In the Fall Vegetable Garden

Although here in Southern California there aren’t many place where we get frost some places away from the beach will get a light frost and towards the mountains an early frost and snow. But our last frost date near the coastline is anywhere from early Nov to early Dec. and our first frost date is somewhere around Feb. It’s good to know this information so you can plan on what and when to plant.

As the ground gets cold seeds will have a hard time sprouting or will not sprout at all. Planting a fall garden with vegetables that can ‘over-winter’ will see you through the cool, rainy (hoping) months. Heartier vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts actually get a little sweeter with a touch of frost.

If you get tomatoes, beans and cucumbers in the ground now (Aug-Sept) make sure you plant early verities that have time to fruit before the ground begins to cool. Most nurseries will still be carrying good supplies of summer vegetables for the next month.

Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale & Brussels Sprouts
Parsley & Cilantro (but if we get a hot spell between Sept & Oct they may bolt)
Beets, Carrots, Turnips (try the little white turnip, sweet tasting even raw)
Leeks, Scallions, Onions, Shallots
Peas & Potatoes
Lettuce (provide a little shade until Nov), Spinach & Mustard

Here are two nurseries in our area that I love for great vegetable plants

H & H, Lakewood Blvd, Lakewood

http://hhnursery.com/

Rogers Gardens, Newport Beach

http://rogersgardens.com/

Almost all the seed catalogs have great sale prices too, a good time to pick up some fall and spring seeds.

Grow Organic/Peaceful Valley Farms

http://www.groworganic.com/

Baker Creek Seeds

http://www.rareseeds.com/

High Mowing Seeds

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/

Renee’s Garden

http://www.reneesgarden.com/

Seeds From Italy

http://www.growitalian.com/

Gazpacho Couscous Salad

9 / 7 / 17

A perfect summer salad that you can make ahead; it actually is better the next day! An easy ‘from the pantry’ salad, adjust ingredients to what you have on hand, what you find from the farmers market or your own garden, or even some of last nights grilled chicken or shrimp. Serves 6

Couscous Gazpacho Salad

Couscous ~
2 1/2 cups chicken, vegetable stock or water
12 ounces couscous
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 green onion, minced
4 tablespoons Italian parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, or more
Dijon Vinaigrette ~
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1 small shallot, minced
3 grinds herb seasoning, I use Italian
Salt and pepper, to taste
Gazpacho Salad ~
1 container (pint) cherry tomatoes, halved
6 small Persian cucumbers, diced
1 roasted red bell pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 tablespoon basil, chopped

Couscous

In a saucepan, add the stock, butter and couscous; bring to a boil, remove from heat stir in garlic and green onion, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove garlic and fluff with a fork. Set aside to cool.

Vinaigrette

In a small bowl add vinegar, mustard and shallot, whisk together. Slowly whisk in the oil in a thin stream to emulsify. Add seasonings to taste. Can be refrigerated for 3 weeks, bring to room temperature before using.

Salad

In a large bowl, add all chopped ingredients and toss with a little of the dressing. Let stand for 5 minutes. Toss couscous and vegetables together adding a little more dressing as necessary, to taste.

Green Beans, Bacon and Caramelized Shallots

8 / 22 / 178 / 23 / 17

Grow a Second Crop of Green Beans

In Southern California we are lucky enough to grow a fall crop of beans. With warm days still ahead the beans will sprout and grow quickly. Bush beans are your best bet, with shorter days to harvest than pole beans you should be able to harvest in just 45-50 days. Check your seed packet for harvesting information.

There are three types of bush beans, snap beans (eat the pod & all), shelling beans (eat the beans inside the pod like peas) or dried beans. Dried beans you’ll want to leave on the plant until everything has dried up, pick the dried pods and put into a grocery bag. You can knock the bag around to remove the shell or pull the dried pod away from the beans. I like to freeze the beans for 24 hours to kill any pests that may have hitched a ride. Then store in a glass jar or other container in your pantry, away from heat and light. When you’re ready to use them, treat them like any other dried bean (that’s another story….)

