My Garden Two Weeks Ago.

We've established the fact that I'm a slacker, right?  Well I took these pictures of my garden a few weeks ago.  Wow how things have changed.  I would take pictures of it now, but then I probably wouldn't download the pictures to my computer so I could upload them here for a few weeks.  Because I'm a slacker.

Here's the main garden.

Tomato rows. 

Types of tomatoes include:  Black Seaman, Black Gypsy, Black Krim, Black Cherry, Hungarian Pink, Green Zebra, Black Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Old German and others.

Square foot garden with tomatoes in front and melon in the back.

Tomatoes include Yellow Pear, Ananas Noir, Black Gypsy, Black Seaman (tee hee), Persimmon, Green Zebra.

Melons are from seeds of melon we got at the farmers market last year, including:  Yellow Watermelon, French Orange, White Sensation and Yellow Canary.

 

Patio Tomato (Glacier and Mr. Stripey)

 

The back of my deck displaying my herb garden.

 

  

The strawberries I planted and forgot about last year are THRIVING.  The berries are a little tart.

Purple Sicily Cauliflower

Red Kale

Snow Peas

Squash, Strawberries and Cucumbers

Sugar Pumpkin, Yellow Squash, Black Beauty Zucchini, Butternut Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Cucumber, Lemon Cucumber.

Squash Blossom

 

Some of the first salad from the garden.

Wonderful Summer Meal

We had some friends over for a late lunch this weekend.  To take advantage of all the wonderful fresh produce we made elote and grilled pizza.

Elote
Elote is a Mexican corn on the cob that I've been dying to make for about a year now.  It's a wonderfully flavorful take on a summertime classic. 

Ingredients
4 ears of Sweet Corn
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 Lime cut into wedges
Salt
1/2 cup Cotija Cheese, grated (Cotija can be found at a Latin market or possibly your grocers cheese section depending on your area)
               Parmesan or Queso Fresco will work, but try to find the Cotija.
1 Tbs Chili Powder
1 Tbs Cumin

Directions
Start by grilling the corn in the husk for 15 to 20 minutes turning occasionally until the husks are blackened and or the corn is bright yellow.  Remove the husk from the corn (It's compostable!)

Slather the corn with a spoonful of mayonnaise.  Squeeze the juice of one lime wedge and add a pinch of salt.  Sprinkle with the cheese (feel free to be heavy handed) and lightly dust with Cumin and Chili powder.

You can serve off the cob as well if you can't bite into corn or don't have enough floss to go around   ;-).  Cut the kernels from the cob and top with the remaining ingredients.  I'd probably stir afterwords as well.

Grilled Pizza
A delicious, healthy and filling way to make use of the wonderful variety of fresh produce available now.

Ingredients
For the Dough:
1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110 degrees F) water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Optional:  Chopped Fresh Herbs; basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary
1/2 cup good olive oil
Cornmeal

Toppings:
You really use your imagination and include whatever you want here, but here is what we had available:
Good, Fresh Mozzarella
Variety of Heirloom Tomatoes
Basil cut in strips
Prosciutto
Sausage
Bacon
Variety of fresh Peppers
Grilled Eggplant
Cotija leftover from the Elote
Goat Cheese
Avocado
Garlic infused Olive Oil
Olive Oil infused Garlic

Awesome fresh heirloom tomatoes, mostly from JT's garden.

Directions
For the Dough:
Combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook if you have one. Add 3 cups flour, then the salt, and mix. While mixing, add 1 more cup of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on low to medium speed for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and roll each one into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature. Roll and stretch each ball into a rough 8-inch circle and place them all on baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. (You will be able to fit 2 pizzas on each 18 by 13-inch baking sheet.)

Light your grill and wait until it's hot.

Place the pizza dough directly onto the grill and cook on 1 side for 1 minute. Turn the pizzas over and brush with olive oil or garlic oil.

Top the pizzas with any toppings you wish, piling them high.

Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Put the lid on your grill and cook for 5 minutes more, until the crust is crisp and the toppings are cooked.

Saving Seeds - Melon

I've been buying some delicious and flavorful melons from the farmers market lately.  They're delicious, but kind of expensive, so I thought, why not save the seeds and try to grow some next year?

I start by cutting open the melon and harvesting the seeds.  This is easier with a melon where all the seeds sit in the middle like the White Sensation Melon or French Orange Melon I started with.  This example happens to be for a Yellow Dole Watermelon.  I'm collecting seeds as I go.

Then I rinse the seeds off to remove any stickiness or fruit residue.

Next I let the seeds dry for at least three days on a paper towel.  I change the paper towel every day.

When they're dry enough that you can't bend the seed, I put them in a labeled bag and store them in a cool, dark place with low humidity.

I got a cute box from Papersource and mini file folders to organize seeds that I've bought and harvested on my own.

Latest Harvest

It's not much, but I've got a pretty sizable cucumber, a zucchini and some lemon boy tomatoes.  There's more garden fresh produce to come!

I'm so glad Eric picked the squash.  The pics without it were a bit too phallic.

My First Harvest

OK, so it's just a tomato and a green bean.  But I'm still pretty excited about it.

How Does your Garden Grow? Take 2

I know I just posted garden pics, but so much growth has happened since those were taken.

Ambrosia Melon.  The melon is taking over everything.  It's climbing the fence, the rose, the little flower garden in front of the fence, off into the trees to the side.  I mean, it wants to take over the world.

German Johnson Tomato.  I think this guy will be the first to be harvested.

Yellow Bell Pepper.  Well, green now, but he's supposed to get yellow.  I held it for scale.

Cucumber.  Like a real cucumber!

Zuccini Squash.  Just blossoming so far, but I have high hopes

Eggplant.  It's getting pretty big.

Snow Peas.

Cherokee Purple Tomato.  I'm probably most excited about this guy.

Portofino Squash.

Yellow Squash.

The little cucumber that could.  Even two days ago I didn't think this guy was going to go anywhere.  He was sticking straight up and was a lot smaller.  He's grown a lot in the past few days.

Green Beans.  OK, so there are only three beans on here and little hope for more as of yet, but there's still time.