Growing, Blooming, Picking, Baking



It's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.  Lots going on here in zone 6A this time of year -- so much that it's hard to give anything the attention it deserves.  There are still vegetables to be harvested, and flowers to scope out, apples to pick and ... we're finally in the mood to bake!  Forgive me, but I'm combining 4 posts in one today.

First the Growing:

Peas - "Sugar Ann" is a variety of snap pea that has a very short time to harvest - only 50 days.  These were planted around mid-August.  Although they're not supposed to need trellising, I think it could have helped.  It was nice to have some fall peas, since I neglected to plant them in the spring.

It took a while to get going, but the radicchio was finally harvested. I cut it in half, brushed it with bacon grease, grilled it and topped it with balsamic vinegar.  So good!

The Butternut Squash that grew in the backyard didn't grow to a very impressive size, but it was delicious,

filled with beets and topped with brown sugar and butter, then roasted.

Most of the lettuce seeds I sowed in August were washed away by hurricane Irene- I got one nice harvest though.


Blooming
Front door - I've got Autumn Joy and red geraniums in pots,  some volunteer nasturtium growing between the steps.  The container has Cuban oregano, creeping thyme, oxalis, lavendar, and I've forgotten the name of the plant with the purple veined leaves (please remind me if you know!)

Pentas and petunias still going strong in an old BBQ grill that I converted to a planter.  Zinnas still standing strong.

Here are the 3rd generation French Marigolds -- I'll be collecting these seeds again for sure.  Nothing looks better this time of year.

Apple Picking
We've had lots of stunningly gorgeous sunny fall days, aso we took advantage of it and made two apple picking trips this year, to our local spots,  Dr. Davies Farm with our friends Kelly, Aiden and Robby, and to Orchards of Concklin with our cousins. 

Baking

The kids peeled the apples, and my sister-in-law Janine put together an awesome apple crisp.  Thanks to Cindy F. from our Working Moms group for the recipe.

Apple Crisp

6 cups peeled sliced cooking apples
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter

Put apples in square baking dish. Combine the next 5 ingredients in a bowl.
Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over
the apples. Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes or until apples are your favorite
consistency. Serve warm with caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream.

 

Hey, I saved a whole bunch of "Minnesota Midget" heirloom cantaloupe seeds - they were lots of fun to grow.  If you'd like some, just send your address to me at nyackbackyard@gmail.com.  While supplies last, of course.

Harvest Monday: Mid-August Pickings

Backyard garden, from above

a violent end

It's amazing how much more efficient the community plot is at growing vegetables than my shady backyard beds.   The plants have migrated over there once they've gotten a few inches high. The biggest lesson learned this year is not to plant vining squash -- it took over the plot and I had to wrestle it out of the ground and finish it off with loppers in the compost heap before it could even set fruit.  The Great Squash Vine Massacre of 2011.

Arugula is one of my favorite crops because in three years I've never had to re-plant it, and it's always there.  Lately I've been letting some of the pretty yellow flowers go to seed, and some are being clipped and put in salads or bouquets. 

This Savoy cabbage is at least 365 days old.  I planted it midsummer last year, overwintered it here (with no protection whatsoever) and moved it to the community plot in May.  Two more heads should be ready before the end of the month.

Delicata winter squash was one of my first squashes to mature.  I love the way they look and the fact that they keep so long.  I've saved seed and definitely plan to grow them next year. "Minnesota Midget" cantaloupe are fun to grow -- the vines are easily trained into a 1'x3' coil.   I typically get 2-3 fruits per vine.  You can tell when they're ready because they turn from green to yellow.  I like to combine cataloupe with different herbs. 

I finally bought some glass jars and plan to try my grandma's recipe for bread and butter pickles later this week -

my first time pickling cucumbers for storage.  (Stand back! )

After the heavy rains of the past week or so, many of my tomatoes split.

  Although the taste is nothing special, I love the mottled skins of the "Elberta Peach" and "Big Rainbow."  Also growing "Brandywine", "Sungold" and "Sweet 100."

