What are you eating from your garden in 2016

[HoneyBerry]

I'm harvesting honeyberries today. A small harvest but they are so good.
Can't buy these in the store, so they are extra special. I didn't have to use any pesticides or herbicides, so they are 100% organically grown. They are naturally pest free and easy to grow. And the birds and bunnies haven't been stealing any. I don't know why I am so lucky.

[HoneyBerry]

Here is a picture of some of the berries still on the branches:

[applestar]

I've been thinking about getting honey berries since they started featuring them rather prominently in catalogs. The 2nd photo with the blue berries is what I'm used to seeing.

Why are the harvested berries so uh brown(?) looking?? That's when they are ripe?

[HoneyBerry]

It's just a bad picture. They look much better in real life. I think the bright yellow bowl did something to the camera color sensor. They are actually very blue, similar to blueberries. They are sooooooo good. I can't believe they are pest free. They are easy to grow.

[HoneyBerry]

Here's a better picture but they still look even better in real life.
The berries have a whitish-gray sheen to them, like how blueberries are.

[rainbowgardener]

Dinner last night was "crispy, cream braised potato and fennel," with a fennel bulb from the garden. It could have been also new potatoes from the garden, but I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice them. And of course a big garden salad with mixed greens, sugar snap peas, baby broccoli (side shoots). Oh yum! We eat so well this time of year....

[jnunez918]

Decent harvest today for my tiny backyard garden

[Lindsaylew82]

Birdlover, how long did it take your plant to start producing?

[HoneyBerry]

I didn't really keep track, but I think a couple of years and then each year the bushes have grown bigger, so now after about 5 years, I have some good size bushes producing lots of berries.
The berries have an amazing wild flavor.
You should plant 2 or more different honeyberry varieties. They need to cross pollinate. I have Blue Forest and Blue Moon.

[applestar]

I'm going to look into honey berries, too. Thanks for the info!

I'm harvesting and eating all kinds of greens, but my DD's are mostly interested in these. I'm picking about this much twice a day right now.


The elongated ones have been producing first. No idea which variety this is, though I originally thought it was Sweet Charley. Wild strawberries are trickling in, and big one is starting -- I think this is SeaScape. All the varieties are all poised for mass ripening, which will happen soon since we're going to get some hot days.

[HoneyBerry]

The picture of the honeyberries in the white bowl look better if you zoom in.
I am using just a cell phone camera, so the picture quality is not as good as what I get from my other camera.
I am thinking about propogating honeyberry plants, at least give it a try.
I guess birds love honeyberries, but they haven't noticed mine.

Apple, your strawberries look wonderful. I have some wild strawberry plants but they don't produce much. I'd rather have just one of those wild strawberries than a whole box of store bought strawberries.

[HoneyBerry]

Some of my honeyberries had twins. About 10 per bush.

[Lindsaylew82]

Wierd!

Are they wrinkled?

[HoneyBerry]

Not wrinkled, just unique.
They get wrinkled when they get old and dehydrated, the ones that weren't picked and die on the vine.

[MichaelC]

So far, naught but a handful of sugar snap peas and also the unexpected handful of cherries. But nectarines, beans and container carrots are soon ahead, hopefully cukes as well.

[Meatburner]

I posted this on another forum but thought to share here as well. This is about a daily event right now. The dwarf bok choy and spinach are getting close to bolting but the leaf lettuce mix and radishes are onions are holding in there. I love this stuff!

[rainbowgardener]

Last night we had one last spinach omelet and I pulled all the spinach. It also had a green onion from the garden. Tonight we are grilling but with the grilled meats (and non-meats! ) we are having purslane potato salad (I posted the recipe for it) with purslane AND new potatoes from my garden! And of course a green salad. Lettuce, chard, kale, cabbage are still going strong. I have tons of sugar snap peas (and some of the regular peas could be picked) and baby broccoli (side shoots)/

[MichaelC]

Hi Rainbow -

Rather than start a thread, I've got a follow up question for you regarding the sugar snap peas. This is my second year growing them, and an issue I had last year has come up again. Many of the peas grow extremely thin, like snow peas, and never fatten up. Any idea what the problem is?

[applestar]

Not rainbow, but were these saved seeds or seeds from a vendor? Could they have been mixed up?

When I harvest, I toss the edible podded peas together in a same container, and separately harvest the shelling peas. If there are overgrown/overmature peas, it's theoretically possible to mix them (snow peas and snap peas) when saving them as seeds for planting next season. Personally, I don't care since pods develop very differently and are easy to tell apart when growing. Maybe show us some pictures.

