Strawberry Popcorn

We grew strawberry popcorn this year. It was the corn in our Three Sisters bed. This area is good for corn, but, as a home garden, I wasn't expecting to get much from our little 4-foot by 11-foot bed. I was actually delightfully surprised!

We planted the shiny little red kernels on May 25 with the rest of the garden.

And then we waited. A week later, we had rows of perfect blade-like seedlings.

Two weeks later, the whole bed was really starting to look like something. 

One more week and everything had more than doubled in size.

July came...

...and we just kept waiting. There really wasn't anything else to do. By then, the weeds had slowed considerably so daily maintenance wasn't necessary. When there was heavy rain and/or high winds, we sort of pushed the flattened corn stalks up again, but they more-or-less straightened themselves on their own.

By mid August there was definite progress in ear-development.

Some of the ears seemed odd to me (three in one spot?), but what do I know? This was my first time growing popcorn. A green stink bug seemed okay with it.

As did the bees.

And so there was more waiting as the stalk and ears began to dry.

By early October, I was tired of waiting. Though my patience has greatly improved as I've gotten older, I hit my limit. The majority of the ears were nice and dry so I went for it.

I am now putting shucking popcorn right up there with - well just slightly lower than - shelling beans. It was a beautiful day as I sat on our concrete patio, pulling back the dried husks, and revealing shiny, gorgeous, tiny, red ears of popcorn.

And after shucking ear after ear, I had a lovely surprise: an entirely white ear!

I got 21 shiny ears of strawberry popcorn in all (just the one white one). I strung them up with twine and hung them on our porch so they could dry further. 

I read that it would take about two weeks to fully dry. Of course, that varies by location and weather conditions. So, eight days after hanging the ears, I pulled one down to give it a try.

It was a bit of a struggle to pull the kernels off the cob, so I only did half of the tiny ear.

I put the loose kernels into a paper bag and microwaved them for about two minutes. I could hear tiny explosion but was disappointed by what I found when I opened the bag. The kernels had split open but that was it. My impatience was not rewarded.

So the half-ear of popcorn sat on our kitchen counter next to the last of the season's tomatoes until last night when I decided to try again. This time the kernels practically fell off the cob and made wonderful popping sounds in the microwave. And, lo and behold, we had popcorn!

I plan to leave the other 20 ears hanging on the porch for the next couple of days since we are experiencing 80 degree weather (yuck! The time of summer has past; it's fall now!). If the kernels come off easily, I know they're ready. If not, we'll hang them inside as temperatures will be falling back into the 50s by the end of the week (yay!).

In case anyone is wondering, the corn stalks became fall decor along with some pumpkins and a giant mum I got at my favorite pumpkin-and-mum-buying spot.

The popcorn harvest was just the start of putting the garden to bed for the winter. It's always a bit sad to see the end of fresh veggies, but I'm ready to be done for now. Some locals are not as pleased by the end of our growing season. But that's a story for next time....

Oh Deer!

The Little Pumpkin That Could(n't)

Last fall, I bought a wonderful white pumpkin striped with orange and green at a farm stand near my job at the time. I had never seen anything quite like it. I got it just for decoration rather than for eating, so at the end of the season I bashed it apart on my concrete patio and put the pieces along the tree line at the back of our property as a seasonal treat for the deer and other woodland creatures who frequent the area. I saved a bunch of the seeds for myself with the hope of growing my own lovely, unique pumpkins.

When I started my herb seeds this spring, I put three of the saved pumpkin seeds in the starter tray. I learned that this variety was called One Too Many, which seemed like a good sign. Out of the three seeds I started, one plant grew. Boy did it grow. It was the reason I needed to keep raising the grow lamp. I also planted three Long Pie pumpkins seeds, with one actually germinating too. But Long Pie is just a side character in this story. One Too Many is our protagonist.

May 5: One Too Many on the left, Long Pie on the right.

May 23: One Too Many on the left, Long Pie on the right.

I had really good feelings about my pumpkin seedlings when I transplanted them out into the garden on Memorial Day weekend. Of the two, I gave better odds of survival to One Too Many. Long Pie was a nice seedling but kind of spindly. I know pumpkins can be resentful of transplanting, but I was confident that sturdy One Too Many would be fine. 

May 25: One Too Many in the center of the bed in the background. Small but proud.

I planted arugula in the bed with One Too Many. I like to put fast spring crops with larger later plants. I put Pak Choi in the bed with the zucchini and radishes with the beans. There is also a sweet basil plant in the corner of the bed, which grew beautifully and made tasty pesto but has little bearing on this tale. 

I feel like the arugula may have somewhat overwhelmed One Too Many. As the little spicy leaves flourished, the pumpkin just kinda sat there, not growing much but not giving up either.

June 22: Arugula making a run for it and going to seed with One Too Many at the left.

June 22: After the arugula was harvested giving One Too Many some breathing room.

