Figs Preserved!

They survived! Figs in November in the desert SW

Yep. We still have figs...in November! This second crop came on weeks ago -- after the last of the really hot days down here -- and have been super slow to ripen. Around mid-October we started to worry that we would lose these favorite gems to the cold nights. Fast forward to November 2 and the fruit feel like they need just a few more days... then M gets home and says he has a feeling that we are in for a hard freeze. Uh oh. Around 7:30 p.m. we head to the garden and use up a few hours of battery life on our head-lamps picking vegetables and covering what we can. Good thing we did...

frozen vegetable section

The bushes that still had figs on them were tented and had their own heat lamp; some of the heirlooms were covered and had minimal damage; everything else was on its own... and suffered (except for the Swiss Chard, which should over-winter just fine). For the next few days we're looking at temperatures in the high 60s so I'll be trimming the surviving plants and ridding the garden of frozen produce. We'll probably continue to tent the figs, sans heat lamp, just to get them a little extra warmth while they finish ripening.

What's that, Intrepid Reader? Yes, I was absent for rather a while. Thanks for coming back to check on how things are going. As a partial explanation, let me just say that having your kitchen in this state

doesn't help when you want to get from here

to here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we managed to freeze as many quarts of tomatoes, okra, black eyed peas, green beans, etc., as we did, but the lack of adequate facilities meant we couldn't can. No pickled peppers, no ratatouille... so it goes. There's always next year, right?

They say kitchen remodels take twice as long, and cost twice as much, as you thought they would. This 3-4 week project looks like it might take 8* weeks; guess 'they' were right. In the end, I hope I'll be able to say that the costs of missing out on a few jars of homemade goodies were more than offset by the joys of working in a vastly improved kitchen. In fact, I'm pretty sure they will be -- just don't ask me about it for another few months.

As for the rest of my unexplained absence, well... as long as there's not another alien-induced vortex in my house, I should be back to my normal erratic blogging schedule. 

*That's right, Intrepid Reader, the way things are going it might be spatchcock turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

In the Garden

...and in over my head, literally...

i'm 5'5" tall, that's the top of my head and those plants are okra

...and figuratively. I'm squeezed between an upcoming vacation and processing today's garden haul before I leave so I only have time for  a few highlights from this week.

6 different kinds of tomatoes and 2 kinds of eggplant

a good shot of the okra flower still eludes; yes, those are aphids

huh? yep, those are dirty clothes: gardening sarongs and a long sleeved
t-shirt that used to be white; more on dressing for the garden next week

Head on over to No Ordinary Homestead's Garden Life  to continue the celebration. I bet they're not airing dirty laundry.

In the Garden

Yes indeed, time is flying by and once again it's Friday, one of the last of the summer. Locals say we should expect the growing season to go well into October and that the cool(er) nights should bring on the tomatoes, finally! We've had enough of the tasty orbs to make Pizza Margherita (a simple 'za with fresh tomatoes and basil and a little cheese) and for eating out of hand but not enough to freeze or can; looks like we're in for a busy fall.

On to the international* celebration that is NOH's Garden Life link-up...

Here's this morning's view of the garden from the roof. The last roof view I posted is from July 22, check out the difference.

view from the roof

I know! After all that worrying about the garden even making it through the heat and bugs I'm slightly embarrassed to say it's now... overgrown. Yep. For most of the plants, the heat and lack of ambient moisture have diverted from reproductive activities to stem and leaf growth all the plant's energies. I have NEVER had tomatoes plants this tall with hardly any fruit on them (those are Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes behind the chard; a little further in on the right are Celebrity tomatoes, subspecies lycopersicon hulkverde**.) The rattlesnake green beans (all the way toward the back, parallel with the back fence) have formed a thick canopy of tangled vines at the top of the trellis that has stretched out and warped the fencing... if those weren't redwood 4x4s I would be worried about the whole structure coming down.

At ground level, it's a jungle in there.

veg convergence: black-eyed peas and shishito peppers (left) meet wild cherries (right)

The first picture gives you an idea of what I have to walk through. The next two pictures are snapped from the west ends of the rows. Embiggen if you would like to see some of the plants mentioned below; otherwise, you get it: it's a 6' high green thicket that leaves pollen and other stains on your clothes.

 between rows 5 & 4

between rows 2 & 1

Picture details: In Row 5 you see black-eyed peas giving way to okra and toward the end, the Goldman's Italian-American paste tomato has colonized the space between the rows. The Goldman has lots of fruit, none of which has ripened, and actually shares Row 4 with Whopper eggplant, basil, and a few green peppers. Row 2 has Serrano peppers, some exuberant Celebrities, Yellow Pear tomatoes, Matt's Cherry tomatoes and ends with that green hulk of a Celebrity; on the right (Row 1) are the chard and squash with another wayward Celebrity in the foreground.

