In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
This week cucumbers take center stage. Two plants climb a large trellis and produce two or three cucumbers 12-15 inches long each day.
Translated, that means I have many cucumbers to share with neighbors. These are the vines after a clean-up of dying and diseased leaves.
Most of the cukes are straight but I do get a few squirrelly ones.
‘Chelsea Prize’ is the best cuke I’ve ever grown. You can see the seeds are inconsequential and the skin is not bitter. The description of these English cucumbers at Renee’s Garden is spot on.These slices became refrigerator pickles along with some red onion and chive blossom vinegar I made last spring.
Tomatoes come in second. This is yesterday’s harvest from my three plants. ‘Early Girl’ is on the left with ‘Black Krim’ in the center and ‘San Francisco Fog’ on the right. This is my first year growing ‘San Francisco Fog’ but I think it is a good choice for my coastal garden as the name would suggest.
Here’s the ocean two blocks away two days ago. We have May Gray, June Gloom and this year fog and overcast lingered into July. I wrote about Growing Tomatoes in the Fog Belt last week. My plants look terrible but they are reasonably productive.
Top-line for the tomatoes was this tomato panzanella. When the red peppers are ready they’ll roast with the tomatoes. My neighbor is a sourdough genius—part artist, part engineer and during Covid quarantine she’s nailed it. I get a half loaf once or twice a week. I give her veggies. Her day old bread tossed with olive oil crisped in the oven as the tomatoes roasted and I served the panzanella warm.
The first of the ‘Baby Belle’ peppers showed up last week. The yellow ones are a little quirky and orange are on the way. All are handy for lunch, salads and omelets.
More of the ‘Sugar Pearl’ corn we savored most nights.
Last week I discussed the prep of the Lavender Nectaplum Shrub. Here is the extracted syrup. I used apple cider vinegar with a splash of balsamic to prepare the concentrate which keeps well in the fridge. A 2:1 ratio of sparkling water to concentrate works for me and I find it refreshing on a warm day, (when the fog lifts).
The flower garden brings delight and I gather what’s at hand for bouquets. Featured here ‘Queen Red Lime’ zinnias, wild fennel, native red buckwheat, crape myrtle and silverberry.
You may enjoy seeing what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
To leave a comment, please click on “Leave a comment/Show comments,” leave your comment, then insert your name. Email address and website URL are optional. Finally, click on “Comment as Guest” to post comment. Subscribe to ediblegardens52 by email in Comments.
