How much food can you grow on 1/10th of an acre?

Garden Views

2009-07-17T21:21:00.008-06:00

The 'before' pic--May 09

Mid July 09--growing like weeds!

Bed 1-left side:
-1 yellow bush bean plant (the only one to survive our wet spring's nightly slug fest)
-1 dill that almost immediately went to seed but maybe I'll get some babies out of it (the other original plant was eaten by slugs)
-2 rosemary plants that have remained the exact same size as when I planted them. I haven't used any rosemary either since I planted them...I think they are a waste of space and probably won't plant them next year.
-1 eggplant that hasn't grown much at all. Maybe I'll do an all eggplant side next year. I think the zucchini is hogging all the space
Right side has:
-2 papaya pear squash and a very prolific cuke
In middle under A-frame: A burlap bag with several potato plants in it

Middle bed:
-3 heirloom tomato plants
-4 beefsteak tomato plants

Bed 3-left side:
-6 green beans plants (pole beans)
Middle under A-frame:
-another burlap bag with potato plants
Right:
-1 papaya pear squash
-2 prolific cukes

(When I went back to edit this blogger got rid of most of my pics! Since really I just want this info for future garden use I'll try to get over it-grrr.)

Bed 4:
-Scallions! Older and new seedlings
-bulb onions
-hiding between are radishes (I was curious if they could still be planted this late with all the sun and heat if they were protected by the leaves of the scallions and onions-so far so good)

Bed 5:
Everbearing strawberries. Might get a second crop. We got a nice sized crop in early May-yum.

Bed 6--herbs:
Time to start drying or freezing herbs for winter, things are getting big!
-2 chives
-2 flat leaf parsley
-2 tarragon
-5 basil
-3 thyme

Patio container garden:
-far left in white pot: basil and green peppers
-3 cherry tomatoes and basil
-2 burlap sacks with potatoes
-front rectangular boxes are filled with flowers and basil, thyme, and parsley

Next year I may not grow squashes or zucchini--the powdery mildew is a pain. I'm clipping leaves off like mad and spraying the leaves with a skim milk mix (1 part milk, 9 parts water) but it keeps coming back. Supposedly if I had started doing this before I saw any sign it would have been perfect. Cutting back the leaves sucks since the fruits are too exposed to the sun and it ruins them. All due to the very wet spring we had.

Other than that everything looks very healthy.

Pesto round two

2009-07-15T21:30:00.001-06:00

Seriously I won't write about pesto EVERY TIME! But wow, basil pesto is even better than cilantro pesto.

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese (leave out cheese if you are going to freeze)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Special equipment needed: A food processord

Method

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Pesto and our CSA

2009-07-08T14:11:00.004-06:00

I had NO idea pesto was so so so yummy. We joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) called Grant Farms this year. We get big box of food once a week. It's about the size of one of those green recycling boxes that everyone had before we got the big rolling bins. Being early in the growing season (here in Colorado anyway) we've been getting greens. Many greens.

So many greens.

Lots and lots of greens.

Kale. What the hell is kale anyway? Dinosaur food that's what. Do people eat this stuff? It's tough. Leathery. Not a lot of taste. I know, it's good for you but gawd. And lettuce. Dear God the lettuce. The first week we received 5 FIVE F.I.V.E heads of lettuce.

I was starting to have greens dreams.

But THIS week we finally got real veggies. Broccoli! English peas! Kohlrabi!

Wait...what? Yes, kohlrobi. I don't know what it is but at least it's not green.

Anyway. The whole point of this post was the fact that we've been getting parsley and cilantro. Massive amounts of it. So, we started to make pesto. Actually Brad's made it so far. It's so easy and you can freeze it. I like it on sandwiches best so far. It's surprisingly balanced, not too cilantro-y.

Here's the recipe we've been using:

CILANTRO PESTO
1 bunch cilantro 3 cloves garlic 1/2 c. olive oil 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/4 c. pine nuts (or walnuts) Wash cilantro, dry. Mix ingredients in food processor until smooth. Chill and serve with fish or pasta as sauce or as a vegetable dip.