Harvest Monday, February 17th, 2014

Looking out my front window

We saw a lot of snow last week. So no harvests. But as usual I did use up some of my saved harvests from last year.

This is my wonton soup. Now none of the vegetables you see in this were from the garden. I do have carrots, but I was using up some bought carrots from a party as I don't have a lot of mine left. But the wontons, which I swear are in there, are made with my garden vegetables.

Pizza is a favorite food of most people in the US. But I can't eat tomato sauce, so I'm always trying something weird. I think my last experiment was the best. I started with cranberry sauce - homemade, but not homegrown, layered that with some pureed squash that was cooked down to get rid of all the excess water, and added a layer of squeezed out spinach. The cheddar cheese was layered on very thinly. But oh my gosh. This was a pizza made in heaven. Oh so good. I'll have to make more. I think I might have to make some cranberry sauce next fall (can I get cranberries still?) that are a bit less sweet. I think the squash adds a lot of sweetness too and the cranberries for this need less sugar than what I put on my chicken and turkey. From the garden we had squash, spinach, and a pinch of oregano.

Since that turned out so well I tried layering a wrap with cranberry sauce, chicken, purple sweet potatoes (from the garden), and cheese. That wasn't nearly as good. I think what made the pizza so good was the smooth almost buttery squash (though there was no butter in there).

You can see here I was using up the leftover spinach and squash from the pizza (the green beans are also from the garden). I freeze them in packets and the pizza didn't need them all so I just ate them the next night. But the main dish was a seafood risotto. My goal for this winter was to try to get some vegetables into my veggie hating husband. My plain vegetables he won't touch as he doesn't like the texture of them. So I've been seeing what I can hide inside a meal. The risotto has onions (from the garden), mushrooms, and Chinese cabbage pureed before adding to the rice. Though it is far from a culinary masterpiece, it came out decent. I've never made risotto before. I'll probably make it again.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Harvest Monday, February 10th, 2014

The garden is locked in snow still. Though I do have that path shoveled to the compost pile. Right now the "compost" is frozen as is typical in the winter. But since I'm still cooking, I still make scraps.

I did finally cook up some more squash.

Those got divided up into cup+ portions and put in the freezer. We did use one to make some squash casserole for my daughter. I swear she would eat that every day if I made it. But I don't have nearly enough squash for that.

I thought for the cooked food I'd show you some of my lunches. Some like this are filled with my garden produce. Onions, garlic, and lots and lots of Chinese cabbage. Yum.

Others have a little less and more bought produce. This had my black beans and some garlic, but not much else.

And this is my favorite lunch photo. Isn't it colorful? This contained garlic from the garden that I mashed into the avocado. And to the side we have sweet potato salad with my sweet potatoes, red onions, and mustard from the garden.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Harvest Monday, February 3rd, 2014

As typical this time of the year, I've got no harvests so the post is all about using my stored vegetables (and beans). This week was the week of the mashed sweet potato. They are so easy to make except for peeling them. I steam them with their skins on in the microwave. I put a little water at the bottom of the bowl and cover with an inverted plate. Typically three minutes is long enough then I let them sit for a few minutes more. I add a little butter, salt, and water or broth and mash them with a fork. Yum.

My dinners tend to have two vegetables in them. One green vegetable and one some other color. So it is usually carrots, squash, or sweet potatoes. But last week I seemed to only want mashed purple sweet potatoes for some reason.

This week I'll have to roast some squash to start getting a bit more variety in my food. But I did have one squash meal. We had spaghetti and since I can't eat tomato sauce, I had squash sauce. I'm OK with the sauce, but it is just OK. It doesn't get me excited at all. I like pesto, but I don't want to eat it on a regular basis. All the fat messes with my system.

And my sweet potato kick didn't stop with my house. I cooked some up for the Superbowl.

Since I can't eat chili I brought black bean and sweet potato soup. Which is probably a good thing as there were four different chilis at the party. And since it was vegan anyone could eat it.

Also featured in the chili was some green coriander - they look greener in real life. One of my other blogging friends (Michelle maybe?) talked about how good green coriander was compared to the mature harvested seed. And I so concur. The green one is more complex and much stronger. I'll have to remember to pick more at this stage this year.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

On Your Mark, Get Set, . .

GO! Gardening season is off. It might be 15F outside right now. Brrrr! We might be in a bad cold snap. And the ground will probably be frozen for another month and a half. But I'm thinking of warmer times. The first out of the gates was the Garnet sweet potatoes. Though I don't have them on the windowsill as you see here. I've got them by the fridge where it is marginally warmer.

Garnets don't break dormancy well I've found. They were about a month or so behind my Purples and Beauregards last year, so I decided to start them in January instead of the beginning of March. They usually are very productive, but they got put in late last year and the other plants that had been in for a week over took them and pretty much smothered the poor things. This year I want to give them a chance.

Next up are my onions. I planted my bunching onions in the back small container with just randomly scattered seed. Then I made two full flats of 1 1/2" soil blocks. Sadly I used some seed from 2011 as my Redwing seed hasn't shown up yet. It is on backorder. I hope it sprouts. But if it doesn't I'll redo the blocks when the rest of my seed gets here. Typically I buy onion seed every year or two as the seed doesn't keep its viability long. Three years is pushing it.

One flat was nothing but Copra. It is my mainstay storage onion. Half of the next flat was Ailsa Craig a sweet onion, and the other half was the aforementioned Redwing, which is a good red storage onion. I ought to put more into Copra and less into Ailsa Craig. That onion can only keep for about 2 months. And 36 very large onions (and yes they get very very large) is doable, but hard to go through. Last year I got more poundage out of these onions than the other two combined in 1/3 of the space. I wish onions froze well, but I just don't like frozen onions.

