In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
On schedule, the earliest apricots showed up this week and the tally is about ten pounds so far. They’re small at first but the Blenheims now are larger. This variety is our favorite for flavor and texture. There’s an apricot cobbler in the works for our Memorial Day gathering. More next week on the apricots.
While I’ve been harvesting carrots for several months, I pulled the last of them to open space for warm season crops. Carrot greens went to a passel of bunnies and the carrots are sorted and stored in the fridge. We have them most days for lunch and they find their way into dinner plans and salads.
The beets grow next to the carrots every year in the raised bed mostly devoted to root crops. I plant them using a grid—about 70 in a two by four foot area. Pulling the smaller ones as the season proceeds lets others size up. These are ‘Sweet Merlin’ from Renee’s Garden. The last third of the crop remains. I’ll FaceTime with my three-year-old grandson who lives in Seattle when I pull the last of the beets. He loved watching carrots emerging from the garden soil.
I look for new ways to use my beets and found this recipe, especially suitable for larger beets. After washing and peeling, I cut the beet into one-half inch slices before pan-roasting in an iron skillet until crisp-tender. A flower pepper mix from Trader Joe’s and a favorite salt added some kick. The recipe hinted at the steak-like characteristics. These wouldn’t fool a meat-lover but they were substantial with the tahini-lime juice-garlic-turmeric sauce. Plated with red scallions and some “everything” flatbread crackers, I called it a light supper with some of my frozen apricot applesauce..
My ‘Red Rubine’ Brussels sprouts crop was a disappointment. The sprouts were under-sized though a gorgeous color. I’ve had trouble growing Brussels sprouts before, but I’ve also had good success some years. I think a longer cool season is needed. The spring and warm weather here in San Diego bring aphids and slowed growth of the sprouts. Perhaps transplanting them a month earlier would improve the odds. The plants were lovely growing next to my bi-color purple sweet peas.
With the smallish sprouts I did a veggie olive oil saute with some of my purple carrots and spring onions. Soon, I’ll shred and saute the leafy clumps harvested from the top of the plant.
Though the globe artichokes are smaller now, they are still tender and flavorful.
I let one of the ‘Tango’ celery plants flower to attract hover flies and possibly self-sow next fall. But last week it had to make way for the ‘Queen Lime’ zinnias. An impromptu bouquet from the garden became the simple church bouquet. Featured are beet greens, celery flowers, onion seed heads, artichoke leaves and thyme in flower.
See what I planted in my summer vegetable garden this week. What I’m Planting Now. Then head over to see what other garden bloggers around the world harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog.
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