Vegetables

High 86 F
Low 63 F

The veggie garden is producing. The tomato vines are incredibly full and tall and I am harvesting vegetables every day.    The beans need picking.  The EM has been away in Maine for a week so I have not really cooked a full meal as Tucker would rather eat chow out of a bowl and cucumbers right from the vine.  Tomorrow morning these will be picked along with squash.   I did find the inevitable 'baseball bat' zucchini today.  Somehow it escaped notice. This one is small and ready for harvest. These have not really produced much zucchini...words I am sure that I may live to regret!  I planted Christmas beans on the tuteur in the first picture but only two germinated.  I wonder what that was about.  There are so many variables in nature that it is hard to pinpoint just why something has failed.  Did I fail to water at the right time or was this just bad seed.   Christmas beans are very pretty and if I get any, I will show them to you. The Bhut Jolokia pepper is the hottest pepper on record with over a million Scoville units on the heat index.  I think a Hazmat suit will be in order for harvesting and I intend on using these for a deer repellent.  Don't get mad, get even!  A gardener from the radio show mentioned this pepper as a very ornamental plant  and since the EM likes things hot he requested a few plants.  The seeds are expensive because each pepper only has a few in the cavity.  The will turn bright red if the season is long enough.  The other pepper plants, Hungarian wax, Spanish piquillo, and the bell peppers are looking healthy and lush.  Time to harvest a few for the grill.  The hungarian wax are especially good grilled and the intensity of heat varies from pepper to pepper.  I am inundated with cucumbers at the moment although the vines are starting to show a bit of wear and tear.  I planted the above pickling variety and then a long, slicing variety.  The taste is so much more compelling than the store bought.   The basil is lush and full with some of the biggest leaves I have ever seen.  I started these from seed and can't remember the variety. Better notes next year!  The tomatoes....worth waiting for!   Now there are ripe ones to pick every day.  So far, the red lightening are the most tangy and delicious but the Mortgage Lifter, which is big and, sorry no picture as I ate it too fast, was almost as good.  The cherry tomato 'Sungold' also has exceptional flavor.    A basket of veggies is a very satisfying sight don't you think? 

Comments

[tina]

Yes I do! Very good indeed.

[Lisa at Greenbow]

Layanee, your vegetable garden looks lucious. That hot pepper looks like it is even too hot for itself the way it is wrinkled up. That basket of harvest makes me wish I had a veggie garden. Maybe some day I will do veggies. Raised beds would be the way for me to go. I am basically a lazy gardener. For some reason I think the grass would stay out of the raised beds better.

[Kim]

Okay, I am now drooling... everything looks so delicious! So Tucker eats your cucumbers but leaves your beans and tomatoes alone? Coco is just the opposite, which is a good thing because all my cukes have powdery mildew and I will be lucky to get enough for a good batch of pickles as a result.

Could your basil be lettuce leaf basil, aka 'Toscano'? (I have no idea if the latter is spelled correctly.) Looks crinkly enough for it, but I'm sure there are many more basils out there than I know of... :)

[Barbee']

What a great job you have done with your kitchen garden. Isn't it amazing how much produce comes out of even a small area! My area is very small, but it has been very interesting to work with.

[Eve]

A beautiful garden. I had a couple of failures this year but I know there is no such thing as a perfect garden so I don't worry about them. My eggplant and carrots didn't do too well.

That is a lovely basket of veggies. I see a good meal in our future. : )

[Gail]

Wonderful...Dinner last night was a gift of vegetables from a friend. One surprise was a round cucumber? I thought it was a squash but imagine my surprise when I cut it open to find cucumber look, taste and smell. It was good but I am imagining your dinners with your own vegetables...that makes it a double treat doesn't it!

Gail

[Layanee]

Tina: Come for dinner!

Kim: Cucumbers and melons that is what Tucker likes. I caught him with another just today!

Barbee: I am thinking I need more room!

Eve: We all have had crop failure. Our corn did not germinate this year.

Gail: Hmmm...a round cucumber. That just seems wrong. What could the advantage be? The dog would like to catch them. When are you coming to RI?

[Mr. McGregor's Daughter]

Your veggie garden is beautiful & the fruits look absolutely delicious!

[Kevin]

Hi Layanee,

Your photography is great!! and your gardening skills are awesome too! I enjoy visiting on a weekly basis where I can view a talented artist using gardening as the medium.

When I first visited this Aug 1st post I almost died. I've never heard of anyone growing Bhut Jolokia, aka Ghost Pepper stateside. You certainly have a fine specimen in the photo. I would certainly and most thoroughly enjoy one of those fine peppers if you were happen to have a spare =)

I grew my own habanero chiles last year and they were scrumptious when mixed with melted cheese and placed on a Triscuit. I can't event begin to imagine how yummy the Bhut Jolokia would be with a pint of ale and a box of Triscuits.

Here is my favorite quote from wikipedia about the Ghost Pepper:

"One seed from a Naga Jolokia (aka Bhut Jolokia) can produce sustained intense pain sensations in the mouth for up to 30 minutes before subsiding."

YUM!!

Thank you,
Kevin

[Layanee]

Kevin:

When they are ready, you have one! I will send it along in an environmentally safe package. I am looking for a hazmat suit in order to harvest them. I think they need to turn red before harvest. Also, be forewarned although I know you have read much about them they have over one million Scoville units on the hot scale compared with habanero which is just 100,000+ I think. I would say, don't eat them!

[Brandon]

a million Scoville units! I did not know one this hot existed, i have a friend that says that spicy food dosen't faze him I need to grow this and try him out.

http://www.blogdivvy.com/growing-vegetables

LAYANEE SAYS: Too hot to eat! Not too hot for deer repellent though! He He He