The onions were put under some cool white fluorescent shop lights. Since these are long day onions I have the lights on for about 12 hours. That will keep them from bulbing up prematurely. I'll put them out in early April. Starting onions from seed is a PITA. They take a long time to get to a reasonable size. And I need a lot of them to fill a bed. I keep thinking our area needs a bulk buy from Dixondale Farms. If you buy in bulk it is pretty inexpensive. But I'd have to find enough people that want to go in on it. I think about 10 bunches would make it cost effective over growing them under lights (two months of a shop light costs about $7-$8 I think, not to mention seed and soil costs). With 10 bunches it would only be $4.28 for 50-75 plants. I'd want about 2 bunches myself. Though that would be splitting a couple of the bunches if I kept my sweet and red onion level at half my yellow onion level. Sadly I don't know of any place here that sells onion plants cheap.

Hmm Are there any other Bostonians out there that would come to East Arlington for a bulk buy (3/4 mile from Alewife subway stop, on the 77 bus line, and 1 mile from Route 2)? If so I'll collect names and emails and ask again come November to see if people are still interested. If so send me an email at daphne@alum.mit.edu. And tell me about how many bunches you would want - as low as a 1/2 and as high as you need (this is not a commitment, but just to get an idea if it is feasible). It can't happen this year as I've already ordered my seeds, and I'm just thinking about it now. But oh it would be nice to not have to do onion starts every year.

Harvest Monday, January 27th, 2014

Salmon and fava beans in a mushroom tarragon sauce with a side of spinach*

Every year I redo my side tally bar. And every year it starts out very negative. This year it starts at $-401.02. Ouch. The reality is that I spent most of that money to build the garden. I amortize costs that go over multiple years. Like the wood and hardware to build my beds. The soil that was put in the beds. And the other odds and ends that I use that last, like bamboo and the now useless tomato cages that I ought to sell to someone that could actually use them (but I maintain a weird denial about not eating tomatoes and don't want to believe that I can never eat them again - I'm sure at some point I'll get over it). I even add in the fertilizer costs since I buy big bags and use them over time. Most of these expenses will disappear over time as the minimum amount of time I expect the item to last will have expired.

Bean burger with steamed purple sweet potatoes and green beans*

Since I haven't shown it in a while I'll show you the table I have right now:

Description	Years	Cost	Cost/year	Year Bought	Year Expires
Bamboo	4	261.50	65.37	2011	2015
Nofa	2	236.83	118.41	2013	2015
2x6x8	5	386.92	77.38	2011	2016
Screws	5	42.52	8.50	2011	2016
Corner brace	5	101.66	20.332	2011	2016
Composter	10	50.00	5	2010	2020
Tomato cages GHS	20	86.06	4.303	2010	2030
Tomato Cages TC	20	274.30	13.72	2010	2030
soil	30	223.13	7.44	2011	2041
concrete bricks	30	24.30	0.81	2011	2041

As you can see a huge portion of the cost of the garden was from the wood that makes up the garden and the bamboo poles. NOFA is the Northeast Organic Farmers Association. They do bulk buys every year for things like fertilizer, potting soil, netting, etc. I participate occasionally and buy more than I need. Though I've amortized though this year, I'm guessing I'll be set for at least another year after that.

So if you add all those costs/year up I come up with 321.28. This year I've only spent 79.74. Which is actually more than typical for me and seeds. I ought to control myself more where seeds are concerned, but you just know that isn't going to happen.

Black bean and sweet potato soup with a whole wheat quesadilla*

You might have noticed that I've been better about photographing my meals this week, but I was also better at planning. At the beginning of last week I actually made a menu that goes out three weeks. I like to cook, but I just hate figuring out what I'm going to make for dinner. So now I have something to follow. Though I've written it down I reserve the right to play with my food when I want and change it. Sometimes I get things into my head and I want to do something new.

This week my new thing was the first photo above. I've been trying to get more fish into our diets due to health concerns. But buying fresh fish from the store in winter is a pain. I don't have a car. And this January has been really cold. So I was trying to make a healthy meal from canned salmon. I think it turned out well. It is made with soy milk and don't tell my husband but there are vegetables ground up in the sauce. Oh and he didn't get any fava beans. Not his cup of tea. It was still good for him though.

*All of the vegetables and beans shown above are from my stores - even the tarragon from the salmon dish.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

And Yet More Fruit

I've been thinking a lot about what to do about next year in several areas. The major two being fruit related. I've slowly added fruits to my garden over the years. The majority came in 2011 when the yard was finished. But last year I looked sadly at my Green Gage plum and wondered if it would ever bloom. It is a poor, sad tree. The aphids like to take it over and it hasn't been healthy. I do spray it with insecticidal soap when it gets bad. But after reading about it I found that the European plums tend to have more trouble. I know I love the Japanese plums as that is what they sell in the farmers markets. I should have taken that as a hint about what grows well around here. I'm not quite at the point of giving up on the Green Gage, but I really wanted to see if a Japanese variety would grow better.

So I thought about what spot I could tuck a tree into. Plums typically are about 20 feet tall and our yard is totally planned and planted. So it had to be in the vegetable garden. I've grown less fond of the sunflowers over the years, but I like to have something tall along the southwest wall of the house. It at least pretends to keep us cooler since we lack shade (the flaw of having a vegetable garden against the southern part of the house). I've thought about growing vines up the wall. But that is bad for the longevity of the house. So maybe a tree would work.

The area in question is only 3' across and right against the foundation. The path goes right next to this. I really don't want a standard sized tree as it wouldn't grow correctly. So I finally decided on a shorter plum. A Weeping Santa Rosa. It doesn't produce the prodigious quantities of fruit a real Santa Rosa can produce, but the fruit is supposed to be even better. And it is self pollinating. It only gets 8'-10' high naturally, so I can probably keep it pruned to 7'-8' easily enough. I thought about pruning it to an espalier, but I honestly think contorting the plum to a linear shape would be easier than that. Instead of 3-4 main branches, I'll have two that go along the line of the house. I might need some support early on to get the main branches to go where they need to go, but once the main branches are set, the tree ought to be easy to keep pruned. At least that is my hope.

Another problem is my strawberries. I have some disease that is killing off my strawberry plants. Earliglow seems much less affected though its production has lowered a lot. Whatever it is doesn't seem to affect the figs, pears, or apples. The plum is a poor sick thing, but doesn't seem to show signs of verticillium (lower branches dying - I tend to have more trouble with the newer growth where the aphids love to be). So maybe it is red stele. Or maybe not. I'm going to replace Sparkle with Surecrop. Not as tasty maybe, but more reliable. I'll probably remove all plants from the plum section just in case it is verticillium as the stone fruits are so susceptible. At my last house I never had disease problems in anything really. The soil was so clean. But it was also clay with its inherent problems. This sandy loam we have here grows things so well, but I swear there are so many diseases. I don't know if it is from the soil itself or the warmer area with everyone and their gardens so close.

And since I had spent yet more money on fruit I decided I needed to update my tally for 2014. It is the new year after all. It really seems every year I spend more and more money on fruit, but still haven't seen the payback. I have in the little fruits. Even the dying strawberries more than paid for themselves. At some point I'm going to have to quit buying fruit trees. Though I'd still love a persimmon. And I so wish I could have two paw paw trees, but there are certainly no spots for two large trees (a very under used tree that is so delicious). The persimmon might happen though. I'm sure there are small persimmons out there. Maybe if my Paradisio fig never ripens any fruit or if I give up on the Green Gage plum a persimmon could go there.

Harvest Monday, January 20th 2014

This is a hard time of the year to be hosting Harvest Monday. I won't see a harvest for months. And though I am eating from my preserved stash, none of my recent meals have inspired me to take a lot of photos. It is just same old, same old. I have been having fun with making crackers, but no great successes. Though my last attempt had my husband happy. Of course crackers aren't from the garden. I'm also trying to transform some of my recipes to healthier versions.

Turkey meatloaf, purple sweet potatoes, kale

Take meatloaf. It has always been a family favorite. I finally got a version that we all liked that didn't have tomatoes (since I can't eat them). Then several months ago I decided I needed more fiber and made a version that was vegetarian. It was just OK. I think all bean "meat"loaf has a weird texture. I'd eat it but the rest of the family wouldn't even try it when the regular version was on the table too. So I'm trying to work out a turkey version. The two versions I made the other night were decent. One was all turkey and the other had black beans substituting for half of the ground turkey. I liked the bean version best. Half beans and the texture is right and the meatloaf is more moist. Now I just have to not over cook it next time. Maybe next week I'll try again and tweak it a bit too.

So I'm hoping my posters do better than I. In the middle of January with a long winter still ahead, I could really use some eye candy so I can dream about next year's garden and harvests.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Harvest Monday, January 13th, 2014

This last week or so has really been a seesaw of temperatures here. I keep hoping my plants can all survive this. We got down to negative temps (in F not C, -18C=0F), then it went back up to the 50Fs. The next day it was in the single digits again. Then we got a high of 57F. Just wild swings. We keep swinging back and forth from our typical lowest lows to our highest highs. The plants just have to hate that. I hope my rosemary lives. And I'm trying not to think about my poor fig trees.

Though nothing is getting picked in the garden, I am eating from it as you can see above. The top photo is a bean and mushroom burger with some Boston baked beans, pickles, and chard. The only thing not homemade was the bun. I used to make my own buns, but recently I've been buying them as the last three bun attempts had me burning them. I know how easy they are to make. But I seem to be cursed. The bottom photo is some cabbage soup. I put up a lot of it since I had so much Chinese cabbage and I'm really happy about it now. The biscuit is a kale and cheese biscuit that I made ages ago. They seem to hold up to freezing well too.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Harvest Monday, January 6th, 2014

I'm not here right now, but you can all have fun without me. Happy New Year!

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Harvest Monday, Decepmber 30th, 2013

The last Harvest Monday of the year seems like a good time to do an overview of my harvest totals. This year I'm going to do a comparison from the last two to three years. I've been in the house for three years and have kept track every year. I know that some people think I'm a bit crazy to track my harvests as it is added work. The weighing isn't all that much work, but you have to remember to do it every time or the numbers don't mean much. Putting it into the spreadsheet doesn't take long either. I keep a sheet of paper tacked onto the fridge where I keep the numbers. Each week before Harvest Monday I put the numbers in. So I don't keep track of each and every day, but each week has a column in my spreadsheet. So I know in general when the harvests started and ended by the spreadsheet. This is very useful information when you are planning a garden. And this summer it was very very useful as I was gone for two weeks in the middle. It let me plan when to plant certain crops like beans and corn, so the crop wouldn't fruit while I was gone and I wouldn't miss my harvests.

This is going to be a long post so I'll put the link in at the top so it is easier to get to.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Now on to the rest of the post.

