Harvest Monday 6/24/13

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!  The garden is picking up in variety and I am beginning to get busier.

Lungo Bianco Squash, Eight Ball Squash, Ashley lettuce, Red Sails lettuce, Cilantro, Chard, Strawberries, Blauwschokker Peas.

Stuff for ranch dressing and dill pickles with a few extras.

Some split carrots did not go to waste, I shredded them in salad. The white carrot came in a rainbow mix of carrots, it was very woody and not edible. Maybe I need to let it grow longer or change its growing conditions but this one is not good. Hope there are not too many but it seems like their are. Yep, I've peeked.

Basil!

Pink and purple potatoes for dinner was so yummy roasted with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and coconut oil! Mmmm!

I tried my hand at fermented dill pickles. I didn't cover them well enough though because I got a tiny bit of mold on top. Ah, I still tried them, they are good. I will do it again and be sure to cover completely! See the bubbles at the top? A sure sign that the good bacteria are at work! Probiotics! I am gonna try fermented salsa this summer too as soon as those tomatoes start ripening up!

Raspberries! Yay! The best part of the garden! Well, the strawberries are pretty close but I don't get no where near as many! I also picked a few beet leaves to add to salads. I am about to have to start buying salad at the store again until fall.

Cranberries! (Green still)

Last year in July this is what the cranberries looked like:

July 2012 dried out cranberries that never did anything! Total bummer!

This year, there are CRANBERRIES! Oh I can't wait! There are not a ton of them, but still, this will be my first harvest!

I guess I better get them covered too before any critters get to them. They are planted at the end of the strawberry and blueberry bed. It is hard enough to keep the critters out of those.

I only just noticed these today, so it is a nice surprise.

Mid June Garden Tour

We have gotten quite a bit of rain the past several days and it is really showing in the garden.

(Picture heavy)

NE garden view from the upstairs window

My sons garden pot, beans, kale and there is a small chard hiding behind his frog.

The SW garden, definitely becoming a tangled mess. For the most part I have been able to keep all the vines in the beds, until all the rain, it got a little carried away, but not too bad. I still have paths.

The 'extras' bed. (where I planted any leftover plants no one took! I just can't waste them!)

The vines in the SW bed climbing the fence. It does look beautiful in my opinion, hope I don't get any nasty grams from the neighborhood association.

The cabbage along the fence is forming heads. The asparagus seem to keep popping through, all seem to have taken, yippee!

Sweet potato bed. There are also  a few dilll and parsley plants, a kale plant and a Purple Peacock broccoli way to the back.

I see red in the raspberry bushes! Only a couple but a sign that they are coming! This makes me very happy!

Summer Squash and cucumber bed. This bed is my most active right now giving me lots of goodies!

Summer ball pumpkin

Cucumbers are doing well, this is a Boston Pickler

Some beans will be ready soon. They are hiding among the dying potato plants.

Pepper bed, also filled with carrots, basil and a few potatoes.

Tomatoes are growing slowly but have tomatoes on them.

Blue hoppi corn, sugar pumpkin and other squash, and pole beans...AKA Three Sisters.

This is a spicy pepper plant. Beautiful purple isn't it. I have come across 2 possible ID's for it, so as it grows I will try to pin it down better. It has tiny round berry sized peppers smaller than a dime, and they start purple and turn bright cherry red.

Georgia Flaming Hot peppers.

This Japanese Black Trifile  tomato plant has the most tomatoes on it so far.

Beets among the tomatoes, carrots and garlic.

NE garden, to the left is suppose to be the Hookers Sweet Indian corn, it is not growing too well as you can see. The tall corn is the Blue Hopi, it seems to be doing great. I have replanted the Hookers and we will see what happens. Even if it grows well it will probably get attacked by the corn ear worms this late in the season.

There are about 5 good size acorn squash growing so far.

