Harvest Monday - July 23, 2012

I didn't harvest too much last week. The tomatoes in the community garden is starting to brown but there are still a lot of green tomatoes. I'm going to try fertilizing to see if I can keep it alive long enough for the tomatoes to ripen. I did harvest one mortgage lifter - it was cracked a little from all the rain we got last week but it looks nice and plump. The longhorn peppers are turning bright red. They are beautiful and also really spicy. I don't really know what to do with them. My first thought is to dry them and make pepper powder.

Mortgage lifter, supersweet 100, longhorn pepper

The basil is thriving and getting large. I transfered some of the plants so they have more space to grow. I harvested a bowlful to make some pesto. I just love the smell of fresh basil.

I'm linking to the weekly Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne to share my mini-harvest.

It's on! Me vs cutworm (?)

I gotta say, each day I garden, my respect for farmers grows. It seems I find some pest or disease in the garden every day. One consistent challenge I am facing are the mosquitoes in the community garden - they LOVE me.  I am not quite sure where they come from but every time I go to the garden, I make sure I am fully covered and I leave the garden dripping with sweat. Despite my long sleeve shirt and long pants, the mosquitoes are able to get me through the clothes. They also target the exposed parts like my hands. This afternoon, I got bitten on my forehead, ouch!

Anyway, this post is not about mosquitoes. Last week, I found one of my basil plant chewed up at the base of the stem, shriveled up...and well, dead. I just picked it out and forgot about it. But then yesterday I found another plant down.

Basil down! the poor shriveled up basil in the middle of the pot

Basil stem all chewed up

I'm looking to make a whole bunch of pesto so I can't have any more of them die on me. I did some googling and cutworm is good candidate for this kind of damage. I dug around the soil and I found this little guy.

Now, this doesn't look like the cutworm I found online. So maybe there are more worms deep inside the soil. In attempt to protect the rest of the basil, I put 2 toothpicks to prevent the cutworms from wrapping around the stem to chop it off (I think I got this from Mary's blog). I hope it works!

Herbs herbs herbs!

If there is one thing a city dweller with limited space should grow, it would be herbs.  Having fresh herbs just adds great flavor to any dish and it makes simple dishes feel fancy.  Basil may be my favorite herb to have since I use it the most. Plus little baby basil is really cute.

Sweet basil reaching for the sun

Close up of sweet basil

Sweet basil's smaller cousin, thai basil

Thai basil close up

This year, I used seeds sent by Carol (thank you) and started cilantro and I LOVE it. I'm not sure why I never paid too much attention to this herb. Maybe because when I buy it at the store, you have to get a bunch and I can never use it up. It always ends up rotting in my fridge and I hate picking out the good parts from the slimy bits. Having it grow fresh in the garden lets me pick just the right amount when I need it. Fantastic!

Bushy cilantro

Cilantro's delicate leaves

I also have an abundance of rosemary. My oldest rosemary plant is looking so good right now with yellow leaves. Just overall it looks sad. I have to say I usually don't tend to the rosemary because I feel like it is pretty tolerant to disease. The yellowing leaves could mean that I am not giving it enough water or it needs some nutrients. It is probably a combination of both since I truly neglect this poor plant. I added a couple of scoops of compost to the base of the plant and watered it. Let's see if this will give it some color.

My not so happy rosemary

Yellowing leaves

Sowing the first set of seeds.

Thai basil to the left, and sweet basil on the right

I paid a visit to Valley View Farms in search of Thai basil seeds.  I've also started sweet basil - the pesto I made last year has been such a great thing to have. I hope to make a whole bunch more this year. It occurs to me that I could probably have basil growing all year round in the kitchen. Yes, I think I will do this.

I was so excited when I also found a package of Cherokee purple tomato seeds. Last summer I bought a variety of heirloom tomatoes from the local farmer's market and these were hands down the best tasting tomatoes. I'm not sure if they grow well in containers - but I'll just have to try. Since my wish list for this year's garden keeps growing, I have looked into getting some space in a community garden. Apparently there is a waiting list for gardens in my neighborhood so unfortunately, this may not be an option.

I also picked up some lovely smelling mint. This winter I fell in love with mint tea, so I'm hoping I can make some of my own. I'm also planning to make some mojito this summer!

So far, I've started pak choi, romaine lettuce and swiss chard. I also plan to sow beets, sweet pea (need to get more seeds) and the radish that Granny sent me sometime this week.  It is great to be working with soil again - I had forgotten how fun gardening is!

July 18, 2011 - Harvest Monday

The basil was starting to flower and needed trimming to make pesto. The sweet and purple basil pesto tasted pretty much the same - the purple may be a little milder than the sweet basil.

Some of the thai peppers are turning red - and it looks like many more will be turning red too. I'm not sure what I want to do with them, so I will have to do some research.   The jalapenos also looked like they were starting to turning red too. There was definitely some stink bug damage on the jalapenos. I'm thinking of making pickled jalapenos.

I was also able to harvest some eggplants. I'm thinking of grilling them tonight.

The early girl 50 tomatoes are getting really sweet. They make a great side salad!

Linking to Daphne blog for Harvest Monday!

Insalata Caprese

One of my reasons for starting the balcony garden was to make caprese salad. If you have good tomatoes this salad is just absolutely delicious. The first early girl tomato was a little bland but the subsequent picks have been very sweet. The only downside is the skin that is a little on the thick side. But the taste is really good. The combination of tomato, basil and mozzarella is just fantastic!

Linking to Wendy's blog for the GTTC challenge.

Herbs in the garden

The hot weather is doing great things for the rosemary and german thyme. The plants are getting lush and look generally healthier than when they were growing inside. I would really love to learn more recipes using these herbs.

German thyme looking strong

Rosemary smelling wonderful!

