GARDENING MONDAY

Ok not much to show except this:

My first little harvest. I have a zucchini, which grew a little too big (but in my defense it wasnt nearly ready 2 days ago. Next thing I know boom it is gigantic). I have 3 more zucchini just about ready out there as well. Looks like I am making zucchini bread this week.

I have an anaheim pepper that I have no idea what to do with right now. I guess I could chop it up and put it on taco's.

A hand ful of bush beans , with lots of them still out there "ALMOST READY"

and 2 grape tomatoes. I have several clusters of them that are just now starting to turn. They are that greeny orangy streaky color. But given a few days and more water and sunshine we will be good to go. They were delicious. So sweet and still warm from the sun. Nothing better than fresh from the garden tomatoes. We dont use pesticides or fertilizer and we hose them down every day so I feel comfortable that my kids can go out and pick them straight from the plant and not worry about them eating them straight from the garden.

My Romas will be coming into their own fairly soon as well. I have lots of those, just hanging out waiting their turn to color.

I still have nothing on my heirlooms though and it is frustrating. I dont know how to get them to grow. Heirloom vegetables are hard to grow, which I why I only got ONE heirloom plant. They taste etter than any of the other tomatoes, but for some reason they are finicky and a little more difficult. I dont know why.

anyhoo thats my garden this week.

Happy Monday!

Gardening Monday

Here we go again, kids. It is time for gardening Monday. A chance for me to show you my garden, and give recipes on how to use your garden vegetables. Here is a mini collage of just a few things in my plots right now.(I am going Green here...HAH!)

The Anaheim is starting to get big! It was just a baby bud a few days ago and now it is trying to catch up to his friend, the Poblano. The Poblano has doubled in size this week. Charles is REALLY looking forward to those. We actually have about 4 or 5 more started on the same plant.(Poblanos) This Anaheim has a few friends hanging out on his plant as well.

TIP: Want spicier peppers?? Dont water them. Let the plant get almost to the point of death and then water water water to bring it back to life. The less water a pepper has, the hotter it will be. Want a milder pepper? Water a lot. Last year I grew jalapenos, garden salsa peppers and sweet banana peppers. Well we were in the middle of a drought and I didnt water them at all. I picked some to make a chopped pepper topping for tacos. Generally jalapenos and garden salsa peppers are spicy, but not exceptionally so. And sweet banana peppers should NOT be spicy at all. Maybe a little kick, but certainly not 5 alarm. Well Charles and I sprinkled out taco's liberally with this chopped pepper mixture. Next thing I know my mough is on FIRE I cant breathe, I am sweating and crying. Charles is coughing and his eyes are watering and he is sweating. Our mouths were burning for the rest of the night they were so hot These were, without a doubt, the HOTTEST peppers I have ever eaten in my life, and let me tell you I have eaten some HOT peppers. These were honestly hotter than serrano peppers, almost to the point of being scotch bonnets or habaneros. So it goes to show that any pepper, whether it be a mild pepper like sweet banana, or a medium pepper like a jalapeno, has the potential within it to play with the big boys.

The Romas have gotten a few more clusters, last week I posted the first romas on this plant, this week I am posting the second cluster. Romas are GREAT for Bruschetta. I take a baguette and slice into thin slices. Toast lightly in the broiler. Then, rub the bread with a peeled garlic clove. Top with a slice of fresh mozzerella cheese and a slice of tomato. Top with Fresh Basil. (Or you can bake it and the tomato bakes into the cheese and has ths amazing flavor. Both my Roma plants are going to be bountiful this year and I cant wait!

The grape tomatoes are taking off. I have several clusters on ech plant exactly like the one pictured. Those are my favorite of the small sweet tomatoes. They have a sweeter flavour than the sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and are great in salads, especially pasta salad. We make the rotini pasta(the tri color) and then after it is cooked and cooled, we toss it with zesty italian dressing. We toss in grape tomatoes(sliced in half), cheddar jack cheese chunks and ham chunks. Top with parmesan. The Grape tomatoes have such a great sweetness, they are the ones my kids go to for a snack straight from the garden.

This is our first zucchini. It goes great in stews, stir fry, and breads. Zucchini are great. Dont let them get too big though, then they get seedy and lose a lot of flavor. They are best when about 8 to 10 inches long, still on the thinner side. Harvest with a knife. Do not twist zucchini off of stem.

