Garden on June 29

The garden is off the hook, simply put. It is insane. Every morning when I take the dogs out, I take a look at it, feeling like a kid on Christmas excited to see what's there. As you can see from the last several posts, we have harvested a bunch of fruits/veggies and have used them in a couple of different ways. I've made zucchini bread and salsa, and yesterday Dennis asked me to make him a veggie sandwich, using cucumber, banana peppers, red onion, and spinach. The onion and spinach were store-bought, but hopefully my spinach seedlings will be edible soon!!

Spinach. I can kinda make out the leaves!

We got the cucumber from AJ's garden. Last night Dennis went out to fix out tomato stake-funnel thingy and as he was wandering around with his trusty Maglite, he spotted a monster cucumber. AJ said we could have it, so Dennis picked it and took a picture of it next to his arm to show how big it was.

 Huge cuke, plus a close-up of the bionic arm! I used that cucumber in his veggie sandwich.

Speaking of cucumbers, here's one of ours. It's probably about 4 inches. I found a recipe that uses cucumber in salsa - yum! Also, as Dennis remembers from The Other Guys, cucumber water is extremely refreshing. :)

Here's my next big zuke. I had 2 that got to this stage and then crapped out, so I harvested them and saved the bulb part in the hopes that it would be salvageable for my next batch of zucchini bread.

These carrots are crazy, but it looks like they are all growing in a big clump. Every one I have harvested looks like a gnarled finger. Sorry for the visual.

Here's my lettuce. It's probably about an inch off the ground, which means I need to start thinning it out soon. That makes me sad. I don't want to waste any!

My cilantro. Looks kind of weird, I know. But it has been doing better since I picked the flowers off of it. I won't let it go the way of my first spinach plant. *cry*

This is my strawberry plant. We had some strawberries, then some birds ate them. Ever since then, the tendrils have been crawling everywhere but no more strawberries yet. The main plant is at the bottom and you can see all the vines crawling every which way. Dennis took my cage off because he thought it was holding the plant back. Well we'll see... now that the birds aren't intimidated by the scary cage, I don't know what's going to happen.

This is just a shot of how many freakin purple peppers there are. I'm waiting to see if some of them turn red. So far I have used the purple peppers in salsa and Jamaican jerk pork chops.

FINALLY! A jalapeno! This has been the last plant to bear fruit (other than the peanuts, which grow underground, so who knows what the hell is happening with them). I can't wait to make something fun with these, like jalapeno poppers.

My bell pepper! Look how big it is. Now I just have to wait for it to turn red.

This is the insane watermelon plant. It crawls everywhere, and it has little tendrils that reach out and curl around anything within reach.

But it's gonna give me watermelons!! This is the biggest one I've found so far. Notice I used the word found, because you really have to search around the vine to find these. I'm sure once they get bigger I'll be spotting them left and right.

And one last beautiful picture to end on. This is the flower that has bloomed the most on either one of the black-eyed susans.

Pineapple Salsa, with 1/3 ingredients homegrown!

Ok so it only has 6 ingredients, but whatever, just let me have this.

I already posted this recipe here but I just wanted to add a new post bragging about being able to add ingredients from my garden. The old recipe calls for serrano pepper, but I just used cayenne and purple Trinidad peppers because, does it really matter? I don't think so.

I went out to my garden and clipped 2 purple peppers and a ton of cilantro. I knew I was going to have to pick through it because some of the leaves looked a little... meh.

This is what I had to work with.

It wasn't that difficult to find some good usable leaves, but I saw some creepy crawlies in there so I had to wash them thoroughly.

This detailed process consisted of me stirring the leaves around in some water with my finger. Then I strained them and did it again several times. I'm sure I got them nice and clean...and if not, this salsa has more protein in it than I bargained for.

I washed and pitted the cayenne and purple peppers, but I only ended up using 2 cayenne and half of one purple pepper because it was soooo hot. I thought if I used more it might be unbearably hot, and if not, I can always add more later.

Here's my finished product.

I'll be eating it on top of some salmon tomorrow. Nomnomnom!

Zucchini Bread - made with zucchini from MY GARDEN OMG

First of all, I picked a big banana pepper today and chopped it up for Dennis to put on his sandwich for lunch tomorrow. Go me.

Before that though, I grabbed that purple pepper and sliced it in half. I wasn't sure when it would be ready so I just picked one to test it out. I stuck my tongue out and barely touched the pepper and YOWZA it was hot. I have heard that the smaller peppers are hotter, but it must've slipped my mind momentarily. I'm not sure what to do with it!! I guess I can make salsa but it would be like... one of those things where people would have to sign a waiver before they eat it.

Anyways, I decided on a whim that I was going to make zucchini bread. Dennis' mom gave us some last year and I had never tried it before. I was apprehensive, but it turned out to be delicious. I found a recipe and whipped up a batch. It is in the oven right now.

Pictured: zucchini & the dissected purple pepper

The recipe I found called for 2 cups of grated zucchini but I didn't think I had enough. Mine was 7.5 inches but it only made 1 cup grated, so I halved the entire recipe.

Then I mixed all the other shiz up.

Ingredients

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 c white sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil

1 c grated zucchini 

So whisk together the first 5 ingredients - all the dry ingredients but the sugar. Preheat the oven to 350.

In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs, then slowly add in the sugar, then the oil. Slowly add the flour and zucchini, alternating between them. PS. This tastes INCREDIBLE. The original recipe calls for walnuts and raisins, but I am allergic to walnuts and I don't like adding raisins to my bakery items, except for oatmeal cookies and that's only for my dad!!

Grease a 4x8 pan and pour the mixture in. Bake for 65 minutes.

