The July Monthly Update

The Garden: July 23, 2009

It's a few days late, but I finally have a chance to sit down for the monthly update. This farmer spent the past week back in the homeland of Colorado. It has been a very wet (unusual) year in the Centennial Sate. But temps stayed cool longer and gardens got a late start. All the rain was doing wonders, but a severe storm packed with hail and high winds this week did extensive damage to gardens and crops across the Denver Metro area.

Back here in Virginia, Mother Nature turned off the spicket several weeks ago. The temperatures and humidity have gone up and so has the need for water in the garden. It figures this would happen the same time I leave town. Thankfully, the Mrs. did a great job of watering followed by our neighbors. Was the garden as healthy when I returned? No. But it could have been considerably worse.The Harvest After Our Colorado Trip: Tomaotes, Cucumbers, Jalapenos, Romaian Peppers and NM Chiles

• Acorn Squash-Probably suffered the most in the heat and decrease in water. Many leaves died off and the squash have not grown in size the past few weeks. I'm hoping that the plant recovers and produces great squash in its prime fall harvest season.
  
• Albatross Bell Peppers- See Romanian Sweet Peppers....because it doesn't appear we ever had Albatross Bell Peppers.
  
• Jalapeno Peppers- Wowser. This is clearly El Hefe of the garden so far. The poppers (see previous blog post) have been the hit if the season.
  
• Romanian Sweet Peppers- I thought we had one Romanian plant and one Albatross pepper plant. Well, it looks like someone mislabeled some plants because the "albatross" looked identical to the Romanian. Either way, we've already had some ripe and delicious looking peppers. I cut three off just this morning
  
• New Mexico Espanola Chiles- The chiles are growing nicely and we picked our first batch this morning.
  
• New Mexico Heritage Chiles- Along with their Espanola cousins, the Heritage are putting out a lot of peppers. Being away for a week allowed some peppers to turn red instead of a green-color harvest.
  
• Bush Whopper Cucumbers- No surprise the cucumber plant is doing fantastic. The cucumbers are big and tasty and the plant has maintained a compact growth pattern.
  
• Celebrity Tomatoes- The birds had a field day with the celebrities. With the mesh and Oswald in place, we're getting a chance to eat a lot of big, juicy tomatoes
  
• Mr. Stripey Tomatoes- By the looks of it, the Mr. Stripey's might have been mislabelled as well. The tomatoes are a solid yellow color and appear fully ripe. No stripes in sight.
  
• Patio Tomatoes- Birds had some patio 'maters, too. But the plant keeps putting out some tasty tomatoes.
  
• Supersweet 100 Tomatoes- The name fits the bill. These little red beauties are sweet and delish.
  
• Finger Carrots- I thinned out the carrot box and I think we might have some edible carrots.
  
• Lisbon Onions- Ready to use. The onions are a cool season crop, so they won't last long in the heat.
  
• Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas- After a plentiful harvest (two frozen bags worth), the heat killed the vines quickly. I pulled all the vines off the trellises.
  
• Rutabagas- Thinned them out and looking better. Still pretty small.
  
• Salad Mix- The salads we had were great. But again, the heat does this plant no favors. See you in the fall, Salad Mix.

The herbs are blowing up except for the dill and cilantro. Those are finito. Oh well, they made a good run.

The fruit plants are...well....there. Although the blueberry vines are spreading fast. Could be a great sign for next year.

Pole Positon 'peño Poppers

You have a big NASCAR race party and can't think of a killer appetizer? Have a basketful of jalapenos fresh from the garden sitting around?
Here's a recipe that will qualify you at the front of the pack and quickly lapping the #7-Layer Dip car. I pulled this recipe from a The Food Network, as submitted by some guy named Joe Rao. I changed a couple things to give it a little more horsepower (but not heat).

Ingredients:

• 20 large jalapeno peppers
• 1 package of cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of shredded mozarella
  
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder (or 4 garlic cloves minced)
  
• Chopped fresh basil leaves
• Pinch salt and fresh ground black pepper
  
• 10 strips of bacon cut in half
  
• Skewers or toothpicks soaked in water (so not to burn on grill)

Preheat you grill. Cut tops off jalapenos and make a slice down one side of each pepper. Do not cut in half. Take a small paring knife and clean out all white flesh and seeds from inside the peppers (this is where all the heat of the jalapeno resides). Combine cream cheese, mozarella, garlic powder, basil, salt and pepper. Mix until creamy. At this point, put the cheese mixture in a pastry bag. Most folks don't have a pastry bag, so put the mixture in a ziplock bag, squeeze out all the air in the bag, and cut a corner off. Voila...a redneck pastry bag. Take slice of bacon and wrap around each pepper. Once wrapped in bacon, take each pepper and fill inside with cheese mixture. Poke skewers through each pepper (I put five peppers on each skewer).
If you have a grill basket, hang skewers on basket so that jalapenos sit upright. Grill on high heat until bacon is cooked. Remove from grill and let cool for 5 minutes. Crack open your favorite brew, devour, and watch Dale, Jr. suck once again (the only place he wins is the souvenir stand).

It's as simple as that!!!

Muy Caliente!!

Look what Rosetta Stone has taught me to say!!!

My first batch of jalapenos is raring to be harvested and used in a batch of guacamole (along with some cilantro over in the herb aisle next to the parsley). Last week I plucked my first pepper to taste. The surprising part of the first 'peno was its tightly packed seeds and white flesh. The seeds were much smaller than what I've seen in grocery store peppers. I do know the heat of a pepper is packed in those seeds and flesh.

I bucked up and tried the first bite seeds, flesh, and all; might as well find out how hot a punch they are packing. The first five seconds were intensely hot...but it quickly calmed. I thought the flavor was great. The rest of the pepper ended up on some homemade nachos.

So the only lesson I can give here: if you don't want the jalapeno's heat, cut out the seeds and white flesh before consuming. Me? Let's get some chips and avocados and have us a fiesta.