Harvest Monday–16 July 2012

Well, it is definitely summer now! The past few days’ highs have been in the 90s and we are looking at another week of 90+ weather, with occasional thunderstorms. Plus all the bugs and disease. At least we are now getting some summer crops which makes up for it. Powdery Mildew has arrived in the garden, affecting some summer and winter squash plants (but thankfully none of mine). Last year I had a lot of trouble with PM, which killed my zucchini after just a few fruits. It turns out there is a simple, organic spray based on milk that helps prevent PM infection. You can find the recipe in my post on the BCG blog here. A follow-up inspection showed the plants in the photos there had significantly improved and were showing only a few spots of mildew after spraying with the milk solution, so it seems to be pretty effective as well as easy and cheap.

I had my last two endive plants bolt but the escarole has been hanging in there. This is one of my last two heads, weighing in at about a pound.



Some more chard and the last of the mustard, which has now bolted. I pulled the mustard and will replant at the end of August.



While pulling a large weed that I found after I removed the row cover from my squash, I disturbed the roots of this red onion, so I decided it was better to pull it. The garlic scapes were given to me by another gardener. I found the entire scape except for the bulb at the top to be woody and inedible. So what is the deal with scapes, I thought they were edible? These had not formed a coil so I assume they were not cut too late.



My first peppers, two Hungarian wax peppers. And more snow and snap peas, close to the last of them. The heat is getting to them.



So I lied when I said the lettuce was finished. These were volunteers from the compost applied to the raised beds. The red lettuce was found growing in the beets. Good thing I’m a casual weeder. You get gifts like this from being lazy.



I decided to cut the last head of escarole, figuring it would last longer in the refrigerator than in the garden given the heat we are experiencing. At the bottom is my first squash, a Costata Romanesco.




The squash are now starting to produce. The yellow patty pans are Sunbust, a great squash with a creamy texture and nutty flavor. Below them is my second Costata Romanesco. Broccoli sprouts to the left and snow/snap peas to the right. At the bottom of the photo are my first tomatoes, four Sungold and a couple of Black Cherry. Note that a pair of the Sunburst squash seem to have fused together.





This week I should be picking beans from the Provider bush beans, with the Fresh Pick beans probably a week later. There will more squash and a few tomatoes. The cucumbers seem to be taking their time getting going. You would think they would like the hot weather. Well, hopefully that means they will have a long, productive life and not succumb to disease right away.

That’s all from my garden last week. To see what others around the world are harvesting from their gardens, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.

Harvest Monday–9 July 2012

This was still a transition week between spring and summer crops. Almost all the tomatoes have set fruit now, along with some of the peppers and eggplants. The pickling cukes are starting to flower along with the first planting of bush beans. Some of the summer squash have flower buds. But with all the promise, there is nothing to harvest except the remaining spring-sowed vegetables.

This is the second picking of Tokyo Cross white turnips, and a lone radish. The rest of the radishes have bolted and were pulled. A few of the turnips show tunneling around on the surface of the bulb but no apparent penetration. I don’t know if this is the cabbage root maggot or nematodes. Anybody know?



The endive and escarole are getting crowded in their beds. I harvested two very large heads of endive which I cleaned up and placed in the refrigerator. Even though I was too lazy to tie up the heads to blanch the, the hearts are nicely blanched just from being cramped in the beds. There were a lot of small slugs in the heads so cleaning them was a chore. We already have had one salad, made with a warm bacon dressing and sprinkled with bleu cheese crumbles at Mark Willis’ suggestion.



Finally, another cutting of chard and mustard. The chard still looks fine but the mustard is thinking about bolting. This mustard along with a previous cutting provided us with a large pot of greens fixed Southern style with bacon drippings and served with pepper vinegar.



That’s what I harvested from my garden last week. To see what others have harvested, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday around the world.

Smoked Salmon and Lemon Risotto

One of the luxuries we treat ourselves to occasionally is smoked salmon. I usually plan this for the Fourth of July. I am from the Midwest where barbeque (and folks, hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill are NOT barbeque) is the traditional thing to do on the Fourth. In New England, I learned that poached salmon with egg sauce is considered the traditional dish. I love poached salmon, but it seems a little too formal and it is not done outdoors on a grill so it misses the point.

My adaptation is to smoke the salmon on a grill, using a light smoke like alder or apple. I am using apple this week. The other thing I am using is a Smokenator insert for my Weber kettle, which turns the kettle into an indirect smoker. This is not a cold smoker and the salmon is not cured or brined before smoking. Salmon filets (I found some wild Alaskan Sockeye) are placed skin side down on a double sheet of foil, salted and then sprayed with cooking spray. Half the usual amount of charcoal briquettes are loaded in the Smokenator to keep temperatures down and plenty of wood is used to provide a heavy smoke.  If using filets the fish is smoked for about 1-2 hours until fish flakes when checked with a fork. Be careful not to overcook. It will be served with a lemon risotto (recipe below) and steamed and buttered snow peas. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Lemon Risotto

This is a versatile dish from the Piedmont region of Italy. Serve it as an appetizer or a side with fish, chicken or duck. You can also add peas or asparagus or tiny Maine shrimp and make it a main dish. The egg yolks give it a nice sunny yellow color. The recipe is from Perla Meyers’ excellent cookbook, The Peasant Cookbook: A Return to Simple, Good Food. The book is now out of print but if you can find a good used copy, it is well worth acquiring.

