In the garden today, July 30, 2009

The sunflower is huge. As the seeds develop it gets more bulbous.


It is getting very top heavy. This is a photo taken from directly underneath.


The bee block is a big hit this year too. The most desirable holes are almost completely filled. I think I need to make another block this week.


Pomegranates are looking good this year.


Pimientos de Padrón peppers are growing pretty well. I got the pepper plants in the ground late so they are just starting to produce. Emily is waiting for me to bring her a big bag of these beauties. This one is ready to be picked. Happy Quail Farms has more info about this pepper and it's origin.

The Ps


First we have Peppers. Jimmy Nardello and Balecskai pepper are doing well this time of the year. If I had a greenhouse I could keep these pepper growing in a container all year long... maybe. I could try to put them in a pot, protect them from the cold weather and try to re-plant them in the spring. Maybe I'll try that. It would give them a huge headstart in the spring.


Next are the Peas. Still growing well and the snails haven't wreaked havoc yet.


Pumpkins. They aren't as dark orange as the ones at the super market yet. I'm going to keep them on the vine a bit longer, so I can save seeds from them. If they aren't totally ripe the seeds won't be as viable. I got a pumpkin at target that will have to serve as the Halloween pumpkin this year.

Enjoying the garden

Lu was having a nice day in the garden while I cleaned up and planted some winter crops. I planted peas, carrots, broccoli and some herbs.


I'm always happy when I find a honey bee enjoying the stuff I planted. There is lots of pollen on this little guy.


One of the Rouge Vif d' Etampes.


The afternoon light was just right to take a still life photo of my harvest. Pomegranates, peepers and cucumbers. It made me feel like painting again.


The tomato still life wasn't as pretty, but I'm just happy to still have good tomatoes to eat.

Harvests

Cosmo seeds


Blue Lake Pole beans are still growing well. I like that it has both yellow and white flowers on the same plant.


And I let some dry out, so I will have seeds for next year.


Here are the seeds that I harvested so far this year. I hope I'll have enough seeds to share this year with other members of Seed Savers. I would need at least 25-30 seeds for each order. Right now I have about 200 seeds.


Ancho San Luis peppers


Brandywine OTV and Croatia

Happy Quails

I'll probably only have another month to harvet tomatoes. Anna Russian and Orange Strawberry are not really producing any new tomatoes. The Brandywines are still doing OK. I picked about 20 tomatoes yesterday.


This is what it looks like when I'm processing them.


I hate having seeds in my tomato sauce, so I try to get them all out before cooking them. I tried a food mill, but I didn't like the results.


Earlier this week I had lunch at Evvia in Palo Alto. It's a Greek restaurant that has Saghanaki. Saghanaki is pan fried Kefalograviera cheese & padron peppers with oregano & lemon. Emily liked the peppers so much that I thought I would try to grow some next year. I found out the resturant's source for Pimientos de Padrón and went to the farmers market this weekend to buy some. The actual Pimientos de Padróns are smaller than the ones I bought, but I figured the seeds would not be developed enough to save. These are the same peppers just more mature. I hope I can save some of the seeds to grow a few plants next summer. Of course, I will share with Emily. You can find the recipe for the peppers on the Happy Quail Farms site.

A peanut, 6 peppers and 2 black noses

I visited Becky today. She had a kid about 5 months ago. He seemed very happy to see me. His nickname is Peanut. Even his clothes have peanuts on them.


I picked a few peppers today. One was eaten by something a little, but it will dry nicely. Of course, the pups seemed very interested in them.

It's hard to find interesting pictures of the sunflower



Jimmy Nardello chile

I planted broccoli, celery, and carrots. I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.

Broccoli - Romanesco Italia
Califower - Snowball Self-Blanching
Celery - Tendercrisp
Kohlrabi- Early White Vienna
Leeks - Carentan
Lettuce - Oak Leaf
Lettuce - May Queen
Lettuce - Petite Rouge
Lettuce - Amish Deer Tongue 

Sunflower & Belecskai Harvest

Sunflower is almost completely open.
Check out The Great Sunflower Project.

I decided to harvest the 2 Belecskai peppers after reading the Master Gardener's description.

Garden Photos

Peppers

Anaheim

Belecskai - Paprika

Black Hungarian - Paprika

Jimmy Nardello - Sweet Italian

Pepper types and descriptions from Master Gardeners

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Tomatoes

The first, almost red, tomato of the year. Anna Russian is an oxheart heirloom.


Our fence is about 6 feet high. The Orange Strawberry tomato is over 7 feet high now (in back.) In front is Anna Russian and 3 pepper plants to the left.
Planted on 4/13 from transplants.


I have 2 different Brandywine varieties growing this year. The one in front is OTV (Off The Vine) and in back is Brandywine from Croatia.
Planted on 4/13 from transplants.

There are 4 tomatoes here and a small pepper in front. Starting from the back is Ed's Millennium (4/20), then Caspian Pink(4/20), and 2 Polish Linguisa (5/4).

Tomato types and descriptions from Master Gardeners

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Flowers

Sunflower


Pomegranate flowers


Baby Pomegranate


Yellow water lily