In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

This has been the best Satsuma tangerine season ever. They’re deliciously sweet and very juicy. I’m ready to attribute it to a plentiful rainy season last winter. We received 15 inches which is about fifty percent more than our seasonal average.

Last week I delivered small paper bags full of tangerines to neighbors and friends who stopped by. About half of the crop remains on the tree and it’s a race to pick, eat and share.

We’re giving away Washington navel oranges away by the dozen(s). They’ll store better on the tree than the tangerines and I’m making plans for an orange marmalade gig with my sister next week. The orange crop is also bountiful, likely for the same reasons.

It’s citrus season all around my ‘hood and probably most of San Diego. On walks I see boxes of lemons and limes set out for the taking. I’m amused to see single lemons that have rolled down the steep hills and come to rest in the gutter. Citrus season.

Territorial Seed Company’s Spinach Supercharged baby leaf spinach mix is a new crop for me this year. I have an 18 x 18 inch plot which was thickly sown. The blend is a “mix of leaf shapes with some red-stemmed/veined varieties sprinkled in for an enticing color and texture combination.” (Catalog description)

Nice to mix in with my lettuce for a salad.

I’m finishing the last of the broccoli and cauliflower harvests. Homegrown stores much longer than the grocery store purchases. I cut stalks of the Tango celery as needed. With one or two stalks in hand, I find I have to go back for more, having chomped down a stalk on the short walk to the kitchen.

This combo was the start to a brown rice veggie bowl. Roasted pistachios added some protein and crunch. Five stars to Trader Joe’s Thai Peanut Satay Sauce for a quick finish.

We’re now doing daily harvests of snow peas and the vines have exceeded the six foot trellis.

For the church entry yesterday, it was a small “this and that” bouquet from what’s available in the garden on a purple theme. There were even enough lavender blooms to make Lavender Lemonade with some Meyer lemons a friend dropped off. Zone 10b is a wonder!

To do’s for the week: plant my seed potatoes, start more lettuce and keep everything watered with these Santa Ana winds.

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