What are You Eating from the Garden?

Japanese Plum 'Fortune'

Rhodie Ranch said:

zucchini. and more zucchini.

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One of the very mysterious things in our garden is, we never have enough zucchini! I want to make some lovely zucchini Frittata~~~

Phaedra said:

Japanese Plum 'Fortune'
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Wow, those are the prettiest plums I've ever seen!

Been eating tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, apples, blackberries, and of course herbs.

Mary

Stuffed peppers. My "Whopper" was a smaller one of the variety but the "Giant Marconi" is about standard size. I'm willing to chop the Marconi and make a casserole with the ingredients but DW prefers stuffed . BTW, the peppers have done as well as they were expected to, living in the greenhouse again this year .

Quite a few things from the garden went into the stuffing along with the rice. Jalapeño peppers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, onions, basil, and cheese were used.

The tomatoes are doing well and the slicers are reaching good size. We had a 22 ounce last week and I think that there may have been a couple larger than that, just pulled off the vines this afternoon. I am frustrated with using the standard tomato cages. They are okay with the potted cherries but for the standards in the garden, it becomes dang difficult to put my hand in and pull out some of the larger tomatoes. I made a cage with 1" by 2" boards for 2 plants that would be difficult to walk around if the plants got outta control. Drilled holes and used screws. That works fine for those 2 and I should have done that for the others. Sprawl cannot be tolerable in these smaller gardens.

The fall-bearing raspberries have started, and they taste really good with yogurt.

We have been eating chives, thyme, cherry tomatoes, and rosemary. Our nasturtiums are blooming now also!

Part of breakfast was scrambled eggs with butter and chives. Yum!

The plums, nashi pears, and peaches are so tasty! The fruit trees are still young and I am reluctant to thin fruits - so they are not that big. However, they made my 'foraging in the garden' much more wonderful.

I will absolutely take even better care of those lovely trees.

A new planting of Bok Choi (Brassica rapa) is just now ready for the table.

Another choice that didn't require those repeat plantings is Gai Lan. We haven't had a great deal of it but it did fill in a little gap in the Bok Choi production. They are only somewhat similar; Gai Lan is more like Broccoli. Not having as much room, we decided to grow one and not the other. Here is a picture of the plants after the most recent harvest of the budding stalks.

There is a Kale plant down the path on the right. Difficult to see but I wanted to show the difference in size. The Kale has also been harvested regularly through the season and since it was the leaves of Kale harvested rather than flower stalks, it likely has had a little more of difficult a time as a "cut and come again." Early, heat tolerant varieties of Broccoli would be similar in size to the Gai Lan but not have provided as lengthy of a harvest schedule. Another choice might have been Broccolini or Sprouting Broccoli.


Reading this article on Sprouting Broccoli is what prompted this post. The author makes use of the phrase, "Kale Fatigue." Okay, I can understand that . Kale has never been my favorite green despite our having exactly a dozen of the plants in 2025. Broccolini might be a favorite if I were to ever try it ... should have done those trails while I still had the distant gardens. Never.the.Less, I don't feel that I'm missing out much with several Asian greens even in my smaller gardens . BTW, Broccolini is a hybrid of Broccoli and Gai Lan. And, Kale, Broccoli, and Gai Lan are all Brassica oleracea. That doesn't make them absolutely similar –– after all and along with Cabbage, some are biennials, others annuals. There's quite a world to the Brassica species. Here's that article.

Steve

Have you tried broccolini? It’s my fav geenie.
Broccolini is a green vegetable that is a naturally developed hybrid of broccoli and Chinese broccoli (gai lan)
Also known as "baby broccoli," it has long, thin stalks and smaller florets than standard broccoli.
Flavor and uses.
Taste: Broccolini has a milder, sweeter, and more delicate flavor than standard broccoli. Some describe its flavor as having asparagus-like undertones.
Texture: The stems are tender and the entire vegetable, including the leaves, is edible.
Culinary versatility: It can be used in a variety of dishes, and is often roasted or sautéed, grilled.