Friday, August 29, 2008

They might be giants

Well, the garden is in high season, literally as this picture will attest. Michael is 6' tall and surrounded here by Benary Giant zinnias and Russian Giant sunflowers. This part of the garden is making a little bit of a spectacle for the neighbors. People stroll down our street in the evening and often stop to observe the giants and the wild array in the garden. Its fun to be sitting in the house and hearing their observations, amazement over the height, glee over the squash growing in the chainlink fence, interest in the giant spider-web bean poles.

We have never grown corn before and are anxiously awaiting the first picking, probably this weekend, as our corn went in a bit later than most local corn. But, our three sisters planting of corn, beans and squash/pumpkins has been a success and there are many ears ripening on the stalks!





We're managing to keep up with the kale by making lots of wilted kale salad, sesame greens with rice, yum! from Feeding the Whole Family, Cynthia Lair's great whole foods cookbook, which we use regularly and by making Colcannon, an irish dish mixing mashed potatoes with kale and onions and sometimes cabbage. This recipe is great when there's a little cool snap in the air. And the leftovers can be reheated as patties in olive oil for really delicious savory potato pancakes.

We have about 6 weeks to the frost date here and are excited to see how much wonderful food keeps growing steps from the front door. Here's what I picked when I came home from work the other night...



Happy Harvest!