Potatoes, Trees, Soups & Library

Dear garden and library loving islanders,
Here are some photos from the past two weekends:

- Little Diggers dismantle their potato tower and count their haul.
- Our new library opens at lighthouse (garden books are all moved there now.)
- Scenes from forestry day for little diggers.
- Soup recipes below for your harvest!

Enjoy!



To enlarge slideshow, click on photos above; choose fullscreen slideshow F11.

For those who have trouble viewing the slide show on the gardening blog, here's a direct link to the photos.

Harvesting information for this week: from the gardeners!

Tomatoes:

The last few dozen tomatoes are now being harvested at DIGS and elsewhere on the island.

To store over long periods and ripen gradually, place green tomatoes between layers of newspaper in cardboard box. Keep in cool room. Check for ripening as needed.

To ripen hastily: place in paper bag where ethylene gas from one ripening fruit (any kind) will ripen all tomatoes in the paper bag.

Kale:

New Kale plants doing well in our DIGS fall/winter garden.

Jane suggests:
Harvest outer leaves only (1-3 per plant, so only take one at a time) that are as large as your hand.
Leave others to ensure continuous supply.

Zucchini:

Gadzukes, zuke season is almost over; our straw bale plants were uprooted at DIGS today and their bales became well-composted soil.
If you're interested in trying out straw bale gardening in your yard, it works well for hot-root loving plants like squashes and pumpkins. Bales can be purchased for $20 delivered by contacting through our email group.
For baking or freezing you can grate and wring extra moisture out zucchini.
But try this new soup recipe below, and then freeze the finished soup!

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Harvest Soup Recipes:
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Tomato Soup (better than Campbell's, but it might be the cheese and butter!) ha! :

Take a mixture of golden and red tomatos, chop and put in saucepan.
Cook 30 minutes (doesn't need much cooking down at all) until soft.
Push through seive to remove skins and seeds.
Add milk and salt to taste.
The sweetness of the golden cherry tomatoes means you don't need any sugar or other ingredients.

Jen suggests:
pinch of dill weed
chunks of cheddar added at last minute so that they only slightly melt
big slathered buttered toast to dip into it (butter slides off into soup....ahhhhh).

More soup recipes from gardeners:
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Coconut Curry Kale Soup

3 Ts olive oil or butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1-4 garlic cloves (I probably didn't use that many)
5 pieces of ginger sliced or to taste
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 C. chicken or vegetable stock
2 bunches kale, ribs removed, chopped
1 can Thai coconut milk
Salt and pepper

And you can puree it all at the end (says gardener who gave this recipe).

Then, if desired, you can add cooked chicken breasts cubed.
Vegetarians might enjoy added chickpeas!
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Zucchini Soup

2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
8 zucchinis, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
4 cups chicken or veg broth
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup dry potato flakes or grated raw potato
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill weed

Directions
1.In a large frying pan, melt butter; add onion and saute until translucent. Add diced potato, zucchini, thyme, rosemary, basil, and white pepper, and cook for 5 minutes.

2.In a medium-sized cooking pot, add broth and bring to boil. Add zucchini/potato mixture; reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes.

3.When cooked, puree in food processor or blender in batches. Return to cooking pot, add milk and bring just to boil, but do not boil. Add some salt to taste, or 1 Tbsp soy sauce and stir well.
Adjust seasoning. Garnish with dill weed. Soup may be served hot or chilled.
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More harvest veg recipes are certainly welcome! Just send 'em in by email and we'll keep them here on the blog for that vast amount of chard, pak choi, or whatnot, that you've got.

Best, Jen