Garden fresh ...

[Skyweir]

Thats a great garden you got SB .. we grow zucchini too .. and always looking for recipes.

We do sweet corn, zucchini fritters, make a cheese zucchini slice, you it in pasta and lasagne, kinda just add it to stuff, bbq it is yummy .. but beyond that look for good recipes. Nice to have tried and true recipes - we made a quiche once it was disgusting

We grow cucumbers too - my better half said the garden is now producing. It seems like you have to wait forever for a tomato crop. I love Rocket and that is a prolific grower .. oh arugula possibly in American

[Menolly]

Thats a great garden you got SB .. we grow zucchini too .. and always looking for recipes.

We do sweet corn, zucchini fritters, make a cheese zucchini slice, you it in pasta and lasagne, kinda just add it to stuff, bbq it is yummy .. but beyond that look for good recipes. Nice to have tried and true recipes - we made a quiche once it was disgusting

Have you tried any recipes in the Zucchini thread?

[Skyweir]

Literally made me lol



still lolling!! hahahahaha .. well I guess I will take my ol' self over to that thread .. hahahaha

[Menolly]

bah...
Sometimes I forget to do some things I've been looking forward to doing for quite awhile.
This year is my first year with a garden box at Marymoor Community Garden. I planted my first ever heirloom tomatoes, two Chocolate Stripes from starts by the local TomatoLady.
We got a late start due to waiting for the boxes to be constructed, but the plants are thriving and are full of fruit, although most are still green. However, I just cut into the first ripe tomato, which is delicious!
...but I forgot to take any photos. 😢
Hopefully I'll remember with the next one. It's an unusual coloring.

[Menolly]

What I'm calling my "prize" tomato has ripened on the hanging Vines in the solarium...

[Menolly]

On October 23rd I cut what tomatoes I had still ripening with their vines and had SD hang some of them in the solarium while wrapping others in newspaper and setting them on the window ledge.












Three weeks later, I still have quite a few green tomatoes. So, today I attempted low carb fried green tomatoes with a couple of them. Not bad. Not bad at all.


I didn't want to use chicarrones, so I found this recipe which worked quite well. I pan fried in avocado oil for 3 - 5 minutes a side. The only changes I made were to pre-dredge in whey protein isolate and oat fiber before dipping into the egg, and adding some corn flavoring extract to the eggs to try to get a corn meal flavor to the breading.

https://kicking-carbs.com/keto-fried-green-tomatoes/

I made the dipping sauce by combining mayonnaise, no-sugar added ketchup, ground white horseradish, chili crisp, and a splash of dill pickle juice.

[SoulBiter]

My wife and I had an abundance of fresh tomatoes this year so we broke out the canning stuff and made and canned salsa. Its not overly difficult and its a really good way to use some fresh veggies on something that is eaten a lot at our house. The only thing I would do different is I would strain them a bit more so its thicker. But no harm no foul.. we will just pour off some of the liquid that settled as we open them.

[Menolly]

The salsa sounds amazing.

So far my most successful crop up to this point has been my red leaf lettuce. My Roma tomatoes are still tiny and green, and my Black Krim nonexistent as I had to put in a new seedling in July. I suspect my tomatoes may be a bust this year, but apparently that’s not unexpected in the Pacific Northwet growing season. I’ll still try again next year.

However, my volunteer squash are going crazy. I’m pretty certain they’re a winter squash, but whether edible or decorative has yet to be determined. In the meantime I’m harvesting male squash blossoms.


Initial squash blossom harvest.

@Savor Dam took some from this initial harvest and made a wonderful light pasta dish.


Edible flowers are fascinating.

I harvested twice more and added to what was left from the pasta to make cheese filled fried squash blossoms, based on the recommendation of Xar.


Prepped, stuffed, and ready for dipping.


Battered and frying on the first side.


Turning golden brown.


A platter full for service.


With marinara sauce for dipping.


A delightful bite.

My squash are still going for now.


Before I recently thinned them out.


And after.

Here are a few of the squash growing. As far as I can tell, the different shapes are growing from the same plants.


I suspect this oblong one will be used for porch decoration when the time comes.

I’m hopeful these round ones turn orange and wind up being edible pumpkins. We’ll see.







The volunteer squash came from my homemade compost. I remember putting a large orange pumpkin into the tumbler, seeds and all, around Thanksgiving. I definitely won’t do that again, but I’ll probably have some volunteers for a few years yet. If these squash do wind up being edible, I may leave one volunteer each season. But I’m definitely not leaving five volunteers in my little box again; they definitely overwhelmed everything else I planted.

[SoulBiter]

That's awesome to get a volunteer from a previous season!! We got butternut squashes one year because of that.

The squash blossum's look amazing and I never thought to use them in that manner. I guess you have to be careful not to take them all or you limit your actual squash. Let me know I would be interested. I might look up some other recipies that dont include frying. I try to steer clear of fried foods and only fall off the wagon once in a while.

Black Krims are incredibly good but tend to be harder to grow and susceptible to different plant issues. They tend to be more seed and less meat so not great for salsa but really good to eat! I grew some the last couple of years but it was not worth the effort because the harvests were so small so this year I only grew one heirloom tomato plant (Heirloom red beefsteak) that has done very well, and then some basic Better boys that are a hybrid that does pretty well.. If you want to try something that is similar to the Krim's but (for me) seems to do better, try Cherokee purple's. The worst that will happen is you don't get much out of it but it might be worth a try.

