I was able to assemble a meager harvest for this week's efforts. I pulled the salsify that has been growing for five months and also picked some broccoli florets.
These are the roots of the five month old salsify that weighed in at only 4 ounces. They don't even reach all the way across the tray of my table scale! By the time you clean them, there may be a tablespoonful left to cook. Sounded easy enough on the seed packet directions, but that shows that you can't believe everything you read! The packet pictures made them look like large white carrots.
Nine ounces of the small broccoli florets were pretty nice to get this week. Most of the plants are already flowering and going to seed. But that's a good thing! I'm keeping an eye on them so I can harvest the seeds. From the information I have reviewed, the seed pods MUST dry out on the plant while it is still in the ground. Even if you pull the plants out and let the pods dry, the seed will not be viable. Does anyone have any experience with saving broccoli seeds?
This is something I usually don't put on my blog, but it was so good that I had to share it with all of you. I used a bag of Mrs. Wages Dilled Green Bean mix last fall to make a few jars of dilled green beans. Well, I like how it turned out because I like dill and I like green beans, so I couldn't lose on that one. Today for lunch I gave my wife a sample of the dilled beans and she liked them too. Then we thought, "What can we make using these dilled beans?" We had a can of chick peas/garbanzo beans in the pantry so we put them in the mix. We had a sweet red bell pepper in the fridge so I diced that up and mixed it in. For some extra juice, I poured the liquid contents of one of the two pint jars we used into the bowl, mixed it up and it was really great! It reminded me of a three bean salad, except this was a two bean and a pepper salad! I will be using many bags of Mrs. Wages Dilled Green Bean mix this year!
That's it for this week, and that just about depletes the garden of any future harvests from plants that are out there at this time. It's tilling time for the last time before the seeds go into the ground. I'm anxiously sitting here with 2,000 Fortex green bean seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. I can't wait to get them into the soil! I plan to use intensive gardening methods and succession planting for them this year.
Happy vegetable gardening and good weather to everyone!
Veggie PAK
This is something I usually don't put on my blog, but it was so good that I had to share it with all of you. I used a bag of Mrs. Wages Dilled Green Bean mix last fall to make a few jars of dilled green beans. Well, I like how it turned out because I like dill and I like green beans, so I couldn't lose on that one. Today for lunch I gave my wife a sample of the dilled beans and she liked them too. Then we thought, "What can we make using these dilled beans?" We had a can of chick peas/garbanzo beans in the pantry so we put them in the mix. We had a sweet red bell pepper in the fridge so I diced that up and mixed it in. For some extra juice, I poured the liquid contents of one of the two pint jars we used into the bowl, mixed it up and it was really great! It reminded me of a three bean salad, except this was a two bean and a pepper salad! I will be using many bags of Mrs. Wages Dilled Green Bean mix this year!
That's it for this week, and that just about depletes the garden of any future harvests from plants that are out there at this time. It's tilling time for the last time before the seeds go into the ground. I'm anxiously sitting here with 2,000 Fortex green bean seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. I can't wait to get them into the soil! I plan to use intensive gardening methods and succession planting for them this year.
Happy vegetable gardening and good weather to everyone!
Veggie PAK
So what do you do with salsify?? I've never cooked with it before. Broccoli looks terrific!
ReplyDeleteThat may be a small harvest for you....but it is a harvest! Every harvest is a good harvest!
ReplyDeleteI have never saved broccoli seeds before. Please keep us posted!
Very interesting on the dilled green beans. I have never tried those. I have seen salsify before but never tried to grow it. It just never looked real tasty.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of three bean salad, whether or not it actually has three beans in it. It looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see a picture of those broccoli seed pods! Sorry I don't have any experience saving broccoli seeds, but I hope someone out there has and can provide some info on how to do it.
ReplyDeleteJGH, if you're lucky enough for it to grow for you, you're supposed to sautee it in butter and it is reputed to taste like oysters. I guess I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I am grateful for every harvest no matter how small, because it's still a harvest. The broccoli plants are drying out a bit and are beginning to lay down somewhat. You can see the main stems are shrivelling a little. Hopefully, I'll have viable broccoli seeds to harvest!
becky3086, if you like three bean salad from the store, you'll like the home version even better.
Daphne, it WAS delicious!
thyme2garden, the plants are progressing at drying out, so maybe I'll be able to get some seeds soon. I'll get some better close-up pictures of the pods. At the rate the plants are drying, it might not be too long of a wait before the seed pods are dried on the plants.
Thanks to everyone for visiting and also to those that shared comments.
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK