Garlic, Potatoes & Dinner!

I decided it was time to harvest the garlic this weekend. When I have tried to grow garlic in the past, I've waited until the tops were brown, as in all of the tops. After some reading on the GardenWeb forums, I learned I should pull it while some of the tops were still green (5 green leaves seemed to be the conclusion). Pulling while some are green means fewer heads break off and need to be searched for. I pulled 28 plants with an untrimmed weight of 2.75#.

(do you like my modern scale? It's pretty accurate actually. I believe this scale sat on the porch at my great-aunt's house. I think she used it to weigh her garden veggies).

The largest heads seemed to be the plants that did not form a scape. The ones I removed the scapes from appear to be slightly larger than those I left intact. I also had a handful that were very small heads or just bulbs. Of course, I don't have enough plants to actually draw hard & fast conclusions about scapes & bulb sizes, but it would appear that they do reduce the head size somewhat. I don't think it's a major reduction in the bulbs I left intact, but if you're going for big, it might matter.

As I was sorting my little batch of garlic on the back deck, I was well supervised. She's trying to look innocent, but don't think she wouldn't have snatched some if I left her alone with it. I watched her carefully since I think garlic really isn't good for dogs. I don't worry about a little garlic in foods or some garlic powder in their treats but I'm guessing a head or three might have unpleasant consequences.

I'm quite sure though that she was hoping I'd walk away, just for a few minutes...

I poked around in some of the potatoes today. When I removed the straw from the sad looking patch in my previous post, I did find a couple of potatoes. They were way down at ground level, but at least there was something there. I put the straw back and I hope they'll continue to grow a bit more. I also had one of the smaller pots that had died back last week. I had planted two red potatoes that sprouted in my pantry into a nursery pot about 14" diameter (I'm guessing). I had run out of larger pots, so I plunked them in there & hoped something would grow.

Something grew...

It's not much at all (a whole 4 oz), but better than a rotten mass of goo!

I was having one of those days today where it was seeming nearly impossible to get motivated, or when I did, somebody would call me, I'd chat for a bit, and all motivation was gone again. I took a late afternoon trip to the garden and returned with my little potatoes and one of the zucchini I mentioned the other day. This little zuch looked like it was growing but it must not have actually been pollinated. The end was starting to yellow, so I decided to eat it. So, I have my potatoes & zucchini and suddenly I realized, I too, could have a garden dinner! (Well, make that a garden dinner that isn't just a salad). I was actually quite inspired by everyone's garden dinners, so I'd like to thank you for motivating me to eat a decent meal tonight. Chances are good I would have just gone for something quick that fit my lazy mood for the day. This was much better.

I don't know if I mentioned it before or not, but my DH is usually the one who cooks. My cook is in Korea. I'm doing well when I eat something other than spaghetti and Parmesan cheese when left to my own devices. I am generally doing better with it this time (though I did have spaghetti for lunch...) and I do think the garden has had a lot to do with my eating better.

I did have a salad with my dinner rather than for my dinner. Tonight's salad had from the garden:
Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Baby Romaine & something red from the Mesclun mix
Borage leaves (first time I've eaten these. They seemed pretty fuzzy but I cut them into thin slices and they were a nice flavor addition)
Sugar Snap Peas and a
Radish
(the carrot was from the store)

I just realized I forgot to add a little broccoli. Oops.

My garden dinner was a sauteed mix of (from the garden):
Garlic
Scallions
Red potatoes
unpollinated Zucchini
Sugar Snap Peas
English Thyme

I also added (not from the garden)
Olive oil, salt & pepper & some leftover grilled chicken.

(yep, I grew up in a dairy state, I drink my milk with dinner)

I had enough dough in the fridge for one last loaf of bread (it's an Artisan Bread in 5 min a day recipe) so when I decided to make a real dinner, I pulled it out and let it rest for about 40 minutes. While it was baking (I don't really cook but I do bake) I put a head of garlic in to roast. I have never had (or made) roasted garlic before. I think I should have cut the top a little lower, but is there some neat trick to get the garlic OUT that I missed somewhere? It was a pretty messy process. The garlic had a surprisingly mild flavor. I'm assuming that's due to the roasting (and why so many people like it).