[applestar]

Not harvesting them yet, but I thought these were fun pictures because the menu jumps out at you --



LEFT: Broccoli and Potatoes (under the row cover) side dishes
TOP-RT: sautéed Broccoli and Snap Peas
BOTTOM-RT: creamed new Potatoes and Peas

[rainbowgardener]

My first ripe tomato! That cherry tomato that I showed blushing was now dead ripe. I just picked it and popped it in my mouth. Sweet and tart!, yum, yum!

[applestar]

Mmm.... Sounds great!

I'm eating steamed broccoli -- I harvested a whole bunch today -- along with shredded Bibb lettuce and radish slices in a Korean cold soba noodle soup.

[rainbowgardener]

Last night's dinner was broccoli and pea soup with broccoli, peas, and basil from the garden. It also had potato, onion, garlic in it. It could have had new potatoes and green onion from the garden, but I didn't want to sacrifice them. Next year!

That was about the last of the peas; I am getting ready to pull them and replant.

[KitchenGardener]

Last night was salad of mixed lettuces and baby beet greens with baby beets, sliced raw snow peas, and thinly sliced baby onion from garden. On top, goat cheese and toasted slivered almonds (give me more time and I can grow those too! )

And I realize this is no fun without pics, so next time, photos before I dive in and eat!

[applestar]

Well, I thought about taking picture of my soup last night but decided not to Haha -- it was basically a creamed/blended kale (Red Russian -- leaves and kale-raab) and loose leaf bok choi (Osaka Shirona) and Komatsuna soup - made with left over take-out from Philippine restaurant chicken on skewers with BBQ sauce (removed from skewers), chopped King oyster mushroom, shallot, sautéed in butter and EVOO, then chicken broth and the greens -- lots of greens cooked until done -- then blended until smooth. Yum!

[kayjay]

My first garden treat of the year! Salad with 'Grand Rapids' lettuce I grew.

[rainbowgardener]

My lettuce is getting ready to bolt, so we are eating it as fast as we can. I don't know any ways to preserve lettuce; it seems pretty ephemeral. Broccoli is being very productive with side heads (baby broccoli in the grocery stores). Kale and cabbage and chard are going strong, though the kale and cabbage are under attack by slugs, which didn't seem affected by the sluggo type stuff I bought.
Cherry tomatoes are ripening a few each day now. The first of the regular tomatoes is blushing.

Basil is coming out my ears! I just went out and picked enough to stuff a gallon zip lock. And that's after we have had pesto dinner twice and I have frozen enough for three more dinners. And that is just from the plants on the deck. There's more out front I didn't get to. Harvested and dried a bunch more chamomile and a bunch of oregano. We had a garden party Sunday and I made two pitchers of mojitos from my mint plant.

We are going out of town June 9 -13 so I am trying to get everything ready to coast on its own. A little challenging since it will be sunny, 95 degrees (!) and ZERO chance of rain the whole time we are gone. I will water thoroughly the day before and hope for the best. I'm busy renewing all the mulch and adding it to beds that hadn't been mulched yet, to help conserve moisture.

[Lindsaylew82]

We got a HUGE take and bake cheese pizza prom Costco and topped it with stuff from the garden! A large green Marconi pepper, fresh basil, halved cherry tomatoes, shaved baby purple onions, and some mushrooms we got from our local co-op! It was SO MUCH better than plain cheese pizza!

Big Kid pulled a full on gag........but she don't know no good. Why do kids dislike veggies so much!?!

[digitS']

I remember looking at a study of teenagers and diet. Way low on recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Something like 50% of those kids would not rate even 1 serving if pizza wasn't counted.

In the US, making one's own decisions is the first order of business for the new adult, or aspiring adult. Defiance is easy.

With girls, "do you want to be a good mother, someday?" That might just give them pause. A one line encouragement to "look up" ~ spinal bifida in newborns ~ could set them on a course of responsible behavior.

Children's seem to love fresh carrots. They often eat them readily - almost before you can get the dirt rinsed off them. Memories linger into adulthood. What am I eating from the garden ... carrots!

Steve

[Lindsaylew82]

This morning I made an omelette with basil and the last late-to-the-party asparagus. I've let most of them go to fern.
It was delicious. Big Kid proclaimed it's gag worthiness at the suggestion of me making her one, but ate several bites of mine all the same. Omelettes are about as cool as veggies on pizza....

I try and give her the ol' 1,2, future-mommy-guilt-trip-punch! Hahahaha! It will get her thinking! Until the last month or so, she was a very GOOD eater! Ahhh, but the impending 5th birthday make healthy foods lame and "deeegustin".

I do not fear my child going hungry. She's get loads of crappy food at her government run food grant school...I'm not allowed to pack her lunch yet.! I'm the parent that has zero extra time, and catering to an almost 5 year old who all of a sudden can't stand decent healthy fare, brings about a nice choice of, "You can go to be hungry, if you'd rather not eat!"

