Bloom Day! June 2011

Japanese (I think) Iris

 

Catmint & Rue

 

Cilantro

Poppies

 

Pansies

Dragon Begonia

Huge, oddly-shaped coreopsis, on the verge of blooming

Speedwell Veronica

Zinnia Zowie, Yellow Flame

Penstemon

Cool Season Veggies

It was a cool and rainy day for June (again), so I took advantage of this to go pick some peas without sweating like crazy.  I planted these peas on these trellises this year, and they are doing well, except I kind of figured by now the peas would be done, so I could use these trellises for my cucumbers.  Our cool spring kind of delayed everything, so my peas are just getting going now.  I have to hope that the weather doesn't slam into the high 90s, (which wouldn't be untypical of Iowa) and end the cool season veggies lives abruptly.  

Every year I try to save more seeds.  I am saving some seeds from a few Easter Egg radish plants that I left behind.  I really think the flowers are quite delicate and beautiful.  I've never saved seeds from radishes before, so I'll have to look that one up...but so far so good.  

 Here is a close-up of the pea blossoms.  I just love the blueish-green tinge the leaves have.  I grew Wando, Sugar Snap, and I think Frosty this year.  I am very impressed with the vines on the Wando peas.  They are taller than all the others and have more pods and blooms. 

Here is part of my broccoli crop.  I am so excited to have broccoli see it through from seed to finish this year.  If I leave a broccoli in the garden, can I save seeds from that too?  Like I said, I am new to saving some of these seeds. Broccoli is another one I need to look up.  The silver on the leaves is fantastic.  

If you pull the leaves to the side and look down in, you see the little broccoli heads.  How do I know when they are ready to be picked?  I don't want them all to bloom...but when is the magic moment when I know they are as big as they are going to get?  

Here are a few of the sugar snaps I picked today.  There are still quite a few pods on the vine, fattening up, but I left those for now.  These will make a tasty addition to my lunch tomorrow.  Do you grow cool season crops in your garden?  I would love to hear from you...

Moo Shu Turkey!

I finally sat down and planned menus for the week.  I have been saying I am going to do this for a long time, and now that it is summertime, I don't have any excuse.  I love cooking, but I am not so good at whipping things up on the fly.  I do better when I have a plan ahead of time, so I can go to the grocery store and get all the ingredients, or think about what my son would like to eat, or what are we doing that night...and so on.  Tonight was the first night of planned menus, and since my son was off with his dad, I decided to make something I like.  (He's not so fond of mushrooms).

Moo Shu Turkey

Prep 10 minutes

Cook 15 minutes

Makes 4 main dish servings

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil

1 pkg. (10 oz) sliced mushrooms

4 green onions, sliced, green and white portions separated

1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

2-3 cloves garlic, chopped up small or crushed in press

1 bag (16 oz) shredded cabbage mix for coleslaw

1/2 cup water

2 cups shredded leftover cooked turkey

3 Tbsp. soy sauce

3 Tbsp hoisin sauce plus additional for serving

8 flour tortillas (8 in. each), warmed

1.  In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil on medium-high heat until hot.  Add mushrooms and cook 6 to 7 minutes or until tender and lightly browned.  Transfer mushrooms to plate, set aside. 

2.  In the same skillet, heat the rest of the oil and stir in the white portion of the onions, ginger, crushed red pepper, and garlic.  Add the coleslaw mix and cook 2 minutes or so until the cabbage begins to soften, stirring constantly.  Add water and cook 1-2 minutes until the water evaporates and the cabbage is tender-crisp, stirring frequently. 

Stir in turkey, soy sauce, 3 tbsp hoisin sauce, and mushrooms, cook 3 minutes or until turkey is hot, stirring constantly. 

3.  At this point, you can spread additional hoisin sauce on tortillas before you fill with the turkey mixture.  Then top with the green portions of the green onions.  Roll up and serve!

These are super delicious and a great way to use up leftover shredded turkey I had in the freezer.  I still have even more turkey, so I will be making more turkey recipes in the next few weeks.  2 tortillas are about 510 calories and 12 grams of fat. 

Since I was the only one eating, that means I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  Do you have any good turkey recipes to share? 

Getting My Cukes In

It is really late for me to be getting my cucumbers planted...but better late than never, I guess.  We had such a cool spring that I am just now getting around to it.  Cucumbers were the last 'group' of veggies I had to plant though.  It is raining again, but I got out real quick before it started and got my seeds in the ground. 

This year I am growing four types of cucumbers.  The first one I grew last year and the vines got HUGE.  It produced okay, but I think if I pick more, it will do better.  I got the Japanese climbing cucumbers seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.  It should be ready for picking in about 56-65 days.  This is my standard slicing and eating cucumber. 

The next one is Emerald Envy.  It is from Cook's Garden and I got it on sale at my favorite greenhouse, Holub's.  Emerald Envy gets to be a really deep, pretty green and almost never gets bitter.  It is ready to harvest in about 56 days, which means I will have pickles in less than 2 months!

The next two are from Renee's Garden.  I am very excited about these.  The first, Endeavor, is specifically for pickling.  It is early bearing, ready to harvest in about 53 days.  Endeavor has the little knobby bumps all over it that is characteristic of pickles.  This cucumber is supposed to be great for kosher dills, bread and butter slices, relish (YUM), traditional sweet pickles.  Endeavor is resistant to mosaic virus and powdery mildew. 

This one is making my mouth water thinking about it.  It is Persian Baby Cucumbers 'Green Fingers' from Renee's Garden.  These are cute, little baby cucumbers that are smooth, crispy, and have a thin skin.  They are ready to pick when they are 3 to 5 inches long, after about 60 days.  The vines are resistant to powdery mildew, which is important to me. 

Besides dealing with cucumber seeds, I also hung up my new basket I scored on sale the other day.  It is called Clerodendrum Thomsoniae Red, or the common name is Red Bleeding Heart.  It caught my eye hanging in the greenhouse immediately.  The leaves are so rich and healthy looking. 

I was also attracted to the blooms.  The tag says it blooms in fall and winter, obviously it is summer here, so I'm not sure why it is blooming now.  It is hardy to Zones 9-11, so it will definitely be living indoors here in the winter.  It must be VERY tender.  It likes light shade, so I am going to try it out in my front porch. 

The mature height is supposed to be 16 feet!  Obviously, some of that growth is going to have to be horizontal, since it is in a basket.  You can see in the first picture how the vines are reaching out...it looks very vigorous.  I am hoping that the vines will grow along the ceiling in my porch.  I am going to have to try hard to water it.  I tend to not be very good with baskets, but this year, I have been trying very hard with my outdoor baskets, so I will add this one onto my watering regimen.

I can't wait to see how everything turns out in the months to come.  What new things are you growing this year?  Do you grow your own cucumbers in your home garden?

Thoughts for the Day- Unwatched Zucchinis and Children

This picture is of my son holding a zucchini that I took my eyes off of for a minute, and it grew into the size of a baseball bat.  Of course this is last year, my zucchini is not even close yet this year.  Looking at this picture now, I have realized that the same thing happened to my son. He looks so big now compared to this pic.  I guess I must have taken my eyes off of him for a second or two.  Sniff...

I guess I'll have to be more careful to keep my eyes on him...to make sure I don't miss a thing.