In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

It’s a day to celebrate the first lettuce harvested. This is ‘Little Gem’ just before cutting to take to the kitchen. Late afternoon light in the garden is alluring. This is ‘Cegolaine’ a bronze red ‘Little Gem’ type. Mine are larger than their name suggests. Another five are the way.

Impatient, I picked one of the green bell peppers, hoping to hasten the remaining four to make the color change to red. The largest will be ready this week. For now the plant co-exists with the recently planted cauliflower.

This is the first of three butternut squash that linger in the garden. I’m waiting for the stems to tell me they’re ready—maybe this week. There’s arugula and more lettuce and to fill their space.

I made applesauce last week from the second crop of ‘Dorsett Golden’ apples, reserving some for a Thanksgiving apple dessert. Carrots harvested in April stored well in the fridge produce drawer and went into a beef stew recently. Ditto for beets that became a hearty beet borscht now that we have typical cool weather.

On another seasonal note, we received 0.75 inches of rain last week and have about 700 gallons of water stored. I used a soil sampling probe to check for soil moisture at about 18 inches in my raised beds. The sample revealed perfectly moist, well-drained soil at that depth. Before the storm we added the remaining water in the tanks from the earlier rainfall to the raised beds.

Wandering about the garden early Sunday morning, I find there are enough flowers for a small church bouquet. The reblooming iris ‘Ruth’s Choice’ reliably shows up in November. It always heartens me as the perennial garden begins a winter rest.

You might enjoy my posts from last week if you care to linger. I especially enjoyed assembling Our Vegetable Garden, 1985. Consider checking Rhapsody on Earthworms. I will likely post two times a week—Monday and Thursday during the holidays. We’re all a little busier and thinking beyond the garden.