First Harvest on Peas

I love crowder peas! We planted Pinkeyes last year, and they're good. They're easy to pick because they tell you when they're ready (their hulls turn purple), and they taste a bit like black eyes.

But crowder peas... they're delicious! They turn a dark red when cooked, and they produce a dark burgundy to brown pot liquor that's to die for.

 

So we brought in several hand fulls of peas. Some weren't all the way "ready" but with crowders it's harder to tell. The smart thing to do is probably to blanch and freeze them and wait til another mess comes off the vines. But what I want to do? I want to eat 'em. 

We're gonna have peas and cornbread, and I guarantee you, it will be delicious! 

 

 Dad's got deer meat in the freezer, add some squash and zucchini from the garden, along with crowder peas and fresh cornbread, some sauteed sweet potato in browned butter, and some rice with au gus gravy... So excited! 

Zucchini Bread

What to do with all that harvest? I've brought in over 6 lbs of squash and zucchini, so I decided to bake some bread.

I love baking bread, I love zucchini... so what better than Zucchini bread?

I'm thinking about posting more on what I make with the fruits (or vegetables) of my labor. I love BLTs, sauces, and stews with tomatoes, and I often make bruschetta for my pasta. Sound fun?

Garden Update for the End of June

Growing Strong like the Tyrells.

Beefsteak tomatoes on the vine.

Squash and Zucchini plants, getting huge!

Crowder pea vines. Some pods have as many as 20 peas.

I've picked about 6.0 lbs of squash and zucchini from my four plants, and I've almost gathered a pound of cherry tomatoes from a single cherry tomato plant.

It seems like the more bounty I gather in from the garden, the more problems I encounter. I've gotten the mildew under control in the squash/zucs, but now half my yellow pear tomato decided to die. I've got black spot on the roses, and my strawberry plants, which have been under a net and really haven't been getting close attention, are full of ants and aphids.

I cut out the dead parts of the yellow pear and gathered the green tomatoes for frying. And while I haven't sprayed the roses yet, I did get the strawberries uncovered, watered, cleaned for dead leaves and branches, and sprayed for bugs. 

Work work work.

Harvesting

Totally just putting this here to brag.

First three tomatoes of the season. I generally pick them under ripe and allow them to ripen the rest of the way in my window.

I absolutely love seeing them in my window, and besides, I've already waited so long watching them grow that I jump at the chance to pick them.

I've also harvested 4lbs of squash and zucchini from my four plants so far this season.

Happy harvests to all.

Early June Update

In the Garden - 

I harvested the carrots before I left on vacation. 7 carrots. 6 oz. You cannot imagine the depths of my satisfaction and delight.

The peas are blooming, delicately purple flowers springing open on the many vines. And the tomatoes are getting taller and taller. 

 Among the Flowers - 

 

And a few shots of home - 

First Harvests and First Problems

First Squash and Zucchini 

 Look look! Behold, the first yellow crookneck (without much of a crook neck) and zucchini. The zuc was about 13 oz, and the squash was about 5. I could have left the squash out in the garden for a while longer, but... I wanted to eat it. So there.

I've got two more zuc's and three more squash on the vine, just waiting.

Since I'll be going on vacation on Wednesday, I'll probably pick anything that looks big enough to eat and take it along. I would rather enjoy it small than come back to find the bugs had gotten it.

The squash and zuc's aren't *officially* my first harvests - I've gotten several handfuls of strawberries so far, but they ARE the first produce from the stuff I planted from seed this year.

But along with the first harvest comes the first set of problems.



Before you, you see the bane of every garden - Blossom End Rot. I have it.

Blossom End Rot on Roma tomatoes.

 Of all my tomatoes, the Roma was the smallest and was showing the most flowers. I suppose it's decided to be the first with this year's set of problems. I went ahead and cut off three branches of young fruit. My thinking was - why let it stay on the plant when it's not going to turn out good anyway? I cut them up, tossed 'em in flour, and had fried green tomato bits. They didn't qualify as bites, but they were good!

I see some more starting on my yellow tomatoes, but all of my other bushes remain BER free. I will design a program of retaliation and prevention and see if I can't head it off at the pass, so to speak.

And I'll make lemonade from lemons and enjoy the green tomatoes.

Other news in the garden concerns mutant squash and zuc plants. Check out the below:

I've ended up with male flowers fused together (as many as three) and now I've got a male flower with two stamens, and on the right you can see two female flowers fused together. Neither was successfully pollinated, so I'll not have the amusing experience of getting to eat any mutant vegetables, but it was still cool to find.