Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Everyone's harvest looks so good! I need to take a picture of mine next time but so far I've had blackberries, basil, lettuce and parsley. I wish this animal would stop eating our garden. I did get an onion and a pint of blueberries from a neighbors garden/farm, though!

I posted this over in my own garden thread but thought I'd post here, too! Here are some hot banana peppers, "red rocket" hot peppers, "Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato" (the tiny ones) and "Red Pear" tomato - picked them today!

Beautiful!

we came home from vacation yesterday to quite a lot!


giant mess of lemon cucumbers


teeny patty pan squash, totally giant patty pan, and a zucchini

we have some baby patty pans still growing, a couple mini zucchinis, and another mess of cucumbers coming. i also picked a couple small carrots and beets (just to make sure they were still growing) and we dug out a teeny potato! i think this weekend, we're going to dig out half the baby potatoes and let the others get big.

oh! i went out again and got some greens and noticed the scarlet runner beans were ready to pick.


dino kale, rainbow chard, and some scarlet runner beans


runner beans close up (and not blurry)

Too cute!

Some tomatoes:

i want some of my tomatoes to ripen so bad! so far, no go. i'm jealous of everyone's tomatoes.


today's harvest: giant zucchini, a bunch of baby potatoes, and tiny carrots and beets. something has been digging in just my carrots and beets which are spread throughout both my (very long) rows. i don't know what target those and nothing else. anyway, when i went out, these were loosened. i wish they had been able to grow up into big versions, but i'm glad that whatever pushed them out didn't eat them.

Is that fluted tomato you're growing the Costoluto Genovese? I love those, so pretty on a plate with onion slices and basil.

I've started my tomato drawer in the fridge. I think the first boom will hit in about a week? I hope my basil survives long enough for the first round of sauce making.

giant cucumber!


and in case that wasn't porny enough, here's one that highlights the weird veiny ridge on its underside.

No pictures, but I had my first tomato today!

I forgot how much better they taste than supermarket ones!

Aw man! I want all of those lemon cucumbers! My parents always grew them when I was younger and I would gorge myself on them. So good.

BINGO!!!!
http://rareseeds.com/costoluto-genovese-tomato.html

PERV!!!

Brandywine tomatoes! SOOOOO BIIIIG.

so far the cucumbers are the only thing putting out any ripe fruit, but man, are they putting out. a small crowd gathered around my plot today to ogle these monsters while i was deadheading my basil.



that biggest one in the middle is exactly the same length as my thigh. there are some green tomatoes on the vines that are already pretty enormous, even though they're nowhere near ripe. i'll probably have to roll them home in a wheelbarrow.

Those cucumbers are amazing!

Those cucumbers are an unreal size!!

I feel so bad. My garden is a dirty overgrown mess thanks to the constant rain causing constant flooding in my garden. Next year I will sooooo have veggies, herbs and fruit growing. I'm so determined to have a garden next year that on my 2 weeks off work in September is going to be dedicated to trying to clearing the garden.

I was about to throw out some hugely overgrown runner beans when I decided to pod them to see what the seeds inside were like. Was not expecting to find something so beautiful


The older ones (front) had a comparatively muted colouration...

Whilst the younger ones were vividly pink and midnight blue. There were even younger ones which were THIS colour

i grew garlic for the first time! and i clearly never learned how to braid properly.

My garden is weird this year. Most of my tomato plants shot up quickly, but they've been kind of low producing and except for my yellow tomatoes and heirlooms (I can't remember the name), they've been producing really small fruits. Like smaller than my balled up fist, and I always plant a variety of sizes so they shouldn't all be that small. It took me forever to fill up my drawer to make sauce, and then since most of them were so small I swear I had to boil and gut over 100 tomatoes.

Something chewed up the base of my cucumber plants one by one, so I only got two of those. I've gotten a handful of jalapenos, no eggplants, some okra, and I got one butternut squash, but it did start flowering again so I should have some more soon. My regular pepper plants are just now flowering. I assume I should blame that crazy forking heat we had for well over a month.

ERMEGERD Spring Harvest!!!!

snow peas, which don't last to the back door, we eat them all raw en route.... another nappa cabbage today, i need to thin them so I pick them and cook right away. Also pea shoots for salad, and our first collard harvest. Spinach will be ready for its first harvest this weekend- i will just pick indiv leaves instead of killing the whole plant. Kale and chard are close behind, maybe next week we'll have enough big enough leaves for a meal. Of course the herbs too- cilantro and parsley. The scallions just aren't taking off but i'm going off to buy some more today.
Looks like my hard work emending the clay soil is paying off. I've never had such beautiful, big nappa cabbages before. They haven't even started "heading up" yet and they're the diameter of a pizza already.

The previous tenants left behind a garden. I know nothing at all about gardening, so I don't know what's good or not! Also my camera is broken. There appear to be some tomatoes growing but they're green. Maybe some cucumbers but they're yellow. So maybe neither of those are good. BUT, there also appears to be some variety of eggplant growing which has a rich purple colour and looks delicious. Assuming I'm not misidentifying it, how do you know when eggplant is ready to be picked?

To know when things are ready, it's good to know what variety you're growing first. Then you have a point of reference. But with eggplant, I find that it's better to pick young rather than waiting because the skins will get tough if it's too old. Not inedible, just tough so you'd have to peel it.

Cucumbers: some are actually yellow when ready (like the lemon cukes) and others can become a yellow/orange and tougher when they're overripe. These are good for collecting seeds. You can try eating them but be prepared to trash the peel if it's tough.

Post close up photos if you want and I'll try to confirm what varieties you have.