We are at the height of our summer harvest season at the
Stoddart Avenue Community Garden. Until last night, I’ve been up until
midnight (literally) canning and pickling and freezing my summer’s bounty. Otherwise, it has been pretty
uneventful. Our tanks are full after
receiving two inches of rain on Monday (but virtually none the rest of the
week).
As our faithful readers may recall, we had a very weird “Spring.” It went straight from winter to summer and
this adversely affected our peach, cherry and berry crops. Not just ours, but a lot of area community
gardens. Luckily, Lynds ordered a LOT of
tart (pie) cherries from Michigan and when they did not immediately sell out,
ended up selling them last Sunday for $15/10 pounds. I bought two ten-pound buckets and spent the
week canning and freezing cherries, making cherry amoretto jam and, of course,
a cherry pie. They were also selling
yellow cling and free-stone peaches for $10/half-peck. I bought a half-peck of each, took a few to
my elderly parents in southern Ohio, made a lot of fuzzy naval marmalade,
canned a couple pints and kept a few to eat very slowly and on cereal. I LOVE fresh peaches. There were two Red Haven peaches left on our
peach trees yesterday at the SACG. I
doubt that they are still there.
I have had a lot of zucchini. I like to shred and sauté’ it
with olive oil and garlic and then serve with macaroni and cottage cheese (as a
main course a la Bittman). You can also
add basil if you want. Or you can just
shred and saute’ it with olive oil and garlic and top with parmesan cheese (as
a side dish). My favorite, but more time consuming recipe,
is to brown a bit of chorizo in a cast iron skillet, then brown fideo pasta in
the rendered fat (with a little oil if necessary), then adding tomato-chipotle
sauce and then adding a giant zucchini which has been shredded and cook the
entire dish down. I freeze four servings
for when I’m having a bad day in the winter and then try to restrain myself
from eating the rest in one sitting. The
most it is has lasted is two days in my house.
I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’ve already had to make two batches because
I ate all of the frozen ones, too. Thank
you Rick Bayless for adding inches to my waistline. I’m hoping today (ha) to make zucchini
chocolate muffins or brownies and some Moosewood zuccanoes (stuffed zucchini
which I also freeze to eat later in the winter).
We have had a bumper tomatillo crop, too. I have 3 or four salsa recipes (including
salsa verde and chipotle-tomatillo) that I make and can. I also freeze a few quart bags (both roasted and
regular) to use in recipes over the winter.
I harvested my edamame crop this week. I usually steam and freeze them, but this
year I blanched them in very salty water first and ate about a quarter of them
the same night. I meant to put a few more
aside for my stuffed zucchini recipe, but of course, forgot.
My green beans have not been all that impressive this
year. I had a great first harvest, which
went into salads and a pint mason jar.
This week I started harvesting my shelly bean to can. A few of them had already gone to seed (which
is fine for me to save to plant next year or to eat over the winter). My
asparagus beans, on the other hand, have been freakishly prolific. I’ve even given two whole harvests of them to
Sabrina to cook for herself. I like them
in stir fries, with onion, tofu and hoison sauce.
Sabrina and Carly have had prolific cucumber harvests. Sabrina gave me a bunch of pickles, but I
fell asleep on the couch while they were processing on the stove. Instead of 15
minutes, my kosher pickles were there for at least 45 minutes. I bet that they are mush. I made some fresh Bittman kosher dills (which
do not use vinegar and only keep in the refrigerator a week or so). I also made some bread and butter pickles,
but was out of turmeric and threw in some curry powder instead. I am curious how they will turn out). Sabrina has become a big fan of the Bittman spicy Asian pickle recipe that I sent her last year, but they should be eaten quickly because they become spicier the longer that they sit. I also like to put a few slices in a pitcher of cold water as a refreshing and no-calorie beverage.
Our tomatoes are reliably prolific. I’ve made and canned some Raphael sauce (from
the Silver Palette) and some Bayless tomato-chipotle sauce. I need to roast and can a bunch of tomatoes
today, so my house will be very humid. I
may try to roast and can a pasta sauce, too, because my basil has been prolific this year (but not
as pretty as Amy’s basil).
My zinnias have done very well, and I’ve been saving seeds
for next year. I also saved seeds from
last fall’s carrot crop and am eager to try them out to see if they are
viable. My fall giant cilantro went to
seed in June and so I saved a bunch of coriander and seeds to plant this Fall
and next Spring.
I actually harvested my garlic crop this year. It’s a guilty
secret at the SACG that we love garlic and plant lots of it, but we never seem
to harvest any. Instead, the following
year we end up with a clumps of garlic plants growing because each of the new
cloves then forms its own new stem.
Sigh. I even remembered to
harvest most of my garlic scapes this year and used them in a recipe. 
Although Stan does not garden with us anymore and has not in
two years, he has not been forgotten. We
have never been able to harvest all of the potatoes that he planted in his
plot. They become a volunteer crop the
following year (in 2017) and again this year in 2018. Yesterday, I harvested two batches of those volunteer
potatoes and took them to Faith Mission.
Phil harvested his potatoes and has planted seedlings of
kale, cabbage and I see he has some pea seedlings to transplant as well. According to Accu-weather, we will continue
to have temperate temperatures for another 10 days, then we will have another
short, heat wave and then back to mild summer temperatures. So, after August 11, I anticipate that we
will start planting our Fall crops. I
already started a small tray of beets and lettuce.
We had two CS volunteers yesterday. They mowed, weeded, watered the food pantry
plots and then began painting the boards which will be used for our fence
straightening project this Fall. They
also helped me to harvest for our 37-pound produce donation to Faith Mission. I was so tired when I finally got home
around 4 that I decided to not clean or cook after putting my harvest
away. I took a shower, and a nap and
watched tv even though it was beautiful outside. Sigh
Today, I need to clean, cook and edge my backyard flower
beds. By this time next week, I hope to
be reporting on our new water line. The
forecast calls for rain for most of this week and I hope that does not
interfere with our plans. I finally
updated our website photo for the first time in 5 years. Ironically, our old photo was taken on this
same weekend in 2013. Make a mental note
that this is the weekend for clear blue skies. 
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