Most bush beans don’t need to be trellised, and they produce most of their crop all at once. For a great harvest and good use of space, plant Square Foot Gardening style, 9 plants to a square foot.

To get the best crop inoculate your bean seeds before planting. Beans, peas and all legumes ‘fix’ nitrogen into the soil. The inoculant, Rhizobium leguminosarum, is a nitrogen fixing bacteria. These bacteria “infect” the legumes growing in the soil and cause the legumes to form the nitrogen fixing nodules that make peas and beans bombshells.
You should be able to find the inoculant at any garden center or nursery. It can also be ordered from www.groworganic.com (Peaceful Valley Farm Supply).

While you are digging the holes for the seed, soak the seeds in water for about ½ hour. Dig your hole and sprinkle a generous helping of inoculant into the hole. Water and then plant your seeds. They’ll take up to 10 days to sprout, don’t overwater while you are waiting for them to poke up from the ground, overwatering can cause the seed to rot before it sprouts. Watch out for birds as well, they love seeds! I like to cover my bed with a floating row cover until the seeds are up and have several sets of leaves.

Give the plants 2 – 3” of water a week and you can side dress with a little compost. I mulch my beds with straw to help keep water evaporation down and to keep weeds from sprouting.

Plant companion plants near beans for the best growing bed, they like to grow near beets, cucumber, nasturtiums, peas and radish.

Watch for pests such as a cucumber beetle, bean beetle or weevil. I planted my beans near basil which is usually a good pest deterrent but this year those white butterflies (which are really cabbage moths) laid eggs on the basil and the little worms devoured my newly sprouted beans. So I planted a new round because I love green beans, especially in the fall. I freeze some for soups when winter comes and hopefully have enough until next spring when I can get some more in the ground.

Here’s an easy side dish recipe for you to try.

Green Beans with Smoked Bacon & Caramelized Shallots

Serves 6
* To blanch green beans: Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water leaving room for green beans. Bring a large saucepan full of water to a boil and add green beans and a good helping of salt, cook for 1-2 minutes, drain the beans and plunge them into the bowl of ice water. Let them cool, drain and dry well.

2 pounds haricots verts (thin green beans), trimmed, blanched and dried well*
½ pound applewood smoked bacon
3 large shallots, quartered
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine or balsamic vinegar
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet.

Add olive oil to the pan with the bacon drippings then add the quartered shallots and sauté until browned. Add the vinegar, stir well, then add the green beans and toss until coated with oil, cook for another minute then season with salt and pepper and toss with bacon, serve hot.

Tomato Overload

7 / 6 / 17

There are many ways to save your harvest and if you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with here are some ideas.

First and foremost is water bath canning, I love this because it means that I can store tomatoes on the shelf in my pantry for the year. Fairly easy to do but when it’s hot and humid out like it has been this summer FORGET IT!

As many of you already know, I like to freeze my tomatoes also so later when it’s cool I can make sauce or unfreeze and can them to make more room in the freezer for up and coming dinners. Freezing tomatoes is the fastest way to get things done, wash, and dry then freeze on a baking sheet until frozen solid, pop into a freezer bag and you are done for the day! You can remove one or four at a time, whatever you need and as they begin to defrost, which is almost right away, the skin will slip off easily.

My second favorite is to make Oven Roasted Tomatoes, although it does require having the oven on for some length of time. I love to dry my cherry tomatoes and then float them in a good olive oil and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Chopped in a salad, in a bruschetta or top on a pizza, they pack a flavorful punch. Fill up your baking sheet and get started right away!

Fontina & Tomato Tart

Oven Roasted Tomato Recipe

Growing Pumpkins

5 / 26 / 175 / 26 / 17

The first couple of weeks in June is the perfect time to get in a crop of any gourd or squash for fall harvest. This will give your heirloom pumpkins and gourds plenty of time to ‘cure’ for Halloween. It’s also a great time to plant another crop of beans, corn and late season tomatoes. The weather has warmed up and so has the soil. It’s not necessary to make a mound to plant squash seeds of any kind unless your soil doesn’t drain well. If that’s the case I recommend a good amount of compost should be dug into the soil before planting.

