The garden is in!

Today was all about the garden, and getting everything planted.  A solid day of planting, but it's all in - including the extremely small peppers.  I decided to plant them despite their size because I could "fence" them in with bird netting and keep the squirrels and chipmunks from trampling on them, and they could get a chance to grow in the warmer air.  We did a great job - with time for pizza on the grill!

We planted 12 peppers and 8 eggplants:

8 celery, scattered amongst the self-seeded dill that took up my originally planned pepper location:

19 tomatoes, most in the garden:

But some in pots:

8 summer squash plants, 4 winter squash plants, and 2 tomatillos in the new squash garden:

Also, 28 square feet of haricots verts - 9 plants per square foot, and finally interspersed around the garden - 13 basil plants and 10 nasturtiums.  I'm hoping this will be a very good year.

Time to plant

So I definitely could have planted last weekend, but just as I was talking about getting the tomato cages down on Sunday it started to rain.  This week was another busy week at work and so I have only had time to turn on and off the grow lights and pet the tomatoes, no time to plant after work.  So tomorrow is the day.  I expect this weekend to be garden filled: 

The strawberries are blooming and thus need to be covered with bird netting or the chipmunks will eat them all.

The baby bok-choi is bolting (one of them) so I need to pick the others and cook them (maybe grill with a dash of balsamic vinegar?).

I've already picked and eaten over a half pound of radishes (put on salads and sandwiches) and will have to pick more...

...not to mention the mint that needs to be picked and made into mint jelly...

But most important of all - planting!  This weekend everything will go out except maybe the pepper plants.  Tomatoes, squash, melons, nasturtiums, eggplant, tomatillos - all of it.  And I'll direct seed the beans (french filet of course, yellow and green).  I will post pictures, I am so happy to be planting finally!

Rhubarb in syrup

So the second harvest this spring is rhubarb.  Last year we used it in raspberry jam.  This year we thought there was enough to make a rhubarb something or other all by itself.  Our neighbor Lisa combined her rhubarb harvest with ours, and we had 8 cups of sliced rhubarb.  Nice.  We were thinking 4 pint jars of rhubarb in syrup.  We stirred 2 cups of sugar into the 8 cups of rhubarb.  Then refrigerated overnight.  It's the easiest canning we have done - bring to a boil and put in the jars.  Process for 15 minutes.  It turned out beautiful.

But we only got 2 pint jars.  Hmmmm.  It's very tasty, but one jar per 4 cups of sliced rhubarb - I'm not sure it's the best use of our crop.  We instantly decided to grow more rhubarb - this year we'll plant a couple more plants and have rhubarb in syrup without regretting what else we could have done with the harvest.

Radish sandwich

My radish sandwich this weekend was totally delicious - two open-faced halves.  And easy breezy.  One baby bagel.  Cream cheese with fresh chopped chives and dried lemon thyme mixed in.  Sliced radishes thick on top.  Black Hiwa Kai lava sea salt sprinkled lightly on top.  A fantastically refreshing light meal!

Radish types and tastes

Radishes are the first crop of spring, and while I've harvested 6-7 of them already (and put them on salads), this evening I thought I had enough for picking and pickling.  I've been itching to pickle radishes - I feel kind of like Bryce and Lisa on Portlandia (watch here): I'm always looking for things to pickle (OK, not bandages etc.) :-).  But I do love veggie pickles like pickled green beans and pickled carrots and even pickled green tomatoes, which I remember my grandmother making.  So I was excited that I saw so many radish tops above the ground, seemingly ready to harvest and pickle.

Well, I was wrong about how many were ready.  I was fooled.  Most were very small and not quite ready.  I ended up with 1/2 pound (weighed with tops), and even some that I harvested were smaller than was appropriate.  But I had them so I needed to decide what to do with them.  The first thing was a taste test.  I harvested early scarlet globe, pink beauty, plum purple, and french breakfast (in order in the photo):

It's the first time I've taste-tested radishes.  I think the French breakfast has the most typical radish taste - a bit of a bite.  Both pink beauty and scarlet globe are mild, with the scarlet globe a little more "radish-like" than the pink beauty.  The plum purple actually seems to have a bit of a nutty flavor!  It was so fun to taste the difference between them!

So now I have enough radishes for a radish salad, or a radish sandwich (see Deborah Madison's cookbook - Local Flavors), but what to do with the tops?  Well, they are edible so I decided to make radish pesto.  I am using the leaves and roots, with olive oil and garlic.  Put them in your food processor with as little oil as possible, just enough to make a paste.  Then pack this into ice cube trays and freeze.  I don't put in the cheese because it doesn't freeze well (you can add it later if desired) and I don't put in nuts because the pesto is more versatile without them.  I will try using this pesto for sandwich spread in the summer when I make grilled veggie and cheese sandwiches.

Using green tomato salsa

We are almost out of green tomato salsa!  We only have 3 jars left - and one of those is open already.  We definitely need to make more next year.  Last winter we didn't use nearly as much of the salsa, but I think it's because we weren't being creative with how we used it.  This year, we used it for nachos, quesadillas, vegetable medleys, with eggs, etc.  It's not just for dip with chips.

Squash plants going crazy

These guys are big and beautiful, they are spaghetti squash.

The other types are smaller, but still doing great.  Everything from white, yellow and green patty pans to zucchini to summer ball pumpkins: