Septembers garden.

My garden is winding down but there's still lots to do. For the next two weeks it's final harvesting and trimming. Then pulling out plants and readying the soil for next spring and planting some things to overwinter. 

Here's what the garden looks like now. I've got a couple of groups of spinach growing. Not doing the best but enough to add to other greens in a small salad every now and then. 

There are still a couple of carrots. And I haven't harvested any of the parsnips yet, waiting till after a frost (I'm curious about how they'll turn out).  Their stalks are much bigger than I would have thought. I imagined them to look much like a carrot top. 

There's still several eggplants on the plants. I have pinched off all remaining flowers so all the energy and nutrients will go into growing the current fruit. They have definitely slowed down. 

There are still a food number of tomatoes that need to ripen. I am hoping most will ripen on the plant but I'll take the ones that don't in to ripen inside. I have trimmed back the plants considerably. 

The hot pepper section of my garden has been taken over by cayennes. There are still a couple of banana peppers, several cherry bomb and a bunch of habaneros but the Cajun bells and sweet bells are done. 

The leeks are going crazing. Fighting for space and light. I really learned my lesson  about planting less is more. They need their space. 

My fall lettuces are doing great. Planted about a month ago they are perfect size for salads right now. 

The fall beets still have a ways to go. 

One of the Brussel sprout plants are doing well. The other I might give up on and take out. 

Here's my late planted kohl robi. I'm not sure if this is going to make it. 

My fall planted radishes are coming nicely. Hope they taste yummy. 

This is the one remaining broccoli plant. It's still producing side shoots.

The sweet slicing english cucumbers are still going strong. There's several fruits growing on the vines and even new flowers. 

The herb planters are also doing well. Oregano, thyme, lemon thyme, basil, cilantro, flat parsley, Curley parsley, rosemary, and peppermint. 

I've got to trim these and root some for a winter indoor herb garden. 

Harvest Monday

I didn't get much harvested this week as I was pretty busy. This weekend i competed in the provincial disc golf championship and finished third! I also got my first ace (equivalent to a hole in one in ball golf). So that was pretty exciting!!!
But I manage red to get one good basket and a couple other things. I harvested some ultra sweet beefsteak tomatoes (they are so big a meeting and delicious) some more hot peppers, lettuce, an eggplant which I gave to a colleague, some beets, a couple carrots and a cucumber. I still have fruit ripening on most o my plants and I'm hoping I can get another couple weeks before I have to take everything off.

Grow it! Cook it! Eat it! Live it!

Last week I started a new blog series to highlight one recipe a week with ingredients that are grown locally.  I would like to thank my two fellow bloggers for linking up with me last week.  Please check out their blogs: Mark's Veg Plot and An Oregon's Cottage.   Last week I highlighted fajitas cooked on the fire while Mark highlighted braised beef in tomato sauce and Jami posted two great salsa recipes.  Please be sure to link up this week with a recipe of your own.  I find these links the best way to find new blogs with similar interests are you and a great way to have new people find you!  I participate in 3 other series:  Monday Harvest over at Daphne's Dandelions, Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon's Cottage and Saturday Spotlight at Suburban Tomato.  

I'm posting this weeks Grow it! Cook it! Eat it! Live it! early because I will be away tomorrow competing in the provincial championships of disc golf.  Disc golf is another one of my hobbies, if you have not heard of the sport it is played similar to golf but with small discs instead of a ball and club.  Check out more info about it on the wiki.

