In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
I wait all summer for the bell peppers to turn red. This week the plants gave me all I could use and there are more to come.
The three pictured above were pan-seared in olive oil with some rosemary tossed in and splashed with balsamic vinegar at the end. They were the base for a roasted and sliced pork tenderloin.
Another night I roasted peppers with onions and tomatoes on a separate tray. The light touch of an immersion blender was the next step for my roasted tomato and red pepper soup. I added herbs from the garden and then the roasted peppers and onions for an incredibly flavorful tomato soup.
We ate heartily and I froze the remainder which will be a summer memory and a quick dinner come fall.
About a week ago it was cucumber season and I was harvesting three or four foot-long cukes every day. My recollection from other seasons is that my cucumber plants rather suddenly decide their job is done. There are some promising vines climbing the trellis but the lower leaves succumbed to mildew with the persistent cool, foggy weather.
I anticipate after the several refrigerated cucumbers are enjoyed this week the recipe file will go away. The marionberry crop has once again been cut short by the botrytis fungal disease made worse by dank weather.
It’s been a great season for ‘Sugar Pearl’ corn. No raccoons this year and preventive measures eliminated the corn earworms. Reflective tape kept the birds from sampling the corn shoots and taking the silk. See my earlier post on Corn Problems and Solutions.
There were a couple ears of corn for dinner most nights last week but now we’re down to a few scruffy small ears and soon the season will be over. So the recipe file returns to the drawer.
Here’s the tomato tray on the counter one day last week. ‘Early Girl’ on the left, ‘Black Krim’ and ‘San Francisco Fog’ on the right. I give away some and use them in meals daily. Mildew will get all three plants in the next few weeks despite my frequent trims. I’m letting long vines continue to grow and set fruit but there may not be enough foliage to bring them to size. I’m coming to terms with Growing Tomatoes in the Fog Belt.
Summer lettuce and arugula are the start for luscious summer salads.
The two zucchini plants yield a couple fruits daily. The leaves continually turn white with mildew but I cut them off every other day and last week tucked some worm bin compost around the base of the plants and watered it in with fish and seaweed emulsion. There is a flush of new growth coming along.
My whole garden may succumb to mildew soon. Even some of the peppers and zinnias have it which is very unusual. The cool season garden may go in a few weeks earlier this year.
And for now the zinnias are a daily delight.
You may enjoy seeing what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
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