I followed up with a bit of vanilla frozen yogurt with strawberry sauce (not from the garden this year, maybe next?).

Yes, it's a little heavy on the strawberries, but I didn't have enough for 2 servings (it was leftover from last week), so what choice did I have?

So there it is, my first official garden dinner. It was pretty tasty and really helped me get motivated today not to mention much healthier than what I might have eaten otherwise!

Touristing Colorado

I thought I'd share a few photos from my travels while my mother was visiting. Since she'd only been to Colorado for a conference in Denver, we had plenty to see that wasn't too far from home. I think we could have spent another week and still would have had plenty to do without travelling very far!

Our longest travel day was a trip to Summit County. We drove over Loveland Pass, past Arapahoe Basin, to Keystone. We rode the gondola to the top to check out the view. Lots of bikers and hikers use the gondola (for your $12 pass, you can go up or down as many times as you want for the day).

I thought this was kind of interesting - it seems to be an enclosed moving walkway to transport kids up the bunny hill. (We've mostly skied smaller areas, so I'd never seen this before.)
What a good way to keep the little ones warm & happy while learning!

We passed through Frisco (with a quick stop at the fruit stand for some early peaches, plums, a cuke & zucchini - all very good. The plums could have been a little sweeter, but the organic peaches were wonderfully sweet & ready to eat). We had a nice scenic drive back through the South Park area, Hartsel and Woodland Park.

We visited the Cliff Dwellings Museum in Manitou Springs (just west of Colorado Springs). It's nowhere near the size of Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado but it was close to home and had a pretty interesting (and well detailed) museum.

Ready for a rare sight?
That's me at the Cliff Dwellings. I'm usually the one behind the camera, so there aren't so many pictures of me floating around out there. (When DH returns home, that may change since he has a camera of his own now.)

The museum had a pretty large collection of very old pottery that was in wonderful condition. I was actually pretty impressed with the museum. The displays were well explained and pretty detailed. It's not a huge museum, but we spent a lot more time in there than I would have anticipated.

We rode the Pike's Peak Cog Railway to the top of the mountain (elevation 14,110' ). It was in the 40's up at the top, chilly for July, but much warmer than the 18* when we went with another visitor in May)

After we got back home, I was on Facebook, and learned that a gal I knew from high school was visiting Colorado and had been to Pike's Peak. When I commented that I had been there too, she said she actually saw me! Our train was going up as her train was coming down. I think this is the craziest thing, considering I have not seen her for probably 19 years!! I might have thought it too coincidental, but she knew what time I was on the train!! Weird huh?


Of course, we made the trip to Garden of the Gods...

and we went to the Xeriscape Gardens. I really hoped to have more time (and photos) here, but there was quite a storm brewing that afternoon, and I had neglected to fully charge my camera battery. It was flashing red at me the entire time we were at the gardens.

I really really wanted to try lightning photos again. The view was great - gardens in the foreground, Garden of the Gods in the middle and lightning over Pike's Peak! The failing battery, lack of a tripod and danger of being struck by lightning put a real damper on that idea. Someday, I'll go back over there with a good battery, a tripod and clean car windows and try for that shot. Did you know the car only protects you from lightning if the windows are rolled up?? Lightning is a real danger here. There were actually 2 people injured by lightning from this storm coming over the mountain. They were leaning against one end of the car when the other end was hit. They were able to call for help and were taken to the hospital . (http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1974618608/Hikers-near-car-struck-by-lightning)

Thanks for taking my little off-topic trip with me! I hope you enjoyed the detour!

Ignore It and It will Grow?

Mom's gone back home from her visit, so "touristing" is over and there's gardening to be done! During her visit, we were gone most days, so the garden didn't get much attention. I usually had time to give it a once-over most days. I picked a few peas & cut some lettuce (and one actual head of broccoli - a small one, but still a head), and tried to keep the spaghetti squash contained.

