What are you eating from your garden in 2016

[imafan26]

I thought I would start a fresh thread for this year.

Today I harvested a pak choy from the community garden and sauteed it with some garlic bacon and sweet chili sauce for lunch. I have a couple of cherokee tomatoes on the counter, a suyo cucumber and manoa lettuce for a salad. I have napa grape tomatoes and sunsugar on the vines and poamoho beans every couple of day.

I am harvesting beans and broccoli side shoots. The onions have flowered and I have tiny onions forming. I have started to pick off the flower heads. Unfortunately the green onions bloomed too.

[Lindsaylew82]

Today. For lunch we had a big salad of red kale, rocket, red and green oak leaf lettuce and baby beet greens with radishes. All the other stuff in it was store purchased.

Tonight we had rigatoni with basil pesto and grilled asparagus.

[j3707]

So far, mostly kale blended into green drinks. Also, a nice spinach salad with bacon.

Oh...I had some runt broccoli plants with snack sized heads. The first home grown broccoli I've had and very tasty.

[imafan26]

Yeah, broccoli takes a long time to produce but once it does mine makes a lot of side shoots, I can't keep up with it all. It really makes a difference to have a firm crisp broccoli straight from the garden. I don't notice all that much difference in taste except maybe the one in the garden is stronger, but really big difference in texture and crispness.

[applestar]

Green onions, overwintered kale, baby spinach/lettuce/radish thinnings and leaves, ostrich fern fiddle heads, violet blossoms, asparagus, overwintered white alpine strawberries, overwintered hot peppers, chervil....

[digitS']

Not wanting to be left out ...

I suppose making soup and including the last parsnip from 2015 doesn't count ... If we are under the Hunger Moon in February would parsnips save us? Right through that full moon and, at least, 2 more, I'd say! Celeriac has lasted right through spring if it hasn't been used up with the potatoes in January ... potatoes never get beyond January's full moon in my less than ideal storage conditions. Crisper drawer conditions for the parsnips, usually.

Probably the Asian greens in the winter greenhouse and those set out under the plastic film covering 2 garden beds does not count, either. Plenty of stir-fries ... oh, and lots of lettuce from seed, lately.

About 3 weeks ago, our outdoor harvest season began as it has in recent years with scrambled eggs and lots of chives .

Only the last 2 years have I left kale to overwinter. Yes, it was very tender and sweet. We had the leaves several times in April before pulling the plants to cultivate the soil.

Volunteer purple orach was finally ready in sufficient supply, last week. I'm not sure why there were so few plants of the purple orach this season. There is red orach in another location but it gets lots of shade there. I'm waiting but questioning the wisdom of allowing the plants to go to seed there in 2015. I like the mother plants to be in an out of the way location but the sun is only now making a broad enough arc so that sunlight reaches that bed very early and late in the day.

Onions from sets soon but the protected-growing lettuce is playing out and the garden lettuce is still tiny ... I think I had better wait a couple weeks before coming back to this thread.

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

You all are doing well! So far just salad greens and herbs: kale, spinach, swiss chard, lettuces, broccoli and cabbage leaves. I put violet leaves and blossoms in the salad as well. Nasturtiums I planted from seed (direct sown in the ground) are just now getting big enough that I can steal a leaf here and there. Herbs that are big enough to snip include: oregano, basil, french tarragon, sage, parsley, dill, fennel, bee balm, lemon balm, lemon thyme, mint. I put herbs in the salads too, makes it very flavorful!

[jal_ut]

Getting some asparagus shoots.

[Taiji]

Only some kale, (overwintered, the dwarf curled kind) and some new green onions from this year. I only wish I had overwintered more of the brassica stuff.
About to get some rhubarb after moving it into my enclosure safe from the clutches of the javelina! They ravaged it last year.

[Vanisle_BC]

Just uprooted my Red Russian kale (stems like tree trunks!) but for about the previous week we were snacking on its flower buds - delicious!

[HoneyBerry]

Honeyberries! I planted them about 5 years ago. The are big and bushy now. The berries are early, just like everything else. I am picking them today. I just have a small harvest.
My vegetable garden this year is very small - 3' x 3' with one tomato plant, which is a San Marzano, an organically started heirloom. I don't have time for a big garden this year. I usually have too many things going, and feel overwhelmed, so it is big for me to admit that I don't have time for a vegetable garden thus year. That's been a goal of mine, to be more realistic so that I don't get so overwhelmed.

Honeyberries are on the right. Rhodies beyond are in full bloom. California Lilac and California Poppies are on the left. The picture doesn't look as nice as reality.

My one tomato plant - San Marzano heirloom - it is small, has a ways to go before the fruit is ready

[Allyn]

Green beans -- lots of green beans -- some tomatoes, lots of lettuce. I'm on my third or fourth rotation of lettuce, both leaf and head, though I have to move my lettuce tubs to a shadier spot or they won't last much longer. I have parsley and par-cel that I've been using in the kitchen. I wasn't sure about the par-cel, but I have two nice-sized plants now and I'm really liking it. It's way too hot down here for celery and the par-cel is filling that spot nicely in the kitchen.

[KitchenGardener]

Lettuce (on my second planting), radishes, snow peas, english peas, broccoli (sadly, I'm on my second to last head, and hope I hurry up and get some side shoots), and green onions (now that the days are longer, hopefully they'll finally start to bulb up). My problem is that I am so impatient - I can't wait for the radishes to get big! My carrots are taking forever. Baby beets will hopefully be ready within a week. Oh, and a bunch of herbs - parsley, thyme, tarragon, sage, garlic chives, chives, oregano, rosemary. My basil and cilantro plants are coming along and are almost big enough for me to steal some leaves.

I had a friend over this weekend and made a sparkling tarragon lemonade - it was really good and everything was home grown, except for the gin and the sugar!

[rainbowgardener]

RE: made a sparkling tarragon lemonade - it was really good and everything was home grown, except for the gin and the sugar!

Sounds wonderful! Recipe please!

[KitchenGardener]

Am I allowed to post a link to a cooking website?