Tomato, Pepper & Basil Nursery Order

So here are the pictures of my long-awaited Cross Country Nursery order. I picked them up on Sunday May 9th, but it was too cold to plant them so I had to wait. These pictures were taken a week later right before planting on May 15th. I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed, especially in the tomatoes.
This is the Ramapo, Snowstorm and Matina tomatoes. Granted, the bottom leaves are a bit more yellow than they were on the day I brought them home, but they still looked pretty leggy to me right when I got them. It is definitely not what I expected. I actually showed the Ramapo to the woman working at the nursery, and she told me "we like our tomatoes tall, afterall they are big plants" and that the short, leafy ones you see in other stores are sprayed with growth retardant.

I was as nice as could be about it, b/c I didn't want to cause a stink, but I did say I didn't think that's what they look like when you grow them at home. So then she admitted, "Well, we do grow hundreds of them together in flats so there really is no where for them to grow but up" and told me to pull off the bottom leaves and plant them about 6" deep, so that's what I did. She also assured me, "we're so well known for our tomatoes, really it is not a big deal". I hope that's true! I'm actually not that concerned, because I do think they will grow good roots that way and come back as strong plants. But still, for the price I paid I was just hoping for something a little less leggy!
Here's the Sungold, Grape & Black Cherry. The Black Cherry looks the best - I'm happy with that one, and the Grape is pretty decent too. The Sungold not so much though. I planted that one deep.

I was much happier with the peppers. I guess that's their real specialty though, so it makes sense. Lots of them had blooms and even tiny peppers on them already. As much as I hated to do it, I pinched them all off so the transplants could concentrate on growing roots. Above you see the Orange Sun, Ariane, Bell Boy and Lady Bell peppers.

This is 2 Marconi Golden, 2 Cubanelle & the Nardello.
The Little Dickens and Yummy Orange minis.

The hots: Pepperoncini, Ancho Mulato, Thai Hot Dragon and Jalapeno Tam.

Finally, here are the basils. 2 Genovese, Magic Michael, Summerlong, Osmin Purple & Red Rubin. I was happy overall with these, except the purples do look kind of leggy too. After planting I snipped the tops off of them to encourage more bushy growth. Also, ironically, I picked the Summerlong because I read online it is supposed to be a special variety that takes extra long to go to seed. Well, it is the only one that was already full of flowers! So much for that one.

Final Haul on a Frosty November Morning

Turns out it already frosted last night. I went out bright and early this morning to pick as much as I could before work, and discovered a light frost on everything. Above you can see it on the nasturtiums, already starting to melt in the sun around 7:30 AM. And here is even more on the shady side of the garden:
Considering last night was only expected to go down to 42 degrees or so, and tonight is supposed to go down to 35 - I'm pretty sure we'll get a killing frost tonight. So I desperately picked and picked this morning. Here's the haul so far - not pictured is a huge bowl of kung pao peppers, and I still haven't gotten to any of the edible flowers or herbs. I can't wait to make green tomato salsa, relish, and fried green tomatoes. Yum. Clockwise from the top left: (yellow bowl) red grape tomatoes, (tupperware) jalapenos, (counter) bell peppers, (blue bowl) Roma tomatoes, (pink bowl) yellow grape tomatoes and (silver bowl) Rutger's tomatoes:
It was actually quite lovely out there this morning, once I dragged myself out from under the warm fuzzy covers. The sun was beautiful, streaming through the frosty air. It was a very enjoyable way to start the day. Too bad I'm always so sleepy and can't haul myself out of bed earlier to have breakfast out there every morning!

Big Fall Harvest

Wow, I can't believe how much I picked today, and I didn't even get to any flowers.

Here it is: bell peppers, italian frying peppers, lots of hot peppers, mustard greens, a couple radishes, basil, two kinds of mint and shiso leaf:
The peppers and mustard greens I can handle, but the mint and basil are going to be tough. I've got to pick all of the good leaves off individually, then dry them. That's a lot of picking. Uggh. I better get to it. At least I'll have plenty for the winter.

Also, here's a quick pick of my new dehydrator in response to Chris' comment:I'll be using it to dry everything.

Do I love my garden or what?! Took the day off edition

You might remember this "Do I love my garden or what?!" post from last year's veganmofo. Well, it is kind of interesting to reflect on - things are looking better this year, what with my Agribon rowcovers instead of sheets.

