Summer's Bounty

Oh yeah.

We're talkin' Razzle Dazzle tomatoes, Purple Dragon carrots, Sun Sugar tomatoes and Swedish Fingerling potatoes.

It's not a big harvest, mind you. A mere plateful, actually.

But it's a big deal around here.

I dug up a couple of potatoes just to see how big they were. I wouldn't call them 'fingerlings' so much as 'stumplings.' See?

Just about the size of a cherry tomato. So, they stay in their barrels a bit longer.

The big news is that we were able to harvest and eat some of the Maple Sugar corn.

We had 6 ears that bloomed...sprouted...grew...whatever they do...but 2 of them mysteriously turned moldy. So I was only able to pick 4 ears.

We carefully husked them to see their beautiful golden goodness inside...

Holy Weirdness, Batman! What kind of freakish vegetable creature have I grown??

Not sure what happened to that poor little guy. Needless to say, we didn't eat it.

So we were down to 3 ears. For 4 people. Rather than do brain-hurting math, I cooked the 3 remaining ears...

(yes, they're supposed to be that small)

...and cut all the kernels off so we could divvy up the goodness equally.

And, man, was it good. True to the name, there was a maple sugary taste to the corn. Quite unlike any corn I've ever had. Very, very good. We decided that if we do corn again next year, we plant a LOT more of it.

There are a few cornstalks that haven't produced anything yet, but they are getting little silky mop tops, just like the earlier ones did. We'll see if anything comes of it. Our taste buds sure hope so.

I'm still waiting for my White Wonder tomatoes to turn white. (I have mistakenly been calling them Italian Ice tomatoes. Italian Ice was the plant I ordered. Then killed. White Wonder is the replacement.)

The plant has a lot of green, lemon shaped tomatoes on it:

And one very yellow tomato:

Not quite sure what to make of that. I'll keep you posted.

In honor of all this yellow, summery deliciousness, I'll give you a fantastic lemonade recipe. Normally, I'm not a big fan of Rachel Ray's recipes, but this time she nailed it. This lemonade is so good, my girls don't want to even look at the canned, powdered or concentrate kind anymore.

It's a bit of work, but it's worth it. (So if I ever serve it to you, you know it's 'cause you're special.)

Honey-Vanilla Lemonade

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup honey

2 cups water, plus more as needed

1 vanilla bean

2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 12 or so large lemons)

Lemon wheels or wedges for garnish

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, honey and 2 cups water, and place over medium-high heat. Cut the vanilla bean in 1/2 lengthwise, then, using the back of the knife, scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod and add to the saucepan, along with the pod. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 4 or 5 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Put the lemon juice into a gallon jug or pitcher. Pour the sugar syrup through a strainer into the pitcher and discard the pod. Add water to equal 1 gallon and stir well.

Serve over ice with lemon wheels or wedges.

How Does My Garden Grow...?

Meet Poppy. This is the baby bunny we rescued from a neighbor's window well. And the reason we built the veggie bed 20 inches high. He lives in the wood pile next to the veggie bed and stares at it, cursing his short little legs. Muwahahahaha!!!

But I digress.

I knew I'd slacked off the blog a bit - but 2 months?! Holy compost, Batman! And to think I've kept you all waiting so long, just hoping to find out the latest tomato turmoil and corn

crisis...

What? Not really? You haven't been angsting over the arugala?

Neither have I. As the summer has been flying by, the veggies have been flying upwards with very little effort from me.

One day the bed looked like this:

And, 60 or 70 days later, it looks like this:

Oh and this:

Those are the Swedish Fingerling potatoes on the left and the sweet potatoes on the right.

Apparently, potatoes wreak havoc on the soil and surrounding plants, so we're growing them in highly chic black trash barrels.

We've been able to start enjoying the veggies of our labor, which is a treat. We've had lettuce, which I can't seem to find a picture of, and these lovelies:

The tomato plants I ordered all died, so I went to

Family Tree Nursery and picked up some replacements. All cherry tomatoes, but different types with things like "Honey" and "Candy" in their names. (Oh, and some Italian whites that haven't fruited yet.) The few we've had have been very yummy.

The green beans - oh the green beans! French Filets

- and man are they good! (These can cost you a pretty penny in one of them high falutin' restaurants.) Harper hates green beans and says these "aren't bad." And Rick - not a bean lover at all - actually likes them.

We did a side-by-side taste test of our babies and the standard canned variety. Both lightly tossed in a little butter. The Filets were vibrant green color and tasted so fresh and "green, but in a good way," as Rick put it. No contest! After a slow start, these little bean bushes are putting out a goodly amount of beans each day. I have people looking forward to eating green beans, folks!

The corn isn't as high as an elephant's eye - yet - but it's getting up there. Here are some beauty shots of these Maple Sugar delights:

(Harper pointed out the pretty water beads on the corn silk this morning.)

The carrots look nice and bushy, hopefully we'll be able to eat them soon. We tried one of the Touchon carrots today:

They should be ready to harvest any day now, but this little guy was far short of the 6 inches in length it's supposed to be. The girls thought the flavor was ok. I took a bite - and felt like Tom Hanks' character tasting caviar in "Big." Bitter bitter bitter!! I tried to set a decent example for the girls by not spitting them out into the yard - a difficult feat. Harper ran and got me a chocolate mint leaf to get rid of the bad taste. Oh man, I hope these things get better!

Other than that, our grand experiment is going grandly. I've planted a 3rd round of lettuce and a second round of carrots, so we can keep enjoying veggies into the early fall.

Here's a tasty way to enjoy fresh green beans - don't try this with filets, they'll turn into little bits of charcoal. But you can grab a pound of fresh beans from the grocery store or farmer's market and try this. Very tasty.

Roasted Green Beans

An aluminum foil liner prevents burning on dark nonstick baking sheets and makes for easy clean up.

Serves 4

1 pound green beans, stem ends snapped off

1 tablespoon olive oil

table salt and ground black pepper.

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Spread beans on lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil; using hands, toss evenly. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, toss to coat, and distribute in even layer. Roast 10 minutes.

2. Remove baking sheet from oven. Using tongs, redistribute beans. Continue roasting until beans are dark golden brown in spots and have started to shrivel, about 10 - 12 minutes longer.

3. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper; transfer to serving bowl and stuff your face.