Plant the seeds about 1 1/2″ – 2″ deep and water well, I like to sprinkle the soil every day until the seeds emerge. As the plant begins to grow you’ll want to water less often, let the soil begin to dry out, and water deeply when you do water. Keeping the leaves dry will help prevent many diseases such as powdery mildew which can have an adverse affect on the production of the plants and fruit.

It’s easy to keep the soil from splashing up on the plants if you mulch around them. I put down a thick layer of newsprint, black and white parts only, and then I cover that with straw. This is a great way to prevent weed seeds from sprouting and to help keep moisture in the soil. The worms love the newsprint and they will help to aerate the soil as well.

A general fertilizer and compost will keep your plants healthy as the gourds start to grow. Small pumpkins, gourds and squashes can be plant on a trellis to save room. The large pumpkins have vines that can run for 30 feet or so; before fruit develops or when it’s very small, wrap the vines around the base of your corn plants or sunflowers.

If you like to pick the blossoms for cooking, pick the males flowers as there are many more of those than the female ones that produce the fruit. The male flowers will have a straight stem coming from the vine while the female flowers have a little bulge around the base of the flower, which turns into the squash or pumpkin. All squash flowers can be used in cooking, be careful when picking that you don’t accidentally take a bee into the house. Open the flower very gently and the bee should fly out to another plant. I have never been stung in all my gardening years by a bee! In fact I plant lots of flowers throughout my garden to attract them, bees pollinate a whopping 1/3 of our crops so they are essential to the garden. Don’t use any chemical sprays in the garden to avoid killing beneficial insects. Pick off beetles or squash bugs and drop them in a bowl of soapy water. If you do have to spray for any pest use an insecticidal soap such as Safer brand or Dr. Earth. Plant sunflowers along with the squash/gourds and the bugs will have a tendency to stay on the sunflowers rather than the squash. Ladybugs are wonderful for snacking up all of the aphids in the garden too!

While your pumpkins, large squash or gourds are small, place them on the straw to prevent them sitting directly on the soil, this will help to prevent rot on the bottom. Also keep an eye out for critter damage, scratches on the surface or gnaw marks from their teeth. I cover my fruit with floating row cover to keep the critters out but let the sunlight in. If you have children or grandchildren have them scratch their name or a simple design lightly onto the surface of the pumpkin and watch it grow as the pumpkin does.

When the vines start to die it’s a sign the pumpkin or gourd is getting ready to harvest. Let the stem near the gourd dry completely and let the shell start to harden. If you can press the outside and the skin ‘gives’ a little, it’s not quite ready. When it is cut the vine leaving a good amount of the stem attached and pick the pumpkin up from the base, never by the stem.

Store your squash, pumpkins and gourds out of direct sunlight and in a cool area. Many times pumpkins and gourds will last for long periods of time, I had a few that lasted more than a year! Hard shelled squash will store quite a long time, just remember the softer the shell, the less shelf life it will have.

I think the sugar pumpkins have the best flavor for use in recipes but I like to grow a variety for fall displays and of course for All Hallows Eve! The pumpkins I use for decoration I cut up and save the seed when I’m done and place the chopped up squash in the compost pile. Dry the seed on a parchment lined baking sheet until completely dry and then store in a dry, cool place such as your pantry.

And now that your summer crops are all growing along very well, it’s time to think about planting a fall garden, the best time to grow in Southern California, if you ask me!

Mangia!

Container Herb Gardens

4 / 12 / 17

I know some of you aren’t gardeners but like to have some fresh herbs around for creative cooking. Now you can buy herbs in the market and remove some of the bottom leaves and store them in a vase changing the water every day or you could easily grow some major herbs in pots on your patio or railing. You could choose to grow them in one big pot or give each herb it’s own container (then it’s a little easier to change out the plants). You could plant seeds and tend to them as they grow but if you’re not into gardening start as transplants.

