Thursday, April 27, 2006

What's Growin' On: 4/27/06



Realization Of The Day:
Arugula has taken over the greenhouse.

Miscellaneous:
--It was 36 degrees at 4am this morning. I had covered most of the tomato plants with reemay and sheets, but even the uncovered peppers and tomatoes look fine. Put all unplanted seedlings (which have been spending days and nights hardening off in the great outdoors) in the greenhouse for the night.

--Planted some Orange Banana tomato seedlings in one of the raised beds on Tuesday. This is what Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (from whom I bought my original seeds) has to say about them: "Unique, orange, banana-shaped paste tomatoes, bursting with fruity sweetness. Perfect for drying, canning, and paste. Also delicious fresh and great for specialty markets. Orange color is rare in paste tomatoes." Click here (and scroll down to the bottom of the article) to see one of my favorite ways to enjoy these sweet beauties.

From Garden To Table:
Well, the second asparagus harvest made it closer to the table than the first one--I ate it last night standing up in the kitchen. And I even cooked it. Steamed the spears and smothered them with organic butter. Oh my. (Because I have such a small asparagus bed, not much is ready at once, and the ones that are often vary quite a bit in thickness. I fill a pot with a small amount of water, snap the spears in half or thirds (to fit in the pot), then place the thicker ones on the bottom and layer the thinner ones on top of them, out of the water. This way they all end up cooked just right.) There wasn't nearly enough, but of course I had a giant lettuce salad to go with it.

Second Realization Of The Day:
I need a bigger asparagus bed. Much bigger. Like a quarter acre bigger.

Minding The Moonsigns:
Tomorrow and Saturday are fertile days in the first quarter. These are the best days to plant nearly all seeds except the potato/tomato/pepper families. I'll be planting a couple varieties of bush beans and starting some basil seeds (cannot believe--pesto freak that I am--that I completely forgot to start them last month) and any other interesting herb seeds I find languishing in my giant seed storage container. Might as well use them up!

These are also great days to start lettuce and other greens from seed. Hopefully later today or tonight I will finally get around to offering some tips on growing yourself a little (and practically instant) gourmet salad garden. Unless you live in the South or other warm climate, it still shouldn't be too late to start one. Hint: it includes arugula (rocket). Also on today's agenda: clearing out some beds for the beans!

2 comments:

  1. I hope that happens at our house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've got arugula in my lawn and cimi di rapa all around the composting area

    ReplyDelete

March 2013 update: My apologies for the inconvenience - I know word verification is a pain - but I've had to turn it on to help stop the ridiculous number of anonymous spam comments I've been getting every day. Thanks for your understanding.

Welcome to InMyKitchenGarden.com! Thanks so much for taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love to hear about what's going on in your own garden. I know, too, that other readers also delight in reading about your garden successes, failures, helpful tips, and lessons learned. Feel free to leave comments on older posts!

I try my best to answer all questions, but sometimes it takes me a few days to get to them. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your visits to my kitchen garden!