HelpfulGardener.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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

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!

Getting some asparagus shoots.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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

I'll just go ahead and write it out:

Sparkling Tarragon Gin Lemonade:

10 sprigs of Tarragon
2 lemons, thinly sliced
2 TBS Sugar (or how you like it!)
3/4 cup Gin
3/4 cup St Germain Liqueur (elderflower)
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
12-oz can seltzer or club soda

In a pitcher, muddle the tarragon, lemon slices and sugar. Add gin, St Germain, and lemon juice. Note: the recipe calls for adding the sparkling water with the other liquids, then adding the ice, but I notice the water loses its fizz. So I add ice first, mix everything together, then add the sparkling water to taste. I'm an ice lover, so I add ice to my glass, then fill it with the sparkling lemonade. I hope you like it!

Only homegrown I can eat at the moment is sprouts, the rest is waiting to get going.

Just harvested some loose leaves of Osaka Shirona and Kyoto No.3 -- they looked and felt very tender so I tried laying a piece of a slice of Swiss cheese on the leaves and wrapping a small amount of cooked brown rice/sweet rice/barley/amaranth/quinoa. Very yummy.

...oops, just went to get the links and Kyoto No. 3 isn't a loose leaf type. I guess I shouldn't have robbed those leaves then.

Osaka Shirona
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_345-50.html

Kyoto No. 3
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_009-49.html

Here in zone 5a nothing yet but should have radishes is 2 weeks or so. Beets are about an 1" tall now and I just planted cucumber seeds Wednesday. Everything else, tomatoes, beans, peppers can go in anytime now.

You guys in Hawaii love rubbing it in don't ya? lol

Herbs!

Yesterday I did eat some chives straight. (After washing ahah.) I wanted to see how similar to "onions" they actually were. I don't like eating raw onion "straight" (unless in a salad err like if its outnumbered with other veggies) - actually, when I was younger I think I know my tastebuds got deformed/malformed/developed to an extent they needed reform?

I like raw chives more than I like raw onion apparently!

There's "preferences" then there's... bad taste? Hahah! I HATED every vegetable intensely when I was a child. But it was more than just negative thought? My mouth would kind of reject vegetables? (Oooh how attractive! ) - Whenever I ended up with a veggie accidentally I'd spit it out like it was toxic and then make noises as if I'd been poisoned.

(Blame processed vegetables for that I guess? Eww. Economy-canned budget gray mushrooms and indiscernablely textured mass-in-a-leaky-factory canned green beans were all I knew, and of course that was awful. I remember the first time I had a "real" green bean. I think I wanted to cry thinking, I thought I HATED green beans?!)

How could anyone hate fresh green beans?! They are inherently, in my opinion, delicious! ... whatever that stuff is in a can they call "canned green beans" in the non-frufru grocery story is an abomination. It's not the same animal, it's a sad can of sad creatures in comparison.

(I am not really trying to talk down on canned veggies in particular, just the part where I thought mass-produced canned veggies were what all veggies tasted like and thus I blacklisted vegetables for a good part of my life before seeing the green light of how awesome vegetables are.)

Anyway, as a child, (before the age of 15 when I realized my opinions of food were bent and began to realign my diet with sanity, hah) whenever I encountered a vegetable I'd spit it out. As a reflex. I think I was kind of concerned about this after realizing it wasn't "the right way to be" if I wanted to be healthy?

There used to be a really good diet/pro health diet pro organic eating pro healthy body image pro exercise anti diet pill / anti-"quick fix" pro positive lifestyle change diet forum on Craigslist when I was a teenager amusingly enough. (There used to be an awesome supportive community but then it got taken over by abusive evil trolls and it became the worst thing I ever saw!!!! )

Any any way on that forum, I expressed my concerns, and somebody suggested that in order to combat my silly anti-vegetable gag reflex that I blend all the veggies I didn't like up in a blender and add it to soups and sauces. So I tried it. (What else could I do if I didn't like real food but wanted to eat it without gagging anyway, haha!?)

Something really amazing happened after I began blending the onions and mushrooms and bellpeppers into my sauces and soups (with 5-10 different veggies)... it was like my body realized the VALUE of the NUTRIENTS in all of those foods.

