Carrots are really fun

We planted several kinds of carrots this year. 

What's fun about carrots of different colors is you never know

what you will pull up for a meal. 

I went out last night and pulled two big beautiful carrots.  

They tasted wonderful. 

Can't wait to pull one of the purple carrots. 

If only I had more space I'd plant more carrots. 

They are hard to keep wet enough to sprout in this hot weather, but maybe in a few days I'll pop some more carrots seeds into some of the empty spaces.  

OK time for a carrot report.  Who has pulled carrots and what did you get?

White Satin and something I had left over from last years seeds

Lettuce and temperature

It doesn't take much heat to make a lot of things go to flower. 

Lettuce will get bitter if they don't get enough water.  

So with our heat wave coming this week....what you don't think

79-80 degrees is a heat wave?  

Well your northwestern plants do....so

If you can't move your lettuce, as in salad table, to a shady spot.

The next best thing is to keep your soil wet. 

A couple times a day in the heavy heat.  

This should save your lettuce for tasty eating.  

Remember when watering if the sun will hit the leaves 

while they are wet, any plant, then it will burn the leaves and injure the plant. 

I water early in the morning and then in the afternoon 

when the trees shade everything. 

Evening watering invites the slugs to night time dinner 

so I avoid the evening.  

But if the plants need it DO IT.  

And water those 

potato cans to the bottom.  

REMEMBER to harvest daily for the best eating

And if you have miner bugs leaving white spots on your leaves.

Everyday cut off the offending leaves, bag them and toss in 

your garbage can.  You can control this infestation with diligence. 

Midas on rodent patrol! 
Good cat.

Garlic vs Shallots

The gardens are growing!

  At last!

Delight Delight Delight

 

I'm harvesting peas finally and there are tiny beans on the bush beans

Lots of salads here, the lettuces finally look very good.  Eat yours while they are tender

Now for the Garlic vs Shallots issue.

I pulled all of mine and my shallots stayed small

but here is a photo. 

The shallots grow next to one another so close they can look like a garlic. 

But the garlic we grew this year was white or red streaked

and the shallot is golden.

The garlic has sword like leaves coming from a central stem

Shallots have many individual green tube like leaves.

  The number depends on the grouping of bulbs.

 There are two kinds of garlic

Hard neck and soft neck.

Hard neck has a nice stiff stem down the 

middle and the cloves grow around the stem.

The soft neck act like artichokes with cloves growing

over one another like the leaves of an artichoke.

You can use garlic fresh from the garden but I like it better in a month

it's so wet when I pull it, but tasty.  It gets stronger tasting with storage.

Shallots act like a multiplier onion

The bulbs multiply freely producing several lateral bulbs

The green tube like stems can be cut and used like green onions but the 

very best way to eat Shallots is sauteed in butter. 

They are creamy and sweet and I can't get enough of them.

Perfect in gravy's and sauces or just 

sauteed and laid on top of a roasted chicken breast.  

What is happening in my garden the end of July

 Wow the Nasturtium's went crazy while I was gone.

I've heard so little from you my fellow gardeners.

I hope you are enjoying this little bit of summer. 

I hope you are doing well with your gardens. 

Keep things picked, enjoy fresh stuff in your meals,

go out and see what is ripe and make that your dinner fixings. 

Last night we made Pioneer Women's simple sesame Noodles

I went through the garden and collected the small bits, 

onions, shallots, peas and spinach

and blanched them in the pasta water before the putting in the pasta.  

I did grate some carrots I had into the pasta water.  

It made a fast fresh tasty meal.  

You have to train yourself to cook from the garden first and the grocery store second.

What am I doing in my garden now that it's the end of July?

I've pulled about 10 squares of garlic, added compost (stir and serve)

and put in place of the garlic my fall broccoli, Pac choi and a couple of other choi's 

Kale and some red rainbow chard.  I think there was a cauliflower in there too.

I plan to cover this area with a floating cover to keep the white butterflies from laying 

their eggs on these their favorite plants. 

I'm harvesting berries and Rhubarb

blueberries are close.

Shallots need to be pulled and more and more garlic will be pulled.

These I shake off (keep that mel's mix in the garden)

and then lay them in boxes to dry a bit. 

Then I cut off the green leaves, the roots and find them a

dark cool place to be.  I don't eat them for a month or so. 

They develop better flavor with time. 

But do cook with some fresh if you like, it's mild and tasty. 

My neighbor stopped by and thought it smelled like a pizza house. 

All that garlic on the porch.

