What are You Eating from the Garden?

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman when have you been planting peas to have them come in this late? for fresh eating peas here i plant them early to mid-April and they're mostly done a month ago. the seeds can take a bit longer to dry down, but as i've found out i now have to protect them more dilligently from the chippies.

Short answer: I don't. My gardens are poorly drained & dry out slowly in Spring... it is a rare occurrence for them to be dry enough to plant before mid-May. By then, it's time to put in summer crops. I usually grow at least 4 peas each year (one snow pea, one snap pea, one shelling pea, and one soup pea) but they go in late, and seldom in quantities large enough to can. Edamame soybeans are far more reliable for my soil/climate, so they fill the role of shelling peas in our diet. That's a pretty easy substitution to make.

 

[digitS']

Having taken out the early peas and put in bush beans and snow peas - we had the first handful of green beans and a second handful of pea tendrils.

Altho the flavor of the vines are the same flavor as peas and care is taken that only the tender tips are brought in to the kitchen, they aren't quite as favored as peas themselves. It may have to do with experience in life. "Peas" were always shell peas when I was younger. Finally, I realized that I was sometimes eating snow peas when at a Chinese restaurant. Snap peas didn't exist . The tendrils are best as a salad ingredient but the lettuce season is history. Sauteed, they require just a minimum amount of cooking.

Summer heat certainly suppresses the peas. It's not entirely certain that they will have pods. (While next to them, the bush beans do.) They will need a little support to climb but won't grow half as tall as spring-planted peas. And, it's entirely possible that they won't have time to develop pods - even though they can survive early frosts, flowers cannot and development slows. It would be rather cruel if we move right into cold weather since the summer was rather searingly hot!

Steve

 

[digitS']

Honey Blonde is the new Honeydew! And, to add to my confusion - it is cantaloupe color inside! NOW, let's taste it for the first time ... oh Heavens! Is that ? what?? flavor ??? Well, danged if I know! It doesn't taste like a cantaloupe ... honeydew? Anyway, Osborne Seed sells Visa and Johnny's sells Honey Blonde

I'm beginning to like these Honey Blondes. I'm certainly having enough time and melons to try .

Still, not one glimmer of a honeydue impression while eating them. They are a bit crisp but soften some with ripening. I'm somewhat unsure about best picking time, just going by rind color. The mild flavor develops a little more and I like that.

The Galia melons have always reminded me of honeydew. I've grown them since about 2005 and I think that this was the first year that I have seen them in the soopermarket. They are always a bit soft when ripe and probably don't make the best for shipping. These orange Honey Blondes might ship well. I don't know how they might label them for sale.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

picked five more melons this morning, Mom said she wanted to give some away so i brought those in and she asked me if we had more. lol not ready yet, but getting there, but what about for us to eat? she's like that, wants to give everything away without really thinking about what we will have for us. i'm the one who has to be the bad guy and ask what about us? i ate about half a small melon as i was cutting them up. the smallest one was the most ripe and i was worried it was too far ripe, but it tasted just fine. we have about 20-30 more melons out there. i was supposed to plant a few fewer vines than we had last season, but i decided to poke some seeds in another spot and so...

we've picked and eaten or given away about 15 melons so far. i can't complain about these at all @ninnymary. they're doing great here 2nd season.

 

[digitS']

No special need to make casseroles with all the ingredients of the stuffed bell peppers in 2021. Usually, they are ready, at best, 2 or 3 at a time so we make a casserole in a loaf pan and use Italian sweet pepper chopped up as an ingredient. I like those casseroles but these stuffed bells are kinda homely, fun things like this .

Stuffed with green beans, broccoli etc. and since we already baked 5 earlier in the week, I think we will try freezing a few of these.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Peach pie from the front yard tree . Baking started after the days cooled.


The onions, celeriac and carrots are from this year's garden. I'm surprised each year, how well carrots grow in the rocky soil of the big veggie garden. For many years, I had the Sugarsnax carrots in the pea-gravel, little garden. It's tough to dig them out of the rocks but somehow they find a way to grow big and straight down ... nearly .

The beans are from the store. We are almost at a time when it's safe to use up last year's Rattlesnake beans. Harvesting pods off the vines could start at any time.

Steve
off to have a piece of pie!

 

[heirloomgal]

First pumpkin pie of the season!

And next up...

 

[flowerbug]

will be cutting up more melons in a bit.

 

[digitS']

Melon Report:

Petit Gris de Rennes has just entered the harvest. And, we found the Visa plant sticker .

What guided us to the Visa location was the ripening of melons with a little different rind and color than the Diplomat galia melons. A bit late with these ... mid-September? The Visa were showing up last week. These new-to-me melons aren't a great deal different from the other galia that I have grown. The fact that they weren't around in August during the hottest year in my gardening experience tells me that Passport and Diplomat certainly have the expedited travel arrangement through security ...

Yeah. This isn't ideal melon country. Too much variation in temperatures, mornings to afternoons, week to week. Adventures with new varieties can take place in the cantaloupe varieties ~ don't let Goddess know! ~ because, I don't want a repeat of June 2018, when they all died 😬. So much for immortality .

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

Lots of peppers left, and tomato stragglers out there on the plants, so made some roasted spaghetti sauce, which took several hours. But it amazes me how over a dozen or more peppers, and tons of beefsteak tomatoes (along with all the other veggies that typically go in tomato sauce) can cook down to just half a pot!