Sun, most herbs like sun, at least 6 hours a day and a well draining potting soil. Use an organic potting soil and a liquid fertilizer like Dr. Earth. You should be able to find most herbs in the nursery right now but basil may be lagging because of the cold winter we had, the growers weren’t able to get the basil going as early as usual.

Here’s a little tip I picked up recently, if you are anywhere near a few pine trees (look in your local park) you could find tons of small pinecones. Place them in the bottom of the pot over the hole and it will help the soil from running out the bottom when you water the plant. The pinecone will slowly degrade into mulch helping to feed the plant. Put some potting soil on top of that and then squeeze the sides of the container the herb is growing in, turn the pot upside down holding the plant gently with your other hand. Squeeze the pot until the plant comes out (don’t pull on the plant or you may damage the stem and kill the poor baby before it evens hits the pot!), place the plant into the pot and fill the surrounding area with more soil. Water well and grow little baby herbs! Fertilize according to the directions on the box or the bottle and never snip off more than 1/3 of the plant. I let my herbs flower as it brings the bees and butterflies to the pots but you may not want that so just pinch back the flowers. The flowers are edible as long as you haven’t sprayed the plant with pesticides or herbicides (no no no). Many herbs are annuals such as basil and need to be planted every spring, but some are biennial (every other year) and many are perennial and will continue to grow. If they out grow the pot just move them up to the next size and plant new babies in the small container. When winter comes be mindful of cold weather, most herbs prefer warm sunny areas so you may have to move them or cover them during cold spells. But if that’s too much for you just toss them into a compost pile or chop them up and plant behind a shrub where they can decompose and plant a new herb baby next spring.

For more tips on growing and using herbs come and see me at The South Coast Plaza Garden Show. The seminars are free!

Thursday April 27th at noon

Friday April 28th at 12:30

Tips on Growing Tomatoes

3 / 16 / 17

How To Grow Great Tomato Plants

Buy transplants

Purchase healthy, stocky plants that have no flowers, fruits or buds

Choose a sunny location, rotate planting beds every year

Plant in an area where you may have grown peas or beans the previous year

Add compost to the soil and make sure the soil isn’t compacted.

Succession plant

Choose an early variety that can be planted in early spring. I like to plant my main crop in April and then another couple of plants in July for fall harvest. Check Sunset Gardening Guide for the best time in your area to plant.

Depending on how you’re going to stake or cage tomatoes, have all the equipment ready for planting day, stake the plants at the same time you transplant.

Planting

When planting remove lower leaves and plant the tomato deep, so that only about 3” are above ground. Tomato plants have the ability to grow roots from the buried stem. Water well after planting. Water well and deep but infrequently, keep your watering consistent, tomatoes need about 1” water a week.

Fertilize

Don’t over fertilize your tomato plants. Use a high phosphorus content fertilizer such as Dr. Earth Organic Tomato/Vegetable Fertilizer, 5-7-3. A high nitrogen content will give you lots of green leaves but little fruit.

Pinch branches out

I always pinch out side shoots in the beginning to help the plant grow tall rather than gangly.

Mulch and Companion Planting

Tomatoes love carrots; basil and marigolds so plant them in the same bed and mulch the rest of the soil to keep the moisture in.

Growing Spring & Fall Peas

2 / 24 / 17

Growing Spring and Fall Peas

There are several types of peas that you can grow in the spring or late fall garden. Tall vining types or short bush ones that don’t need trellising.

Then you need to decide if you want fresh shelling peas, pea pods or snow peas.

All peas grow in pods but not all pods are edible. Shelling peas, also called ‘English’ peas have tough outer pods and so must be ‘shelled’. Snap peas can be eaten whole and are good blanched or eaten raw. They plump up a little more in the pod than a snow pea, which has a flat, pod and are very tender. Grow them all, the shell peas are great for freezing to use in soups, stews or just about any dish. The snap or snow peas add a great crunch to salads and many times most of them are eaten right off the vine in the garden.

