august photos, part 2

Just another post of lots of pictures - more words to come later, perhaps.

harvesting tomatoes for the Zilkha Center weekly lunch

watermelon

cauliflower!!

beautiful new picnic table handmade by Skip Clark, a local carpenter
wood from Vermont lumber mill

after allowing the garlic to cure for a few weeks, the next step is to cut
off the tall (now fully dried) stalks, trim the roots, and brush off the
remaining chunks of dirt. next step: somewhere to store it?!

herb barrels outside the faculty house: mint and purple basil!

outside Paresky, by Park St.

august growth

one of the first nearly ripe tomatoes
late July 2011

okra! best to harvest when about 3 inches long
late July 2011

preparing a bed for planting
late July 2011

planting
late July 2011

delightful yellow tomato volunteers
8 August 2011

"Fourth of July Tomato"
a hybrid purchased from the nursery in Cheshire in early June, this particular
variety of tomato is ready to harvest much quicker than most tomato varieties
(roughly 55-68 days). because it's a hybrid, seeds cannot be saved, but it does taste delicious, and is the first tomato in the garden ready to enjoy!
8 August 2011

the melon bed, taking over the lawn
8 August 2011

yellow squash, started from seed in mid June
8 August 2011

okra, traditionally a southern vegetable,
okra actually grows quite well even in
more northern climates
8 August 2011

the "three sisters": corn, beans, and squash in the presidential garden
8 August 2011

corn, ready to harvest
when it feels fully grown
8 August 2011

purple pole beans!
8 August 2011

garlic scapes and tire potatoes

When a garlic plant grows, there are two delicious parts: the garlic bulb, which is found under the soil, and the garlic scape, which is this long, round, sometime twirly stalk that protrudes from the top center of the plant. Picking off this scape allows the plant to dedicate all of its energy to producing the garlic bulb--and the scapes can also be used for food. Scapes have a subtle garlic flavor when cooked, and a pretty powerful garlic flavor when raw. Chopped finely in stir-fries, they're delicious. Or, made into pesto... 

the garlic plant; the scape is the cylindrical stalk that loops around

I made six cups of pesto with garlic scapes, olive oil, almonds, and a little bit of nutritional yeast. It was a bit of a process because the blender I borrowed from Dining Services doesn't function nearly as well as a food processor does...

Left: blending, Right: the final product (mm!)

I saved a small amount to eat immediately (above right), the rest is frozen for use in the fall, or later in the summer

We're also growing potatoes in the presidential garden in tire-stacks and in the ground. Because potatoes benefit from being "mounded", or covered with dirt as they grow, growing them in tires allows more (easy!) mounding, and therefore more potatoes. The only silly decision on the part of WSG was deciding to place these tire stacks at the presidential garden, so that we now have to wheelbarrow our compost up to the presidential garden to fill the tire stacks. They're growing really well, though! Potatoes are ready to harvest as "new potatoes" once the tops of plants flower. They can be harvested full size when the tops of the plants dry and turn brown.

potatoes in tire stacks

potatoes in the ground, at the presidential garden

 the presidential garden