Guess what we found while weeding the beans row?

Beans, ya beans, go figure.  It just shows to go you, it’s important to pay attention at all times.  They are not plentiful – yet, just wait a week or so.  It’s not that the middle of July is too soon for some crops to be ready, it’s just that it’s too soon to be the middle of July.  How did this happen and how come I wasn’t made aware of it? 

Spring and Summer are such wonderful times, the warming mornings and cooling evenings being the best of all.  Everything smells lovely, all colours are in full swing and we’re not slogging around in boots and heavy coats.  Ohhhhh, what a feeling – what a rush.

We’ve been picking snow peas and green peas regularly, stringing up tomato plants and for something completely different, yanking out weeds.  Between last Friday when we starting pruning the tomatoes and yesterday when we were propping them up with the cat’s cradle type of weaving, each plant had gained about five to ten tomatoes and they are colouring up nicely.  Shhhh, don’t tell but we actually ate two – they were really tiny first red paste tomatoes and we sliced them fairly thin and put them gently onto our veggie burgers the other night – yum.  Peppers are growing nicely and starting to colour as well.  You’ll be seeing toms and pepps on the menu sooner than I thought a week ago.

 Another thing that is doing tremendously is the row of white onions.  My memory is that white onions are sweet, but these are strong and oniony.  Shallots are ready for you too.  The green onions are the last of what we planted in the Greenhouse in March. 

All of the scapes are cut from the garlic now with the exception of these two sets in the picture.   So this is what goes on while we’re not out in the garden – cute.  Garlic should be ready to harvest in the next couple of weeks.

Lettuces are going strong and this week’s upcoming heat will probably cause many of the heads to bolt so enjoy while you can.  The varieties are rich in colour and flavour, definitely quite a show on your plate.  Less handled is best so we pull the entire head out of the ground, cut off the root and slip it gently into a plastic bag for you.  We don’t wash it so it’s pretty fresh when you get it, several hours fresh.

Endive is an interesting vegetable.  It grows well, not too much bothers it and it just keeps on growing. We grow two kinds here: Frisee and Batavian.  You can look up recipes on the Internet and enjoy our endive from now until late fall. 

Celery, let me tell you about celery.  As I mentioned way back, all the celery in the greenhouse bolted, now it has bolted twice.  I think that’s due to the fact it is a bi-annual and seeds every other year.  So it’s seeding.  That’s not so bad.  We did plant new from seeds I had saved – um – two years ago – now it makes sense.  It’s chopstick-thin right now but I use it all the time.  I take a clump of it and chop up the stems and leaves, spreading all into salads of every kind, sauces, on top of anything you would otherwise sprinkle herbs.  I put it in your Salad Greens.  It’s quite flavourful so why not give it a try?

Basil is doing extremely well so I’ll make Pesto - so many strong flavours put together to make a great versatile sauce.     

Without further ado, I present to you: our Menu for this week:

Celery, tiny new  $2 bundle

Chard  $3 bag

Edible Flowers (mix)  $3 bag  I pack the flower heads whole but you shouldn’t eat them middles

Endive (frisee or batavian)  $3 bag 

Garlic Scapes  $2 bunch of 15

Herbs:  Basils (lemon, lime, salad leaf, genovese, greek), Citrus Thyme, Dill NEW, Lemon Balm, Mint, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Tarragon, Thyme  $2  bunch or $5 mixed bag

Kale  $3 bag

Lettuce heads  (romaine, red salad bowl, green salad bowl, mascara, flame, speckled - variety mix)  $3 bag 

Onions, green  $2 bundle

Onions, white  $2.50 pound

Peas  $2 bag  They just keep growing and producing

Radicchio  $2 bag

Red Orach (spinach more nutritious than spinach) $3 bag

Salad Greens (washed and table-ready)  $5 bag

Shallots  $6 pound

Granola, with fruit  $8  500mL jar

Granola, with nuts and fruit  $10  500mL jar

Pesto, garlic scape  $4.50 125mL jar (garlic scapes, parmesan and/or romano cheese, organic olive oil, walnuts, organic garlic, sea salt, pepper)

Pesto, basil $4.50 125mL (organic basil, parmesan and/or romano cheese, organic olive oil, walnuts, organic garlic, sea salt, pepper)

  

Sprouts:  $3 bag

Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish and mustard) 

Perhaps you might like to be added to our Weekly Delivery List.  I send my email out every Wednesday, collect orders Thursdays and deliver Fridays (or another day convenient to us and you if you're not too close to home).  See Contact information and email or call me.  Thanks.

Until next post, have a great every day.  

Jo