2014 What did you eat from your garden today?

[lakngulf]

Two nights in a row now we have had a "Coosa County" supper (you have to call it supper in coosa county, Alabama). Each night we had fresh green beans, fried squash, slice tomatoes and pepper. First night we had catfish and bream I had caught that day, second night we had pepper steak with venison backstrap from deer harvested on the property.

Was good!

[Lindsaylew82]

Yummy!

[imafan26]

Nothing from my garden. But I got gifted a bag full of cucumbers that I spread around to friends and neighbors and I still have 5 left.

[mattie g]

My parents were in town last night, so one of the things my wife put together for dinner was a gorgeous-looking salad made up of a bed of lettuce topped with fresh Jersey Devil tomatoes, ovoline mozzarella, and 25-year aged balsamic. Wow...

[applestar]

...did I mention cucumbers?

...eating fresh every day plus at least 6 jars of refrigerator pickles so far (one of them has been consumed and re-packed already) and planning a couple more -- a relish and a Japanese sweet and crunchy pickle recipes. But if this keeps up I'm going to have to make some water bath bottled pickles.

[NancyJo]

Applestar that looks so lovely!! I love cukes but I can not grow them here, they just sprout and that is it. I have tried and tried different things but no luck. So I just buy them at the farmers market.

I picked summer squash and beets and a few radishes. It has been a slow growing season so far up here.

[lakngulf]

I did NOT have any of this corn. Animals beat me to it, and had corn stalks scattered for 150 yards

[NancyJo]

I hate that when it happens to me, do you know what it was? can you trap it to relocate ?

[lakngulf]

I hate that when it happens to me, do you know what it was? can you trap it to relocate ?

This garden is at the land I hunt. I plant to bring in wildlife so not so upset when they take over.

[sheeshshe]

I am currently eating kale chips, from kale from my garden! I got smart this year and covered the kale in tulle fabric. No worms! WOOP! finally can eat kale in the comfort of my home LOL

[jal_ut]

Crookneck squash, green pepper, green beans, peas, onion, garlic. Cooked it all up in a stir fry.

[rainbowgardener]

Me too! Dinner last night was a veggie stir fry almost all from my garden: onions, garlic, herbs, parsley, carrots, celery, bell pepper, chili pepper, tomato, plus summer squash from farmer's market and zucchini my neighbor gifted me with (she can grow it because she has a farm down in KY). Threw in some tofu for protein and that was dinner! The tofu and salt and pepper were the only non-local ingredients.

[pinksand]

Last night we grilled veggies including my very first red bell pepper, first yellow squash, and mint for mojitos. Most of my tomatoes are getting nasty from bacterial spec, but I was able to salvage one to add to my homemade guacamole. Most of the veggies were store purchased, but I was proud of being able to supplement with some of my own! This is the first time I've successfully grown something that made it to the table, so it was an exciting moment for me!

[Lindsaylew82]

This is the first time I've successfully grown something that made it to the table, so it was an exciting moment for me!

WOOHOO!!!!

[Juliuskitty]

A 2 lb mango, 2 starfruit, a very small pineapple, 15 okra cut up and will be roasted for dinner.

[skiingjeff]

We're eating peppers, green beans, snow peas (still - amazing), kohlrabi and yellow squash, and squash, and squash.....

All my neighbors are eating my squash as well! I guess we over planted this year. Even though I had the same number of plants of the same variety last year, we didn't get the production like this year. So we'll be eating squash for awhile

So next year I'll cut the number of plants in half and I'll probably be buying squash.....lol

[applestar]

We ate a watermelon!
It was put in the refrigerator "to chill" at least 3-4 days ago, but DH had a really busy week and couldn't sit down to enjoy it so we've been waiting.

It was very juicy and delicious all the way to the rind. I normally don't eat watermelons to the white part, stopping sometimes well within the pink, but this one I found myself scraping all the way out. So yum.

[lakngulf]

My alias indicates my two favorite locations = Lake and Gulf. We are at the gulf for a couple weeks now and I brought lots of garden produce with me. Put up a few packages of tomato and okra. Also, I used some fresh tomatoes, okra, pepper and onion, added fresh Gulf Shrimp, to make this:



Can't call it real seafood gumbo because I cannot make the roux, but it is pretty good. I call it ShrimpBo

[applestar]

If I could just stick a spoon in through the screen.... looks yummy!

[Lindsaylew82]

I made a rub out of smoked paprika, garlic, chives, salt, pepper, ripe jalapeño, olive oil, and lime juice. All blended up smooth. I put it on pork loin this morning, and grilled it this evening. We had it with tomato, basil, garlic evoo salad served on grilled toast. It was yum! I had to stop myself with the tomato salad on toast. It one of my favorites things on the planet to eat.

We are settling down for the evening, and I made herbal tea with (purple!!!) Bee Balm, Pineapple Sage, Peppermint, Spearmint, and some store bought chamomile. I'll stir in some local honey I got from our farmer's market!

[rainbowgardener]

next year, grow the chamomile too! It is easy and mine was very productive this year.

Looks nice!

My dinner was cabbage and potato soup, with potatoes and carrots from my garden as well as parsley and lots of herbs and some of my Anaheim peppers for a little extra zing. The soup is blended (I love my little immersion blender!) so it gives you that thick, richness from all low-cal ingredients. I have leftovers for a couple more meals.

