We all grow things in anticipation of a reward, whether fruit, nut, berry, flower, leaf, or just a pretty plant. I garden for food and for seed. Today I harvested Yakumo Giant peas. These are a large snowpea with excellent flavor. My original source of seed was on ebay where someone had obtained seed from Australia and grown them here in the U.S. Sandhill Preservation carries them now. I have the peas in a paper plate on top of my refrigerator so they can finish drying. The harvest was a bit low since I planted them a month late and the plants wound up too hot too soon. Still, I have fresh seed for next year and enough to send to Sandhill so Glenn can sell a few packs next spring.
In the interesting other category, I am growing Vertus Marteaux turnips to produce seed. This is a 2 year process where the turnips grow this year, are stored over winter, then re-planted and produce seed next spring. If you are looking for some outstandingly good turnips, I recommend this variety. They are about 6 inches long, 4 inches diameter, and make very tasty turnip fries. The greens are about the best Iāve ever had.
For edibles, Iāve had cabbage, broccoli, turnips, radishes, and potatoes. I will have plenty of green beans to harvest in two more days. Sweet corn will be ready in 3 weeks. Iām looking forward to fried squash, potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, fresh coleslaw, and a pan of cornbread. edit: with an onion cooked in the beans!
Iāve got my first tomato turning red and I have plenty of bell pepper ready to pick. Problem is I have too many bells left over from last year in the freezer.
I had pulled up a couple of smaller onions and cooked them with my fresh green beans. The grands commented about the beans tasting different and better. Kids are funny about seeing different items in their beans so I removed the onions before they saw them.
Iām mostly picking Blue Lake pole beans and squash right now. The Heavy Hitter okra is starting to have pods but not enough to cook up for everyone. I forgot to mention that Iām picking a few ripe tomatoes.
Iāll have the first ripe tomato sometime next week. Early varieties are competing to see who will be first.
The secret to cooking really good green beans is to caramelize them. I put them on the stove in a pan with enough water and cook them for about 40 minutes at a low boil. When the water fully evaporates, leave them in the pan on the stove and stir with a large spatula or egg turner. Let the beans āsizzleā a bit on the bottom of the pan turning slightly brown in the process. There is a very fine line between being caramelized and being burned. Donāt cross the line! Once you have tried caramelized beans, you will never go back.
I saw a couple of blooms on my okra a few days ago. I weeded and thinned the okra row and gave a bit of extra 17-17-17 to boost growth and production. The tallest plants are now a foot tall.
We had rain the last 2 days totaling just over 1.5 inches. My garden is in high gear with everything growing very rapidly.
Forgot to mention that the early maturing potatoes have died down and are ready to harvest. Iāll dig some of them tomorrow. It is time to bring the wheel barrow to the garden!
Ate the first tomato ripe yesterday. It was surprisingly delicious for an early tomato. Usually, the very early tomatoes are bland in taste. Donāt expect another ripe tomato for about 2 weeks. Itās odd that this one tomato was this early.