What's that you say? How many different tomatoes did you plant? Glad you asked.

4 Celebrities; 5 Yellow Pear; 3 Matt's Wild Cherry; 4 Goldman's Italian-American; 7 Sioux; 4 Babywine; and 8 Unknown Heirlooms. Most of the seeds came from Terroir Seeds LLC because they had the most interesting varieties and are based in the Southwest (no, I'm not getting paid for this). Ah... you might be asking how on earth I came to have 'unknown heirlooms' in the garden, the answer: my generous MIL shared seeds from a mixed heirloom tomato package from Park Seed. They'll tell you the package contains Aunt Ruby's German Green, Dixie Golden Giant, Black from Tula, Brandywine Red, Big Rainbow, and Cherokee Purple, but they don't label which is which so we both had an unknown selection. One plant I think we can identify based on location (I made a map), and the color and size of the fruit.

could it be a big rainbow that got stuck in the O- range? (in case you forgot: ROYGBIV)

Because some spots in the garden are so overgrown everyday picking turns into a treasure hunt...

yellow pear tomatoes

serrano peppers

beans in tomatoes (see? it's a tiny matt's cherry all the way on the right)

And, of course, no Friday In the Garden is complete without a flower shot.

chive flower

And something to whet your appetite...

grilled elk leftovers sliced thin to go around sauteed shishito peppers

Happy Friday!

Now I'm off to to NOH to see what Tiffany and Carrie are up to in their gardens...

*It's true, Intrepid reader, some people believe this state is another country: "Can you drink the water there?" "Do you use the dollar?" and my current favorite, "Let me transfer you to the international shipping department..." 
** Yes, I made that up.

In the Garden

I'm thinkin' Fall is in the air: it's cooler in the mornings, the days are noticeably shorter, there are different birds at the refuge as various migrations begin, and maybe, just maybe, it's starting to cool off a bit. The local forecast:

93°F | °C

Fri

Sat

Sun

Mon

Sunny

Wind: S at 3 mph

Humidity: 30%

98°

74°

97°

71°

93°

70°

95°

70°

Ahhhhh... rain. Please rain.

This week the garden delivered its first baskets of peppers, specifically Pimientos de Padron and Shishito Peppers. Yes, I noticed that too, Intrepid Reader, they are both capsicum annums. The Padrons are from the Spanish town of Padron and the Shishitos are Japanese. The Shishitos hit farmers' markets in about 2009 (we 'discovered' them last year...yeah, we're a little slow here) and at about the same time the Pimiento de Padron became a favorite in tapas restaurants. They both taste wonderfully green and are a little spicy, with an occasional hotter pepper making an appearance. To further confuse things, the two peppers are cooked similarly: fry whole peppers in a little olive oil until slightly charred and sprinkle with salt. For us they are still a stand-alone treat*, served hot, cold, or room temperature as a side with grilled meats or on an appetizer plate with cheese, crackers, etc., we haven't used them as an ingredient yet. We were buying them several (expensive) pints at at time from the farmers' market last year and knew we would try to grow them in our very next garden.

Reading through the seed catalogs, the descriptions about size and flavor for these two capsicum annum varieties are slightly different (and there is a price difference!) but I wasn't sure if it was product differentiation, traditional use, or true variants of the same plant. You know me, I bought seeds for both and planted them far enough apart in the garden to discourage any cross-pollination. Would there be a taste difference? Would one grow better than the other? Unfortunately the experimental design was flawed as one group wound up watered by a double soaker hose and the other by a single, can you tell the plants apart?

mystery pepper 1 foliage

mystery pepper 2 foliage

The differences in color are an artifact of the light in the garden so don't go on that. MP 1 has more fruit and blossoms so you might have guessed they are on the double soaker hose. Hum... maybe these will help:

mystery pepper 2 fruit

mystery pepper 1 fruit

They do seem to grow through their blossoms differently and have slightly different pod shapes; a botanist might be able to tell use more but alas, I don't have one in-house. In the taste test the very slight differences in flavor could have been the result of the amount of water they received. Although both batches of peppers had a few hot ones, MP2 had more (probably due to increased capsaicin, related to environmental stressors like little water) and a deeper green flavor. For now it looks like we'll get a pint every other day so the taste tests will continue (I love science!). In the end I'm not sure if the peppers actually are different; guess we'll have to try again next year to find out. (MP1 are the Shishitos; the hotter and less prolific Padrons are MP2.)

