July Harvest Totals
July has come and gone and the garden harvest is finally starting to add up nicely (yesterday I picked over 10 pounds of stuff). August should be the best month with the tomatoes being in full force by then.
I’ve been dutifully weighing just about everything I harvest, although I’m sure I’ve missed a few things here and there. Keeping track is such a great way to know how much a difference you’re making in your diet (and your pocketbook)!
So what came from the garden this month?
10.3 lbs of wild black raspberries
8.5 lbs of tomatoes
7.5 lbs of cucumbers (all nicely tucked away in pickle form)
7.5 lbs of garlic (all drying in the attic)
4 lbs of zucchini
.5 lbs of peppers (I have a bunch on the plants I’m allowing to ripen so I can can roasted red peppers)
.5 lbs of peas (the last of them)
3 ozs of herbs
What have you harvested from you garden this July? (post your blog link if you blog it)
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Bring on the Tomatoes
My tomatoes are starting to ripen. Yesterday I picked some Tumbling Toms, Principe Borghese, Sub-Arctic and Azoycha tomatoes. I’m up to 3 pounds of tomatoes from the garden already!
The yellow one is Azoychka – A very productive Russian heirloom found at the Bird Market in Moscow. (”Azoychka” is a woman’s name.) Produce indeterminate, regular-leaf tomato plants that produce an abundant crop of smooth, 3-inch round, slightly flattened, yellow/orange tomatoes with a sweet citrusy flavor. This is a delightful small yellow beefsteak tomato that matures so early it will be one of the first varieties to ripen in your garden. Beautifully smooth, lemon yellow fruit weighs about 8 ozs. and is very flavorful, rich but pleasantly sweet with a delicious hint of citrus.
We enjoyed it yesterday sliced with some salt, pepper & drizzled with a little olive oil. It is the perfect eating tomato. Mr Chiot’s loves it because it’s not too acidic. This one’s definitely a winner in our garden, which is good. I grew this instead of Lemon Boy, which is Mr Chiot’s favorite eating tomato, so I’m glad it’s so delicious!
How do you like to eat your sun-ripened garden tomatoes?
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How to Tell if Garlic is Ready to Harvest
It’s a little more difficult to determine when to harvest garlic than it is a tomato. You have to watch the plants and decide when you think they’re ready. I planted a ton of garlic last fall and I’m patiently waiting to harvest it. So how do you know when it’s time to harvest your garlic?
The best way to know when to harvest your garlic is to watch the leaves. When they begin to turn yellow and begin dying it’s almost time to harvest. Everywhere I read recommends harvesting when you still have 6-8 green leaves left on your garlic. These green leaves form the wrapping that protects the garlic during storage. If you wait for all the leaves to die back you’ll be basically killing off the protective covering of your garlic bulbs, making them more susceptible to pests and disease. However you don’t want to harvest too early because your garlic won’t be as strong or flavorful. About 2 weeks before you think it’s time to harvest you should quit watering it to make harvest easier.
I went out and checked my garlic the other day and it looks as though 2 of my varieties (the earlier maturing ones) are almost ready to harvest. I have 6 green leaves left and after digging down to inspect one of the bulbs they looked fairly nice. I pulled one of the bulbs to check the wrapping and make sure everything looked good (I’ll probably use this bulb in my pickles). Looks like it’s time! One of the reasons I’m growing my own garlic is because I love fresh garlic in recipes. It’s hard to find good fresh garlic around here so I decided to grow my own.
Do you grow your own garlic or buy it at the store (or do you use the powdered stuff)?
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My First ‘Ronde de Nice’ Squash
My first ‘Ronde de Nice’ squash was ready to harvest on Sunday!
I’ve had a few female flowers open before this one, but they weren’t pollinated fully so the fruits didn’t grow this big. This one I hand pollinated (I need Chicago Mike to send me some squash bees).
This squash weighed in at 9 ounces. I picked it small because it’s the perfect size for Mr Chiots and I to eat in one meal. I love squash fixed in so many ways: sauteed, steamed with olive oil and pepper, battered & fried, au gratin, in omelets, in lasagna, and many other ways. I have 4 squash plants so pretty soon we’ll be eating squash every day I think, and it will really help my garden harvest totals for the Garden Harvest Challenge!
What’s your favorite summer squash recipe?
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Making Pickles
On Sunday evening I went out and picked 4 Boston Pickling Cucumbers that were the perfect size for pickling in spears. I have been reading through the book I got the other day and I settled on a quick pickle recipe.
I reduced the recipe because most of them call for several pounds of cucumbers and I only had about 1 and a quarter pound. So I found a recipe that made 1 quart. I changed it a bit, because I just can’t seem to follow a recipe by the book.
We’ll see how they turn out, I didn’t can them because it was such a small batch. I’m basically brining them in the fridge for a month or so.
Here’s the recipe I used:
Quick Small Batch Dill Pickles
4 pickling cucumbers (around 1 pound)
1 cup water
7/8 cup of white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of pickling salt
2 garlic cloves
8 peppercorns
2 teaspoons of pickling spice (or a pinch of flaked red pepper)
fresh dill sprigs
8 sour cherry leaves (they’re supposed to promote crispness) or 3-4 grape leaves
Bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Meanwhile scrub and cut pickles into desired sizes. Add pickling spices, peppercorns, fresh dill, cherry leaves to quart canning jar. Add pickles to jar and pour brine over the pickles. Seal with lid and put in refrigerator for at least one month. Alternately you can water bath can pints or quarts for 10 minutes .
I’ll let you know in a month or so how they turned out. My next batch will probably be using a different recipe, perhaps I’ll try soaking the cucumbers in salt before I pickle them. Or perhaps I’ll make some fermented pickles.
Do you like sour or sweet pickles?
