it's getting cold(er)

The swiss chard is still thriving...

...while the tomatoes are slowly dying. 36 degrees this morning. Cold.

the vicious squirrel strikes again

The squirrel strikes again...stealing a ripe tomato, taking a bite, and displaying it on a fence post for me to see.

The damage was kind of gross. (It's rainy today, by the way, so that's not all squirrel slobber.)

I also heard a loud noise on the back steps and looked out to see this...the last of my giant zinnias toppled over. Although it's rainy today, it's certainly not very windy or stormy...I think the squirrel did it under the guise of bad weather. At any rate, they are completely severed, so that's the last of them.

I still have my thumbelina zinnias although as you can see they have almost run their course.

I'm really sad that winter is almost here, and that this squirrel is ruining my last precious few moments in the garden.

the vicious squirrel returns & fall tomatoes

The wrath of the vicious squirrel continues...this weekend he took out his anger on my little Travelocity garden gnome. The chard and lettuce seeds took a hit as well.

On the bright side, look at these beautiful fall tomatoes! Okay, I posed them outside in the grass for good light and color, but let me tell you a secret...I picked them when they were still green and ripened them in a brown paper grocery sack to keep them safe from the squirrels! Tomatoes ripened on the vine have a slightly better flavor but these are still delicious, and by the sad remains of a few I let turn red on the vine, I did the right thing. I have another bag ripening now and should have a few more before the frost hits.

I am sad to see a cold but relaxing weekend end. A few things I did:

- Indian food
- Catch Me if You Can
- art openings
- tomato sandwiches
- lots of coffee (to stay warm!)
- and chili (for the same reason!)

a peek at my fall garden

Welcome, fall. Ohio has a beautiful autumn season, the only downfall being that it gets cold much too early for me (For example, today's high is 54 degrees, and it's still September! This is unheard of in the South, where I heard rumors of highs in the 90s this week.). My fall garden is not so impressive, but rather is primarily only an extension of the spring/summer garden. However, being that last year at this time I had just moved here and had no fall garden at all, I'm going to call this one a success.

First of all, the swiss chard has not stopped growing since May! It doubles and triples overnight, it seems. I haven't been cooking with it as much as I'd like to. I'm still acquiring the taste for it. As a general rule, I like almost all vegetables (except beets--I'm still steadily trying to work up to the day when I can say I tasted a beet and liked it!), but chard is still growing on me.

As you can see, there is a lot that needs to be harvested (of course I would like it better if I wouldn't let it grow so large and use the baby leaves instead). Next to that you'll see the cabbage, which I never picked. I kind of left it there for the caterpillars. Sigh. It's just that after fighting with them over whose property these heads of cabbage were day after day for so long, I finally surrendered it to the squishy green beasts. It's riddled with holes and doesn't look appetizing, so I think I'll just let it be this year.

The tomatoes are still flowering! When I first heard of fall tomatoes (last year), I was taken back because in Arkansas, the tomato plants more or less shrivel up and die by the middle of August! Although the harvests haven't been as large as they were in September, between the 10 tomato plants, there are around 40-50 large green tomatoes present at any given time, and lots of tiny cherry and pear tomatoes. I've been picking the green ones as soon as they show a hint of pink and ripening them in brown paper sacks so that the squirrels can't get them. The vicious, conniving squirrels.

The fall lettuce has been pounced on and dug up a few times by those squirrels, but a few seedlings have managed to make it this far. I'm hoping for a nice lettuce crop soon, but we'll see. I'll probably cover this bed with plastic when it gets colder. We still have a few weeks until the first frost.

The fall cilantro crop is doing well. I love having fresh cilantro in my backyard...it's probably my favorite herb!

The fall peas are making their way up the trellis slowly but surely. My zone was just out of the range for growing fall peas, so I'll try covering them when it gets colder...I already had seeds and I just love peas so much that I had to try.

The zinnias are still going strong, although next year I think I'll plant ten times as many! I'm also planning to put some tulip bulbs in the ground this weekend for a fun surprise next spring.

I forgot to take pictures of the eggplants, but they are doing really well. I just harvested a big black beauty one a few days ago and five more are on the plant! It's actually leaning over from all the weight. The gretel eggplant has several small white ones as long as the squirrels stay away.

p.s. Don't forget that today is the last day to enter my custom garden keepsake illustration giveaway via Desirous of Everything!

the unstoppable forces of a vicious squirrel

I think most wild rodents can be considered cute/adorable/lovable/etc. in certain situations, and pests in others. Squirrels, mice, rats, etc. I never want to mean ill will or harm toward any animal, but sometimes, as a gardener, you just reach a breaking point when there is a pest in your garden. Well, for the past few months, I have been dealing with a ruthless garden intruder...the unstoppable forces of...a vicious squirrel!

