The Season for Asian Greens

Our fridge is well stocked with Asian greens at the moment although the season for them is quickly coming to an end as the weather heats up.


I've grown bok choy now for that past three years and this is my best crop yet.  Unlike our old garden, slugs don't seem to be much of a problem here, although I have spotted a few. In prior years, I would lose about 30 to 40 percent of my crop from slug damage alone but this year, every single one was made it to harvest unscathed.

This is my first time growing this larger white stem variety (Win-Win Choi).  It's much milder than the green stem varieties and contains a lot more water but strays very crisp when sauteed.  I highly recommend it.


Of course I'm also growing my usual tatsoi and Shanghai bok choy. I've probably mentioned this before but my favorite way to prepare bok choy is so saute them in some butter on high heat.  I add season with soy sauce, a couple pinches of sugar and some chile paste. Delicious!

I'm Still Alive! - First Harvest of the Year

Yes, I'll confirm that I'm still alive! At the moment, we're slowly getting settled into our now home/community. I will admit that I've been feeling a bit sad these past few days. It was harder to say goodbye to our half-acre home than I would have expected. I'll be staying there a couple of nights a week (when I'm in Boston for work) until we're able to sell it, but deep down inside, I know it just won't be same as living there. In fact, I'm sure it'll be down right depressing since most of our furniture has now been moved out.


Before we left, I remembered to harvest some tatsoi to take with us. The outer few leaves were a bit hole-y but most of the rosette was fine. Some of it went to a stir-fried noodle dish I made last night. It was a tasty reminder of the old garden. I'm gonna try to harvest the rest of it when I'm in town again.


I also picked some kale, which I'll probably freeze and use within a soup during one of these particularly brutal Vermont winter days.

End of November Harvest

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! In many ways, I consider it be as close as you can to a farmer's holiday, which is probably why it's my favorite.

I've been amazed by how mild the weather has been lately. And according to the forecast, it should stay this way for at least the next 10 days. Things tend to deteriorate fast when nighttime lows reach down into the mid-20's. Thankfully, we haven't experienced that yet. Today I harvested more Tatsoi from the garden. Tatsoi is an extremely hardy Asian green, which is why it's usually one of the last things to be harvested from the garden this time of year. I had these growing under fabric row cover and was glad to see that they had formed into beautiful rosettes. My spring sown Tatsoi tends to bolt before they get this big but there's no risk of that this time of year.


I also picked some kale to go into the annual turkey noodle soup, made of course from the carcass of this year's bird. That might sound rather unappetizing to my vegetarian friends out there but I look forward to it every year. If anything, it's a great lesson on frugality.


This year's soup turned out REALLY good. I used carrots, celery, leeks, kale, poblano peppers and herbs from the garden. It's a bit late but for anyone interested, you can read more about how I prepare mine here. The veggies always change but the rest remains the same.

Late Fall Greens

In mid-October, I transplanted some tatsoi and Shanghai bok choy into the garden. When the snow storm hit a week later, I covered the bed with some plastic and forgot about it.


A few days ago, I uncovered the bed and noticed that the plants had actually grown a decent amount. Most Asian greens are pretty hardy so I think these will fair well into December. Hopefully, they will continue to grow despite the fact that our highs are only in the 40's and 50's for the next few days.


I love this variety of bok choy and so do the slugs.


Tatsoi is also one of our favorite Asian greens. The leaves are rather fragile and its water content is pretty high so I try not to overcook it.

A Mid-October Harvest

Is it really mid-October already? In a lot of ways, it feels more like Spring as we've had so much precipitation lately that the garden is now covered with mud and standing water. This generally only happens in early March when the ground is still frozen and the water has nowhere to go. The soil in my growing beds resembles a saturated sponge. Hopefully, our veggies won't rot from the excess moisture.

Another great week for harvesting carrots and turnips - these have been very tasty roasted.


I harvested half of my cauliflower crop this week - 4 heads. They're not huge but are still the best I've grown so far.


I love cauliflower simply steamed and finished with a bit of butter. When you have veggies this fresh, it doesn't really make sense to add too much seasoning.


The broccoli is starting to produce a generous amount of side shoots. I like to harvest the young leaves as well as they are very tender.


Salad greens - I didn't grow a mix this fall like I did in past years. This time around, I just walked around the garden and just sniped what looked good - several varieties of lettuce, beet greens, baby spinach, basil, parsley and some Red Russian kale.