My brain and body in a surprisingly short amount of time overrode all the negative feelings I ever had about all of it. It was if my body in of itself decided, "Oh hey about those mushrooms and onions? We WANT that. Nevermind that whole disgusted deal, okay?! Veggies post haste please!"

Now I love raw mushrooms and bell peppers and I actually do need raw onion on my salads ! I love everything cooked.

It worked so well I now eat mushrooms and onions and bell peppers with every meal. (Or they need to be replaced with other veggies, hah. I know how it feels to have a belly full of plant foods and lean protein and good fats and hydration I can't go back, hah, or don't want to!)

Hah! Any any any way, back to my real life chives and yesterday!

Yesterday I made a lovely egg frittata, and I don't quite have any veggies from the garden yet, next year I am doing winter veg for sure, but I was able to harvest a lovely batch of herbs (as always)

Oooh I have always been an herby girl. ^_^

When I was a little girl, I used to eat mint from the grocery store to feel the tingly feeling. I also ate all the other fresh herbs and have always liked the almost too-strong taste they have if you eat them straight. (Oooh maybe I did always have good taste beneath an awful "culinary upbringing" afterall!? Hah.)

So yesterday I used a little marjoram, greek oregano, italian oregano, and sage and the most of parsley & chives in my frittata. The herbs blended with the store bought spinach impeccably in yummy green patches.

I do this thing I am surprised works so well when I am kind of light on cheese, I add a few dollops of sour cream to the frittata before cooking and before the cheese and it sets/gets solid with the egg and cheese. (I cook my frittatas without cheese and add it at the end, then cook a little more) I have never done it on purpose, hah, but twice now I ran out of cheese making frittatas and used a little [reduced fat] sour cream dappled on top in addition to the cheese. It definitely worked last night.

I would post more/ any recipes BUT

I'm one of those cooks who cooks so much she never uses recipes? Or never makes the same thing the same way ever? I'd almost have to test my own recipes out before I'd post them. Knowing how to cook something and knowing how to tell someone else how to cook something are totally different things, huh?

Okay, so I was obviously exaggerating, I didn't hate ALL veggies if I could mix the 3 I didn't like with 5 I did in a soup or sauce, huh?

But it really feels like they put bell pepper onion and mushrooms in everything these days (and they should, now I do, )

So it really did feel like I hated everything

& on topic,

I also had some wonderful "Chocolate Mint Tea" yesterday

Oh my gosh, chocolate mint tastes so especially amazing

I forget what it was I had on my palate before the tea yesterday? (Shh, it was some herb or something, nothing weird. hah!)

But that mixed with the chocolate mint had such an amazing taste!?

I was all trying to identify what it tasted like and then I had a weird feeling when I answered the question "What does this taste like"

My mind flashed me the response
"This tastes like CHOCOLATE!!!"

"Why does it taste like chocolate of all things!?"

I almost even went as far as to have the thought, maybe,
"Why does my mint taste exactly like chocolate?!"

Then duhhh it occurred to me it WAS
Chocolate Mint
In of itself.

Taa daa, mystery solved.

I think you did great, PinkPetalPolygon. That's what we need, people with strong interest in cooking and the ability to put some extra "human interest" in the recipe!

(Now, try some apple mint, sometime .)

Yes, you probably always did like vegetables if you were eating herbs raw. You just didn't like how they were processed and, maybe, not the varieties used by the food industry.

Altho none of AppleStar's Chinese cabbage, I still have quite a bit of the bok choy in the hoop house and will be in the little veggie garden this afternoon, so can bring home some volunteer orach .

I'm with you, PinkPetalPolygon! Seed for the first 45' row of Jade green beans went into the garden this week. Warm weather came early this year and I'm taking advantage of it! Sweetcorn seed will be next. Half of my tomatoes are at risk to the weather in the big veggie garden. The cucumber and melon plants are coming up in their temporary containers, prior to being set out. When these things begin producing, I'm in gardening heaven ... or, real close to it!!

Steve

Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirl! You bettuh go get you some pineapple sage!!!!

We are having what's left of the asparagus after the beetles took their part.... Lots of cilantro! Lots of basil, parsley thyme, monarda, and marigold blossoms.

Red and green oak leaf lettuces. Rocket, baby romaine, radishes!

