Growing...Processing

Poona Keera Cukes

Its now half way through the summer and my favorite time of year.  Cool season crops have been long gone and the season's first ripe tomatoes were picked this week!  A variety of different potatoes and cucumbers are also coming on strong!

I am taking a plant pathology class this semester and hoping to get to the source of a few symptoms that have been repeatedly showing themselves in the garden, particularly on the cukes.
I speculate it to be one of the following;
Vine borer,  bacterial wilt, heat/water stress, or any combination of the three.
In preparation for the worst, I started new seeds last week (7/12/11).
I have about 11 cucumber plants, and 25 tomato plants going in hopes of doing a good deal of canning/ freezing/ preserving in some fashion.

All Blue Potatoes, Chinese 5 peppers, Red Clover

There are about 30 potato plants in the ground, a mix of three types;  All blue, La Ratte, and Yellow Finn all from Seed Savers Exchange.  I've only eaten the La Ratte, a french fingerling, and the All Blue.  Both are delicious and surprisingly creamy!  The Yellow Finn are not quite ready but I'm sure they'll be delicious as well.

Lemon Cuke

I'm also happy with the variety of cucumbers I chose!  There's the Lemon cucumbers which are the size of a lemon and crisp.  The plant put on a lot of foliage to start and has since started to wilt and some die back of older leaves has occurred. 

 Despite the stress, it has been putting on a great deal of the tiny, yummy fruits.  They are so handy for a personal, one meal cucumber!  I also sowed seeds of A&C pickling cukes from last year that I got from  Johnny's.  They are reliably delicious but do not have very high yields.  Perhaps this is because of the environment they're being grown in.  Crop rotation is a difficult practice when the cultivated area is occupied by different people every 2-4 years.  I have one growing at home in a pot that is not producing much fruit so this leads me to think their numbers are fewer.

Poona Keera Cucumber

My favorite cucumber to date is the Indian heirloom, Poona keera.  High yields, large fruit, extremely crunchy and sweet!  Get some!  They are also being destroyed from oldest leaf to youngest, but still producing good numbers of fruit.

Holy cow, I almost forgot to mention the bliss of tomato ripeness!!!
Growing Purple Cherokee again.  A beautiful color and excellent taste!  Yields seem to be medium to high.  Emerald Apple is the green Russian heirloom I've been eating for the past two days.  Love is a green tomato!  The plants are putting out lots of fruit, 1 or 2 ripening per plant each day.  We'll do this one again for sure!
The Brandywines are all still green, I'll be sure to report their progress as the season goes on.  Same goes for the Riesentraube (grape toms), and the German Red Strawberry which are a German heirloom.  Can't wait!

I've also got a few tomatillo "volunteers" that came up from last year.  Still not ripe yet!
Peppers are coming on full force.  I've got Chinese Five Color, a spicy little pepper with a lovely assortment of colors!  Great for salsas and stir fry.  I've got Thai red chilies that have yet to ripen along with some Albino Bullnose sweet peppers that are anxiously awaiting a pluck!

My partner, Greg, who is a raw food chef has been preparing all kinds of delicious and inventive salads for us for dinner.  We hope to process a good portion of the extra for mid winter consumption!  It can be difficult to eat all the summer's abundance.  It is equally difficult to find quality produce in the dead of winter.  What a special treat to have garden fresh tomatoes in  a Christmas salad to share with friends and family!

Canning.  The way our ancestors have preserved for generations.  It is a new undertaking for me and I welcome the challenge and the rewards!

Assortment of Cukes and Carrots in July

Harvest Moon

It is fall of 2010, and it's been an abundant season full of delicious, fresh food.  Most things are wrapping up but there's still time for some things. Lettuce has been great.  Typically, I enjoy salads and that sort of thing in the spring and summer months but its just as good in the fall. The seeds I planted were a mescaline mix.
Another treasure I've been harvesting is carrots.  Damn good!  I'll be sure to find a place for these in the soups I've been dreaming of making since the weather has turned a bit chilly.
Speaking of roots... Burdock is also ready for plucking.  Where I live in South eastern PA, burdock often grows freely and occupies many waste areas and gardens alike.  There was no reason for me to plant this species, I had the the hearty, wild kind volunteering amongst other veggies.  I suppose with certain things, you just have to learn by mistake.  Last week, as I attempted to dig out this nutritious herb, I was surprised to learned just how deep these roots go!  About a foot and a half down I was still seeing roots quarter inch in diameter sticking up from the muddy soil!.
That said, I've got a recipe for Burdock I'd like to try this weekend.  I got the recipe from Rosalee de la Foret's, Wild Foods Cookbook.