Acorn Squash Seeds

My acorn squash plant pretty much took over the bed it was in this summer while not giving me very many squash. That’s OK as they have been delicious.

I decided to save one and serve it to my family for Thanksgiving. As there are to be about 12 of us, obviously just serving it whole wouldn’t work. The squash is in the oven right now. After it is cooked and cooled, it will be stuffed into home-made ravioli. I already have the dough made and it is chilling in the fridge.

While I didn’t have a ton of success during the growing season, I decided to save the seeds. If I don’t use them for growing squash next year I can always toast them up for a nice snack.

Pepper Harvest

I haven’t had much success growing peppers in the past. The first year I had a garden, I had five or six bell pepper plants that produced a few small, thin skinned peppers. Last year I had a couple of jalapeno plants. Again, I only got a few peppers.

About a week before my spring planting, I was drawn to a rack of veggie plants outside of the grocery store. I already had enough plants at home for my garden, so I held back and only bought two. I ended up with a tomato plant and a Thai pepper plant. Actually it was Thai pepper plants as the little cell contained four plants. I liked that I was paying for one, and getting three for free. I like free.

While one of the plants died, the other three started to produce like mad. I have been getting a steady amount of peppers for months. Today I decided to pick the rest of the peppers and freeze my harvest. I can’t believe the number of peppers I got from just three plants.

August

Despite having a garden for several years, I sometimes forget to use what I have grown. I’ll excitedly pick a zucchini, only to forget about it on the counter. I tackled this problem head on in the month of August. I pledged to eat at least one thing grown in my garden every day. Now that August is over, I am proud to say that except for one day, I did it. The one day I didn’t eat something I grew, I wasn’t feeling well and barely ate anything all day. I am not going to hold that against me.

During the month, I discovered a new food combination. I have always loved bagels topped with fresh tomatoes and melted cheese. When I have a bit of extra time, I put the bagel halves under the broiler so that the cheese turns a bit brown. I am not the biggest cucumber fan in the world, so when my lemon cucumber plant started to produce like mad, I had to think of way to use them up. I started to top my bagels not only with tomatoes and cheese but cucumbers as well. The combo really works. It is especially good with jalapeño jack cheese. The coolness of the cucumbers is a nice balance to the hot cheese.

Garlic Seeds

I grew garlic for the first time last fall. It was one of the easiest edibles that I have ever grown. I just planted the individual cloves in November and then dug up the bulbs in June. I must have missed a few as when I was preparing the same bed for green beans a couple of weeks ago, I found a few more bulbs. Other than being a little dry, they were fine and went into storage with the rest of my picked garlic.

Out of curiosity, I let a couple of the plants flower and go to seed. I picked the flowers and rubbed them between my hands to release the seeds. After doing a little research, I discovered that if you plant a garlic seed, it will grow into a clove and the next year into a bulb. I don’t know if I have enough patience for that. I also found a couple of recipes. The one I found for picked garlic seeds looks really good. Too bad it calls for a cup of garlic seeds and I only have about a fourth of that.

Green Beans

According to Sacramentogardening.com, beans can be planted in April, May, July, and August. While it is now a bit late, I decided to make a go at a bean crop. For this entire gardening season, I have had an empty bed. This was partly due to growing garlic last winter. I thought it would be ready to pull in May but I had to wait until mid-June. Also, I can be a bit lazy and I didn’t want to pull the weeds. Well a few days ago, I put my laziness aside and pulled the weeds. I then mixed in some dried leaves and threw down my seeds. I planted pole beans along the sides of the bed and bush beans in the middle. I was surprised with how quickly they sprouted. I may have to thin down the plants as I over-seeded, expecting the birds to eat half.

Eggplants

This is the third year I have attempted to grow eggplants. The first year, I had three plants of the Black Beauty variety. None of the plants got that big and or produced any eggplants. I didn’t give up and last year planted a couple more Black Beauty plants. I had a bit more success and I managed to grow two eggplants. Not bad. This year, I decided to switch varieties. I planted three Rosa Bianca plants. So far, the results have been much better. Two of the three plants have produced, giving me a total of seven eggplants.

Lemon Cucumbers

A few weeks ago I was complaining to a friend about my lemon cucumber plant. The plant was huge and a healthy green but hadn’t produced any cucumbers. Well, I think the plant heard me because a week later a bunch of baby cucumbers showed up. They grow really fast and now I am able to pick one every other day. Yum.

Why I Grow Garlic

Photo: Garlic sensation by Sebastian Mary

China
It wasn’t until the Country of Origin Law went into effect a couple of years ago that I realized how many everyday foods I was purchasing came from China. One package I distinctly remember said “Wild caught Alaskan salmon” on the front and “Product of China” on the back. While it was easy to find an alternative brand of frozen salmon and other items, it was hard to find garlic that didn’t come from China. By growing it myself, I just have to worry about where the seed garlic comes from.

Check out an insider’s view of Chinese grown garlic.

Scape Escape
While waiting for the garlic bulb to form, you can use the green shoots, or scapes in dishes. They add a nice kick when chopped up and added to eggs. I have also made garlic scape pesto. The first time I made the pesto, I used this recipe. I found this pesto too strong and now use equal parts garlic scapes and basil. It comes out just right.

Variety
The only varieties of garlic I have seen in grocery stores are California White and Elephant (which isn’t really garlic). My choices in garlic were limited last year as I waited until he last possible second to order. In fact I only found one place that had one variety left. I was glad that I was able to secure some Chesnok Red. I supplemented it with a couple of bulbs of California White I bought at Whole Foods.