2018 In My Southern Utah Garden

February 2018 Almond Tree in Bloom. Pruned in January.

Broccolini producing continuously in April 2018.
Planted end of March.

Beets.

Large harvest of Broccolini. June 2018

First tomato! April 10, 2018. Costco plants, harvested tomato
one week after planting.

Yellow pear tomatoes and Sweet 100's.

Roma tomatoes.

Figs and other harvest June 2018

Blackberries June 2018

Cauliflower and assorted tomatoes. June 2018

Celebrity tomatoes.

Roma tomatoes

Swiss Chard.

Spinach

Yellow squash

Fall Harvest in the Garden

I planted these Zinnias from seed under grow lights then transplanted them into pots in October.
We were able to enjoy the blooms for about a month before freezing temperatures were threatening, and I cut the stems for an indoor bouquet.

I should be able to harvest Swiss chard all winter. I cut the larger leaves, and come back and cut again as I need to. I made some Low Carb Lasagne out of this bunch of chard. Delicious!

Grape tomatoes were also harvested and enjoyed before I pulled up the plants a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait to plant some peas or other cold weather crops to enjoy in early spring!

Vintage Pottery

Bountiful Baskets Haul 7-25-2015

I ordered two baskets (which means I got 2 baskets of fruits and 2 baskets of vegetables). It was quite a haul. The produce is amazing with great flavor. The romaine lettuce had some slimy parts on one of the heads, but that was easily cut off.

The carrots are huge! Great for slicing in half length-wise and putting on the BBQ or for juicing.
I think I will do a little of both.

 The small peppers are delicious. We've been dicing them and using them in salads.

Loving the strawberries out of California. So sweet and not overripe.

You can check out the video I shot of this haul here.                                                                                    

Cilantro, Radish and Basil Microgreens



Easy to grow, great tasting microgreens! These are the microgreens I grew and harvested this week.

Radish Microgreens


I love microgreens! They are a tasty addition to any salad, a perfect garnish for scrambled eggs and casseroles, and a great addition to wraps. Above, Radish microgreens are pictured. These are probably one of the easiest microgreens to grow, and they have a great spicy radish taste. They are perfect added to salads, sandwiches and wraps because they add a little zip, without being too spicy.




Basil Microgreens

Basil microgreens are slow to germinate and seem to grow low to the soil. They have a delightful fragrance, but are a bit laborious to harvest. Radish microgreens grow taller, where the basil microgreens seem to hug the soil. They are delicate, but so flavorful.




Cilantro Microgreens

And what is not to love about cilantro! And these cilantro microgreens are amazing! Can't wait to sprinkle some on my scrambled eggs, refried beans and salsa at breakfast tomorrow. Yum!

Today's Harvest: Baby Carrots

baby carrots

I've been picking these small round carrots since fall. We've had a hard freeze, but fortunately, they made it through unscathed. They are actually growing in a self watering pot out in the yard. They have a sweet taste, and it is kind of like eating a sweet treat in the afternoon. Love these!

In the garden I have Swiss chard, baby carrots and parsley that are ready to harvest. That's it.  I've grown more items in the Winter in past years. I did plant some peas this weekend, and hope to get some radishes and more peas planted by Saturday. I also have green onions under grown lights as well as sunflower greens.

Zucchini Pizzas with Basil

I was able to buy a round zucchini at the local farmer's market. A friend had told me that she was going to grill pizzas from the one she got, so I thought I'd give it a go as well. In case you haven't seen a round zucchini, they look like this:

....kind of like a pumpkin, but green! So fun and so many possibilities in cooking with them.

First, I cut slices about 1/2" thick. I coated each side with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil so that when I put them on the grill, they wouldn't stick. Unfortunately, my zucchini pizzas didn't make it on the BBQ (starter wasn't working and I couldn't get the dang thing lit). I used my George Forman to cook the already coated-with-EVOO zucchini discs. Four to five minutes was all that was needed. I then put them on a cookie sheet, smeared a little pasta sauce on them, sprinkled with grated mozzarella cheese, and then baked them at 350* for about 10 minutes until the cheese melted. After cutting some fresh basil from my garden, I sliced it up and sprinkled it on the baked "pizzas."
 

I served these with a large salad with plenty of greens and sprouts, and some rolls. Delicious!

Yellow Squash Chips

Do you have more yellow or zucchini squash than you need? I'm always looking for different ways to use summer squash. Making seasoned chips is an easy way to use up the squash, and have a healthy snack at the same time!