Living in Ohio I had to change my growing patterns quite a bit. When I was in Georgia the growing season was super long so I could get in multiple crops and can much more than I can do here. Not being able to start until after Mothers day really limits the harvest and then of course the end of the warm months comes much faster. Also the lot I have is not good for a big garden. When we lived more south we had a HUGE area to plant. But not here. We have plans to move in the next couple of years and a big garden spot is high on our list.

[Menolly]

You can harvest as many of the male blossoms as you want; the females already have fruit developing on their bottom. I don’t know how they actually get pollinated before the fruit develop, but I wait to harvest until the blossom opens fully, and by that time you see the developing fruit on the female blossoms.

Also, my understanding is once fruit is maturing, you want to pick back new blossoms so the plant can give energy into growing the fruit rather than producing more. Female blossoms with baby fruit attached are apparently delicious at that time.

I’m thinking of trying the same stuffed recipe in the air fryer at some point, but I have no idea how well it will work.

For tomatoes I think I might try Siletz next year, which apparently was bred specifically for the Pacific Northwet and maybe a hybrid Brandy Pink, I think it’s called. But, I’ll work on this season for now and see what, if anything, I wind up with.

[SoulBiter]

Brandy pink might be a hybrid of Heirloom Brandywine tomatoes which are my favorite by far. I typically don't get many tomatoes per plant but the ones I get are the BEST!!

[SoulBiter]

My garden tomato's are winding down for the season. I am going to miss them all when they are gone. There is nothing better than having them ripen on the vine so they have time to develop that specific flavor that you rarely get from store bought tomato's that are picked not yet ripe and ripen in the store.

[Menolly]

I’m still awaiting mine to ripen and am feeling somewhat discouraged about this year’s harvest.

[Savor Dam]

Patience. Tomatoes grown this far north don't ripen as early as SB's crop. Prior to his move north a few years ago, his tomatoes were probably even earlier and more profligate.

Your garden contributes to the household, to friends, to the food bank...and (year by year) to your skills in food production. You've always been a cook, but raising the food is another aspect. Be not discouraged!

[SoulBiter]

That is true SD. And I could grow multiple crops of them. Disease would start to impact the older plants so I would usually plant a second crop around 6 weeks after the first crop. I would continue to get tomatoes from early May/June through Sept/late Oct.

It has been difficult to wait until after Mothers day to plant in Ohio. Oh you can plant but the chances of a freeze were still pretty high.

Edit to add - last year I had fewer tomato's ripen than usual. A late planting due to weather. They grew well I just got them in too late. When the weather started to cool off I had tons of large green tomatoes. I made salsa Verde out of them and still enjoyed them rather than let them die on the vine.

[Menolly]

My San Mariano-style tomatoes are finally starting to come in, although there are tons of green ones left. The black krim is still barely a foot tall with three fruit slowly ripening.

[SoulBiter]

How did you crop turn out this year Menolly? From some other threads it looks like you got tons of ripe tomatoes from your vines.

[Menolly]

Yes, the San Marzano-style tomato plant gave me at least 15 lbs of tomatoes before the rains came and the tomatoes started to crack in early October. I pulled the plants and had SD hang them upside down in the solarium.

The black krim only ever produced three tomatoes, and only one was somewhat edible; I think I’ll pass on trying them again. The San Marzano-style still has some green tomatoes slowly ripening on the vine; I’ve since picked the majority of what was clinging to the plant since bringing it indoors. But there are still a few small tomatoes slowly ripening.

I followed instructions for fermenting and drying some seeds from these San Marzano-style tomatoes; I hope to grow another vine next season. I’m also looking for seeds or a transplant of a paste tomato called Work Release. A fellow gardener gave me some of hers and they made fantastic sauce with my SM-style ones. I didn’t think of saving seeds from them, though. So now I’m on the lookout.

Currently I have garlic and elephant garlic overwintering. I just cut back my tree collards and they seem to be bushing out well. I have about six leeks still growing. I planted a couple of bay leaf cuttings and a small sage seedling. Those are my long term products.

I also have various lettuce heads seedlings and I broadcast some carrot, golden beet, and spinach seeds before spreading shredded leaves on top of the bed and covering it all with frost cover.

Now I’m dealing with the county park turning off the water for season, so I’m trucking water in whenever we have a few dry days in a row. Luckily we are entering our rainy season, though. Other than needing water to dilute some fish emulsion when I cut and come again on the lettuce and collards, I think the rain, and potential snow, should see these crops through. We’ll see how they all do.

[Menolly]

First of the season!

Our temperatures fell into the mid-40s overnight a couple of nights ago. I was so concerned of catastrophe as I headed to the garden. But, I was greeted by a couple of nice surprises once I got there.

I was certain at least one variety of the several different cherry tomatoes I’m growing would ripen first, especially since one had a cluster slowly ripening over the past week. But, no. Mortgage Lifter for the win!



I’m quite happy with a tomato weighing just over a pound to start!



The proud gardener



My corn then had a surprise for me by having some silks starting to peek out. Now I need to figure out when to start hand pollinating.

[Menolly]

Ooo…
I’m removing my overwinter layer of leaf mulch, and look what revealed itself underneath! It’s white because it had been covered by mulch, but I suspect it will turn green as it grows and is exposed to light.