The basil and oregano don't like the heat as much. The oregano is turning purple and bolting. I've pinched the flowers but I think I need to move it to a shadier area.

Both the purple and sweet basil leaves are narrowing. The plant itself is very strong (ie: the stems are hard) but these are also starting to bolt.

Purple basil turning green?

Sweet basil are curled up and the leaves are very hard

I will be moving them to a cooler area in front of the house. If you compare the basil plant on the balcony with the basil in the container with the tomato plant out front, you can definitely tell the difference. The leaves on the plant in the cooler spot is larger compared to the ones on the balcony. The balcony basil are considerably stiffer.

The balcony basil used to look like this before the heat wave

My only concern about moving the basil here are slugs. So far the slugs have not found their way up to the balcony but last year when I had the basil on the ground floor outside, they slugs feasted on them. EWWW. I will have to keep a close eye on them! The dill is also doing so much better now that it is out direct sunlight. I love dill and hope to use it more in my cooking.

So now I have a little bit of space on the balcony. I'll have to see if there are herbs that are particularly resistant to heat (any suggestions?). I'm wondering if the jade plants would do well in the heat. They are generally unhappy in the house and I saw some of neighbors with HUGE jade plants in front of their homes. I love these plants but succulent tend to die in my hands...

GTTC - Eggplant/summer squash penne pasta

I was able to harvest some eggplants, zucchini, jalapeno and a bit of basil. I made a very quick penne pasta with all the ingredient and tomatoes I had in the fridge. There is not set recipe, I just sauteed some garlic, onion, tomatoes and the garden harvest (with a pinch of salt and pepper) and tossed it with penne pasta. It was really good.

Thank you Wendy for hosting the weekly GTTC challenge. It is so much fun to cook with the vegetables you grow! She has a great looking pie this week, I warn you that your mouth will water but you should go check out the beautiful pictures on her blog!

The REAL first harvest!!

I have been happily watching my little veggies grow. With the zucchini and eggplant, I don't know how big they are supposed to be before harvest. I found information about the Ichiban eggplant pretty quickly (~10 inches) so this eggplant is almost ready for harvest.

The zucchini is a different story. The package says that this variety is called "Summer Squash Burpee's Bounty Hybrid" and it has zucchini on the top too. I found that zucchini is a type of summer squash. I know this is very basic information to most people, but I didn't know there were so many varieties of zucchinis. Here is the package:

The zucchini I'm growing looks nothing like the ones in the picture...So I am confused - do they change color as they grow, or what?

I tried looking for info on this specific variety but can't find anything. I did read that you shouldn't wait too long before harvesting since zucchinis can get bitter - and I've eaten bitter zucchini and it is nasty.  I figured I'll harvest the biggest one, just to see if they are good.
The peas looked ready too.

I really wanted to wait to share this with the boyfriend but frankly I couldn't wait. I tested one.

DE*LI*CIOUS!!!
Since the mesclun green was looking bushy, so I decided today was the day to harvest. Here is my FIRST REAL HARVEST from the balcony container garden. All of these I grew from seeds!!! WOW, I am really proud of myself.

zucchini/summer squash, sugar snap peas, mescluns/basil/arugula

Here is what the zucchini looks like sliced.

The harvest as dinner!

Zucchini sauteed & raw, steamed peas, salad (flower as decoration)

Zucchini/summer squash was DE*LI*CIOUS! It was good raw too (very sweet)! I sauteed it with olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious. The peas were steamed a little (unfortunately some raw fruits and vegetables make my throat itch) which brought out their sweetness. I'm not sure I like the mescluns too much. They taste a little...well, green. It was good when mixed with some basil and arugula...and the dressing.

All done! Can you tell I am super excited? Gardening rocks!

Basil and little little salad

Last year I had a pot of basil growing in the kitchen windowsill. When I bought the basil the women at the store told me to nip the tip to promote the plant to become more bushy. You want to cut it down to where there are 2 sets of leaves forming.

Hopefully this will make for a bushier basil plant and more basil! With the leaves that I trimmed and tomato I made bruschetta. I used some sort of whole grain chips that I did not like. Need to get some good bread. I'm not sure if I can call this a harvest...but it was good. I wish I had tomatoes from the garden...it will happen soon I hope!

Also here is a little salad I made from the mesclun green. I had just enough for 2, but I had to supplement it with some watercress I had in the fridge.

More flowers!...and baby veggies?!

For the past couple of days, I went out of state for a job interview. I realized how much I am addicted to this gardening project. Here are some things that make me sure I need to find a support group for gardening addiction:
1) I checked the weather in Baltimore pretty consistently
2) I noticed all the gardening stores and took me all my effort not to go to one
3) Was reading other gardening blogs than reviewing my job talk
4) Took a mental note that if offered the job will need to negotiate on the start date for after the harvest is complete
5) Seeked out gardening magazine at the airport (didn't buy one though) rather than the fashion/fitness magazines

After being away for 3 days, I find my garden was doing very well. In fact there are now many beautiful flowers.

Zucchini flower

Ichiban eggplant flower

Jalapeno pepper flower

Early Girl 50 flowers

I think I also see little baby vegetables!

Early girl 50, can you see the little green tomato-looking thing?

I'm not sure but sure looks like zucchini may be forming? I thought they need to be pollinated...?

The basil should be trimmed a little. They are getting quite bushy and the leaves are large and shiny.

I am also trying to harden off the tomato and pepper seedlings but it is very difficult.

Here is what the balcony looks like with it fully screened out. One is patched photo, the other is a panorama. My picture taking skills are limited and cannot get one nice picture to capture the whole balcony. This weekend I plan to make a couple of self-watering containers. I also want to get some flowers, maybe more marigold.

Patched picture

Panoramic picture