Just a friendly reminder…

From one novice gardener to another _______ gardener (you fill in the blank), that it’s still HOT outside and your flowers, plants and herbs might be thirsty.  Generally, gardens need 1/2 – 1 inch of water per week, depending on the plants…as some plants require more and some less.

Signs of Plant Thirst

• The basil leaves are drooping. Totally unscientific, but it worked for me last year.  Whenever the basil plant leaves looked a little droopy, I’d give everything a good watering.
• Dry dirt. While there may be moisture in the soil underneath the surface, hard, dry dirt is an indication that your plants need some refreshment.
• Fruit is budding. While you may not see any signs of thirst, plants need extra water when they are fruiting…how do you think the fruits/vegetables get larger?!
• sd

And while you’re at it…get a glass of water for yourself. (Or just drink from the hose if that’s your thing!)

Have any garden watering tips or rules of the green thumb?!

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So this meal involves a little vegetable chopping.

Okay, Fine. A LOT of chopping.

But it is worth every second. I promise.

We all loved this…including the boys.

Ingredients

1 green pepper (I used some from the freezer…$.33)
1 medium eggplant ($1.50)
1 medium yellow squash ($.75)
1 medium zucchini ($.75)
About 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes (from the garden)

Fresh herbs from the garden – basil, oregano, and thyme
About 2 Tbsp olive oil ($.20)
Salt and pepper

Directions

First chop the eggplant and season with some salt. Place in a strainer or colander in the sink and let the juices out while you chop everything else.  When you are ready to throw it all together, rinse off the salt/juices and pat dry.

Then chop every else into 1/2 or so size pieces. Chop the herbs.  Toss everything into a large bowl with the olive oil and season with some salt and pepper.

Spread it out onto a single-ish layer on a cookie sheet and roast at 400 for 35-45 minutes, stirring once.

Roasty. Toasty.

Serve as is, over bread or over pasta.

**Note: I had the leftover ratatouille cold over cold leftover noodles.  Perhaps the best lunch I’ve had all summer!

Cost $3.53

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So for the past several weeks we have been eating green beans for what seems like breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Well, maybe not breakfast. (But chopped and baked into a frittata with some bacon…ooohhh…)

I haven’t really done anything exciting with our garden green beans. So I thought I’d share some old posts and some ideas for jazzing up these delicious garden gems.

How to Freeze Green Beans

How to Pick Green Beans – Snap as you Pick

How to Saute Green Beans

Wash and snap off the stems.  Pull out the string if necessary.  Cut into bite size pieces if you prefer. In a saucepan, add a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Add the green beans with one of the following and saute for 4-5 minutes, or until green beans turn bright green and are still crunchy.  Remove the green beans from the pan immediately, as the heat from cooking will continue to cook them and they can get soggy. (Ew!)

• Onions – pearled, caramelized or red
• Minced or crushed garlic
• Fresh garden herbs, like rosemary and/or basil
• Bacon crumbles
• Mushroom slices
• Dijon mustard whisked with a splash of vinegar
• Lemon juice
• Parmesan cheese
• Sesame seeds and some soy sauce

What about you…do you have a favorite way to cook, eat or store green beans?!  Feel free to link up your blog posts, or leave links in the comments!

If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

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Ever overwhelmed by the produce that comes in your CSA box…or maybe you’re not sure what to do with that Swiss Chard you picked up at the market?!?  Wendy is here to help…

Whether you scored a great deal at the farmer’s market, had a great harvest in your garden, or your CSA box is overflowing, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with a huge pile of vegetables. Don’t let it rot in the refrigerator–get out your cutting board, knife, storage bags or boxes, and get ready to tame the pile!

1. Decide what to do with lettuce.

Lettuce is the one thing that does not store well, so this needs to get eaten within 7-10 days or given away. I normally store these right in the salad spinner or in gallon freezer bags. Don’t forget to label containers!

2. Remove tops from bottoms.

Separate the tops from beets, carrots, kohlrabi, radishes, and other roots/tubers that grow in the ground. Put the tops in with your “greens” pile which would also include kale, Swiss chard, collards, and mustard greens. The roots will last for weeks in your refrigerator crisper drawer or a large gallon bag with a paper towel in it. Onions and potatoes go in a closet.

3. Tackle the greens pile.

We now turn our attention to the “greens” pile. To de-stem Swiss chard and kale, grasp the stem in one hand and strip the leaves with your other hand, by making a circle with your thumb and forefinger and running it up to the top of the leaf. Kale stems can be discarded or frozen for soups. Swiss chard stems will be chopped and bagged. The remaining greens can be chopped and stored in a plastic container or freezer bag. Members of the cabbage family also store well in the refrigerator.