She does love carrots though! And cherry tomatoes! I have some carrot seeds to start in the fall.

[applestar]

For breakfast, we had broccoli (and some kale raab) in scrambled eggs -- I say scrambled, but I walked away and the eggs solidified before I got back so I guess sort of unfolded omelette -- with Swiss cheese melted in and dried dill from last year. (This year's dill is still growing).

For lunch, I made cold fresh Korean buckwheat/soba noodles from H-mart refrigerated noodle section. After cooking and ice-watering, Kids ate with just nori folded and cut into slivers with scissors with the bottled soba noodle sauce (too lazy to make from scratch and we found a brand we like), but I made mine into cold soba noodle SALAD with bottom half of the bowl filled with shredded Bibb lettuce, then the top half of the bowl filled with iced cooked soba noodles, then a mound of -- I think this was either French Breakfast or Bunnytail -- radish sliced into slivers (pretty mound of translucent white and magenta), minced carrot greens, Purple Passion asparagus and garlic chives blanched in the noodle cooking pot, then chilled in the ice water with the noodles -- garlic chives were chopped fine and asparagus was thinly sliced diagonally, and THEN topped with nori slivers and sauce poured over the top like dressing. OH Yum!

[digitS']

I didn't realize that the Big Kid was only going on 5, I thought more like 15

Okay, I know I had the "your body is not just your own" guilt laid on me as a kid, and I'm a guy! It's what you get from some Christian denominations ...

Asparagus and a 5 year-old?! Hey, I don't know that I'd ever eaten a tomato that was smaller than a 5 year-old's fist, or had one offered to me, until I was an adult.
Honestly, I don't think we had what kids would consider "attractive" tomatoes until the advent of both supermarkets and better lighting. At first, however, we'd wandered around the aisles and compare our blue skin color. Until they both came together, the produce department didn't present the bright colors and interesting displays it has today. I'm not sure if the produce itself looked much better than what was thrown over the corral fence into a feed trough. On the other hand, the green grocer of today looks like he's walking through the pages of a coloring book!

Noodles! I've said it before on the forum, noodles have the most responsibility for increasing my daily servings of greens!

My "greens" for lunch today ... are a little purple! No, not back to Purple Orach! I'm having beet greens ... with chicken sausage ...

Steve

[Lindsaylew82]

Oh! We had beets! And she does still like those!!! (For the moment....) I roasted them with EVOO! Red pee for everyone!!!

[Gary350]

We are eating Garlic, oregano, and parsley.

[Lindsaylew82]

I ate the little white ones right there. They pair well with Oatmeal Porter.

[digitS']

Beets. I like them right down to the thinnings, when it's difficult to come up with a single serving. That's okay with DW. She is suspicious of the color of red beets. She's coming around, tho. That took growing white beets in the 2015 garden, golden beets in years previous, didn't help. Oh, and she has learned over the years living with me, that the purple stains on the dinner plates will actually wash off with soapy water. That must have helped .

We've had red beets for weeks. The whites may have had a tougher time with the unusual spring heat. Anyway, they showed up yesterday.

While we are eating, DW said, "the red ones have a little better flavor." Could have knocked me over with a feather! She has eaten enough of the reds to have an opinion. I tried to stay cool, "which do you prefer?" Perplexed expression on her face. Quickly changing tack, "the whites are okay, aren't they?" "Yeah ..." Perplexed turned to puzzled ...

Steve
golden beets next

[imafan26]

I made chili with the bell pepper from my garden. I still have chayote and I picked a Meyer lemon. I haven't figured out what I am going to do with it just yet.

[rainbowgardener]

OMG!! The season of abundance is here. Tonight we ate SWEET CORN!! AND potatoes!! And tomatoes!

It was charcoal grill night. So we grilled the first three sweet corn ears in their husks. (Actually the corn probably would have filled out more, left to grow a couple more days, but it was tender and juicy and delicious.) Roasted the potatoes in foil on the grill with a little bit of olive oil and some garden herbs put in the pack. The tomatoes went in the garden salad, along with a bunch of baby broccoli, the last of the sugar snap peas, chard, kale, mixed lettuces. We had a cole slaw with garden cabbage and a couple of garden jalapeno peppers.

Life is good!

[digitS']

Snap peas, flowering bok choy and en chiffonade Portuguese kale ..

. all in the same lunch . (en chiffonade is the correct term for a Portuguese leafy green, right?)

Oh, and there was some thinly sliced beef, bacon and minor ingredients to go with the veggies over rice.

Steve

[sunflower13]

We are harvesting green onions, radishes and raspberries right now. I need to go picking at a local farm for some other things. I have more things growing but won't be ready for awhile.