Update and Cauliflowers Finally Doing Something

I'm out of batteries from my camera, but my garden looks about the same as last time, but more scraggly in some places and with plenty of insane tomato plants. My tomatoes are still green, but I harvested a few large ones to encourage the plants to ripen the remaining fruit. The sun returned after a long absence and after just a couple days of warm weather some of the tomatoes are starting to yellow.

A couple of days ago I went in the garden to get rid of the gigantic cauliflower plants that, until that point, hadn't done anything but crowd my cabbages. Fortunately I peeked into the center of all the leaves and there I found some tiny white florets! I guess the plants finally got big enough to bear florets and were probably helped along by the cool weather. I may just get a harvest from them, since they're frost-tolerant.

In other cole crop news, I harvested a 4-lb cabbage today. It's absolutely beautiful and I just love it to bits.

I'm also getting cucumbers all of the sudden and put up some fermented Kosher dills yesterday (though I need to add another half pound of cukes as they come ready. The "Amour" pickling cuke is a great variety--it produces attractive, uniform fruit, and many come ripe at the same time. They're very prickly, but I think that's OK. I'm definitely going to plant more of this variety next year, and it's clear that I don't even need to bother starting them indoors.

The green beans are continuing to produce heartily, and "Provider" is my favorite variety (as befitting its name). It was the first to produce, and the beans are tender and stringless, with great flavor and a nice shape.

I've got tons of greens that I'm not harvesting. It's just hard to get excited about them in the harvest season when there are plenty of other, tastier, things to eat. The important thing is to freeze some of the collards, which are so nice to have during the winter. The komatsuna greens have (amazingly) not bolted yet and they have a succulent, spinach-like flavor (like a cross between spinach and bok choy). I will probably grow more of them next year, starting earlier, so I can appreciate having greens early in the season. The big loser has been the "Garnet Giant" mustard greens--they have yucky flavor, bolted quickly, and dye everything blue or purple. I would be more inclined to use them as an ornamental in the future, since they look cool in the garden.

First Cabbage Harvest

My cabbages came back from the brink a couple weeks ago and are quickly becoming harvest-able. All my cole crops are happy for the cool weather we've been having, though if it continues I fear I will be harvesting only green tomatoes. Today I harvested my first savoy cabbage, picking one that isn't as large as it could get, but which will clear out some space for its neighbor to mature. I cut an X into the stem I left behind, which supposedly will encourage the plant to make 4 more tiny cabbage heads. We'll see.

I'm thinking of making this one into kimchi. It's not Chinese-style cabbage, but the head is loose enough that I may be able to get the salt in.

Not much else has progressed dramatically in the garden since my last post. I harvested my daikon radishes for kimchi, but they were a touch disappointing. I'd hoped they'd be bigger and/or I'd have more of them, so I wouldn't have to buy radishes from the store, but I think I'll have to. Next year I can plant a larger, longer-maturing variety for more kimchi, though.

That still didn't put a damper on my garden enjoyment, as you can see here:

Does my baby have my nose?

This past week I've just been harvesting delicious summer squash and thinning my green onions. My carrots are coming along and I ate one of the white ones today--it was wonderfully sweet and zingy. Next year I'll plant way more carrots, because they're just so much better when you grow them at home.

Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit to give everyone's garden plants the last little jolt they need. I've been talking to other people and most of them have tons of unripe tomatoes still too. My cabbages have set a lot of fruit but they're still too tiny to harvest--I'm hoping they'll all ripen at once for pickling.

Green Bean Update

My green beans are finally producing a usable yield! The Cupidon French Beans are the first ones to be ready. They are actually right on time, it just felt like they were taking a long time because I wanted green beans of my own so badly. The yellow wax beans are probably a lost cause, but the next to harvest will be Provider, and then Giant. So far I've only nibbled on the Cupidons raw, but I think they will cook up well and seem to be stringless.

Everything else seems to be marching down the path to harvest. It's already been a very rewarding garden, and I haven't even harvested my cabbages or any large quantities of tomatoes.