Tag Archives: snow peas

Delicious, Healthy Eating All Summer Long

Not all of my gardening this year has been riddled with blunders and mystery. In fact, I’m rather proud of how much food I’ve cultivated in the garden as a novice gardener.

Below is some of the bountiful harvest I have been enjoying all summer, often in a quick and healthy stirfry.*

Yellow bush beans, green pole beans and snow peas

Tomatoes, green and yellow wax beans and broccoli

Carrots, rhubarb, mint and parsley

A tiny fraction of the beet greens I've harvested this year

Three of my largest heads of garlic, approx. 3" diameter

Carrots still in the ground, yet to be savoured

A full head of broccoli is a beautiful sight to behold

The rhubarb patch after the first harvest -- can you see a difference?!

*Note: All it takes to make a delicious stirfry is a little (or more) organic butter or cold pressed olive oil (both are optimal sources of the good fat you need in your diet), a bit of this and that — whatever you have on hand from the garden. Add a dash of salt and a squeeze of citrus and you have a quick, healthy dinner.

Verdict in two words: Yum. Yum.

How Long is Yours?

Hey, how long is yours? I mean your longest green bean, of course. Seemingly overnight, my pole beans have begun to come in, in droves.

Not only are they great in number, they are huge! I have never actually seen green beans this big before. I was so amazed, I actually measured the longest one I’ve picked so far and it’s 9 inches long. It’s a beauty…and it was delicious.

Check it out…


In the following image, snow peas are on the left, green pole beans on the right, and regular crack-open-the-pod-and-eat-them-right-there peas are the darker green ones in front.


Early July Harvest

Lone RaspberryAlong with the bounty of broccoli the first week in July, I also harvested a huge bag of kale (my new favourite stir fry veggie), more snow and regular peas than I could carry in two hands, a single raspberry, and my first ever cabbage.

Confession, the peas didn’t make it out of the garden. The only thing better than fresh raspberries, warmed by the sun and fresh off the vine — is plump, juicy, fresh green peas, warmed by the sun and fresh off the vine. Really, it was just efficiency; the pea pods went straight into the compost bin. Consider it the circle of life — and a very delicious circle at that.

1st CabbageThe cabbage I harvested was a full 6″ in diameter once all the outer, ratty looking leaves were removed. That’s bigger than it sounds! The thing that surprised me is that it’s crisp, juicy and crunchy compared to the ones I buy at the supermarket.

The kale is amazing. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Yum, yum! I still haven’t gotten tired of the sauteed in butter with fresh lemon kind, but quite a few people have mentioned other options, including tossing it in olive oil and baking it in the oven until it’s crisp and crunchy like chips. That sounds interesting, especially if I sprinkle a little seasoning on it. I’ve also heard it’s good in soup and stew, so I’m sure I’ll be checking online for additional recipes, once I’ve tried every possible combination of herbs from the balcony (thyme, sage, lemon basil, regular basil, green onions, chives, oregano, cilantro, and parsley).

What I really love about the kale is that in one day from 4 plants, I harvested what would cost est. $24 at the farmers market. And it just keeps growing!

Garden Update Mid-June

After 10 days away from my garden, I was keen to check in and see how things are coming along.

Garden Update Jun17In a nutshell, stuff is growing! This in itself is a wonderful thing, which I don’t take for granted. I mean, if it were up to my expertise, the seeds I planted would be sunk. Fortunately, they know what to do without much help from me.

The broccoli is growing like crazy without much to show for it. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m supposed to be clipping off the lower leaves to help the plant focus on bearing fruit, so to speak. I’ll have to check into that. In the meantime, after dinner I did discover one floret which will be eaten soon. The book I checked recommended harvesting to encourage more growth, and that’s all the encouragement I need.

A few weeks back I mulched the garden via a couple of found bales of straw. As far as I can tell, the mulch isn’t doing much to keep the weeds out, but I think that may be because it’s not laid out thickly enough. This I can remedy.

<b> Radishes Gone Wild</b>

Radishes Gone Wild

My mutant radishes keep wanting to go to seed. I’ve never seen such huge radish leaves in my life! I’ve chopped off countless seed stalks but they just keep coming. A couple of weeks ago I tested one of the radishes, which was long, thin, white (no hint of red in sight) and very sharp and peppery. Yum! But I’m not sure they are “ripe” since they do not resemble any of the pictures on the packages of 3 kinds of radishes I thought I planted. (Adding to the confusion is that the Scientist, in a fit of spring cleaning, seems to have tossed out my lovely, meticulously, handwritten garden map. Oops!)

The kale is coming along nicely, now I just need to find a recipe and try and figure out how to get the Scientist to try some. He’s not really a veggie kind of guy…unless there is butter or sugar slathered on for disguise. He has, however and thanks to my efforts, discovered that he quite likes asparagus as well as grilled bell peppers of all colours. This is progress!

<b>Happy Snow Peas</b>

Happy Snow Peas

The snow peas are climbing like crazy, and it’s clear I need to get the climber mesh up at the end of plot C before the last ones planted start to topple. The green beans in the far corner, on the other hand, don’t seem to happy. I may need to move them out of that low lying area and into a new spot. Or add some dirt and replant them there?

And finally the bell peppers. Those poor guys have been completely eclipsed by the broccoli and are now completely shaded. When I originally planted, the plan was to keep the smaller stuff in back. Note to self: broccoli grows big, fast. Peppers, not so much.