Three Years of Harvests

	2013	2012	2011
Total	529.8	732.5	593.2
Alliums	43.4	50.1	46.6
Asparagus	0.1	0.2
Beans	37.9	31.9	28.1
Broccoli	8.1	22.8	7.1
Carrot	23.7	36.0	42.3
Corn	27.7	30.6	11.7
Cucumbers	58.0	37.8	25.0
Greens	96.7	137.2	63.8
Greens, Asian	60.6	102.5	57.4
Herbs	9.5	15.2	7.5
Melons	48.5	28.1	17.8
Peas	12.0	20.4	18.8
Roots, Assorted	7.0	15.4	7.5
Squash, Summer	15.5	19.8	17.7
Squash, Winter	50.9	90.4	27.5
Sweet Potatoes	30.2	65.4
Solanums		28.7	214.4

Three Sisters Crops

Another use of tracking harvests is to determine what is and isn't working in the garden. Since I've gotten here I've been trying to figure out the best way to grow the three sisters crops - corn, beans, and winter squash. Each year I've grown them differently. Since I could grow the nightshade crops in 2011, I didn't have as much space for my crops. I had 2/3rds the space. And this year I put even more space into beans. If I normalize for the space allotted I'd get a table more like this:

Total	71.4	102.0	67.3
Beans	19.0	21.3	28.1
Corn	18.4	20.4	11.7
Squash, Winter	34.0	60.3	27.5

2011 I grew them all as a three sisters plot. It allowed for very little squash being harvested and squash is one of my winter mainstays. And the corn was shaded way too much to grow well. At least the beans were happy. All in all it was my lowest year. There was nothing else extra to speak of this year. Diseases were about normal. Things germinated OK. I did learn that even if I think two corn varieties are genetically compatible, I can be wrong about it. This is the last year I would grow more than one variety of sweet corn. I'd get different harvest times by planting at different times, not from early and late corn varieties.

2012 I grew a two sisters crop and a separate bed of beans. I had pole beans in a 1' strip on the north west side of the bed and bush beans in the rest of the bed. The bush beans were shaded in the hot part of the day by the pole beans which isn't all that good, but couldn't be helped. Bush beans nearer to the fence (and thus in a more shaded part of the garden) were noticeably less productive than the ones closer to the brick path. This was a hot dry year. I had trouble with corn germination (Ambrosia corn) so there were gaps in the bed. Not all the corn produced ears. And yet the corn production was the best ever. Ambrosia produces some big ears. Bean production was decent. And the squash production was the best ever. It does fine with the partial shade under the corn - though I do give it three feet at each end that isn't shaded.

2013 I grew a two sisters crop since it worked out so well. I did have issues with squash germination in one bed and had to reseed very late with a quick maturing squash. It really brought the squash yield down. So I know the low yields weren't a problem with the method of growing. The beans were done in pole bean blocks and bush bean blocks. I put pole beans all across my 4' bed. I had a lot of problems with rust growing this way. Also the pole dried bean production was much lower than normal. I have one spot that is much hotter than usual and usually grows heat loving summer crops better than usual, but it didn't work with the beans. The bean towers shed water too much and I had to resort to hand watering that section. The year was hot and dry, but not as hot as 2012. I grew Serendipity corn which germinated well but as you can see from the numbers didn't produce as well. The ears were weirdly narrow. And it tasted a bit too grassy for me.

So what does all this mean? I'll stick with the two sister plantings. They work well. The underplanted squash does its job of keeping the raccoons out of the corn. I even saw a raccoon in the garden during the height of the corn season and no ears were taken. I'll have to be extra careful about making sure the squash germinate on time. In one bed I had to replant with Early Butternut this year to make sure I'd get a crop and it just doesn't produce as well for me. Pole beans will go back to being planted along the north west or north east edges of the beds as they grow much better that way. Ambrosia wasn't as bad of a corn as I thought. Even though it had spotty germination and some stalks didn't produce, its overall production wasn't bad. This year I'm trying another variety though - Honey Select. Maybe it will have the best of both worlds.

Greens and Peas

So what else didn't produce as well this year? Well Greens and Asian Greens didn't do as well. The Asian Greens were easy to tell with two differences. In 2012 I grew bok choy and tatsoi in the circle garden that gets full sun in the shoulder seasons. This year it was in the main garden which isn't as warm in the springtime. I also direct seeded all of it so the plantings were closer and just more. When I grow them from transplants they are earlier but I can only grow so many. If I can get them out by June 1st I can do the circle garden again every year. I'm going to be planting my melons and sweet potatoes there and they don't need to go in until June. The other big drop in production is the Napa Cabbage. I've had issues in growing this kind of Chinese cabbage in my garden (Michihili types are so much easier). This year they were taken down by the earwigs. The heads were pretty much inedible. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm going to try again, but the reality is that in bad earwig years I'll just not have a Napa cabbage harvest.

For greens and peas the question is harder. And is probably more weather based. The drop is more across the board. And the answer is probably just the weather. 2012 was the year that didn't have much of a winter preceding it. We were a whole zone higher in temperature than we normally were. And I planted peas and spinach in February. Our ground usually isn't unfrozen until mid March. OK so maybe the increase in yield is pretty obvious. And it may account for some the the difference in the Asian Greens too.

Cucurbits

The cucumbers were a resounding success. They were given a 1' row along the back on one of my beds - 8' long - and produced 57 pounds. They win the ticket for best production for unit space at 7.2 pounds/sqft. The runner up was chard at 5.2 lbs/sqft. The cukes produced 20 pounds more this year than last and were given less space. I put in as much of their trellis as I could early on then covered them with a row cover. Once they started vining very well I took the cover off and pounded in the rest of the trellis stakes and tied the cukes up. This kept the cucumber beetles down in the garden. It worked surprisingly well. Though the cukes did sulk for a week after they were untangled and tied up. Needless to say I'll be doing this every year from now on. Go cukes!