Homemade Ranch

Since starting our real food diet I have only attempted to make one dressing, an Olive Oil and vinegar dressing full of herbs from the garden. Tonight I decided to try making ranch for the first time. None of my kids have been very thrilled with the Oil and Vinegar dressing, although they do eat it. But at least two of them loved the ranch, as did the parents. The third child did not even try it, she wanted her salad plain....blah!

Went out to the garden and picked parsley, dill and green onions for the dressing.

I am not one for measuring things out, especially when I am experimenting, but this is what I came up with.

I used about 1/2-3/4 cup each of a good quality cultured sour cream and a good quality mayo (maybe I'll attempt to make my own sometime).

a small hand full of dill

 a small hand full of parsley

several cut pieces of green onion

1-2 pieces of garlic 

a dash of sea salt and pepper

and a small dash of cayenne pepper

pulsed it on low in my vitamix, I bet any good food processor will do.

Creamy ranch! Yummy! Will definitely do it again, and again, and again!

The only problem is, I just decided to do this NOW when the greens are about done for the summer! Ah, well, fall will be here soon enough. Until then, it will be a good dipper for carrots, cucumbers and whatever other yummies my kids will eat smothered in ranch!

I will warn you, this does NOT taste like Hidden Valley, it does have a different flavor, but it sure is still yummy. Fresh herbs are like that!

My three year old, that is EXTREMELY picky, I have to force feed him his vegetables, liked his ranch so much. He said, "I am so happy I like your ranch mommy! Did you grow it in the garden?" Ha ha, what a cutey pants!

Harvest Monday 6/17/13

It has been a good harvest week.  I bet the harvests are really picking up for everyone, so join in the fun at Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday!

First carrots of the season and I am happy to say they were good without bitterness! Lesson learned, keep the shoulders good and covered to avoid green shoulders and bitter carrots!

The cucumbers began coming in this week! The first cucumbers I have had in 2 years I think. I started them good and early to try to avoid the cucumber beetle damage before I got some. I saw my first cucumber beetle Saturday June 15th! He didn't make it I am sad to say.

The first pickling cucumber I have grown. Gonna try to make pickles for my daughter. Her and I will probably be the only ones eating them, but that is ok, MORE FOR US!

A nice variety here. Boston Pickling cucumbers, either Marketmore cucumber or American Genuine, 8 ball zucchini, blue podded peas, chard, red russian kale, strawberries, blueberries and a couple of carrots, maybe sweet treat and cosmic purple.

Yay! Potatoes for dinner! They were sooooo yummy. All blue and kennebec.

The first Lungo Bianco Squash and yellow sebring squash. A bunch of Thyme to give away since I already have a ton. In case you wanted to know, 1 plant is PLENTY, I have 2.

Oh boy, roasted chicken with roasted potatoes from above and roasted black beauty, lungo bianco and yellow sebring squash. YUMMY! And we had zucchini bread to go with it, tis the season for ZUCCHINI Everything!

Check out those blueberries. One plant that I just started harvesting from is called Chandler, it has HUGE berries! Should have gotten more of those! ;)

Gonna give these Lungo Bianco squash to my mom to try. She is vegetarian, she can use all the veggies she can get! She loves squash. And the kale is still surviving the heat for now.

It has been a great week. What are you bringing in? Share! I totally cannot get enough of those strawberries, especially when I have to fight the kids for them. That is when it is nice to go on an evening stroll of the garden after they are all in bed! ALL FOR ME! :D

Happy Harvesting!

Harvest Monday 6/10/13

It is my favorite time of the week. Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions! I am sure the harvests are full of new goodies this week! I know mine has a couple!

The first All Blue new potatoes.

The lettuce pickings are getting thin.

Last of the Pak Choi

I ate most of these strawberries. They were just too good to share!

First of the Blue Podded Blauwschokker peas!

My daughter is already scarfing them down. They won't last.

View of the NE Garden. There will soon be squash and cucumbers and raspberries. I am impatiently awaiting!

View of the SW garden.

Happy Harvesting!