Daily Harvest

For the last month I've had something to harvest almost daily. Plenty of cilantro, mint, and oregano. Lots and lots of broccoli. And now the carrots and tomatoes have started. Check out what I reaped today: oregano, a carrot, and some tomatoes.

Garden Update: Carrots Ready to Harvest

What Up Doc

I planted a row of carrot seeds April 16 and they have really grown nicely. I harvested two last night at sunset and took pictures of the first one. They came out thick and hardy! Very impressive. I should definitely plant carrots again next year and in future gardens. One row of carrots didn't take up much space and you hardly need any space between each carrot -- they grow straight down. I think they would do well in a container (a deep one). I grew mine in one straight row across the middle of the planter box next to the broccoli on one side, and a row of red onions on the other.

I cooked the carrots last night with potatoes, onions, and my first tomatoes harvested from the garden! I chopped the carrots and potatoes and boiled them first for a few minutes with water, oil, and spices -- curry powder, hot paprika, some fresh basil and cilantro from the garden -- then added a decent amount of brown sugar, onions, garlic, and lots of chopped tomatoes from the garden. I let the water cook off some, but it stayed wet from all the tomatoes and a little oily. Then I made a bold move -- I add a big squirt of ranch dressing! It came out really well. The brown sugar was crucial and the ranch gave it a tangy creaminess. Tremendous. I called it Sweet Ranch Curry.

Yard to Table

I've had the great fortune of harvesting a lot of herbs already, and now several heads of broccoli have reached their flowering point. Although the tiny little yellow broccoli flowers do look nice, you should eat it before they bloom! I harvested my first head last week and made the grilled broccoli that I've posted about on here. Then I harvested a monster head, bigger than mine, and steamed that over the last few days. Yesterday I harvested another big one and gave it to JJ, along with some fresh mint. I still have a stalk or 2 from the monster head, and a couple of the other plants already look ready. Some friends proposed a raspberry / broccoli swap, since they have a ton of raspberries. Awesome.

To prevent my herbs from flowering I need to constantly harvest some of the leaves and stems. If they start flowering it will end the growth cycle. I think that may have already happened with my basil. Oops. So I figure I should keep cutting and drying some of the leaves/stems. I have oregano, mint, cilantro, and oh so much mint. What they hell can you do with mint besides make mojitos? 

mint in the middle

cilantro on the right

First harvested head of broccoli

looking great

and from the other side

about to bloom, harvested just in time

marinated, grilled, and topped with goat cheese

love it

that's a big boy

yeah buddy

great looking tray of green stuff

maybe a good facebook cover photo

aaaand one more from the backside, baby

Cookout with Av and Mick

word to your mother

Avniel decided to drive out to Pittsburgh for a visit this weekend and we ended up assembling an epic cookout feast Saturday night. We got fresh sausage -- 1 pound each of hot Italian and spicy Sicilian -- sweet red peppers, and old style whole grain dijon mustard from Donatelli's in Bloomfield. At the grocery store we picked up all natural chicken thighs, yellow squash, green peppers, and a sweet red onion. I had asparagus, zucchini, and potatoes from the Bloomfield farmer's market, and we used cilantro, oregano, and mint (for mojitos) from the garden.

I skewered and brushed the potatoes with olive oil and Old Bay seasoning: 

Av chopped the onion, green peppers, and squash into large kabob chunks and tossed them with olive oil, coarse sea salt, fresh ground rainbow peppercorn medley, and fresh herbs from the garden. I used my Amazing Sauce on the chicken. 

I sliced the zucchini lengthwise and just brushed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I grilled the asparagus in foil with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and just cooked the sweet red pepper plain and whole on the top rack of the grill. The chicken of course I cooked slowly, turning and re-applying sauce half a dozen times.

I made more mojitos with the mint from the garden.

JoeSoGarden Update -- Poppin' Off

The garden has really exploded over the last month. I need to reign in the tomatoes before they destroy the onions. The broccoli has sprouted nice, large, dense heads. The carrot row looks like a little forest, and the triangle plot got some transplants and a row of yellow and pink flowers. I've made mojitos twice with the mint. The cilantro has turned into coriander and the basil looks fantastic. Take a look!

broccoli head

broccoli plants

carrots

onions, crushed by tomato plants! 

cilantro, grown from seeds, very easy and fast

basil

cilantro from seedling that flowered into coriander (I guess?)

need to figure out how to handle those tomato plants in the middle/right...

the other little plot with some flowering plants

broccoli transplants from the other side ... need a splash of water

this will have yellow and orange flowers in the fall

mint for mojitos

JoeSoGarden Update!

I need to give an update on the garden. A month has passed since I first planted a few seedlings. Things look good overall, but it seems like a slow start. It really just warmed up this week, so I expect things to take off a little bit soon. But I've noticed that the box doesn't get full sun -- close buildings casting shadows, etc -- so we'll see...

The broccoli -- slow going at first -- has started to flourish. 

The row of carrot seeds has sprouted nicely!

My neighbor gave me a big chunk of mint -- need to make sure it doesn't take over the area -- and a chunk of oregano. They both rooted nicely in that little triangle section I have. It has pretty rocky soil, so I don't know.

She gave me some flowering plants and a flowering shrub -- orange and/or yellow or something like that. I planted those in a little pattern in the triangle part as well. So far it looks great -- healthy leaves, new growth, etc.

Back over in the planter box, the coriander/cilantro seeds I planted have sprouted. I only need a few of them to supplement the plant I put in originally. 

from the seeds planted a couple weeks ago

original plant

The row of onions looks fantastic! I keep loosening the soil around them. I think I'm doing it right.

Nicely organized!

I planted a banana pepper seedling and a red pepper seedling, and neither of them has grown at all. I mean seriously nothing -- not a single new leaf. They look fine, but they just look the same as they did the day I planted them. So I had this red pepper that I was about to roast on the grill. I collected the seeds from it and planted them next to the slow-growing seedling -- just in cast. Then I had a banana pepper that I got to make Italian sandwiches, and I did the same thing - -collected and planted the seeds. We'll see how that turns out...

red pepper seeds on the left,
banana pepper on the right

Is this growing at all?

Showing no signs of growth...