I planted the zucchini later than usual and I tried covering the zucchini with a row cover this year early on. And once I thought the squash vine borers were gone, I opened it up. I didn't have the early glut then the paucity early on. They produced slowly and longer. One plant never produced though it put out enough blossoms. The plants seemed weak. And they did have some SVB damage, but a lot less than usual. I think I have to do a better job of tacking down the row cover. Those SVBs are really good and finding the plants under the row cover. One day I found them swarming outside the row cover with one inside. Sigh. SVB=3 Daphne=0 Some year I'll get it right. Of course do I really NEED more zucchini. Well probably not. I'm not the biggest of zucchini fans. But zucchini is one of those things I'm supposed to give away constantly in the summer until all my neighbors get sick of it. And I don't. Even my townhouse mates didn't get much if any.

The melons did extremely well this year. I think part of the reason is the lower cucumber beetle population. The other is where they were planted. They were planted in the circle garden which is built with brick and has a brick path on two sides. So it was nice and warm. The circle garden is also sunnier. I also didn't try to trellis them for the first time ever. I planted 8 plants, each in a 4 sqft area. Most plants produced one perfect and huge melon (an average of 6 lbs each). Of course it was a great melon year as during our harvest time we didn't have much rain at all. So no splitting. I wish I could order that every year.

Herbs

The herbs were a problem this year. Well three herbs. I had my sage die at the end of last year so I didn't get much sage. I did plant more. I think I have three or four scattered around the garden now. In my last garden they couldn't be killed, but here they seem more fragile.

Two of the three rosemary varieties died. Only Arp remains. I propagated it by burying its branches under the soil for a while until roots had formed. I now have two more plants scattered around the garden. Location is important. The foundation area is warmer and more protected, but the other rosemarys died there last winter I think because the foundation is also sometimes too dry. Hopefully my Arps will live somewhere each winter. Well actually hopefully they will live in all three places every year. Then I could collect a lot and share with the neighbors.

The basil this year gave me three pounds fewer leaves than last year. They ended up with Basil Downy Mildew. My first encounter with it. Sigh. Basil used to be such and easy plant. So often we seem to get new diseases coming in. This one came originally from Uganda and moved up to Europe before hitting the US. It is a seed born illness and spread by wind. I'm pretty sure it wasn't seed born with me as I used the same basil seed last year as the year before and didn't get it. I hope this year it stays away. I missed the massive quantities of basil in the summer. If it turns out to be really bad in future years I'll start planting resistant varieties like Spice.

This and That

I think the alliums were a bit low this year because I used a row cover over the onions. It does cut down on the light. But I think the useability is higher that way. I probably threw away half of last year's onions, but never updated the spreadsheet. I'm contemplating buying some fabric netting that might work to keep the onion flies out without cutting out so much light. I may have to stitch some together to make it wide enough.

The broccoli is problematic. I thought I had a good variety that would produce over the summer, but I think I went a bit too hard on cutting the plants back after the first harvest. I'll be kinder next year. I'm also going to add another variety. The carrots were a victim of my summer vacation. Though I put them in the day after I came home, that wasn't early enough with the increased shade the garden gets in the fall. Next year I have to get them in by mid July or they just don't have time.

Some things look like they are lower in harvests like sweet potatoes, but the reality is that I planted half the space (I needed it for the new asparagus bed). I took the best producers from the year before and planted just them. They should have produced more, but like the melons they really need to be planted in the circle garden for optimum production. Next year they will be.

I guess the only one I didn't talk about was the roots. Well if I'd remember to plant my radishes and turnips I'd get more. I also grew beets last year but not this year. So the numbers don't mean much.

Over all, my garden didn't do as well this year for various reasons. Part of it is what was described above. Part a two week vacation in the middle of July. Part of the weight differential was what I grew. I was doing some mustard trials. And I grew more dried beans. Mustard is probably the worst producer in the garden. And beans probably come in second worst. I still like to see the overall 1 pound/sqft mark though. I almost got it. If you look at my sidebar you will see that I have about 565 sqft in my raised beds (a guesstimated number as I don't know the exact area in my circle garden). But one bed has been put into asparagus this year, which produced nothing, and won't for a while. If I take that out (32sqft) than I have 533 sqft. I produced 530 pounds this year, so pretty dang close. But if I'm playing the game by the rules, I missed the mark and lost this year. Maybe with what I learned next year I'll win. And yes it is a game. Even with the lowest year's harvest I grow enough to feed myself. I just don't have much of an excess of harvests.

I hope you didn't get too bored with my year's trials and tribulations. Keeping track of everything is a little work. Some of the shortfalls I'd know about anyway, but some are harder to tell at the picking stage. I would have guessed that my bok choy did just as well both years, but the reality is that I might have picked 10-20 pounds more doing it differently. Now I'm not sure that I need 20 more pounds of bok choy. But my neighbors or friends might like it. CSAs haven't started yet when I'm picking the bulk of it. So my extra produce is more desired in the spring. About a tenth of my total harvest is picked before the farmers markets and the CSAs even start.

Harvest Monday, December 23rd, 2013

Well I've got nothing. At least no harvests. But I have been using up my preserved harvests, so I'll talk about that instead. For some reason I bought a few avocados this last week. I was really craving them. So for two lunches I had Black Bean Guacamole for lunch. I used my black beans, onions, and garlic. I do still have a bit of cilantro frozen, but I bought fresh. I wish I'd frozen more. I'll use up what I have quickly enough, but whenever I see some really good looking cilantro at the store I'll snap it up. If only I had a green house like my mother, I could grow it all year long. It has to be my favorite herb. I am over wintering some, so I ought to have some next spring. At least that is the hope. It doesn't always live, but it is always worth trying as it grows so well in the springtime.

Another use for those avocados and the cilantro was some avocado egg salad. No recipe. But very salsa like. Again it used my onions and garlic. And on the side I had some homegrown carrots. I picked two huge containers of carrots. We've eaten one of the containers already and we are making inroads on the second. They will not last the year for sure.

