for new readers and old

yes, its been way too long since i posted. and there's been all kinds of good stuff coming out the garden. so apologies that this took so long, but here are the first of what promises to be a bumper tomato harvest, a couple of costata romanesca squashes, a hot pepper and the latest in a production line of cucumbers...next up eggplants...can't wait!

sorry about the lousy picture quality. i'll either blame blackberry or my inability to use its camera. scratch that, its way better than the camera on my other dinosaur nokia phone!

harvest scorecard

Statement of the obvious: its been a while since I updated the blog with any kind of progress report from the garden. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent that much more time in the garden itself. But I clipped a few cuttings yesterday that ended up on the dinner plate, and figured that I’d try and match the outdoor efforts with a written report.

So here we go: the (almost) end of the season report…sorted subjectively by a combination of eating and growing satisfaction:

Eggplants…ichiban! I always liked the sound of the Japanese word Ichiban. It translates to #1. And this was the #1 producer in the garden. A fairly continuous harvest of curvy, long, purple delights! They went on the grill, they went into pasta alla norma, and they went into a ratatouille style sauce. They definitely out-produced their heirloom cousin, the Rosa Bianca, on the other side of the garden, but she was tasty too!

Shell peas: As a kid, I hated peas. I was completely scarred by early encounters with school dinner “mushy peas’. I’d push ‘em round the plate, drop them “accidentally” on the way to my mouth, pretty much anything to avoid eating them. But the ones that came up in the garden completely changed my perspective on peas. Next year, I’m going to grow them on a larger trellis to increase production. Their one shortcoming was that I never harvested enough to serve more than bird sized portions.

Cucumbers: This was the midsummer highlight. Mad production out of one plant that kicked off at least a dozen tasty treats. This made tzaziki and all kinds of salads. It could have been even better, had I not overplanted the lemon cucumbers, which overran the garden in July and August without really justifying their space. Lemon cukes definitely grew themselves out of a place in the 2010 garden!

Arugula: One of the first plants to end up in the salad bowl, I got a small crop of this in the spring. Looking forward to a second fall harvest soon. Nice and spicy.

Squash: I thought I was gonna be rolling in these, as they pretty much dominated the southern tier of the garden. It was not to be. The acorn squash did well, kicking off 7 fist sized fruits that I look forward to roasting. First readers to invite themselves up can have a taste! The summer squash weren’t so prolific…one Ronde de Nice and a handful of flying saucer shaped pattypans ended up on the grill, but we did enjoy a summerlong stream of zucchini flowers to stuff and sauté. You gotta, you gotta, stuff ‘em with Ricotta!

Beans: The proverbial mixed bag. The tavera string beans were tasty, kicking off a couple of great side dish sized harvests. The black turtle beans were one of the biggest disappointments: after waiting for them to ripen, the pods turned a beautiful shade of purple on the plants. After picking them, I left them to dry in the kitchen and put them in a mason jar in the closet. After a 4 day business trip, the jar was pretty furry, and my bean harvest was gone. Weak.
Herbs: The winners were oregano and parsley. The mint grew well, but didn’t have much flavor flav. I got a fair amount of basil, but not nearly as much as I could have used. Ditto thyme. It was gone faster than Morris Day. Cilantro and dill both bit it in the first rainstorms.

Broccoli: Last night’s dinner. Very tasty, and very good looking plants. But a lot of effort for one side dish! I’m hoping that they kick off a few more florets before they expire.

Radishes: Leslie’s favorite. A nice bitter kick for some early season salads. There should be another decent crop kicking in, if I haven’t planted them too close together.

Spinach and Lettuce: Both tasty, but definitely need more space for a decent sized harvest. The spinach was gone in one rabbit sized meal, the lettuce was more baby leaves than properly developed heads.

Peppers: They’re still on the vine, so I couldn’t tell you, but only 2/3 have fruited

Tomatoes: An unqualified disaster. Nine out of ten succumbed to Dan Barber blight. His NY Times editorial blamed a combination of bad weather and suburban gardeners buying from Home Depot (aka me), but his heirloom varieties seemed to succumb first. The one survivor was a san marzano varietal that ended up in a classic tomato/basil pasta sauce.

Romanesco cauliflour: I had such high hopes for this crop. Only one seedling made it to a plant, and although its still growing, I don’t see any signs of the fractal vegetable that I was looking forward to photographing. And eating. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but I’m not holding out too much hope.

Diablo brussel sprout: Still growing…likely to be the last survivor.

Beets, brussel sprouts, broccoli rabe, artichokes, onions, and most disappointingly, carrots (my favorite veg of all time) all failed. The beets, brussels and carrots were over run by the squash. They never had a peep of sunshine. I’m not quite sure what did the others in, but I’ll have to try again next year.

In the meantime, there’s a fall crop of spinach, arugula, lettuce and radishes to come out. I want to put some garlic in for next spring. And we’ll see what happens with the peppers and cauliflower. Stay tuned for a photographic wrap up, and the last of the LoHud articles later this week…

garden update

Its been a while since I posted any kind of garden related content...and Jeff is sick of seeing Air Bart, so here are a couple of pix from the veggie patch. Here's where things stand at the end of May:



In the left hand row, from front to back, there are brussel sprouts, zucchini, arugula and lettuce. The next row in also has some growth, although its harder to pick out...a few beets, acorn squash and spinach have come up and a strong showing from the radishes. The beans haven't done so well...I replanted a bunch today (cucumbers too), but there are also a couple of varieties of carrots that i'm holding out hope for. the other prominent feature to the left of the planks are the peas...i've got some trellises at the ready to help them go vertical.

To the right of the planks, there are onions, peppers, eggplants, a couple of dead or comatose artichokes (RIP), all kinds of herbs, several varieties of heirloom tomatoes and a half dozen rutgers tomatoes, so that I can get a little Jersey in Westchester! There are also some broccoli rabe, broccoli regulars, and romanesco cauliflour seedlings that are coming up...and the last round of seeds are germinating for the summer garden: okra and more peppers.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to start sampling some of the lettuce in the next few weeks...there won't be any proper vegetables for at least a month, but I'm anxious to start eating something before the groundhogs discover the patch...