Here's the photo overview...

Not much apparent change in the potato bin - hopefully that means something is happening underneath the straw.

I have two little zucchini that should be big enough to pick soon!

The flying saucer squash grew quite a lot this week. Only problem is, it seems to be a bush plant not a vine plant (like I THOUGHT it was). I guess it's good that I put it at the end of the bed. Since the watermelon don't look too promising, the Green Dragon cucumber will have plenty of space on the new trellis I built a couple weeks ago for these three!

When I saw the bush form, I thought I just wasn't paying attention to the seed packet (I did the same thing last year with the zucchini) but I looked at the package today and it actually doesn't say if it's bush or vine. If I had looked really closely at the picture on the package, I might have noticed it looked a bit like a bush plant, but it wasn't so obvious. This makes me feel a little better knowing it's not just that I didn't READ the package but that doesn't change anything. I hope there's going to be enough space for all the plants I have there. I wouldn't have planted so close if I had realized they wouldn't grow UP!

The spaghetti squash and corn both put on lots of growth while I wasn't looking. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but the squash has actually about reached the top of the ladder! The corn has fully recovered from it's hail damage it seems.

The green beans are looking much, much better. There's still some yellow in there, but there's lots more green now. I'm thinking they looked so bad because they were too wet. We had .7" of rain on Sunday, but it's been mostly dry since and we've had some hot, sunny weather. I did sprinkle some coffee grounds around the worst of the plants but I can't see that it made much difference since that spot isn't greener than the rest. I'm really leaning toward too much water having caused the problems.

Look under this very pale leaf and you'll even seem some blooms!!

I am a bit concerned about my potatoes though. I have a few batches that aren't looking so good right now. These are Red Pontiac which are a late variety. I tried to peek around the stems but I'm not seeing signs of tubers. The straw seems to stay really really wet, so I hope they don't just rot away. I will be so sad if none of my potatoes grow! Not all of them are looking bad though, so there's still hope. I'll just let these be and see what they end up doing.

To end on a positive note, look what appeared this week! These are Thessaloniki tomatoes. I do have baby toms on some of the other plants as well, but these are the largest ones I've found so far. You can see some of the hail damage from the earlier storms but other than making my plants less pretty, it doesn't seem to have caused any real harm.

That's all for now, but I'll be back soon!

HAIL NO!!!

So far in July, we've had nearly 4 inches of rain!! Of course, with this rain has come the threat of more severe weather and the gardeners' nightmare, HAIL! I guess I can feel fortunate that we've only had pea & marble sized hail. The storm that left this loveliness was apparently throwing golf balls around in other areas.

After a few storms, the hail damage is starting to show up in the garden as well. The zucchini doesn't look so bad, just a few holes in the leaves. The one on the right has a couple female blossoms coming, maybe I'll have zucchini soon!

The corn looks a little shredded after yesterday's storm.

This poor little borage didn't enjoy the pommeling so much.

After the first hail, I decided to build some protection for the tomatoes, just in case the golf balls come hurtling through the sky, they might stand a chance. I have two layers of chicken wire (offset so the holes are smaller) attached to a couple pieces of wood at each end. I laid it over the top of the trellis and tied it to the top supports. When the growing season is over, I can untie the wire and use it over the bed to hold down the fall mulch. Of course, this doesn't offer full protection as the sides are still open, but I'm hoping it helps (well, really, I'm hoping it's unnecessary). I also added ropes for the tomatoes to grow up. I still need to add the lines for the beans. The beans aren't growing so fast yet, so I still have a little time on that one.

The spaghetti squash & pumpkins are creeping up the ladder more and more each day. The Small Wonder squash is looking like it will be quite prolific. I may have spaghetti squash coming out my ears come fall!! Of course, the squash will probably all have little hail scars on them... The nasturtiums look the worst of everything in this bed. Those big round leaves took a severe beating.