INGREDIENTS
•    3 egg yolks
•    ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
•    1 ½ t0 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
•    5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
•    1 medium onion, finely minced
•    1 ½ cups Italian Arborio rice
•    4-5 cups hot chicken stock
•    Salt and freshly ground white pepper

PREPARATION

1.    Combine the egg yolks, and Parmesan cheese and lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk until well mixed and set aside.
2.    Heat 3 Tbsp. butter in a heavy, two-quart saucepan. Add onion and cook until softened but not brown. Add rice and cook until well coated with butter and opaque white. Add ½ cup chicken stock and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until all liquid is absorbed. Continue adding stock ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly and waiting until all liquid is absorbed before adding more.
3.    After about 20 minutes, taste the rice. It should be soft but still somewhat chewy. Add remaining stock ¼ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until rice is creamy but not runny. Be careful to not drown the rice in too much stock. Season with the salt and pepper.
4.    Remove the pan from the heat. Add the egg mixture and fold it into the rice. Taste the rice, correcting seasoning and adding lemon juice if you like. Stir in remaining butter.
5.    Serve immediately with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

Harvest Monday - 2 July 2012

This week’s harvest is a little more varied. The snow peas are producing large amounts of pods. This pile weighed in at a pound and a half. And I am starting to get some side shoots from the broccoli.



Most of the salad bed is bolting and turning bitter. I cut a large bag of leaf lettuce to use in wilted lettuce salad, made with a hot bacon dressing.



I also cut a large amount of the lettuce for salads during the week, but this is probably the last of it until fall.



These are Tokyo Cross turnips, along with a few radishes. The roots were beautiful and free of cabbage root maggots. I don’t need the extra protein in my diet..The turnips are wonderful, sliced up and braised with a little butter. They were mild and sweet, but the greens need to be stripped off the stems which were too fibrous.



Another picking of snow peas yielded another pound of peas. We will have plenty of snow peas for the Fourth of July. Instead of the traditional New England dinner of poached salmon with egg sauce and peas, I do a variation which is a concession to my Midwestern instinct to barbeque on the Fourth. I slow smoke the salmon (a whole one if I can find it) using apple or alder wood. We serve it with a creamy lemon risotto and this year, with a large serving of steamed snow peas. The best part is the leftovers. Cold smoked salmon for breakfast for a week, with the left over crumbs going into scrambled eggs.



Finally, the mustard and the chard continue to grow prolifically and fortunately, the mustard does not look like it wants to bolt yet. And flea beetle damage is still minimal although the pests are back with the warmer weather.



That’s what came from my garden last week. To see what others have harvested, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday around the world.

Garden Update 1 Jul 2012

The garden is at the point now where the warm weather crops are starting to take off and in a few weeks I should start getting beans, summer squash, and yes, even the first cherry tomatoes. Full size tomatoes and eggplant are probably not going to be ready until late July or August.

The beans are starting to grow vigorously and the first bush beans planted should start flowering in a week or so. The bean bed below shows they have greened up considerably after their jaundiced start. I suspect maybe the nitrogen-fixing bacteria take some time and some warm weather to start working ( I did use innoculant). The beans on the right were planted two weeks later than the beans on the left. Fresh Pick are at the bottom and Provider at the top.

Freddy’s Roast Potatoes

 

 

OK, after weeks of watching everyone harvest their garlic scapes and garlic bulbs, I decided I will have to plant garlic this Fall. I figure I will use the squares on the ends of the squash box where I tuck in some onion sets every year. By the time the summer squash get big enough to need the space, the garlic will be harvested.

 

For those lucky enough to have a pile of newly harvested garlic bulbs, here is a great recipe that uses a lot of garlic. I found it in a book called Dining In Boston (copyrighted in 1980!), a collection of recipes from famous chefs in Boston. This one is from the very famous Lydia Shire, who at the time was chef at the Café Plaza. It is named after her boyfriend, Freddy King, who gave her the recipe. She considers it “the greatest roast potato dish in the world” and so does our family. It would definitely be on my last meal menu.

 

The skin of the garlic must be completely intact, or the garlic will burn and go bitter. Do not use cloves with skins which are split or cracked. The garlic can be discarded or eaten, The whole roast cloves look very pretty with the potatoes.You would be totally crazy to discard the cloves. Just press on an end and the buttery, roasted clove will slide out of the skin and should be eaten with the potato.

Freddy’s Roast Potatoes

• 4 Idaho or large Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and quartered
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 cloves unpeeled garlic
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water for exactly 10 minutes, then
   drain. This can be done up to 24 hours ahead of time.
3. Place potatoes in a roasting pan just large enough to accommodate
   them without crowding. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Add
   the unpeeled garlic cloves and dot the potatoes with butter.
4. Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until well browned,
   turning the potatoes once or twice to assure even roasting. Serve
   with or without garlic according to taste.

 

Updated 11 Aug 2013 to work with new design template.

Harvest Monday–25 June 2012

Harvest last week was again boring ol’ greens, but at least the peas are starting to produce. My radishes are a flop and are now bolting with no measurable bulb size. Given all the cool, rainy weather I don’t understand. On the bright side, none are showing signs of cabbage root maggot damage. I should have some white turnips to pull this week.

The escarole is being harvested now. This one went into Italian sausage with escarole and beans for Friday’s dinner.



The mustard Green Wave is looking very good and not showing any flea beetle damage. Mustard is often used as a trap crop for flea beetles, but I want to actually eat it. Maybe it is because the flea beetles have not been very present in the garden this year. I am keeping my eggplant sprayed or under cover and I just have  not seen that many after the initial onslaught. Last year they were early and continuous so you figure this year would be even worse, but so far not.



More chard, Bright Lights and Orange Fantasia on the right. Some of this went into a Sunday morning breakfast frittata.



Finally, the snow peas are producing. This is Oregon Sugar Pod II and I like it a lot. The sugar snaps are flowering and I probably should get some this week.



That’s all that is happening in my garden this week To see what goodies other gardeners around the world are harvesting, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.