I dug the rest of my garlic. It's not very large, but it wasn't looking too healthy. I think it would have rotted in the ground had I left it much longer, so I decided to dry it now. The two largest bulbs broke off in the ground, so I'll go ahead and roast them and use them in tonight's dinner. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes sounds good to me! I did get 19 ounces (including stems), plus the 4 ounce head and the 3 ounce head (trimmed weight) that I pulled earlier. Not a bad return on a quarter's worth of store bought garlic.
While I was in the garden, I noticed the basil was ready to pinch again. I harvested four ounces this time, from four plants. The basil in the west garden is still being consumed by something...slugs or bugs.
I pulled three Chiogga beets, the seeds were a gift from Cheryl. After the taste test, the jury is out on these. They tasted like....beets. There's just something wrong with eating a beet that isn't red. I think I still prefer the Red Ace Hybrid beets for their color, taste and growth.
I'm seeing peppers! I have no idea what variety, other than it's a bell. I had them well tagged with names when I planted them, then forgot what was planted where between garden and house, LOL! I'll just have to wait to see if they turn gold or red.
I broke down and used Sevin on my blue Wave petunia, and something is still eating the blossoms to pieces. Any ideas what to try next?
Whatever is eating the petunias, it's not bothering any of the rest of the flowers in the tipsy pot. I so wanted to see those petunias tumbling out of the top pot, in a big blaze of color :-(
Dinner was really good last night. We had beef stew with carrots, potatoes and onions from the garden. Frozen peas....mine just aren't quite ready to pick. French bread was really good for dunking in the gravy from the stew. I grilled the asparagus in my George Foreman type grill, and we didn't like it as well as oven roasted. It just kind of steamed rather than caramelizing like it does in the oven. No, we don't eat all of our meals outside on the patio table, it just has the best lighting for the photos ;-)
My garlic is looking kinda ragged too. I've had one lower leaf die from each of the bulbs, but I'm waiting for a couple more to die. What I'm really waiting for is for the rain to stop. The garlic would be happier if it had a couple of rainless weeks and the deluge just isn't doing it. I'm thinking maybe put a plastic cover over it so it all doesn't rot out.
ReplyDeleteI find it strange that you have beans by the bucketful but your peas haven't started yet. I always get peas before the beans start.
Summer should start for us soon. I think on Thursday it starts. BTW haven't you had some nice summer weather already? I mean you've had lots of sunshine and warmth before now haven't you? Unseasonably sunny I think I was hearing from the NW crowd. I think we are never happy with what we have. We always want something else. I really want the sun right now. Then when I get it I'll be asking for the rain.
The stew looks great!
ReplyDeleteOh, we love to eat outside, but this year is TERRIBLE for bugs, so we haven't even been out for a beer!
ReplyDeleteI always grow my garlic from the grocery. I can't see spending $4 for one because a nursery sells it. I've had great luck with it too.
I think my garden gets too much water where the garlic was planted. The neighbor adjusted her sprinklers to reach the zucchini I planted on her side of the fence, now it hits my fence garden too. The garlic looked really nice a week ago, now it looks like it is rotting on the surface of some of the heads. I find it odd that little cloves are forming up in the stems on some of them. Is that normal for garlic?
ReplyDeleteYes, I usually get peas before beans. I think the decapitation by the sparrows set mine back. I didn't have a blossom left after they attacked, so I got bird netting to cover them. It doesn't look like I'll get a very big crop now, I'll probably just stand out there in the garden and eat them raw!
We had temps in the high 80s to high 90s. One day it was 99. I don't know where the last three cool days came from, but it felt good for working outside. The Seattle area has been dry and sunnier than normal, but where I live it is usually hot and sunny from May to mid October.
Hi Granny!
ReplyDeleteThat stew does look good! Go ahead and eat outside... listen to the birds... and enjoy!
Sorry about your Petunias!
The weather is getting warmer here... will be nice all week in the 80's & low 90s... finally! I'm looking forward to seeing some growth in my garden.
Like your new "Live Traffic Feed."
Dan, thanks! It was good last night, even better for lunch today.
ReplyDeleteSue, we haven't had many bugs, but my patio is still a mess with all the old shed contents sitting there. I'll be so happy to get the interior of the new one finished, so I can put stuff away!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the garlic. We just don't use that much of it, so I just plant leftovers from my grocery store garlic. If it grows it grows, if it doesn't it's cheap to buy.
