What We Plan To Grow

Turned soil, waiting for planting

As I mentioned last week, the peas are already in the ground. In addition to planting out the peas, we have planted our tomato and broccoli seeds.  We are growing Tumbling Tom tomato and Santee F1 Purple Sprouting broccoli.  They both need to start off in the greenhouse before they can enter the garden.  The rest of the veggies we plan to grow can't be planted yet.

Next month we will be adding Rainbow Chard (known as "Leaf Beet" here), spinach, kale and arugula (a.k.a. rocket) to the garden.  In May we will plant out our zucchini (a.k.a. courgette) and in July we will plant Claytonia, a waxy leaf that is apparently quite tasty.  We are also planning to grow potatoes in grow bags.  The potatoes are currently at the home of a fellow gardener "chitting".  Chitting is the act of letting the potatoes sprout eyes; these will be the vines once they go in the ground.

I suspect we will also add some other veg to the mix as we hit our stride, but to sum up, these are the vegetables we plan to grow in the WeeKG this year:

Sugar Snap Peas
Purple Sprouting Broccoli (Santee F1)
Tumbling Tom Tomato
Rainbow Chard
Spinach
Lacinato Kale
Arugula
Black Beauty Zucchini
Claytonia
Potatoes

So how about you?  What are you planning to grow in 2012?

Leftover Breakfast of Champions

I do not intend to make this blog a play-by-play of my eating habits.  However, I made the most amazing breakfast of leftovers ever last weekend and I just had to share.  This is what it looked like:

And this is how I made it:

I looked into the fridge and took stock of a motley group of leftovers- tomato salad, corn tortillas, chopped zucchini and summer squash, 2 tablespoons of taco beef.  This clearly had the makings of something good.  I had been planning to just make some scrambled eggs with the leftover zukes.  But when I noticed the corn tortillas I knew I would be making a breakfast taco. 

Upon considering the tomato salad (chopped heirloom tomatoes marinated in olive oil and garlic that was resembling soup in consistency), I decided that I should put them in a pot and cook them down like a tomato jam.  Then I noticed a random Hungarian wax pepper in the fridge that needed to be eaten.  "A ha!," I thought, "a tomato jam salsa!" and into the pot went the chopped hot pepper.  I put this on the back burner over medium to thicken up while I tended to the rest of the components.

The zucchini I tossed with some olive oil and sauteed until they got nice and tender.  I then added in two eggs and just scrambled them with the spatula right in the pan.  I was fancy enough already without getting another bowl dirty.

The microwave took care of heating up my corn tortillas, as well as the scraps of leftover taco meat.  I admit that when I put those small spoonfuls of taco beef into a jar I thought to myself, "Wow, you're never going to eat this, it's ridiculous."  But I put it in the fridge anyway and I am so glad I did.  It was just the spark this meal needed.

Now to the assembly!  I placed the two corn tortillas on a plate, added scrambled eggs with zucchini, topped those with shredded mozzarella, topped that with ground beef, and last but not least, I topped the whole thing with the nicely thickened tomato jam salsa.  It was one of the best breakfasts I have had at home in a good long while.  Hooray for leftovers!

September 2011 MKG Harvest



Sungold and San Marzano tomatoes
Pretty Purple, Tequila, and Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers, Sunburst patty pan squash
Strawberries, Casper and Diamond eggplants


An odd year in the garden- a very odd year.  September has been the month for tomatoes and they are continuing on into October.  After months of gazing longingly at the green orbs covering the plants, they obliged and turned red, yellow, orange and purple!  The tally for individual varieties will follow, but the grand total of the September tomato harvest is... over 30 pounds of tomatoes!  Um, what?  I have to look back at my records but I don't know if I've ever harvested that many tomatoes before.  What a very odd year.

September 2011 MKG Harvest

1 Tequila pepper
10 Pretty Purple peppers
2 Hungarian yellow wax peppers
~1 pint strawberries
1 Diamond eggplant
5 Casper eggplants
3 Sunburst patty pan squash (2 overgrown)
2 Zephyr squash (overgrown)
1 Cocozelle zucchini (overgrown)
3 Black Spineless zucchini (overgrown)
~7 pints Sungold cherry tomatoes
2 Isis cherry tomatoes
5 Pineapple tomatoes
6 San Marzano  Roma tomatoes
9 Mortgage Lifter tomatoes
13 Black Krim tomatoes
22 Carbon tomatoes
1 Apple

Those items became:

Savory Strawberry Crostini
Sungold Caprese Salad
(a lot of) Gazpacho
Nigella Lawson's Egyptian Tomato Salad
Smitten Kitchen's Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza
Lots of scrambled eggs with mixed veggies
Stovetop Tomato Jam
... and eventually... a LARGE supply of zucchini bread

I hope your garden is still pumping out the produce, too!  If not, now is the time to clean up those beds and get some winter vegetables into the ground.

