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.
August 09 2010 | Community Garden and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 8 Comments »
This week the first slicer tomatoes ripened suddenly. I grow these Siletz organic seeds because they are dependably early on the coast and will withstand cooler temperatures so they can be set out in April. They are nice tidy shrubs with about 8-12 large tomatoes each ripening right now, and hopefully a long and productive season ahead. I have 3 plants at the house and one at the community garden plot.
The toms were amazing with fresh basil and some olive sourdough I made from my starter.
There are many peppers ready to be eaten green (or purple as with the Filius Blue peppers), some are picked to encourage more flowers, and the others will get left to allow the peppers to turn red and spicy.
There are still lots of blueberries on the shrubs out front, and now that I have divided my yellow alpine strawberries into a lot more room, I’m getting heaps of those as well (thanks for the advice, Laura!) And with all the kale growing at the community garden, I just had to have more kale chips.
I thinned out a bunch of small beets this week for both the sauteed greens and the roots. I’m growing at least 4 types this year: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden.
It has also been a big week for flower harvests. With so many cutting blooms growing, my house is filled with colour both inside and out. The crocosmia below is one of my favourites – both the firey orange crocosmia and the larger upright lucifer crocosmia look just a good indoors as outside from my hammock.
July 26 2010 | Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 14 Comments »
I call this orzotto because it’s a creamy risotto-type dish. It’s as fast and easy as it is delicious.
Ingredients:
- 4 fresh Italian sausages
- 2 cups dry orzo (I use kamut but whole wheat would be great too)
- 3 cloves garlic – crushed
- 4 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup sliced pitted green olives
- 1 cup green beans
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh parmesan
Directions: Put a large pot of water on the stove for the orzo and set to high.
Add garlic and olive oil into a heavy bottomed skillet and set on medium high until sizzling. Add whole cherry tomatoes (I used the frozen ones from my summer harvest and put them right in frozen), chopped green beans and the sliced olives. Simmer until the juices release and ‘pop’ the cherry tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Score sausage casings and add sausages whole to the pan. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer.
When the orzo water is boiling, make orzo according to package directions. Cook until el dente—do not overcook. When sausages are cooked through, remove from pan and set aside to rest. Drain orzo and ladle into the skillet. Stir over low heat until the liquid gets absorbed into the pasta. Add salt, pepper and olive oil to taste.
To serve, ladle orzotto into a pasta bowl and grate fresh parmesan over top. Slice the sausage and serve over the orzotto. Serves 4.
Summer's Tomato Bounty
January 08 2010 | Harvest and Recipes | 2 Comments »
At the end of June I posted a summary of my 2008 Topsy Turvy failure and my 2009 outline for success in Topsy Turvy: Ugly as Stink But Good Tomatoes.
And a sucess it was! In August and September, I have had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. It’s mid- September, and they are still going strong. I walk by and pick a few off for snacks, cook some, freeze some, dry some, and give them away and still I have tons leftover.
So now I spend my rockin’ weekends putting them by in various ways. These Sweet Heart Grape Heirlooms are so sweet and meaty that I just couldn’t bear freezing them. So the lucky fellas got oven-dried overnight and will be preserved in olive oil for pizzas and pasta.
September 19 2009 | Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest | No Comments »
Ingredients:
- grape or cherry tomatoes
- coarse salt
- olive oil
- fresh herbs
Directions:
Wash, dry and half the tomatoes. Arrange tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Dry in the oven at 175 degrees F for 6-8 hours. After you have done it a few times, you’ll know how long it takes and you may be able to leave them overnight safely. I find mine take about 8-hours. Pack into a jar with some fresh herbs & olive oil. Refridgerate and start enjoying. Note: these aren’t meant for long term storage, so eat ‘em up (like that will be hard).
September 19 2009 | Growing Food and Harvest and Recipes | No Comments »
I grew Topsy Turvy Tomatoes last year on my garage. I put 2 tomato plants (as they recommended) in each of my 3 planters and got only about 15 cherry tomatoes and 4 regular tomatoes. I also tried a zucchini plant which didn’t grow any fruit. I think that there were a number of factors working against me last year: weather, soil, type of tomato, staking, and watering.
Here is how I did it differently this year:
Weather: Last year it was a cold and rainy summer, this year, so far it has been warm and sunny.
Soil: Last year I used coconut coir and topsoil with a bit of manure, this year I have used ½ compost from my garden, 1/2 organic vegetable mix, and a handful of complete organic fertilizer for each planter.
Tomato bounty from upside down planters (cherry) & early coast plants (Siletz) from front flower beds
Type of Tomato: Last year I used 2 types of cherry tomato and a beefsteak. This year I bought tomato seeds meant for containers because they produce on small plants (Tumbler Cherry, Sweet Heart Grape tomatoes, and Gold Nugget Cherry). I still have 2 tomato plants in each planter, but this is working a whole lot better this year. The Tumbler is setting a lot of fruit, and the gold nugget is nice and bushy with small leaves. The only one that is too leggy and not setting fruit yet is the Sweet Heart Grape. I got these all at West Coast Seeds.
Staking: Last year the tomatoes grew up towards the sun then got heavy or wind blown and the main stalk would break or crack. This year, I’ve staked the plants downwards.
Watering: last year I would water from the top of the planter as recommended, and the water would run right through, taking all the soil nutrients with it and getting soil all over the leaves and fruit. This year I have put pop bottle watering spikes filled with sand to slow release the water over 12 hours.
The result: so far so good. After a sunny and average temperature June, I have lots of little tomatoes and steady healthy growth. No yellowing or drooping, the leaves are bright green, and they are setting fruit in healthy clusters. My next step will be pruning them. And the final step? Bruchetta, and salad, and salsa, and pasta, and omelets, and…
June 30 2009 | Gardening and Growing Food and Photography and Projects | 4 Comments »
