Summer Garden

mid-summer 2019

jade green beans

zucchini, okra, cucumbers, jade green beans

sun golds, black cherry tomatoes, tomatillas

Delicata Squash

Delicata squash is a variety of winter squash. Our son, Andrew, gave me some seedlings to try in the garden this year. I wasn't sure exactly when to harvest these fruits. Most winter squashes are harvested in the fall, when the stems begin to dry out. But local farmers were selling delicata at the market this morning. Compared to what I saw, mine look every bit as ready to harvest!

As soon as I got home, I picked eight of these beauties. Family vacation coming up next week... These will be a welcome addition to our dinner menu.

The pressure pot was made for cooking fresh green beans!

The jade bush beans are coming in strong. They are prolific producers of exceptionally tender, delicious, stringless green beans.

2-3/4 pounds green beans

In the garden, the strong upright plants are highly resistant to bean viruses. They don't require staking, yet are tall enough to allow the beans to hang freely, resulting in beautiful clean, straight beans.

In the kitchen, they're easy to process. I typically stem them as I pick them, right off the plant. No strings to worry about and no need to trim the tips. The most we might do is snap them into manageable bite-sized pieces that fit easily into the steamer basket. Then, into the pressure pot.

If cooking under pressure is not part of your repertoire, I encourage you to try it! What are the benefits, you might ask? First and foremost, cooking under pressure saves energy, time, and money. Depending on the food being prepared, cooking time can be reduced by as much as 70%! That translates into less energy consumed, less heat in the kitchen on a summer day, less time for the chef supervising the cooking pots. In addition, cooking under pressure has been shown to be a healthy method of cooking, as it preserves more of the natural taste and nutrients of the food when compared with boiling or steaming.

The new electric pressure cookers have the extra benefit of "setting it and forgetting it". They turn themselves off at the programmed time and keep the food warm until you're ready to use it.

These gorgeous fresh jade green beans will be perfectly done and tender in 4 minutes of cooking under pressure (cooking time varies with bean variety). At that point, I use a quick pressure release and remove the (unseasoned) beans from the pressure pot, setting them aside until it's time to eat. In the meantime, I prepare my seasonings. The current favorite treatment is thinly sliced onions caramelized in bacon grease. Be sure to use a skillet or pot large enough to fit the beans being prepared. Just before serving, toss the beans with the grease and onions until coated and fully heated. Add salt and pepper. Voilà!

Potato Yield for 2019

We have dug all the potatoes. Here's the official yield:

4# ... Purple Majesty deep purple color inside and out
5# 12 oz ... Yukon Golds yellow fleshed
7# ... Russian Banana fingerlings
9# 7 oz ... Mountain Rose red skins and flesh
9# 7 oz ... Purple Viking purple skin, creamy white flesh, especially good for baking

We planted 2# seed potatoes for each variety, except for the Russian Banana fingerlings. They certainly did live up to their reputation as high yielding. 1# seed potatoes produced seven pounds to eat!

The Purple Majesty yield was disappointing. Something happened to those plants early on. A section of that bed was empty ... no plants and no sign of seed potatoes in the ground. Our best guess is that "something" ate them!

It's like digging for buried treasure...

a little help digging the second bed of potatoes

Red, White, and Blue ... Potatoes?

We dug up one bed of potatoes this morning. It was a harvest fit for Independence Day!

All the varieties planted are represented here: Mountain Rose in the foreground, a few Yukon Golds and lots of Russian Banana fingerlings in the middle, mostly Purple Majesty and a few Purple Vikings at the far end.

Here's the red, white, and blue part ... Mountain Rose potatoes have RED skins and flesh, Purple Vikings have pinkish-purple skins with WHITE flesh, and Purple Majesty have dark purple skin and flesh. Close enough to BLUE to suit me!

boiled until tender, tossed in melted butter, salt, pepper