The Brownersens

A Garden Update!

Hey everyone,

Well, as it's been 4 weeks since my last blog, I figured I should update on everything we've been up to for the past few weeks. (Well, not EVERYTHING, just everything garden-related.)

We are currently hauling in quite a few tomatoes and zucchinis. We have also eaten quite a bit of sweet corn over the past few weeks, and let me just say, it is soooooo good when it comes right off the stalk. We have also begun to harvest RIPE melons, which is fabulous after having mistakenly harvested 2 melons before they were ready. The eggplants are almost done I think, but I have to say I'm not too excited about planting those again. They were difficult to use, and the skin-to-meat ratio was too high! A couple of things I am currently super excited about include finally having poblano peppers (for chile relleno of course!) and tomatillos for salsa.

So I figured it might be good to go through each of the plants and talk about our yield, its usefulness, and if we would plant it again.

Lettuce: we've already covered this I think... I would definitely do it again, but probably choose the types we plant more selectively. I think got the most use out of the red and green leaf lettuce.

Kale: I'd say we got a lot of use out of our kale, but we were never able to keep up with the amount we had. I think we could go from 3 plants to 1 or 2.

Eggplant: Ehhh... I think I already said that although we used these a bit, we didn't use them enough. In fact, I've got a pile of them right now that I'm not sure if I'll get around to using. There are some pictures of it below when I used it to make eggplant parmesan.

Melon: Our Jenny Lind melons have actually been quite delicious!! We were shocked at how long the vine got, and were startled at how many little baby melons we saw. After erroneously picking a couple of melons before they were ready, we have finally enjoyed a couple of ripe, sweet melons. Unfortunately, just when we started to harvest ripe melons, the vine started to die!! So, we'll probably get somewhere between 6 and 8 melons when all is said and done, but it makes me so sad to think of the possible 20 other melons that we are missing out on because the vine is now dying.

(both the green and orange flesh were edible!)

Hot peppers: We honestly haven't done much with these either. We need to have a canning session! I am super excited about the poblanos, so more to come here.

(Here is a blurry poblano photo... just a little ways to go! Better start looking for chile relleno recipes!)

Sweet peppers: The yield wasn't spectacular, but I really liked having them. We planted the "Purple Beauty" variety... I would probably try something new next year.

Zucchini: Although not the most exciting, it is a garden staple and we will definitely plant another next year. We need to find a way to control it though so that it doesn't get in the way of all of the other plants. Our zucchini this year ended up being less a vine and more a ginormous beast of a bush, which exacerbated the problem.

Tomatoes: Obviously another garden staple, but so many varieties to choose from! We definitely had a couple that worked, and a couple that didn't.

- Glacier: Did very well, nearly all were usable. Also, for being determinate, we never had too many tomatoes at once and the ripening was spread out over a few weeks (it is slowing down, but still going... we had our first before the 4th of July).

- Nyagous: Would not do these again. They were supposed to be dark purple, but only the first few were. More importantly, we had an issue with the tomatoes splitting as they ripened. If anyone knows why this is, I'd love to know!!

- Striped German: Most are still green, but I don't think we'll get even 1 good tomato. They are too big, and we have never had luck with large tomatoes. They split before they even start ripening!!

- Mr. Stripey: We had an issue with dry rot at first (basically the tomato dying on the inside), but now this has passed. They are Derek's favorite... very flavorful!

(The start of some tomato sauce made from Glacier and Mr. Stripey tomatoes.)

(I made the sauce along with little mini eggplant parmesan slices.)

(Yum! Everything but the pasta, cheese, breadcrumbs, and oil came from the garden!)

Tomatillos: TBD... we are waiting on these. If most of the husks get filled up though, we will have a TON of salsa!

Sweet corn: Heck yes!! We love this stuff. With about 7 stalks, we probably had about 15 ears. I think we'll plant more next year, but maybe try to stagger it so the ears ripen at different times (??).

Cauliflower: The cauliflower was great! We just harvested our second of four. However, I think the issue is space -- they take up SO MUCH space for what you get.