Are you planning your fall garden? 

plant more carrots, broccoli, kale, chard,

 herbs even, I'm replanting my parsley, it went to seed on

our two days of summer last week.

I think most of you have enough seed but if you need something

e-mail me and I'll put it in my church bag. 

Also I have some plant to share...chard, kale...choi's

 trout and the deep red romaine lettuce

Do keep planting lettuce, finally I have a good lettuce crop. 

That was tricky this year. 

I need to put some in for August and Sept eating.

Plan your space for fall garlic, I will order it very soon

 so if you'd let me know your needs, we plant it in early Oct. 

Remember you can eat your onions at any point but many of the 

onions in my garden have died back and are ready to harvest.

I'm going to try to get them out while it's dry and not raining,

if I can get them nice and dry they will store nicely.  

Other wise we just eat them!

Love those candy apple onions!  

YUMMY

All my potato cans are in bloom and that signals potato growth,

Keep them watered, keep the celery wet and 

soon we shall have good things

to eat!

It will be Sept before we eat large potatoes but 

you can collect some baby ones very soon.

Now lets hear a progress report...What is happening in your gardens.  

Jessica said she ate some chard
from hers.  

I know it's been a very slow year 
but I think that is behind us.

Things are growing!

What to consider in your garden and things to avoid

It's a Glorious time of year!

I couldn't be happier with my yard and mother nature did it all.

I want to take a moment to remind you of some gardening ideas 

I shared in class.  Some things to do and to NOT do. 

1) Potato can's....I hope they are all filled with soil,

mine are now starting to bloom and

it's really too late for the plant to make roots once it has bloomed.  

REMEMBER water to the bottom of the can that is where you planted those potato starts.

2) Tomatoes....don't waste your valuable summer warmth making BIG tomato plants.

Be sure and pinch those little starts in the V of two stems,

remove stems at the bottom to allow for air. 

And keep your tomato to one main stem and some major 

side shoots you have allowed to grow.  

We covered this in class this helps you have flowers

and fruit in time for it to ripen. 

If you feed the plants too much nitrogen it will just make Bigger and Bigger plants. 

If you get bloom drop it's sometimes a lack of calicum

 See the curls in the garlic those are the blooms beginning

feel free to cook and eat these.

3) my garlic is working on going to seed, 

I'm removing onion and garlic stems trying to 

make a seed pod. 

As my garlic stems die back I know the weeks

are numbered and I will be able to harvest my garlic. 

I'd say to wait until all has died back but 4 leaves on the garlic.

Remember onions can be harvested when ever you wish.  They are so tasty this time of year and that is why I don't mind planting them close together. 

I can harvest fresh ones to make space for the storage ones to grow larger. 

If your onions don't show a lot at the top of the soil, take your fingers and uncover the onion bulbs, this helps them get the biggest they can. 

4)  A lot of seeds didn't come up this year...replant it's not too late. 

Keep carrot seeds nice and moist for a couple of weeks. 

Really all new seeds need moisture for a while.

I have noticed we don't know how deep to plant our seeds

so here is a hint.  It's not as deep as you think! 

See that seed in the picture above, it only needs to be deep 

enough to hold the first roots. 

As the seed opens and turns (picture 2) it should be

close enough to the top of the soil to feel the warmth and be drawn to the sun.  

We suffer from such lack of sun here as it is so 

don't plant those seeds so deep that they can't find the warmth.  

The basic rule is only as deep as 2 to 3 times the seed size. 

Just lay three seeds in your hand and see how deep that is. 

 Easy!

beans 1 1/2-2 inches

beets 1/2 to 1 inch

broccoli 1/2 inch

cabbage 1/2 inch

carrot 1/4 inch

swiss chard 1 inch

corn 2 inches 

cucumber 1 inch 

kale 1/2 inch

peas 2 inches 

radish 1/2 inch

squash 1 inch

Tomato 1/2 inch

Just to give you a hint on what some common depths are.  

The bigger seeds disrupt the ground a lot and so need a deeper start.  

One last thing I'd like you to think about and that is your

fall garden. 

As you harvest begin planting for another summer crop if it's a short grower 

or a fall crop for things like broccoli. 

Some of our best veggies are ripe come fall.  I never gather carrots

and winter squash and fall kale until that first little freeze. 

That makes them oh so sweet

I plant for a fall garden from late July to mid August

I begin planting the winter garden including Garlic

In late August to mid Sept.

Plan ahead and you will eat year around. 

Happy summer!

Can those tomatoes correctly

Oh things should start growing now and the forecast is a warmer than normal summer. 

WHAT?