4. Everything else.

You will now be left with what most people consider “vegetables,” that is corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash, peppers, cucumbers, etc. These don’t last super long in the refrigerator, so you’ll want to store these together so you can use them quickly for snacking, stir fries, throwing into scrambled eggs, etc. If you KNOW you’re not going to be able to eat it within the next week, there are a few things you can freeze without blanching–check out my post The Busy Person’s Guide to Preserving Food. http://thelocalcook.com/2010/07/23/the-busy-persons-guide-to-preserving-food-a-book-review-tips/

By now your pile will have disappeared, tamed and neatly labeled and easy to find in your refrigerator. Congratulations!

Wendy Hammond grew up on a farm and has been a member of CSAs for five years. She blogs at The Local Cook as a way to inspire and help people eat locally and in season.

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So the green beans are coming at a “you better pick these daily” rate at this point.  So we’re having them with either lunch or dinner everyday!  I couldn’t be happier…I think green beans are one of the best garden investments in terms of seed cost and green bean yield…you get a TON from a $1.50 packet!

The kids love the green beans too…either one or both of the boys will ask for more…and I will tell him to go out and pick some more and I will cook them!  I truly believe that one of the reasons they love “their” green beans is because they are “their” green beans.  They planted the seeds. They watched them grow. And now they get to eat them up!

So you all might already be doing this, but I just started by accident. I would snap the stem off and pull out the string, almost unconsciously, as I was looking for other beans to pick.  As soon as I noticed myself doing it, I made it a point to always snap the green bean stems off, pull out the string and drop them back into the garden!

Snap as you pick!!!

That’s my green bean trick for today…and remember…it’s all about green beans on Saturday’s Grow. Eat. $ave!

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Introducing Alea…you’ll be seeing more of her!

Last year when I saw pictures of Erin’s eggplant flowers, I resolved to grow them in my own garden. Not for the fruit, mind you, but for the flowers. I have never grown eggplant before because my husband has always professed that it is the one vegetable that he did not like. He insisted that they taste like rubber tires and had brainwashed convinced my children that eggplant was inedible.

This spring, when visiting a local garden center, I saw some eggplant seedlings. Without doing any research, I impulsively picked the healthiest looking plant from the bunch and brought it home. All I wanted was a couple of pretty purple flowers and perhaps a few eggplants that I would cook up for my lunch at the end of the season.

As luck would have it, I bought a Hansel Eggplant which is a profuse producer. I also happen to have the perfect conditions for growing eggplant: lots of sun, moist, well drained soil, and manure rich compost. I have not captured any great flower pictures, but I now have over 20 eggplants on my bush.

As much as I like eggplant, I knew that I could not eat all that this bush is producing and decided I needed to make converts of my children and perhaps even my husband! I can get my kids to eat anything that includes pizza in the name, so I began my campaign with Eggplant Pizza Bites.

Ingredients:

3  8-10 inch fingerling eggplants, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup pizza sauce or leftover spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
basil
garlic powder
oregano

Directions:

1. Although Hansel Eggplants are not supposed to be bitter, I followed Erin’s steps to draw the bitter juices out of the eggplant.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

3. Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil. Place the slices on a baking sheet and baked until browned and almost tender, approximately 4 minutes each side.

4. Spoon pizza sauce onto each eggplant slice. Top with cheese and sprinkle each slice with dried basil, garlic powder, and dried oregano. Bake until the cheese melts, approximately 4 minutes.

My husband and kids made quick work of the pizza bites. Three eggplants down, seventeen to go!

(Erin here. We are so making these with the eggplant that just budded out in the garden!  I’m even gonna splurge on some dairy-free cheese to make them!  Thanks Alea…amazing!)

Do you have any child-friendly eggplant recipes? Do share your favorites!!!

Alea shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home at Premeditated Leftovers. She is committed to providing her family with homegrown, organic produce despite living in an inhospitable climate. Alea chronicles her gardening efforts at One Determined Gardener. She can also be found on Twitter. Check out all of her $5 Dinners Recipes too.

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Yes, the garden is thriving overall…I’m picking lots of tomatoes and green beans…have herbs coming out of my ears…and the green peppers and jalapeno peppers are coming at a steady rate. And finally, my red pepper turned red.

And we have no shortage of little ‘maters!

But the bad news…

The Banana Pepper Plants. Two were attacked by a squirrel. Caught the little booger in the act. And I thought I scared the bejeepers out of him when I ran at him screaming like a banchee. But apparently it wasn’t enough…because he was back again the next day. (Not once last year did a squirrel get into the garden. I have been chasing them out at least once a day this past week. Ugh.) But thankfully one of the banana pepper plants was spared the wrath of the neighborhood squirrels.

And the other bad news….absolutely NOTHING from my zucchini and squash plants. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. I had yellow squash coming out of my ears last year, with only 1 plant. So I over-zealously planted several varieties of squash plants. But nada. The pollinators didn’t even work. And I see bees on them all the time. But the bees don’t pollinate the flowers.

Baffled. Miffed. Confused.

Sigh.

At least my farmer’s market has some decent prices on their squash!

That’s it from me for this week…

Next week’s Grow. Eat. Save is Green Beans!

