Annie Garden update time, everyone! Despite a drought and some mega June heat, my 2021 garden is doing quite nicely here in central Iowa. Here’s a rundown of what’s happening:
- Fava beans are flourishing and very generous. I like to blanch the shelled beans then sprinkle with flaked salt. So simple, yet so DELISH! Or try my recipe for Pesto Pasta with Spring Favas.
- Artichokes are producing! They are small but adorable (gotta stay positive!). I can’t wait to harvest and cook with them. STAY TUNED!!!
- Garlic plants are BIG and hopefully forming big bulbs under that mulch. I’ve been harvesting the scapes and using them for all my fresh garlic needs, and much, much more! Scapes have a such a lovely mild flavor—I like to describe them as similar to thin, super-fresh asparagus with a hint of garlic.
- Snow peas are doing better than ever, with a new crop to pick almost every day over the past couple weeks. I chose an Oregon variety this time that I will most certainly stick with for next year.
- Green beans are about to burst into production (my fave—I CAN’T WAIT!). Long beans are starting to get taller, and hopefully will start to climb up the arbor soon.
- Chard is looking pretty, per usual. Thinned them out so they were about 4 to 6 inches apart. Will continue thinning/harvesting as needed for space.
- Cabbages are forming heads. Savoy varieties are doing especially well, which makes me very excited. Picked the napas already for kimchi.
- Tomato plants are getting bigger with a few baby tomatoes here and there. Seeing some yellowing on bottom leaves, so I’m pruning those away in an effort to prevent blight, etc. as much as possible.
- Peppers are rebounding after a random deer jumped into their fenced-in raised bed a couple weeks ago and smashed some, whilst also destroying the fence, which allowed the chickens to run rampant in there for a day, resulting in more destruction of more pepper plants. Needless to say, the peppers had a difficult month of May. Just FYI to express how crazy this is, we live right next to downtown and have never seen a deer in our neighborhood in the 16+ years we’ve lived here.
- The eggplants started out with a nasty spider mite infection this year. They overcame it and livened up all through May, then those annoying eggplant beetles arrived. This year I’ve decided to suck them up using my dust buster. So far it’s worked well and I must say, it’s been rather satisfying washing them down my garbage disposal as I empty the vacuum.
- AAAaaand the celery. I need to refer back to my records to see which kind I planted this year because they are doing GREAT! They’re giant—as far as homegrown celery goes for me—and bursting with wonderful celery flavor. I started them in February, which is earlier than normal and kept them under the lights in the basement where the temps are cool. They also had a nasty spider mite attack, but kicked it as soon as I took them outside to harden them off (in mid-march or early April?), and they’ve been thriving ever since.
For your viewing pleasure because #VeggiesAreBeautiful :