Squirrels in Columbus seem to be particularly rough around the edges compared to squirrels in other regions. I guess they have adjusted to living in the city, you could say. Since moving here, I have always thought the squirrels were a little on the vicious side, and since encountering this particular squirrel, my theories have been validated.

But, in the squirrel's defense, I don't know if he is the only one at fault here. This particular squirrel was consistently stealing cherry tomatoes, so one day, to ward it off, Corey threw a miniature gardening shovel in its direction, simply meaning to scare it. Apparently the shovel brushed against the squirrel's paw, and ever since, it has been exacting its revenge on my yard.

Exhibit A: My back steps. I keep a lot of potted plants here so that I don't have to move them when my landlord comes to do yard work. The squirrel chooses to knock one over about two times per week, leaving a huge mess and usually injuring the plant. One of the plants I found face down in the yard, and others strewn about the steps. I also have a potted strawberry root ball that I have been waiting to see signs of life from, and every time it grows a leaf or two, the squirrel is sure to come by and rip them off (he follows this up by using the strawberry container as his personal litterbox). The squirrel also knows that if I've done any work back there, i.e. cleaned up last week's mess, it's prime time to come mess something up.


This poor succulent will recover, I hope, but I found it one day in pieces all over the grass below the steps, with squirrel teeth marks in many of the leaves. Luckily succulents can grow new roots from cuttings, but let's just say that I had one succulent in this planter before and now I have about seven.

Exhibit B: The fall peas and lettuce. The squirrel loves to dig these up, ensuring that I will not have good crops of either this season. I don't have the time to replant the seeds, since the frost will be here soon. The lettuce has taken it especially hard. I did three lettuce plantings, sowing more seeds each time the squirrel paid a visit, but he's still coming back to dig up the now-tiny seedlings.


Exhibit C: He takes a few bites of an eggplant (shown here: gretel eggplant) or tomato, then leaves the rest to rot where I can see it. The gnome is not such a good garden guard, as you can see.

If you have any hints--other than throwing a shovel his direction--for getting this little guy to leave my poor yard alone, I am taking all the advice I can get!

what I grew this year: a garden keepsake

I am all about keepsakes and mementos, so when I got the idea to draw this today, I didn't waste any time before getting started. It features the specific varieties of plants in this year's garden in an adorable grid of doodles! I had so much fun drawing it and I think it would be fun to do one each year to remember what we grew. I'm going to make a print of it on nice paper and hang it up.

I am thinking of adding custom illustrations like this to the One Lonely Apricot shop next week! Interested persons would just send me a list of what they grew in their garden, the wording for the text at the bottom, and what background color they would like, and I would draw it up for them and send them the file or a print. I've been hoping to branch out from doing only wedding invitations. I'd like to start offering non-custom prints as well, so perhaps I could tweak this a little to appeal to a wider audience (besides, you know, me and Corey, since this represents our garden, ha!).

seed saving: a gesture of planning and sustainability in the garden

Planning ahead for the garden is both exciting and overwhelming. I spend hours reading seed catalogs and gardening books during the winter months. This leads to getting caught up in picking "the perfect" seed varieties and lost in tables of planting dates and row spacings. If you've ever felt a little panicked while trying to plan out your garden, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. But it gets easier, friends. I'm not an expert but I learn new things about plants and gardening every day, and after keeping a garden for a few seasons, the planning part is so much easier. Here are a few tips I have for staying on track and not letting your fears of "messing something up" get in the way of actually getting your garden in the ground:

1. Start planning several months ahead, and make a schedule for everything you need to do. We built this year's raised beds two months before the frost-free date and filled them up with planting material one month before. If you start early, you can do things at your leisure when you have a warm Saturday here and there. You'll feel proud of yourself for not procrastinating.

2. Pay attention to the planting dates specifically for your zone for each crop you want to grow. You can plant many seed varieties outdoors a certain number of weeks before the frost-free date. I never manage to stay on top of this, so a few of my crops came in late this year. My plan is to be better prepared next spring!

