What are you eating from your garden today?

OK, CN, I have heard of those yard long beans. They don't taste like asparagus, then? They do look fun!

FeedMe: What went wrong with the lettuce? What varieties did you try? Had you had luck previously with the same seeds?I tried valiantly to get some Ruby crunch lettuce to germinate this year. Zero, zip, nada. Out of 16 starter squares, not a single Ruby Crunch to be seen! Unreal. So I planted black seeded Simpson and Matchless. They did well, esp. Matchless! All germinated, and formed nice loose heads.

Buttercrunch lettuce, asparagus and strawberries.

The sugar snap peas didn't make it into the house. But I'm heading back out there what's a bowl this time to pick some more strawberries, etc.

Supper last night was amazing!  a fresh picked salad with some sauteed long beans and fresh caught fish.

Scorpio Rising wrote:
FeedMe:  What went wrong with the lettuce?  What varieties did you try?  Had you had luck previously with the same seeds?I tried valiantly to get some Ruby crunch lettuce to germinate this year.  Zero, zip, nada.  Out of 16 starter squares, not a single Ruby Crunch to be seen!  Unreal.  So I planted black seeded Simpson and Matchless.  They did well, esp. Matchless!  All germinated, and formed nice loose heads.  

Not sure. Last year, which would have been my second year growing any vegetables ever, I had a real problem with damping off, both starting indoors and direct planting in the beds. Kept trying until it got too hot. This year I'm guessing I just started them too late. My theory is start inside or out, but before the awful heats starts, so that the plants can establish a strong root system before the heat hits. We had higher temps earlier this year. I might try again in the fall.
I have tried: Black Seeded Simpson, Cos Romaine (great the first year), Marvel of Four Seasons, Swiss Chard both Lucullus (great the first year) and a red stemmed variety.
I put some chard seeds in jiffy pots on the porch. Not one germinated. I dug down and there it was, just sitting there. Had not even attempted to germinate. The romaine came right up in them and when I transplanted them, they stopped growing; literally.
the southern heat can be too much for some things I'm finding out.

FeedMeSeeMore wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:
FeedMe:  What went wrong with the lettuce?  What varieties did you try?  Had you had luck previously with the same seeds?I tried valiantly to get some Ruby crunch lettuce to germinate this year.  Zero, zip, nada.  Out of 16 starter squares, not a single Ruby Crunch to be seen!  Unreal.  So I planted black seeded Simpson and Matchless.  They did well, esp. Matchless!  All germinated, and formed nice loose heads.  

Not sure. Last year, which would have been my second year growing any vegetables ever, I had a real problem with damping off, both starting indoors and direct planting in the beds. Kept trying until it got too hot. This year I'm guessing I just started them too late. My theory is start inside or out, but before the awful heats starts, so that the plants can establish a strong root system before the heat hits. We had higher temps earlier this year. I might try again in the fall.
I have tried: Black Seeded Simpson, Cos Romaine (great the first year), Marvel of Four Seasons, Swiss Chard both Lucullus (great the first year) and a red stemmed variety.
I put some chard seeds in jiffy pots on the porch. Not one germinated. I dug down and there it was, just sitting there. Had not even attempted to germinate. The romaine came right up in them and when I transplanted them, they stopped growing; literally.
the southern heat can be too much for some things I'm finding out.

Right. The heat definitely hits the kill switch on the lettuces, spinach, most leaves but maybe kale. You probably need to make notes and adjust your schedule. I used for the first time an app on mt iPad called Jiffys. It tells you to put your location in and prompts planting tips! Pretty dang accurate! Better than my well meaning co workers!

Just packed a salad (in an amazing prepared-mode that I almost never achieve) with Matchless lettuce, Dwarf Blue Vates kale, sugar snaps, and Tokyo Cross turnips from garden; baby carrots and broc from store, blue cheese crumbles with balsamic vinaigrette and black olives.

WOW!  That's a great idea.

Nan, I have all these leaves that came on at the same time! Gotta be better at planning, or they will go to the wayside! Not my strong suit. It was very tasty...needed croutons....lol

1st zuke! Cut it up, added some kale, boiled it in water seasoned with ham base, drained it, garnished with hard-boiled egg (from our own chickens). It was YUMMY!

Got a LOT coming from the garden now...

Pulled in the rest of the potatoes and will be frying some for Saturday brunch with some onion (also from the garden), green peppers, eggs, and corned beef.

Got the rest of the carrots in, and the flavor is just amazing.  So sweet, none of that usual bitter undertone that you get from store carrots.  I always thought that was a normal flavor for carrots.  I've spent my whole life hating carrots - I have always forced myself to eat them because they're good for you - but if I had gotten to try home-grown earlier in life, I probably would have eaten a lot more of them.

TOE-MATERS!!!  Finally getting tomatoes off the bushes and vines - yippeee!!!  The first were my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, the mighty sweets quickly followed, and now the Early Girls and BushSteaks are just about ready to start coming off.

Actually - I said "finally", but this is the earliest I've ever gotten ripe tomatoes, by about 3 weeks.

Lunch was a veggie burger on Marvel of the Four Seasons lettuce instead of a bun, with garlic and onion scapes, and a side of strawberries.

CC

Sugar snaps and Tokyo Cross turnips, with grilled out burgs and baby carrots and broc from store.

Stolen blackberries that hubby lured through the neighbor's fence to our side.

OMG!  I can actually taste that BLT!!!
CC

Lots and lots of green beans made into a casserole with turkey bacon and a cheese sauce with onions, plus barbecued long purple eggplants, barbecued turnips, pickled  chayote.

CapeCoddess wrote:OMG!  I can actually taste that BLT!!!  
CC

Doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? *BURRRRRAP* Oh, excuse me!

kauairosina wrote:Lots and lots of green beans made into a casserole with turkey bacon and a cheese sauce with onions, plus barbecued long purple eggplants, barbecued turnips, pickled  chayote.

Green bean casserole - one of my favorites!

Since I'm a grill guy, I'm going to grill some sliced yellow and green zucchini in foil with bell pepper and onion and who knows, I might throw in some carrots and maybe put a potato or two in foil with some butter and chives.
      I was grilling a pork roast yesterday and all of a sudden the sky turned dark and we wound up getting 1.7 inches of rain after a few weeks in the mid 90's.
           The rain felt so good, I stayed out in it and got soaked all the way down to my socks. The day before, I had just emptied my 3 rain barrels and flushed them out. Believe it or not, I got over 200 gallons of rain water in my barrels  with the 1.7 inches of rain.   It's going to be in the mid 90's again today with a heat index of 105 deg. (But I'm still grill'n)

My wife FINALLY got her fresh from the vine, tomato sandwich.


And the other night, she cut the top off a freshly picked pepper to a pleasant surprise

 the happy face, ralitaco.

CitizenKate wrote:

So....beautiful....it is why I garden....so superficial of me but it's true.....

countrynaturals wrote: the happy face, ralitaco.

I thought my DW scratched it into the pepper because I told her it was too soon to pick it but she showed me the other half. It was just where the stem connected to the pepper

ralitaco wrote:My wife FINALLY got her fresh from the vine, tomato sandwich.


And the other night, she cut the top off a freshly picked pepper to a pleasant surprise

It is an omen! Lol