What are You Eating from the Garden?

[Branching Out]

Cucumbers. We are beginning to have a steady supply.

I wanted to enjoy my morning and did not want to hurry out to run the trimmer in the backyard. It has become quite a task with the new veggie beds and leaving lawn grass where I can't reach it with the mower. I showed up out there just before 11AM on what is supposed to be a record high day !

Coming in after an hour ... it was so nice to start my lunch with my favorite Beit Alpha cucumber, sliced by DW and straight out of the fridge ... cooled off with a cucumber . Lunch was store-bought raviolis with 2023 pasta sauce (ingredients from the garden), Gai Lan, Gatorade and then a cup of coffee.

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Steve

All of your gai lan posts have me thinking that I need to try growing this vegetable. Can it be sown in August, and if so is there a particular variety of seed that you might suggest??

 

[flowerbug]

well it turned out that i was baking stuffed peppers and two extra bowls of chopped up peppers and left-over ingredients until midnight. Mom has one more pan to bake this morning and we'll be done with cooking all the peppers.

my brother was happy to take some of the peppers we'd already made and plus a bag of various peppers we weren't going to use for stuffed peppers so there aren't any raw green peppers left in the house now and there aren't many on the plants outside growing right now either until they bloom again and set fruits. except the Beaver Dam peppers are still loaded. i'm going to be saving seeds from as many of those as i can when they are ready - those were popular at the seed swap.

 

[digitS']

@Branching Out , Mei Qing Choi has been our standard Fall greens crop. Some seedlings are already up and growing and will be transplanted out when there is a break in the hot weather.

Other Asian greens are grown in the Spring and provide variety for our early, leafy greens harvest. Some last into the heat better than others. A dozen years ago, I thought that I knew something about Gai Lan. Last year, I bought some seed from Botanical Interests and it grew as large plants and production went on well into Summer. Surprise! They just sell it as Chinese Broccoli/Kailaan. A variety is not mentioned.

Since so many seed companies have little to do with seed production and simply buy from wholesale outfits, I imagine that there are several retailers with the same seed. Anyway, from my experience as a consumer over several years, Gai Lan seems to be in a period of change. It is showing up commonly in our Asian markets. Take a look at Kitazawa's Big Stem. That's not what we have nor have had but it is in those produce bins.

Until 2023, I would have said that Gai Lan was just a little taller than Choi Sum, which I don't usually want to bother with because it's so small. Now, the plants seem as though they really are competing with Broccoli. BTW, Broccolini is a hybrid between those 2 — something more for me to try !

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

This is helpful information digitS'-- turns out our local seed company carries a Gai Lan hybrid variety called Green Pearl, and reviewers seem quite enthusiastic about how easy and prolific it is to grow. I will add that to my list of seeds to try. Thank you!

 

[SPedigrees]

I haven't actually eaten these yet, but here are the first of my Arctic Plenty tomatoes to ripen. I picked the green ones a week ago because they were on a branch that escaped the tomato cage and was hanging perilously close to the ground, but I don't think they will ripen at this point. I have some baby summer squashes that should be ready for picking in a day or so, but not the quantity I was hoping for.

 

[Dahlia]

I haven't actually eaten these yet, but here are the first of my Arctic Plenty tomatoes to ripen. I picked the green ones a week ago because they were on a branch that escaped the tomato cage and was hanging perilously close to the ground, but I don't think they will ripen at this point. I have some baby summer squashes that should be ready for picking in a day or so, but not the quantity I was hoping for.

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If you want to try to ripen the green tomatoes put them somewhere warm.

 

[digitS']

At one time,

Arctic Plenty (or Subarctic Plenty were my primary choice for tomatoes. I liked the size of the plants as well as the fruit, its Earliness especially. I learned to chop tomatoes for a sandwich ingredient .

Steve
I should say that at the time, I was living at 2500 feet elevation and required that earliness.

 

[flowerbug]

If you want to try to ripen the green tomatoes put them somewhere warm.

but not in the direct sun. i keep having to argue with Mom about this because she wants to put them on the lounge chair and have that out in the sun...

 

[SPedigrees]

If you want to try to ripen the green tomatoes put them somewhere warm.

Thanks, I'll try that. My enclosed back porch is a lot warmer than my air-conditioned house, so out they go!

 

[Branching Out]

This was a simple and tasty dinner of grilled chicken and roasted potatoes. From the garden were cucumber salad with dill, carrots, and fresh Venda beans.