Planting Our Garden in April

We had bought some herbs and planted them in pots at the end of March (see Herbs in Pots). We had prepped our garden’s soil in March, too (integrated some compost, turned it a bunch to loosen it up), but it took us until the second weekend in April to get our act together and actually plant our garden. It was a little bit later than we’d hoped, but we used all plants rather than seeds so we should be ok.

The garden consists of lots of peppers, tomatillo, and musk melon.

Miniature red bell pepper

Italian roaster pepper

Guajillo chile pepper

Jalapeno pepper (we planted two of these)

Fresno chile pepper (we planted two of these)

Caribbean red hot pepper

Musk melon

Yellow tomatillo

I also planted a couple more things in pots earlier this month – chives, and a tomato plant I got at work (my boss was giving away his extras, planted from seed).

Tomato – pretty sure it’s a brandywine

Community Garden March-April

There was a lot of work on the community garden in the past month, planting stuff for a spring/summer harvest. Most stuff was planted the last two weeks in March or first week in April. Including:

Beans planted from seed next to the onions (look carefully to the left under the trellis).

Variety of mild peppers

Two cucumber plants – one is a “lemon” cucumber that produces round, yellow fruit

Hot peppers (back) and tomatoes (front)

You can see we used a lot of hay as mulch this year, which should protect the soil (keeps it cool and moist).

There are also several squash plants, but I didn’t take a photo.

We had a weird end of March where there was a cold front for a day or two and we had a little frost, so some of the seeds never produced and we think that was why.

The peppers were all plants, but the beans and squash were from seed.

One of the pepper plants up close

Vegan North African Stew

This North African-inspired stew was made with white and orange carrots from the community garden, as well as cilantro and Italian parsley from our herb garden. It made about 3 servings.

2 tbs olive oil
1/3 red onion, chopped
2 tsp crushed, roasted garlic
1 red skinned potato, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black-eyed peas
4 small carrots, chopped
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 box couscous, cooked
Handful of Italian parsley & cilantro sprigs, chopped
2 tbs lemon juice

I sauteed the onion in the olive oil for a few minutes, then added the garlic & all the spices and the can of diced tomatoes (with the juice). Then added the carrots, covered and simmered for about 5 minutes. Added about 1/3 cup of water. Then added the potato and simmered another half hour until the potatoes were soft. Added the black-eyed peas last with the lemon juice for just a few minutes more.

In the meantime, I had cooked up some boxed couscous to serve it over, which was already infused with North African flavors so it went really nicely together.

Herbs in Pots

This year, we decided to keep all herbs in pots so we have more control over their access to sun, and so they can keep surviving over the seasons (if all goes well).

The spicy oregano and lemon balm made it from last year, so we just re-potted them.

Lemon balm

Spicy oregano

We went to Magic Garden Nursery and picked up the rest. We got Thai basil, which did really well last year; spearmint (as opposed to peppermint which we tried last year – spearmint has bigger leaves); and cilantro and Italian parsley, which I tend to use regularly in cooking so thought they were good bets.

Thai basil

Spearmint

 

Cilantro

Italian parsley

I still want to get chives and possibly regular basil, rosemary, and/or thyme. I can’t decide…

The Last of the Carrots

All what remained of the carrots in the community garden had to be pulled up last week to make way for the summer garden. There was some pretty decent sized ones – I think the sun in the last few weeks made a big difference.

Here is a sampling of the batch we got to take home.

These are so good. I really like the purple ones, and the white ones cook up nicely, but would have to say the traditional orange ones are still the tastiest just as they are out of the ground.

Baked Broccoli Chips

You may have tried kale chips, which are delicious. Turns out you can also make broccoli chips using the leaves from your broccoli plants!

We just broke off the leaves, mixed in a bowl with some olive oil and salt, then baked in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes. They turn out crispy and kind of melt in your mouth. The after taste was a little bitter at first, and you do have to avoid some of the wider stems, but overall they were pretty good and I’d definitely do this again.

I just wish we’d known about this earlier in the season – we did this for our last batch of broccoli, but could have been doing it all along rather than composting the leaves.

Reflections on Our First Winter Garden

The days are getting longer, and winter garden season is officially over. We are in the process of getting rid of what’s left of our winter garden plants, and preparing the soil to plant things for the spring/summer.

Our own winter garden was very small and basic, with only broccoli. We just didn’t have anywhere else to plant (because of the movement of the sun, our summer garden plot is covered in shade in the winter).

That said, we did get a good harvest of broccoli. It took longer than expected and everything was mostly ready to eat at the end of February/early March. Taking the shade cover off our patio made a big difference. Sun is real important.

