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First Winter Harvest 2009

After a few days of rain, the garden is basically on autopilot. There’s no need to water, and the plants somehow grow overnight on their own without any help
from the gardener. These are the days where we actually don’t have to do anything but harvest.

Even though we’ve been harvesting since late October, Monday the 21st was the first day of winter and therefore the harvest that day was indeed the first official winter harvest. Since we
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Harvesting Sunflower Seeds

Sometime in late spring, I planted a handful of sunflower seeds along with some cosmos in hopes that they would fill in the blanks spots as the Dog Days of summer set in. True to form, the cosmos took over an entire raised bed and the sunflowers sent up two huge stalks with glorious flowers bigger than dinner plates. I wondered if we’d be able to harvest the seeds for snacking or if the birds would get them all. I’ve never harvested sunflower seeds successfully before, and I was determined to change my track record. I …

Harvesting Watermelon

Learn a nifty trick for harvesting watermelon - summer's tastiest treat - when it's ripe.

First Summer Harvest

Even though we’ve been harvesting squash for awhile now (see “Zucchini Anyone?”), it doesn’t really feel like a summer harvest until the tomatoes start showing up. This week, it’s official! They’re red and ready to start pickin’ at the Gardenerd test garden.

Although, to say that they’re red would be discriminatory. These heirloom tomatoes are ripening in nearly every color of the rainbow. Red is almost passe with all the delectable heirloom options out there.

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Late Spring Harvest

With a tiny bit of rain drizzling down this morning, I harvested a few things from the garden. It’s very exciting on a number of levels.

The first requires a little story: I didn’t plant eggplant this year – I planted it last year. It was attacked by flea beetles early on and in fall when the time came to clear the raised bed, I decided to leave the plants because they were showing signs of new growth. So they overwintered, and when spring came they had grown to a very respectable size. Then they flowered and set …

Winter Harvest

After being gone for 10 days up the coast of California during what could be called the most beautiful summer-like winter weather Northern California has ever seen, my husband and I have returned to find the gardens thriving. Some veggies are just coming into fullness, while others – like the Osaka Purple Mustard – are finishing up. We came home to find a bright yellow flower shooting out the top of overgrown mustard greens (we couldn’t possibly have kept up with the production of those giant leaves). We also found tiny, bright white, waxy cauliflower heads starting to …

Winter Harvest Recipe

In the middle of writing this month’s newsletter, I was struck with hunger and a craving for soup. Could it be that I’ve been subsisting on gingerbread cookies all morning (made fresh last night)? They are a complete protein, aren’t they?

Anywho – the need to eat right away was overshadowed by the idea of having something really nice to eat that could be assembled with minimal time. I cracked open my handy dandy binder of torn out recipes from magazines and leafed through to find something that used chickpeas and diced tomatoes – because that’s what’s in the fridge. I fell upon a …

Recipes for your Harvest

When you are looking for new ways to use your harvest from the garden, this week's Tip of the Week helps you find the perfect solution.