Fruits and Veggies

Late May.

Come along with me on a tour of my garden, nice and close up!

Carrot sprouts are peeking up through the compost.

The sage set to blooming--I will have to cut back all the blooms.

In the strawberry patch were surprises from the overnight rains.

A strawberry to pick!

There were lots of green strawberries, and beautiful blossoms as well.

My pea plants, sown much later than I would've liked, were sprouting up.  Hopefully I'll be able to harvest their delicious fruit before the summer heat sets in.

Baby pea sprouts.

Above and below, my green bean plants were taking root.

Tomato blossoms!

My parsley is looking beautiful this year.

This basil--columnar basil--is a new herb for me this year.  The leaves are smaller than traditional basil, but can be used in the same way.  They also taste the same as the traditional basil.  You may recall that a number of years ago, my traditional basil developed basil downy mildew, and I needed to find an alternative for the several years experts say it will take for the mildew to finally be gone in my garden.  I've had success with Medinette basil (not pictured but I'm growing it again this year), and I thought I'd try this variety.

Here's to a new garden and harvest season!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Mid July in My Garden

July 17.

Before we left on vacation, I needed to check on things in the garden.  My green bean plants were producing, so I knew I had to pick before we left.  Danny and Thomas were staying behind, so I knew they'd be able to do it for the week I was missing.

Perfect for picking!!

This was the second time this week I had picked, and I got a huge bowl full.  I would take these to New York with us.

It has been a really slow year for my tomatoes, for some reason.  I found a few with blossom end rot, but otherwise they're looking great--except for not ripening.  The cooler weather is probably a factor, so hopefully the tomatoes will hold off until I get back.  The guys had instructions to pick any red ones--or yellow in the case of the Summer Peach variety in the below image--while I was gone.

Summer Peach--these will soon be yellow!

My heirloom tomatoes (Paul Robeson and Black Brandywine) were big but green.

More Summer Peach tomatoes.

My carrots--er, at least the tops--are growing nicely, so maybe I'll have some decent orange yumminess this year!

Finally, my Alpine strawberry plants seemed to like their home here in the garden bed next to the rhubarb, and a few garlic cloves that sprang up from last year.

Everything looks good, even though there hasn't been a huge harvest.  I figured I was safe going on vacation for a week!


Back to life,
Christine

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Early June in the Garden

Time to check on things in my early June garden, now that convention is over and I can spend a bit of time out here.

I was so excited to see bean plants growing!  I haven't done green beans in a few years because of various issues, and I've done pole beans, not bush beans.  This year, I found packets of organic bush beans (French style), so I thought I'd try those.  I'll thin out these bushes a little bit to give them room to grow.  I tried to not plant them in rows, but do a zigzag plant, but alas, they look like rows still.  Oh, well.

Then it rained.  And hailed.

So, the next day I went back out.  The hail didn't really do damage.  These are Paul Robeson tomatoes, an heirloom variety.

See those green things below?  I'm going to have carrots this year!  --she says with great hope in her voice.

I've mentioned before about the strawberry plants being disobedient.  Here's proof:

They just wouldn't stay inside the wooden raised beds Fernando built for me.  They have no idea how to stay put.  At least we're reaping tons of strawberries from their disobedience!


Back to life,
Christine

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Late September Garden

Here's what was happening in my garden, late September.

Overview of an overgrown garden!

Some marigolds were still blooming in the corners of the green bean patch:

All my cayenne peppers turned red this year:

My plum tomato harvest remained steady throughout the summer:

I planted only a few jalapeño plants this year; I harvested them once early on, then just let them grow the rest of the summer.  They got really big.

The strawberry plants grew and grew, expanding to fill a whole square section!

Strawberry leaves

I let the oregano go to flower, since I had already harvested so much this year.

Time to pick the rest of the carrots!  This sweet Nantes variety is short and stubby.

Finally, I had another large harvest of cherry tomatoes.  These were extraordinarily sweet!

Back to life,
Christine

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Late Summer Harvest

Here are just a few images of our late summer harvest, the end of August.

Sweet red peppers, lots of red cayenne, and a few plum tomatoes.

Plum tomato and its reflection.  :)

Nantes carrots.  This variety is shorter and stubbier, but oh, so sweet.

Back to the garden for tomatoes and a few green beans.

Back to life,
Christine

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Soup's On!

Chicken soup with pasta.

During the fall and winter months, it's so nice to have soup for dinner.  In past years, we designated Tuesday night as soup night.  I haven't gotten into the Tuesday groove yet, but we've had soup several times now.  Homemade chicken soup is the best, and the easiest to make!

At our farmers market, Fernando and I visit Eric and Samantha from Nature's Choice Farm.  They raise 100% grass-fed cattle, plus free-range chickens and pigs.  We buy their farm-fresh eggs and whatever meat we can afford  Their prices are high, but as I've heard, good food isn't cheap, and cheap food isn't good.  This time, I asked Eric for the biggest chicken he had.  Well, they raise 'em big on their farm--it was nine pounds!

On Sunday evening, I put it in a large pot, covered it with filtered water, and simmered it all night.

Chicken simmering on the stove.

About lunchtime, I removed the chicken and bones from the stock, and let everything cool down a bit.  I strained the stock, return in to the pot, and de-boned and chunked up all the chicken.  I froze three portions of cooked chicken for future meals, and saved a portion for my soup.

Late afternoon Monday, I got the stock boiling again, with a little salt and organic chicken soup base added.  Once it was boiling, I added carrots chopped by Joe!  He was so sweet to help me pull out the rest of our garden carrots and wash them, too.

I kept this soup simple, but I love to add chopped onion, celery, and any other vegetables that I have on hand.  The stock simmered for several minutes until the carrots were tender, then I added cooked whole-wheat egg noodles (I like to cook my pasta separately, then add it to the stock).

Since you can't have chicken soup without herbs, I picked some fresh garden parsley.

Thomas, my official kitchen helper for the year, added the parsley.  Not only is he my kitchen helper (it's home-ec class!), he has become my photography assistant, since I can't add parsley and take a picture at the same time.  :)

When we have soup for supper, we always have a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.  This tradition was established growing up in my family, and it is now cemented in our own family--no matter the soup!

More recently -- chicken soup with orzo!

Truly yummy -- leftovers all week long!!

Back to life,
Christine

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Christine Anne Photography