Not Really a Harvest Monday

Maybe next week there will be something, but this week I only harvested 1 cup's worth of Purple and Italian basil which I made into a pesto. I didn't take a picture of it because it's been a pretty busy weekend, and I didn't get around to charging my camera battery. I used most of the pesto on focaccia, asiago, pesto and grilled chicken sandwiches last night for dinner. This has to be my new favorite sandwich...

I did, however, take a picture of my first batch of cherries I made from last week's harvest! I made Martha Stewart's Cherry Slab Pie.

This pie will have you feeling absolutely giddy...

BTW, if you don't have a cherry pitter, needle-nosed pliers work splendidly.

I pitted and froze the rest of the unused cherries to use when my mom-in-law visits next month since they're her favorite. I have a feeling I'll be making another slab pie for the 4th of July...

Since I don't have any harvesting going on, here are a few updates.
I killed my potato plants after digging the potatoes out. They're the two in the green pots, and the two in front. I was either too rough, or maybe it's from the 90 degree heat we're having (it's about time it warmed up).

Most of my lettuces bolted. Even though they were shaded, and my thermometer read a high of 80 degrees. I guess when the package says it can handle 80 degrees, it meant ever once in a while. At least it won't be long before I can start this mix over again, and then I'll have a nice head start on my fall lettuces.

We had more high winds at the end of last week. Time to get Boy Wonder out there to pick up the fruit before the ants and mice move in. click for carnage

On to the happy plants! Both sets of melons are flowering, although all male flowers at the point.

Even the almost-dead melon plant is making a come back.

I've been mistakenly calling these tomatoes "Pearson," but they're Viva Italia.

This is the Pearson tomato, and my first and only so far. It's a heavy lil guy too!

I haven't really talked about the few succulent plants from last year's acquisition that survived an outbreak of scale, were moved outside after the outbreak without hardening off, and endured a few nights of freezing temps, but here are two that are now blooming. A Hen & Chicks, and one I don't know about...

Summer vacation officially started today, so I'm off to hang out with the 8yo before the 2yo wakes up from his nap...

Ooohh, Fuu-ngus!

The weather has finally warmed up here, and my peppers growing in SWPs are finally starting to perk up. Ok, I admit they're not looking the healthiest, but three of five are starting to bear fruit (one is too young).

At first I thought they looked sickly because of the unusually cool temps and rain, and more recently because of over watering--not that I can control that in these containers at this point, but then I lifted up one of the lids...

So, let's see.. All five pepper plants, and one of two cucumbers have moldy soil, leaving my 18 gallon SWP with melons and a Tumbling Tom, and one cucumber fuzzless. *Enter pitiful winy cries* I took the lids off of all the affected plants, scraped off what mold I could then sprayed with Neem Oil. Did you know that all molds are fungi, but not all fungi are molds? Sounds like a square, rectangle thing... I'm going to keep the lids off for the rest of the season, and let the soil dry out for as long as I can to see if this helps. I don't know what else to do... Chime in if you have ideas!

My Compost Bin

I thought I'd jump on the compost bin bandwagon that Erin from Garden Now - Think Later started. What a fun posting topic!

My compost bin is more like a "heap," and this is what it currently looks like. It's made from recycled pallets that I obtained through craigslist, and I added chicken wire to the inside to keep the pile's contents inside (not that they are right now LOL--go wind).

Oh! I just added the picture and realized I'm doing double duty with showing you my fork. Better late than never! I always keep it there even though I rarely ever turn the pile. I only use it for turning the pile, and never think about putting it away.

Here's another view of the heap. It's located in the back right corner of the yard behind the orange tree, and out of view from the house (behind me is more dirt and the cherry tree). That was the only way I could convince DH to let me have a pile.

All the green on top of the pile are clippings from the bushes between the lawn and dirt (on the right side of the above pic). They were thrown on a few days ago. I guess I should mix them in... sigh...