A few bush beans were grown on my deck and in the backyard.  Nobody here really eats beans - not even me.  I just like to have a few to freeze for recipes.

Eggplant is another veg that's not so popular here, but I couldn't resist this pretty "Little Prince" variety offered by Hook Mountain Growers. 

Flat leaf parsely was grown from seed and has been cut back at least once already this summer. 

"Bright Lights" swiss chard also went into the plot fairly early - in May.  The yellow and red stalks have been about 1/4 the size of the white ones.  Whats' up with that?   I made a casserole that was sauteed onions, peppers and swiss chard with layers of tomato and cheese.  The leftovers on toast was my favorite meal of the week!

Yeah, okay --  the onions need a little grooming.  But they're all out of the ground now.

And don't forget the flowers! Chinese lantern, purple phlox, black eyed susan, arugula, zinnia, scarlet runner bean, anise hyssop, sunflower and hydrangea.

Want to share your harvest?  Head over to Daphne's Dandelions  for "Harvest Monday!"



Early July Harvest Video

For most of the month of June, I got a handful of strawberries every other day or so, too.  They seem to be all gone now, even though I planted both June bearing and everbearing varieties. 

What are you harvesting these days?  Head over to Daphne's Dandelions on "Harvest Monday" to see what people are pulling out of the ground elsewhere!

What's Blooming Now in Nyack



Helleborus

Here it is May, and other than the daffodils, we didn't have much bursting forth here until the past couple of weeks.  It was slow to warm up and, being high on a hill, my house seems to have a microclimate that delays blooms even further. I snapped this photo of a new hellebore bloom last week. Here you can see it in the background behind some grape hyacinth.



Muscari armeniacum

A few narcissi are still in bloom, believe it or not. 



Lilies-of-the-valley are so happy in the shady spot under one of our big trees.  They're spreading at a very comfortable speed.  Jocelyn, at The Home Tome, is also growing them.  (A new Nyack blog to follow!) 

Convallaria magalis 



Also in the little white flower category are these forget-me-nots.

Myosotis sylvatica

Speedwell (Veronica)

Euphorbia  (Thanks to Tina from In the Garden, I finally got this identified!)

Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata)

Tulipa humilus (Persian Pearl)

Tulipa

"Black" Tulips- actually, they're very dark burgundy- even the pollen!

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Allium "Purple Sensation"

Who can forget the tree?  The Flowering Cherry (Prunus serrulata)  was finally cut back.  I didn't even have to rake up the petals this year! 

Join Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for links to lots of other blogs around the world that are featuring their best blooms today!  

 

School Salad Harvest

Time to harvest the cool weather crops in the school courtyard!  Our afterschool enrichment class brought in the goodies that were planted in August and made a salad with them.  Here's what we picked:

Broccoli,

arugula and butter lettuce,

Red Romaine,

fennel and beet greens, 

 

"Sungold" cherry tomatoes,

 

and

“watermelon” radishes!

The kids put on their gloves and pulled the ingredients out of the raised beds.   Each had  their own tub for collection.  They were brought inside and washed in one of the classroom sinks.  Then, we went outside and took the choicest bits, mixing them together in a big wooden bowl, along with our own salad dressing. 

This was an afterschool activity with about  10 children who elected to take “Fall Gardening” as an enrichment class, along with a few middle school helpers who are accumulating community service hours.   Our hope is to expand this with a similar project for the entire school.   In February, we’d like to have the kids start the seeds in the greenhouse, so that we can harvest in June before school ends for the summer.  Here’s more info about the “Seed to Salad” curriculum, developed by Cornell.

Maybe we’ll even get some of these goodies into the school cafeteria one of these days!

This week, I'm joining the "Harvest Monday" group over at Daphne's Dandelions - if you are a vegetable grower, you need to follow this blog!   On Mondays, vegetable growers from around the world post about their harvests and link there.