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?
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5 Weeks Later
I was out checking on the cucumbers last week and noticed that they were blooming, they were. I’m amazed by how fast things grow in the summer. I guess that’s good thing or us northern gardeners would never be able to eat summer squash, cucumbers or tomatoes. I can hardly wait to start harvesting cucumbers and pickle them. I’m especially excited to try making cornichons with the Fin de Meaux. (see this post for a description of the varieties of cucumbers I’m growing this season).
This is what the cucumbers looked like on May 30 when I seeded them:
And this is what they looked like yesterday:
The race is on to see if the cucumbers come ripe before I go on vacation. I’m hoping to have all kinds of pickles in the pantry for winter eating!
What vegetables are almost ready to harvest in your garden?
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The Flower I’ve Been Waiting For
I have been patiently waiting and watching for this flower since I started the seed last summer. It was supposed to bloom last summer but didn’t. I thought it would bloom earlier this spring and was beginning to wonder if it every was going to bloom. I never did the see the buds emerge, I noticed them last night and they were blooming this morning.
This is the beautiful pink bloom of the ‘Tarpan’ Strawberry. I purchased a packet of 15 seeds from Johnny’s last spring. Only 3 or 4 of the seeds germinated and grew into plants. That doesn’t matter too much because those plants are producing runners like crazy. Each mother plant has produced 3 to 5 daughter plants and they’re still producing runners.
I need to decide where I’m going to be putting these. Maybe a few of those yellow strawberries will be removed in the front flowerbed to make way for these beauties. These are ever bearing strawberries and will produce strawberries from mid-summer to frost. That’s perfect since my June-bearing strawberries just quit producing for the year.
These really are quite different than other strawberry blooms I’ve seen. I’m interested to see what the berries taste like.
Have you ever waited patiently for something to bloom? How long did you wait?
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The Preservation Has Begun
Last week I harvested the first items for the pantry: herbs. Each year I harvest herbs and dry them in the attic to add to our meals and to enjoy as tea. I grow a wide variety of herbs in the garden some perennial, some annual. I won’t list all the herbs I have in the garden as there are quite a few. Each year I try to add a few more and learn how to use them both for culinary and medicinal purposes.
You’re supposed to harvest herbs right before them bloom; in the morning after the dew has dried, but before it gets too sunny and warm. At least that’s what I read you should do to get the best flavored herbs for your pantry. I’ve never done any experiments to see if it matters or not, but it makes sense to me that the plants would have more oils in the morning before they it gets too warm.
What made it into my harvest basket?
Peppermint – (Mentha x piperita piperita) Peppermint tea is a refreshing alternative to coffee and regular tea. Excellent for stomach indigestion. Lends its spiciness to many dishes. Don’t be fooled by seeds labelled as ‘peppermint’, peppermint can’t produce seeds because its flowers are sterile. (source of plants: Richter’s)
Sage – (Salvia officinalis) The main culinary varieties popular with onions for poultry stuffing and for flavouring rich meats like pork or duck. Also in homemade sausage, omelettes, cheese and bean dishes. Sage tea gargle is valuable for sore throat. It has highly aromatic leaves and along soft spikes of blooms that invite hummingbirds to the garden. (source: Renee’s Garden)
Mountain Mint – (Pycnanthemum pilosum) Hardy U.S. native. Leaves possess a wonderful menthol fragrance; may be used just like peppermint. Excellent beeplant. (source of seeds: Richter’s)
Greek Oregano – (Origanum vulgare hirtum) This is the true oregano collected wild in the mountains of Greece. White flowers; very hardy. Excellent flavour. (source: seeds from Richter’s)
Bodegold Chamomile – (Matricaria recutita ‘Bodegold’) Improved strain of German chamomile for commercial production. Erect, sturdy growth habit and larger flowers containing up 0.7% essential oil high in bisabolol and other medicinal compounds. (source: Renee’s Garden)
I’ve read that you shouldn’t fertilize your herbs too much or it will lessen the amount of oils in them, which will make them less potent. In my experience I have found that herbs are carefree and don’t really mind lean dry conditions. Once established, perennial herbs can take a good amount of neglect if they’re well suited to your climate and soil. Annual herbs can be a whole different ball game. I find some annual herbs to be picky and difficult to grow – at least here in my soil conditions. I have trouble growing cilantro, which is quite a shame because I enjoy it so much. Growing it in a container seems to be the best option for me.
It certainly looks like it will be a savory winter here at Chiot’s Run. I’ll be so glad I took the time to harvest these herbs and others while I’m enjoying sage stuffing at Thanksgiving or sipping a cup of hot peppermint tea on a chilly evening in January.
Do you harvest and dry herbs for winter use? What’s your favorite herb to grow in the garden?
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Starting My Espresso Mushroom Kit
A while ago I purchased an Espresso Oyster Mushroom kit from Grow Organic. I started saving our coffee ground until I had the three gallons needed for the kit. It took me few months to save up enough coffee ground. If you’re interested in doing this make sure you start saving coffee ground way in advance. You can store them in the freezer to keep them from getting moldy.
It’s quite easy to get the mushroom kit going. You’ll need: a 5 gallon bucket, mushroom spawn kit, three gallons of coffee grounds, and filtered or distilled water. First you want to make sure your bucket is clean, you don’t want any stray bacteria mucking up your mushrooms. You want to drill drainage holes in the bucket and maybe in the sides of the bucket depending on how full it is after mixing all the ingredients.
The next step is to mix the coffee grounds with the mushroom spawn. The directions state to pour coffee grounds into bucket and moisten them, then add spawn and mix. I added half the coffee grounds, wetting them with some filtered water, then I added half the spawn and mixed well. I proceeded to add the remaining coffee and spawn and then I mixed the top layer. Then I made sure the whole lot was damp but not soggy wet.
Needless to say mixing the all of the ingredients well in the bucket was not super easy. It would be much easier to mix it all in a shallow square storage tote first then transfer to the bucket. I’ll remember that for next time.
Then you place the plastic dome provided with the kit on the bucket and place it in a shady area that receives some light. If the amount of coffee and spawn in your bucket does not come up to within a few inches of the top of the bucket you’re supposed to drill a few holes in the sides of the bucket for ventilation. The directions say to mist with water every day and you should have mushrooms to harvest in a few weeks.
It really is that easy. I spent about 15 minutes to get the kit going, that included drilling holes in the bucket. I’ll be letting you know when I harvest the first mushrooms from this kit. It will be interesting to see how many I harvest. The directions say that you can use the spent kit a few more times my inoculating more coffee grounds. It should be an interesting experiment!
Have you ever grown mushrooms? What’s the most unconventional thing you’ve grown in your garden?
