Everchanging Garden Blog

I wonder what the perfect summer salad is? So many to choose from – pasta salad, potato salad, green bean and tomato salad, coleslaw – just about anything in the garden can be adapted into a tasty crisp salad. Last week I made a terrific salad with some fresh sweetcorn, cut of the cob, leftover from our dinner the night before. Combined with what I had in the garden – zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, some lime juice and olive oil it was a real treat. The full recipe for Fresh Corn Salad, along with other salads we have tried over the summer are in my Salad Recipe section.

Looking for something interesting to do with all the extra garlic we have, I came across a recipe for Garlic Jelly in a local wine magazine that was taken from the Bernardin website. The jelly turned out to be very sweet, thanks to 3 cups of sugar, but was very enjoyable on warmed bread with our dinner. I made the jelly in extra small 125ml jars since this type of jelly is more a special occasion jelly rather than one you would eat every day. The recipe, as adapted by me, is available in my recipe section – Garlic Jelly Recipe.

We saw this field of sunflowers in Essex County while visiting my parents. Now I’m excited to plant a major patch for myself next year.

I harvested both our onions and garlic this week and am now drying them for storage. Onions are ready for harvesting when the tops have started to yellow and have fallen over. Garlic is ready to harvest once the leaves start to turn yellow.

Wait for a dry day about a week after the majority of the onion tops have fallen over to harvest. Harvest in the morning or on a cool dry day. Set them out to dry and remove as much of the soil as you can. I removed my tops later that day. Many websites tell you to leave the tops on for drying but I’ve also read that you can remove the tops to within an inch or two of the onion. I cut mine back leaving about two inches. Place the onions in a shallow container with good air circulation and dry in a cool, dry spot for about two weeks. Do not put the onions in direct sunlight to dry. The heat can destroy the onions and the sun can burn the outside layers. I left mine at the edge of the garage and open the door each morning. The onions do not receive any direct sunlight until late in the day but are exposed to air circulation. The process is basically the same for garlic.

Afterward, store in a cool, dry space in wood or mesh containers. Set aside any mushy or damaged onions for immediate use. I left my garlic in the garage in some used green mesh strawberry baskets last year and it lasted well into December (when we ran out!)

We have been harvesting potatoes at least two times a week for the past couple of weeks now. Our potatoes were planted in a brand new garden this year and while we removed a lot of rocks from the soil prior to planting there were still quite a few in the ground we found when harvesting. They did not however seem to affect the size or shape of any potatoes. Each of these piles represent the bounty from one potato plant each for Peanut Fingerling (early), Norland (early) and German Butterball (late).

The best part of the process has been enjoying the different varieties and seeing if there is any taste difference. Interestingly, more than taste we notice a texture difference. While the Norland are waxy both the German Butterball and Peanut Fingerling have a firmer texture. We tried both the Norland and Butterball as french fries one evening and found them each terrific. I hope to try the Butterball in potato salad next as it’s firm texture is supposed to hold up well in salads. So far, we haven’t discovered any we don’t like!