This is the new addition this week. I finally got the trellis for the cukes & watermelon added. I had a few 2x2's left still so I used 'em along with the spindles that came from the stairs we cut down to fit the garden area (so I wouldn't have to jump off the retaining wall anymore). I had a set of hinges in the basement from an old project that was taken apart and a pair of brackets to keep the thing square (that I have no idea where they came from).

Too bad it doesn't sit at quite the same angle as the ladder. Oh well...

I covered all the bush beans after the first (or second?) storm. I figured they seemed to be having a tough enough time this year with out being beaten to death by flying ice.

They're still yellow, but they're looking a little better than they were. They are putting on growth now and they look like blooms may be on the way soon. I was going to try some fish emulsion, but the only time I remembered to look for some while I've been at the store, they didn't have any. We don't have any nurseries out here and I haven't been nearby any recently. I did apply some coffee grounds around the worst of them, just to see if that would do anything. I still wonder if it's because they're pretty wet. This week is supposed to be hot and I think dry, so maybe they'll perk up a little more. I've never had beans look this bad and the germination rates have been pretty dismal as well. I'm hoping the heat helps these guys get back to normal.

To top it all off, look what I found hatching (or emerging, or whatever these guys do)...

I wasn't sure at first what was wrong with it, it was laying so strangely on the mulch, then I realized it's legs weren't free yet. I wasn't so thrilled to find this guy for sure.

Well, there's my update for this week, a little early. I'm off my usual routine anyway as I didn't do my end-of-week pictures last week and Mom flies in tomorrow so I'm may not have a chance to update for about a week (we be out doing tourist-y things not garden-y things I think!). I'll be back before long though!

RAIN!!!

We had a wet spring and summer is starting out that way as well. From yesterday's rain, I had 1.6" of rain in the rain gauge which for a dry place like Colorado, is a lot of rain (my neighbor's tops out at 1.5" and was above that, so who knows which is right). We also had .6" on July 2 and June 27 with .3 in between. When Mom comes to visit later this week, she will get to see an unusually green Colorado! I haven't lived here long enough to know what is actually "usual" but I'm told by my friend who grew up here and moved back here 4 years ago, that this is not "usual" .

Our house has a deep sump pit, but doesn't have a permanent pump set up. The pump is in the pit but plugged in with an extension cord (to our one outlet in the unfinished basement) and attached to a garden hose that we run out the window. A few weeks ago, I bought two barrels, figuring I'd try to fill them from the sump (rather than a rain barrel). I won't get as much water but I'll have a lot more control. Plus, I've been working on a drainage "system" to utilize the water from the downspouts for some of the trees and flower garden spots. I wasn't sure if I'd manage to fill the barrels over the summer based on last year's rainfall, or lack thereof. They're both full now and I'm kicking myself a bit for only buying two!! (though I may soon wish I had gotten the spigots installed on them before I filled them). I still have almost 2' of water in the sump pit and as I was running the hose to the front lawn (figured I'd make sure the grass got a DEEP watering) it started to rain again. I worked outside for a few minutes until I was chased into the house by one wicked thunder clap. Then the rain REALLY started again.

I took that photo 45 minutes ago. The rain has nearly stopped (for now at least) and the rain gauge has .7" of rain in it now. I won't be watering the garden any time soon! I planted a small test patch of grass in the backyard Friday. I hope the seed hasn't all washed away.

While I'm on the subject of weather, here are a few more weather-related photos I've taken in the past week.

The Determined Daikon

I've never been the biggest fan of radishes. I like to grow them but usually my husband is the one who eats them. I don't mind them when they're mild but I'm not so fond of them when they start to get hot. I have learned that I do like them sliced thin and added to my salad (since I'm still growing them but my radish eater isn't here right now). Turns out, I can also eat broccoli in small pieces in my salad (I've never been so big on broccoli either).