Before Summer Fades...

MKG Summer Veggie Tart

It's getting late in the season and until last month, I was woefully behind on my tomato harvests.  This was just not the summer for tomatoes around here- it's been the fall for tomatoes.  Therefore, I've gathered enough to make you my summer (fall) vegetable celebration pie from seasons past... before summer fades entirely.

Last summer I was faced with an abundance of lovely different cherry tomatoes (black cherry, sungold, and red currant) and plenty of zukes, and I knew I wanted to turn these into some sort of veggie pie.  I hunted around the interwebs, checking out all my favorite recipe spots, but just couldn't find what I was looking for.  I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I read through about 5 different veggie pie recipes until I had a feel for the proportions and techniques involved, and the timing and oven temperature.  Then I just winged it.

I am happy to report that it turned out very tasty.  So tasty, in fact, that two friends asked for the recipe after I brought it to a baby shower.  Full disclosure: This represented the first time in my life that I had been asked for a recipe for something I invented.  Yippee!!!!

A note about the recipe- I love cheese.  I mean, I really love cheese.  You could easily cut the amount of cheese in half and it would still be good.  Also, you could substitute Gruyere or a mix of cheeses in place of the cheddar.  You do what you want, but I will always be a New English gal who loves her Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar.

So without further ado (and now that I've harvested enough tomatoes to actually make it) here it is!

Assembling the tart...

 

The MKG Summer Veggie Tart

Makes one 9" pie, serves 4-8

1 Trader Joe's frozen pie crust (or similar)

2 small or 1 medium zucchini

1 small onion or shallot

1 clove garlic

1 hot or sweet pepper (optional)

3 eggs

~1.5 - 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 pint cherry tomatoes (or a couple regular size tomatoes)

olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Defrost pie crust.

2. Preheat oven to 450°F.

3. Chop zucchini, onion and garlic (and pepper, if using).  Toss with olive oil and a dash salt in a saute pan and cook until tender and a little caramelized (cook covered ~5-10 minutes over medium-low heat, then remove cover and let liquid evaporate and zucchini caramelize, ~5 minutes).  You can add thyme or another fresh herb with the zukes now, if you'd like. 

4. Lightly beat three eggs, add salt and pepper.  Add shredded cheese and mix into the eggs.

5. Slice cherry tomatoes in half or slice regular tomatoes into rounds.

6. Assemble tart.  Place pie crust into a pie pan.  Put cooked zucchini mixture into base of crust and spread evenly.  Pour cheesy egg mixture over the zukes.  Place cherry tomatoes on top of the egg mix, cut side up (alternatively, layer tomato slices around the top of the egg mix).

7. Bake at 450°F for about 25-35 minutes.  Check to make sure a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool a few minutes to allow the cheese and egg to set, then slice and serve.

Enjoy!  Quick, before summer disappears!

August 2011 MKG Harvest

Zephyr, Sunburst & Black Spineless zukes,
Maxibel & yellow wax beans, Sungolds

The August harvest is usually totally over the top.  So much food!  But this year, what with the cool weather hindering tomato ripening and a bunch of traveling, the August harvest is looking a little sparse.  September though- I can feel it.  There will be tomatoes coming out of my ears.

The main veggies on the plate in August were green beans and zucchini, along with a steady stream of strawberries here and there.  The chard is still out of its mind and pumping out plump leaves (the plants are coming up on a year old!).  And finally, last week, I got a ripe tomato that wasn't a Sungold!  I love Sungolds more than anything else, but I've been looking forward to having some proper big tomatoes and was pleased to harvest a trio of Romas.

