Surprise Harvest
When I was harvesting my garlic earlier this week I got a bonus harvest: potatoes.
Last year the area where the garlic was planted was used to grow a crop of potatoes. Invariably a few of the tiny potatoes hide in the soil, overwinter, and grow into small potato plants. They never produce heavy yield of potatoes, but you’ll find one or two small potatoes when you pull up the plant.
I ended up with a small potato harvest along with my garlic harvest. Since I happened to making a big pot of beef stew that day, I scrubbed them up and threw them in the pot. I’m always happy for an unexpected harvest of things I didn’t plant!
Do you ever have volunteer potatoes?
Share this:
A Bountiful Garlic Harvest
Earlier this week I harvested my garlic. This is now the third year that I’ve grown garlic and this was my best harvest yet. I harvested over 125 heads of 8 different varieties. This year I finally have a large enough harvest that I’ll be able to use some of them to plant this fall, thus saving myself about $30 or more. Since the area that I planted them was an odd shape, I didn’t do a very good job keeping the varieties separate. That’s OK with me, I’ll save the biggest and best heads for planting this fall.
You may be wondering what I’ll do with so much garlic – eat it of course. I use a lot of garlic when cooking because it’s super healthy. I’m also hoping to make some pickled garlic since I finally have enough.
Remember when I talked about harvesting the garlic scapes so that the heads would be bigger? I left a few scapes on to see if it really made a difference. As you can see the one on the left is smaller than the three heads on the right. That was the one with the scape still attached. So not only do you get the eat the scapes in spring, but you end up with more garlic some summer!
All of this garlic was planted last fall. I didn’t really do anything to it this spring but give it a watering with some Neptune’s Harvest . Garlic doesn’t take up much space in the garden, you can even plant it in your ornamental borders if you don’t have space in the your garden. My garlic bed was roughly 40 sq ft tucked in the perennial border by the driveway.
I’m pretty happy that I’ll have enough garlic to last me throughout the coming year. Growing garlic is a great way to save money because organic local garlic can be quite pricey. At our local farmer’s market it averages about $1.50 for each head. If I were to buy all the garlic I grew it would cost me $187.50. Not that I would buy that much garlic if I were purchasing it, but I sure will use it all since I grew it! Looks like we won’t have to worry about vampires this coming year!
How much garlic do you go through during the course of a year? Do you grow it in your garden?
Not sure when your garlic is ready to harvest? See this post for info.
Share this:
Cucumbers and Pickles
All of those cucumbers I planted about six weeks ago have started producing. The Monticello inspired teepees have been working well for supporting the vines, they look really lovely now that they’re lush with cucumber and pole bean vines. I have had to train the cucumber vines to grow up the supports. I’m trying to think of a way to improve on this design next year. Last week I started harvesting cucumbers from all three varieties that I’m growing this season. I planted 12 vines of each in hopes of having a large flush of cucumbers for all those pickling recipes that call for pounds and pounds of cucumbers.
So far the ‘Boston Pickling’ are the largest and most productive. One day I harvested enough cucumbers to make a gallon of fermented full-sour dills. I have grown this variety of cucumber from the very beginning of my gardening career. I have always had great luck with them. They even produce a decent harvest is less than ideal conditions, like my shady back garden.
The ‘Solly Beiler’ have been less productive than the Boston Pickling, but the descriptions say they are heavy producers so I’m guessing they just haven’t hit their stride yet. They’re a much fatter cucumber than I expected, even when picked at the recommended small size.
The ‘Fin de Meaux’ seem to be producing nicely, although they’re a tiny cucumber so it takes a lot more to get enough for a batch of pickles (the one in the photo was picked a little big, most of them are much smaller). I’m looking forward to using my recipe for French Cornichon pickles from The Joy of Pickling:. I’m hoping to get enough to to give away small jars of these tiny cucumbers to friends this Christmas. If you have space I’d recommend a few of these as they’re wonderful little cucumbers. I think kids would especially love to eat pickles made with these tiny cukes.
I’ve already been making pickles with my harvests. I have a gallon of full-sour dills fermenting on the counter right now (they smell fantastic). Traditionally fermented pickles are a great way to get probiotics to enhance digestion and nutrient absorption of your meals.
I also have one jar of quick refrigerator pickles in the fridge, they’ll be ready to eat this weekend. They’re always the first kind of pickle I make so I can have pickles to eat right away. My recipe for these quick small batch pickles is posted over on the Your Day blog at Ethel so head on over there if you’re interested. My next batch of cucumbers will be some Crisp Pickles that are a favorite of everyone that tries them, I found the recipe in an old Farm Journal Cookbook given to me by Mr Chiot’s step mom. I’ll post the recipe with photos sometime soon.
I’m hoping that my cucumber vines will keep producing well for the next few weeks, then they’ll be replanted with hopes of another flush of cucumbers come fall. I want to make sure I have plenty of pickles in the pantry for winter as we love eating them with most meals.
Are you a pickle lover? what kind is your favorite: dill, sweet, bread & butter, mustard?
For more detailed descriptions of each of the cucumbers listed above head on over and read this post.
Share this:
The First Tomato of 2011
Yesterday evening I was out watering and as I walked by the Tess’s Land Race Currant tomato growing in the side flowerbed a slash of red caught my eye. There were three tiny tomatoes that were ripe and ready to harvest. I picked them and Mr Chiots and I ate them.
They don’t come close to a Brandywine for depth of flavor, but they’re a ripe tomato. Since I haven’t had a ripe tomato since last October this one was quite tasty! I think the next variety that will come ripe will be the Silvery Fir Tree. Hopefully we get to enjoy a few tasty tomatoes before we go on vacation!
Where are you in your tomato season: harvesting, almost there, not even close?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: Rachel Carson
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.
– Rachel Carson (The Sense of Wonder)
We’re in the height of summer here in NE Ohio and I’m really enjoying it. The weather is warm, climbing into the mid 80’s on most days. The sun is strong, driving me indoors between noon and four. All these things bring the lush growth of the heat loving plants: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini.
Fall will come soon though, it seems each year the seasons get shorter – I suppose it’s because I’m getting older. One of the benefits of being a gardener is that you become keenly aware of the distinctness of each season, the good things, the challenging things. I certainly would not want to live anywhere without a variety of seasons!
What are you enjoying about the season you’re in wherever your garden happens to be?