If I had more space, I would love to add more bins like DaBeardedOne has, but I'd have to convince DH to let me expand, and I don't see that happening. It's not too bad since there's only dirt around the heap, and things aren't added to it frequently.

Aren't my weeds lovely? That dirt plot is what attracted us to this home, only to find out after we moved in that it's shaded majority of the day (except first thing when I took the pic) by huge redwoods in our neighbor's yard.  I've considered tilling the dirt, and making it a shade garden, but there's no way to easily water that area. Besides, I'm still holding on to the thought of it becoming a play area for chickens this fall or next spring.

Now it's your turn. Get out there and take some pics of your rotting piles!

CSA Wednesday, Week 2

This morning I woke up all giddy inside, excited to stop by the farm for this week's CSA share. While I packed up our fruits and veggies, and chatted with the owner, Shawn, the LO played with his dog, Bella. She's a very docile girl who put up with the few toddlers who were petting her (I swear she rolled her eyes a few times as they squealed with joy). I walked back to the car, toddler and organic booty in tow, feeling quite nostalgic.

This week's share includes...
4 (!) pounds mixed fruit; plouts, apriums, white nectarines (I was able to pick how many of each I wanted)
1 basket of strawberries (already half gone)
1 bunch of joy and meiking choi or kale (I chose the choi mix)
1 bag of loose leaf lettuce
1 bunch onion scapes
1 head pink blush garlic
1 bunch rosemary or chives (I chose chives)
rosemary focaccia bread sprinkled with salt & pepper

The only oddities for me this week are the choi and onion scapes.  Ok, the chives too... I'm just not a huge onion fan (I am learning though), but I didn't want the rosemary because I already have a big bush that I never cut from. If you have a good choi recipe, please share it!

This was waiting for me when I got home from the farm...

I don't plan on becoming a vegetarian (ever), but I've heard a lot of good things about this book, and decided to add it to my library. My goal is to up our vegetarian meals from 1 every 1-2 weeks to 2 a week. I also want to add more whole grains to the diet, and from what I've seen, vegetarian meals are loaded with them.

So, are you wondering how things went with last week's shares (say yes!)? I did pretty well getting things used up, and there wasn't too much grumbling going on at the table...

What's left:
red onion
lemons (When I needed to use a lemon I realized these are actually Meyers, so I haven't used 'em yet).
A teeny bit of kale

What I made:
All of the fruit were eaten raw with lunches, and as dinner sides, so they were easy to get rid of. The butter lettuce was a new variety for us, but again, easy to eat up since salads are the norm here...

The kale and fava beans were the biggies for me. After lots of searching, I ended up making these:

Pork Chops Stuffed with Kale and Mushrooms
I replaced the sage with 3Tbs thyme, and added extra garlic. Boy Wonder's response was, "This, actually isn't that bad, Mom." Success!

Fava Beans
2 pound favas, taken out of the pods
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup onions, chopped
olive oil

Put the favas into boiling water for 1-2 minutes to blanch. Remove immediately, rinse in cold water. Take the outer shell off each fava bean. Return to the pan and cook just the inner brighter green beans in the heated oil with the garlic and onion for 2-3 minutes.

Oh! Because last week's caramelized onion and cheese baguette was so friggin' awesome, I made a few of my own. They were delicious but needed more cheese and onions--a lot more.

Harvest Monday

There are two yummy harvests I'd like to share with you--one unexpected, but first I need to update you on last week's harvest...

After reading Granny's comment on someone's blog about being able to dig up potatoes and leave the plant to grow more, I thought I'd give it a try with mine. I was able to find potatoes in three buckets. The forth bucket that didn't have anything in it is also the one that had a plant die in a few weeks back.

Most of the potatoes were crammed in the bottom portion of the buckets, so maybe it's a good thing I pulled these out. I don't know why no potatoes have grown up along the stem of the plants as I covered them.

Just under two pounds. Not bad...

I ended up making microwaved potato chips with these, which were delicious!