Toni, it's more like "Listen to the neighbor's lawnmower. Listen to the other neighbor's dog barking."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that Traffic Feed cool? I wish it wouldn't recognize when I come on though, it looks like Kennewick visits several times a day, but it's usually just me answering comments!
I feel odd about the traffic feed, too. I'm on here several times a day. Granny's my gateway to everyone else's blogs.
ReplyDeleteYour stew looks fantastic!!
What do beets taste like? And don't say, "Like a beet."
Oh, Ribbit....beets taste like beets. Really, I cannot think of anything that tastes even close to a beet. You should really try them pickled. Mr. H loves them that way, but won't touch a plain old cooked beet. They are really good roasted in the oven, too. Just drizzle the with a bit of oil and cook them at 425 until they are tender. I like them boiled (about the same time as a potato, 15-20 minutes), sliced, butter, s & p. Or Harvard beets, where you cook and then dice them up, add a bit of the cooking liquid, vinegar and sugar and thicken it with a cornstarch slurry. They are like a hot, mildy pickled beet.
ReplyDeleteOh, Ribbit...WARNING...beets stain just as badly as turmeric!
ReplyDelete59 lbs.? Dang, your garden is really pumping out the produce! You're right about the beets staining! Man....that stew looks good, but it's too hot for anything like that here. Maybe some ice cream....
ReplyDeleteEG, actually I just hit 60 pounds exactly! I had picked a bunch of stuff for my son earlier, then updated the total. But when I started dinner I realized I needed onions and carrots. BINGO...60 pounds!
ReplyDeleteI so hear you on losing the type of plant betwixt house and yard. I keep thinking of ways to make record keeping better, more automatic, etc. My latest plan is to tie tags to everything, with plant date, transplant date, etc. in Sharpie on them. We'll see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteMy peppers say hi to yours.
Stefaneener, I had them carefully marked for 8 weeks. I walked out to the garden and said to myself, I'll plant x here, then y, then z. By the time I got back to the house, I forgot in what order x, y & z were! I'm a bit wiser now, I plant like items in alphabetical order from left to right!
ReplyDeleteHi, "neener's" peppers!
Oh that stew looks great!
ReplyDeleteI also can't believe how big your bells are - I still barely have blossoms - it just hasn't been warm enough here for the peppers yet. My peas sure like it though. ;^)
Would you believe I haven't yet picked a pea? My sugar snaps have all been picked and the vines pulled, my other peas are just finally forming pods!
ReplyDeleteOh no - you planted so many peas too! Well, they'll come in soon, give 'em time.
ReplyDeleteJenn, these were the peas that the sparrows decapitated. It took some time for them to begin blooming again after the birds snapped off the first blossoms. I won't get much of a crop from them.
ReplyDeleteLooking good, great harvests and glad you got a meal out of it. Very well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sinfonian.
ReplyDeleteYou must be a night owl, too!
I haven't had beef stew in eons. Yours really looks good. Time to pull out the old slow cooker. It's too hot right now to do a lot of cooking. I think it got close to 100 here.
ReplyDeleteImpressive start to the pepper season! On this side of the mountains where it is cooler - I was just pleased to have the first ones starting to form from spent flowers! They were progressing nicely and then we got a cool snap and now they are stalled out again. I may have to start buttoning down the greenhouse at night again to keep them warmer until the weather turns the other direction again. I have something eating on the pepper leaves too - so I am going to have to go on a slug hunt this weekend.
ReplyDeleteStew looks delicious - need to pop that into the menu soon!
Cheryl, the stew was really good, and even better the next day. I usually make a brown gravy type stew, but this time I browned my meat, put it in the crockpot and tossed in a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato soup, 2 tsp. beef bouillon and a cup of water before adding all the veggies (peas just before serving, of course)and some pepper. I think I liked it better than the brown stew.
ReplyDeleteIt's supposed to get 95 here today.
KitsapFG, I finally have some teeny-tiny peppers one one of the four plants I brought back from AZ! They dropped so many blossoms and peppers both before and after moving them outside, and many of the original leaves were wind and sun damaged on one particularly hot, windy day, that I ended up cutting many of them off. Now they have new leaves, new life and new peppers. Poor things!
ReplyDeleteYes they are normal in some softnecks. Those are bulbils. In hardnecks they usually have scapes that come out and they form on those. You can plant them and in a few years they will be big enough to harvest. Not quite worth it in my mind.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, thanks. That's what I thought...some of them already had little green sprouts coming from them. I don't think I'd bother planting them, that would be a bit like planting seeds for potatoes, just not worth the time/wait.
ReplyDelete