Hardneck vs. Softneck, That is the Question.

I have been growing garlic for 10 years and, until this year, grew hardneck garlic, German White or another variety.  This is a good, solid garlic and is really two crops in one. In late May or early June in our area (zone 7a) hardneck garlic produces flower stalks called scapes, that should be removed to direct energy to the bulb... and  are delicious.  Ooh, simple saute in olive oil over pasta, yum!
The only problem is that softneck garlics (the kind you can braid) are better keepers. Spoiled garlic is not only sad, but stinky. So I switched (mostly) to the softnecks Inchelium Red and Lorz Italian softneck garlic..and save and grow a little German White hardneck for a few scapes.
Once the leaves begin to yellow in late May, or early June, dig one up to check (and eat the young garlic!). After harvest, lay the bulbs in the sun to cure for two weeks, rotating once. When the paper has completely dried, they are ready to store, I keep them in darkened pantry, in layers of newspaper.  Enjoy!
Garlic planting season is approaching. It is planted in Sept/Oct and harvested in June.  It may sprout early, but needs cool, winter temps to form bulbs.

Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Sauce YUM!

A simple recipe for those of you who have an abundance of tomatoes and eggplant, roasted eggplant sauce!  It is not really a recipe, but an idea.  I take garden tomatoes, eggplant, onions, and garlic, coat them with olive oil, sprinkle on some salt, and and roast them at 350 until squashy and tender.  Let cool, scrape the eggplant out of the skin (you can easily remove the tomato skins, too) and chop everything in a food processor with your fave herbs....voila!  A delicious sauce for pasta. Add stock and it's a yummy soup. 

Requited Love?

 

 

Requited Love

If there is such a thing as unrequited love, is there requited love? I love Swiss chard and it loves me back. I've written before on this blog about my love for all things "greens" including mustard greens, kale, turnip greens, bok choy, tatsoi, Napa and others. But my main go to green, for both taste and beauty, is Swiss chard.

One of the reasons why I like Swiss chard so much, is that I have abysmal luck growing spinach. Spinach needs a lot more water early on to get going, and I've never had the plants really leaf out well. To me, Swiss Chard is a great spinach substitute, though if you want creamed spinach, you need to cut out the midrib. My favorite way to eat Swiss Chard is sauteed with garlic and onions, and olive oil, and maybe a splash of balsamic vinegar. Simple and delicious. It also makes a great quiche, using a spinach quiche recipe and substituting chard.

Though I will post this later, I'm writing it in mid-July and the chard harvest (except for steamed then frozen) is a thing of the past until fall. We had great big beautiful stands of it. For two people, you don't need to plant many seeds to get a lot of chard, like 10 seeds?

The photo above is of my favorite variety, rainbow chard. The stems come in shades of red, pink, yellow, orange, white, peach. Very beautiful, pretty easy to grow, and versatile.  Plant in early spring, follow the package directions, water once a day until it sprouts, and replant in September.

Lagniappe...a Lil' Sumpin' Extra

                 Yes, I know that this is a worn and tired gardener's joke, but I cannot resist:

                                                            What is your caption?

Pandemic Gardens

 Above: My Vegetable Garden July 2020

(you can tell it's July, see the hoses?)

Have you started a pandemic garden? You know, stuck at home, bored, worried about food production and the food delivery chain? So you rushed to the garden center, with the other panicked people, and grabbed what you could find? It was a thing, and I still hope is a thing, to start a garden in times like these.  My worry is that people will try this once, then give up.

I have been gardening since I was pretty young, under 10.  I have had my share of disasters and successes.  We've all had that $50 tomato, or that $45 zucchini (random numbers chosen). I realized early on that, especially as an organic gardener, I had to be willing to let a crop go, get eaten up, croak from the conditions, in order to learn what to plant and what to avoid...also, to learn how to deal organically with pests and diseases in the plants I loved. A crop failure is a sure way to lose interest in gardening. In this case, step back, assess, and plan for the future (see below).

Another important lesson I have learned is what to do with all that produce, all at once (this is a good thing, right?)  I learned to can, pickle, properly freeze, and dehydrate fruits and vegetables (I don't pressure can, so limit myself to high acid foods, pickles, jams and jellies).  I make recipes in batches for the freezer (see my upcoming roasted eggplant recipe in this blog). Novice gardeners can feel overwhelmed with too much produce for which they are unprepared!  I learned early on that ONE zucchini plant was enough for us, but 12 tomato plants were too few!  (Note: someone who does not cook, probably should have a limited garden of produce they like to eat fresh).

If you know people who started a garden recently, provide encouragement.  Give them suggestions, help them distribute unwanted produce to neighbors, friends, or the food bank (I can eat a lot of kale, but most people cannot). Give them recipes, share how to can or freeze or otherwise use the harvest. But, the most important lesson to communicate is to plan the vegetable garden in advance. Oh, something will still go wrong, but planning helps make vegetable and fruit gardening a far more rewarding experience (not that I don't take a little risk now and again...see upcoming column on growing ginger!).

Something's Rotten...

See the sad, little tomato above?  This little guy has blossom-end rot (let's call it BER).  If you've had it (and you likely have) you know that this tomato will never properly ripen, nor will it be edible. Every year, I plant a blossom-end rot resistant variety (Parks Whopper Improved).  When I plant, I put the tomatoes deep into the soil or trench them, and place a calcium source (half a 1000 mg. calcium supplement, a calcium-based antacid, or finely-ground eggshells) in the hole with the plant. I thought that was it, that the plants were now protected from this problem, after all, BER is caused by a calcium deficiency.  That's true, but all the calcium in the world won't prevent BER if you have inadequate, irregular watering.  Too little water interferes with the plants ability to transport calcium into the tissues of the plant (and, as you may know, an over-abundance of water can cause fruit to split).  So this is a two-tiered problem, caused by calcium deficiency and inadequate watering.  (Having a resistant variety is good, too, as is a 4-year crop rotation).  By the way, peppers (especially bell) can also suffer from BER.
I will write more one day about the other reason I grow Whopper Improved...and other highly-disease resistant plants.

A Field of ...Beans:

I love dried beans: refried beans, bean soup, baked beans, pasta e fagioli, but I have never developed a real taste for green beans. Probably because we didn't have them much when I was a child. My mother thought that the two vegetable groups were corn and peas. (Oh, did I mention I also don't like the squeaky sound and squish that cooked beans make in my mouth?  TMI?). But, green beans are good for the soil, grow prolifically, and are really easy to grow here in central Virginia.

So I've tried to grow several different kinds of beans over the years, to no avail. But this year (hope springs eternal) I'm trying an heirloom variety, "Chinese Red Noodle," an "asparagus" type" bean from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  It is supposed to have a less beany taste, is thinner than a standard green bean, is beautiful, and grows over a foot long. The flower is a pale lavender and the bean is a deep mahogany red. We are starting to harvest and eat it (mid-July). So far it is less beany in taste, though the mouth squeak remains. I'll continue to the harvest and try them in a variety of dishes. One way I have liked green beans in the past is in a stir fry with chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and the Korean chili paste gochujang.  I will report back!

Photo on top: The bean in my garden.

Photo below: The bean with two types of okra (to report on later...)