What are you making with your harvest?

I'd be really interested to read some of the things folks are doing with their harvested vegetables.  Please share recipes!!!!

Today I harvested over a pound of Kale, so I thought I'd share the Italian/American soup version of the Portuguese classic Caldo Verde, that I have waiting in the crock pot for dinner tonight.  It is yummy!

Ingredients

Olive Oil, 2 tbsp
Italian Sausage, pork, 1/2 pound , sliced  
Onions, raw, 1 large, chopped
Garlic, 1 clove, minced

Red Potatoes, 3 small, diced
Beans, white, 1 can

Chicken Broth, 64 fl oz
Kale, 8 cup, chopped
Old Bay Seasoning, 1 tbsp
Salt & Pepper

 

In a saute pan, heat 2 tbs of Olive oil, add the onion and garlic, and saute for about 3 minutes.  Add the diced potatoes, and continue sauteeing for another 3 to 4 minutes.  Remove the vegetables to the crock pot, and add the sausage to the pan and cook approximately 5 minutes. Add to crock pot.  Now add beans, broth, and seasonings to crock pot and set to low for 6 - 8 hours.  About an hour before serving, add the kale.

Have you planted your fall garden yet?

 It makes me sad when I look at my garden, and I have empty spaces where the early veggies have already gone by.  The good news is, this is the perfect time to plant your fall garden!  Leafy greens, such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli, kale, cauliflower and brussel sprouts do well  in the cooler, fall weather. Try beets, early carrots, peas, turnips, and radishes, too, as they also do well in cooler weather. They all grow well when planted in August and harvested later in the fall. Also, the cool weather enhances the flavors of these plants.  You can even try peas, and green beans that are early maturers to harvest in early October before the first frost.

When planting for fall, it’s best to pick a spot that will receive as much sun as possible, since fall brings not only cooler temperatures but shorter days. You should also be prepared to protect the plants at the onset of the first frost. This means keeping an ear tuned to weather reports and being ready to spread mulch or some sort of cover to protect the plants.

I love canning, and it is so very satisfying to go out in the garden in September and harvest vegetables to put up for the winter.   I'll be sharing some canning tips and recipes in a few weeks, and would love to get some ideas from other readers too!

Welcome 1st Time Visitors

Welcome to My Backyard Grows, a blog for and by Cape Ann gardeners, big and small!  We are hoping that this will be THE place for those who love gardening. Those who are looking for some help or info about gardening.  Those who have experience to share their knowledge about gardening.  Those who want to share their gardening joys, woes, and triumphs.  Those who,  oh...well,...you know, just anybody on Cape Ann who loves gardening!

It's easy to follow us,  all you need to do is sign in to a google account (if you don't have one, don't worry, it's free and easy), then click follow on the blog.  If you are more adventurous, and would like to add some of  your own posts, send me an email at mkmh978@gmail.com, and I'll send you an invitation to become a contributor. 

Come and help, or be helped making Cape Ann Backyard Gardens Grow!

Mary

In our backyard, there is a "Hibiscus" also referred to as a "Rose Mallow" which is in full bloom from August to early September. This is a beautiful 9" flower which grows to 24" tall. This spectacular vibrant "Hibiscus" attracts to butterflies and humming birds and it is excellent in mixed perennial gardens. This year we have many buds on the plant which are about to bloom.   

A recipe from cousin Debbie

ITALIAN ZUCCHINI CRESCENT PIE (QUICHE)


4 cups thinly sliced, unpeeled zucchini
...1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup of butter or margarine (I use butter)

1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley or
2 T of dried parley flakes
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp of dried basil
1/4 tsp of dried oregano

2 eggs, well beaten
8 oz (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 8 oz can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls/keeping cold until use
1 tsp of dijon or prepared mustard

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In 10inch skillet melt butter and add zucchini and onion until tender
about 10 minutes. Stir in next group of ingredients.

In a large bowl beat eggs well and then add shredded cheese

Separate dough into eight triangles and place in ungreased pie dish, pressing across bottom
and up sides of dish forming crust. Spread bottom and sides of dough with mustard.

