DRIFTING INTO FALL, THE GARDEN SHINES

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Fall, Fall Flowers, Flowers, Growing, Harvest, Photography, Vegetable garden

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beans, cabbage, comice pears, dahlias, fall, garden spiders, harvest, honeybees, matricaria, savoy cabbage, squash, tomatoes, verbena bonariensis

Mystery dahlia, but quite lovely

AS SEPTEMBER GENTLY NUDGES US INTO A FALL state of mind, there are lovely moments nearly everyday. The colors of late summer and early fall flowers are rich and vibrant. Tomato harvest is peaking. Cabbages are just this side of splitting. Pears need picking almost daily. Cactus are blooming! Winter squash are ripening and bees and spiders are busy, busy, busy.

I’ll let the garden speak for itself.

BIG mystery squash. Came from the zucchini packet!

I think this is a banana squash. The seed came from the zucchini packet!

Bartlett and Comice pears

30 year old (maybe older) mammillaria pringlei.

Berkely Tie-dye

Is this a beautiful blossom? Bean blossoms are often hidden by the leaves

Is this a beautiful blossom? Bean blossoms are seldom seen as they are often hidden by the leaves.

These are EVERYWHERE.

As are these (on the tiny flowers of sedum ‘Autumn Joy’)…

and partaking of nectar from caryopteris ‘Dark Knight’

Bees drinking at the birdbath. We have a beekeeper in our neighborhood–hooray!

and drinking at the birdbath. We have a beekeeper in our neighborhood–hooray!

Savoy cabbage

Matricaria. They look so cheerful and like sunny side-up eggs. They self-sow.

Matricaria (also known as feverfew); they look so cheerful and like sunnyside-up eggs. They self-sow freely.

Many plants in my ornamental and vegetable gardens are volunteers, like this verbena bonariensis whose seeds came from compost. Volunteer flowers in the vegetable garden enliven the scenery and invite lots of pollinators and predators alike.

Many plants in my ornamental and vegetable gardens are volunteers, like this verbena bonariensis whose seeds likely came from compost added to the garden. I like to leave volunteer flowers in the vegetable garden to enliven the scenery and invite lots of pollinators and predators alike.

SEATTLE REVERTS TO TYPICAL WEATHER

06 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Cooking & Eating, Food, Harvest, Pickling, Vegetable garden, Weather

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brandied peaches, fruit vinegars, infusing vinegar, peach preserves, pickling, plum butter, seattle rain, shiro plum, tomaotes

Today’s weather

AFTER A FANTASTIC SUMMER THAT BEGAN IN MAY we are easing back into typical northwest weather. Last night we had quite a light show with 5,600+ lightning strikes! Very unusual for this part of the country. No complaints really. Day after day of sunshine and temperatures of 80°+ has produced some wonderful results in the vegetable garden and loads of pears, beans, tomatoes and more.

A few rainy day photos:

Jaune Flamée tomatoes in the rain

Fucschia “Dark Eyes”

AUGUST WAS REPLETE WITH CANNING AND PRESERVING PROJECTS. I accepted 22 pounds of Shiro plums from my mom’s neighbor.

Shiro plums

Those 22 pounds yielded plum butter, 12 cups of plum juice; half of that became plum jelly, and

Plum infused white wine vinegar; one of two versions

We took a trip to north east Washington to our favorite little lake and on the return home stopped in Okonogan at Smallwood Farms where I bought a box of beautiful, just ripe and sweet Diamond Princess peaches.

Peach infused vinegar

Peach Basil preserves & brandied peaches

I have had exceptional pole and bush bean crops this year; lots to put in the freezer and plenty to make pickled beans too. Nice heads of cabbage. My late spring planting of carrots came up nicely and then quickly eaten by little critters. My second planting last month is looking promising The cucumbers were doing well until we left them on their own for a week when they succumbed to the heat. But I did manage to get a big jar of my favorite refrigerator pickles. Now it’s time to tackle the pears coming on.

HARVEST BASKET CHALLENGE

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, Food, Harvest, Summer!, Vegetable garden

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Arugula, cooking, garlic scapes, harvest, herbs, sage, string beans, Summer squash, Walla Walla Onions, winter savory, zucchini

Golden sage, winter savory, Walla Walla sweet onions, string bean mix, French breakfast radishes, arugula, zucchini costata, and a yellow summer squash (under the beans).

