The last of the garlic ...

... dried and braided.

This collection is made up of all hard-neck varieties. Soft-neck varieties are easier to braid. You can braid the hard-neck, though. Just remember, it's best to work with it as soon as the bulb is sufficiently cured, after about two weeks of drying in a well-ventilated space. The longer the stems and leaves are allowed to dry the more stiff and brittle they become.

This garlic has been hanging much longer, resulting in very stiff necks! I mashed the dried stems with my fingers to make them more pliable before putting them together. It worked well enough. None of the stems broke as I was plaiting them.

For links to instructions on braiding garlic, see posting June 9 .

Giant Millipedes ... Friend or Foe in the Garden?

Finding several of these creatures in my potato bed yesterday has me wondering ... good critter? bad critter? They're so big, and sturdy! Seems like they'd do a good job aerating the soil.

From Grow Organic:
Some feed on decomposing vegetation and fallen fruit while others will occasionally damage seedling plants by consuming stems and leaves. They eat all kinds of potatoes, flower bulbs, and tubers. They live in the garden in areas of moist mulch, compost, and lawn thatch.

Well, the first part sounds pretty good, but that appetite for roots? They were coming for my potatoes! That's enough for me ... I don't want them in my potato bed! The good news ... chickens eat them!

Potatoes Unearthed

We've been eating a few new potatoes here and there. Today, I dug up the entire bed. Ended up with about 12 pounds for the season, all-in-all a disappointing yield. I'm sure dry conditions contributed to the low yield.

We had minimal rainfall while the potato plants were growing and I did not make a point of irrigating the potatoes. The plants died back earlier than expected. Not surprising ... not many taters this year.

On the plus side, the tubers look great! A bit of scaliness on the German Butterballs, but only a few potatoes were lost to little teeth marks or other serious damage. The red-skinned French Fingerlings are perfect!

The potato bed was full of critters ... wiggly earthworms, giant millipedes, and a million tiny ants that were VERY disturbed! Glad I got to the potatoes before those giant millipedes did ...

The bed was FULL of ants and lots of other earthy creatures.

German Butterball and French Fingerling

Basil Vinaigrette

In a blender, combine:

• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water

Blend until smooth, 2 - 3 minutes.
Season vinaigrette with course salt and ground pepper.

(Adjust ratios to your own taste. I found this recipe to be a bit heavy on the vinegar.)

Drizzle over home-grown tomatoes!

Recipe from Martha Stewart's website

Roasted Tomato Sauce

The tomatoes are piling up. Time to do something different.

Toss together ...

• 3# of cored and quartered tomatoes
• a halved and sliced onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 sliced carrots
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

... in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Season generously with salt and pepper.
Roast for an hour at 425 degrees.

Here's the recipe from Martha Stewart:  Roasted Tomato Sauce
PS:  I did not remove the skins!

All this chunky goodness would be good as is, before blending into sauce

Long Beans Run Overhead

The Asian Yard-Long Beans yield prolific amounts of impressively long beans. They are climbers, and Rouse the Spouse laughed when I placed jute twine up the cedar teepee structure, then OUT to a nearby garden corner post AND to a couple of tall posts in adjacent beds AND to the cable that stretches across the yard formerly used as a dog trot line. Imagine bean vines running overhead in four different directions.

Teepee structure in the bed to the left of the watering can.
Vines running to the cable (upper left corner),
to the two tall posts outside the bed to the right,
to a tall post in the bed behind.

The set-up works great! The beans hang straight down for easy viewing and picking. Maybe it's grown on me, but I don't think it looks as silly as we originally thought it might!

See recipe for "Dry Fried" Green Beans posted July 25.

Okra, One Good Thing That Comes Out of the Summer Heat

Finally! The wait is almost over!!

Zinnias

The zinnias have been glorious this year! After helping me trap the Japanese Beetles earlier in the summer (see June 20 post) they are now attracting goldfinches and butterflies, along with many other pollinators. What a scene!

Chinese "Dry-Fried" Green Beans

An easy and delicious recipe using the Asian Long Beans, with no hard-to-find ingredients! I served this alongside our Friday Chinese take-out.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/chinese-dry-fried-green-beans-50054525

Little Tomatoes

Finally! Little green tomatoes ripening into sun golds and red and black cherry tomatoes. I have them espaliered against 8 foot tall black plastic fencing. Makes for easy picking and looks pretty, too!

Summertime Feast

Plenty to fill our plates, and sunny zinnias for a center piece!

• Pink-Eyed Purple-Hulled Peas
• Jade Green Beans
• Garden of Eden Italian Flat Beans
• Banana Peppers
• Cucumbers
• Blueberries

THIS is why I garden!

In addition to the edamame harvest ...

• pink-eyed purple hulled peas
• our first tomatoes
• plenty of cucumbers

Time to Pig-Out on Edamame!

When, oh when, to pick the edamame??

I declare it done today!

• The entire crop harvested at once.
• Plump pods removed from stems.
• Pods washed and blanched.
• A pile set aside for dinner.
• The rest frozen for future use.

Edamame

Today I noticed the edamame pods are looking plump. Counted back to the day the seeds went into the ground: 75 days! Harvest is imminent.

Ripeness is expected 75 - 110 days out from planting, but these beans should be harvested 2 weeks before full maturity is reached. I'll be watching for:

• bright green color (like snow pea pods)
• pods 2" - 3" long
• beans that occupy ~90% of the pod
• BEFORE pods begin to yellow