I CAN HAS FRESH TOMATOES!

[elfs]

Fresh!

Omaha and I have been struggling to keep our garden going. It hasn't been too much of a struggle, just a matter of picking out the weeds every now and then and making sure they get enough water. This weekend, we got to try out the first of our pleasures: some of the Stupice tomatoes are ripe. Stupice grow a small, very early, very sweet "heirloom" tomato that's great for salads and sandwiches.

Omaha and I cooked up some bacon. She had a straight-up BLT, but I also put a few leaves of basil from the garden, as well as some very mild horseradish, nothing too painful.

Sheer gastronomic bliss, a delight for the tastebuds and the nose all at once, an ecstacy waiting to happen.

There will be more, too. I have to harvest and dry the sage and oregano, and then we'll see what can really be done with fresh herbs.

Comments

[solarbird]

My veg garden has been a total failure so far this year, it's been awful. Clearly the soil is filled with nitrogen-leaching something, which is annoying because these are raised beds with good soil import. (The only thing doing well are the snow peas, which are nitrogen fixers.) Fish oil seems to be helping, but still, it'll be late and little at best.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. I saw all of the work you put into it earlier this year. And I hate to say this, but we didn't do anything special; just mixed up our compost from two years ago into the beds about three inches deep and planted. We've been lax about weeds, picking new clover out every couple of days, and just watered them. The tomatoes, broccoli, and herbs are doing well. The basil is a little behind, but I think that's just 'cause it doesn't get enough sun. Only the cucumbers didn't make it, and than's mostly because the !#@%#@ mole disrupted their soil early in the growing season.

The cherry tree is hanging on, but it really needs constant watering in this weather.

[solarbird]

I haven't even been having a weeds problem. It's the nitrogen, I'm pretty sure. But what's confusing about that is that I did the same soil prep as the year before. Something - maybe all the rain in June - was just different, and I don't know what.

[solarbird]

Oh, I should add that our perennial herbs are doing just great. It's the annuals - the greens, the carrots, broccoli, strawberries - that have been failing en masse.

The greens, I'll note, have been picking up a bit since I upped the fish oil (nitrogen) supplements to the watering. I think I'll get some harvests out of those now.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

That's irritating.

My Gram used to tell me that sometimes you can fuss with a garden too much. And sometimes they just need a year being fallow (which is why she always had a 1/2 acre to acre sized veg garden, but that was her). How old are your beds? Do you leave sections each year where you do the soil prep but don't plant it?

Gram also swore by cow manure for a good fixer upper. Also used straw (like from the stables, again the manure, but the straw itself had some nutrients as well). Definitely keep up with the fish oil if that's still working.

You might also want to try testing the Ph balance. You can get a kit from any nursery. And I've always like the Miracle Grow products.

Good luck!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

We've been doing okay by taking off the top layer in late fall, putting down a layer of newspaper at about 2", and then restoring the top layer mixed with compost. It does a really nice job of prepping the garden boxes for the following year.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Only the cucumbers didn't make it, and than's mostly because the !#@%#@ mole disrupted their soil early in the growing season.

Actually, that's not the reason that the cucumber didn't really make it very well this year. The reason was two-fold:

1) We planted way too late in the year, and it was already too hot for the cucumber when we did. We should have planted as early as February.

2) We didn't plant the cucumber. Kouryou-chan did...bless her little soul. Since she wanted to help, we came out the next day to finish the planting and found she had completed the cucumbers, but hadn't quite done it the way it was supposed to be. Heh.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Remember that when using fresh herbs, there is *much* more flavour in them, and so significantly less goes a much farther way, esp when using in ways that allow time to move the flavour around, (stews, soups, baking, etc)

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

I haven't done jack with our place this year. It gets too overwhelming.

My baby lilac is loving the neglect though. I wrote more but then decided I need to make my own post. :)

[shunra.livejournal.com]

FWIW, using the oregano fresh (undried) adds a wonderful zest to fresh-cooked dishes. You may want to refrain from drying *all* of it.

(And I could get stoned on the scent of fresh tomatoes. Let's not tell the gov't about what that scent does to humans!)