In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
It is summer in my vegetable garden. Less fog and more sun. Tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans are abundant and the corn will be ready soon. Peppers await more heat.
The sunflower was in its glory last week but now bows its head as seeds develop. I’m reminded that we’re nearing the autumn equinox and soon I’ll sow brassica seeds for later transplant to the garden.
The ‘Cherokee Purple’ and ‘Black Krim’ tomatoes are producing well and no critter problems this year. The plants are looking shaggy but there is enough foliage to support the crop. ‘Early Girl’ and ‘Black Cherry’ tomatoes add variety.
Can’t go wrong with an heirloom tomato baked with a topping of panko crumbs, garlic, rosemary and melted butter.
The ‘Emerite’ pole beans are prolific. I usually pick them twice daily to catch them in the filet bean stage.
I “put up” (as my grandmother would say) six pints of green beans, though she would have canned them instead of sending them to the freezer. I’ll squirrel away a few more pints this week and dream of garden minestrone and hot biscuits this fall.
This is a typical day’s harvest. Some days there will be three cucumbers or a few more tomatoes. Oversize beans go to a flock of chickens which find them a tasty accompaniment to the damaged kale I provide.
There’s plenty of rhubarb in the garden so I combined it with some of my apples stowed in the fridge, tossing in some frozen blueberries for a last minute crisp.
The crisp cools for a later dessert and there’s vanilla ice cream in the freezer too.
With an abundance of tomatoes and cucumbers it was time for gazpacho. My favorite recipe comes from the original Moosewood Cookbook.
Oh zinnias! You cheer me. The bold colors stepped up last week.
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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