Yesterday, I found this little guy tucked away in the melon patch. I didn't have much hope that it would be any good but I picked it anyway.


To my surprise, it was ripe when I cut into it. Aside from having somewhat of a hollow heart, it was actually quite good. In fact, I dare to say that it was one of the sweetest and crunchiest melons I picked all year long. It was indeed an unexpected delight.


I also picked too lovely heads of tatsoi. The slugs have had a field day with my Asian greens this fall but these two have made it through relatively unscathed.


Finally, these Poblanos are undoubtedly the last peppers of the year. They're too small to roast and peel but will be tasting sliced and cooked in a stir-fry.

The fall growing season is just flying by. I can't wait to see what you all are harvesting this week!

Early Fall Harvest

We had an amazing harvest this past week. Our fall garden is at its peak right now and there is so much to choose from. We'll see how long this will last as our first light frost should arrive soon.

All of our broccoli plants matured this past week. We picked 15 good-sized heads and have been eating broccoli almost everyday. As you can see, a couple of the heads were beginning to flower.


Next year, I'm planning on growing even more broccoli. It's one brassica that produces reliably in our garden and is fairly easy to grow. I like to allow the individual buds to get fairly large (unlike supermarket broccoli) until they are on the verge of flowering. Personally, I think the texture and taste is better at this stage.


In addition to the broccoli, we also harvested some carrots and Chinese broccoli (gai lan).


I'm really happy with my 'Napoli' carrots this fall. Last year, the field mice did away with our entire crop. Growing them in taller raised beds seems to deter them.


I really like Chinese broccoli, which is grown primarily for its tender stalk. Ours are as thick as silver dollars this year. (Thanks again for the seeds Mac!) I stir-fry them peeled and sliced on a bias. Also, they stay crispy when cooked.


I also picked most of our remaining peppers and chilies and was amazed by how healthy the plants still look.


I'm planning on fresh pickling the pepperoncini (right) and most of the Hungarian Wax peppers.


I'd like to make hot sauce from the jalapenos (if someone has a recipe, please pass along!) and chili paste from the Thai chilies.


The poblanos will be roasted, peeled and frozen for winter use.

The last 'Sunshine' watermelon of the year weighed in at 10 pounds, which is average for this particular variety.


I waited until the tendril closest to the melon had died back, which seemed to work this time. The flesh was perfectly yellow and very sweet.


I tried to salvage as many green tomatoes as I could from the now dead vines. Hopefully they'll still ripen indoors.


Finally, I pruned back my Kaffir lime tree this past weekend. The leaves are now frozen and will be used to flavor curries and soups.

Fall Garden Tour

Now that summer is coming to an end, here's a preview of this year's fall garden. All in all, I was good about getting our fall crops started on time. In a few weeks we'll have to break out the row cover at night, but nonetheless, I'm hoping that we'll be able to harvest continually from the garden until at least early December.

In no particular order, here is what we'll be eating (hopefully) during the next few months:


The fall beets (lower right) are slowly sizing up while the fast growing Tokyo Market turnips should be ready in a couple of weeks.


The spinach is practically ready for us to harvest. The winter carrots (right) on the other hand will be pulled in December and January, that is if the voles don't get to them first.

Red russian kale in the background and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in the foreground. I have another bed of gai lan that should be ready in a week or two.


Here's a bed of Asian greens.


I am growing a ton of leeks this year and they are looking really good. They are much fatter than last year's crop.

I have two Jade Cross Brussel sprout plants that survived the groundhog attacks earlier this year. Can we defeat the cabbage worms and actually get a harvest this year?


My fall carrots should be ready in another month or so.


The Bonanza broccoli is doing well and should be ready soon. On the other hand, I'm worried that our cauliflower won't head up in time.


This will most likely be my last year of growing Napa cabbage. It's impossible to keep the slugs away from this plant. Also, our fall crop has bolted prematurely due to the sudden change in temperatures. I think I'll stick to other Asian greens that are easier and faster to grow.


I don't expect much from our fall snow peas but that won't stop me from trying to grow them.


Finally, I have several varieties of winter lettuce this year. These will have to be harvested by early December their quality quickly diminishes after that point.

In addition to this, I sowed some mache, claytonia and French Breakfast radishes the other day. What's growing in your fall garden?