I will admit that at this point, I was a bit concerned. Pumpkins have long growing seasons and One Too Many was pretty much the same size as it had been when it went into the garden a month earlier. Would there be time to make fruit? I considered adding something else to the bed to use the space. Each year I have to decided how to best use the very limited space I have. I don't like empty ground in my beds. But I decided to give the little pumpkin a chance and in just a few weeks, it was really doing its thing.

August 11 - One Too Many filling the bed.

August 11: A pumpkin!!

August 18: And another! (certainly not one too many, though)

I was excited to find the first tiny pumpkin. Then another larger one appeared a week later. After finding the second, more robust pumpkin, I debated taking off the smaller. That would funnel more resources to the larger and give it a better chance of growth. That made some sense, but I didn't want to limit the pumpkin potential. All your eggs in one basket, etc., etc. So, I left them both be and the plant ended up self-selecting the larger pumpkin anyway.

August 31: Looking fine.

The pumpkin began putting on weight and its stripes began to develop. It was slow and steady for weeks as I watched over it. By mid-September, I began thinking about when I should pick my one and only One Too Many pumpkin. It was not growing any bigger and the orange webbing on its white skin had really darkened to a lovely shade. One of the many squirrels in the neighborhood (the bane of my garden, which haven't really been too terrible this season actually) had sampled the pumpkin. It was only a little nick, though. I could bring it in now but I didn't want to cut it from the vine too early. There were still several weeks left in the season. So, I left it where it was.

September 21: Look at those stripes!

Spoiler alert, I should have picked it. This last week was very rainy. There weren't any torrential storms, just near-constant rain and perpetual gloominess. I did cursory checks of the garden each day. I picked a bucket of grape tomatoes on one dryer day but otherwise did little to the other plants. The sun finally came out at the end of the week so I could do a more in-depth inspection. When I looked at One Too Many, I did not like what I saw.

September 29: hmmm

The squirrels had been sampling again. While frustrating, it wasn't the end of the world. We weren't planning on eating this pumpkin. It was just for display. The missing chunk was unsightly but maybe it was still salvageable. Looking closer, though, it seemed like the pumpkin had sunk slightly into the ground. Perhaps it had rained heavily enough for the dirt underneath it to wash out. Well then, I had better pull it out of the mud and put it back on solid ground. So, I gently lifted it up...

Sad trumpet sounds.

Well crud. The pumpkin hadn't sunken into the soft ground. The underside had completely rotted and it collapsed. So much for One Too Many's lone pumpkin.

I hate to leave a story on a sad note. Remember side character Long Pie? Our spindly little friend produced three pumpkins. We plan on eating them. And I still have a bag of saved seeds from last fall's decorative pumpkin so I can try again next year.

Three Long Pie pumpkins just waiting to be part of the fall feast.

Not the nibbler but still a squirrel (photo from last summer)

More Beans!

I love shelling beans. There is nothing better than sitting on the back porch on a warm, sunny late summer day, listening to '80s New Wave on Pandora, and popping shiny dried beans from their dehydrated pods. It's something that makes me simply happy. Maybe it's because I love doing fiddly things with my hands. Maybe its just sitting still with something uncomplicated to do. I don't know and I guess it doesn't matter. I'll just take the quiet joy.

My legs didn't even go numb this year.

My not-so-attentive bean supervisor.

I planted rattlesnake beans and black turtle beans this year. They are two of my favorites. Both grew fairly well but the beans themselves are somewhat smaller this year. Perhaps it was the lack of regular rain. We only watered the garden a couple of times and the garden seemed to do fine on its own without further intervention.

Dried rattlesnake beans on the vine.

Turtle beans on the plant. (these ones don't really vine)

The rattlesnake bean pods have a curved shape and are tight around the beans. The pods split open fairly easily but the beans need to be removed individually. The black turtle beans have smoother, looser pods. They pop right open and the beans can be removed in one fell swoop per side. I like shelling the rattlesnake beans better but it's fun to have different tactile experiences with them.

Rattlesnakes

Turtles

I wrote a more in-depth post last July about my bean cultivation, etc. - Beans! - so there's no need to go into detail here. I just wanted to make a brief post about the joy I find in bean shelling. You should try it. You might like it.

All the beautiful beans!

 

Enjoying the Vegetables of Our Labor

 Every evening after dinner, my husband and I go out to the garden. Nearly every single day since the end of June, we have picked something while there. Sometimes it was just a handful of snap peas. Other times, it filled that nice old square gathering basket we've had for years. It's been a lovely, steady stream of fresh produce filling our refrigerator. So, what have we done with our harvest?

The daily haul on July 27, 2024

Pak Choi

Our first bulk harvest in June was the pak choi. We cooked up most of the little greens with some butter beans (from a can), garlic, herbs, and a touch of vinegar to make a fairly hearty dish. A sprinkle of bacon bits really made it.

