mmm. garlic, among other things.

tonight we harvested and hung to dry 21 heads of garlic. three different varieties, with plenty of heads yet to pull from the garlic bed. exciting. and now the shed smells spicy (in a good way).

to the die hard fans of this blog, you may recall last summer when we purchased much of this garlic on lopez island. we also "borrowed" some from the leavens' family homestead in darby, montana. planted last fall, most of it has matured beautifully.


it took nearly nine months. quite the gestation period, but well worth the wait for each clove to develop into a full head that we'll now dry, store, and be able to use for the next several months.

in addition to the bounty of garlic, we've also been harvesting a good amount of baby zucchinis, squash blossoms, peas, shallots, and onions. by the by, onions, shallots, and garlic are all considered alliums (the onion genus). wikipedia tells me that with about 1250 species, allium is one of the largest plant genera on the planet. also, did you know that china is the world's largest producer of garlic at 23 billion pounds/year (or 77% of the world's output). india, south korea, russia, and the u.s. (1.4%) follow...leaving the schwartzes in a very distant 7th place. i suppose we'll take it.

stir fry garden

sitting down to dinner on monday, i couldn't help but smile. we put together a veg stir fry, where everything (less the rice and tofu) was sourced from the backyard. ok, technically, the soy and rooster sauces weren't home grown either, but that's besides the point.

this wasn't a celery, water chestnut, bamboo shoot, baby corn stir fry. i mean, really, what is baby corn? i'm talking kale, chard, snap pea, broccoli, carrot, onion, and baby zucchini. we pulled 7 different types of vegetables together. seven. it's amazing the type of diversity you can accommodate with a home garden.

the bounty of vegetables

our first attempt at broccoli paid off really well

two varieties of carrots
(purple haze and parisian market)

it was awesome and i really believe that i slowed down and enjoyed the meal that much more because it was made from ingredients that we planted, watered, and nurtured. plants that we picked just minutes before washing and sauteing them.

end product - a satisfying meal

the tastes of late spring

strawberries and rhubarb. arugula blooms. broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and more. couldn't be happier with the tastes of late spring.

a salad made of rainbow chard, dinosaur kale, sorrel, arugula (and arugula blossoms!), green onions, and lettuces (yes, a lot of greens!) meshed well with blue cheese, dried apricots, and almonds. paired with grilled asparagus and grilled bread - clean, fresh flavors.

strawberries and rhubarb pulled from the garden made a refreshing tart. i cobbled together a couple different recipes to create it. and now i realize i didn't even get a picture of the finished tart...we ate it right up after this ridiculously large pan of paella. and by we i mean at least 14 people.


besides these lovely meals, we've been discovering new growth in the gargen. the first carrot, baby zucchini and delicate blossoms, sugar snap peas, and broccoli. we let one broccoli plant go to seed, but will see what to do with the stalks.

ate this little guy a few moments later. crisp. sweet. yum.

speaking of sweet and crisp...snap peas are coming along!

if you followed any of last season's zucchini posts, you might recall some of our squash getting to the size of a small child. we'll work on that this time around.

a lot going on for a little bud of broccoli. i'm guessing it will be worth it in flavor.