August 14, 2009

this week’s harvests

I pulled a bunch of beets this week: Chiogga, Lutz and White Detroit. Also carrots: Oxheart, Mokum and Bolero (a lot of funky shapes!). And my onions grown from sets: variety is Stuttgarter. Onions will stay in the garden 3 or 4 days to dry for storage. Its a good time with several days of dry weather ahead.

August 12, 2009

grilled beets

The bottom line is – fantastic! My husband invented this one. My Lutz beets, his grilling. It was an experiment. I’ve looked on-line for grilled beet recipes. They suggest grilling whole in foil, or par boiling, or marinating slices 30 min then grilling. We like to do quick food prep: very fresh vegetables – very quick grilling. My husband make really nice grilled potatoes, carrots, fennel, onions, squash, etc. He slices about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, brushes with olive oil and adds herbs and/or spices while cooking. Why not…

July 24, 2009

blighted potatoes

I thought the potatoes I dug were fine, even though the plants were heavily hit with late blight. But after three weeks of storage, I have realized they’re not fine. The fingerlings and Russets that were hardest hit and that I cut down and dug first are turning brown and rotting in their bags. [Late blight produces] characteristic coppery-brown discoloration of the potato flesh under the skin…. Infection of potato tubers arises from spores that develop on foliage. Tubers exposed by soil cracking or erosion of hills may come in…

July 14, 2009

potatoes, potatoes

On Sunday, a week after cutting down most of my badly blight damaged (Late Blight) potato plants, I found more blight damage. Actually all my varieties now show a lot of blight spots. But the earlier varieties are worse off. The Russet foliage (a late variety) is nice and green still, but leaves have lots of brown/moldy looking spots. The Red Gold (early variety) plants were yellowed falling over and with brown/moldy leaf spots. Its normal for the plants to die back, and I don’t know how much the blight…

July 11, 2009

early baked potatoes

No photo. We ate them all. But they were yummy. I baked two of my big early Russets that I dug yesterday. I think early potatoes are usually boiled for potato salad. But I can say that early Russets are fantastic! We topped them with Boursin cheese (gilding the lily!) and served with chiogga beets, fresh salad greens and bay scallops. Ahhh…. potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

July 10, 2009

my first potato harvest

I cut down lots of my potato plants today because many have late blight. It looks like the potatoes are OK though. This is a pile of Russets I dug. They were volunteers in one of my paths. I was impressed with how many came from one plant. And how big they are already. They sure tasted yummy. potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

July 6, 2009

tomato and potato fruits

I thought I’d compare my tomato (left) and potato (right) fruits. Pretty similar in appearance. Both are about the same size now. I’m looking forward to red tomatoes in a couple of weeks. Yummy! My first varieties this year will be New Girl (above photo) and Orange Blossom, sowed Feb 21. Unfortunately potato fruit contains large amounts of the toxic alkaloid solanine, and is therefore poisonous. Potatoes can be grown from seed, though they don’t breed true; Wikipedia says to finely chop the fruit and soak it in water, the…

July 4, 2009

wet July potato plants

My rain gauge says almost 4 inches of rain in the past week! Wow! After reading about Late Blight in the news letter from Piccadilly Farm (my post from yesterday), I took a close look this evening at my potato plants. They look great overall, but there are a few nasty leaf spots here and there. I suppose it could be late blight starting in my patch. I’m planning to start my potato harvest this weekend. Most of my varieties have finished blooming and are fruiting already. (Love those cute…

June 19, 2009

new potatoes

Talk about delicious! Ahhhh…. I let a number of volunteer potatoes plants grow this year in my paths and my cabbage bed. I guess I missed some spuds last fall and they sprouted this spring. This week, the plants began shading the cabbage too much and I pulled them out. The prize was a few tiny little baby red potatoes on the roots. These were so young and tender that the skins almost rubbed off when I washed them. I boiled them 3 minutes, then threw them in the pan…

June 4, 2009

perennial onion

A friend of mine grows perennial onions and I asked for one. I planted it in the corner of a bed at my community plot. But I’m still confused about what on earth this is…. I’ll have to ask more questions next time I see her. I have read about perennial onions at Bifurcated Carrots. OK. I guess they are like chives, but they make bulbs as well as greens. Sounds reasonable. And they also make top sets that are like little onion bulbs that can be planted for more…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31