Category: May

May Garden Journal 2017

5/31/2017

It's such a great time of year in the garden. I love dirt!

Here are my first tomatoes. I cut back a volunteer tomato that had been growing in the greenhouse over the winter and it not only survived but went on to give me tomatoes. Still waiting...

The pumpkin vine really took off, and by the end of the month you can see the pumpkins are bigger every day. These are Cinderella's Carriage Pumpkins.

Progress from the corn over the month of May. All the leaves looked shredded, but they went on to grow decently.

Snow Peas! My daughter's favorite. They grew in spite of the insects that killed half the plants. Next time I will plant them where it is not so windy though.

Loganberries, whatever those are. They look like raspberries but they're not quite as sweet and a little more perfume. Still, even grown in pots they are prolific.

These are surprises from the fall. The kale I had cut down at dirt level and it grew back. The beets had been sitting there since maybe last October. Better late than never!

A lot of carrots that I planted last fall. The best we've had so far. All the weird ones we call 'dancing' carrots. The rabbits love them.

Above left are some citrus trees we inherited and some herbs I started. On the right are Missouri Bill's Soup Beans with volunteer Cosmos.

Garlic I planted last October, and on the right a zucchini.

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If this sounds sanctimonious, you'll be relieved to know that I am typing this post over a corn dog.

I bought lots of blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and oranges. All the berries will be gone by tomorrow. I also found cabbage leaves, onions, zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, and beets. They all look amazing and fresh, and I want to get things chopped and roasted before they rot in the vegetable bin of my refrigerator. I hesitate to plan more than three meals at a time since I usually find it goes haywire if I plan out more meals. Other days we end up eating leftovers, soup, or spaghetti.

So here was the plan:

Lamb, Zucchini and Mushroom Kebabs with Spinach
Roasted Beet and Walnut Pasta
Cabbage, Mushroom, Zucchini, and Ground Pork Stir Fry

One week later, here's how it actually went.

Beet Walnut Pasta

We started with the Beet Walnut Pasta and added fried pancetta. It was delicious, if a little garish.

We sauteed the greens and cooked and peeled the beets ahead of time so that all we had to do was boil the pasta and assemble it.

Full disclosure... the kids hated it. They loved it once, but this week beets are out.

Lamb Kabobs with Zucchini and Mushrooms

I marinated one pound of lamb cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, and lemon juice. Unfortunately, this was a cold day and no one wanted to BBQ, so we broiled them in the oven instead and served them over rice and a spinach salad. This was my favorite from the week.

And the stir-fry. I mixed some salted black beans and garlic in with the pork, fried it, and then stir-fried all the zucchini. There were so many vegetables I didn't include the cabbage or mushrooms. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. If you would like to see an easy way to stir-fry, here's one way that I posted. I served that with rice and pickles.

One tomato became a salad with basil and fresh mozzarella, the other became a salsa to go with eggs for breakfast.

All the leftover veggies are going into a peanut curry so that hopefully nothing is wasted. I still have spinach, cabbage, mushrooms and green beans, and peanut curry is the best answer I have for random and disparate vegetables.

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May Garden Journal 2017

May Farmer's Market Menu Plan

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