You Say Potato
I’ve been slowly harvesting my potatoes. This year I didn’t plant as many as I did last year, only enough for us to eat throughout the winter. There are a few varieties, most are ready to be dug. The ‘Purple Majesty’ and ‘Mountain Rose’ are all out of the ground, both produced quite prolifically this year. I’m very pleased with the results.
The ‘Purple Viking’ never cease to impress me with their yield. The photo below is the yield from one single seed potato – one. This variety is well known for being highly productive, in fact, it’s so productive that you have to space them close at planting time or you will end up with giant potatoes the size of footballs. I’m not kidding either, every now and then one gets planted farther away from the rest, or the ones on the ends of the rows are gigantic.
If I could only grow one variety of potato it would be ‘Purple Viking’. It’s a great potato for steaming, boiling, baking or mashing, and it fries up like a dream with a crispy exterior and a soft middle. It will store long into the spring without losing crispness. Overall it’s a winner if you only have a small space for growing spuds.
What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes?
Share this:
Elephant Garlic
Last week I harvested my elephant garlic. The regular garlic was harvested about a month ago and is curing in the top of the garage. This garlic is much larger and takes longer to reach maturity. Last fall I planted three cloves, which was all I received in my order from GrowOrganic.com. Each of these produced 7-9 cloves and now I have lots more to plant this fall. I may eat a few, but I might forgo eating them to expand my collection.
Elephant garlic isn’t technically garlic, at least not the same as what we think of as garlic. It’s a variety of the common leek that forms bulbs, much like the perennial leeks that I grow. It produced the most beautiful flowers, purple spheres that tower above all the other plants. I forgot to take a photo of them in the garden, so you’ll have to imagine what they look like standing 4 feet tall.
This is a great alternative to the giant alliums that are grown for their flowers, mostly because they are much cheaper. Bulbs for giant alliums can be $25 for three bulbs and they don’t always come back each year. Elephant garlic is especially nice since it multiplies readily, making it easy to amass quite a number of them in a few short years. If you live in one of the states where decorative allium bulbs cannot be sold, you can grow these beauties in their place. While the flowers aren’t quite as big or as showy as the alliums, they give the same effect in the garden.
Do you have any edible alternatives to ornamental varieties to recommend?
Share this:
Weekly Harvest
This week I’m harvesting so many tasty things from the garden. I’ve been plucking a few new ‘Purple Majesty’ potatoes from under each plant to pair with large purple beets. My shallots and garlic have sized up nicely and I have a flush of ‘Jade’ beans from my first planting.
We’ve been enjoying meatless meals comprised of a wide variety of freshly harvested vegetables topped with butter and fresh herbs. The bounty of the July garden is always overwhelming, I often forget just how many wonderful things are ready to harvest during the summer. There are endless possibilities for quick, healthy meals comprised of things plucked fresh from the garden.
What’s in your harvest basket this week?
Share this:
So Long Lettuce
It’s been warm here in Maine, in the 80’s most days. I like the warmth, so do the peppers and tomatoes, the lettuce however does not. When it gets hot the lettuce bolts into tall spires that are quite stunning. I always leave a few to set seed for next year, fresh lettuce seed sprouts so quickly and it’s so easy to save your own see.
This year I grew a variety called ‘Ruby Gem’ that was AMAZING. By far my favorite lettuce ever. This variety is also packed with antioxidants because it’s a very deep red.
For now we will say goodbye to spring salads and we welcome zucchini, peas, beans, and other warm weather vegetables in their place. It’s also time to plant more lettuce for fall and winter crops. For me lettuce is one of my favorite things to grow, I love fresh salads and will eat as many as I can in spring, summer, fall and winter. I don’t buy lettuce at the store though, so it’s always bittersweet when the lettuce fades until the next harvest.
Do you have any vegetables that are nearing their end in the garden? What will you miss the most?
Share this:
In My Harvest Bowl
This time of year it’s really nice to head out to the garden instead of the grocery store. Since we have a freezer full of pork and venison, I don’t even need to go for meat. One of our meals is stir fry. It’s easily adaptable to whatever vegetables you have on hand and can be made vegetarian or with any kind of meat. In the winter we enjoy stir fries with carrots, parsnips, onions and mushrooms. In summer it’s filled with squash, cabbage, peas and broccoli. My basic recipe has a ginger sauce and can be found over on Eat Outside the Bag.
This week some of my broccoli was ready to harvest as are my golden peas. Garlic scales are coming on by what seems to be the hundreds as well. The onions in the garden are bulbing up enough to start using them as well. I also had an orange in the pantry so I added orange zest and orange juice to the stir fry sauce – a delicious addition that I might put in the recipe. It’s certainly not a bad way to eat vegetables from the garden!
What’s your favorite adaptable meal to use your garden or CSA produce?