Still, I took today off from work (it was a slow week, so my boss was fine with it) just to work in my garden haha! It is bright and sunny, about as good as a fall day could be. Although we haven't had a frost yet (very unusual) we've had extended cool temperatures so things are starting to show signs of dying. The leaves on the herbs are turning brown, which I definitely don't want since I am trying to dry and preserve them for winter. I have a number of things I want to get done:

1. harvest and dry the hot peppers (habanero & kung pao, mainly. The jalapenos still haven't turned red)
   
2. harvest and dry herbs (shiso, oregano, marjoram, eucalyptus, sage, mint, chives & lavender)
3. harvest and dry the edible marigolds
4. harvest the nasturtiums and make something with them for dinner
5. pull down the malabar spinach. It has spots all over it now, since it is a tropical plant I think it is hating the cool weather
6. sew the extension onto the agribon covering the lettuce bed

Jeesh! It is a lot for one day. I've also got to clean my house since I'll probably have people over for a Halloween party this weekend, and I need to put another coat of plaster/joint compound on a drywall project in the upstairs bathroom. I'm sure I won't get everything done, but, I'll try my best.

Another Squash Post?!?! You've Got to Be Kidding

Nope, I'm not kidding. Here is squash post #5.

As you can see to the left, I had three more to deal with.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make anything with them until a week after picking and the big one got soft. Whoops.

But the other two were still good, so I don't feel too bad about letting one go into the compost, with everything I've used them for all summer.

They ended up in a Zucchini, Potato and Cilantro Soup. I found the recipe on epicurious.com, and figured it must be good since it is rated with a resounding 4 forks. But wow, it exceeded my expectations. I hate to hype it up, because then you'll try it and be like "meh", but I can't stop raving about it!! I really am not a huge fan of soup. However this was hands down one of the best I've ever eaten. It was perfectly balanced.

The only thing I had to change to make it vegan was use Earth Balance Buttery Spread instead of butter. I also only used 2 tbsp instead of 3, to make it slightly lower fat. But even without that, it is a low-cal recipe. Plus, it was super easy to make, and also used up some jalapenos from my garden. (Even cooler, if I had my dream half acre of land, it could be made almost entirely from home grown ingredients. *sigh* Someday.)

Here it is sauteing in the pot before adding the broth. Which, btw, was Imagine Organic Vegetable Broth that I got a whole carton for only 99 cents at Jack's in Manhattan! Gotta love Jack's. Wuhoo.And the final product (unfortunately the picture does not do it justice). No croutons were needed.


My partner doesn't even like squash and he ate his all up. It was so good I had two huge bowls! This is definitely my new #1 favorite soup. I look forward to making it in the winter with the squash I dehydrated a couple weeks ago.

I've only got 1 more squash left on the vines. I think they are pretty much done for the season, what with all of this cool weather we've had. (though, no frost yet) So I guess this will probably be the last squash post until next year. :-(

Basil Pesto and NYC Style Pasta Brunch

I had this whole epic post about sweet peppers 3/4ths written, and then discovered that the central recipe for the post has disappeared. I have no idea where it is, and it is one of my favorite recipes. Boo!

In the meantime I'll just have to post this quickie leftover from a September Sunday brunch. Which isn't so bad, since this New York style brunch (i.e., it happened in late afternoon) was super delicious.

As you can see above, it was a simple pasta dish. I made the sauce with diced tomatoes and peppers from the garden (bell, italian green fryers and jalapenos), plus shredded carrots, onions and garlic from the store. I slow sauteed these things with my usual herb combination - thyme, oregano, marjoram and bay leaf, then served it over angel hair pasta.

I'd usually put some basil in there too, except this time I made a basil pesto to go with it. That's the dollop on top. It is sort of a funny color since I used purple basil, but wow was this purple basil delicious. I'm not really sure what type it is, since I bought a mixed pack of assorted basil. It was very floral. Even though it had bolted and grown flower heads by that point, it didn't taste bitter at all - just the most wonderful flavor.

Below is the best picture I can find of this mixed basil patch. You can kind of see it behind the Calendula flower bed. From left to right it is green, purple, green, purple. I had no idea what they would end up like when I planted them, or else I would have done it differently. It was basically like a basil grab bag. I think there was definitely some kind of lemon basil in there, which I really didn't like - it tasted medicinal. Also, some kind of really short basil with beautiful flowers. I think there was at least two plants of good old green Genovese - that and the purple (maybe Opal?) definitely tasted the best. Next year I think I'll definitely grow those two.
Below is a picture of the leaves before I pureed them, with a bit of olive oil (not a lot, b/c of the diet again), nutritional yeast, walnuts and garlic. I probably put salt and pepper in there too - I didn't use a recipe, just whizzed it all in the food processor. It's hard to go wrong with these ingredients inmho.Then I also had the italian pepper almond chreeze discussed in a previous post dolloped on top, and on a whole wheat english muffin. See, it involved an English muffin - thus making it brunch. haha

I wish I could have more leisurely sunny Sundays spent in the garden like that September day...