August 2011 MKG Harvest

9 Black Spineless zucchini
5 Zephyr squash
2 Sunburst patty pan squash
1 Cocozelle zucchini
~ 2 lbs Maxibel green beans
~1/2 lb yellow wax beans
1 large bunch chard
15 strawberries (about a pint)
2 Meyer lemons
2 pints Sungold cherry tomatoes
3 San Marzano tomatoes
plus whatever the cat-sitters harvested

Those items became:

Zucchini Carpaccio
Zucchini Basil Flatbreads
Sauteed shredded zucchini
Sauteed green beans with butter
Raw green beans snack
Potstickers with garlicky greens
Fresh strawberries
"Lemon ice"
Raw chopped tomatoes with salt

I already know that my September harvest will include more peppers and eggplants.  This year just seems to be a couple months behind schedule.  Baba ganoush as a fall dish?  Apparently.

Vacation Veggies

Do you ever notice how the garden seems to kick into gear just when you're planning to go out of town?  What do you do about that?

A couple years ago, I decided the harvest needed to join me when I went to visit friends and family back east.  I got one of those soft-sided cooler bags, packed it full of ice in ziplocs, tossed in homemade baba ganoush (one of my favorite eggplant preparations), an assortment of tomatoes, a painted serpent cucumber and I don't even remember what else.  And then a very shocking thing happened... they let me through security!  I definitely thought they would confiscate the ice cubes at least, but they actually let me and my harvest onto the plane without a fuss.  A rare moment of sanity from the good people of the TSA.

This year I plan to leave most of the harvest behind either by stuffing it in my face before I leave, giving it to the pet-sitters, or finding a way to preserve it.  That means blanching and freezing green beans, shredding and freezing zucchini and hoping the eggplants can hang on the plant until I get back.  I am also planning to do a monster zucchini bread mission- it will make a great gift for the pet-sitters and it will travel well with me as I head back east once again.  And you know, it's always nice to have a loaf of zucchini bread kicking around your cabin in the woods.  You never when you'll want a little taste of home.  I was planning.  Now that I need to pack and clean the house and blah blah blah, that zucchini is all going to the pet-sitters.  Thanks, guys, and I hope you're hungry!

Zucchini Love

You may have noticed a lot of mention of zucchini and squash around here.  That's because it's summer time, and few vegetables are as prolific as the humble zuke.  I would definitely recommend zucchini as a starter veggie gardener plant- they tend to just explode with little gardener assistance.  So naturally, those of us with several coming in off the vines each day need to find things to do with them (besides overload all the neighbors and officemates, though that works well).

One of my favorite easy preparations is Zucchini Carpaccio.  It is a salad of raw, marinated zucchini that really lets the zucchini shine.  It makes a wonderful side salad or a great addition to a picnic.  The key is to use small, tender zucchini or squash (easy to do if you grow your own).  That is when they are at their peak of flavor and texture for this dish.  It can also be very pretty if you use a combination of zucchini and yellow squash.

I found the recipe from Martha Stewart several years ago when I first grew my own veggies.  It is super easy and super delicious, just what I am after in a summer recipe.  I haven't looked at that original recipe in years, so here is my go-to take on the original.

Zucchini Carpaccio

Serves 4

adapted from Martha Stewart

4-6 small zucchini or summer squash

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

sea salt

1/4 cup shaved Parmigiano Reggiano

Slice the zucchini into thin rounds (one of these days I will invest in a mandoline) and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle thyme leaves over zucchini.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Add salt and toss.  Allow salad to marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Add Parmigiano Reggiano.  Toss and serve.

*Full disclosure - I never measure anything that goes into this salad.  If I were you, I'd take the list of ingredients and just wing it.

July 2011 MKG Harvest

Saturday harvest- strawberries, Sungold cherry tomato, Hungarian wax and
Padron peppers, Black Spineless, Cocozelle and Sunburst zucchini


This summer is taking its sweet time getting under way!  Zucchini have appeared on the menu around here, but we're still waiting on the tomatoes (Okay, there has been ONE teeny little Sungold cherry tomato but come on!).  Plenty of little green orbs of future yumminess, they just won't ripen!  My gardener's patience is being tested this year.  At least they have set, they will ripen eventually.

The strawberries have continued to trickle in, a few at a time, along with the first blueberries!  Not enough to make anything from, but it's still nice to pick them in my yard.  The only other times I've picked blueberries are the wild ones up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  The raspberries and blackberries seem to want to grow a bit bigger before providing a crop.

The artichoke season has come to an end.  It finally heated up and they started turning into lovely flowers.  I'll be sure to post a picture of them for Bloom Day.  We got a great harvest out of them, though, and they were delicious.