Broccoli plants in our patio planter

The community garden broccoli (which is actually just in our neighbor’s backyard) did really well. We planted a lot of it (about 30 plants), and ate a lot of it. My only hope for next time is to space out the planting a bit, so we don’t have nothing for months, then end up overrun with broccoli in the course of a couple of weeks.

Broccoli plant in the community garden

The kale and Swiss chard also did well. The kale did seem to get nibbled on my something, so many of the leaves had holes in them, but nothing was destroyed. We’ve removed all the broccoli plants now, but the kale and Swiss chard are sticking around for a few more weeks, we hope. Which is great, because I’ve found they can be added to pretty much any dish.

Our two kale plants in community garden

Kale and Swiss chard plants in the community garden

The radishes did quite well and became pretty big. Those have been pulled up now. The beets, on the other hand, still haven’t grown that big. They remain in the ground, next to where we pulled up the radishes and broccolis, in hopes now they have some space and more sun that they’ll get ripe. We’ll see…

Beet plants in the community garden – still not that big

The cabbage plants took a while to get form their heads and were just recently ready to begin harvesting. We encouraged them by tying the inside leaves together to help form a head. The first cabbage I harvested is what I used for the Irish Stew, although before that I had been picking a leaf here or there.

Cabbage plants in the community garden

The purple cauliflower did pretty well and tasted good, although it always seemed a little “stemmy” – like the heads never formed as thick & solid as you would see in a cauliflower at your grocery. That could just be the variety, though.

Purple cauliflower harvested from the community garden

The carrots were delicious, but they never grew as large as we’d hoped. We’re pretty sure it’s because they just didn’t get enough sun. As the sun has been shifting over the past several weeks, we’ve already noticed them to start to get taller. Next year, we’ll need to find another spot for the carrots.

Two carrots from the community garden

The onion and garlic seems to be doing well. These take almost a year until they are ready to harvest, so we just have to be patient.

Onion and garlic plants in the community garden

The winter garden did seem to require less maintenance – less watering, obviously, but also no need to worry about shade cloths, and the bugs/worms didn’t seem to be much of an issue. The season does seem shorter though. It feels like we just planted stuff and it’s already over. But we are looking forward to picking out our plants for the upcoming summer season!

Vegan Irish Stew

I made a stew last weekend in celebration of St. Patrick’s day. The cabbage, Swiss chard, kale and carrots were all fresh from the garden. The main ingredients were:

Red-skin potatoes
Barley
Carrots
Cabbage
Swiss chard
Kale
Parsley
Thyme

In olive oil and little bit of chili oil, I sauteed the garlic, onion, potatoes and carrots. Then added several cups of vegetable broth, about 1/3 of a bottle of Smithwick’s Irish Ale, barley, parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf. Covered and cooked about 20 minutes, then added the cabbage, Swiss chard, and Kale, and cooked about 10 minutes more.

It was a very hearty stew, and enough to feed me all week long. Which I didn’t mind, because it was quite delicious.

(Last year I made a slow-cooked Almost Irish Stew. Both are good contendors. I liked that this year I could add more veggies fresh from the ground!)

Pumpkin Soup

At the end of last year, it was time to remove the pumpkin plants, even though there were still a couple of unripe pumpkins on them. But over the last couple of months, they ripened on the counter.

I cut into the last pumpkin at the end of February, and it had ripened perfectly.

I had never worked with fresh pumpkin before (unless you count jack-o-lanterns). They are pretty time consuming to clean, skin, and dice, but it was worth it.

I decided to make a simple pumpkin soup. I didn’t want to use the holiday spices (nutmeg, cloves) that you often see with Pumpkin soups. I ended up essentially using this recipe from Food.com,with just some slight modifications. It was really nice.

I sauteed some butter, green onion, and garlic, then added the cubed pumpkin for a couple of minutes.

Then added vegetable stock, salt, pepper, ginger, lemon juice, and bay leaf. The ginger added a really nice flavor. Covered and simmered for about 20 minutes.

After discarding the bay leaf, I pureed in a blender, then put back in the pot and added milk.

One small pumpkin made a couple of dinner-sized servings. And it turned out really nice. I definitely want to make this recipe again.

First Carrots

Bed of carrots and cabbage

The carrots aren’t planted in the ideal location – the wall to the south causes them to not get nearly enough sun. (This is one of our summer beds, re-purposed for the winter garden, but probably needs to just remain a spring/summer-only bed).

That said, after a couple of months, some of them have now grown enough to harvest. They aren’t super big, but they are still super tasty. Lots of flavor.

Carrots – short, “round” variety

Carrots – multicolor variety