Garden Update: First Harvest

Look what I made! This is just a little taste though – there’s more comin’! In here are: spaghetti squash, carrot, fennel, arugula, strawberries and onion (and some nettles also picked in the garden).

I’m saving the exhilaration of my virgin trip with spaghetti squash for later, but today’s gathering resulted in a skillet of damped nettles, fennel (grass & bulb), onion, carrotgrass, arugula with butter, pepper, Himalaya salt and local olive oil from Provence. Served with salmon and baked potatoes, sweet potatoes and onion.

Garden Update: Crops Coming On

Time for an update on my newbie botanical project! Trying to keep track of everything I’ve learned this year proves a challenge. I document some things and trust my memory with others, but … I’ll probably have to make some of the same mistakes again. And that’s ok. I have a lifetime for that.

And boy is this fun! Feelin’ dat dirt on my fingers, like there’s sum connection to mother earth, a greater meaning to it all, yo? No? I’m a huge fan of geometry and the slightly ordered chaos, so I’ve arranged my kitchen garden as a double hexagon – by way of digging down planks of appropriate length and at proper distance so I can reach out from both sides. The plants are somewhat arbitrarily placed in the resulting lanes, but as long as there is some framework it’s easy to maintain. Works like that with most things, really. And of course it looks good.

Earlier this year:

Now:

Vegetables

I’ve exclusively chosen to grow what I would later like to eat. I always keep that in mind when caring for my veggies. Here are some of them:

Fennel.

 

Arugula.

 

Pumpkin. Hoping for a big one.

 

Strawberry.

 

Green squash.

 

Baby leaf salad.

 

Spaghetti squash. I have never eaten it, and can’t wait till they’re ripe. I shall make ALL the pasta sauces!

 

Kale.

Carrot.

More salads: baby leaf, spinach and arugula.

 

Tomatoes. Not cultivated by me.

Herbs

My herbs are mostly perennial. I just love to bring a basket and scissors to collect some thyme, mint and oregano for the stew!

Thymes.

 

Peppermint.

 

Flat leaf parsley.

 

Chives.

Nasturtium Love ❤

Ever since I saw The Hobbit I wanted to recreate a Shire garden. The flowers most notable were nasturtiums and hollyhocks. I ordered several strains of nasturtiums, and they’re doing well! Their flowers are edible too, and give a salad or dessert a beautiful finishing touch. Not exactly Bag End yet – but we’ll get there, we’ll get there.

Garden Update: Summer Salad

Lo and behold; the fruit of my labors! A salad made (almost) entirely out of things either partially or wholly cared for by yours truly. Ah yeah. This is what life’s all about now, isn’t it? Here’s is what I threw in:

• assorted big leaf salad
• assorted baby leaf salad
• arugula
• spinach
• tomatoes
• eggs
• herbs: oregano, thyme, basil, chives, parsley, lovage, mint (four kinds; why would I wanna seem one-sided?)
• edible flowers for garnish

… ok, I don’t have an egg tree. But they are locally farmed, how about that?