Yellow Squash

After washing the squash, and cutting off the ends, I use a mandolin to cut uniform slices from the squash. When the slices are the same thickness, they dry in the same amount of time.

Mandolin and summer squash slices

Next, arrange the slices on your dehydrator trays. Don't overlap. You want them to dry at about the same time.


Yellow squash slices on dehydrator tray

The next step is to season the soon-to-be-chips with whatever seasoning sounds good to you. I made some with BBQ seasoning, with dill, and the ones pictured below are seasoned with a  Mediterranean blend with salt. A light amount of salt/seasoning is preferred. I would use a little less seasoning on the next batch I make (see picture below).

Dry these at 115* for 5-6 hours until paper thing and breakable. You don't want any flexibility in the chips. They will be crisp and easily broken.

Mediterranean seasoned squash chips

As usual, we ate this finished product before I got the last picture! They were delicious and they went fast! So next time you have a bunch of extra squash, don't leave it on the neighbor's door step and play doorbell ditch! Make yourself these healthy and delicious squash chips. These are best eaten within a couple of days of dehydrating.

Mung Bean Sprouts

Mung Bean Sprouts from Freshlife Automatic Sprouter

This week I've been harvesting zucchini, tomatoes and Swiss Chard from my garden. I also grew some mung bean sprouts in my Freshlife Automatic Sprouter.

I made spring rolls one night, and a stir fry another night. It's always fun to eat them right from the refrigerator as well!

Delicata Squash in my Container Garden

Last fall, I was in Las Vegas and stopped by Whole Foods, looking for delicata squash. I was able to purchase some, and we absolutely loved it! I saved the seeds so that I could try my hand at growing it.  I've been somewhat frustrated trying to get it to grow past what you see in the above picture. It is growing in pots, so if I don't get the water just right, the little squashes just shrivel up. Image my happiness when I noticed a huge delicata squash growing!

I've finally picked it, and I'll serve it with dinner tomorrow. I will make a post tomorrow on how to prepare it in a simple, delicious way.

Have you had success growing delicata squash? Post a comment if you have and let me know how successful you've been growing it.

Green Bean, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad

Hopefully, like me, you have plenty of cherry tomatoes growing in your garden. I love eating them just picked from the garden, so it is amazing that any make it back into the kitchen! I'm not growing green beans this year, but I got some locally grown for this recipe.

This salad is a perfect side dish, or can be eaten as a main course. I like to include it as one of several salads for our evening meal.

Green Bean, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad

1-2 cups green beans, blanched and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large seedless cucumber, chopped

1/2 c. chopped flat leaf parsley

3 TBSP balsamic vinegar

1 TBSP lemon juice

4 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Assemble all vegetables in a bowl. Mix balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper into a small bowl and whisk until blended; pour desired amount of dressing over the vegetables.

Dr. Hyman's UltraBroth Recipe

Dr. Hyman is best known for his book, The Blood Sugar Solution.  I came across a recipe on his website for UltraBroth.  I decided to give this recipe a try, as I had most of the ingredients on hand. I only had to purchase the shitake mushrooms (found them at my local Harmon's).  I have to say that the flavor of the broth is really quite nice. I did strain the broth but used the vegetables up in a stirfry later. What I like about this recipe, other than the fact that it is low in calories, is that it is vegan.

Here is a picture of the broth that I have stored in a quart mason jar. The recipe produced about 2 quarts plus another cup worth of broth.

UltraBroth in Quart Mason Jar

UltraBroth

For every three quarts of water add:

1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup of daikon or white radish root and tops (ideal, but optional)
1 cup of winter squash cut into large cubes
1 cup of root vegetables: turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas for sweetness
2 cups of chopped greens: kale, parsley, beet greens, collard greens, chard, dandelion,
cilantro or other greens
2 celery stalks
½ cup of sea weed: nori, dulse, wakame, kelp, or kombu
½ cup of cabbage
4 ½-inch slices of fresh ginger
2 cloves of whole garlic (not chopped or crushed)
Sea salt, to taste
1 cup fresh or dried shitake or maitake mushrooms (If available; these contain powerful immune boosting properties.)

Add all the ingredients at once and place on a low boil for approximately 60 minutes. It may take a little longer. Simply continue to boil to taste. Cool, strain (throw out the cooked vegetables or blend them into broth using an immersion blender), and store in a large, tightly-sealed glass container in the fridge. Simply heat gently and drink up to 3–4 cups a day.