Plant peas in spring or late summer (in warmer climates), loosen the soil and add some compost, mixing it well. If using a trellis, place the trellis in the soil and plant peas on both sides of the trellis. Plant the seeds about 1” deep and 2” apart. Water well and wait for them to grow. That’s it!

Harvest when the pods are fully mature, the shelling peas will be plump and fat while the snap peas are just beginning to swell inside the pod and the snow peas are full size and sort of waxy looking. Some of the flowers may be still attached to the bottom of the pod but they will be looking rather dried out.

Refrigerate peas just after picking so they stay sweet and crunchy for up to 3 days. Blanch peas right away if you’re planning on freezing some. Cook in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes, drain and lay flat on a baking sheet. Dry them well and freeze on the sheet pan then you can toss them into a freezer bag and pull out only what you want to work with later.

Pick peas in the morning and use care not to pull the plant out of the ground while you pull off the pea pod. You can also use the leafy pea shoots from the tops of the plants as they get taller, plan on using these right away.

It’s Easy to Grow Potatoes!

2 / 8 / 17

Choose organic seed potatoes, don’t plant potatoes that you’ve purchased from the market even if they have sprouts. They won’t perform well in the garden and you’ll be disappointed. Buy certified organic see potatoes from a reputable nursery. In LA check out Two Dog Nursery, http://www.twodognursery.com/ or by mail, Peaceful Valley Farm, https://www.groworganic.com/

Pre-spouted potatoes will grow faster and you’ll be able to pick potatoes about a month earlier. Growing potatoes is SO easy! You can grow in Smart Pots, the easiest in my opinion, or in the ground.

To pre-sprout the potatoes, put them in a paper bag or lay them out singly in a warm room. If they are larger than a couple of inches I cut them into pieces with each piece having 2 or more ‘eyes’ and let them dry out of the sun for a couple of days. Potatoes like sandy, loose soil so if that’s not the kind of soil you find in your garden a Smart Pot is the way to go, it also makes harvesting easier. If you are planting right in the ground, make a furrow about 3” deep and plant the seed potato eyes up, cover with soil and plant the next potato seed about 2’ away. As the potatoes sprout and grow keep covering the plant with loose soil or straw leaving about 3” exposed. The new potatoes grow on top of the seed potato, keep the soil moist but not wet and keep ‘hilling’ the plant until it’s about 10 – 12” tall. Fertilize with a general organic gardening fertilizer such as EB Stone Tomato & Vegetable Food, 4-5-3.

Harvest potatoes in about 60 days after the blooms start to die back. Stop watering and leave the potatoes in the ground, covered with soil or straw to prevent greening (don’t eat a green potato), to set the skin. Fresh potatoes have a very thin, delicate skin so if you’re planning on storing any of them you’ll want it to ‘toughen’ up a little. If you’re growing in a Smart Pot after you’ve toughened up the skin, just dump the pot out in the garden and collect all your potato gems! Start each season with fresh new seed potatoes. In California you can grow potatoes in spring and in fall, yippee for California!

Get Smart Pots here

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How To Grow Amaryllis & Paperwhite Bulbs

10 / 20 / 16

I love growing Narcissus (Paperwhites) in the spring and in the fall/early winter. If you stagger planting these bulbs you can have continuous blooms from now all through the holidays. Narcissus and Amaryllis both grow well in soil or in a vase or shallow bowl with no soil at all. I love taking amaryllis bulbs to anyone that I visit during the holidays; you can even find bulb kits at the nursery or almost any store this time of year.

Unlike most bulbs these two don’t need to be chilled before planting, they love our warm climate (even if sometimes we don’t!). If you want continuous blooms buy a dozen or so bulbs and store some in a cool dark place and ‘plant’ every few weeks through late winter. Amaryllis will bloom 6 – 8 weeks after planting and Paperwhites 3-5 weeks after planting.