Bush Beans: My Blue Lake Bush beans have really grown up this past week. I have flowers and even have beans on most of the plants. They are still babies(as you can kind of see in the pictures) but will soon be big enough to harvest. The great thing about beans is they grow so fast and they are so plentiful. I should have enough beans for the entire summer. A great recipe for beans: In a pan over medium-hi heat, combine olive oil and some butter(this gives butter a higher smoke point so it wont burn) add chopped shallots and 2-3 tsp chopped garlic(2-3 cloves). Let the shallots and garlic kind of cook down and get tender and make that oil all yum-0. Reduce heat to medium, Then add your beans, tossing every few minutes to each bean gets coated. Let cook through until crisp tender.You want to harvest your beans when they are about 5 inches long, they are most tender and flavorful then. If they get too big the pods inside get tough and chewy.

Pole beans are still growing and starting to send out their feelers to start climbing my trellises.

Next week on Gardening Monday I will take pictures of my redneck compost system!

Hope you have enjoyed Gardening monday. Have a great week and May you have a bountiful harvest!

Gardening Monday

It is Memorial Weekend, so we have been out and about as a family doing fun things etc, so I will post some of those later this week.

In the Meantime, here are some pictures from my garden. It is coming along nicely.

These are some tomatoes from my Roma plants. I love these little guys. Grow my pretties, for you shall soon be salsa!! I dont have a set Salsa recipe. I just throw in whatever looks good.

I have 5 varieies of tomatoes growing, so I use a mixture. Then I chop an onion (sweet usually, but have used yellow and purple before), add peppers (jalapeno or the garden salsa pepper), cilantro, and lots of garlic. I add salt and pepper to taste and I pour half of it into the food processor to get "creamy" and leave the other half chunky. I add them together for a perfect blend. I made about 6 quarts os Salsa last year before the drought took my tomatoes. So this year I plan on eating salsa ALL SUMMER LONG!

I am currently growing jalapenos, Anaheim peppers and Poblano peppers. The poblanos are VERY mild and used for stuffing and making rellenos. I already have a penny sized peppers growing my one of my poblano plants! The Anaheim peppers have a great flavor and are a fairly mild pepper, spicier than a Poblano but milder than a jalapeno. Great for kids salsa! I dont have any pictures of my peppers right now though. I need to get back out there with my camera.

This is my Bean Garden.

In the center with the wierd looking hillbilly trellises I made, are Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. I made those trellises out of tomato cages, stakes and garden twine. I LOVE Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. They are the perfect green bean for fresh, cooked,frozen or canned beans. I have grown them for the past 3 seasons. Season One I had more beans than I knew what to do with. I was harvesting and eating beans daily. Season two I harvested a little, then the drought came and everything burned up. I have about 8 of these plants, which will give me a bountiful harvest.

On the outer row along each edge I planted Blue Lake Bush Beans. These are beans that need no staking or trellising. These Stringless hearty beans are so sweet and have such a great flavor. I am looking forward to canning this season. I have never grown these before, so it will be a new experience for me. Everything in my bean plot has been started from seed, so these are really my babies. I have 10 of the bush beans planted.

I also have zucchini and yellow summer squash. They are both blossoming and looking great as well. I even have little teeny weenie babies on each plant! This is actually one of my zucchini plants but both zucchini and the yellow squash look exactly like this, so you get the idea. They all have blossoms and have fruits starting. Zucchini and squash are so easy to grow. I have grown zucchini for the past 3 years. They are pretty much a love em and leave em plant. Dont have to do much work and they reward you with squash. We stir fry zucchini and summer squash. I cut into coins and sautee them in a little bit of olive oil and garlic. Then when they start to get soft I add a bit of terriyaki sauce. I top them with grated parmesan cheese. If you dont have terriyaki sauce you can use soy sauce with a bit of sugar mixed in. Squash is so versatile. Bread, soups, stews, stirfry. You cant go wrong with squash.

I will update with more pictures as my gardening season progresses. Hope you enjoyed my garden pictures and I will update throughout the summer. I hope you have enjoyed this holiday edition of Sarah's Garden!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!