Not today, but this past Sunday: Fava beans simmered in seasoned water, just enough to soften. Was really tasty.
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Made an onion, cucumber, and tomato salad in balsamic vinaigrette for supper last night. I grew the onions and cucumber, but not the tomatoes. My tomatoes are just starting to ripen and I’ve only had a couple which we already gobbled down on sandwiches. We usually have a bowl of this salad in the fridge most of mid-summer til harvest is over. It keeps nicely for a few days and we have it most every night with supper.
I harvested the onions yesterday, and was very pleased with this year’s harvest. Best I’ve ever had. Many large to very large bulbs. I bought the starts from Gurney’s. Candy Hybrid intermediate day length onions. I did not notice there were two bundles of plants in the box, and only planted one bundle. A week later when I went to breakdown the cardboard box, I found the other bundle exposed to air and looking very dried out. I stuck them in the ground anyway, but put them closer together than the first bunch. I figured if they lived I would just use them for small green onions.
Well, they all lived and I only used a few for green onions. When I started harvesting, I did notice a significant difference in size, with the onions given adequate spacing being much larger. Good lesson learned.
I am always unsure exactly when to harvest, but we have several rainy days coming and I did not want them to start rotting. The tops were starting to fall over so I pulled them. Since rain was forecast I could not leave them in the sunny garden to cure a few days, so I brought them in to the screened porch to cure for a week or so. I need to read up a bit on the curing process as I am hoping they will store quite a while. This variety is supposed to be an excellent storage onion. I have a basement that stays 55-60 degrees all year, so I that should be a good place to keep them after they have cured and I cut the tops off and trim the roots. Here is a photo of the harvest:
And also a photo of Gabriel, the valiant protector of the onions from all rodent threats!
Sandra
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Surprised your Redhaven are ripe. I’m in zone 7 and mine need another week before picking.
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Between the drought our property is struggling with and the heat, the Red Haven peaches are done now. I froze several quarts and ate as many as I could get before the critters ate them. The tree is on the west side so it definitely gets full sun and plenty of heat.
My depression white peaches on the east side of the property aren’t ripe yet. I may try grafting one of them with a red haven branch to see if it extends the season.
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My redhaven only gets 6 hrs sun so that may slow it down.
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How about elderberry jam?
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whats the taste like?
Tart, rich, super intense.
A hint - I picked it yesterday (Zone 6).
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black currant. my fave! gave some to my neighbor who never tried it before. now he has 2 bushes. i like it so much ill eat a spoonful strait from the jar when i crave something sweet. awesome heated a little and poured over vanilla ice cream.
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That’s it! One of, if not the best jam. I only got half a jar this year from my two bushes but it should last, because you sure don’t need a lot.
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i go through at least 20 pints a year of the stuff. i have 15 bushes of it. most are tiben and a few of selechenskaya 2 .the chickens get the leftover berries. mine are just ripening but i still have 4 gal. of berries in the freezer. if it wasnt such a pain to send to Canada id send you some dehydrated berries…
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No photo.
Ate my one and only LSU Gold fig just now. Absolutely delicious. Surprised some rodent or theropod didn’t get to it first.
After reading that some in colder weather climates cut back their fig trees to the ground, I did something similar this spring…to about 2 feet on a single trunk.
At this time it has easily made up what I removed and is a much more fully shaped tree in a poor light area.
The drawback? It only put on a single fig…which is now sitting in my happy stomach!
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I picked another 5 gallons of Alabama #1 pole beans today. I picked 5 gallons yesterday. I will pick 10 more gallons Thursday or Friday. I also picked a handful of cowpeas and a few cucumbers. Watermelons are sizing up with many up to 5 pounds already.
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Nice harvest of onyuns.
While I don’t have any reports of harvested fruit, other than a few blackberries, my cat “harvested” this the other night. He was meowing loudly at the door and I wondered why. Guess he was bragging.
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Good Kitty!
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Yes, he’s seems to be a good hunter, I’ve seen him with other victims. We just got him a few months ago from my wife’s friend. He’s about 5 years old and was kinda chunky when we got him, but he’s leaned up since then. Some more pics.
This was when I was tending to the tomatoes, he loves to roll in the dirt.
In his normal state here…
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