The chard is still going strong (anyone who is hungry should plant chard... this plant won't quit!).  No wonder it's always available at the Farmer's Market.  Unfortunately, the lettuce seeds I planted earlier aren't interested in sprouting.  I'll try again in the fall.

Here is what came out of the Mighty Kitchen Garden in July 2011:

- one bunch chard
- 4 artichokes
- 11 Black Spineless zucchini
- 3 Cocozelle zucchini
- 3 Sunburst squash
- 2 Zephyr squash
- 3 Squash blossoms
- 2 Hungarian yellow wax peppers
- 1 Padron pepper
- 1 Sungold cherry tomato
- 17 strawberries
- 10 blueberries
- 13 Ruby Red Pluots
- a couple Pineapple Guava petals
- 5 lemons
- 37 heads garlic
- plus what the cat-sitters harvested (zucchini/squash, chard and onions)

And how we ate it:

- Zucchini carpaccio
- Zucchini basil flatbread
- Garlic scape pesto
- Sauteed chard with garlic and red pepper flakes
- Grilled marinated zucchini
- Roasted zucchini
- Sauteed squash blossoms stuffed with basil and feta

I hope that your gardens are going strong wherever they are, and you are avoiding the Summer of the Green Tomato that is currently gripping us here in northern California.

Seriously?!?

Have you ever grown zucchini? 

Have you ever gone away for a week during zucchini season? 

If so, you might have returned to something like this:

Zucchini, tea towel and utensils for scale

Seriously?!?

These zucchini are complete and utter monsters, weighing in at a whopping 2.2, 3.1, and 5.9 lbs! 

Zucchini, human for scale

Look- this one is even bigger than my torso!  And I'm 5'7".  Honestly, these things are ridiculous.

So what on earth is a gardener to do with such things?  One easy answer is: compost!  Another is: feed 'em to the hogs!  It's still early in the season and I'm not sick of zukes yet so I won't compost them, and we don't have any hogs (unless you count Snoutface and the vaguely-domesticated-semi-feral-jungle-housecats, who could probably eat more than hogs).  I need to come up with some ideas on what to do with totally overgrown, probably not-so-sweet, and probably tough zucchini.

It is clear that these badboys would be no good for a zucchini carpaccio or other delicate preparation that calls for nice baby squash.  These seem to call for cooking in a (futile?) attempt to change their texture.  I am thinking a lifetime supply of zucchini bread (I could probably try ever recipe I've ever read) and a batch of zuke soup.  Worst-case scenario I can remove the seeds, grate them, and then freeze enough shredded zucchini to see me well into next summer.

Do you have any ideas what to do with these monsters?  If so, please help me out and leave a note in the comments!

Pickin' Through the Fridge

Learning to garden and cook has been a real process for me.  As a scientist, I expect that there are Best Ways To Do Things that someone before me has already figured out (science couldn't happen if we didn't rely on each other- "standing on the shoulders of giants" and all that).  The result is that I scour the internet and have amassed quite a decent library of gardening guides and cookbooks. 

Only now, though, do I feel confident enough to break out on my own.  I have spent enough time tending the garden to have a fair idea what to expect.  Perhaps more importantly, I'm no longer terrified of not knowing that one little thing that will send the whole garden into a spiral of disaster.  Chances are, that one little thing doesn't exist, and if it does, no amount of reading or studying or worrying is going to prepare me for it.

The same goes in the kitchen.  My husband will be the first to tell you that I used to never veer from a published recipe.  If it called for 1/8 teaspoon of cumin, you bet your @ss I was measuring out the 1/8 tsp precisely.  The same went for things like salt and pepper measurements.  My husband thought I was nuts.  I have three explanations for this behavior:

1. I was once a geochemist (for 2.5 years) and chemists do not adjust their measurements willy-nilly.  Ever.

2. I learned to bake before I learned to cook.  An eighth tsp of cornstarch means an eighth tsp of cornstarch.

3. I had no experience and therefore no confidence in branching out on my own.  Why mess up a perfectly good meal by not following the recipe.  Do I know better than these masters of culinary artistry who wrote this recipe?  I think not.

Well, I am happy to report that I now have enough experience and confidence to throw things around in the kitchen.  I can't imagine measuring salt or pepper (or most spices for that matter).  I read recipes and then forget half the details but try to pull it together anyway.  I still use recipes, all the time.  It's just in a very different style than before.  I use recipes as guidelines or inspiration, not rigid rules which must be followed to the decimal point.

