Kelli's 2015 Garden Journal

[RobinB]

After a very long few years, I'm finally growing Black Cherry again. I've got a dark cherry taste off coming later hopefully. Most of mine aren't even fruiting yet. I've got Nefertiti, Black Cherry and Carbon Copy in the garden. I've also got two plants of Ambrosia Rose UBX as well as Blue Ambrosia. Oh the waiting!

[BucksCountyGirl]

Wow Robin, you will have to let me know how the dark cherry taste off goes! I have heard some really great things about Carbon Copy.

Also let me know how your Ambrosia Rose turn out. The two plants I have are completely different in growth habit and fruit shape, but I have only tasted the one so far!

Blue Ambrosia sounds intriguing...I might just have to dive into the blue tomato foray myself next year!

[BucksCountyGirl]

It was a busy weekend but I still managed to get out into the garden a bit yesterday. It looks like the kefir milk spray is working! Any of the leaves that I missed stripping off before I sprayed that were showing signs of grey mold or mildew have just crisped up and fallen off. No new signs of disease, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

I started frementing my first jar of dill pickles for 2015. I even got to use some of my flowering dill heads in the mix. This is also the first time I had horseradish leaves to add in (they are supposed to keep the pickles extra crisp). They should be ready to taste in about 7-10 days!

My first Hungarian Heart ripened up yesterday. I was about 11.5 oz. You can see it whole and sliced below. We had a few pieces straight with a bit of salt and we really liked the tangy flavor and meaty texture. Where it really shined was when we added it to a few BLTs for dinner with my homemade 7 grain bread

[Salsacharley]

[BucksCountyGirl]

The Fourth of July weekend was super busy for us because we threw a "small" BBQ that ended up having over 40 guests! Between that and battling all of the diseases my plants have I am one tired lady!

The grey mold has been absolutely terrible this year. The death count so far is at 1 BTDP and 1/2 of a Chocolate Lightning

I am also battling a lot of Septoria, but I would take that 100 times out of 100 over the grey mold.

In better new I took a few pics of some of my other plants below (In order):

Ping Tung Long Eggplant
Aji Omnicolor (putting out a TON of peppers so far)
Giant Marconi (also has a lot of peppers, just now starting to color)
Mini White Cucumber Earthtainer (already gave me two gallons of pickles and counting!)
Ambrosia Corn Earthtainer (can't wait to see how these turn out!)
Sungold
Stupice Earthtainer
Plumeria (that I managed not to kill after all! Thanks for all the advice!)
And last are some zucchini "noodles" I made with an overgrown monster grey zucchini. I served them with some shrimp and scallops piccata. Yum

[Worth1]

Kelli I have to take the time to show my admiration for anyone that grows in containers.
I just couldn't do it.
The shrimp and scallops look great.
Scallops are my favorite.

Worth

[efisakov]

Kelli, looking good and delish, as always. Great party is lots of work but much fun too.
Grey Mold is being a problem in my garden as well. I ordered Actinovate. Hope it will help.
Good luck.

[Tracydr]

Yummy!

[BucksCountyGirl]

Thanks, Worth. Unfortunately, I do not have much in ground space so it is containers or bust! Scallops are my very favorite as well

Ella, I hope the Actinovate works well for you. You will have to keep us posted. I am just going to resign myself to knowing that my plants are not going to be "pretty" this year but hopefully they keep producing!

Thanks, Tracy

I had BOTH of my grey squash plants go down from Squash Vine Borer damage So I think I am just going to try and get some snow peas going for fall in that spot. What a bummer!

In happier news, we got to try out our first Berkeley Tie Dye Pink on Friday (this one was from the dying/dead plant). You can see it whole and sliced below. It was nice with a zippy little finish. I couldn't detect any real sweetness, but it had a lingering big tomato flavor. I will give it 7/10 for right now, but will reserve final judgement for a BTDP from the healthy plant.

Our Ping Tung Long eggplants are putting on fruit faster than we can use it, so on Friday I took a whole mess of them and slow roasted them in the oven with fresh oregano, garlic and preserved Meyer lemons. We topped them with some grilled lamb chops and finished the dish off with some feta and fresh mint. It was delicious, but decidedly not the most beautiful meal I've ever made. Haha.

[efisakov]

Kelli, I think your dish looks spectacular.
I have to look for the Ping Tung Long eggplant seeds. As I recall they were F1.
Have you tasted your first fermented dill pickles?

[BucksCountyGirl]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Kelli, I think your dish looks spectacular.
Thanks, Ella,
I have to look for the Ping Tung Long eggplant seeds. As I recall they were F1.
Have you tasted your first fermented dill pickles?

Thanks, Ella,

They are an F1. I got my plants from chiliplant.com this year, but I have seen seed for them at Baker Creek and Kitazawa Seed

I have indeed tasted the pickles, and they are lovely. The Horseradish leaves have kept them amazingly crunchy (akin to a refrigerated Claussen type) and the dill heads give them a much more complex flavor than last year's made with the dill leaves only.

We have been getting so many cukes in that I started an experimental batch that has 3 sliced Biker Billy jalapenos, cumin seed, garlic, slices of fresh lime and fresh cilantro in it. Kind of a Mexican take on a pickle. I will keep you posted!

[efisakov]

Next will be tomatoes.
btw, I liked slices of celery (1/2 inch) fermented with tomatoes.

[RobinB]

Kelli,

Please do give Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye another try. It's usually very sweet and complex. It doesn't like summer heat very much as I recall.

As usual, your food looks amazing. I'm new to canning, but I've got a friend who is going to help me this summer. I saw a recipe the other day for pickled chard stems that used the rainbow chard and looked so pretty! Now, all I need is for my garden to start producing. The chard is gone for now. Still waiting for tomatoes... but most went in early June, so I am just being impatient.

[BucksCountyGirl]

Ella/Robin...both sound delicious!

I have had some new responsibilities at work so I have been fairly absent here and in my garden.

As a result, I have not posted in a while and my garden is is tatters I DID manage to get some seed started for my fall garden so I guess that is the "silver lining"?

Below are a few pics.

First is Chocolate Lightning from the dwarf project. I really love this tomato. It has a sweet and very rich taste...AND it's been a magnet for grey mold this year. I will give it another try next season when I can keep up with my preventative regimen.

Second is our first harvest of German Butterballs this season. We did not keep up with the hilling as much as we would have liked but still got a 5:1 return on our planting.

I made some duck breast and filet beans and cooked the potatoes in the rendered duck fat...YUM

Last is some super hot salsa I canned with Aji limons, habaneros, tomatoes, sweet peppers and cilantro all from the garden.

The cilantro is from an early July planting I made in the shade along with some little gem and cimmaron lettuces...all are thriving so far without bolting!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

[barefootgardener]

Oh my goodness Kelli!! Your pictures are always amazing, and I cant stop drooling over the duck breast, beans and potatoes! Yummy!!

Your salsa looks amazing. Nice combinations for flavor.

I just planted some cilantro for a fall planting. The cilantro I planted this spring has gone to seed. I cant get enough of it!!

This is my first time growing German Butterball. The plants are dying back. I also planted Purple Viking.

Ginny