Tag Archives: Today’s Harvest Basket

Todays Harvest Basket 7/21/14

Posted on July 22, 2014 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket 7/21/14

Todays Harvest Basket July 21, 2014

Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers

The green and gold pepper (Low Left) was completely gold the next day.

The green and gold pepper (Low Left) was completely gold the next day.

I have a small garden. It has just a little of a lot of vegetables and flowers. But when zucchini starts producing, it does not seem like a little garden.

I hate those waxy, slick cucumbers in the grocery store. ‘don’t even like to touch them. So now we have lots of cukes in the garden and we eat them fresh at least once a day.

Crisp Cucumbers

The crunch that we all love is easy to get in home canned pickles. Use this tip along with your favorite pickle recipe.

 

white cucumber

Cut cucumbers from the vine instead of twisting and pulling.

For crisp cucumber pickles, rinse the cucumbers thoroughly and snip off 1/16-inch of the blossom end. The blossom end of the cucumber harbors microbes that can cause softening. Cut at least a 1/16-inch slice off the blossom end of the cucumber. That enzyme in the blossom end can make the pickles unsafe to eat.

The stem ends of the cucumbers above are on the right. The blossom end is on the left for both of these cukes.  The blossom end is the opposite from the stem end.

Cucumber season is too short. This time of the year, there is always a bowl of sliced cucumbers in herb vinegar in the fridge.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 4/17/14

Posted on July 18, 2014 by | Comments Off on Today’s Harvest Basket 4/17/14

Today’s Harvest Basket, July 17, 2014

Zucchini, tomatoes, onions, carrots, bell peppers, cucumber

More food than we can eat. Starting to can, dehydrate, bake.

More food than we can eat. I am starting to can, dehydrate, bake. photo PBH

That GIANT CARROT, the one that is over a foot long, (top right) is a Scarlet Nantes. As I pulled these carrots, most were 6 or 8″ long with deep orange color and are sweet. I just have no idea why this one foot long carrot is so big, or the others are so normal.

Sweet and hot peppers are loaded up on the peppers plants out in the garden. Today, these blocky bell peppers would be perfect for stuffing.

Carrots

All the other carrots grew as described in the catalog. Anyway, the seed came from Nichols Garden Nursery.  If you are interested in growing carrots, you still have time to order seed and plant a fall crop. Fall harvested carrots are even sweeter and they can take light frosts.

Scarlet Nantes is an heirloom. It is sweet and it stores well. The big news item here is that the seed is only $1.65. Amazing to find a reputable seed source under $2. I plan to grow these again this fall. What a bargain.

Nichols has a great variety of carrots, some that are under $2 a packet. There is also good carrot growing info on that website.

Cherry tomatoes

Under the “you get what you pay for” category, this variety of cherry tomatoes is in full production. The white cherry tomato was supposed to be Great White tomato. Oh, well. The seed was free and the little cherry has a good flavor.

The tangerine colored tomato is exactly what I expected from a F1 tomato. I grew it from seed. This Sun Gold tomato is as sweet as can be.

And the almost red cherry tomato is from a volunteer plant that came up where the Sun Gold cherries were last year. It was a curiosity. I wanted to see if it would come up like Sun Gold, but instead the tomato plant came up as a long-lost member of the family tree. It is not very sweet. I think it takes after the prolific side of the family, not the sweet side.

It’s no surprise

When I want to use up mammoth amounts of summer squash, I make Zucchini cake, zucchini pie, and salsa.

The zucchini pie was originally from an old Taste of Home Zucchini Pie  recipe.

As a herb gardener, I had to change-up the recipe a bit. My Zucchini Casserole recipe is on Hub pages. The Sweet and crunchy grape picnic salad is there too.

 

 

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Today’s Harvest Basket 7/7/14

Posted on July 8, 2014 by | Comments Off on Today’s Harvest Basket 7/7/14

Today’s Harvest Basket July/7/2014

Big vegetables

Zucchini, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, scapes

Zucchini, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, scapes.

Love those foot long Chinese cucumbers. The organic Chinese cucumbers, “Suyo Long” picked early are already crisp and crunchy. I’ve eaten these while standing in the garden. Just snipped off the vine and cleaned with a swipe across my jeans.

Zucchini

There’s enough zucchini to make a chocolate zucchini cake.  And a side dish of zucchini with garlic and onions for dinner. And a cold rice salad with zucchini. After all that, this squash is still so good. Picked fresh then made into a dozen different recipes we love.

The seeds we planted were three years old. Everyone came up.

The seeds we planted were three years old. Every seed came up.

