We had a surprise full family visit yesterday, culminating in a garden-centric feast. Mamie, Taperman, my mom and I all went out into the garden in the afternoon, and I explained to the group that I am getting worried about my potato plants. Some of the plants have yellowing, curling leaves at the bottom, and I'm not sure if it's from the heat, the potato bugs, or a terrible potato virus/blight/disaster of some sort. Since I don't know anything about growing potatoes, I've been reduced to googling the problem, which as I'm sure you can guess, never results in reassuring information. Mamie decided that the only way to be sure that the potatoes are okay is to reach in and grab one. As was revealed to my family last night, I get oddly nervous about the first harvest of any vegetable from the garden, so I hadn't pulled any new potatoes (or onions) yet. Mamie doesn't share my fears, though, so she reached under the plants and pulled out a gorgeous baby yukon gold potato! Once she realized that pulling potatoes is very similar to clamming, there was no stopping her, and we quickly had over a pound of new potatoes. Mostly yukon golds, but there were a few red potatoes, and several of the "mystery/who knows" unlabeled varieties.
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| Potato and beet harvest 7-24-2011 |
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| Yukon gold potato 7-24-2011 |
While Mamie and I harvested beets, green beans, and herbs for dinner, Taperman took some great shots of the plants.
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| Green apple eggplant 7-24-2011 |
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| Broccoli 7-24-2011 |
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| Green beans 7-24-2011 |
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| Gretel eggplant 7-24-2011 |
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| Heirloom tomatoes 7-24-2011 |
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| Heirloom tomatoes 7-24-2011 |
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| Mamie and me with our harvest |
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| Zucchini 7-24-2011 |
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| Sugar snap peas 7-24-2011 |
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| Our first onion! It smelled great - seriously |
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| Swallow eggplant 7-24-2011 |
The sugar snap peas, green beans, zucchini, herb bed, swiss chard, and lettuce are all producing like crazy, and we've been trying to come up with as many different ways to cook them all as we can.
Last night, we made a frittata with squash blossoms, and served it with roasted new potatoes, beets, and green beans. It was all fantastic, but I do have to say that I think squash blossoms may be a bit overrated. It was quite a lot of work to get the bugs out of them, and they didn't have a noticeable taste in the frittata. Maybe I overpowered the flavor with the herbs that I added, so I'm willing to give them another shot, but I have to say that I wasn't blown away. The finished dish was lovely, though.
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| Squash blossom frittata with fresh herbs 7-24-2011 |
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| Roasted new potatoes, beets, and green beans 7-24-2011 |
The girls haven't been suffering, either. The heat was not kind to the broccoli and cauliflower, so I ripped out one of the broccoli plants that had bloomed, and gave it to the girls, who were extremely appreciative.
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| Chickens approaching broccoli 7-24-2011 |
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| Aracauna 7-24-2011 |
The barn cats are also still here! I have to go out and replenish their food now, but yesterday we saw both Pam and Persephone, so that was encouraging.
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