The bok choy lasted quite a while, but the last was used in some wonton soup. Also from the garden were the carrots. And the wontons were made from Chinese cabbage and garlic from the garden.

I love Chicken Marsala. My favorite way to make it is to have my husband eat most of the chicken and I eat the mushrooms. Mark was talking about how people ate and about omnivores and vegetarians as he strives to cut them meat down a little in his diet. I'm very much an omnivore, but as this dish shows (and most of the above dishes) I don't eat mainly meat centric meals. When I make my husband a hamburger I usually eat my homemade bean burgers. We went out for Chinese food the other day and had Cashew Chicken. He picked out the chicken and I ate the veggies and cashews, with a little chicken added. I don't think I could cook vegetarian because my husband won't eat vegetables. How would he eat? And with my food sensitivities I'd never get to eat out again (except white pizza). Most vegetarian options include tomatoes, eggplants, or peppers. But the vegetarian option is a lot healthier which is my main reason for cutting down on meat. Like vegetable gardening my main reason for doing it isn't to save the world. But I do appreciate that side effect.

Next week will be the last Harvest Monday of the year and will be an overview of the tally and harvests. What went right and what went wrong.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Gift Bags and Snow

This last week I was finishing up the holiday bags for my neighbors. For the first time I have a dog in the house for the holidays, so of course I made some dog treats.

The rest of the contents was just for the humans. The first thing in the basket that I made was the strawberry jam last summer. All the strawberries came from my yard. Since I was making so much of one thing I made the jars small little jam jars. The other canned items varied. Some got Rhubarb Butter from my rhubarb plants. Some got Plum Chutney. Some got Plum Syrup. The plums came from a friend's tree. I don't know who got what as I randomly put them in the bags, but whoever got the Plum Syrup won the draw I think. There is nothing like plum syrup on a waffle. Yum. I wish I could have it for dinner tonight. The reason for the difference was that I didn't have enough of any of those to give everyone one. So I went through the pantry and picked ones I thought I had too much of.

On top of the jam you see two jars of mustard. Sadly two people only got one jar. But that jar, the Beer Mustard, was from my mustard plants. The other was a sweet mustard made from purchased powdered mustard but it did have some Italian seasonings from the garden. As with the other things, I haven't a clue who is missing the two as I just put them in randomly. The other jar is my homemade granola with a baggie of dried fruit. I find keeping the fruit separate makes the granola stay fresher longer. So I've started not adding it after cooking.

Then the sweet treats start. I have two types of fudge. There is chocolate fudge. And penuche fudge. The penuche is my favorite. It is harder and very crystalline, but still a favorite. This year the only cookie I made was a chocolate and cinnamon chip cookie. It was a new combination. I think I like chocolate and butterscotch better though. And last but not least doggie treats in the front for the two neighbors with dogs. Though those aren't sweet. My daughter tasted them and said they needed more beef bullion as they tasted just like crackers.

Last night it was snowing but we delivered half of the bags. My husband had had enough at the point as he has a cold. Tonight I'm sure we will try to deliver the rest. Last year we couldn't do one as they had left already for the holidays. So this year we are delivering them earlier. You would think that delivering to your neighbors would be very fast. But my neighbors don't all live on my street some are on the other side of my fence. In fact most of them are as our street is so tiny. There aren't even houses on one side of the street. Their driveways all go off of another street. So I have a lot of over the fence neighbors.

Since it had snowed yet again I had to shovel a path to the compost pile. Sadly I forgot to prop open the fence door. My townhouse mates use that to get to the compost pile. Usually I remember to do. It has to be done late enough that the remaining plants won't be eaten by the rodents and the soil won't be rototilled by the skunks. But early enough that the door isn't iced in by the storms. Well it was too late. I had to chip the ice off to pry open the door. Hopefully I'll be better at my timing next year.

Seed Order

Saturday night we got about six inches (15cm) of snow. Today we are going to get about that much again. Winter has hit, but at least it only got to about 6F (14C) last night instead of the 0F they were predicting. So things aren't all that bad. I decided a snowy day was a good day to finalize my seed order. Some varieties I've been growing for years and they are always the same. But some I keep trying for better. This year it was a hunt for better carrots to grow.

I've been growing Mokum and SugarSnax for years. I like Mokum for its wonderful taste. SugarSnax is decent but with a much better yield. But it needs a longer growing time and the last two years it just hasn't gotten it. I'm going to try to plant my fall crop earlier next year which will help. I've also decided I want to try two new varieties this year. Yaya was the first. I'm guessing it will be much like Mokum as it is a quick grower and known for its good taste. I'll trial it alongside Mokum next spring. I've decided that SugarSnax just doesn't make a good spring carrot. It gets too bitter.

The second is Bolero. I've been looking for a good fall storage carrot now that I've figured out how to deal with my carrot fly issue (with carrot fly damage I always figured freezing was the best storage solution). UMass Extention did a trial on storage carrots in 2011-2012. Bolero seemed to come out on top as it keeps its quality for a long time. I've read a couple other blogs saying that Bolero is a good late fall carrot which gets nice and sweet late in the fall. Johnny's recommends it as their best storage carrot too. Other catalogs recommend it as their best producing carrot.

My problem came in ordering. I usually order from two companies. Fedco is my mainstay. It isn't the typical seed company. It is a co-op that is geared to seeds that do well in the northeast. It is usually inexpensive (though it depends upon the seed availability from their suppliers) and has no shipping fees as long as your order is large enough. What it doesn't have is a pretty catalog with color photos. Or any photos. Pinetree is the other one I usually order from. It also has low cost packets and even though they do charge shipping they don't charge all that much. I usually just order a few fill in things from them. So I like them both. I can get a large selection of seed that isn't too costly.