3. Given that you could spend years pouring over the exciting reading that is today's seed catalogs, don't get too caught up on what to plant and what seed varieties to use. Take the most important aspects of each variety into consideration, and go from there. If you have limited space, plant your favorites! Don't waste space on things you don't love. Ask gardeners in your area what their best crops are and what varieties they plant. Realize, however, that the soil you plant in has a lot to do with the success of your plants as well, so if your neighbor has the most beautiful Brandywine tomatoes and yours are doing poorly, your soil might be missing a vital nutrient. Contact your local extension service about having a soil test done. You can also buy kits to test certain things, like pH, yourself.

One aspect of planning ahead I am adding to my repertoire this summer is seed saving! There is something special about connecting your gardens to one another year after year, plus if done correctly, it can save you some money. Since this is my first year to save seeds, I'm not expecting miracles and I'm okay with the fact that I might end up having to purchase a type of seed that I attempted to save. But I'm all for the learning process and hope to have some success with these seeds next spring! I read the seed-saving section of my Rodale's organic gardening encyclopedia (a wonderful source of information) and got to work this weekend saving lettuce seeds, coriander, and peas.

Lettuce. When it gets too warm or lettuce has reached maturity, it will bolt, sending a long stalk up and eventually flowering. Lettuce flowers are self-pollinating, so after most of the flowers had opened, I cut off the stalk and kept it in a vase of water until the remained opened and they dried out, to prevent the dandelion-like flower remains from blowing away. When it had completely dried, I carefully picked off each white "fluff," which had about a dozen seeds attached to the end. At first I saved some of the white fluffy parts but eventually I was proficient enough to remove those and save just the seeds:

Next up, coriander, the seeds of the cilantro plant. Coriander is used as a spice, so you could save the seeds for that purpose or to plant. This is what the seeds look like on the plant before they dry out:

Once they turn brown, they are easily removed from the plant:

Finally, peas. When your pea crop is nearing the end, leave some pods on the vine to dry. When they are completely dried out (they will be brown and will not be holding any moisture), remove and shell the pods, to reveal wrinkly peas inside.

My Rodale's reading suggested saving the seeds in envelopes and keeping them in the refrigerator, since they do best in low humidity. You can also store the envelopes in a cool, dry place as an alternative.

One last thing: if your seeds are hybrid (that's different than genetically modified, just for the record--I've heard the terms confused often), you can save them, but they will not produce plants like the parent. Hybrid seeds are the combination of two specific parent plants. For example, to simplify the idea, a red flower and a white flower cross-bred to make a pink flower. If you replant the pink flower's seeds, you won't get another pink flower. I'm keeping this in mind as I re-research each tomato variety I have currently and figure out which ones to save!

creamed chard, recipe searching, and paper sacks

This is the fourth new recipe I've tried this week, and I still have a few days left. You might be rolling your eyes and asking, "Does she find recipes anywhere else!?" when I say, it's from Smitten Kitchen. The answer to that would be...it's where I look first, and often I have no reason to look elsewhere. It's just that, the Smitten Kitchen recipes seem to coincide with the groceries I already have, while other recipe sources seem to insist on a trip to the store just for one recipe.

No matter. Yesterday, I decided to make creamed chard and onions and serve it over spaghetti. The original recipe called for actual cream. I used plain soy milk (unsweetened would have been better) and it worked out fine. The good news is that I was able to find a use for some of the swiss chard in the garden (my plan when I sought out a recipe to make), which is quickly approaching the size of elephant ears. It was so easy to grow, and it's beautiful, and everyone tells me how versatile it is, but help, I just don't know what to do with it! I throw a few leaves in stir fries here and there, but other than that, I'm lost.

Here is everything cooking on my tiny stove. One pot was to soften the chard. A skillet to make the roux (butter + flour--I used Earth Balance) and toast the onions and garlic. And finally, a pot of spaghetti. The dish was simple and delicious.

Okay, so let's talk recipes some more. I've been bookmarking recipes like mad lately and not all are from Smitten Kitchen (but the ones that are will be amazing!). Let me share what I've found:

Pinterest - I think most internet-savvy people have heard of Pinterest by now, but basically users "pin" things they find on the internet to different categories, and people "re-pin" things they like. You can search for a particular ingredient or dish, or use broad categories. Searching "vegan" seems to bring up a lot of things.

Food Gawker - I hadn't heard of this until yesterday. If you like to photograph things you cook, you can submit pictures that link to recipes, and possibly get published here. They do reject a lot of photos, so the ones that make it are really top notch. It seems helpful for finding recipes and I would love to try to be published there.

Tastespotter - Same as above. There seem to be more vegetarian recipes here, but it could just be what is up right now.

Healthy Happy Life - A favorite new find, this food blog features all vegan recipes and beautiful photographs. I've bookmarked quite a few things here to make ASAP.