Even More Squash!!!

I can't even believe it myself, 3 squash posts in a row. And there are two more 3 footers growing on the vine, so there very well may be several more squash posts! But I'm definitely not complaining - I'm happy to have finally reached that 'so-much-squash-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it' point that so many gardeners talk about. Especially considering it didn't happen until late September/October, and these tromboncino's are so delicious. Above you see two that were harvested on Sep. 26th, along with the rest of the bounty I gathered from the garden that day.

Here are the latest two dishes I made with the squash. First up, the "crab" cakes that I mentioned in the last post. Sorry it is a pretty boring picture, with no parsley garnish or anything, because I'm working on two huge reports for work this week and had no time to do dinner. (Which also means tonight's 1st veganmofo post will be quick. I hope to finish these reports by Monday so next week will be better!) But, it did taste really good! I think the Old Bay seasonings were a bit light though. Next time I think I would add more.The squash that made these cakes was so big, it was enough to make another two batches of the zucchini bread from two posts ago. We already ate one loaf, and froze the other. But that left another small squash to deal with! So last night I made it into a sort of 'kitchen sink' veggie stew - my go to recipe for summer produce.

This time it had the squash plus lots of garden yellow grape tomatoes, green peppers and jalapenos since I needed to use those up, as well as what is probably (sadly) our last batch of the emerite haricot verts pictured above. There will be another post about those this October for sure - I think it may have been my favorite plant this year. Soooo delicious. I also added some herbs from the garden - thyme, fresh bay leaf, oregano and a bit of marjoram.

Plus from the store, some shredded broccoli slaw I had leftover (and since I had no broccoli tops, which I usually like to put into a stew like this), chick peas, carrots, onions, garlic, jarred tomato sauce and shiraz wine (which gave it the kinda purple color). Not my best stew yet, but certainly good. We both sort of looked at it like 'eh, meh' considering how much good food we've eaten lately. But then like 10 minutes later we looked at our plates and it was all gone! Om nom nom. Haha. Must have tasted pretty good! It is really hard to go wrong with this combo of ingredients.

I served it with shells and Joanne Stepaniak's mostarella chreeze, smoky variation. This chreeze takes a bit of getting used to - it definitely isn't quite like mozzarella. But it is so good in its own right, and contains no soy, plus protein from the oats and tahini. We love this chreeze. The following picture isn't that great, but hopefully you can see how it gets melty and creamy on the shells. It is one of our favorite recipes.

Quick Catch Up

So many pictures, so little time! Once again summer has me outside and not on the computer. But, it has been a good month so I'm not complaining. Here's a quick slideshow of some garden highlights:J.J. taking time to smell the borage flowers.

Somehow both pink and purple flowers grew on the same borage plant.

Fresh picked blackberries went into my morning fruit salad for work.

The nasturtiums are doing fabulous in their new spot by the fence. Much better than the tiny one that grew then died in the hanging pot last year!

Just picked all of these kung pao peppers on Saturday. I can't believe so many grew on just three plants.

My partner the pepper lover pickled them yesterday.

This was all but one of the italian frying and bell peppers that I've picked so far. A bit dissapointing, but, with this crazy weather I'm happy I got any at all. Hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks.

The tomatoes are doing better - not quite as good as last year, but still decent. Here's the first batch of Roma, plus some grapes which have been producing a few handfuls each day now.

The yellow and red grape tomatoes, plus jalapenos and cilantro from the garden got made into this delicious black bean salsa yesterday. You can't quite tell from the pic but the bowl is huge - a few handfuls a day really adds up nicely. The only things we had to add were a can of black beans, a little white onion and some lime juice.

This was the biggest haul yet from two weekends ago. Who needs the CSA! It is beet greens, rainbow and fordhook giant chard, the peppers, turnips, beets, some blackberries, tomatoes, a cucumber and a lone calendula flower that I accidentally cut off.

The Emerite haricot vert were outstanding. This was the 1st batch from earlier in July, and I picked two more even fuller bowlfuls after that, plus about a half a bowl this weekend. This was the second batch of carrots I picked, and even more peppers. I just planted a new crop of carrots this weekend - now I can hardly wait until November!

Happy New Year 2009!

This is what I harvested today, January 1st, 2009. It is baby carrots (odd that they are still baby since I planted them in May, 08), parsley, a bit of baby spinach and kale. I can't even believe all of these things were still alive, without any row covers or protection whatsoever! Next year I hope to get some Agribon and extend the harvest even further. But in the meantime, it sure made a nice addition to my New Year's Day feast.

