Moon over Brussels

Here's a night shot of the Brussels sprouts starting to form.

In a Pickle

Ok, so its not a pickle yet, but here is there first cucumber. The plant is much healthier than last year (They develped a virus or something and barely produced last year.) But now the problem is that the vine is  outgrowing its climbing structure. We may be in for many more like this one.

It's a bird! It's a plane!...

Its a cauliflower! This ones yellow and just barely starting to form down in there. Maybe Casey will nuw believe there is going to be some production here.

My favorite farmers market...

...is my backyard.  From left to clockwise: kohlrabi coming in slowly now just a few at a time, spinach, baby potatoes from one yellowed plant, one garlic bulb from a late mistake transplant that already died back, one small red onion bulb that kept getting broken off, and one green onion that couldn't survive the rabbits.

Basically all blunders and random vegetables.  Fried up in an egg scramble you'd never know it.

Chickpea damage

Our best guess is that the heavy rains this spring caused some damage in the chickpeas.  Their roots can't handle excessive water.  Now that the heat is on I bet it won't be a problem.

(This is my first attempt at the Android blogger app.)

What's up, Doc?

I was thinning some carrots yesterday (the ones the bunny hadn't already nested in) and found one that was actually developing!  Casey told me to take a picture, but I forgot until I took a bite

Kohlrabi and early garlic

Kohlrabi may look like a weird Star Trek vegetable but it was very easy to grow. Kyle sowed it early and that's all the work it took. Not every single plant swelled up like they should, but it was still a decent amount. This first two pickings wasn't all that much, but after peeling them they went very well sauteed with scrambled eggs.

Smelled like cabbage, was supposed to taste like mild broccoli but instead it blended nicely in with the potatoes in my egg scramble. I would say we plant an entire box (16 sf ft) next year rather than just the portion (6 sq ft).

This first batch doesn't really help you see what they look like....I cut the leaves off first.

This second batch shows the leaves. You will notice that the vegetable is just a swollen steam basically.

Two of my garlics have already dried out and fallen over. I was aiming for the 4th of July, but I figure I better take these out. From what I have read you don't want to let the leaves completely dry out because you need to make sure the bulb has enough viable "papers" to properly store. These two are smallish (about the size you normally get at the store). I hope the rest are bigger!

Kale recipe

Colcannon

I guess this is getting back to my roots, sort of. It's an Irish dish (I think we are more Scottish on my dad's side)

Does this really need a recipe? It's basically just mashed potatoes with boiled or steamed kale. The "recipe" I referenced was heavy on the butter. I went easier on the butter and added some bacon drippings. Skin on the potatoes for more vitamins. Heavy on the pepper.

Volunteer squash sprouts in the compost.

More leafy greens

Kale for me (and some calcannon, perhaps.)

And mounds of romaine lettuce. Kyle's colleagues are expecting it. I think Kyle should take over for Oprah: "You get romaine! And you get romaine! Everybody gets romaine!"

Old friends and a new one

See that zucchini forming at the base of that flower on the right?

And this cute crook neck squash?

Kohlrabi. This is new this year and new to me. We better start picking these before they get too big and woody.