Beets on the Menu Tonight

The beet roots are pushing themselves out of the ground! I guess it's time to harvest the biggest ones. Plus, I haven't been good at thinning the plants this season. I'll be sure to pull some of the nicest fresh-green tops. The roots will go into the pressure pot for 15 minutes, then peeled, sliced and treated with a sweet-sour glaze, ala Harvard Beets. The greens will be sautéd ... maybe in some tasty bacon grease? and splashed with some vinegar? The cook will follow her nose - and taste buds!

Memorial Day - Black Raspberries at their Peak

I've been picking a handful... a cupful... a bowlful of berries every morning or so over the past couple of weeks. This morning I picked two quarts!

We've been snacking on raspberries out-of-hand and embellishing our morning cereal. Over the weekend I cooked down a batch with a dose of honey to make a berry compote that I used to enhance Susanna's birthday cake. My next project will be our favorite raspberry cobbler recipe... 

Raspberry Roll

Pastry

2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg, beaten

~1/4 cup milk

Sift together dry ingredients; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse corn meal. Add egg and enough milk to make a soft dough. Stir gently with fork until mixture holds together. Press into a smooth ball. Divide dough in half; cover and set aside.

Filling

1 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup sugar per cup of berries used)

2 tablespoons flour

4 cups fresh berries (can use as few as 3 cups)

1/2 cup butter, divided

3/4 - 1 cup water

2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 13"x 9" x2" baking dish. Carefully fold sugar and 2 tablespoons flour into berries. Roll out half the dough into a 14" x 10" rectangle. Cover with half the berries, spreading them within 2" of the edge. Dot with half the butter. Roll up jelly-roll fashion, folding ends under. Place in prepared dish. Repeat. Cut slits in top of each roll. Pour water into dish around rolls. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake ~ 60 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

Favorite Lettuce Ever Grown

We've had a wonderful long, cool, rainy spring. It's the first time I've had true success growing lettuce from seed in the spring. And I've discovered my all-time favorite garden lettuce!

Nevada Lettuce from High Mowing organic seeds

From the seed pack: "Heat tolerant Batavian type with shiny green leaves forming a heavy head. Ribs are crunchy like an iceburg while the leaves are soft like a leaf lettuce."

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Interesting how the ribs are growing in a spiral.

Potatoes Blooming

 

Temperatures to reach 89 degrees today...

Sugar Snap Peas

Beetle damage on salad turnip tops. The roots are fine. Harvested all remaining.

Took  my coffee to the garden and picked in the coolness of the morning.
The lettuce and cilantro will not like the coming hot temps!

 

Okra Seeds in the Ground

I finally purchased okra seed. Perfect timing, really, as the temperatures are beginning to rise this week. Okra likes it HOT! I planted two varieties: one row each of Clemson Spineless and Emerald. I seem to remember determining that I prefer the old standby, Clemson Spineless ... but I'm feeling adventurous.

Freezing Cilantro

I'm using one of Margaret Roach's techniques for freezing herbs, found at "A Way to Garden" ... compressing fresh leaves into a compact log and storing in a zip lock bag. I've frozen parsley this way in the past. It worked beautifully ... or should I say tastefully! The essence of the parsley was preserved very effectively. I'm hoping cilantro will behave in the same way.

Nobody waters the garden like Mother Nature

Just as we were sitting down to a late supper last night, a BIG wind blew through on the leading edge of a storm that dropped one inch of blessed rain. The world is fresh and green this morning. The plants in the garden are heavy with rainwater, too wet to harvest. But that condition won't last long. The sun is up. I can see steam rising up from the leave mulch. The water cycle at work!

The Garden Today

• 4 Anaheim pepper plants in the ground
• Sugar snap peas, cilantro, and lettuce picked
• Salad turnips harvested (the beetles have decimated the turnip tops)
• First row of radishes finished, pulled up
• Last of the spinach and lacinato kale harvested
• String trellis put up for the rattlesnake pole beans

First Raspberries - Berry Season Begins!

Super Flower Blood Moon

Last night was a lovely, clear sky evening here in central NC. At 10:30pm we took lawn chairs out to the end of the driveway where we had a clear view of the full moon. For the next hour or so we watched the magic happen. Rouse the Spouse captured it in this photo, taken just before total eclipse with his iPhone through the lens of his spotting scope. Wow!

The longest total lunar eclipse in 33 years! Visible to millions across the globe.

Read about it at space.com 

Popsi's Poppies

 

Sugar Snap Pea Blossoms

 Come on, Pollinators! Do your thing!

Salad Turnips on the Menu

Salad turnip is the common name for Hakurei, or Tokyo, turnip. Like so many delicious foods (broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc) they belong to the brassica family of plants. The roots have a crisp, delicious raw flavor... sort of turnip-y, sort of radish-y.

No matter what you call them, or how you slice 'em, salad turnips are a real winner!

• easy, convenient out-of-hand snack
• crisp, tasty addition to the salad bowl
• nice addition to the crudite platter

And don't forget to cook up the tops :-)