I always make sure to eat lots of greens & lentils, since both are supposed to represent money for the new year. Not that I am really into money or material things, or very superstitious- but I figure it can't hurt for fun, especially when it tastes really good! So along with sauteed greens (usually chard, spinach & kale w/ garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes and a spritz of lemon juice), I have some lentil salad and Texas Caviar made with black-eyed peas. Not only does all of this make great road picnic food for my annual New Year's trip to relatives in Canada, but it should make me good to go as far as luck and fortune in the new year!

I am reprinting my Texas Caviar recipe here, even though it wasn't grown in my garden. Next year once I get the row covers in effect I think we could have several of the ingredients fresh from the garden- so it is something to aspire to for 2009!

Good fortune, love, and happiness to all of you and your loved ones in 2009. (even if you didn't eat any beans and greens!)

Texas "Caviar"

This recipe is copied for a free recipe card I picked up in a Texas Wholefoods store around 99 or 2000ish. I've made it almost every New Year's Eve since - if not every one - it is that good. If you don' t like any heat at all, it isn't for you- but most people would consider it relatively mild as written. If you like things very spicy, you can always add more diced jalapeno, habanero, or whatever kind of hot pepper you have.

1 & 1/2 cup chopped seeded tomatoes (1 & 1/2 medium tomatoes from my notes)
1/3 cup green onions, thinly sliced (6 thin from my notes)
2 Tbsp canned chopped green chiles
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (15.8 oz) black-eyed peas, drained (and rinsed, from my notes)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill. Garnish with jalapeno slices and cilantro sprigs, if desired. Serve with baked corn tortilla chips, toasted pita, etc.

Makes 3 cups, about 14 servings.

The Garden that Keeps on Giving

I can't even believe it. We're expected to get snow tonight, and even though I picked everything I thought possible before the last frost almost a month ago, yesterday I still got an entire bowl full of veggies from the garden!

I picked this assortment of bell peppers to the left (green now, but hopefully will turn orange like they are supposed to after a little stay in a paper bag) and Italian green frying peppers on the right:
Then these habaneros. The ones towards the bottom, not in the tupperware- were picked just yesterday off of the plants left untouched outside in the garden. The really orange ones in the tupperware at the top of the pic were taken off of a plant we pulled out of the ground before the first frost mentioned a couple posts ago, and placed in a bucket full of water in the basement. At first they were green, but sure enough turned orange after about 2 weeks, and still look pretty decent as you can see. We need to make them into hot sauce or freeze them or something as soon as possible though. There were actually more of them that my crazy hot-loving husband has been eating all along as garnish on pretty much every meal (seriously- be puts them on his hash browns in the morning, and again on his pasta at night) . I still have yet to even touch them (and have no intention to do so!)

Finally, even more green grape tomatoes!!! This plant was like the little engine grape tomato that could. This whole bowlful was just picked yesterday on November 16th, and on top you can even see two red ones! Amazing to think that we've been harvesting red grape tomatoes from this same plant since early summer. Just Wow.

Do I love my garden or what?!?

Here it is, all covered up for protection from the possible frost. We worked on it all day. I hope this helps. Of course, knowing Murphy's law, we probably did all of this for nothing. But better safe than sorry I figure.

We really need to get a thermometer for the backyard so I can tell the difference between the local forecast and what's going on in the microclimate of my garden. The Master Gardener's hotline told me it can vary widely, depending on fencing, whether or not you are on a hill, etc. At this point I really don't know how it is here. Although I can tell you I am sitting outside right now next to a blazing chiminea and it is cooooold! (Yeah, my husband is a computer geek and he set us up with super high speed wireless internet out back. Pretty cool huh!)

We also harvested everything we could. Well not quite everything, we purposely left some green tomatoes, basil, peppers, etc. to see if they would survive as an experiment. I didn't harvest any thyme or oregano either, I figured they'd weather the frost and give me a little more time to do it next weekend. There still sure was a lot to process though! We froze the parsley, will puree the basil with a little oil and freeze (hubby is working on that right now), diced the chives and tarragon for butter (earth balance vegan butter of course), put the rosemary in red vinegar, set the lavender, sage, calendula and marigolds on screens to dry, and saved the peppers/green tomatoes for salsa and roasting tomorrow. PHEW!

As for the habaneros, we picked the plant that had the most pods closest to being ripe and pulled the whole thing out of the ground. Then put it in a bucket filled with water and placed that in the basement. As mentioned in the last post, from what I read this should make them turn ripe quickly. I hope it works! We left several other plants in the ground and covered them so hopefully they will survive too. Here's the habanero in the bucket, and my dog JJ. Don't worry, we didn't let him eat any. :-)