Beets

People either love or hate beets. I happen to love them. This year, I planted some beet seeds that have been sitting in my seed collection for several years. I wasn't sure if any would actually grow, but they did. The vast majority of the small crop were chioggia beets, which have lovely interior rings like a target. There were also two or three Detroit dark red beets in the mix. I picked them in two rounds. The first batch I cooked whole in our Instant Pot, skinned them, then sliced them up. I toasted a couple rounds of naan, spread a mix of mayonnaise and feta cheese on them, layered on the beet slices and sprinkled it all with fresh thyme. Sooooo good!

A couple weeks later, I picked the rest of the beets, Instant Pot-ed and peeled them again, then used them to make pickled beet eggs. The recipe is simple. I put 1cup of cider vinegar, 1 cup of water, half a cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt together in a pan and heated it until everything dissolved. I also sliced up the one and only Detroit beet and added it to the pan. The chioggia are a light pink color when cooked and I worried they wouldn't dye the eggs that beautiful fuchsia. I put six hard boiled eggs and the whole chioggia beets into a glass canning jar and poured the vinegar mixture on top. After a few days in the fridge, we pulled them out and had very tasty pickled beet eggs.

Eggs and beets ready to soak up that pickle-y goodness.

That color just three days later!

Green Beans

Actually, they're Royal Burgundy garden beans, but they cook up green. I really love these purple beans because of how well they grow and because they have a built-in cooking indicator - as soon as they turn from deep purple to a beautiful bright green, they are cooked just the right amount. No squishy, overcooked beans! 

My husband is not a huge fan of green beans, so I just had four plants this year. It was still enough for several lunches for me (and the plants are still making beans). One nice way to use them is in ramen. I put a pack of instant soy sauce flavored ramen noodle in a pan with the seasoning pack and enough water to cover the noodles. I then put whole trimmed purple beans around the edges of the noodles before turning on the stove. As the water starts to heat up, I crack a whole egg on top, then put on the lid and let it all come to a boil. As soon as it does, I stir up the egg to make sure it cooks all the way. Within another minute or two the noodles, egg, and beans are all cooked just right.

Green bean and egg ramen with a side of cucumbers and dill.

Cucumbers

For the last month, nearly every meal has had a side of cucumbers - and I love that! This year, I planted a mix of old Chicago Pickling cucumber and Garden Bush Pickle Hybrid cucumber seeds. I'm not sure which ones actually grew, but they are all lovely. I eat them dipped in hummus, swimming in a light vinegar brine as quick-pickles, and mixed with sour cream.

Cucumber slices with sour cream and dill looks a bit slimy but is very tasty.

I also diced them up in salads. For one salad, I used a bag of riced cauliflower as a base. I added diced cucumber, tomato, pepperoncini pepper, and avocado (not from our garden) and dressed it with a little oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and fresh flat leaf parsley. 

So cool and fresh on a hot summer day.

Honestly, most of the cucumbers were consumed straight from the fridge all on their own.

Mmmm. Crunchy.

Tomatoes

I didn't start my own tomato seed this year. Instead, I got a grape tomato and a Supersteak tomato plant from a small local garden center. Both have produced a prodigious amount of fruit, though they have been slow to ripen. This is a good thing, however, so we're not overwhelmed by tomatoes. Even so, the grape tomatoes have become a breakfast staple for me, slice up with cottage cheese and fresh chives. 

A breakfast of champions.

 The beefsteaks are perfect for slicing on sandwiches, and that is exactly what we've been doing with them. Toasted white bread, spread with a layer of mayonnaise, topped with thick slices of tomato, and sprinkled with chiffonaded basil. There is no better seasonal treat.

Summer on toast.

Herbs

I've tried to add fresh herbs to as much as I can this summer, which has become much easier since moving some of them from the garden to our new patio container garden. But what we can't use fresh needs to be preserved for the long dark winter. I've dried two rounds of herbs so far, with at least on more batch to be done later in the fall. I have also made pesto to put in the freezer. I went online and found a good basic recipe - 2 cups fresh basil leaves, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 small garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon salt, black pepper to taste, 1/4 cup of oil, and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (I don't bother with the pine nuts) - whipped up a batch and then carefully scooped it into a silicone ice cube tray. Each cube is about 1 1/2 tablespoons of pesto. Into the freezer it went. Once they set up, I popped the cubes out of the tray and put them into a sealed container back in the freezer.

One batch down, several more to go. We have A LOT of basil.

Squash

And finally, the squash and zucchini. I love them in so many ways - diced up and sauteed with garlic and herbs, sliced and coated in cornstarch then fried, layered in long slabs instead of noodles in lasagna (we haven't done that one yet because it's been so hot this summer!). A perennial favorite in our house this year has been to spiralize them into zoodles (or squoodles, I guess, depending on variety).  

Zoodles and squoodles together.

These thin-cut curling veggies can then be cooked and topped like spaghetti. I made a nice dish of the mixed yellow squash and zucchini noodles with sliced faux chicken cutlets and several blocks of our homemade pesto.

So creamy and fresh.

I'm going to be so sad when our harvest finally ends and we have to go back to flavorless off-season grocery store produce.