Here are a few pictures of some of my harvests from mid-July through the end of August. Notably absent are tomatoes, despite having 12 (!) tomato plants. Thanks, rats and birds 🙁
A Medley of Summer Harvests
Category: Herbs
August Mini-Bouquet
It’s a “Slow-Roasting Tomatoes” Kind of Day
This cool and rainy August Sunday was the perfect day for slow-roasting a sheet of (mostly) cherry tomatoes. I convection-roasted tomatoes (plus unpeeled garlic and thyme) at 270F for 2 hours until they had a slightly dry/jammy consistency, then packed them in olive oil and let them cool. They will be stored in the freezer for a few months.
First Tomatoes
Finally, my first vine-ripened tomatoes of the season! I already picked two blushing, green ones to ripen on the counter, but these two are the real deal. One Mountain Sunrise and one Caiman. These are the first two that I harvested after covering whatever the rats left on the vines with those wire mesh bags. It seems to be working. I hope to get at least a few handfuls from my 12 plants.
Fall Sowing
Yesterday and this morning, I spent a few hours in the garden weeding and cleaning. I also started my fall sowing: Coreless Amsterdam carrots (a fast-growing variety), cilantro, Golden and Detroit Dark Red beets, and a fall greens mix (a mix of lettuces, chards, greens, Chinese cabbage, spinach, endive).
More Refrigerator Pickles
Pesto
First round of pesto in the freezer! Last night I processed the basil I had harvested the day before and made pesto. I still had garlic scapes in the fridge, and used a few of those plus pine nuts, olive oil and salt. To make the pesto more versatile and to be considerate of pesto lovers in my circle who cannot have dairy, I did not add cheese. Cheese can always be added later. I then froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the (ten) frozen cubes to Ziplock bags this morning to freeze for the longer term.
Shallot Braids
I braided some of my shallots today, and added a few strawflowers from last year’s garlic braid. This year’s strawflowers are not quite ready yet. I am so excited to have them hanging in my pantry with the drying herbs.
Thai Basil Pesto and Pickles
This weekend, I made a first (double) batch of Thai basil pesto. I also made my first refrigerator pickles of the summer.
My cucumbers are doing exceptionally well this year. The pickles are based on this recipe, but I brought the brine to a boil first (and then let it cool down again) before adding it to the cucumbers.
July Porch
I am really enjoying my back porch this summer. (And yes, it badly needs a paint job.) I love having my tea there first thing in the morning, and a glass of wine or cool water at the end of the day, enjoying the sights and scents of the flowers and herbs.
This year, I experimented with growing flowers that I had never grown in containers before.
I had started snapdragons and Iceland poppies from seed back in February (snapdragons) and April (poppies). There is also a Poodle Skirt dahlia in the container with the snapdragons that is about to bloom. And, as always, I planted nasturtiums throughout.
As usual, there are a lot of herbs: basil (three plants of Italian and two plants of Thai), parsley (three plants), thyme, oregano, lavender (two plants), mint and dill. One Thai pepper as well, but it seems to remain small. So, again, focusing on flowers and herbs for my summer porch seems to have been the right call. (In the spring, I grew lettuces and radishes in the large containers that now are home to the basil/thyme/Thai pepper and the poppies.)