Still just eating greens and herbs, but the greens are getting much bigger and more productive. Had a lovely spinach and mushroom omelet this morning, with garden spinach. Now getting to the point where we have to focus on using all the spinach while it lasts!

Most of the tomato plants have baby tomatoes on them, some of the pepper plants have baby peppers, the peas are in full bloom, some of the potato plants are starting to bloom. Broccoli heads are getting bigger. Won't be too long before we have something from the garden to eat besides greens and herbs!

KitchenGardener - thanks for posting the "lemonade" recipe! Sounds nice, except I'm not much of a fan of gin. It might work with rum or vodka also.... or even "virgin"!

rainbowgardener wrote:KitchenGardener - thanks for posting the "lemonade" recipe! Sounds nice, except I'm not much of a fan of gin. It might work with rum or vodka also.... or even "virgin"!

Hey, there are no rules - make it how you like it. I do that all the time, heh, heh, heh!

Finally some dandelions are making flowers! The only part I really like of them, really nice addition to the sallad.

Harvested some bok choy. The cucumbers were over grown and so were some of the lettuce so it is going to be green manure now. I used some green onions yesterday for pork tofu. I am still collecting beans and tomatoes. I even had a couple of strawberries.

I have some chives going, bot the "regular" one and chinese ones. They will make their first entry to the kitchen in a few ours! Along with some dandelion flowers that will also help keep them from seeding all over my driveway since they seem to grow just about anywhere.

Just picked a variety of leaf lettuce, extra dwarf bok choy, spinach, and green onions for a delicious lunch salad. From still growing in the garden to my bowl and fork was about 5 minutes. I love this time of year!

More herbs!

And whoooopsie,
As I was doing this, I thought to myself
As I was thinking about picking the pepper

I don't know, I began to think that maybe it was wishful thinking in thinking that my first pepper was ready?

Spoiler alert
It wasn't!

And it is picked, haha
Oh well

I literally thought to myself,
"Am I making a yearly tradition of picking the first peppers so early it's much too early and they taste like !?"

And sho' nuff, I cut the tip of the Hungarian wax pepper and it tasted like uhm...

It tasted like I messed up and picked it a few weeks early because I did.

The tip of it wasn't terrible, but bleh it tasted like premature pepper to me and I know what that tastes like for sure. >_<

I cut another small slice, meh/bleh, cut another slice, maybe felt a touch of capsaicin/heat?

Then I cut another tiny slice and ate that one, and hey hey hey did I ever get my first little "burn" of the season

Not like I got burned, but like it was hot ^_^!!

I actually don't eat peppers straight at this moment in time (hahah), I was just trying to test it. So once I found the heat I chopped it up and put it in the beans.

I was kind of unhappy about picking my first pepper too early, but as I was standing there chopping something else afterwards I had the heat lingering on my tongue and the thought of, "this was my first heat of the season!"

And it wasn't horrible. It just was no where near as ripe as I thought!

I am making something like a "taco" casserole tonight using herbs from the garden. This is not quite a recipe, it is more of a story, but hey.

I blended a ton of cilantro flowers and chives with a 1/2 store bought onion and added it to a can of tomato paste with salt, some sort of chilli powder/paprika/powdered pepper to taste, and cumin. Viola. "Enchilada Sauce", or what I use instead of storebought sauce at least. (I use enough water to make it the consistency of the store bought enchilada canned sauce, maybe a little thicker. I'd rather it be too thick than too thin, imo)

I have leftover bbq pork, leftover rice, and am cooking the beans with a premature pepper from the garden, some storebought serrano peppers for some more serious heat, hah &....

Hahah... okay so...

I started doing this thing where I stick mint in with a bunch of herbs and ... uhm... I only feed me + my "dear husband" and so

The other day I slipped some mint in some tacos
With some spinach wilted

Err like, I cooked the mint down really well with the meat in the beginning and flavored it like a normal taco otherwise

But at the end, I wilted some chopped baby spinach into the taco meat

So the strips of chocolate mint totally got lost with the spinach and the coupla other herbs I used and all the other countless taco fixins I cram on, hah (lettuce, taco/hot sauce, avocado, sour cream, kabooom!)

And so I'm all sitting next to DH just waiting for him to be like,
"Wtf crazy green thing ended up in the tacos that tastes bizarre ?"