Ok so on with my recipe for this week.  This week I made Thai beef salad.  Its a great dish to make at the end of the week when you haven't shopped in a while and have odds and ends.  GMF pulled out some beef tenderloin that had been frozen in Kobi beef marinade (often I make my own asian marinade with soya sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil, honey and salt and pepper).  I sliced it really really thin with my ceramic knife (if you haven't tried ceramic knives yet you should I LOVE them!).  I then sautéed the beef quickly in a little oil and sat off to the side.  I then cut up whatever veg I have on hand (this time I picked a cherry bomb pepper, cayenne pepper, cajun bell pepper, some broccoli and a carrot from the garden and I had a yellow bell pepper and an onion in the fridge.)  I sautéed these veg with a little soya sauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper.  I also sautéed some been sprouts (GMF thinks its crazy that I like bean sprouts so much, but they are so yummy).  I cooked up some chow mein noodles and then sauteed them with soya sauce, sesame oil, honey and salt and pepper.  I then add the beef and all the veg and toss.  Serve with some spinach leaves chopped, lots of cilantro and sesame seeds for garnish.  Depending on your spice level you can add some chili garlic paste (I added my homemade hot sauce) and here is the finished product!

Tasty treats

With a couple very warm days here in Ontario (up to 45 degrees Celsius with the humidex) our tomatoes and peppers are ripening at a good rate. Won't be long before I have to take them all inside though for risk of frost. I've already pruned all the plants so all their energy goes into the fruit already formed instead of new growth (sad).

GMF has been making some new creations. First he made kale pizza. He sautéed the kale in oil and garlic (kitchen smelled so tasty). Then put that on a naan brea with some I onions, peppers and cheese. And roasted them in the oven. I snuck a piece of the kale before pizza stage and it was delicious. He also made an eggplant dish. He topped roasted eggplant with marinara sauce cheese and a big tomato slice and broiled till the cheese melted. He made lots of these and had some for dinner and lunch the next day. I'm sure it would freeze well also.
I also created something a tiny bit different in the dessert department (using nothing from the garden though). Chewy fudge brownies with peanut butter icing and score bits on top. Soo yummy. I made them on Saturday and planned to take half ino work to share. But oops we ate all of them (uh oh). I'll have to make them again sometime soon for work.
Hope everyone else is enjoying their end of summer.

Harvest Monday - Sept 2nd-9th

This week we harvested our first red bell peppers.  I don't think I'll grow full size bells again next year, they don't produce enough and take too long to ripen.  I think I'll try mini bells.  The grape tomatoes continue to produce enough for me to pick a good handful everyday for snacks and salads.  Below are two of our weird shaped cayennes.  They are normally long and skinny like the ones in the last photo.  I thought it was cross pollination but apparently that doesn't produce two different types on the same plant.  They taste like cayennes still though so thats all that matters.

I also harvest lots of herbs for meals this week.  Here is a shot of what I picked one day: Rosemary and Thyme for marinating chicken that I used in this recipe.

The cherry bomb peppers are still doing great.  Ripening a couple a day or so.  And the cajun bells (but I don't have a pic of my harvests of them).  The cajun bells are great for snacking so I tend to pick one at a time for lunch veggies.

Our fall lettuces are really starting to take off.  I have been harvesting some baby greens for salads.

This day was a good haul.  I thought these would be some of the last cucumbers we'd get as there was no more fruit or flowers starting, but the day after I picked these there were tons of flowers on the plants!  Also excited to still be getting little bits of broccoli on the one remaining plant.  There is also the tiniest of habaneros on the left (the orange pepper - it went into a marinade).  There is one lone carrot there that was delicious as a snack.  Oh and a cajun bell, I guess I did get one in a shot.

A health kick tomato (took this one to work and just eat it sliced up as a snack!) and some more peppers.

More peppers a pathetic white carrot and, the last of our snow peas.  The snow didn't work out this year because the plant got hidden by the broccoli and brussel sprouts, but I will try them again next year.

 Lots of peppers for my homemade hot sauce!!!  Turns out I only used about 12 of these cayennes.  Oh my I'm gonna have to make a lot of hot sauce!

I also wanted to thank Daphne for hosting Monday Harvest, head over to her site to see what others are harvesting around the world.  Also check out my new Linky for posting a weekly recipe highlighting local food.  Please link up each week so others can see what you're cooking!  Click the image to see this weeks series and link-up.