Saturday, June 23, 2007

Abundant Solstice

Summer has flown by with us exploring the new delights of co-habitation, traveling to the northwest and friends and family blowing up our doorstep. Without really being conscious of it, the longest day of the year was upon us, the vegetables had gotten humungous, and we had not posted even a hint of progress to share with anyone?? Let's review...
From humble beginnings came our sweet and sugar snap peas. These nimble, twining vines innocently climbed our bamboo stakes until they decided one fine day it was time to take over like a swarm of locusts. Once they started flowering the growth was unstoppable! At our weak attempts to tie and re-stake them, they laughted heartily and poured right over the restraining strings, flowing in a giant tumbleweed mass of shoots into the yard. It was quite wild and beautiful actually, and we found ourselves more in awe every morning as our small yard was steadily consumed with deliciously crisp and tasty peas. Definitely the bumper crop so far!
Not to be overshadowed were all the greens we direct seeded into the garden. The spinach turned out to be the best the horticulturist has grown so far. Previous attempts were always spotty, and he was always happy to steal away with just a few mediocre leaves. Our heirloom 'Bloomsdale' variety must be at home in this cool coastal climate, because some of the leaves this season easily exceeded the length of a hemp sandal. Note the Spinach Bandit above, rarely caught on film. The bunches of dark green leaves were packed with flavor, and had a pleasant sagittate shape. No more dreaming of handpicked spinach salads sprinkled with tomatoes and feta cheese, we were there! Our 'Bright Lights' chard was a winner as well, giving us radiantly-colored, tender stems with giant leaves, and we delighted in wrapping up everything in the kitchen with them. From burritos to morning egg dishes, chard leaves are a refreshing break from the old flour tortilla. Our meslun mix has been equally prolific, but a word to the wise: Arugula is a THUG. We recommmend thinning to prevent a monarchy. This taprooted herb dominated our mix, pushing humbler lettuces and greens to the side and bursting into flower at the slightest provocation.
Our tiny tomatoes that we grew in a cold winter closet are now happily scaling the fences at about 3 feet. It is so cool here, the fruit is developing extremely slowly (we only have a few tentative flowers yet), but we're hoping our daily fertility dances will speed maturity. We even have a variegated tomato from Cal-Poly that continues to amaze with its striped leaves and flowers.

As you can imagine, we have been eating more greens than a pack of wild vegetarians just to keep up with production. To celebrate the success, we broke in the grill--salvaged from the side of the road somewhere--for the first time this summer. A feast of medium rare tri tip, grilled corn and pineapple, and you'd have never guessed it: Greens!

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