Batter at 0 minutes in the oven...

Batter at 65 minutes in the oven!

I just realized that I was supposed to add vanilla extract, but I missed that part of the directions because it was combined with the walnuts & raisins. The batter was so delicious and the amount of vanilla extract was so small (1/4 tsp) that I don't think it is going to matter. If you want to add the vanilla extract, just add it to the batter last, right before you put it in the oven.

Update: I wanted the recipe to look greener this time, so I used a lot more zucchini, probably 1 and 3/4 cups, while leaving the rest of the recipe the same... except the mixture looked a little too runny when it was ready to go in so I added some extra flour and sugar. I probably added about a cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. Next time I make it, which should be soon (my garden is blowin up, I tell you!), I'll try to get some more exact measurements. Also, I baked it for 80 minutes at 350.

Here's the recipe I used from Allrecipes.com.

Garden on June 20

I know I am updating ridiculously frequently, but the garden has gone insane in the past few weeks.

Exhibit A: Banana peppers.

 Above are 5 that are pretty much ready...

And there are more on the way!

These purple coffee peppers are so out of control. I counted 16 today, and I may have missed a few. Last week there were only 7. Say whaaaaaat?! I think I need to start picking some.

My green peppers are starting to grow too! The second pic is my biggest one so far, about 2.5 inches!

Little cucumbers are really coming back to life. Hallelujah! It looks spiky.

Look how crazy this zucchini is. It grows like a light bulb! Or a balloon animal.

This is the biggest zucchini. I think it might be ready to harvest.

I planted lettuce seeds a few days ago and they are sprouting...

As are my spinach seeds! Hopefully I will have better luck with the seeds than with my first plant. I let it flower, which you are not supposed to do, and my spinach was ruined. We threw it out and I planted the seeds in its place.

Pulled some carrots out today and shared them with the doggies.

Black-eyed Susans starting to come in nicely.

And finally, today's harvest. I don't know if the purple pepper is ready, but I am going to try it and see what it tastes like. 2 green cayenne peppers on the left, and a 4 inch banana pepper on the right. Ta-da!

Garden Pics from June 12

So I took some more pictures today, because... why not. Also, the plants are exploding and I can't believe how insane their progress is. Also, Dennis got us an old school sprinkler and it is doing a fantastic job. Plus it is fun to take pictures of it. Maybe my definition of fun is a little different than yours...

Prettttyyyy

Little water drops

Once the plants were thoroughly watered, they made great subjects for my camera. The water droplets look pretty sweet. My camera is a little old but it gets the job done and I am happy with the results.

Baby cayenne pepper

Another new cayenne pepper

First bell pepper!

Little bell pepper starting to grow

Carrots coming right out of the ground

I am loving these purple Trinidad coffee peppers. I have no idea what they are going to taste like, or how big they will get, but for the time being I can't get enough of just taking their pictures! In one shot there are 7 peppers!!

7... count em, 7 peppers

We bought this trellis today for our cucumbers. It's supposed to be for tomatoes, but the cucumbers won't know the difference, hopefully. We are hoping they will regain their strength & start climbing soon

Trellis to support the cucumbers

Cucumber is officially flowering!

Our zucchini plants are starting to bust right out of their pots. We were seeing some little zucchinis starting to sprout up before we moved the plants into their new pots, but probably no bigger than a golf pencil. Dennis moved both the zucchini & cucumber plants on Memorial Day, which if you recall was HOT AS HELL. Apparently, moving them in that kind of heat can shock the plant and kill it, which is why we thought they had kicked the bucket. We were totally bummed. But in a shocking twist ending, they both started to regrow. Yay! Now the zucchini plant has produced a zucchini almost overnight that is bigger than any of the other ones that took weeks to grow.

Zucchini, featuring my hand for size comparison

Last but not least, our first harvest:

Banana pepper!! I thought this pepper looked ready to pick, and when I grabbed hold of it to snip the stem, it just fell off of the plant. So I assumed that was the pepper telling me it was ready. I washed it, chopped it up, and put it in our salads for dinner. This was my first banana pepper EVER and I must say it really kicked the salad up a notch.The salad consisted of mixed greens, goat cheese, craisins, sunflower seeds, banana peppers, and Maple Grove Farms Asiago & Garlic dressing. Magnifique!

This garden has been such a fun and rewarding experience and I can't wait to see what crops up tomorrow!

Community Garden

My street is awesome. My neighbors, more specifically, are awesome. We grill together, play cornhole in the street, have each other's backs... you catch my drift. I like living here.

One of my neighbors, Meeg, had this great idea about making a garden in this big open grassy area on the street that we affectionately call "Dogland." She planned everything & put it all together, and we all threw some money at her, and voila, we had a garden.

4-2-11

We spent a day filling our beds with Leafgro (pictured above), then we spent another day shopping for plants & then had a little planting party. It involved beer. Aww yea. On that day (err, night), me & Dennis' bed looked like this:

4-30-11

So tiny. After a couple more weeks of gratuitous watering, our bed looked like this:

5-17-11

Not such a great comparison picture, but you can see that our plants have started sprouting up.

5-29-11

Why I keep taking these pictures at night, and at weird angles, I don't know.

Yesterday (6-8-11) I finally decided to go out with my camera (not my phone) and take some pictures during the day. I got some great shots of developing plants that are just starting to bear fruit. Yay!

Banana peppers

Purple Trinidad coffee peppers

Cayenne peppers

Zucchini

Carrot

And finally, one wide shot of the whole garden, taken today.

6-9-11

What a difference! We haven't eaten anything from our garden yet (except that little carrot, which tasted... like a carrot) but hopefully we'll be able to harvest soon. Stay tuned for updates!!