My other harvest from last week was coriander... This is about 1/5 of what I have out there. They smell so good! Coriander is my second favorite spice (nutmeg is Numero Uno). I put it in almost every meat dish I use. I don't know if it makes a difference in flavor, but it sure helps my cooking mood when I smell it. I can't wait for these to finish drying so I can try them.

Today's harvests...
The rest of my CA White garlics were pulled this morning. Including the stems, they came in at 2 pounds, for a grand total of 3 pounds for 2 square feet. These were nice, full sized heads of garlic. Glad I kept them in the ground a few extra weeks. I'll probably replace them with basil (yea, more "random" basil, har).

I didn't think that all of the "bird food" cherries I mentioned yesterday bothered me at all, but at about three in the morning I shot straight up in bed and realized I had to get those cherries off the tree!

The first chance I had this morning, I was out there picking cherries. I didn't use a conventional method, like using a fruit picker, or climbing and picking by hand (although I did climb the tree a little). No, I hacked away at the already gnarly looking, hacked-at cherry tree with DH's twelve foot limb cutter. I can't think of what it's called, but it's the kind that has a pulley system with a rope connected to the blade.

A lot of the fruits fell victim to birds and squirrels...

Right as I was climbing into the tree using a step stool, I noticed these things, Right. Where. My. Hand. Was about to go. EEEWWWW! YUCK! BLEGH! OMGosh! Anyone know what these nasties are?!?! Over weight earwigs??? Bugs really don't bother me--except when I'm not expecting them. These totally freaked me out.

After an hour of work and a little child labor, I yielded 5.5 pounds of cherries!!!

Here are the lovely cherries in all their glory (hmm, maybe "all their glory" will be when they're prepared in pies, tarts, and maybe even cherry lemonade?)

Now if I could only think of a way to get the rest down... The 3 or so feet from being in the tree, plus my 5 foot 2 inches of height (those two inches are important), plus 12 feet of limb cutter were about 4 feet short of reaching the largest and best looking clusters... Maybe I'll wake up again tonight with a plan....

Each week Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday. Check out her page to see what other's have been munchin' and crunchin' on this week.

Major Garden Update

Whoa! It's been a busy couple of weeks around the yard, and around town. I wanted to share a few of the highlights and a garden update with you, so grab a drink, maybe a snack (yep it's that long), and enjoy!

I first read about the Bay Area Maker Faire on Homegrown.org, and three weekends ago I took the boys (DH included) there. There were a wide variety of things going on, and something for everyone. We all had a really great time, and I'd love to go again next year. Here are my two favorites...

UCCE Master Gardener's Strawberry Tower, made of two 5 gallon buckets. You may be seeing one in my garden next spring... ;-)

I had just discovered these guys online, and here they were, in person! Absolutely love the concept...

On 5/26 I planted my Bush King acorn squash.

May closed out with high winds, making many plums go splat...

Over Memorial weekend we exchanged the cool weather at home for sand castles at Santa Cruz/Seabright Beach...

I almost stepped on this guy when we walked out of our hotel room at checkout time. No joke, it was the size of my thumb!

And, this morning, the yard and it's inhabitants looked happy to finally have a week of warm weather...
The Concrete Garden...

Raised beds and flower garden...

The Container Gang...
Clementine in the back left with nasturtiums, White Habanero's and Baby Belles in the way back (melons and tomato in the green SWP). In the second row is another Baby Belle, two potato plants, and a cuke. In the front are two more potatoes.

Charantais melons and Tumbling Tom (between petunias)...

Bush Slicer Cukes...

My poor, abused Meyer... It hadn't been doing well, and then I made things worse by doing a few things; extreme temp fluctuations, too much moisture retention due to me mulching the soil, and under fertilizing then over fertilizing (slap my hand) to correct nitrogen deficiency. A lot of very yellow leaves were blown off. I flushed the soil several times and removed the mulch, and it seems like it's finally recovering. I'll try to prune heavily when pruning time is here, and continue to cross my fingers.