[applestar]

I guess that means you figured out which ones are the Anaheim peppers

[Lindsaylew82]

I haven't found a spot that chamomile is happy here! I've tried it every year for 4 years, and it dies after just a few weeks...

Does it come back once established?

[kayjay]

Yesterday, I had my first Brandywine tomato. I can see what all the fuss is about now. It was so delicious. I can't believe that ugly, cracked, unevenly-ripened tomato was that delicious. I'll definitely grow these again next year.

I also made a batch of cooked salsa, and some salsa cruda. Both are amazing. So nice with fresh produce right off the plant. Next year, I'll have to grow my own cilantro.

In my picture are the salsa cruda and zucchini chips made from a big zucchini a family friend gave us. I just sliced it up and put it in the dehydrator overnight.

[kayjay]

My dinner was cabbage and potato soup, with potatoes and carrots from my garden as well as parsley and lots of herbs and some of my Anaheim peppers for a little extra zing. The soup is blended (I love my little immersion blender!) so it gives you that thick, richness from all low-cal ingredients. I have leftovers for a couple more meals.

I love my immersion blender, too! My favorite comfort food in fall and winter is basically any pulverized soup. A lot of people are turned off by that texture, but I love it. Lentil soup and winter squash/pumpkin soup are my go-tos. I like them with either curry or sage. Thick creamy tomato soups work, too.

[rainbowgardener]

I guess that means you figured out which ones are the Anaheim peppers

Not so hard, once they are actually making peppers!

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't found a spot that chamomile is happy here! I've tried it every year for 4 years, and it dies after just a few weeks...

Does it come back once established?

There are two chamomiles, perennial (which is a very low growing ground-coverish plant) and annual (which is on tall stems a couple feet high). I was growing the annual. I haven't had good luck with the perennial, which probably needs more sun than I can give it. I am hoping the annual will self seed a bit for next year, but I don't really know yet.

[Lindsaylew82]

The only kind I've tried is the low growing type. No luck.

[rainbowgardener]

I couldn't grow it either. But try growing the annual kind. It is ridiculously easy to grow from seed (I ended up with way more chamomile than I knew what to do with) and was very productive.

[Wombat]

Dug up some garlic, galangal, and turmeric plus picked some fresh chillies, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass for a yellow Thai curry paste

[JayPoc]

I turned this:



into this:



The maters, peppers, basil, and parsley came from the garden. The meat, carrots, onion, and garlic came from the store....

[applestar]

I'm having an after dinner snack of tortilla chips with fresh Pico de Gallo I made today and Roasted Salsa I finished making today. When I made it, I bought into the idea to put the tomato with skin in the blender, then adding the rest of the ingredients, but found the -not quite completely disappeared- skin irritating, so ran the whole thing in the food mill.

Trying to think what in these DIDN'T come from the garden... Sea salt... Malabar black peppers... cumin seeds... oh and apple cider and balsamic vinegar. I think that's all. I think all of the other herbs and spices (like coriander) were harvested in my garden.

I actually like the food milled texture and may keep the technique, but now, I'll have to try making it without skin and chunky too, so I can compare. I suspect the skin would add some flavor and act as thickener when blended and food milled.

DH had them as appetizer. He liked the fresh salsa which I made using Grandma Oliver's Chocolate, Jersey Devil, and Captain Lucky tomatoes, and substituting cilantro with lime basil since he doesn't like cilantro. But I did use cilantro according to recipe in the roasted salsa... And he detected it right away.

Since he doesn't like it, I think I'll can this batch of roasted salsa in small jelly jars for individual serving.

[rainbowgardener]

As a dieter living on 1000 calories a day, much of what I eat is salad. Made a beautiful salad mostly from the garden, with just a bit of store lettuce for crunch: swiss chard, lots of lemon balm, some other herbs, carrots, celery, parsley, bell pepper, tomatoes, some purslane. Ate two bowls of it (nice thing about salad, as long as you are very careful about dressing, you can eat as much as you want).

My Anaheim peppers are producing like mad. I don't put them in salad, but I do pretty much put them in everything I cook. Last night's dinner was a (vegetarian) minestrone, again mostly from the garden and including the Anaheim peppers.

[Wombat]

I dug up some sweet potatoes to have with dinner and harvested some strawberries

[applestar]

??? Can you grow sweet potatoes year-round there? Isn't it late winter/almost spring for you?

[tomc]

I should be eating pole beans, I am eating cukes.

[sunflower13]

Despite some bugs, I was able to make:
a spaghetti sauce which included tomatoes and herbs from the garden
A cucumber salad which included herbs and cucumbers
Potatoes with chives
So having a fun week with the garden

[Wombat]

??? Can you grow sweet potatoes year-round there? Isn't it late winter/almost spring for you?

I can now, mainly due to the fact we don't get our small dose of frost in July any more.......the vine was planted last year and survived the winter just fine. I left some tubers in the ground and harvested a couple of those. The vine's starting to sprout again too, the soil must be warming up. Yep it's spring next week and I'm busy prepping my beds for the coming warm weather

[valley]

Greetings Wombat, We, up here, are just on the way into fall and you see spring on the horizon. Wondering where in Oz .

Have a great day.

Richard

[Wombat]

Hey Richard
I'm in the northern part of Oz. The Tropic of Capricorn runs through my home state. I think I'm the equivalent of about zone 11 in the US.
Picking the last of my Dutch purple pod peas ( pisum sativum ) from the garden this afternoon to have with dinner.