Last year, my husband took me to dinner at a Korean restaurant in Colorado Springs. One of the side dishes they brought me was radish. Since most of the sides were something spicy (or otherwise something I wasn't likely to eat), and I don't do spicy, the radish was the safest choice for me. It turned out to be really good. It was a nice, mild radish. I'm pretty sure it was a Daikon.

This was the about the extent of my daikon knowledge when I saw a package of seeds at the nursery early in the spring. I figured I'd try them & see how it went. The seeds I bought are Miyashige White which are grown in the fall for a winter radish (though there are other varieties that can be grown in spring & summer). I planted just a few seeds to see what happened if they were planted in spring. I presprouted the seeds inside then transplanted them to the garden. I had two that survived (see the top of the photo).

I picked one and ate it when it was about 4" long or so (which may have been too early- I think they should be more like 12" long). The other quickly bolted. I decided to leave it there to see what it would do. I also hope to harvest seeds for sprouting. I can only handle a few radish sprouts at a time (on their own, they've got a little bite to 'em) but hubby loves them. The one I ate did have some pep to it like the regular ones so it too was sliced thin & added to the salad.

Whenever I have seen flowering radishes, usually the root is very small. My blooming daikon actually has a very large root. I suppose it has to because it turned into a very large plant! Of course, the work Daikon means Large Root in Japanese, so I guess that makes sense.

Yep, that's ONE daikon radish!

I read on GardenWeb not too long ago that radish seed pods are edible. I had never seen the seed pods before (guess I had always pulled the plant by then) so for those of you who are like me, here's what a radish seed pod looks like.

I did eat a couple (raw from the garden) and they tasted pretty good (like a radish, imagine that) but they were a little hot for my taste. That may be the variety, and that it's out of it's season, so I may try one again in the fall.

Here's that mega-radish from another view. Those flowers reach out over about a 4'x4' area (this is a 4'x10' bed).

Shortly after I took these photos, while I was gone to town, we must have had some pretty wicked winds. When I came home, this is what I found...

Check out the poor sugar snap peas at the other end. They were smushed up but they're doing fine. The daikon was pretty beat up. A few of it's branches broke off and it was pretty well laid over. To allow the other plants growing nearby to see the light of day, I scooped it up and tied it together. I used the hoops in another bed so now it is held up with a scrap piece of irrigation tubing.

I found some information on preparing daikon on What's Cooking America http://whatscookingamerica.net/DaikonRadish.htm

"Preparation - This is an extremely versatile vegetable that can be eaten raw in salads or cut into strips or chips for relish trays. It also can be stir-fried, grilled, baked, boiled or broiled. Use the daikon as you would a radish. It may be served raw in salads or grated for use as a condiment (if you don't have a Japanese-style grater, use a cheese grater and grate just before serving), pickled, or simmered in a soup. They are also preserved by salting as in making sauerkraut. Daikon also is used in soups and simmered dishes. To prepare, peel skin as you would a carrot and cut for whatever style your recipe idea calls for. Not only is the root eaten, but the leaves also are rich in vitamin C, beta carotene, calcium, and iron, so they are worth using instead of discarding.
A Japanese secret to cooking daikon is to use water in which rice has been washed or a bit of rice bran added (this keeps the daikon white and eliminates bitterness and sharpness}.
For Chips, Relish Tray Sticks or Stir Fries - Simply peel Daikon with a peeler and cut crossways for thin chips. Dip thin chips in ice water and they will crisp and curl for a Daikon chip platter with your favorite sour cream or yogurt dip. Cut into julienne strips for relish trays, salads or stir-frys.

Nutrition Information - Daikon is very low in calories. A 3 ounce serving contains only 18 calories and provides 34 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. Rich in vitamin C, daikon contains active enzymes that aid digestion, particularly of starchy foods. Select those that feel heavy and have lustrous skin and fresh leaves."

Well, that's what I can tell you (so far at least) about the Daikon Radish. I'm sure there are others out there like me who don't know what ALL the different veggies are and what you do with them, so I hope this is informative for someone out there!