I've picked quite a nice looking batch of soy beans the other day. These are called 'Beer Friend' and are very plump and nice looking. I did have a real bear of a time getting these to sprout though. Normally beans (any type) are the easiest things to grow - just throw them in the ground and that's it. But this year all of my beans didn't want to sprout. I must have planted, and replanted, and replanted these soy beans in particular over 5 times just to get only about 1/2 of the plants that I originally wanted. What the hell?

However these soy beans do have a nice yield to them. This is probably about half of the soy beans that are on the plants. The others could still use a few more days or so before they should be picked.

So this weekend I'm going to settle down with a nice cold brew and some beer friend edamame. Edamame are easy to prepare. Just boil the soy beans (still in the pods) in salt water for about 4-5 minutes, drain, and then sprinkle with a little additional kosher salt. Once they are cool enough to handle just eat the beans directly out of the pods. Yum!!!

I have picked the first of my red long beans:

I have grown regular long beans the last several years but this is my first year growing red long beans. They look pretty much the same but they are a maroon color. I'm assuming they will taste the same - long beans are like string beans with slightly nutty flavor.

I enjoy growing long beans because they are very easy to grow and produce a rather abundant amount of beans. Plus each bean is long (duh) and you get more mileage out of one bean than other string beans. There are still tons on the vine that need to grow a bit more.

Long beans also freeze rather well. I'll probably end up blanching some of these and freezing them for use in the winter. They are really good in a stew or curry in the middle of winter.

Ummm, pickles. I love pickles - this is my first year making them too. I've been growing 'Adam' cucumbers this year. Originally I thought they were more gherkins sized, but they are actually about 3-4 inches each. So I have been making way more pickles than I ever expected. This weekend I made three more jars:

The pickles on the right I just made before I took this picture. The ones on the right have been in the fridge for a week and are ready to eat. I dropped two jars off at my parents house this weekend. But I'm still giving them away to some neighbors and friends.

I've pretty much stuck with the original pickle recipie that I posted earlier. The only major difference is that I'm not really boiling the pickling solution anymore. I just get the water warm enough to dissolve the sugar and salt. The pickles seem to taste the same, so I'm assuming it's all good. They taste just as yummy.

I did add some red pepper flakes to a test batch, but I think they came out too spicy. I personally really liked them - but I enjoy really spicy foods. But since I have more than I know what to do with I wanted to make sure they were liked by all.

Pickles anyone?

On Saturday I managed to pick quite a lot from the garden:

That's:
3 Cucumbers
3 Jalapeños
4 Adam Cucumbers
3 Roma Tomatoes
5 Wayahead Tomatoes
4 Black Brandywine Tomatoes
And a bunch of Tumbler and Black cherry tomatoes.

Not bad for one day, huh? I'm going to have lots more ready this week as well. My red long beans and edamame should be ready, along with the first of my bell peppers.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to planting anything new yet, but I'll be planting more snow peas and cabbage sometime this week.

I took a bunch of new pictures yesterday of both the veggie garden and our flower/plant garden. You can check out all of the pictures in the image galleries. Below is my favorite picture of the set. It is a close up of our sedum in bloom with a honey bee going to town on it:

I'll be blogging about some of the other pictures over the next few days.

I'm sure that everyone is aware that the newest scapegoat in the War against Salmonella is jalapeños. Tomatoes are now safe to eat after the month long scare but you can forget having any salsa (at least good spicy salsa) or jalapeño poppers. However I have some fresh from my garden, Salmonella free:

I probably have enough cherry tomatoes to make some salsa, but I'll need to see. My Roma tomatoes aren't too far off from ripening and I think they make much better salsa. Anyways, just rubbing it in to all you jalapeño lovers out there that can't get your fix.

I just ran across this story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a company called My Farm. They are a company that you can hire (in San Francisco that is) to come to your house and design, plant, and maintain an organic vegetable garden. So you can have all the benefits of home grown organic food, without having to get your hands dirty.

What I found really interesting is that the article mentions that the default bed configuration is a 4x4 foot raised bed. That sounds just like square foot gardening which is the gardening methodology I use. They don't say it flat out but it really makes me wonder.

I wonder if there are any companies or organizations like this in the Philadelphia area. Maybe if (when?) the tech industry completely collapses I'll just start doing this instead. Perhaps I should start off 'part-time'. Anyone want to hire me to plant a square foot garden in their Philly yard?

For the past week I've been having my favorite summer salad for lunch. I usually have a homemade salad for lunch most days and during the growing season the majority of the ingredients come from my garden. However once the tomatoes start to ripen and the cucumbers are ready, it's time for tomato-cucumber-mozzarella salad!

It's so simple to make (less than 5 minutes) and tastes oh so good. Here's the specs:

1 8" cucumber sliced
Tomato slices (any kind - amount equal to that of the cucumber slices)
6 1" fresh mozzarella balls, halved
2 slices red onion, halved
2 leaves fresh basil
Newman's Own Light Lime Vinaigrette
Salt + Pepper

Chiffonade the basil. Mix together the cucumber, tomatoes, onions, mozzarella, and basil. Add a splash of the lime vinaigrette and then salt and pepper to taste. That's it - Yum!

I picked my five of my mini cabbages yesterday. These are called Cabbage Babies that I bought from Jung's:

They seem to be the perfect size for us. I'm going to make some Som Tum salad with them - I'll probably only use two per salad. There should also be plenty of time left in the year to get a second crop, so I will be replanting these shortly.

The artichokes are finally about ready. In fact, a little bit too ready:

Over the weekend I picked this artichoke. This is my first time harvesting artichokes so I was not too sure when to pick them. However I was a little late - the next day it started to bloom a little bit while sitting on the counter. I'm still going to see if the heart is good within - I'm hoping so. I also had one of the same size that I left on the plant, so I went outside and it had bloomed:

How cool! So I now know to pick them a bit earlier. Also these are Violetto artichokes. They are smaller than normal artichokes. I'm not quite sure if the petals are big enough to eat, so we'll probably just use them for the hearts.