In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

Recent planting of the cool season garden means harvests are few. Peppers and arugula linger and lettuce plants offer a few outer leaves for sandwiches. But often in these times fruit takes center stage. The Bearss limes were the smallest of the fruit harvests last week.

Fruit and flowers often come together in my kitchen. My grandmother’s antique glass vase and my flowers. Her rose pattern plate and my limes. Simple pleasures.

The first few of the ‘Dorsett Golden’ apples were ready. In the next week or two we’ll harvest most of them. Hoping that will be after the strawberry guavas finish. We sensed that the crop was diminished. A night visiting opossum was the culprit and now the tree is draped with a sturdy row cover.

A day’s yield of strawberry guavas after shaking the tree. On another take from my grandmother, with the puree I made strawberry guava tapioca with a hint of almond flavoring.

And once again, my grandmother’s plate with late season, day-neutral ‘Seascape’ strawberries.

I’m picking the ‘Red Beauty’ peppers when green to hurry along the crop. Lettuce and greens will supplant them. These ample peppers were stuffed. I like the recipe’s method: 1) Brush prepped halves cut top to bottom with oil and broil on high in a cast iron skillet. 2) Set aside while you saute vegetables in the cast iron skillet to be added to the meat (or not) and cooked grains in a separate bowl.. 3) Assemble pepper halves and return to skillet to reheat covered until brought to serving temperature.

Here’s The Backyard Farm Company’s (@thebackyardfarmco) take on growing peppers;
Peppers are always (fashionably) late to the party. Especially large bell peppers, roasting peppers, and some of the hot chiles. They take their sweet (or spicy) time turning red, craving as many hot sunny days as possible—and in our cooler coastal climate, that means they take longer. They arrive on the scene halfway through the night when the other summer party goers are beginning to tire. But for a few glorious weeks everyone is together.

And in the miscellany category, I will try microwave drying of basil tomorrow. The Tuscan kale obliges and holds well in the fridge—this picked about three weeks ago when I removed the plant. The small tool makes for quick prep.

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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