Showing off the Upcoming Harvest!

Something munched some of our baby cucumbers recently, but there were a few survivors.  One of them is growing so fast!  It's going to be ready to pick in no time!

The largest Genovese tomato is about the size of a small tangerine.

I've also been eyeing the onions.  Since the Oklahoma wind blew over all the stalks (which normally fall over when it's time to harvest), I'm just going to have to make an educated guess as to when to pull them out of the ground.

The Super Sweet 100 tomatoes are still green, but we've had a steady supply of cherry tomatoes for our salads via the Red Robin plants.          

I love the idea that people walk by our house and see hanging baskets of tomatoes on the front porch.  I think they're as pretty as flowers, and soooo tempting.  No one has yet to steal any that I know of, though.

I've also been harvesting carrots as needed, but they're still pretty small.  I suspect the nitrogen content of the soil was a little high for them, so I won't add any compost to those squares when I do the fall planting.

Moroccan Coleslaw

I've had two requests for the Moroccan Coleslaw recipe I mentioned recently, so here it is! I wish I could claim it as entirely my own, but I modified it from a South Beach recipe. It doesn't have as much tang as traditional slaw and it's not as thickly coated in dressing, so we really enjoyed it like a salad.

Moroccan Coleslaw

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tb fresh lemon juice
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tsp sugar (or granular Splenda)
1 tsp ground cumin
4 cups shredded green cabbage
4 medium carrots, shredded
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the mayo, lemon juice, scallions, sugar, and cumin in a very large bowl. Add carrots, cabbage, salt, and pepper. Toss until evenly coated. Serve or refrigerate immediately.

Resource for Oklahoma Gardeners

I just wanted to share a wonderful resource for Oklahoma gardeners.  OSU publishes some wonderful online PDFs on gardening/farming.  I've been eyeing the Fall Gardening PDF in particular lately and will be starting some broccoli seeds indoors before long.

A few garden updates:

• My Sugar Snap Peas stopped producing and started looking a little dried up, so I've taken them out and plan to grow more in the fall.  The Genovese Tomato plant should get a little more sun as a result.
• I'll be harvesting the last of the lettuce this week.  I planted some greens so we might be able to keep the salad coming for a while, I but suspect it'll get so hot I'll have to pick them young.  I let one Little Gem Romaine bolt and think we should be seeing a blossom soon.  I'll have to do some research to see if there are any special methods to save the seed.
• The tomatoes are going strong!  Tons of cherry tomatoes, at least two green Genovese Tomatoes, and flowers on the brandywines!  I am so excited!!!
• We have wee baby cucumbers, one of which is longer than my thumb.  Their  vines are growing like mad, and it's been a little bit of a challenge to train them to the trellis.

I hope everyone's June is productive!

Seed Sales!

Apparently, it's about time for seeds to go on sale around Oklahoma City!  Lowe's had theirs for 10 cents a packet yesterday, and Chad and I must have picked up about $30 worth for less than $2.  He picked out flower seeds, including three or four varieties of sunflowers, and I mainly picked out vegetables.  Almost all of it is for next year, but we picked up a few things that should work well in the fall, too.

So, keep your eye out for sales right now.  When it comes to vegetables, pretty much everything with which I am familiar will store well for at least one extra year, except onions.

Carrot Harvest

Today was my first sizable carrot harvest!

Red Cored Chantenay Carrots

They're fat, stubby little things right now! And tasty. I shredded them for a Moroccan coleslaw recipe that was The Awesome paired with turkey meat loaf.

Yum!

I know these guys aren't quite full sized yet, but they've still made me decide I definitely want to grow a long variety along side them next year. And some of them will definitely be purple!

Thinking of Fall...

Especially if you're going to order any fancy garlic, it's a good idea to start thinking about your fall gardening now.

Today, I'm ordering two cloves of Chesnok Red Garlic and DeCicco Broccoli.   The garlic, which I'm going to pair with a generic supermarket (softneck) variety as an experiment, won't be harvested until Spring.  But the broccoli will be a part of our fall harvest....  And maybe the winter, if we're lucky.  I've never grown broccoli, but I chose Decicco because it's supposed to have a good number of off-shoot broccolis after the large head is harvested.

I was also extremely tempted by German Extra Hardy Garlic, Russian Giant Garlic, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Dragon Carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and leeks... But I have to keep in mind that I have a limited amount of space and plenty of other stuff I already plan on growing.

Meanwhile, today is a nice, mild, overcast day.  It rained all morning, so the kitty and I slept in quite nicely.  And I'm developing clever ideas about creating my own bagged and frozen convenience stir fry for nights when I don't feel like doing much cooking, so I think it's time to make a trip to the store and browse the produce section for good, freezable veggies.

Updates From the Impatient Gardener

I needed a scallion for yesterday's dinner, so I went out to the garden to pick one fresh.  And, holy moly, I got a surprize!

Apparently, I'm just a really impatient gardener!  I originally purchased the set under the impression that they were a white onion that would bulb, but then they didn't bulb at all and I decided they'd been mislabeled and started using them as green onions (very tasty green onions!).  But now, over half of them are visibly bulbing!

And while we're on the topic of what's going on underground, it looks like some of the carrots are ready to pull!

           

Above ground, I was ecstatic to discover tiny buds on the brandywine tomato plants!!!  These are the tomatoes I'm really excited about.  Woohoo!!!

The youngest Red Robin is blooming nicely, which is a pleasant sight just outside out back door.             

This is also one of the more charming sights you'll see on our back steps.  Poor little Ali isn't allowed outside, but at least she has a good view when we're tending to the container plants!