Garlic Harvest

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I harvested my garlic last night. I got a good amount of both softnecks (on the left) and hardnecks (on the right), about 40 heads total, I think. They are a good size, too.

I bundled them up and hung them to cure in our back hallway. I will gently shake the dirt off in a couple of days and cure them for longer, a total of about three weeks. I then will clean the remaining dirt off and store the hardnecks in the pantry and braid the softnecks. The softnecks keep longer, so those will be the last ones to be used.

garlic bundles, softnecks on the left, hardnecks on the right

Squash and Beans

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Butternut squash

It has been warm and humid these past days and we are in the middle of a heat wave now (temperatures will be 100 tomorrow and Sunday), so things are progressing fast in the garden. The squash is growing very nicely and the beans I planted just five days ago all came up and are looking strong.

Kentucky Wonder pole bean, 5 days old

Garlic Scape Pesto

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A few days ago, I finally got around to make garlic scape pesto with my harvested scapes. As usual, I froze it in ice cube trays and then transferred the pesto cubes to freezer bags for later use. Yum!

Take: basil leaves, …
… garlic scapes,
… olive oil, almond meal and salt (I normally leave out the cheese). Blend with a stick blender and fill an ice cube tray, …
… cover it with olive oil and freeze.
Frozen

Summer Gardening

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Baby butternut squash

This morning, I spent three hours weeding my garden plot. I also pulled up all the peas, spread compost, replanted pole beans (Kentucky Wonder) in their place and made a bean trellis. I also planted rainbow carrots, nasturtium and bush beans (Tendergreen). The bush beans were planted close to the asparagus. I noticed that most of my potatoes did not grow (only a handful of plants came up), so I filled the gap with bush beans. There is still some space between the beans and the potatoes, which I likely will fill with salad greens. I moved the pepper plant because it was shaded by the cucumber foliage. I sprinkled Epsom salt around my tomatoes and gave everything a good thorough watering.

Cucumber flowers

The garlic has started to yellow. I will probably pull it in a week or two and need to think what I will plant in its space, part of it is occupied by the butternut squash vine, which is taking over much of the plot. The dahlias are coming up – I saw the first flower buds today.

Firsts and Lasts

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Red currants, snap peas, pickling cucumbers and Swiss chard

Today’s harvest: first pickling cucumbers (they are big!), last peas, and Swiss chard. Also, the first real red currant harvest. I had planted a bush in our backyard in the fall two years ago. Last summer, the plant was tiny and we got only a handful of currants. This year, I harvested a good amount. Pictured are about two thirds, maybe.

Midsummer Porch

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The herb/tomato/eggplant/potato/pepper/lettuce/chard corner of my back porch

The plants on my Southwest-facing back porch are doing well for the most part. We had plenty of rain lately and last week we had a couple of really hot days so those tiny chard and kale seedlings are finally catching up. I am very impressed with the potatoes and the lettuce.

Potatoes
Leaf lettuce
Baby kale planted after head lettuce harvest
Eggplant
Swiss Chard
Astilbe (on our Northeast-facing front porch)

Garden Dinner

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Leeks and onions from the garden

Earlier this week, I made (up) a Greek-inspired quick dinner. I fried up leeks, onion, garlic and a bell pepper and added ground beef to it. I added tomato paste to make it more like a sauce and seasoned it with paprika, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, oregano. Topped it with feta and fresh parsley and served over rice. Quick, easy and delicious.

The (overwintered) leeks and onions were from my garden plot, the parsley from my back porch.