H-e-l-l-o!!
There’s about to be a harvest! The Swiss chard has gotten huge, so it’s time to harvest some of those outer leaves. Hit me up! What are your favorite Swiss chard recipes? What’s the best way to preserve it?
I’m anticipating a bit of a tomato issue soon, too. Our CSA is known for their tomatoes, and they send us 5 to 8 tomatoes every week. Thanks to 4 plants that spontaneously grew in our garden, we now have 7 tomato plants, and 4 of them are full of green tomatoes in various stages of growth. What’s your favorite way to use and preserve tomatoes?
Another question. Our basil is flowering. Is it still good? Should I worry about the flowers?
The sad little garden plot is finally coming to life. The bean plants are full of small, cute little beans.
The kale and collard greens are finally visible to the naked eye, and I planted some bok choy in the empty spaces. It even looks like one of our cucumber plants will make it.
The garden is growing. Look for our first harvest next week.
If you garden, how is yours going?
The basil is still fine but I would pinch off the flower buds so the plants will continue to grow otherwise your plants will get leggy. The other option is to let one or ore of the basil plants flower. You can save the seed for next year and the bees will love you.
PS Your chard looks beautiful.
I think you are supposed to pinch off the flowers on the basil so the plant gets bushier. Most herbs produce more leaves before the flowers start in, so it tricks the plant into putting its energy into leaf production.
Cut/pinch off the flowers on the basil and it should continue to grow. My mostly neglected basil plant has taken off this year (usually by now it’s been killed off by the TX heat). My favorite way to preserve it is to make freezer pesto but with your family’s dairy issues, that is out of the question because pesto without parmesan just isn’t pesto to me. I saw something on Pinterest about freezing the leaves in olive oil in an ice cube tray but I haven’t tried it yet.
Bugs of some kind are getting to our slicing tomatoes before they even begin to ripen (which is fine by this girl but the hubby wants his tomatoes)! And I had to use our extra tomato cages to support the two massive bell pepper plants. However, I noticed that it makes a perfect spot for the birds to perch and eat/peck at the peppers so I haven’t gotten as many off the plant to eat vs what’s been fed to the birds.
You can freeze tomatoes whole or cut up to make sauce when you have more time.
No specific recipes but you can use Swiss Chard in pretty much any place you would use spinach and other greens. They tend to be a little sturdier than spinach but less sturdy than kale, various greens and certainly more tender than collards. Sauté chard, put them in soups and stews, mix chard in with perhaps browned butter and pasta maybe a bit of scallions?
Thanks. Knowing I can sub it out for spinach helps.