Or like I dunno
I was ... open for reprimand for minting the tacos at least, hahah.

So a while after dinner I am like,
"Did you taste the mint in the tacos?"

And he said "not at all."

So hey! I get a free pass on minting stuff up until further notice.

I chose to mint the beans in my casserole but they are still spicy with peppers.
Oooh, I just tasted the beans and they did not taste minty in a strange way at all.

I think the fact that it is "chocolate" mint helps.

I mixed the meat, beans, and rice then separated it into thirds in layers so it went:

Oil the pan well, then a couple tablespoons of Sauce on the bottom, 4 dipped in sauce corn tortillas, in a layer, 1/3rd beans/rice/meat mixture on top, add cheese, then 4 more dipped in sauce torillas, another 1/3 beans-rice-meat mixture, cheese, sauced tortilas, remaining meat beans rice mixture, 4 more sauced tortillas, and cheese on top.

I used storebought corn tortillas. I should make my own tortillas, then this would be really amazing.

And when I say "sauced" I mean, I dipped the tortillas in the bowl of sauce and tried to leave a good amount of sauce on them. You don't want it to be too dry, and not too liquidy either. (Haha I think that is true of all dishes, riiight! Anyway!)

Oops I think I forgot I liked to cook this @ 350 degrees @ 50 minutes instead of 400 degrees
I just checked on it and it was more than done. (30 minutes @ 400 but.. I didn't need to rush it. )

Everything is already cooked so... you kind of just need to bake it together so the cheese melts and everything gets casserole-y.

It's goooood! Ooooh, I went into the kitchen to "test" it and I was accidentally "eating" it.

Pesto! Made with two packed cups of fresh picked basil leaves. So good! Often I make it and freeze it and we eat it in the depths of winter. That's good, but eating it fresh is better!!

Topped the pesto with garden broccoli and had a salad with it that was mostly all from the garden! YAY!! Now it feels like we are really eating from the garden, more than just some leaves here and there!

We had sliced shiitake and purple passion asparagus with stir-fried marinated steak. Baby and young spinach on the side. (I added chervil to mine)

For our "homesteading" thing, I think I really need to get in to mushroom growing at some point......

Chives.

Made veggie chili with lots of cilantro and green onions! The same herbs went into the guacamole topping!

Besides herbs - the ones that came up with no effort (chives and garlic chives, tarragon, mint, marjoram, rosemary, and a little dill [which surprised me]), and the ones inside for the off season (basil, Thai basil, parsley, and peppermint) - I have a bunch of greens which I just uncovered yesterday. I've been uncovering them slightly, and cutting off bits and pieces of them, but now it's off for good.
Bok Choy:


Mizuna:


Zen Tatsoi (Tatsoi x Komatsuna):


Komatsuna:


Senposai (Cabbage x Komatsuna):


Chard and lettuce:


As you can see, there is a generous number of weeds under there, having been covered up, but those large greens really shade them out!

Weeds with the weed eater.

Actually I used the green onions and ginger from the garden to make Chap chae. I will be eating that for about 5 days for breakfast lunch and dinner. I made a wok full.

I snacked on some napa grape tomatoes while I was watering the yard and a fresh green bean.

My komatsuma and cutting celery are bolting. The broccoli is about done and so are the beets. Its time to pull everything out and amend it with more compost.

I just sent off a soil test from my home and community garden. At the community garden I am giving away bok choy thinnings and chayote. I have too much chop chae for this week..

Pepperhead212 those a BEAUTIFUL! But if you uncover them now, won't the cabbage whites find them right away?

The lettuce look luscious. I will have to try growing Mizuna. Do you grow them for fall, too?

Cabbage butterflies? Is that why they are covered?

I have more trouble with flea beetles in the brassicas. Later, the cabbage may have cabbage worms. However, I will probably have killed them trying to control the flea beetles before that.

Yesterday, I was noticing how much damage the beetles have already done to the broccoli. Of course, the radish is riddled ... In-ground larvae so I wonder if row covers help ...

AppleStar, yesterday I held the sprinkler to keep the water off DW while she grabbed a handful of transplanted baby beets! I'll respond to the seed starting thread with a picture after we get them cleaned up.

Steve