Finally, I leave you with this. These are all the green tomatoes I had to cut off of the tomato plants last weekend because of damage to a few branches. I put them all in a brown paper sack, closed it up, and forgot about it for a few days. One has turned red and a few more are on their way (some might be too under ripe to ever turn red)! The ethylene gas that they naturally give off helps them turn red faster when trapped in the bag.

my new garden friend

Three days ago among the zinnias I noticed a praying mantis.

She's been there every day since.

Twenty-six zinnias and counting,

Guarded by one watchful insect.

photo shoot with the ugliest tomato

Seven tomatoes ripening in various shades of red--

Of course this one would be the first to finish,

Because I wanted to photograph the occasion

Of the first big tomato of summer.

My tastebuds would not discriminate, so neither would I,
And that is why I had a photo shoot with the ugliest tomato.

pickled tomatoes

There in my fridge sat a large bowl full of green tomatoes, mostly pear, a few cherry. You know, the green tomatoes I wouldn't stop talking about last week. They called out to me every time I opened the refrigerator door, leading to feelings of guilt over wasting food I had grown with my own two hands. I made two batches of green salsa and still had leftovers. Always eager to try new recipes/kitchen skills, I decided to pickle them. I wasn't completely new to pickling. Last year, we made two jars of pickled banana pepper rings (with so many surplus banana peppers from the garden, we thought the jar number was going to be closer to seven or eight, but so go pickles). Then we promptly left them in Arkansas (accidentally) before they were ready to eat (but truth be told, they were a little on the mushy side because I wasn't sure when to stop boiling them during the pickle-making process).

Pickled green tomatoes. I first tried them last October from a farm stand about half an hour from here. My mom tells me they're available back home, but I just never noticed them before. I looked up recipes and found so many varieties. One that really piqued my interest was an Italian variety flavored with mint and basil. For yesterday's batch, I decided to go with a dill variety (because I grew dill this summer specifically for the purpose of pickling!), but I think that Italian recipe is next on my list.

Back to the dill, however. The past few weeks, stepping onto my back porch means getting a whiff of pickle-scented air. It is so peculiar. Never having grown or really cooked with dill before, I could not imagine how much the pickle derives its taste from the herb. I thought the other spices and of course the vinegar had a lot to do with it. It turns out dill alone is the perfect embodiment of the pickle. And so I used this recipe. I only made one quart of tomatoes this go around, so I didn't go all the way through the canning process and am just keeping them in the fridge. I hope to properly can a few things before summer ends, though!

First, I sterilized my jar, then tossed in all the seasonings. I did not have any hot peppers, so I altered that part of the recipe and substituted red pepper flakes. I also used two cloves of garlic, a few pinches of dill, four peppercorns, and 1/4 tsp homemade pickling spice.

The thing I liked about this process is that I did not have to boil the tomatoes. Like I said before, last year that's where I messed up the banana peppers. You want your pickles to be crispy. At this point, I added my thoroughly washed tomatoes to the jar on top of the spices. At the same time, I was boiling water, vinegar (5% acidity), and salt. I could not locate any pickling salt so I used Kosher. Don't use iodized salt or you will have some ugly pickles (still edible though).

After the vinegar mixture comes to a rolling boil, I poured it over the tomatoes. My recipe suggested adding 1 tsp olive oil to each jar for added flavor, so I did so. I left half an inch of room at the top of the jar.

Then I topped off my jar with a sterilized lid and let it cool on the counter for two hours.

Voila! Now I wait two weeks, then here's hoping I have some tasty pickles.

eggplant club

In Italian, the word for eggplant, melanzana, means literally, "toxic apple." A member of the nightshade family, it was once believed to have caused insanity.

In Italy, I discovered how much I truly love eggplant. Luckily it is no longer attributed to madness. My friend Casey and I started an eggplant club. We were the only members. No one could love eggplant as much as we did, we joked. We had it at every meal!

Last year I had one Japanese eggplant in a container. It produced a single fruit late in the summer, which withered and died before reaching maturity. I questioned whether I should try again this year, but since I'm in a different zone now, I went ahead with it. I got two plants: a black beauty and a gretel, and planted them in the raised bed rather than a container. They are doing beautifully and producing eggplants, dare I say, like mad. We harvested the first one yesterday.

It was so beautiful and perfect, that I couldn't stop admiring it. It amazes me that I had so much trouble last year, and that this time around it has been so easy.

We put it on a homemade pizza, one of my favorite uses of fresh summer produce.