Nutrition Facts Per Serving:
STRAINED: Cal: 5 Pro: 0 Fat:0 Carbohydrate: 0
BLENDED: Cal: 60 Pro: 0 Fat: 0 Carbohydrate: 14

My Container Garden July 2012

Unfortunately, I've been remiss in posting these pictures of my container garden. I actually have containers throughout my backyard that I grow vegetables in.

I love how tall the cherry tomato plant has grown. This particular plant came from Costco, and has done very well. At least I've been able to harvest quite a few cherry tomatoes throughout the summer.

On another plant in a different area of the yard, this cherry tomato is suffering. I look all over for the hornworms or caterpillars, and can't find any. Of course, it is in the 90's so it is tough standing in the heat trying to find the culprits.

It is just so easy to grow Swiss Chard, and it is so nutritious! I made a great batch of chili using Giada's White Bean and Chicken Chili recipe. However, I left out the chicken! On purpose of course. It still tastes great! If you do eat meat/poultry, I'd use ground turkey in place of the chicken.

Swiss Chard

Kale Slaw

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a copy of Tana Amen's Cookbook, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body Cookbook.  I came across this recipe for Clever Kale Slaw, and it really tastes great. I have three large containers of Swiss Chard in my garden, and I used the Swiss Chard in place of the Kale in this recipe.

I started out shredding the cabbage (I just used green cabbage) and used a chiffonade technique on the Swiss chard to make it fine enough to resemble the cabbage. Here it is in the bowl, below. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Next, I grated a carrot into the mix, and added the chopped raw cashews:

For some reason, after that I stopped taking pictures :(.....

So here is the final picture, and I'll add the recipe after that!

Clever Kale Slaw

3 c. shredded kale or Swiss chard

1/2 c. shredded green cabbage

1/2 c. shredded purple cabbage (or use 1 c. prepackaged coleslaw mix)

1/4 c. shredded carrot

1/2 c. chopped raw cashew

1/2 c. Veganaise (or, use mayonnaise or miracle whip)

1 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1 tsp fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1/3 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp Real Salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 c. raw sunflower seeds

1/2 c. dried cranberries

Combine kale, cabbage, carrot and nuts. In a small mixing bowl, combine Veganaise, vinegar, and spices. Whisk until mixture is blended well.Toss with salad mix. Allow salad to refrigerate for 30 minutes prior to serving if possible so flavors can "marry." Top with sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.



Today's Harvest: Lettuce, Tomatoes and Swiss Chard

I love going out to the garden every morning to see what is ready to harvest. Pictured below is one of the cherry tomato plants that I got this year at Costco. They are about 3 feet tall now, and the tomatoes have slowly been ripening the past 2 weeks.

Cherry Tomato Plant in container

Today I was really pleased to be able to harvest some lettuce (black seeded Simpson lettuce). Those plants just keep on giving! I've been harvesting some every week.

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

I washed it all and gave it a spin in my salad spinner. I had enough to fill a gallon ziplock bag.
Isn't it beautiful? It will be perfect for green smoothies (this variety has a sweet taste) and for salads. Next, I took the scissors to a pot of Swiss chard.....

Swiss Chard growing in a pot

After cutting off the stems (I use the stems in smoothies and stirfry), I washed it and spun it dry (lettuce spinner, again!) and had enough to fill a gallon size ziplock bag. There is such a feeling of satisfaction being able to harvest product from your own garden. I grow everything organically; no pesticides.

Swiss Chard

OK, and then on to my mini harvest of tomatoes...

Red Cherry and Yellow Pear Tomatoes

Don't these look delicious! I remember the first time I picked a cherry tomato. It was in our neighbor's garden in Escondido, California. I was 4 or 5 years old, and our neighbor let us come over and pick some to snack on. I will never forget how good those cherry tomatoes tasted. My lifelong love of gardening started right then! Anyway, there is nothing better than popping a cherry tomato fresh off of the plant into your mouth. Heaven! I did just that while picking these and I can say that these are fantastic.
I also have some sprouts growing. I usually have 3-4 different sprouts going on the counter every week. This week I sprouted lentils, peas, garbanzos and broccoli. Here is a picture of the broccoli sprouts....

We've been eating sprouts at every meal this week. Great taste, nutritious and a perfect addition to whatever we're eating. This particular broccoli seed has been some of the best I've ever sprouted. You can order some at  www.sproutshop.net .  Click here for the broccoli seed page.