Fedco sold Yaya so that was no problem. But neither company sold Bolero. Dang. Today I did a web hunt on the cheapest way to order Bolero seed. It turns out it is from Renee's Garden Seeds. But not through them. They charge $3.95 for shipping. But through Amazon I could get the packet from Renee and shipping was just $1.95. Weird. They were still the most expensive carrot seed bought as I had to pay $4.74 total. But I get to trial them next fall.

From Fedco: Windsor Fava Bean, Windsor Fava Bean, Agate Pinto Bean OG, Honey Select Yellow Sweet Corn, Lincoln Shell Pea, Legume Inoculant, Halona Muskmelon, Alvaro Charentais Melon, Cross Country Pickling Cucumber, Costata Romanesca Zucchini OG, Waltham Butternut Winter Squash OG, Mokum Carrot, Yaya Carrot OG, Sugarsnax Carrot, Evergreen Hardy White Scallion, Copra Onion, Redwing Onion, Space Spinach, Giant Winter Spinach, Arcadia Broccoli, Tango Celery OG, Perfection Fennel OG, Winter Savory.

From Pinetree: YARD LONG BEAN, LARGE PRAGUE CELERIAC, YU CHOI SUM GREEN, OPTIKO CABBAGE, GREEN ROCKET CABBAGE, POINT ONE CABBAGE, DAHLIA FLOWER MIX ZINNIA.

From Renee's: Bolero Carrot.

I'd still love to try the Romanesco F1 zucchini that did so well in Michelle's garden this year. I always struggle with zucchini production as the squash vine borers tend to weaken the plants. But I love the taste of Costata Romanesca. Then again maybe struggling with zucchini production is a good thing. I haven't found a lot of non-tomato based zucchini recipes that I love. And for now I think I've ordered enough.

Harvest Monday, December 16th, 2013

I did succeed in harvesting one thing this week. Though it was put on the scale it wasn't worth writing down and putting in the spreadsheet.

I'm guessing this coming week will won't see the plethora of harvests that I saw this week.

You can see the kale poking its head out. But it looks like I won't get to the last of the tatsoi. Under the hoops is where it is. And that snow isn't melting anytime soon. Today will be in the 20Fs and tonight will get down to 1F. That's -17C for the rest of the world. Our typical low for the year is about -3F or -4F (-20C) and it is usually in January, our coldest month. So the cold has come early this year. The last three Decembers have had a low of 18.8F, 14.4F, and 16.1F. This doesn't bode well for January. Or my wrapped up fig trees. At least they are better wrapped this year than last year.

I did use up the last of my Michihili Chinese cabbage. I packed up three small bags measured out for making wontons.

I made coleslaw. With a mix of the Michihili and regular cabbage.

And I made stew with the last little bit. It was a kitchen sink stew, which of course means I added everything but the kitchen sink to it. From the garden I used carrots, sweet potatoes, both kinds of cabbage, onions, green beans, black beans, garlic, and the rosemary pictured at the top. I don't use a lot of meat in the stew. It really is more of a vegetable stew with a little beef added. And I have to confess that I like my normal beef stew better that just has the typical mirepoix with lots of onion and mushrooms. But I had no mushrooms and really wanted a beef stew.

My main challenge this week was to make an enchilada sauce that I could use ( I can't eat any of the nightshade crops). I started with the recipe here as the basic idea. But an enchilada sauce to me is a sauce made from broth and thickened with a roux and then seasoned. It also has something acidic in it which for a regular one would be vinegar, but I used lime here, though I wonder if 2 tablespoons would have been better. So here is my version of a nightshade free enchilada sauce.

Daphne's Avocado Enchilada Sauce

• 1 T oil
• 1 cup onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 1 T oil
• 1 T flour
• 1 c chicken broth (or veggie if going vegetarian)
• 1 avocado diced
• 1/3 c cilantro chopped (use stems too)
• 1 T lime juice
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t black pepper

Saute onion in oil until translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Remove from pan. Add oil and flour and cook for a couple minutes until just starting to color. Slowly add broth, whisking to keep from lumping. Cook for five minutes or until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Add the remaining ingredients and the onion mixture. Puree with a stick blender until totally smooth.

As you can see from the enchilada photo, I drown my enchiladas in sauce. Yum. The sauce makes about 2 cups and I use about 1 cup for my two enchiladas. The enchiladas don't have the typical innards as I used black beans with chopped red onion and a little cheese. My husband and daughter had more typical enchiladas with canned enchilada sauce and shredded chicken added to the mix. Though my daughter complained I didn't add nearly enough cheese to her enchilada.

Making enchiladas for may family from a pepper based enchilada sauce is a real turn around for me. In the past it would have made me sick. But I seem to be a little better with it now. I can eat a bite of my husband's pizza or whatever and not react much if at all from it. Which is so nice. I don't have to worry about cross contamination as much. I can eat out without problems. Now if it would just all go away that would be so nice.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

A Penny Saved . . . Sometimes Ruins Your Mustard

Ten pounds of chocolate fudge was made yesterday.

I've been busy this week. I've started making things for my neighbors' holiday bags. I usually enjoy making treats and giving them away. Often the treats involve fudge as you see above. I think I've only given away baskets without fudge one year. Even though it was two decades ago (my daughter was six, she is now twenty six), I still remember that one. We made holiday cookies from around the world and the kids helped make little flags on toothpicks to mark which country they came from. Recently my bags have included fudge, jam, and lots of cookies. This year I want to add a little bit of more healthy fare into it. I'm going to make some good for you granola. And I wanted to make some mustard. Today was the day I would make the mustard. All except the beer mustard as I don't have a good ale for that right now.

