Yellow Squash

Here’s the first yellow squash of the year:

It literally popped up overnight.  Wasn’t there yesterday!  I have four others growing, but this is the first contender.  This plant grew so large so fast that it suddenly fell over under its own weight last week and I had to tie it to the trellis with a plastic bag.  Seemed to do the trick.  The plant loved it and blossomed instantly.

I went ahead and picked it this afternoon.  It was five inches long and two inches in diameter, which is just about perfect.  Don’t want ’em to get too much bigger or they take on different flavors, become tough, and aren’t as good.  I sliced this one, then tossed it (and the blossom) in flower before frying in a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Salt, pepper and ranch dressing made this a real treat.  The squash flower is wonderful after frying (no dressing needed).  It’s considered a delicacy.

Kickin’ Bruschetta Recipe

Today I made some bruschetta that is just mouth-wateringly good … here’s what I did …

2.5 cups fresh basil
1 tbs fresh oregano
1 tbs fresh cilantro
3 cloves fresh garlic
5 or 6 small, vine tomatoes
1/2 tbs minced red pepper
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Some of this is approximation.  But basically, I minced the basil, oregano, cilantro, red pepper & garlic together, then added the olive oil & vinegar to the food processor.  Next the tomatoes and remaining ingredients.  I like to have more basil to tomato ratio (because you can’t have too much basil in my book these days).  Once it’s all mixed together, store in a mason jar in the fridge or put immediately on anything from eggs to baguette or fresh bread.  It’s practically good enough to eat plain!

I’ll make a LOT more of this as the summer goes on, use some, store some.  The flavor is just amazin’ and I can’t get enough.  It’s the second time I’ve made it already!

This is basically my recipe for salsa too, only I add more cilantro, half an onion and a couple of jalapenos. mmmmm

Five Weeks of Square Foot Gardening

Time for a few more progress photos.  I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I got up and went out to see what was happening in the garden.  Dew had made this really cool pattern on the outside edge of every leaf in the garden, so I thought it was a good photo op!

Cantaloupe Dew 2

My grapes have started changing color …

Compare these against the ones in the very first post when the garden started a little over a month ago (below) … AMAZING!

The Finished Product

WOW … this is going into my favorite recipes list and I’m not going to lose track of it.  It tastes sort of like quiche.  Just unbelievably good flavor.  I really recommend using baguette or French bread of some type. Really made it delicious.  I plan to make it exactly the same way as I described below when I make it next time too.  I altered the recipe a bit from similar ones online.  It’s a must-try dish.

Zucchini Casserole Recipe

So I’m in the process of making my daily zucchini dish … at least I can tell that is what it is going to turn into.  I’ve eaten a couple of the smaller zucchini already, but I picked the first one of any consequential size this morning and decided to fix a casserole for dinner tonight. I picked another smaller one to round out the dish.  When I picked it, I pulled off the flower (which is edible too, btw), and a little honeybee flew out. 🙂

Awww, here’s the first feller …

Here’s the recipe … pretty easy and quick too …

2 cups bread, cubed (I used some day old baguette … mmmm)
1/4 to 1/3 cup melted butter
2 cups sliced zucchini
1/2 onion, shredded
1 egg, beaten (I used egg beaters)
3 cloves freshly pressed garlic 🙂
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used a four cheese mix)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place bread cubes in a bowl and pour butter over the bread.
3. Add the zucchini, onion, garlic, salt and egg; mix well.
4. Transfer the mixture to an 8×8 or 9×13 baking dish and top with the cheese.
5. Bake, covered, in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Then uncover the dish and bake for another 30 minutes.

It looks and sounds so incredibly good, can’t wait to try it … will let you know how it turned out!  I can tell that I’m going to have to come up with all sorts of creative uses for zucchini over the next few weeks.  This plant is a prolific producer.  And it’s my goal not to waste a single vegetable from the garden, so I might end up having to give some away.

Storing Garlic and Making Cucumber & Onion Salad

A couple of photos now … here is the garlic I picked this afternoon:

I bundled it, stalk & all, and put it out on the front porch to cure for a couple of weeks.  Apparently, during this time there is a process where additional flavor is transferred from the stalk into the cloves.  After that I will give some away, use some, and freeze some.  I plan to plant more this fall after tasting a clove of this today.  It’s wonderful stuff.

