May 31 - Vegetable Garden Week 9

The garden is great. The snap peas are about 2 feet high, the tomatoes are growing well, and we actually have some strawberries growing. The mulch is keeping the weeds down and it looks nicer. We're still getting radishes, but I'm looking forward to snap peas and all the other good veggies. 

April 26 - Vegetable Garden Week 4

Even though it has been frigid lately, things are growing! The radishes, snap peas, and lettuce have all sprouted.

Zucchini Carbonara

I got out to Southampton Friday night and we didn't feel like going to the grocery store, but needed dinner. If you have eggs, bacon, parm, and onion (and pasta), you can make it. I went out to the garden and grabbed some zucchini and parsley to lighten it up a little. It was so easy and really tasty, and the zucchini gives it a bit of a summery bent - and it's a good way to use up zucchini if you have a lot.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

5 strips of bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

2 small zucchini, cut into match sticks

1 large leek (or onion) thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup parm or pecorini

2 eggs

small handful of parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

Pasta

Radish Butter

This is a very simple recipe (2 ingredients plus salt and pepper) that is surprisingly flavorful for how few ingredients it has. I took the recipe from Simple Fresh Southern to use up some of my garden radishes. It's a great, springy spread and something a little different - smooth from the butter and crunchy and peppery from the radishes. It's great just on crackers, but I'd love to try it on a sandwich. Jamie thought it would be a great mayo substitute.

Garden - Week 8, May 3

The garden is doing well! I forgot to take more pictures, but the snap peas are growing really well, the regular peas only have like 3 shoots, the lettuce is coming up nicely, the swiss chard isn't really, the zucchini hasn't come up yet, neither has the cucumber. The radishes are doing really well and I culled/thinned them a bit, resulting in a couple adorable micro radishes. They were peppery and delicious.

Garden - Week 1, March 15

It's time to start the garden! Can you believe it? It has been such a long, cold winter, but there are some things you can plant as soon as the ground can be worked, and if you have raised garden beds, the ground can probably be worked now.

Vegetable Garden June 22 (Week 14)

Garden's looking great! We have a ton of snappeas and lots and lots of zucchini blossoms. (Fried zucchini blossoms are one of my very favorite summer treats.) Also got our first zucchini, and our first cherry bomb pepper (but it's still green, so I'm waiting on it). Some deer have been nibbling on the tomato and zucchini plants, which has never happened, so I sprayed extra deer spray on. Hopefully this week they'll be okay.

Cherry Bomb Pepper

Vegetable Garden-May 18 (Week 9)

The garden looks great! I planted the peas on March 16, planted most of the tomatoes, hot peppers, and eggplants (with Wall O Waters to keep them warm), the cucumbers and zucchinis form seeds, and the lettuce, transplanted, on April 20. I hadn't been out in a few weekends and everything is looking happy.

Even though there have been some cold nights, the Wall O Waters seem to have kept the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers happy, the snap peas are almost 2 feet high, the zucchini and cucumbers have come up and look healthy, and the lettuce is already huge. My parsley also survived the winter from last summer and is enormous.

Spring!

So it's 30 degrees and freezing and maybe not quite spring yet, but it's pea planting time! The tradition is planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, so Jamie and I are heading out to Long Island to plant our peas this weekend. Can't wait to be working in the garden again. It makes these lingering cold days bearable, sort of.

Vegetable Garden Week 4

After being away for about a month, I went back out to the country last weekend and got to see my garden. Apart from being super dry, it looked great! (Especially once I watered it.) Four of the five brussels sprouts I planted sprouted, a perfect line of beets popped up (I'll need to thin them next weekend), and all the peas had sprouted! So exciting.

Brussels Sprouts

Beets

Peas

I planted another row of beets and carrots, a row of swiss chard, zucchinis, and cucumbers. I also set up a little trellis for the cucumbers and planted some lettuce underneath.

Garden Planning

Jamie and I are starting up the garden this weekend (according to Martha Stewart, it's a tradition to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day!). We're building a second garden bed, too, giving us double the room! I've been thinking for weeks about what I want to plant this year, even trying to plant my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants from seeds. Above is my sketched out plan (the beds are 8'x4' so it's easier to make a grid). The peas will be done by mid-June, so they'll allow the plants near them more room to grow later. And I only plan to do about 2 rounds of carrots and beets, so the bushy tomatoes can grow into that space. The bed nearer to the hedge will have the lower plants and the bed further the higher (so they both get as much sun as possible). I can't wait to start eating fresh vegetables! (It is sad to think how long I'll have to wait - we probably won't even get the peas until late May.)

Wish us luck!

The plan:

Plants in Bed #1
Swiss Chard
Brussel Sprouts
Herbs (basil, mint, thyme, oregano, marigolds, nasturtiums...)
Carrots
Beets
Sweet 100 Tomatoes (and probably Green Grape tomatoes)
Zucchini
Cucumber
Peas (only for the spring/early June)

Plants in Bed #2
Hot peppers
Herbs (same as above)
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Peas (only for the spring/early June) 

Garden Vegetable Pasta

After picking an eggplant, some zucchini, and some basil from my garden I came back to the city to make a summery dinner. I did go out and buy some tomatoes and garlic (my tomatoes aren't ready just yet). I also used rachette pasta because I knew Jamie would like it, but use anything you've got at home. This is great and summery and is a good way to use your veggies - or those you pick up at the farm stand!

Ingredients:
3 small zucchini
1 small eggplant
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp (or more to taste) red pepper flakes
4 plum tomatoes, cut into cubes
1 tsp tomato paste
2 tbsp water
Basil

Directions:
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes and add to the pan. Saute until they start to soften.

Vegetable Garden - Part One

I had a little back porch vegetable garden last year with a few tomato plants etc in pots and have since been planning my real vegetable garden. Summer tomatoes are so amazing and juicy and red and having them fresh from your yard is such a treat. My tomato plants did pretty well on the back porch, so I'm hoping they do even better with more room to grow. I'm also planning on planting some zucchini, eggplant, peas, swiss chard, hot peppers, and strawberries, along with some herbs. It was a really fun activity - and luckily this early April Saturday was sunny and warm. Jamie was an amazing help, very handy and strong - the bags of top soil and the beams were super heavy.