carrots, chard, wasabi arugula, red onions
My gartden harvest June 16, 2012 photo by PBH
It’s a small garden, after all there are only two of us. Plus, I am lucky enough to share with neighbor Patty and Neighbor Dorothy. We are all looking forward to tomatoes.
We can usually eat everything fresh. If not, there is a vegetable pickle crock in the fridge. Or, occasionally, I will freeze or dehydrate the surplus.
Posted in Harvest Basket, My Homeplace
Tagged carrots, Chard, onions, wasabi arugula
Green Beans are a summer favorite I seldom eat in winter. Because as you know, everything tastes better home grown and garden fresh.
This recipe is made from last summers dried tomatoes and pesto. This summers green beans and onions. photo: PBH
Green beans are grown from Renee’s Garden seed. I pulled the onions from my garden the last week of June. At first the beans were being eaten up by bugs and bunnies.
The bunnies came and went. Bigger gardens next door or a neighborhood full of cats and dogs sent the bunnies on their way. Repeated Safer’s Soap sprays slowed down the bugs.
I’m growing “Tricolor Bush” and “Tricolor Pole”. Why bush and pole? because the pole beans are ready about a week after the bush beans. I’ll keep replanting beans and hopefully get another crop or two here in Missouri.
We love pickled green beans. These long straight beans are meant to be stuffed into tall skinny jars and pickled. They are refrigerator pickles, meant to be eaten fresh out of the jar. My crisp pickled beans are not cooked by the long process of canning.
Maybe we will have enough to freeze a few of these three colors of long straight green beans. The multi colored beans are beautiful in winter time vegetable soup.
Earlier this summer I grew a great crop of French, “Rolande” bush beans. Extra-slim,
“Roland” is a “haricot vert” of filet bean. Pick them and cook them. These straight, skinny beans are tender and need very little cooking.
long and deep green filet or “haricot vert” snap beans. These are a long, skinny French bean that does very well in my zone 6A home garden.
They grew in a square 4′ x 4′ garden. Every week for four weeks I planted another quarter of the garden. It kept us in fresh beans and a bit more to share with Neighbor Patty.
They are extra-crispy, making it possible for Jules and I to come to a middle ground in the kitchen. One of us likes Southern style “cooked to death” green beans and the other likes the California style “crispy and full of vitamins” version.
Green Beans are meant for sucession planting. Planting one patch and a little later planting a few more beans will stretch out fresh green bean season spring to fall. The best way is to plant a few beans, or part of a row every week.
When the first plants are finished producing beans, cut them down, mow them or, snip off the plants. Replant that spot again with more green beans. If you want to freeze or can a lot of beans at once, this method is not for you.
If I have a few too many green beans, I can share them with the neighbor. Or, it is quick to blanch and freeze a quart size plastic zipper lock bag of green beans. Next, I’ll plant cow peas.
Had to do a little research on how to harvest and store onions because I’ve never had much luck growing them before. It was not a great crop. But the variety of onions were so much more successful than ever before.
Red onions are still in the ground. As are the leeks and shallots. Garlic was lifted mid June.
I’m fanning through the seed catalogs, looking for seed that will eventually become my favorite dishes. Such as gazpacho, ratatouille or tabouli.
I seldom use a recipe without tweaking it a little. This is The Cook’s Garden’s recipe for Vegetable Soup. I am sharing the recipe with you because I like the idea of harvesting all these beautiful vegetables from my garden. It is on their website along with many other tried and true recipes for your garden bounty.
Add a can of chick peas or any vegetable you like and skip the ones you don’t.
Vegetable Soup
The idea, which you can see as you read the ingredients in the following link, is to grow your own soup vegetables and harvest, store or preserve your very own veggies. Your hard work will be rewarded by your delicious home garden medly.
Ingredients: Click here for the list of ingredients: Ingredients For Vegetable Soup. The herbs in this recipe (garlic, bay and basil) are merely suggestions for an herb gardener. Add many more herbs if desired. (Click here for the full recipe: Vegetable Soup.)
Directions: To prepare this soup, saute cut meat, minced garlic, onions and chopped celery in olive oil and add cup of stock as ingredients cook. Transfer ingredients to a large soup pot and add remaining ingredients. Cook under low heat for many hours. (You can fork test the vegetables for tenderness.) Soup can be thickened easily by using cornstarch or pre-sifted flour. When serving, remove bay leaves. Leftovers are a bonus. A quart of this soup in your freezer is a perfect too-tired-to-cook meal that is much more tempting than fast-food.
Vegetable soup is a medley of your garden.
Make some version of this as your signature soup.
Photo courtesy The Cook’s Garden
My Tweaks: Right before that last hour of cooking, take out enough soup to fill a container and freeze for later. Potatoes and carrots should not be completely cooked through; they will finish cooking when you reheat the soup. Season this portion of the vegetable soup with herbs when you reheat. Herbs are also best added during the last hour of cooking. Add a salt-free, all-purpose combination of bouquet garni. Bouquet garni, it is a traditional French herb combination of savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano dill, marjoram sage and tarragon. If you are unfamiliar with this herb combination, only add a teaspoon to your soup. With this big batch of vegetables, I would probably start with a tablespoon of bouquet garni, or a similar combination of these individual herbs. Also, you can skip the beef or chicken if you like. The Cook’s Garden has several great recipes on their website that will showcase your vegetable harvest at its very best.
Broccoli romanesco is the color of broccoli and has the texture of cauliflower.
Photo courtesy The Cook’s Garden
At first, I was drawn to The Cook’s Garden catalog by their broccoli romanesco. This vegetable is an heirloom that has been around a long time but is new to me. I try something new in my garden every year, and this year I chose broccoli romanesco.
I found broccoli romanesco seeds at The Cook’s Garden, Territorial Seed Company, Seed Savers and several other seed sources. Although broccoli and cauliflower have always been a challenge, I’m going to give it a try this spring.
Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the kitchen, Recipes
Tagged Carrot, celery, Garden, Herbs, onions, soup, vegetable