To plant in soil make sure the container is about 5”- 6” deep, plant the Paperwhite bulbs, with the root end down so that the tops peek above the soil surface. You can plant 5 bulbs in this pot and space them a little apart from each other. Water until the soil is damp but not soggy or the bulbs will rot, water occasionally until they bloom then water regularly but do not overwater. Some Paperwhites are very tall and need support to keep from falling over. Plant one Amaryllis bulb in the same size pot with the tip about one-third above the soil. Amaryllis can be encouraged to bloom again next year if planted in soil, cut off the old bloom to about 1” above the bulb, water and feed regularly and let the leaves grow throughout the year. In late summer stop watering and let the leaves dies back naturally as they start to store energy for the next season. You can dig up the bulb or leave in the pot and place into a cool, dark place for about 8 weeks. You can repot in fresh soil or add a little finished compost to it, bring it back into a light area, water infrequently until you see growth and then repeat the process. Paperwhites won’t usually bloom again so buy new bulbs each year.

To plant in gravel or stones place a layer of stones or gravel over the bottom of a vase to a depth of 2-4” for the Amaryllis or paperwhites and place the bulb or bulbs on top of the stones, fill the vase with more stones up to the top third of the bulb and add water up to 1” below the base of the bulb, do not let the bulb sit in water or it will rot. Add water as needed but keep the level below the base of the bulb. Be sure to use a vase or jar that is tall enough so that it won’t tip over as the flower shoots grow.

Buy some ‘kits’ as hostess gifts for the holidays and store in a cool, dark place until you need them. (Don’t forget where you stash them though!)

Fall Vegetable Gardens

8 / 16 / 16

Fall Vegetable Gardens

Although here in Southern California there aren’t many place where we get frost, some places away from the beach will get a light frost and towards the mountains an early frost and snow. But our last frost date near the coastline is anywhere from early Nov to early Dec. and our first frost date is somewhere around Feb. It’s good to know this information so you can plan on what and when to plant.

If you get tomatoes, beans and cucumbers in the ground now (Aug-Sept) make sure you plant early varieties that have time to fruit before the ground begins to cool. Most nurseries will still be carrying good supplies of summer vegetables for the next month.

These are some fruit and vegetables that will grow for you now.

Here are two nurseries in our area that I love for great vegetable plants.

H & H, Lakewood Blvd, Lakewood

http://hhnursery.com/

Rogers Gardens, Newport Beach

http://rogersgardens.com/

Almost all the seed catalogs have great sale prices too, a good time to pick up some fall and spring seeds.

Grow Organic/Peaceful Valley Farms

http://www.groworganic.com/

Baker Creek Seeds

http://www.rareseeds.com/

High Mowing Seeds

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/

Renee’s Garden

http://www.reneesgarden.com/

Seeds From Italy

http://www.growitalian.com/

Tomato Confit

6 / 11 / 166 / 12 / 16

Is your garden overflowing with tomatoes? I always grow too many and one of my favorite ways to make them go a little farther is to oven dry them. Much like sun dried, these concentrated gems pack a powerful punch and can be used in any dish where you’d use tomatoes. Especially nice on a cheese plate with some creamy goat cheese nearby.

To preserve them I turn them into a tomato confit and keep in my ‘pantry’ refrigerator. They can’t be water bath canned because of the oil, but they will keep for about 6 months in the refrigerator, if they last that long. The refrigeration will also help to preserve the oil and keep it from going rancid quicker. Use only fresh organic herbs and make sure you wash and dry them very well, you don’t want any water going into your beautiful confit.

Mangia (Eat!)

1 pound tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil, approximately
1 tablespoon basil, chiffonade
2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 clove garlic -- minced

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Arrange the tomato halves cut side up and close together on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Drizzle over tomatoes and bake until the tomatoes are soft and shriveled but still retain some moisture, 1-2 hours or more.

Let cool completely. Tomatoes can be stored in a glass jar, cover tomatoes with olive oil, add a fresh sprig of thyme, seal and refrigerate.

Photo: Chez Pim