So what’s happening (or not happening) in your garden this week/month!!!

Feel free to link up your blog post below…or leave an update in the comments!!!

If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

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(Rainbow Radishes from the Farmer’s Market in Point Reyes, CA.  Pretty, huh?!)

So I can’t believe we are in the middle of August…but that means it’s time to start planting for the fall.  I had every intention to get some seeds into the ground by the end of July, but that just did not happen!

I’m hoping that my fall garden will make up for what I missed out on this spring!  I’ll be pulling up my lettuce, tilling in some fertilizer and planting some seeds for the veggies that failed me this spring.

(More pretty-ness from Point Reyes, CA Farmer’s Market! Rainbow Chard)

Here’s the Fall Garden Plan:

• Spinach
• Radishes
• Swiss Chard
• Brussels Sprouts
• Onions
• Garlic (Later…October-ish)

What about your fall garden?!?  Have you thought about it? Have your planted any seeds?!

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So I grabbed some green chilies a few weeks ago when I was stocking up (and going over-budget, sigh!)…and I had plans to make a green chile chicken in the slow cooker…but decided to pound out the chicken and roll it around the green chilies instead.  I paired this with brown rice, corn kernels and green onions…plus some green beans from the garden.

I’m glad I changed my mind because this was terrific!  We all loved it.  I did have to push some of the green chilies to the side on the boys’ plates…because they were too spicy.  I wish we’d have had 2 more ingredients though…I think it would have been perfect to mix fresh chopped cilantro in with the green chilies, and I would have loved to give Steve a dollop of sour cream on his plate to dip the green chile chicken bites.

Or if so many of us weren’t dairy-free, I would have mixed the green chilies with some sour cream before “stuffing.”  If anyone tries that, let us know how it turns out!

Le recipe…

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice ($.40)
2 corn cobs ($.30)
3 green onions ($.20)
Salt and pepper

1 tsp garlic powder ($.05)
1 tsp ground cumin ($.05)
About 1/2 tsp salt and pepper each
3 chicken breasts ($3.04)
1 4 oz. can green chilies ($.59)
1/4-1 cup cheese, mexican blend or other variety ($.25-$1)

Green Beans from the garden

Directions

1. Start cooking brown rice as directed on the package.  Then shave off the kernels from 2 corn cobs (2 cups frozen or canned corn works too), and slice 3 green onions.  After the brown rice has been cooking for 20 minutes, slide these goodies in with some salt and pepper and let finish cooking over low heat. Fluff with fork before serving.

2. Set up your spice plate. Lightly toss the garlic powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper.  Spread out in a thin layer on a plate or shallow dish.

3. Pound out 3 large chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer or other pounding tool.

4. Place smooth side of the thinned out chicken breast onto the spices.  Add some green chilies (and some cheese if you so desire), and roll up.  Place in baking dish.  Top with any remaining green chiles and/or cheese.

5. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes, or until chicken has cooked through and through. Let cool slightly before serving.

6. Wash and cut stems from the green beans. Steam or saute.

7. Serve Stuffed Green Chile Chicken with Corn-y Brown Rice and Green Beans.

Cost $4.88 – $5.63, depending on amount of cheese

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To-may-toes, To-mah-toes…

It’s what we’re talking about this week on Grow. Eat. $ave! Stuffed Tomatoes to be exact…

Got an over abundance of tomatoes?!? Looking for a cool, light and refreshing side…or even a main dish dinner?!? Well, stuffed tomatoes are THE way to go!

Stuffed Tomatoes with Spicy Avocado Salad

4 large tomatoes
1 avocado, diced
About 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut a cone around the stem bud, cutting out the center portion of the tomato.  Scoop out the seeds. (So it won’t be so “runny” when you fork into it.)

In a mixing bowl, toss together the avocado, onion, jalapeno, crushed garlic, ground cumin and lemon juice.  Season with a little salt and pepper.

Stuffed the Spicy Avocado Salad into the Tomatoes.

Grilled Stuffed Orange Tomatoes with Black Olives and Provencal Goat Cheese

4 orange tomatoes
1 15 oz. can sliced black olives
1/2 cup goat cheese, provencal flavor

Cut a cone around the stem bud, cutting out the center portion of the tomato.  Scoop out the seeds.

In a mixing bowl, toss the black olive slices and the goat cheese and stuff into the awaiting tomatoes.

Place the stuffed tomatoes on a hot grill and grill for about 5-8 minutes, or until goat cheese gets oozy…and the tomato skin begins to wrinkle.

Devour.

Are you drooling yet?!?

More Stuffing Ideas

• Tuna Salad
• Savory Chicken Salad
• Corn and Black Bean Salsa
• Guacamole

Do you have a favorite filling for Stuffed Tomatoes?!

What’s your favorite way to use up the overabundance of tomatoes from your garden or from your trip to the farmer’s market?!

Link up those MATER recipes…

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