The Beginning
Earlier this week I harvested the first new potatoes of the year. My potatoes went in the ground a little later than I had hoped, if they were planted earlier I would have had fresh potatoes long before now.
These are ‘Red Gold’ potato, an early potato, reaching maturity at 70 days. When the vines first started to die I thought they were blighted, but then I remembered that they were just a short season potato. We are certainly enjoying these little beauties (I planted them close together so they’d be small). There’s nothing quite like fresh potatoes after being without for 4-5 months!
Have you harvested any potatoes yet?
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Quote of the Day: Monty Don
“The herbs are essential to the kitchen and we aim to provide ourselves with a limitless supply of the principal herbs so that we can cook generously with them rather than treating them as a precious garnish.”
Monty Don from Fork to Fork
In my garden grow many herbs, they’re one of my favorite things to have around. There are culinary herbs, medicinal herbs and tea herbs. It would be very hard to me to sit down and list all of the herbs in my garden, there are far too many. Consider thyme, there are 15 different varieties of thyme growing at Chiot’s Run.
I use mass quantities of herbs every day, at every meal. Of all of the herbs I grow, lemon thyme is probably my most favorite. If I had to choose only it would win. A close second would be cilantro.
Do you grow lots of herbs in your garden? Which is your favorite?
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The Elusive Golden Beet
I love golden beets, there’s just something about that beautiful golden color. Red beets are great too, but the golden ones are my favorites for roasting. Each year I plant seeds for golden beets and end up disappointed. Germination is never as good as it is with the red beets I plant, sometimes none of the seeds germinate.
This year was no different. I planted almost an entire packet of golden beets this spring and only about 15 germinated. The seeds were fresh, or they should have been as they were purchased this spring. My first thought was that I had planted them too early and the soil was too cool. However, I planted more seeds a couple weeks ago and not one seed germinated. I planted red beets last week and they’re already popping out of the soil.
Luckily, I do have a few golden beets in the garden, not as many as I’d like. Next spring I’ll be ordering seed from a different source to see if perhaps the seeds I’ve had in the past were not very fresh (I have tried seed from a few different places). I’ve been very impressed with seeds from Johnny’s and High Mowing, so I’m planning on ordering a packet from each to see how they fare.
If I do find a source of seed that germinates well I might consider trying to save seed from them. Freshness is often a key in good germination.
Is there a vegetable you can’t seem to grow no matter what you try?
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Friday Favorite: Garden Peas
I’ve always been a big fan of garden peas, they’re just so sweet and tasty. I rarely every have enough for freezing, most of them are enjoyed within a few hours of being picked.
Since I never end up with enough peas for the freezer, this year I planted a ton. Two seventy foot long rows to be exact, along with a few six foot rows in the back potager for fresh eating. I grew ‘Green Arrow’ from High Mowing Seeds as my main crop peas. Other sowings included: ‘Little Marvel’, ‘Lincoln’, and ‘Dakota’.
My plan finally worked, on Wednesday evening we spent an hour shelling peas. After shelling our harvest weighed in at 8 pounds. They were blanched and packed into two cup glass containers for freezing.
Typically I’m not much of one for freezing or canning much from the garden, peas are the exception because winter soups and stews just aren’t the same without them!
We’ve also been enjoying our share fresh from the garden. Mostly, I’ve been steaming them then tossing them with butter and some homemade duck breast prosciutto. I always read about traditional recipes featuring peas and mint, but somehow I just can’t bring myself to put mint with peas. One of these days I will.
What’s your favorite way to enjoy garden peas? Do you like peas and mint together?
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Hello Broad Beans
This is the first year I have ever grown broad beans (aka fava beans). Back in Ohio, our summers got too warm too fast to grow these beauties, or so I’ve been told. I never even tried to grow them because I simply didn’t have enough space.
This spring I planted two varieties of favas and I just harvested the ‘Windsor’ beans earlier this week.
Favas are a lot of work, you have to shell them out of the this furry pods and then you have to blanch them and pop them out of yet another thick skin that covers the bean.
Will I be growing favas again next year? I think so, a small row produces enough for a few meals and that’s good for me. One of the reasons I garden is to be able to make my plate as varied as possible. Broad beans can be hard to come by at the grocery store and the farmers market.
Have you ever grown or eaten fava or broad beans?
