vegetables – Planet B Gardens

garlic scapes

When rocambole or other hardneck garlic varieties start the flowering process, they shoot up a central stalk with a bud. If you want a good-sized bulb of garlic to form rather than the energy of the plant going into producing a flower, you need to harvest that stalk once it starts to curl around. The harvested part is called a “scape,” and it’s delicious. The scape has a mild green garlic flavor, and is great chopped fresh in salads, sauteed in butter, tossed into pasta and stir-fries. Some people like the buds fried in tempura batter like a squash blossom. You can also pickle the scapes if you’d like to

July 9, 2017

2017 garden started

Forecast is for a warm and mostly sunny week, so moved some of the more hardy plant starts outside. Started these summer squash seeds a month ago. Mammoth Red cabbage got started mid-March. Also planted Waltham 29 broccoli, Chioggia beets, Kabocha winter squash, Graffiti Purple cauliflower, tomatillos, and sugar snap pea starts. I’ll direct seed carrots, lettuce varieties, Swiss chard, spinach, and sunflowers later today. It’s still a little risky here in the northwest to plant chili and tomato starts outside — that will be a mid-June project. The garden looks so empty this early in the season. It’ll be a jungle by July, though, assuming all grows well. Garlic planted last fall is

May 22, 2017

sauerkraut 2nd try

Last time I made sauerkraut in 2014 I covered the jar with a cloth to let it ferment. One of the dicey parts of this method is it can allow in wild spores from the air as it’s fermenting. Sometimes those create mold on top of the mix and add their own flavors. That might be a good thing, or it might make the kraut taste a little funky. It’s still fine to eat. I didn’t care for the flavor last time, though. This year I’m taking a more controlled approach. I’m starting with freshly harvested cabbage from my garden this round. I shredded the cabbage thinly like I did before, and

August 23, 2016

diy fermentation setup

Fermenting vegetables are a great way to preserve extra harvest through the winter, with lots of healthy probiotics, vitamins, and minerals. I don’t have huge quantities of any one vegetable right now, so want to be able to preserve small amounts. From what I’ve read, fermenting in mason jars using an airlock is a great small-batch option. When I checked into buying airlock mason jar fermentation lids, though, they averaged $10 per lid — which would quickly add up given the number of batches I’d like to ferment. I figured I could make them myself much less expensively. I started with six lids to see how it would go. I bought 6

August 22, 2016