Garden Progress and Kitchen Fixin's~May

A Few Photos of the Veggie Garden

1.  Corn:  Oh, how modestly the corn starts out!  I snapped this on day one of germination.  Could  these sproutlings be ANY cuter?!

 

 

2.  Lettuce, beets and onions.  I have been using the last of my spinach, which has mostly bolted, and I'm now working on this row of lettuce with baby beet leaves for interest.  The salad spinner is in full swing on a daily basis.

 

 

3.  The potatoes are coming along nicely.  In addition to these are some random ones growing from potatoes that were left behind last year.  I'm keeping them all.

 

 

4.  The snow peas are doing great on their fence in the hugelkultur bed.  Although I still don't like this method, I'm giving it another try.  Next to the peas are some potatoes I had left over after planting the main row.

 

5. One of several rows of radishes.  Beside them is a row of Swiss chard I will probably thin once more.  I regularly plant radishes and lettuce, so I always have some coming on.  This variety of radish turned out very hot for me, too much for me to enjoy them on a salad.  They are all harvested now, replaced with another row of seeds.   I made soup from the tops and roasted the roots.  Pictures to follow! 

 

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Making the Radish Top Soup

Here are those same radishes, cleaned, ready to be cut up for soup and for roasting.

 

And here are the pretty radish tops after I sorted and washed again in the spinner.  Onion was softened in butter, then I added the sliced potatoes and radish tops without too much chopping because I knew I was going to run the soup through the food processor afterward.  It just happened that I cooked a chicken we bought at the Farmer's Market last Saturday and had been making stock from it, so that's the brown liquid in the pyrex measuring cup.

 

 

 Starting to look like soup now that I've added the stock and simmered it down.  The potatoes are soft, so I call that done.

A quick run through the processor gives me this lovely green.  The recipe calls for cream at this point, but that was too heavy for a soup that already had two potatoes to thicken it.   Result?  Delicious!  Really, really good.

 I'm not as enthusiastic about the roasted radishes.  The recipe said I wouldn't be able to tell these from potatoes.  Wrong.  Admittedly, I botched a couple things, too much salt and I cooked them a little too long, but that would not have effected the fact that I could still detect some bitterness.  It's just possible with some condiments, it could be covered up, but I will scout elsewhere for ideas for my too-hot radishes.  In the meantime, I'm looking for my old variety of radish in an heirloom.  Better luck this fall!

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Pretties

 

 

 

 

 

 

Root Soup

I dug some gnarly potatoes out of the garden today, so gnarly I knew they wouldn't store well, so I endeavored to prep them for soup, also knowing I had some almost equally gnarly vegetables hanging around in the refrigerator that would not last much longer. 

Above:  Those big ugly roots at the top of the picture are sweet potatoes that were above ground.  The critters out in the garden have been chewing them.  I only brought them in to show.  The pink roots are sweet potatoes.  The piled brown roots are potatoes that also look like there has been some rodent damage.  Then there are carrots, one of which I snapped off when I picked it.  Grrr.

Above:  I picked through the potatoes, choosing the worst, those with a rotten spot or which I had cut in two with the shovel, peeled, cut them up and set them aside in salted water while I worked on the carrots.  I leave my tops when I peel and slice carrots because it's such a convenient handle.  These were a little woody, but still sweet.  I always taste test before I toss in a whole bunch of chopped vegetable.  What if it's bitter and I have to pick it all out?!

Above:  All the ingredients now assembled.  I brought this to a boil and then set it to simmer.

Altogether, the root soup consisted of potatoes and carrots from the garden, half a medium onion, two stalks of celery, two mushrooms, and a precious jar of home-grown tomatoes.  I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and marjoram.  I thought about tossing in some high-powered fresh herbs, but I had some wonderful fresh vegetables that I wanted to taste this time around.  Along with fresh-baked bread, this is my supper for this evening.  *smile*

Above:  Two sweet potatoes, a small and a large one, peeled and almost ready to bake.

The sweet potatoes are completely experimental, so I chose a small and large.  The large had a subtle woody cortex that I cut away, but it all tasted the same, that is, sweet.  I put it in the glass baking dish (reused aluminum foil), dotted with real butter and a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and set the oven to 350 degrees for 1 hour.  I am eager to discover how it turns out!