All this back story at last brings me around to the point of today's post (that took a while).  I made a delicious meal last week (repeated this weekend) through no more planning than determining what was ripe in the garden and what was kicking around in the fridge.  For many people, that's normal.  For me, it represents a personal breakthrough from my dependence on recipes.  I can now cook for and by myself.  Yippee!

In the garden I had four little zucchinis just ready to be picked.  Alone, they weren't really enough for a meal.  I went inside and starting picking through the fridge to see what I could combine them with.  I found some flatbread (left over from chicken souvlaki), some basil (left over from pesto), and some Saint Andre cheese (heaven in cheese form- it's similar to Brie but a million times more delicious).  This would form the basis of my dinner.  I served it alongside some leftover pesto pasta and was so happy when I finished dinner I didn't want to drink any water for fear of washing away the lovely flavors.

Zucchini Basil Flatbread
serves 1, easily up-scaled or served as an appetizer

4 baby zucchini or 1 medium zucchini, diced (~1 cup)
Olive oil
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
1 round flatbread (I use Trader Joe's; pita would work well, too)
1 bunch basil
~half a wedge St. Andre cheese (if using Brie, may need less)

1. Put a splash of olive oil in a small pan over medium heat.  Add red pepper flakes to the oil.  When the oil is hot, add diced zucchini.  Cover and saute, about 5-10 minutes.  When zucchini are cooked through, remove lid and add salt and pepper.  Continue to saute, about 5 minutes, until some zucchini are brown in spots.  Remove from heat.

2.  Toast flatbread.  Slice cheese thinly and layer over toasted flatbread (the heat from the bread will melt the cheese slightly).  Cover cheese with a layer of basil leaves.  Top basil with sauteed zucchini.  Add a dash of kosher salt.  Enjoy!

p.s. the orange in the photo above is the zucchini blossom- I sliced it up and tossed it in at the end of the zucchini sauteing cause, why not?

Mighty Kitchen Garden Update

The garden continues its slow movement into proper summer production.  I am finally harvesting little baby zucchini and a strawberry or two seems to ripen every couple of days.  Before I know it I'll be inundated in squash and drowning in tomatoes.  It doesn't quite feel that way yet, but I know it's coming.  In the quiet before the storm, I thought it would be a good time to show you what's doing what here at the MKG.

The squash and zucchini are looking like the garden monsters they are.  There are lots of blossoms and some baby zukes starting to come in.  In about a week I will have to start on the Daily Zucchini Patrol, lest I miss one and it grows into a vegetable club.  Seriously, you could knock someone out with an overgrown zucchini.  I'm sure I'll have one to show you later in the season.  Also, it's prime time to whip up some stuffed squash blossoms.  Yum!

The eggplants are all sporting their pretty little lavender flowers, but no baby fruits yet.  I think I might need to add some flowers to the garden to attract more bees, they seem less abundant than in years past.



This is a baby Giant Aconcagua pepper.  It's hard to see - look in the center of the picture to the left of the main stem.  There it is!  It should be ready to harvest in about a week.  The only other pepper with fruit so far is the Hungarian yellow wax.  Let's hope the others get their groove on soon.

The strawberries are chugging along one fruit at a time.  I had two for dessert last night and one for a snack this morning.  There's no point in trying to save them up, better to just give them a quick rinse and pop them in my mouth.

Little baby Sungolds!  The all-time tomato favorite in our household.  In fact, I've yet to meet a person familiar with Sungolds who wasn't a huge fan.  This is a stupendously delicious tomato.  Still looking at another week or more until I can eat one- the suspense is killing me!

I won't have to wait long once the tomatoes start coming in though- there are lots of flowers ready to turn into tomatoes.

Last but not least, we have the corn (back) and beans (front).  The corn isn't exactly "knee high by the 4th of July" but I planted them late and they are a dwarf variety that only grows to 3 feet or so anyway.  It's my first year for corn so I'm not holding my breath.  The beans seem to be coming in nicely.  A few more weeks and I will be able to harvest them. 

Come to think of it - I had a dream last night (seriously) that I was picking a purple bean off a plant and realized it had green beans growing below it on the same plant.  And the beans next to it were Borlotti beans.  Hmmm, apparently my subconscious is ready to get this harvest started!

How does your garden grow?