It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of summer; after all, it didn’t really arrive in north Idaho until early August! In spite of the cold, wet spring which extended in to cool, wet summer, we did manage to have a couple of standouts in the garden this year.
Here’s the lineup, starting with the cool weather lovers, since this was their year again.
Lettuce and Greens:
We had (and continue to have) a fabulous crop of lettuces and greens this year.
The Lolla Rossa lettuce was beautiful, never bolted or became bitter. It is a lovely red leaf lettuce and will be back in the garden in 2012. And then there was the arugula — we enjoyed this spicy green all summer. I planted this is succession (and now into the fall). If you haven’t planted this before, I highly recommend it. It germinates quickly and is ready for harvest in 25-30 days. It’s great in salads and lovely braised with a little garlic and bacon (like spinach but with a zing!).
I heard from several gardeners that this was indeed the year of the bean. I went a little crazy this year and planted all my beans at once instead of staggering the plantings. That led to beans at just about every meal for several weeks. We put in four types of bush beans; green, yellow wax, royalty purple and Dragon’s Tongue. All were productive, but my favorite and the standout was the Dragon’s Tongue. This is a flat type bean that starts out green with purple stripes and matures yellow with stunning deep purple stripes and spots. Oh, and did I mention how good they taste? We blanched, steamed, sauteed and roasted. Gotta love summer’s bounty.
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| One Morning’s Harvest! |
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