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CSA Bounty – Week Three

Wow, this week is like Christmas!  Everything is green and red.  Well, except for the lavender.

lavender

As gorgeous as it is, I have lavender growing on the back deck. So, I traded mine with a woman who loves lavender, for more chard!

chard

We got a couple of spicy greens – cress and green mustard greens.

cress

green mustard greens

I’ll need to find a recipe for these greens – on an initial search I came across a recipe for balsamic-glazed chickpeas and mustard greens, but I’d need to make a number of adjustments, as fat-free is not my kind of thing.  I could add some of my pastured chicken broth, naturally fermented tamari, and use coconut sugar.  I’ll definitely post about it if it turns out well!

We also got a bag of sugar snap peas.

bags of snap peas

I ate a bunch tonight, all raw and some dipped in homemade mayonnaise – so good!  It’s a nice lemony mayo, which tastes great with these peas.

This was the first week of the fruit share!  We got cherries and apples.  Haven’t tried the apples, but the cherries are divine.

cherries

apple

We weren’t sure we’d get cherries, as at this growing season has accelerated a lot of the traditional spring fruit. I’m so grateful there were cherries for us!

Can you tell that I like cherries? Heee!

I look forward to good eating this week.

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Truly Local Apricots

backyard apricots

I picked these the other day in the backyard – three little apricots.  The stone fruit trees in the backyard aren’t producing much of anything this year (the former tenants told me about lack of production a couple of months ago), and I wonder if it’s because the spring flowers bloomed primarily on the suckers instead of on the more main branches; suckers don’t seem to be able to provide enough sustenance for fruit, they are so thin and spindly.  We will prune again in the late summer (trees like apricots can be pruned mid-season), most likely, or at least into fall.  Next year I hope there is a bumper crop!

(I did check on the fig trees – which lean over onto the property from neighboring yards – and I think there will be a ton of figs!  Hoping the birds don’t eat them all…)

Anyway, just wanted to show off these gorgeous specimens.  They are shaped differently from most apricots I’ve seen – these are much more round than I’m accustomed to. I wonder what kind of variety they are?  Whatever they are, they’re delicious!  I’ve eaten them at lunch for the past couple of days and they really brighten the second half of the day.

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Garden Update – Happy Growth

Happy Summer Solstice! Hope you are enjoying the first day of summer. Summer is my favorite time of year!

garden overview

Well, we’ve had more hot days, which means great growing environment for my plants, even though it might be uncomfortable for me (however, I’m in a large air conditioned office building M-F).  I’ve spent time watering, aerating soil, and feeding the plants with compost when necessary.  They are looking great!

First, tomatoes.

june tomato collage

I’m growing 7 tomato plants total.  From the top left image, clockwise:

Amish Paste, Pruden’s Purple, Yellow Pear, Amish Paste, detail of Silver Fir, Silver Fir, mystery volunteer, Pruden’s Purple flower.

Both the small paste tomato and the Yellow Pear looked just awful Saturday afternoon – droopy and flaccid, and just not in good shape.  I sturdied up their dirt, added compost, and plenty of water.  On Sunday they looked great!  I think they are on the mend.

I’m particularly impressed with the Pruden’s Purple flower – it doesn’t look like any tomato flower I’ve ever seen, and it’s a gorgeous shape.  I’m looking forward to seeing it in bloom.

Cucumbers – my lemon cucumber isn’t fruiting yet, and I found a volunteer cucumber plant across the yard!  That was a very fun discovery.

june cucumber collage

The lemon cucumber is in the top left corner photo, and the rest are of the volunteer.  Looks like the volunteer will produce a more classic shaped cucumber.  I’m happy with this discovery and can’t wait to see what happens with it.

Ground cherries and tomatillos continue to increase in size, and I’ve even seen one or two flowers.

ground cherry

vibrant tomatillos

I’m going to have to stake the tomatillos, or perhaps get a tomato cage for them.  Tomatillos are very sprawling plants and need support early on.  I’ve inserted a bamboo post for right now, which is helping  with support.  I can’t wait for tomatillos!  I plan to make lots of salsa verde.

There’s plenty of wild stuff in the garden, too.

wild june

Although they are a bit of a pest, these morning glories sure are pretty.  I’ve seen a number of ladybugs in the garden, which makes me happy.  Saw a bunch of yellowjackets, too, and honey bees!

Thyme is slow growing but steady, and tatsoi is steady and fast growing! It makes for a delicious salad, simply dressed in lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper. I like it a lot – it’s like a gentle arugula as far as the peppery taste goes.  It’s delicious.

thyme update

abundant tatsoi

I spent time weeding on Saturday and there were far less weeds than a couple weeks ago.  This is a good sign.  Hoping that my weeding efforts here in June will make for a mostly weed-less summer.

Happy for all this growth!

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CSA Bounty – Week One

I’d like to show off what I bring home from the CSA each week, so this is the first post in my CSA Bounty Series.  Mostly eye candy, this is going to be my record of the 2010 Hellgate CSA season.

Our vegetables are organic and the fruit is “ecologically grown”, which means it’s not quite organic, so they do their best to use alternate techniques (like integrated pest management) to control pests, weeds, and fungus.  In NY state, it’s pretty much impossible to grow tree fruit truly organic, due to the overly wet summers.

