sweetheart Grape, Gold Nugget Cherry, Sungold Cherry, Isis Candy Cherry, Red Zebra, Tumbler
Sema Fino Florence Fennel
Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden
Chard: Rainbow, Fordhook Giant, Rhubarb
Peppers: Filius Blue, Garden Salsa
Basil: Organic Sweet Basil, Thai Basil
Squash: one Gold Nugget was ready at the community garden
Potatoes: Red Chief, French Fingerlings
All this has made for some interesting recipes like carmelized figs, fig ginger jam, walnut pesto, and mixed veggies ragu. I’ll be sure to share very soon. If I can get out of the kitchen long enough. help.