Pour mixed ingredients into pie dish and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until knife inserted
into the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

NOTE: because this recipe has a tendency to drip over the dish I place a cookie sheet under it while baking.

Meet the Settipani's

 

When I first put out the word that I was in need of some local backyard gardeners to visit & share their stories with fellow gardeners, Matt and Mary Lou Settipani invited me over to their home in the Trask St. area of Gloucester. They brought me out to their backyard, and showed me their lovely flower gardens first, pointing out the plants currently in bloom, as well as the spring flowers that have gone by, and the fall flowers yet to come.

This red beauty is currently in bloom, however neither I, not Matt and Mary Lou are able to identify it.  We are hoping somebody out there knows what it is.  What we do know is that it is a bulb, and Matt has been bringing the bulb in each winter.  We are hoping that one of you will be able to identify it for us!

Next Matt brought me over to his perfect vegetable garden.  It is beautiful, weed free, in perfect rows, and everything is producing magnificently!  The Settipani's grow lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, bush beans, zucchini and garlic in the veggie garden (and have strawberries, parsley and basil  in hanging pots.)  The lettuce has all been harvested, and in it's place Matt has planted another crop of bush beans, so he will have continuous beans for several months.

After our tour of the gardens, Matt and Mary Lou invited me to sit with them on the tented deck overlooking the yard, and served me some of their homemade white wine and fried zucchini Mary Lou made up just before my arrival (both delicious!)  We chatted about our gardens, what we had the most success with, and what area gives us trouble, and shared tips.  Matt stated that weeding was the most difficult task, and admitted that he had spent several hours Saturday morning weeding the gardens for my photo shoot.  I took a little bit of joy in his  admission, because there are always weeds in my gardens, and as I mentioned earlier, there wasn't a lone weed in Matt & Mary Lou's garden.

The Settipani's have been married for 31 years, and have been gardening since they were first married.  Mary Lou's father, Jerry Scola was an avid gardener, and taught Matt and Mary Lou how to have a successful city garden.  Mary Lou shared how her dad, a Gloucester fisherman, used to bring home the fish remains to fertilize his garden.  What those old school gardeners knew, we are all learning again, I swear by Neptune's Harvest Fertilizer,  same idea!

I asked Matt and Mary Lou what it was about gardening that kept them at it all of these years.  Matt said he enjoys spending time outside, and how it helps clear his mind.  Mary Lou was of a similar opinion, "It is like a breath of fresh air for my brain" she said. Before I left, the Settipani's gave me two lovely green peppers right from the garden, oh and they were quite tasty for dinner the next day!

 Matt and Mary Lou have promised to share some of their zucchini recipes with us, so look for them posting here soon!  Thanks for the wonderful hospitality Matt & Mary Lou, and sharing your garden with us!!!!

Summer Squash Recipes

Martha put a call out for recipes to use all the summer squash she is harvesting now, so I thought I'd share a couple of links I like:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/a-bounty-of-summer-squash/
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_summer_squash/
http://www.marthastewart.com/275750/summer-squash-and-zucchini-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide

If anyone has any favorite ways to use summer squash, please share!

Beacon Street Farm Salad

Beacon Street Farm salad with pickled radishes

My Best Gardening Assistant

Meet Sophia, my best gardening Buddy.  Sophia has been gardening with me since shortly before her 3rd birthday.  In the photo on the left, she is inspecting the new raised bed we put in this year.  We had so much fun with the original bed, we wanted to expand this year!  Sophia is very serious about our gardening, and she reminds her mother and grandmother every Saturday morning that she needs to come over to garden.  You can tell how serious she is by those fabulous gardening Wellies she's sporting!  In the photo on the right, she is showing off how well our grape tomatoes are doing in that same bed.

 

When I asked Sophia what her favorite part of gardening is, she said it was the planting.  Don't get her wrong, she loves watering the gardens, and enjoys harvesting too, but like me, she loves getting her hands in the dirt, planting the seeds and seedlings, and finding bugs, and determining if they are good bugs or bad bugs for our garden.  We had loads of fun this spring finding worms to put into our new garden bed.  We found one that was at least 8 inches long, and chubby as he could be.  Sophia likes worms, lady bugs and butterflies.  She doesn't like bees, but she understands how important they are for our plants.

