Turnips & The Garden Report

I collected a bag of turnips in the fridge over a period of a week or two.  Yesterday, the second of my days off this weekend, I decided to wash, tip and tail and quarter the turnips and roast them.  Now I have a low calorie snack or addition to a salad or frittata.  Or even a vegetable soup.  Aren't they pretty?  I love the lavender shoulders.

I also pulled four carrots from the garden just to see how things were going.  A gorgeous purple carrot (orange on the inside) which is just stunning.  I am thinking of using it as a model for a watercolor.  Then I will eat it.  I love carrots in a salad.  So much so, that I even turn a bit "orange".

This morning I am feeling groggy.  And I am sneezing and my skin itches.  Not the best of days so far.   This morning I washed and cut open a colander full of very nice jalapeño peppers.  I wore gloves.  The cleaned halves are now in the freezer.  When frozen solid I will pack them in bags for future salsas and guacamole.  There are many many more in the garden to eat fresh.  And about 50 green bell peppers.

I now have 6 (overfilled) quarts of frozen blueberries and many more not packed up.  Too many.  I was going to order more bare root blueberry bushes for next year--but I don't think that's a good idea.  I have two and a half quarts of raspberries in the freezer as well.  No blackberries yet.  I am wondering if I will get any this year.  My friend Patty has lots of grapes which she will share with me.  And our two year old fig tree is loaded (the branches are hanging low) with big figs.  I need 24 for a recipe for fig preserves which makes 6 jars.  G counted over 30 figs.  We are waiting for them to be golden.  Still green.

I never had enough rhubarb to freeze for winter pies.  I have 6 plants but they are just not robust enough to pull from.  More manure.  More fertilizer.  I like growing fruit and I love rhubarb.

I removed more damaged leaves from the tomato plants.  The Early Girls have very few leaves left but many tomatoes waiting to ripen.  I hope.  The Sun Gold cherries still have leaves (I started them myself from seeds) as do the Siberians and the Cherokee Purples.  The plants I got from work are the ones showing the most disease.  The squash plants are taking a breather so I don't have any to harvest. The cucumbers are also slowing down-- but I am not ready for them to stop just yet.  So, It's fertilizer time.  I am waiting for the tops of the potato plants in the tubs to die back.  I wonder how many potatoes I got this year?

I found a few Fava bean pods.  My twenty plants still have flowers on them and are slow to make pods.  I think I like Fava beans.  At this rate I may never know if that's actually true.

My fennel didn't make bulbs.  Just fronds.  And hopefully fennel seeds which is what I want.  I have to get them before the birds.

A few of my cabbages have nice firm heads.  No bugs.  No worms.  So that is nice.  I have to watch the weather and cut the heads before we have a heavy rain (which cracks the heads open).  The Brussels sprouts haven't started making fat little sprouts yet.  The kale looks very good where I can see it--the cabbages are crowding everything out.  My recently seeded chard is looking very nice.  I plan to use it for a filling for tortelloni like we had in Germany.   Tortelloni Alle Erbette.  Chard and ricotta cheese filled pasta squares in a butter/wine sauce that was so good we licked the plates.  A girl can dream about recreating the dish.

Which reminds me of the creamed vegetable "soup of the day" in Germany.  The carrots and turnips would be nice is something like that.  I need to find my German cookbook.

I am going to make potstickers for G today--for the freezer.  So a double batch.  Instead of driving to Portland to buy them at Trader Joe's.  I will take advantage of the empty freezer on the porch to freeze trays of dumplings and then bag them up.  Chicken I think, unless he wants pork. I am having ratatouille with pasta (4 ounces) for my dinner or a very large salad.

How is your garden growing?