And just because... this is Lemon Grass, given to us as a golf pencil-sized root by a local farmer.

look past the lemon grass... and the weeds... what's that?! a very happy Chessie

There is a certain kind of synchronicity (or is it just seasonality?) to the Garden Life, Tiffany is harvesting peppers, too.
Happy Friday!

*Be forewarned, they can be slightly addictive so buy lots at  your local market or better yet, plant a few rows next year!

In the Garden

It's Friday so we're having another garden party, hosted by Tiffany at No Ordinary Homestead.

Here's one corner of the garden; the picture was taken this morning.

NE corner of the plot

Let's see... there are beans on the trellises, rattlesnakes to the left, struggling Chinese Yard Long beans in the foreground (they don't like much water... oops). In the rows behind the beans, right to left and parallel to the rattlesnake green beans, are basil and drought tolerant Sioux tomatoes in one row and okra in the next. Just fyi, the poles you see are about 6'6" tall.

Yep, those are Chinese long beans ...which reminds me of small town moment we had recently. We were sitting at the bar for a wine tasting event and started chatting with the older woman next to us. After a while I just had to ask, "Do you have a garden this year?" The answer was no, but she had had them in the past and a lot of her friends gardened and were having a hard year, too; what had we planted? In my mind's eye I started in the patio pots and went on to the main garden, naming things from my mental image..."Japanese eggplant, tomatillos, basil, Chinese long beans, shishito peppers..." She interrupted me, "No wonder you're having a hard time, those aren't American plants! This is Smallish Small City, not some foreign country." I assured her that we also had all-American vegetables like okra and black-eyed peas (tee hee*) and changed the subject. When I run into her again I'll have to let her know that the international garden is doing well and the 'un-American' plants just took a little time to assimilate...I mean acclimatize.

Looking a little more closely at what's in the garden, there are still lots of blossoms...

Chinese long bean blossom

But they are slow to produce.

rattlesnake green beans

tangle of rattlesnake green bean vines

Happily, there's plenty of Swiss chard this year. I've found chard to be one of the most versatile culinary greens there is, it's easy to grow and it over-winters in our region.

prolific, tasty, good-for-you chard

chard thinnings went on top of a stir-fry in early June

Yum! It's even a World's Healthiest Food. The really tender small leaves can be eaten raw (recently M's lunch box held grilled oryx sandwiches with fresh chard and homemade aioli on hard rolls). Now that I think about it we don't use any recipes for chard but it is consumed in lots of ways... chopped and sauteed in eggs, quesadillas, with garlic and lemon juice, with sausage and pasta; baked with mushrooms, cheese and bread crumbs; in soups & stews.... If you're not familiar with this green buy some at your local farmers market or grocery store and use your Google-fu to find a recipe that appeals to you. If you aren't growing it already, I bet you'll make space for it in next year's garden.

*That's right, Intrepid Reader, okra and black-eyed peas have African origins but she didn't know that.

Capturing Summertime

This week's You Capture theme is summertime. 

Go ahead and hum along with Ella, you know you want to..."Summertime...and the living is easy...."

Except around here the garden is gearing up.

 first figs of the year

black-eyed peas (folks around these parts call 'em cowpeas)

shelled black-eyed peas

sandcherries about to meet their jelly maker

thinly sliced zucchini being cooked down a la Fearnley-Whittingstall

tomatillos bound for a Rick Bayless recipe, adapted here

Tired of all those vegetables and fruit? Here, I'll toss you a bone...

mouth-watering ribs, read about them here

Ah, summer. The livin' is busy and the eatin' is good.

You Capture is a photo project designed to motivate you to get out and use your camera(s). There are pros and beginners alike who share their captures; extend your summertime fun with more photos at: I Should Be Folding Laundry.

japanese eggplant harvest

Eggplant?! Really?! Meh.

 

Our first real harvest (albeit modest) is Ichiban eggplant from a patio pot. Sliced and dressed up with a little olive oil, fresh garlic and salt & pepper, they'll join green onions on the grill to accompany buttermilk-soaked pheasant for dinner tonight. A good bottle of wine and baguette should round out things nicely.

 Not a great time to grill, though. It's 104 with SW winds of ~29 mph; the poor chard is wilting in the onslaught. We have yet to harvest anything from the main garden although the first zucchini and yellow squash are only a few days away. Time to go through our ratatouille recipes to see which one we'll try first... or maybe we have some green chile from last year and can get fresh corn for calabacitas... oh, the possibilities.