In fact, I used two fresh cloves and made cucumber & onion salad (one of my favorites!). My first cucumber was almost six inches long this afternoon and perfectly formed, so it was time to pick.  If you continue to pick younger cucumbers without allowing them to get overly large, then you’ll end up with a much larger crop.  When you let them get big, the plant stops making more.

Here’s the recipe:

1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 onion
cover with mixture of white vinegar and water (2/3 vinegar to 1/3 water)
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 tsp salt (maybe a bit less, according to taste)
Sprinkle with a bit of sugar (don’t overdo it)

I cut it all up in the food processor and then combined in this container, where it will marinate overnight in the fridge.  I already had a taste … and wow … it’s soo soooooo good.

Garlic!

Well … my backyard had quite a crop of volunteer garlic this year.  Only I didn’t know that’s what it was.  HAHA  I’ve only lived in this house about three years, and I would see the stalks come up out there in the summer, but assumed they were green onions, which I’m highly sensitive to and cannot eat.

So yesterday I was over at someone’s house and they took me out to their garden to show me their garlic.  I was like “oh, THIS is garlic?”  😉

Well I came home to have another look at mine, and then decided to do some reading on the Internet to find out the best time for harvesting garlic.  Then I went back out to have another look and realized that mine looked like it was ready!  The leaves had turned 2/3 brown and the seed pods were opening.  I went ahead and pulled one, opened a bulb, and lo and behold … perfect, gorgeous cloves.  I nibbled one (just to be sure it really was garlic because I still didn’t trust myself – HA) … perfection!  Some spicy garlic too!

So I pulled about twenty bulbs and hung them to dry downstairs, though I may end up taking them outside in a shady spot.  It’s best to keep the stalks and roots on while it dries, keeping it out of the sun to avoid blanching.

Anyway, looks like my family and I will have at least a six month supply of fresh, home-grown garlic in front of us.  MMMMMM!

I’ll post a pic later –

Mike

Week Three … Movin’ On Up to the Sky!

So I decided that the cukes, the zukes, the eggplant and the melon need to be trellised to encourage them to grow up instead of out … turned out to be a wise decision!  Stuff is growing like crazy … big, broad, gorgeous leaves!  And blossoms all over the place … check it out:

By the way, the snakes are fakes … just trying to keep critters outta my space!

In short, I LOVE Square Foot Gardening!  It’s exactly what I needed to get interested in this terrific hobby again.  The squares are located about ten steps outside my back door (which happens to be three steps from my kitchen), which means that it takes me about 2.4 seconds to get fresh produce from my backyard onto my lunch plate!

The jalapenos were the first to produce (other than the lettuce), and they are ready to harvest already.  I’ve been cutting the cilantro, basil, mint and oregano each day to put in salads and in recipes and such.  The cilantro is wanting to bolt early, which is disappointing, but I’ll grow some more.  It was too late for spinach and it just couldn’t take off, so I’m planting more lettuce and radishes.  As you can see from the pics, I’m going to end up with quite a few cantaloupe, I’m thinking!  The squash and zucchini are trying to take over the planet, which can be expected I suppose.  I’d kind of like to plant more corn too, just judging from how fast this batch has been growing.  The watermelon is really struggling and I don’t know if it will be successful.  Have my doubts.

I’ll post regular updates with what’s going on with each of the veggies here, so check back! 🙂

How Does My Square Foot Garden Grow?

Here’s my spot on the web for tracking the progress of my garden this year.

When I was a kid, I have fond memories of running around my grandad’s ginormous garden each year … helping him weed and water and compost … and of course, EAT!  He always had the most spectacular garden in town.  And he consistently managed to grow some huge veggies.

My first attempt at gardening on my own a few years ago wasn’t nearly as productive.  Yes, I managed to enjoy a few fruits of my small amount of labor.  But since then I’ve learned that the more attention I pay to something, the better the result! … Hmm, isn’t that novel? 🙂

This year I’ve discovered the shear bliss of the Square Foot Gardening method, which is totally up my alley.  Very little weeding, and as many vegetables as I can eat.  Here are some pics of the garden as soon as I installed it.  I planted tomatoes, pole beans and a watermelon plant outside of the squares.

My next post will show where we’re at after just three weeks of growing time and lots of rain!

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