Zucchini is a “use it or lose it” vegetable. Canning or freezing summer squash is usually a disappointment.

Find some of our favorite zucchini on Pinterest Courgette (zucchini) Everything

Don’t miss this recipe: Easy Pickled Zucchini from Zuni Cafe

This Hub Pages recipe uses a ton of zucchini: Enchilada salsa with zucchini  Add to enchilada filling or tortilla soup.

Yellow onions

Candy – Globe shaped yellow onion is mild and sweet.  Good soil and plenty of water means big, long keepers. It’s too early to pull all the onions in the garden.

This spring, I ran out of room and planted a few onion starts in the containers marked for tomatoes. With the regular watering and extra boost of fertilizer these onions grew up big and fast. I pulled these yellow onions from the pots where tall staked tomato plants are crowding out any other plants.

These big Candy onions are 3"in diameter.

These big Candy onions are 3″in diameter.

With the regular watering and extra boost of fertilizer, these onions grew up big and fast. This is an onion in need of a hamburger. Don’t you think so? Imagine a thick, whole slice of mild and sweet onion on top of a burger just off the grill.

These onions are weighing in between 13 and 15 ounces.  They are easy to pick because they look like they are just sitting on top of the ground. We will let the top completely dry before cutting off the top leaves and bottom roots.


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Today’s Harvest Basket 6/14/14

Posted on June 15, 2014 by | Comments Off on Today’s Harvest Basket 6/14/14

June 14, 2014

Bucket of lettuce, green onions, hot pepper

Today's Harvest Basket 6:14:14

Picked the most of the garden lettuce today, and thinned more green onions.

 

Organic, French Red Leaf lettuce, “Redina”* Big beautiful rosettes of ruffled red leaves  Tasty, eye-catching and disease-resistant French lettuce is lasting a couple of weeks longer than most.

Heirloom leaf lettuce “Garden Ferns,”* Sweet flavored, long lance shaped leaves with juicy texture. Perfect shape to mix with other lettuces in mixed spring greens.

These tender leaf lettuces are best with the lightest of dressings. Choose fresh lemon juice or herb vinegar to combine with olive oil.

Dressing: 2 parts lemon juice (or herb vinegar) and 1 part olive oil.

Spring greens mixed with onions and radishes.

Spring greens mixed with onions and radishes.

 

Make it your own –

Acid – Choose fresh squeezed lemon juice, or white wine vinegar. Make this you secret recipe with a herb flavored vinegar, like chives or tarragon vinegar. Try rice wine vinegar.

Oil – Olive oil is the classic choice. Add a couple of drops of sesame. This oil must be stored in the refrigerator. Using bacon drippings will make a wilted lettuce or a hot bacon dressing.

 

 

 

 

Bring a bucket of cold water to the garden.

Bring a bucket of cold water to the garden.

 

Cool Idea: Bring a bucket of iced water to the garden when you pick lettuces. Warm days tend to wilt lettuce, spinach, chard.

As the weather heats up, lettuces will bolt, or go to seed.

Complete the circle: If your lettuce is an heirloom, let some of the lettuce go to seed. Collect a few seed and plant them next spring.

 

 

* “Redina” and  “Garden Ferns,” lettuces are exclusive to Renee’s Garden

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Today’s Harvest Basket 6/12/14

Posted on June 13, 2014 by | Comments Off on Today’s Harvest Basket 6/12/14

June 12, 2014

Cabbage, lettuces, onions

We are still getting lots of rain and spring temperatures.

We are still getting lots of rain and spring temperatures. Photo by PBH

It is a joy to still have a variety of lettuces and beautiful salads from the garden. I just step out the kitchen door, and across the drive to my kitchen garden.

We call the vegetable garden the circle garden because it is the interior of a circle drive. The space was originally full of rocks and trash. With a lot of time and work, the garden had become very productive. You can find plenty of earthworms in each of the raised beds.

Bug proof cabbage

I planted four little cabbage plant stars in four different places in the garden this spring. My hope was to raise a head or two of cabbage before the worms and slugs moved in. Because I don’t spray, cabbages and broccoli are always a disappointment.

But this year, one of the cabbages just seemed to be bug proof. It amazed me so that I took a photo of the big uneaten cabbage leaves.

Big uneaten cabbage leaves.

Big uneaten cabbage leaves. photo PBH

The cabbage in Today’s Harvest Basket will become cole slaw. I make it with a vinegar dressing and not the one with mayonnaise.

Dressing: whisk together

  • 1/4 cup white wine herb vinegar
  • 2 pkts stevia (or 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon each, celery seeds, ground black pepper

Shred veggies, toss in large bowl with dressing.

