So its been awhile since I've had a garden post. The garden is churning out many delicious beauties like these potatoes and garlic. It was my first time growing both of these and they were so easy. The trick with potatoes is definitely to keep them mounded as they grow and you can harvest new potatoes early or nice big spuds when the plants die back. I'm going with a third option of both! New potatoes have been delicious {roasted in the oven with olive oil and fresh rosemary, dag!} and the large potatoes have been great for fat-free scalloped potatoes {with milk, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs}...did I say fat-free? I lied.
The garlic is quite amazing. The trick is to keep weeds out {weeds bad, very bad} - you can grow garlic and you can grow weeds but you can't grow both, so it's your choice. I've been nursing the garlic since late last fall and it was harvested in June. All of the June rain helped some of the garlic bulbs split right before harvest, thanks alot rain! You really don't want alot of rain before harvest as the bulbs will split and also the skins aren't as dry as you want. However, most survived and I hung them in bundles in the drafty garage to cure for at least 4 weeks. I was so surprised at how crunchy fresh garlic is, not like that faux Chinese garlic you get at the grocery store. This home grown garlic is full of flavor but really mild - I'm definitely down with planting a larger crop this fall.
Of course I've been harvesting the usual suspects as well...corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, peppers. Cantaloupe is taking its own sweet time but I have my fingers crossed that it will turn out well.
I can't believe it's already time to plan the fall garden. It will include the following cast of characters: beets, turnips {tons of turnips actually}, carrots, another crop of cucumbers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, who knows what else.
Anyway, if you haven't tried gardening {and you like vegetables}, you should give it a whirl. For the cost of a pack of seeds, roughly less than 2-bucks, you too can have your fridge overflowing with the good stuff...much less than the supermarket prices and oh so much better. I'll step down from my produce box now. Happy digging!
images courtesy of me
