An Early Harvest

Her favorite thing lately is to help me thin the carrots. Her second favorite thing is to pick peas. Which means peas and carrots are on tomorrow night's menu. The onion in the picture is one of dozens of recently pulled multiplier onions, which I am pleased to report definitely lived up to their name. That garlic wasn't really ready but I was curious to see if anything was actually developing underground, which apparently it was. But I didn't grow that zucchini -it's a gift from a friend and fellow gardener two doors down. Looks like zucchini season is starting early this year.

Call Any Vegetable

Tonight was last call for many of the frost-tender crops, as tonight marks Fall's first "frost advisory" for outlaying areas, with a forcast overnight low of 37 degrees. Remembering what happened the last time there was a forcast low of 37 degrees, I thought it best to err on the side of caution and haul in every tomato, green or otherwise, and eggplant, pepper, swiss chard, beans, okra, and I also gathered all the winter squash to spend a cozy night in the wheelbarrow in the garage. I probably could have left the squash outside without much damage, but they store much longer if they're not exposed to frost first. Noticing that the long term forcast has about 2 more good weeks after tonight's frost, I thought it wouldn't hurt to cover the pepper and eggplant beds with plastic, to try to force a few more weeks of production. The tomatoes are probably done for though, as there is no easy way to cover the seven-foot-tall trellises. Looks like I'll be spending good portion of tomorrow afternoon blanching and freezing. I need an appropriate soundtrack for such work.

Pink and Purple Potatoes

Tom Wagner's Paint Jar and Skagit Beets as french fries:

Skagit Beets were on the small side, and the skin had some sort of scab, but pared and cooked up they were creamy inside, crunchy outside, perfect for frying. Paint Jar, on the other hand, although the large smooth picturesque tubers lent themselves well to slicing, when fried they were disappointingly dry and mealy.

Which led me to believe that Paint Jar would be more suited for baking:

Technicolor dinner a few nights later: Salmon, baked potato and green beans. Talk about a feast for the eyes.

and yes, it tastes just like a baked potato!

Google Docs are Awesome

Okay everybody, in case you're wondering (and I know you are) about how much and of what I have harvested so far, I have a new spreadsheet, accessable to all who read me thru the link on the sidebar, which keeps running tabs on all the goodies we get from the garden. Isnt that special? And imagine my shock and delight when I found out that I can edit the thing directly and not have to re-upload new versions of it every time I go out and pick some beans? Super awesome! Thank you google docs! And also thank you openoffice.org! Isn't technology wonderful?

And why do I feel compelled to keep such detailed and accurate records of my relaxing hobby you may ask? Well for some reason I have this urgent need to prove to a certain someone in my life that this whole garden thing is not just a stupid waste of time and money (especially money) and tangible results can be prooved once all the pounds of produce are tallied up in the fall and multiplied by the going market price per lb. which will show a very large dollar amount in just the first season which will entitle me to tell that person that their angry tirades and hurtful comments are completely baseless and that they have to take back every single word they uttered against me on this, and I and my garden will be vindicated, and I will have shut that person up once and for all.

And also because it's fun.

First Harvest of the Season

Yay! Love the sound of those words. It's not much but I grew it all myself without pesticides and just a little bit of miracle gro. Added to last night's iceberg salad were: Some small leaves of swiss chard (Lucillus) which added a juicy /salty crunch, edible chrysanthemum (shungiku) which was pleasantly tangy, one Borage leaf which tasted ok but was a little too hairy for inexperienced palates, and some arugula. I have never tasted arugula before but I read alot about it on the foodie blogs. Trendy Italians eat it so it hast to be good , right? Arugula is probably the most disgusting salad ingredient I ever had the displeasure of tasting. I dont know why people eat it when there are so many other leafy green things you can put in a salad. It gives a stange and strong off-flavor to everything it touches and even after you swallow it it's not really gone. Oh well. Now I know.