Category: Herbs

Summer Sowing for Fall Harvest

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Kentucky Wonder pole beans

I cleaned up the area where the garlic had been and sowed beets (Chiogga and Burpee Golden), two rows of fall greens and carrots (Coreless Amsterdam, Dragon Purple and Mokum). Coreless Amsterdam and Mokum are early carrots with 55 days to maturity, Dragon Purple is 70 days. I also sowed basil (among the tomatoes), a row of cilantro (between the leeks and the flowers) and Black Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce (between the eggplant and the timber border). I top-dressed the tomatoes, squash and eggplant with cow manure and gave everything a good watering.

Today’s harvest: the (likely) last cucumbers, one zucchini, kale and tomatoes. (Zucchini and tiny cherry tomatoes from another gardener’s plot that I have been harvesting and watering while they are away.)

Thai Basil Pesto

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Thai basil harvest, 2 cups of leaves total

I harvested much of the two Thai basil plants on my back porch and made pesto. I used it for dinner to make Thai pesto noodle bowls with crispy ground pork. I followed this tried and true recipe for the pesto though. So good!

Crispy pork with Thai pesto over rice noodles. Yum!
Mise en place (with last year’s home-grown garlic)
To be blitzed
Done. So flavorful and fresh. I absolutely love this recipe.

Pesto Time

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I made a good amount of “pesto” today. By “pesto” I mean basil, salt and olive oil. I leave out the garlic, cheese and nuts to add later depending on the dish. This way, it is more versatile. Just blitzed it all up and froze it covered in olive oil in an ice cube tray. Looking forward to yummy meals all year long: pesto chicken, base for pizza and pasta, pesto mayo for sandwiches and much more. Next up will be my Thai basil peanut pesto.

Porch Update Early June

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The porch looks great. I have a nice mix of flowers, herbs and vegetables. Despite my vow to not grow tomatoes on the porch this year, I have two cherry tomato plants: one Black Strawberry (grown from seed) and one Super Sweet 100 (given to me by a friend). I also have three pepper plants: Thai, Jalapeno and Sweet Pickle, one big container of basil and numerous other herbs (rosemary, sage, mint, thyme, chives, Thai basil, cilantro, parsley). Plus a big pot with Swiss Chard, which I have been harvesting and eating (for example sauteed with garlic over pan-fried lemon garlic flounder) over the past few days. A couple of days ago, I reseeded salad greens in two of the pepper containers (May Queen with the Jalapeno and Salanova Mix with the Sweet Pickle). The third pepper container (Thai) contains the Thai basil.

Almost all of my porch plantings. On the other end of the porch are my potted palm, a (tiny) bitter orange tree, lemon grass, calendula and cilantro.

Planting Tomatoes

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I finally got to spend a few hours in the garden to weed and plant. COVID had basically knocked me out the entire month of April, and life, work and the weather got in the way until today. While weeding, I discovered that the cilantro and the beets I sowed earlier this spring germinated. They are tiny because of all the weeds but are looking strong. Yay! So I excavated them plus the sole kale plant and the couple of carrots that survived. I have had all my seedlings ready for weeks, but now finally got to plant the first batch: tomatoes (12 plants, 10 varieties total, I doubled Ananas Noire and Stupice), four basil plants and four marigolds. All grown from seed except the marigolds, which came from Neighborhood Farm. The peas and the garlic are looking good. Next, I will plant all the cucumbers and squash, eggplant, lettuce, leeks etc. waiting so patiently on my back porch.

Porch Arugula

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I harvested a huge bowl of arugula on my back porch today. Now there are only leaf lettuces left in that big pot and they have all the space they need. The radishes, flowers and herbs are looking good. I also transplanted a Thai pepper into a big container yesterday (bought as, sadly, none my my seeds germinated).

Arugula pot before harvesting …
… and after
One corner of my porch this afternoon