We've been eating greens, herbs, and green onions from the garden. They usually go in omelets and soups. Clockwise from the top left: lemon basil, red veined sorrel, edible chrysanthemum, green onion, and red amaranth. The amaranth is fairly bland, it does very well in the heat but I'm not sure I'll grow it again. The red veined sorrel is not lemony like I expected, although the texture is good. But the edible chrysanthemum has a very surprising flavor that is fairly herbal, my husband thinks it smells like a musty attic. In the end we definitely prefer kale and mustard greens when it comes ..read more

Mix of cherry tomatoes and small tomatoes like Jaune de Flamme, Sun Gold, Candyland, Yellow Pear, Bumble Bee, and Jelly Bean. None of the tomatoes are really sweet right now, which is likely due to the very hot dry weather interspersed with torrential rainfall. Yellow pear is sourish and the tiny Candyland has surprisingly crispy flesh. Garlic chives, red shisho or perilla, and green shisho or perilla. I find perilla to have a complex herbaceous flavor that's hard to describe. People say it has an astringent or basil like flavor, but I don't find that at all. So far they've been put in sti ..read more

It's been such a wet cold spring the garden didn't get planted until last weekend. My husband actually had to re-till because the only things that had germinated were lettuce, carrots, beets, and grass. We ended up growing a nice lush lawn. The two beds closest to the house that were home to herbs, greens, and lettuce were saved from being re-tilled. So, we have loads of lettuce to harvest. Yesterday, I harvested as much lettuce that could fit in our fridge since 90 degree weather is headed our way. Giant Caesar lettuce has a buttery texture. I was actually expecting more of a crunchy romain ..read more

 I've started the process of clearing out the garden. Squash bugs and harlequin bugs have arrived in droves, decimating the once pretty free range greens. I managed to clear out 4 beds on Friday with another 4 beds to go. The cherry tomatoes are so full of water just washing them caused quite a few to split open. I've been making salads with tomatoes, cucumbers, and alfalfa sprouts that I've grown. The Telephone cucumbers are late to produce but the cucumbers are lovely, when their seeds start forming their flavor and texture actually improve. Just a few large tomato types left, the ..read more

There's a weird space time anomaly surrounding this year. It just seems never ending. I hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of yourselves mentally and physically. Now is the time to be extra kind to ourselves and to our loved ones. Kale, free range greens, cucumbers, zucchini, fat green onion, and those slender greens stalks on the right are garlic chives, and a giant summer squash. Tomatoes and summer squash. We eat a lot of ramen soups or curry noodle soups with tomatoes, greens, squash, onions, and chives from the garden. We also make sandwiches with tomatoes, cucumbers, and s ..read more

The chia seeds add a lovely crunch and the coconut oil adds a fragrant sweetness to the zucchini bread. Poppy seeds can be substituted for the chia seeds. For vegans, 2 tbsp. of ground flax seeds in 1/2 cup of water can be substituted for the two eggs. Chia Seed Zucchini Bread Makes: 1 large loaf Preparation time: 15 minutes Bake time: 60 minutes Dry Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1/2 cup wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp. chia seeds 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped Wet Ingredients: 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cups ..read more

Tomatoes have come on strong this week. There's 45 tomato plants in my garden with 15 of them being small or cherry types. We'd been talking about drying the garden produce this year, which is why there are so many cherry tomato plants. I told my husband two weeks ago that we needed a game plan worked out because they were going to start ripening en masse. On Sunday we processed about 40 pounds of tomatoes which are in the drying tent with a dehumidifier as I'm typing this. My husband is a ceramic artist and he uses a similar setup to quick dry newly made clay pieces in preparation for a kiln ..read more

I ended up with 18 pepper plants which were started from seed in the Aerogarden. There's definitely different rates of germination, especially with the older seeds taking more time to germinate. The taller peppers are actually starting to form blooms, which I find odd since they're not that tall. The eggplants didn't come up, but they were especially old seed which I'd been putting off throwing out. I've had a couple seed starting disasters. It started with purchasing what I thought were peat pellets, but were probably coconut coir pellets. There was no information on the tray in regards to t ..read more

It has been so hot but the weather finally broke and we got some much needed rain this beautiful Monday. Hopefully we'll get a little less than the 1.3 inches of rain they are predicting between tonight and tomorrow. The pattypan squash plants are huge with numerous branches. White Custard is tender for a pattypan squash while still holding it's shape well with cooking. The Fordhook and Elite plants keep getting flipped over by the wind, but the zucchini they do produce are very nice. At this size they are not at all seedy with just a small spongy core. The summer squash plants are coming i ..read more

Vegetable Coconut Curry Makes: 8-10 servings Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 25 minutes Ingredients 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 tablespoons, peeled and minced ginger 4-5 carrots, chopped into circles or half moons 2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into large chunks* 2 tablespoons Madras curry powder 1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped into florets 2 cans chickpeas, drained enough water to cover the vegetables 2 tablespoons nuoc mam 1 tablespoon sugar 2 cups of milk 1 can of full fat coconut milk Directions: 1. Heat large pot on medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté onions ..read more