  • 3 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 small head of cabbage, finely sliced.
  • 1 carrot, grated

If you have fresh cilantro or dill and parsley, chop and toss in a few fresh herbs

Make it your own by adding shredded rainbow carrots, bell pepper, red pepper flakes

 

 Lettuces

“Garden Ferns” leaf lettuce is juicy and still producing. This tender lance shaped leaf lettuce is an excellent addition to any salad.

“Redina” organic, French Red Leaf lettuce.  Very large rosettes of frilled & ruffled deep red leaves.

I get these beautiful leaf lettuce seeds at Renee’s Garden.

 

 

 

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Today’s Harvest Basket 5/31/2014

Posted on June 4, 2014 by | Comments Off on Today’s Harvest Basket 5/31/2014

We have lots of radishes and green onions that I picked yesterday. So today’s harvest was half a dozen types of lettuce and some wild Russian Kale.

I pulled up all the Pak Choi today. It had gone to seed. Spring is over in the garden. Let the summer begin!

Todays Harvest Basket 5:31:2014

A variety of lettuces make the best salad.

Think this is a lot of lettuce? Not me. The season for homegrown leaf lettuce is much too short for me to tire of it. Same thing with Asparagus. The season is too short.  Too short.

I got my seed from

Renee’s Garden

Nichols Garden Nursery

 

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Todays Harvest Basket 6/1/ 2014

Posted on June 3, 2014 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket 6/1/ 2014

June 1, 2014

Today's Harvest Basket 6/1/14 Picked lots of Russian Kale "Wild Garden Frills" (seed from Renee's Garden). Despite being wild, it's also quite mild. Tore up some small leaves to add to our salad tonight. Will use the rest in a green rice dish. Picked a few baby butter head lettuces and lots of leaf lettuces like Flashy Trout Back, Oakleaf, Garden Ferns. There are onions and radishes picked yesterday, so it's wilted lettuce on tonights menu.

Today’s Harvest Basket 6/1/14 Picked a few baby butter head lettuces and lots of leaf lettuces like Flashy Trout Back, Oakleaf, Garden Ferns.
It’s wilted lettuce on tonight’s menu. Patsy Bell Hobson.

Picked lots of Russian Kale “Wild Garden Frills” (seed from Renee’s Garden). Despite being wild, it’s also quite mild. Tore up some small leaves to add to our salad tonight. Will use the rest in a green rice dish.

Picked a few baby butter head lettuces and lots of leaf lettuces like Flashy Trout Back, Oakleaf, Garden Ferns.

There are onions and radishes picked yesterday, so it’s wilted lettuce on tonight’s menu.

IMG_8058

Every inch of soil is productive. In the blocks that frame this raised bed are lettuces which will be harvested soon so the onions will have space to bulb. Patsy Bell Hobson

It’s just too bad that we can’t have home-grown lettuce and tomatoes at the same time. Usually lettuce comes to an end about the time cherry tomatoes start coming on.

A broken transplant or starter tomato might have been a disaster.

A broken transplant or starter tomato might have been a disaster.

 

Tomato plants want to live.

All you need to do is stick the broken stem in the ground and plant the rooted base.

Don’t forget to keep these starts well watered and protected from the hottest sun until till they are well rooted and starting to branch.

It will be the same as planting two tomato plants. Meaning double the tomatoes as planned.

This tomato is Gold Medal, a big old heirloom producing 1/2 to 1 pound size yellow globes with red streaking.

I love Gold Medal tomatoes, they are meaty slicers that are beautiful on a plate of  Caprese salad (Italian: Insalata Caprese, meaning “Salad of Capri”)

The salad has no recipe, just combine basil, tomato and mozzarella. drizzle a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

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First Harvest Basket of the season 2014

Posted on June 2, 2014 by | Comments Off on First Harvest Basket of the season 2014

 Todays Harvest Basket

First Harvest Basket of 2014. Pak Choi, onions, radishes, lettuces. Plus, there is a pint or so of strawberries we’ve been getting every day this week, Ozarks Beauty. We are also finishing up Asparagus season this week.

Salad greens, radishes, green onion, Pak Choi

Salad greens, radishes, green onion, Pak Choi Photo: Patsy Bell Hobson

One interesting thing, is that there are a few radish left, hidden in the lettuces. They are big and only as hot as the smaller more traditional radish. Not fiery hot or pithy. They are pink and red and a few are white.

Some of these big radish have gone to seed. The flowers a small and dainty on tall wispy stems. I hope to save some seed to plant next spring.

 

 

 

 

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