Gardening 2013: May Update

Nearly to the roof this year!

This spring has been a little hard on the garden. It was very hot early, then got wet, and now we're on a period with more seasonal daytime temperatures but night time lows in the low 40's.

That hasn't bothered the cippolini onions or the cima di rapa in the front bed. They're watered using 1/4" drip line every 2nd row.

Just about ready

We'll probably harvest the cima di rapa in another couple days and make pizza with it. Valley Shepard Creamery in Reading Terminal Market makes mozarella daily on-site so I'll probably pick up half a pound on the way home from work Tuesday. (Which in turn means making a batch of dough Monday evening.)

San Marzano Tomatoes

As you can see, we're using red plastic "mulch" again this year and each plant has it's own drip line with a 1 gallon per hour emitter. There are a couple rows of peas on the right - they get plenty of eater from the gutter garden just visible at the top right.

Unfortunately, the eggplant and peppers I started are way behind. I may visit some garden stores next week and buy larger plants. It's annoying, but these things happen now and then. And I still have to pop some zucchini seeds under the black plastic in the front "bamboo bed".

Gardening 2012: Labor Day Update

Last Harvest?

Never underestimate the power of Italian vegetables! Just when I though the eggplant had finished, I ended up with another 2 lb 3 oz. We even got one last zucchini because I was too lazy to dig up the plants. We've harvested another 1 lb of little red Calabrese Peppers too. Back in the upper bed the Cima di Rapa is up and needs to be thinned and the cicoria and spinach are poking their heads up as well.

Saffron Bulbs

We also planted 45 saffron bulbs. This was a bit harder than it might seems due to the fact that the front area was still laced with old bamboo roots that had to be dug out before we could plant the little guys. Saffron is a fall blooming bulb and according to the directions we should have fresh saffron in a month or so.

We still have to plant root vegetables in the old lower bed and there are hundreds of peppers still slowly ripening. We might even see a few more eggplant.

Gardening 2012 - Fall Planting Part 1

The time has come for fall planting.  I'm somewhat disappointed the tomatoes were felled by fusarium wilt but I'm hopeful that with the drip system in place the San Marzanos will be able to overcome next summer's hot spells. Anyway...

Now, the picture above doesn't look like much but what you're seeing (left to right) are:

• 2 big Basil plants
• 3 rows of Cima di Rapa
• 1 row of Variegata di Chioggia Cicoria
• 2 rows  of Giganti d'Inverno Spinach
• Swiss Chard we planted a couple months back

The drip system has been modified to use drip line for the fall crops. The 1 gallon emitters and their 1/4" lines have been removed (they just pull out) and the empty holes in the main line filled with goof plugs. Then new holes were punched and the drip lines installed.

The Swiss Chard is big enough to start harvesting.  There's not enough yet to stuff ravioli, so maybe pizza tomorrow.

The old lower bed has another basil plant and a couple rows of spinach. Tomorrow I'll re-work the drip system there and plant the various fall root vegetables:

• Tonda di Chioggia beets
• Lungo di Napoli radish

and in a couple weeks, more  Cima di Rapa and Giganti d'Inverno Spinach.

Finally,  I have 45 saffron bulbs to plant. They're going to go in front of the shrub roses. It's going to require a bit of effort to clear that area but fortunately I only need about 3 square feet.

For more on the drip system: Drip Irrigation Part 1, Drip Irrigation Part 2
For what the garden has given us: Garden Produce 2012
Or click the Gardening tab for everything.

Gardening 2012 - Memorial Day Update

San Marzano Tomatoes 6 weeks after transplant

Back in Minneapolis, this is the weekend we used to set out tomatoes and other cold sensitive plants. But of course, things get warmer sooner these days and if you've been following along you'll recall that we planted out our tomatoes on April 15th! Anyway, six weeks later those scrawny plants have grown into exceptionally vigorous vines that are nearly four feet tall. Since it's apparent they'll easily over-top the ladders I bought, I've ordered another set to extend the ones already in place.

The peppers and eggplants in the front bed are starting to catch up now that they're getting sunlight before noon. It's a good reminder that even though it was warm enough to plant out in mid-April, the Earth is still in the same orbit around the Sun, still tilted 23.44 degrees and for plants like these, there's just not enough light in the day at that time of year to really get them growing well.

The zucchini has also recovered from it's too early planting and we actually have our first baby squash. This is a spot where it's looking like the plastic mulch is going to be a huge benefit. Obviously it keeps down the weeds (even the bamboo that's still trying to grow under there). It also helps keep the soil moist and it keeps the tender plants off the dirt which means we'll have clean zucchini with (hopefully) little or no spoilage.

In the rest of the garden the second batch of cima di rapa has had it's final thinning. I've replanted Swiss Chard because the first batch cima di rapa shaded the original planting so much it was hopelessly stunted. The carrots and beets are coming along. The onions in the old bed are doing quite well while  those in the upper bed have fallen a bit behind. That's likely attributable to the fact that the old bed has had the benefit of a decade of organic cultivation and is far richer and fluffier at this point.

Gardening 2012 - Mid May Update

Things are happening in the garden! The San Marzano tomatoes have recovered from the little cold snap and are almost half way up the towers.

