2014 What did you eat from your garden today?

[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.

[applestar]

I had this egg dish for lunch yesterday that I make up once in a while. I have no idea if there is a name for it.

I started with a strip of bacon cut in small bits, some safflower oil, then added veggies from the garden -- diced onions and Swiss chard stems, tomatoes, hot lemon drop pepper, chopped SC leaves, then decided it needed more liquid so added diced cucumber. Made a nest of wilted SC leaves in the middle of the veggies and dimpled it, added a bit of butter and dropped two eggs in the dimple. Covered the eggs with a slice of provolone cheese, found thin slices of leftover uncooked winter squash in the fridge at the last minute so arranged those on top of the provolone, then covered and cooked until the cheese melted.

Egg yolks were about medium -- set and not runny but not cooked through, dry/flakey.

I usually slide this on top of a couple of toast or a mound of rice, but I didn't this time. Missed having something to soak up the sauce. I normally finish plating with freshly ground black pepper but didn't thinking the hot pepper will be enough, but I kind of missed that, too.

It's basically any mixture of veggies and herbs to taste, meat is optional, and eggs poached in the cooking liquid on top with the cheese helping to hold in the heat and cook the eggs and acting as egg timer. You can omit the cheese if you want, too.

[Meme]

I have been enjoying the last of my strawberries, so tasty they were with the addition of some cream.
Then I shared out best part of all the tomatoes I grew to my neighbours, they were grateful. They said they tasted nicer than the shop bought ones. That was a pat on my back, and of course for nature too in growing them.

[Ohio Tiller]

Only thing not from the garden was the ham but it was from one of our pigs! So we raised everything in that pot.

[Lindsaylew82]

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum...!

[Meatburner]

OT, that looks awesome. What all did you put in there? Made me instantly hungry!

[Lindsaylew82]

Me too! I haven't had beans and taters in years!

[JC's Garden]

Put me down for a tomato sandwich. And then again tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day, and the next until first frost.

[imafan26]

Calamondin (calamoncy in Ilocano). Actually, I didn't eat it. I harvested a bag for our community garden potluck as door prizes. I did use some green onions in the fried rice I made. I am ashamed to say I bought tomatoes for the first time in a long long time. I only had a couple of black cherry tomatoes in the garden for the salad.

[valley]

We went to the high desert spread and picked:Tomato, chard, squash, potato, cucumber, beans, parsley and watermelon.

How do you tell when corn is ready to pick?

Richard

[applestar]

I'm not the expert, but here are a few indicators I have been using for sweet corn
- silk has dried up and browned
- angle of the ear to the stalk has opened up so that the ear is pushing away from the stalk (I think jal_ut mentioned this one)
- feeling from the outside, I can actually feel bumpy kernels

... I can't do the thumbnail test -- shuck one and see if milk spurts out from the kernels -- because I have too few

[Juliuskitty]

Calamondin (calamoncy in Ilocano). Actually, I didn't eat it. I harvested a bag for our community garden potluck as door prizes. I did use some green onions in the fried rice I made. I am ashamed to say I bought tomatoes for the first time in a long long time. I only had a couple of black cherry tomatoes in the garden for the salad.

Calamondins are so good in fresh cranberry sauce. 2 for a 12 oz bag, finely cut up skin and all, gives the sauce such a nice tangerine like hint of flavor.

[applestar]

Soup! I was inspired by the bean and ham soup.
Mine is my usual mishmash though --

Today's beans harvest of all sizes including overgrown beans in the pod shelled beans, onion, garlic, onion greens, carrot greens, carrots, overgrown cucumbers, Swiss chard ribs, hot lemon peppers, a few okra, starchy corn cut from the cob, baby corn... All wilted and caramelized with bacon and li'l smokies, then simmered in tomato juice and water. Oregano and basil and some spices.

From the store ingredients a were the meats, sea salt, bay leaf, cumin and coriander. A drizzle of balsamic vinegar and honey.

[valley]

Thanks applestar, I think we'll pick next time we're down there. The ears didn't seem big enough, but these are from store bought seeds maybe this is what's to be expected.

Richard

[Lindsaylew82]

There's not a whole lot going on right now. I'm getting lots of peppers and a few tomatoes. I used the peppers tonight and a few early green apples that my neighbor shared. I made apple chutney to go on tomorrow's grill pork loin.

I "eyeballed" the ingredients...

8 small tart green apple. ( or 4 normal sized Granny Smiths) peeled, cored and sliced

1 medium onion chopped
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1 mango peeled and chopped
1 large ripe bell pepper chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon of Moroccan Seasoning
4 ripe jalapeños
Salt and pepper

Dump it all in a pot and cook over medium heat until it's thick and glossy, then serve over grilled meat.