WHAT’S READY TO HAVEST IN YOUR GARDEN TODAY?

STRING BEAN, RADISH & WALLA WALLA ONION SALAD: BLANCH the beans until tender crisp, plunge into ice water, drain and pat dry; combine with sliced Walla Walla onion and quartered radishes and toss with a vinaigrette of white wine vinegar, mustard, chopped savory, a chiffonade of golden sage leaves and olive oil. Serve over lettuce if desired.

The dressed salad

CUT YELLOW SQUASH OR ZUCCHINI INTO THIN STRIPS. Coarsely chop the arugula. Choose a long, spaghetti type pasta. Heat up some olive oil in a large skillet. Flavor the oil with sliced garlic scapes, then remove them. Cook pasta to al dente; heat the olive oil over medium high heat and toss in the summer squash and a pinch of red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Cook until just tender. Drain the pasta (leave it a bit on the wet side and reserve a little of the cooking water) and transfer to a large bowl, top with the summer squash, add the arugula and toss gently to combine; add a little of the reserved water if desired to make the dish a little saucy. Add some grated peccorino romano over the top and you have a quick dinner!

Arugula, stringozzi and yellow summer squash.

ZUCCHINI CARPACCIO. THINLY (paper thin) slice the zucchini lengthwise with a mandoline; arrange slices on a large plate, slightly overlapping the slices. Sprinkle with coarse salt, a few grinds of pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with a little chopped arugula or whole leaves and some shavings of parmesan cheese. This makes a great first course. Who would think zucchini could be so good?

RADISH FEVER!

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in EAT!, Fall, Vegetable garden

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backyard farm, black radish, Daikon radish, food, french breakfast, planting radishes, radish salad, Radishes, Shrinmei radish

French Breakfast, black, New Crown Daikon, Round Core Shrinmei & Easter Egg.

IT’S A FEAST OF RADISHES HERE at Backyard Farm. Most were planted mid-to-late August. The smaller French breakfast type are now getting a bit hot and woody/spongey. The large daikon type radishes are probably good for another month or more if they don’t become buggy as they grow larger and some of the black radishes are golf ball size or larger.

Pretty round core and assorted radishes.

So far, the favorite is the red centered round core – so pretty, tasty and photogenic! Lots of paper thin slices tossed with a bit of lemon juice, finely chopped parsley, some olive oil, and salt make for a wonderfully sassy and refreshing salad. The daikons are sweet with just a little heat; the black radishes have some heat, need peeling, and good for raw eating if sliced paper thin, but are probably best when cooked (like turnips).

Got a favorite radish variety or ways to eat them?

SURPRISE—NOT A PUMPKIN AFTER ALL; GOODBYE, TOMATOES

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Fall, Fun in the Garden, Tomatoes, Vegetable garden

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fall, goodbye tomatoes, green tomato salsa, lettuce seeds, pumpkins, squash vine, surprise squash, vegetable garden, volunteer plants

Sure doesn’t look like a pumpkin!

THIS VOLUNTEER SQUASH VINE has turned into a monster in my small vegetable garden and it turns out not to be a pumpkin plant, but more like delicata squash. No matter, as it will soon be a mere remembrance of a generous experiment in curiousity.

Red oakleaf lettuce seeds, like little fairies waiting to take flight. Probably 6-8 generations away from original planting.

Finally seems like fall here with the arrival of some intermittent rain this past week and the dial back of the setting sun, a little earlier each day.

Berkley Tie Dye

With regret, it was time to pull up the tomato and pepper plants on Sunday. Good news: put up seven pints of green tomato-chile salsa on Monday. Ate fried green tomatoes one night and last night a salad of thinly sliced a green tomato, thinly sliced not-quite-ripe pear and some greens made a nice salad. This year I bought tomato and pepper plants due to our trip and found some that I had never heard of: Berkley Tie Dye, funny shaped fruits that ripen to reddish green outside and inside; Porkchop, a large yellow beefsteak with green streaking at the shoulder and Nebraska Wedding, another beefsteak type that was yellow, with a blush of orange. All tasty so I saved seed from each for next year. Now only a few ripe and ripening ones in a bowl on the counter (sigh). It will be six months or more until we taste a decent tomato.