Strawberries!  One of the best parts of the early CSA season.  They were delicious.  Note that past tense, “were”… these strawberries came from our vegetable farmer, so they were organic.

strawberries

Green leaf lettuce, one of my favorites.  I ate some of it tonight and it was lovely.

lettuce

Tarragon, my new favorite herb.  I use it liberally in chicken salad (I’ll share the recipe sometime soon – it’s fantastic).  This was particularly gorgeous tarragon.

tarragon

Leeks – beautiful (and delicious – I’ve already eaten them).

leeks

Bags of jerusalem artichokes.  Not very photogenic, I’ll admit, but I’m grateful that the farm pre-bagged them for us.

IMG_6255

Gorgeous collard greens.  I didn’t choose these (the choice was these greens or the leeks), but glad I got a shot of them.  I expect they were delicious.

collards

That’s it!  I can’t wait to see what we get in week two…

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Garden Update – My, How You’ve Grown!

Thanks to all this recent heat, my garden is coming along – the tomatoes especially are enjoying the hot weather  they are sporting nice healthy greenery and thicker stems.   I was able to get out early on Sunday and do some weeding, which makes a world of difference!

garden long shot

My tomatoes have started to take off!  From top to bottom – Amish Paste, Prudens Purple, Silver Fir.

Tomato Collage

I found two tomato volunteers while weeding!  One is bigger and healthier than the other, but I hope some daily TLC will help the straggler along.

volunteer tomato

volunteer tomato 2

I’m really looking forward to seeing how these little guys will grow up.

My cucumbers have flowers!!

cucumber flowers

These four plants are coming along.

4 lemon cukes

I got to plant something new this weekend, too – a beautiful little spicy basil plant, compliments of my friend Harlan.

spicy basil in the ground

My containers are doing well, too.  Clockwise from top left: lavender flower, more spicy basil, thyme sprouts, tastoi.

container collage

Because of the hot weather, my arugula sent up flowers for about a week; if I had let it continue, it would have gone to seed.  I harvested the remaining leaves and turned under the roots and stems (thanks to fellow gardener Jen for the inspiration).  I’ll plant lettuce or braising mix in its place this weekend.

arugula on its way out

Finally, there is a very cool decrepit outbuilding on the property – I love how the ivy is growing up it.

ivy

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Gardening: I Grow It In the Ground

As I’ve written before, I am very fortunate to have a garden plot in the backyard behind my apartment.  I’m not growing a wide variety of things, mostly tomatoes of varying sorts, and cucumbers.  Speaking of cucumbers here is one of my lemon cukes:

lemon cucumber plant

I’ve got four plants in the ground right now.

I’m also growing tomatillos:

tomatillos

These have really taken to the soil and are quite large now compared to when I put them in the ground.  Tomatillos are crazy growers and two plants should supply me with plenty of fruit this summer.

I’m growing ground cherries:

ground cherry

There are about four plants in there, and when they get a little bigger, I’ll separate them.

I’m growing tomatoes, too.  Two of the varieties are Prudens Purple and Silver Fir.  Thanks to the urban gardener meetup a few months ago for the Silver Fir seeds!

prudens purple

silver fir

I’m also growing an Amish paste tomato, and I attempted to grow a yellow pear.  The yellow pear especially is not thriving – I think it’s because of the location in the plot.  Unfortunately, this space doesn’t get as much sun as I would like.   I may put one of the remaining pear tomatoes in a container on the deck.

And finally, another gratuitous tree shot:

through the trees

Hooray for the warm weather growing season!

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Garden Update

My garden now exists fully in two spaces – upstairs on the deck outside the dining room, and downstairs in the yard, in a corner plot.  Being able to plant in the ground is a huge deal here in NYC, so I am really grateful to have this space.  For now, though, I’ll focus on what is growing up on the deck.

My arugula is growing like crazy!

arugula

It seems to like the soil it’s in and its placement on the deck.  It’s constantly sprouting new growth, so I expect to have baby arugula all summer.  I like to eat it with a simple vinaigrette made with olive oil, fresh squeezed orange juice, salt and pepper.  For vinaigrettes containing citrus, I find it imperative to use freshly pressed/squeezed juice – it tastes fantastic, for one, and you bypass the whole pasteurization thing present in ready-made juice at the supermarket.

As an aside, have you heard about pasteurized eggs?  So strange.  I can’t imagine wanting to eat them.

There are two herbs growing in my planter that I did not plant myself.  One is cilantro – I found it growing one day and have cared for it ever since.  I love love love cilantro, so I’m especially happy about this.

cilantro

The other is lavender, which I originally thought was tarragon.

lavendar

It smells amazing – not sure what I’ll do with it, apart from simply enjoying it with my eyes and nose.  Perhaps honey lavender ice cream is in store for us this summer, or some sort of cocktail.  I’ll have to look into it.

I started a couple of things from seed this past week, and they are in the initial sprouting stage.  First, I planted thyme in a small pot – I did this so that I can transport it into the house when it gets cold in the fall.  Thyme is my favorite herb to pair with winter squash, so it will be nice to have some fresh thyme when the time (ha ha!) comes to start roasting squash again.

thyme sprouts

I also planted tatsoi next to the cilantro.  Tatsoi is a very tasty asian green, similar to bok choi, and is very high in calcium.   I love growing greens because they sprout so quickly!  I’m looking forward to eating the tatsoi, perhaps even mixed with baby arugula for a nice fresh salad.

new tatsoi sprouts

And finally, the fruit trees are full of abundant green leaves!  The apricot tree isn’t going to fruit this year, but I have spied a few plums.  Here’s one of the trees from today:

trees

I just love all this greenery these days!  Soon, I’ll write about what’s growing in the ground.