Here's another shot of Sophia (with her Great Uncle Vito - my second best gardening buddy) harvesting zucchini this morning from our new bed.  She is not particularly fond of eating vegetables.  I had hoped she might be willing to try some of the ones she grew, but right now she would much rather give her crops away than eat them, and her parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles are always delighted to get some delicious treats from Sophia.  She might not like many vegetables, but she loves fruit, so this year we planted strawberries, blueberries, melons and pumpkins.  Sophia is delighted each week when she can pick a few strawberries.  She and her Uncle Vito enjoy them very much!  We can't wait until next year when they spread, and we get even more strawberries.

Sophia and I wanted to share a fun project we've done with our pumpkins.  A few weeks ago we carved Sophia and her baby cousin Owen's names into the skin of two of the pumpkins, and we are having fun watching how their names are getting bigger as the pumpkins grow.  Here is a picture of Sophia standing in her strawberry patch pointing out the pumpkin with her name on it, and a shot of Owen's pumpkin. 

Sophia and I enjoy working and playing hard in the gardens, and we would love to hear some of the things others who garden with young children do in the gardens to help make it a magical experience for the kids!

The day I have been waiting for since March

After being in New York for the past week, I returned to a somewhat unruly garden with so many things that were ready to harvest. I'll admit I was getting a little discouraged by the garden because although everything was getting bigger, pretty much the only things we have been able to harvest were radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale and chard. I grew some of those because people said they were easy to grow, not really because I actually like eating them. In fact, part of the reason, we didn't get a CSA share this year, was because in the past we'd gotten so much kale and chard each week that I had come to dread searching for new ways to use those ingredients. Today was the day I have been dreaming about since March; harvesting things I actually like to eat. First I dug up our potatoes. It was so satisfying to dig through the dirt and find all of the potatoes under there. Unlike so many of the things that grow above the ground in the garden where you can actually see the progress, there was no way for me to know if the potatoes were going to be a success or not. Even the beets and radishes have given me some kind of indication on how they are doing as they peek through the top of the soil. But potatoes were a leap of faith and I was so happy to find about 30 regular sized red bliss potatoes and some smaller ones. Somehow in my head there would only be six potatoes since that is how many eyes I had put in the ground. Remember, this is my first foray into gardening. While I was weeding, I also noticed some of the beets were ready to harvest as well as some calendula flowers, cherry tomatoes and blackberries. I cut some basil, tarragon and kale because I had some time this afternoon to prep them for our winter kitchen. It may sound ridiculous, but I am most excited about the potatoes. If you know me, you know I love potato. If you ask my kids what they are most excited about, I am pretty sure they will say the blackberries!

Calling all backyard gardeners

It's the height of the summer growing season, and I (and I hope others) are interested in how everyone's garden is growing. I realize everyone is busy, and blogging may not fit into your schedule, or maybe you are too shy to post. I would love to start a weekly spot here at My Backyard Grows featuring local backyard gardners, big and small, to share successes, failures, tips, and questions. I Am looking to visit you, at your convenience, ask a few questions, maybe take a picture or two of your garden, and share your experience with other like minded folk here on the blog. Please email me at mkmh978@gmail.com if you are willing to help me out. Look for my first featured gardener here this Sunday!

Fruits of my labor

Today's havest, washed and ready to eat!   Been busy this summer, and I haven't had much chance to post, but my little backyard here in Downtown Gloucester is thriving.  This is the end of the lettuce and pea pods, but the beans and onions are in their prime, and the cukes and tomatoes are just starting to produce.  The tomatoes are loving the heat this summer, and we have lots and lots of tomatoes coming in a few weeks!  We've been eating zucchini for weeks,  still plenty growing, just none harvested today.  Pepper plants are small, but flowering, so we're hoping for the best!  Going to plant more lettuce, spinach and beans this week!  I love gardening season!!!