In the old lower bed the onions are doing well and as soon as I get done typing this, I'll thin the cima di rapa. Just to the left of the onions we've added a few rows of carrots and replanted the beets. Now that temperatures are well into the 70's they should all be sprouting in a matter of days.

Earlier in the week I picked up 4 cheap plastic buckets. They're a classic piece of low-budget container gardening and make excellent pots for tomatoes. So we drilled 5 half inch holes in the bottoms and filled them with potting mix topped off with one Roma tomato plant each.

While it's possible I'll have way too many tomatoes this summer, this will give us a chance to compare the performance and taste of "real" San Marzano tomatoes and the modern Roma hybrid.

In the new front bed the eggplants are doing quite well, but the peppers don't seem real happy. It's still early though and they may still be a little stunted from the cold snap a couple weeks ago. Or... it might be because I forgot to poke some holes in the plastic so rain water could reach the soil. Whichever it is, the weather is now warm and the holes have been poked.

On the other hand the rest of the container plants are very happy. Obviously I was able to bring in the big pot for a couple evenings, so that eggplant suffered not at all on those cold nights.

Minestra di Riso e Luganica

Adapted from an @MarioBatali recipe: Minestra di Riso e Luganica.

Cima di Rapa From the Garden

We picked the first big batch of Cima di Rapa (thinnings went into pizza a couple weeks ago) from our little garden and used up the last of the chicken broth from the Food Stamp Challenge to make one of our favorite soups last night.

Cima di Rapa is very similar to the rather expensive Broccoli Rabe found in little bundles in grocery stores. Each plant has a single small head (about the size of a dime) on a tender stalk. It's also incredibly fast and easy to grow. We planted the seeds for this batch on March 18 - just 46 days ago. The packet indicated 28-35 days, but I suspect that planting in mid-March Philadelphia had as much to do with the extra couple weeks as optimistic advertising copy.

We made this minestra pretty much exactly to the recipe, only substituting olive oil for the lard.

There's still plenty of time to grow your own (from GrowItalian):

Gardening 2012 - Thinning & Pizza

Baby Cima di Rapa

Last night I thinned the cima di rapa and ended up with a pile of tender baby greens:
I couldn't just toss 'em in the compost so I made half a batch of pizza bianca dough, let it rise in the 'fridge overnight and put together this little pie.

Ingredients

Dough:

250 g. bread flour
200 g. water
5 g. salt
1 Tbs. EVOO
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Topping:

28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
4 oz. fresh mozarella
dried oregano
A big handful of fresh baby greens
Fresh basil
The most delicious EVOO you have on hand

Method

The night before, place all the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix by hand until a rough dough comes together. Using the dough hook, knead on 80% power for 15 minutes. Be careful, at this speed the mixer will tend to "walk". Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, oil your hands, and shape the dough into a "ball", making sure to get it coated with oil. Cover the bowl tightly and place it the refrigerator overnight.

At least an hour before cooking place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat the oven to it's highest temperature: 500 or 550 F.

Get the dough out of the refrigerator, shape it into a disk and let it warm to room temperature on a well floured plate, covered, while the oven preheats.

Crush the tomatoes by hand and drain them. You'll end up using nearly all of them on the pizza. Save the juice and any left over crushed tomato for another use.

Trim the greens and chop roughly if they're large. Cut the mozarella into into 1/4" slices and break them up into irregular chunks.

When the oven has preheated for at least an hour gently stretch the dough into a pizza shape, leaving a slightly raised edge. Spread a thin layer of crushed tomatoes evenly on the dough. Sprinkle very lightly with dried oregano and scatter the mozzarella, basil and greens on the top.

Bake in the blazing hot oven for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are nice and brown. Drizzle on a little of your most delicious olive oil and enjoy! It tastes the same no matter what shape.

Mmmmm....

Gardening 2012 - Update #2

Things have slowed a bit as temperatures have came back to historical averages.

Cima di Rapa Seedlings

Most of the cima di rapa seedlings have developed their first true leaves so with a few sunny days they should really start to take off. I expect they'll need a second thinning this weekend.

We planted one 8 foot row of peas in the "old" raised bed along side a chain link fence on March 26 and  a couple short rows of beets on April 1.  The "new" upper bed got 2 short rows of Swiss Chard parallel to the cima di rapa at the same time. We'll pop in a couple more rows of each plus some more cima di rapa on the 15th. We should see our onion sets arriving sometime this week - half of 'em will go into the new bed and half into the old.

Leggy Tomatoes

The tomato transplants are getting a bit leggy in spite of the grow light and the south facing porch window. Unfortunately, night time temperatures are rather unreliably in the low to mid-40's so actually setting them out is still pretty risky. We do have more plants than we actually need so maybe this weekend we can come up with some sort of protection scheme and take a shot.

In any case, the parsley and thyme can certainly be potted up and hardened off this week. The parsley is looking great:

Root Development

Parsley Potted On

Cima di Rapa!

Cima di Rapa Quarantina

That was quick! The cima di rapa we planted on the 18th is already up. The seed packet claims it will be ready to eat in 28 days. Those "days to harvest" claims are usually pretty optimistic but I'm starting to believe this one.