joy and pain … An End of Summer Produce Plan

We are at that amazing time of the year, well at least in the Midwest, when all that beautiful local summer produce is having its final hurrah. With not much happening due to Covid restrictions, cooking has been one of the only things that has brought me some joy. Grocery and farmers market shopping is the only thing getting me out of the house and as such, things are starting to pile up. Add to that the goods from my little community garden plot and the massive haul I brought home from a friends robust garden and I was drowning in produce. The clock was ticking; it was time to form a plan of attack. Here’s what I did with those key summer treats – Tomatoes, Peppers and Zucchini –  and some other ideas too.

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closing up the garden … Kale Salad with Crispy Salami and Chickpeas

 

Every year, I participate in a wonderful community garden program, The Peterson Garden Project. It started 6 years ago when I came home from drinks with friends at half price wine night. Dangerous. I was scanning through my twitter feed and saw someone post that she’d just bought a community garden plot in the city. I didn’t even know we had that so completely intrigued, I clicked on the link to learn more. The next morning I saw the confirmation in my inbox. In general, I don’t mix pinot and online shopping but I was thrilled. I’ve never been much of a gardener beyond the herb boxes on my back porch but I am a cook and an eater and the thought of growing things tickled me to death. I started perusing seed catalogs and downloading plot planners like a kid making Christmas wish lists.

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sweet relief and herb trimmings … Iced Tisane

We’ve reached that point of the summer where gardens are exploding. I came back from several weeks out of the country and my sweet little plot in a community garden had grown to Amazonian proportions due to a rainy June and generous fertilizing. My cute tomato plants were 6 feet tall and growing in every direction like gangly, awkward teenagers. And like teenagers, they needed some firm guidance and a bit of discipline. The sugar snaps had wound their invasive tendrils into damn near everything and needed to be redirected. And the herbs, oh god the herbs. They were enormous unruly bushes, candidates for a topiary or bonsai artist perhaps. I went in with a pair of shears and aggressively pruned those suckers. Aggressively. I tamed those beasts.

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done and done … Pickled Green Cherry Tomatoes

Earlier this week, quickly in the waning sunlight and cold wind, I made the final call on my little community garden plot. There was a frost advisory and I wasn’t sure what remained would survive so I dug up and loaded my herb plants into a shopping bag, cut down all my chard and kale and stripped my glorious and hyper productive tomato plants of the last little orbs. It was downright cold and I wasn’t too sure what I was going to do with all this late season abundance, but I hurried home with my heavy bags knowing I’d figure it out.

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stretching the summer … Cherry Tomato Confit

What says summer better than a big bowl of vibrant, juicy tomatoes?  Fresh sweet corn perhaps? Or fragrant fuzzy peaches?  OK so there are a few things that I look forward to during these warm months but as soon as I see those tomatoes popping up in my garden in crazy growth spurts more commonly seen in teenage boys, I know something good is on the way.  And that time is now people. Hurry.  I’m on a real tomato kick myself right now and you should be too.

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getting my garden on … round 2

The email popped up in my Inbox a few months back.  The subject line read “Peterson Garden Project: Happy New Year for Gardening.” I knew what it meant: sign-ups for our little community garden were coming up. Last summer, I ponied up 45 bucks to rent my little corner of the earth and grew some stuff.  Being a novice gardener, I had fair to middling success, depending on the month, learned a ton and laughed hysterically through the whole thing. Perhaps you read my past posts, chronically my trials and tribulations.  At certain moments, usually while I was lugging something heavy and dirty or yanking yet another diseased plant, I wondered “What was I thinking?!” At other times, usually as I drove home popping Sun Gold tomatoes in my mouth, still warm from the day’s heat, I thought “Isn’t everything just awesome?!?” The sheer power of those little tomatoes turned me into a tree hugging 12-year old girl.

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and it’s done … confessions of a lazy gardener

This morning I ripped up my garden plot and called it a day.  That’s most of my final harvest above.  Literally the last gasp of everything she had to give.  There’s word of a frost tomorrow and the garden as a whole closes up on the 6^th but I’ve been holding out as long as I can.  All summer I’ve been fumbling along, a gardening rookie with a 26sf plot in the Peterson Garden Project.  If you’ve been following along with my trials and tribulations, you’ll know it hasn’t been easy.  There are 1,000 things I’ll do differently next year and I suppose, that’s the point.  I’m still learning.

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how does your garden grow? not so well, actually.

So if you’ve been playing along, you’re probably wondering what’s become of my little plot in a community garden.  A few months back, I got the brilliant idea to buy into a local community garden with my own little 26 sf plot.  Visions of juicy tomatoes danced through my head, chased by melons and squash and oodles of arugula.  Oh the things I’d do!  I bought my seeds, got them going then ditched those in favor of plant starts.  The timing was all off.  On site, I shoveled and hauled like a burly construction worker, eagerly planted, watered enthusiastically and waited for something wonderful to happen.  Then I had issues.

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garden update … the Sophie’s Choice of seedlings

Ok folks!  I FINALLY have an update on my little Victory Garden with the Peterson Garden Project.  You see, we’ve been a bit behind schedule but no worries.  That happens when you’re working with a lot of donated stuff.  After my initial buy in, several weeks passed in which lovely wonderful people volunteered to help clear the lot, build raised boxes, hold various gardening seminars and provide really excellent support.  I did none of these things.  Yes, I suck.

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my own little victory garden … The Peterson Garden Project

Sometimes I do some nutty things.  I can be impulsive, free spirited and completely off the wall.  Sometimes – OK, often – these things turn into the most wonderful situations.  Last week, after a great AIWF wine tasting event at The Elysian Hotel, I logged onto Twitter.  I discover the most fascinating things on twitter – cool events, the latest food news and scoop, great blog updates, breaking news.  I realize it’s not for everyone but I find it most interesting.  Pick a favorite topic and I bet there are folks with things to say about it – famous people, regular people, writers, pals – all with 140 characters to say something interesting.  Some are better at it than others.  In fact, I wrote about Rick Bayless’ recipe tweets on a previous post.  Fascinating.

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