Mine is HOT (spicy--like 4 star at the Thai place spicy)!!! But I like it like that!

[imafan26]

My neighbor gave me eggplant, and gourd from his garden and my other friend gave me a bag full of avocados. I have calamondin from my garden. It will take me a while to use it. I can use the juice to flavor water, calamondin cake, use it as a condiment on pancit noodles and fish. Maybe I will try calamondin ade again. The last time I tried it I put in too much juice and it was too sour. I have to figure out the ratio.

[Wombat]

Calamondins are grown a lot in Asia and are rarely used when ripe as they're too sour. They're always harvested green as a lemon substitute as there's more juice. It's also made into a popular local drink. I once made a lemon meringue pie using calamondins and it was yummy!
Picking the last mandarins and oranges today as the trees are loaded with blossom ready to burst into bloom. Also harvesting curry leaves from my tree to be used in dinner recipe.

[digitS']

We have been eating Buttercup winter squash.

No, it didn't frost but, why wait ? This has been a good squash year and they are everywhere in the squash patch. Many have that look of maturity and are just delicious!

The dry beans have all been picked and most shelled. We have been eating the Portuguese kale right thru summer using last year's Soldier beans. Several of the Portuguese kale plants have bolted, not what I expected. There are others and they have done nicely thru a past autumn.

Enjoying Portuguese kale soup with beans from a pot on the stove and Buttercup squash even if baked in the microwave, it makes me feel like it's already November. Until, I go back outdoors ...

Steve

[applestar]

I'm going to have to try growing this Portuguese Kale. It sounds like a winner!

[valley]

Nothing fancy but a few things for lunch

Richard

[applestar]

Very nice -- what did you make with those? Also, what kind of peppers are they?

[valley]

Hi applestar, Well, with the squash, wifey made like eggplant parmesan, sliced cold Armenian cucumber. The Armenian peppers sweet, a little stronger than Bells.

Never heard of portuguese kale, reminds me, I never planted kale this year.

Richard

[jal_ut]

Corn, potatoes, cucumber, tomato. What a neat time of year. All sorts of goodies available. Though they didn't make it to the table today, there is peppers, apples, squash, pumpkins, onions, carrots, beans ready too.

[jal_ut]

Just picking up a few goodies this morning.

[rainbowgardener]

Wow! Amazing!

Not exactly what I'm eating today, but tonight I made up a big pan of swiss chard lasagna (with chard, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, herbs from the garden) for the freezer. There's already a big container of veggie chili in there as well as pesto. I prefer cooking things up to freeze, rather than just freezing the ingredients. It means deep in winter, we can pull out some stored sunshine from the garden!

[imafan26]

Wow2, that is a lovely sight. It would probably be enough for me for a whole year. I don't get any pumpkins near that size and the vine would take up half my yard.

[digitS']

A Charentais melon!

This has been such an odd year. The melons had just a little more warmth in June than usual. They hunkered down well to avoid much of the effects of 2 severe windstorms. Then, they started producing!

Never have I had so many melons ... I'm tired of eating my tried and true Passport melons. There have just been too many of them. (Steve didn't say that, did he?!)

The melon plants are not in the garden that had the mid-September frost, so they dodged that too! The new-to-me Alvaro Charentais is only represented in the garden by a few plants. I should have planted more. Charentais melons are a French cantaloupe, I've read somewhere. I've tried for about 10 years to find a variety that can stand our melon-challenging conditions. I still don't know in this less than challenging year. ... just gotta have Alvaro back in 2015!

For those who have grown Charentais melons and been disappointed by flavor, I bet you are not picking them at the right moment. Too early and the fruit flavor will be insipid, at best. Wait too long and they will split in the garden. Decay sets in. This is not a melon for shipping or ripening in the kitchen. No!

Get right down on your knees and smell it. If a few good sniffs don't make you think you want to eat it, give it another day or two. The melons won't "slip" from the vines so there's no help there. The nose knows ...

Steve

[imafan26]

Too bad you can't pass a few melons over to me. The vines take up too much space for the fruit that I get, so I have to buy my melons. Which reminds me they are taking up space in the frig. How long do honeydew and sunburst melons keep anyway?

I usually get overloaded with eggplant and I only have one eggplant , so I know how that feels.

[digitS']

The Passports are a galia melon.

I guess they developed those from honeydews. We can cut them and leave them for a few days in the fridge but they, also, are not a keeper.

My guess is that your purchased melons stay around much longer than what I've got, Imafan26.

Steve

[applestar]

Alvaro Charentais sounds like a good one . And passport, too.
I've decided F1 melons are acceptable in my garden since I can use the seeds for winter bird food.

[imafan26]

Corn on the cob with garlic salt, pepper and butter.