The good Meyer news is that I've had several successful pollinations! I counted around 25 fruits that are plumping up (I doubt that many will make it).

Garlic, Charantais melons--two of three have started climbing the trellis. I pulled the third plant, and was going to replace it with the Thai Hot Chili plant behind it, but I noticed the melon's roots hadn't broken through the newspaper pot it was still in in the ground so I tore the newspaper off and replanted. I think it'll recover. (Darn! I'll have to make another SWP for the chili plant). A random basil on the right, and Purple Queen bush beans in front.

The tomatoes are doing well. I haven't seen any signs of Early Blight in almost 10 days. It's been 16 days since I treated them, and I'm hoping I won't need to again since I was told by my Organic-Guru-Nursery-Guy at OSH that any flowers that haven't set fruit go sterile when sprayed. Oh yes, I added two more random basil here too.

The Pearson (the one in front) is the first to fruit...

Despite the temps getting into the 90's this weekend, the salad table is doing well (See the random basils in the back right? LOL). Thank goodness for cool ocean breezes making it all the way over the hills to Pleasanton!

There's borage on the left side of the box... Ah, the beans... I started my beans in newspaper pots, and then I ripped most of them out because they were doing horribly. I don't think it was completely the newspaper pots' fault (although I'm still skeptical because of the scrawny melon plant). I just think I should've direct sown.

A few of the original bean plants that weren't doing too bad now have beans growing...

The Acorn squash (and a random basil) love their home...

Phew! Just a few more. The end is close! ;-)
Not a very good pic (I was running out of time this morning), but the plums are getting big, and there are a lot more than I thought there'd be.

Fire blight has returned to the Comice Pear tree, and I haven't seen a single fruit growing, although the foliage is really thick from the pruning we did last year after fire blight stuck.

I call this "Bird Food," DH calls this "Teasing." They're just too high for us to reach.

If you've stuck it out, here are a few flowers for you:
The one CA Poppy plant I've let live, and only because I appreciate it's ability to grow in this tiny crevice behind the AC unit.

PS Not pictured are three new random plants I bought that need homes. Can you guess which random plants I bought? LOL I don't know what this sudden fascination is...

CSA Wednesday, Week 1

Boy, I have a few things to update all of you on, but today I want to introduce you to a new segment I'll be sharing through the end of October.

Back in February, I decided to sign up for the only CSA being offered in my city, and after what's felt like ages, it's finally started! Each week I'll be picking up my share of the CSA from Terra Bella Farm. Please visit Terra Bella's page at Local Harvest for information on the program I'm participating in (what? I'm tired!).

This morning I received an email from Terra Bella which contained a "menu" of what we'll be provided along with a few recipes to go with the food items. What you see above is...
1.5 pounds plouts
1.5 pounds peaches
2 lemons
1 head red butter leaf lettuce
2 pounds fava beans
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch kale chard or collards (I chose kale)
1 red onion
1 baguette (which had Asiago cheese and caramelized onions)

I know the above pic isn't that great, and I'll try to improve my pictures, but we were just so damned excited to eat the fruit!

Oh, and that baguette? I ate half of it in less than two hours... I only stopped eating it so DH could taste some when he got home from work...

Most of the items are standard for me, but the three that I'm not sure what I'll do with are the parsley, fava beans, and kale... Parsley is a garnish in my mind, so I'm clueless there about actually using it. I don't think I've ever eaten fava's or kale before... My sister-in-law is taking part in a CSA on the east coast and made kale "chips" today, so I think I'll give that a try this week. If there's kale again next week, I really want to give this Kale, Sausage and Mushroom Stew recipe a try. It's getting a little warm for stew (finally), but this combo sounds delicious!

So far, I'm quite happy with the first week's offerings. Now the challenge (a good one, and partly why I'm doing this) is to use it all up before next Wednesday!