What's Up Wednesday!

Lots in bloom in the garden this week! All of my plantings for the Fall are really starting to grow- carrots, onions, broccoli, swiss chard, prize choy, lettuce, and sugar snaps. The tomatoes are starting to produce a bit less, so I thinned out the dried and dead stalks to try to make some space for new growth. Here are some pictures of what's up this week:

My one lone sunflower is blooming!

The fall broccoli is looking healthy and getting taller every day

I think it's about time to pick this cantaloupe!

I transplanted some of the "walkers" from the Egyptian walking onions I got this spring.

They are now popping up everywhere in the designated "fall section" of the garden

that will later be covered with a quick hoop. 

 Made and canned some cucumber pickles this past weekend!

Used the Dill Pickle recipe in the Freshly Packed Pickled Foods section of the

Blue Book of Preserving. It's a new recipe for me- we'll see how they turn out!

What's up in your Garden this week?

Planting in Late Summer for Fall & Spring Harvests

This is the year that I'm going to do it, guys- make the leap and do some serious Fall planting! I think I'm usually tuckered out by the time the end of the summer rolls around. Before I know it, the time to plant for fall has passed me by. Not this year!

I'm been direct seeding Fall veggies in my garden for the past 3 weeks now, and I will finish up the last bit of planting tomorrow. If you're in S.E. Michigan, Northern Ohio, or a place with a similar last frost date (Oct 7th), you still have a few days to hop to it!


Fall Planting list:
Super Sugar Snap Pea
Prize Choy
De Cicco Broccoli
St. Valery Carrot
Grandpa's Admire Lettuce
Winter Density Lettuce
Parade bunching Onion
Rhubarb Red Swiss Chard

I've tried to seed most everything in the new, larger bed (pictured on the left)- it's closest to the side door of our home so if I need to dash out during the winter I'm one or two steps closer, and it already has crazy, thriving Kale there.

I'm planning to put up some quick hoops over the first 8 feet of the bed, enough distance to cover up the Kale, fall onions, and sugar snaps. I might want to do another 8 feet of hoop down at the other end (by the lovely garbage bins), because there are broccoli, a few carrots, and some speckles lettuce down there!

I'll be sure to share pictures of the quick hoops once I get them put together, as well as some guidance and assembly photos. I've been wanting to do serious season extension for a long time, and it will finally happen this year! One step closer to that ideal Badass Garden that's always floating in my mind...

What are you planning on planting this Fall?

Tuesday Takehome + Garlic & Lemon Broccoli Recipe

We're moving into summer veggies- each week I'm receiving more substantial root & "fruit" veggies; carrots, onions, zucchini, and less leafy greens. 
This week our share included:

Swiss Chard
Lacinato Kale
3 Kohlrabi
5 green/early Onions
3 heads of Lettuce

2 Zucchini

2 Cucumbers

a bunch of Carrots

Broccoli

large bag of Snap Peas & Snow Peas

Garlic and Lemon Broccoli

Ingredients:

• 2 heads broccoli, separated into florets
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 
  
• Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees 
• Toss broccoli (in a large bowl) with the olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. 
• Spread the broccoli out evenly on a baking sheet.
• Cook in the oven until broccoli is tender when poked with a fork or knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Squeeze lemon juice over broccoli
  

Serve and Enjoy!