Can that be?  We can only hope for it right.  So encourage those little plants,

feed things for some fast growth (don't over do this please) and when 

you finally get some ripe tomatoes please understand they are not

the acid fruit they once were so go to my 

favorite web site and read this article

On what to do with those tomatoes when canning.

Enjoy this 80 degree plus day!

http://www.mrswages.com/page/Tomato_Tips_with_Master_Canner_Shirley_Camp.aspx?nt=533

BE sure and browse this site

Mrs. Wages 
You can even ask for their newsletter

I began buying canning lime from them

when I could no longer buy it locally

and their canning salt is wonderful!

The Gourmet part

I love Japanese food but best of all is this everyday dish Okonomiyaki. 

It uses what ever Veggies you want to eat. 

I'll give you some hints and a basic recipe and you'll find this fast meal wonderful! 

If you cut the name in two pieces it means "as you like it" and "grilled food" 

Now how could that be any better?

When we were in Tokyo we ate at a place that only cooks Okonomiyaki,
a giant grill in the front of you and you have them add stuff as they go.  

The man doing the cooking was a Harley man and he and Phil
with Clint's assistance

talked themselves silly while
I enjoyed eating.

Here at home this is my grill, a well seasoned Jen-air 

Be sure what you cook on doesn't stick.

Collect some ingredients

Cabbage for sure,the base for this recipe

we like the napa or Asian cabbages, 

but any well shredded cabbage is yummy. 

Collect some veggies that can cook quickly, anything

that you have around can be cut in thin strips or angle cuts to put

as much surface as possible on the grill. 

In this batch I used carrots, two kinds of onions and cabbage

Last week I had asparagus around and used that. 

I prepare all the ingredients and then mix up the batter, a smooth

french pancake style batter

2 eggs broken and beaten slightly

2/3 cup dashi Or some sort of broth (I use chicken)

Sprinkle 1 cup of all purpose flour over liquid, stirring as you go

 Stir until there are no lumps (oh who cares about a few lumps!)

There are mixes you can buy with a very soft flour in it and some spices.

This makes 2 very large Okonmiyaki cakes or 4 very nicely sized ones.

cabbage, sweet onions, ham, green onions

I add ingredients in handfuls and lightly stir each handful

You want the batter to coat everything well, 

You want enough cabbage to be the main ingredient

You want enough other ingredients to make them interesting

There should be more veggie than batter.

What do the Japanese people put in Okonomiyaki? 

Wow it depends on where in the country you eat it.

It always has a cabbage base,

meats include Fish stuff, pork, squid, beef (they love beef there), shrimp,

crab, tuna, salmon, etc. (we didn't see any chicken for eating in Japan)

Veggies are mostly green onions, Nori (seaweed) Pickles ginger, pickled other 

tasty things, the parts of Japan we were in hide the veggies!

You would never have a side dish of veggie or

even see what veggie might

be in the dish they are so tiny.

Toppings are the best part and in Japan you get Bonito flakes

that dance on the top when hot! In some areas they top the whole

thing with an egg but not Tokyo and north.

Wasabi if you can take the heat and my favorite

Okonomiyaki sauce which I buy at Central market. 

Mayonnaise here and something very much like mayo in Japan. 

Some areas of Japan put soba noodles with it

but wow much too heavy a meal for us!

Oh my mouth is watering.  

OK lets cook this veggie pancake

All the ingredients are stirred in and ready to cook!

See how wet the ingredients are with 

the batter it just glistens

Oops I just remembered I had frozen kale, perfect 

Last minute add in!

I put a little veggie oil on the grill. 

If I had raw meat I would cook it on the

Grill first and then top it with the cabbage mixture, 

but this ham is already cooked. 

Just getting started cooking, Keep your temp.

At a medium level let's not burn any yummy things

Here is the Okonomiyaki flipped once.

It takes some thought on how long to cook on each side

Do I want my veggies with some crunch?

Do I wanted them just soft?

I never want them mushy

But maybe you do which goes with 

the recipe title "As you like it" we will 

all be HAPPY!

Once off the grill I top mine with the sauce and some mayo and some broken up nori

No bonito flakes on this batch.  

There are some recipes around for Okonomiyaki sauce 

none as good as what you can buy 

But good in a pinch

Make sauce:

• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons  Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

1. In a small saucepan, mix together all ingredients until smooth. Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat down to low and simmer for a minute and a half and serve warm. Makes 1/2 cup.  

 EAT

Oh I got so excited to eat I nearly forget to take a photo of the finished 

recipe, now half eaten!

Enjoy making up your own version of Okonomiyaki