Harvest Updates, Tues. May 29th

Shungiku (edible chrysanthemums)

Green Grapes and Cherry Tomatoes

Basil for drying

Toms, Grn Beans, Strawberries, Cuke and the first Eggplant of the season!

We found an over-grown cuke while cleaning out the cucumber vines!

Here are 2 more over-grown cukes! Does anyone have recipes to used these kinds of cucumbers? Zukes, Green Beans and Strawberries too!

Harvested tons of Swiss Chard, the stems in the large bowl, the leaves piled high in another bowl. Harvested the Big Max pumpkin and a little Kabocha pumpkin too. :-)

Harvest Update: June 24, 2011

As you can see, our harvests are dependent on the season. We're getting LOTS of Strawberries, Green Beans, Cucumbers and Zucchinis. The Tomatoes are coming in more frequently as well.  We have green grapes coming in, but we have a "Giant, 7 yr old, black-haired mouse"(aka- our hungry boy) eating them straight off the vine and they aren't getting a chance at harvesting!  We're freezing a lot of the strawberries for later use, and our son loves them as a cold, frozen summer treat. He exclaimed, "These frozen strawberries are like popsicles but better, because they've got no sugar in them!" I totally agree!

Here, we harvested one Valencia Orange to try out.  The top, greener portion of the orange was significantly more tart than the bottom half of the orange. I guess we'll have to wait on them a little more!

Homegrown meals

Strawberries in yogurt(coconut milk)

Stir-fry with HG Zukesm Carrots, Green Beans and store-bought organic bean sprouts and organic beef sausages cut into strips

Salad for dinner made from: HG Tomatoes, Cukes and Sunchokes and Farmer's Market Lettuce. Our Lettuces are still a bit too small to harvest.

Another stir-fry dish; HG Carrots, Garlic Chives, Green Beans, Zukes and Sunchokes. Store-bought organic bean sprouts and gluten-free soy sauce.

Making some Fig Jam w/ last year's frozen figs, to make room for this year's harvest. The 1st pic is of the frozen figs I thawed partially in water to peel off the skins, then cut them up in the pot. The 2nd pic is the jam in progress. Cooking it until the liquid evaporates enough to make a thick jam.

Garden Updates

Pumpkin and Corn bed. The Corn are still very small plants.

Kabocha Pumpkins, Big one & a small one

Big Max Pumpkin & Japanese Cuke

Corn and Bush-bean bed

Yummy green grapes ripening in the warm sun

It's a mango!

4-Season Lettuce seedlings

OK, for a more artisitic view of the garden:

This piece is something I want to title: "Bite".  The sunlight's glow is the focus of this pic.

Despite the damage received by insects, the sunlight shines through the hole and the Shiso plant displays beauty and hope.

This piece is called "Self Portrait". It's a photo of my world with myself in this photo. I like the multiple layers that resembles me.

Harvest Updates, June 21st

Here we go again with our weekly harvest pics! So, we have Zukes, Cukes, Green Beans, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Garlic Chives, Chard, NZ Spinach, Yomogi, Parsley and some new additions to the harvest; Green Grapes and a Giant Fig!

Garlic Chives

Chard Stems

Chard Greens

NZ Spinach

Yomogi and Parsley

Here's the pic of the Giant Fig, this is a 9" dinner plate

The fig compared with a Quarter

Homegrown Meals

Here's what I've managed to capture this week. I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the homemade pizza. Although I don't think the pizza counts much for being homegrown since the only thing home-grown was the Oregano and Basil that went into the sauce and the Rosemary that went into the altered gluten-free Focaccia recipe for the dough.

Cold Salad with HG Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots and Sunchokes. It also includes Coho Salmon, Potato Starch Noodles, Vegenaise (our son is allergic to eggs, so no Mayonaise), and Organic Mustard

This is Hiyashi Chuka, HG ingredients are: Carrots, Green Beans, Cucumbers.  Bought items are organic turkey bacon, organic chicken breast, organic bulb onions, and noodles. That and gluten-free soy sauce, organic rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil and organic agave nectar.

Harvest Updates, Monday June 13th

Currently we're harvesting Zucchinis, Cucubmers, Green Beans, Strawberries, Amaranth, Garlic Chives, Shiso(perilla) and Tomatoes. We also picked the last of the Kumquats

Still with me? LOL...after so many similar pictures I wonder...

Here are 3 bouquets of flowers that were gifted to the teachers and principal. All home-grown and pesticide free!