I got my three recipes together. A Dijon and two sweet mustards. I started with the Dijon. I picked a Sauvignon Blanc that was nice but not too expensive. I cooked it all up. I tasted it part way through and it was delicious. But after it was done it tasted terrible and bitter. What had gone wrong? I've made mustard before and not had a problem.

Discouraged but not stopped I made a honey mustard. I figured maybe the Dijon had cooked so long it had reacted with my pan (which is stainless and shouldn't react). But no. The honey mustard was thick without much cooking at all. And it too was just disgusting and bitter. To me it seemed like the salt tasted off. And I was right. I tasted the salt in my salt container and oh my gosh it was disgusting. Usually I use a Trader Joe's sea salt, but had run out this week. I knew I'd get there on Friday. I could have picked up some more expensive sea salt from the regular grocery store when I was there, but nope. I'd wait until I got to Trader Joe's. Since I had an old salt in the back of my cabinet, I figured it would be good enough until it was replaced. I have no idea what salt this was. It was recontainered into one of my own air tight containers years ago. I've never had a salt taste bad before.

So for the third mustard I used my canning salt. And oh the mustard tastes so good. Yum. So I tried to save a bit of money and I ended up having to throw away two batches of mustard. And even worse. That Sauvignon Blanc that I opened ought to be saved for more Dijon mustard. Nah! I'll just have it for dinner and buy some more tomorrow.

Harvest Monday, December 9th, 2013

Before the bitter cold moved in I harvested two more baskets. One was filled with mizuna and tatsoi. I had had some bok choy in the garden too, but it didn't survive the cold. It was looking very ratty. Luckily tatsoi is a lot more hardy.

I also harvested a basket of spinach, though I forgot to photograph it. It will be the last spinach of the year. I don't protect it and the leaf quality will start to go down hill fast as we see colder and colder weather. By the end of the week we might even see single digits (-13C and lower for those of you that use a reasonable measuring system for your temperature). The spinach will survive our temperatures with no problem over the winter. Most of the older leaves will have died by spring, but the new leaves will be quick growing.

• Asian Greens 1.19 lbs
• Greens 0.59 lbs
• Weekly Tally 1.79 lbs
• Yearly Tally 529.83 lbs, $1116.66

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Dreaming and Cooking

It is that time of the year again. The Pinetree catalog has been here a while, but I only went through it once to see what was there. Once the Fedco catalog came it was time to be serious about it all.

I got my seeds together. The majority of them I keep in the fridge in airtight containers. So I have to let them get to room temperature before I go through them. I don't really take inventory anymore. I go through the catalogs as I look through the seeds. When I look at the kale I see how much seed I have and if I want to try other varieties. I see if the same seed I need from Pinetree is cheaper than Fedco or the other way around. I figure out how much I used last year and how much I might need this year.

I toss old seed as I go through it. Certain seed I always buy every year - spinach, carrots, onions, and corn. Each of these are important crops to me and their seed is often short lived. It would probably germinate the next year, but there is enough of a chance of a germination issue that I don't want to risk it. And especially with the three that I direct seed if it doesn't germinate on the first try it could limit my harvest. Especially with something like carrots. The spring crop is sown early and can take up to three weeks to germinate. If a batch doesn't come up I won't know there is an issue until way too late. I can't wait another couple of weeks as my rotations won't work out anymore. With spinach the earlier it gets up in the spring the better the crop. Because once May 15th hits they start thinking about bolting no matter how long they have been in the ground.

Now I have a sheet of paper - well two sheets - that tells me what I need to order and probably from who. I haven't ordered yet but I'll go over it once more with my garden map out and make sure I've got everything covered. Dreaming about next year is always one of the great pleasures of gardening. All the fun and none of the work. In my mind's eye everything grows well and the earwigs are nonexistent.

I've also been busy freezing things for the winter. I've been playing with new recipes. From squash sauce for pasta (oh how I miss tomato sauce) and lentil loaf instead of meat loaf to try to eat healthier.

I also made up an old favorite. I make a cheddar cheese biscuit pot pie. But when I make the filling I make enough for three meals and then I freeze two. All I have to do next time we eat it is defrost the filling and make some biscuits. I also made up a huge batch of Boston Baked Beans. They too got frozen in meal size batches. I much prefer cooking in large batches and freezing. That way I have faster meals when I need them.

Harvest Monday, December 2nd, 2013

I didn't write a Thanksgiving post, but you can be sure that I brought home grown food to Thanksgiving. I went out and picked the herbs fresh I needed. I figured there was just enough to weigh. Often I don't bother because the weight is negligible.

We also got another day in the 60Fs before it got frigid again. And though the ground was frozen still, the vegetables perked up and I picked the last of the broccoli.

And a pile of spinach. I still have more good leaves to pick out there, but they are only good if it warms up enough. I suppose if all I'm doing with them is boiling them, the limp leaves would be fine. Maybe I should consider it frozen spinach? My hands won't appreciate picking them, so I'll probably wait until we get an unusually warm day. And if not, they wait until spring.

And I tried an very successful experiment. I love pizza, but since I can't eat tomatoes without getting sick, I've been experimenting with different kinds of pizza. My go to favorite has always been spinach (or kale), mushrooms, and onions sauteed in red wine as a topping. The red wine sort of substitutes for the tomato sauce. But not really. This week I tried using plum sauce as a tomato sauce substitute. It worked out beautifully and paired well with the spinach and squash with oregano and cumin as the herbs. The cheese was cheddar as my family likes that as a cheese much more than mozzarella.

• Broccoli 0.97 lbs
• Greens 1.00 lbs
• Herbs 0.05 lbs
• Weekly Tally 2.02 lbs
• Yearly Tally 528.05 lbs, $1106.52

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.