In the garden. . .

Beets, oh glorious beets! The seeds were sown on October 15, 2011, germinated in the fall, and survived the winter. I transplanted the seedlings to another section of the garden this spring and harvested them on June 2. I modified a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for the beet greens and used my favorite beet recipe from Jack Bishop's "Vegetables Every Day." The gist of the recipe is to use oven roasted beets, slip off the skins once the beets have cooled, and cut into 1/4 inch slices. I use a pie plate to combine some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper with a whisk or just pick up the pie plate and swirl it around. I add the beets and top with chopped parsley and kalamata olives. The perfect summer beet salad!

The carrots, sowing date March 21, needed to be thinned. I planted three different varieties, all from Fedco Seeds, by the way an absolutely amazing seed company in Maine, 'Mokum', 'Red-cored Chantenay', and 'Shin Kuroda'. I observed the fastest germination and top growth for the 'Mokum' variety. The photo shows thinnings of the 'Red-cored Chantenay' and 'Shin Kuroda'. I had already thinned the 'Mokum' seedlings and just harvested some fabulous, luscious, early carrots yesterday, June 9. The taste of home-grown carrots is amazing. Grocery store carrot flavor is just a mere shadow of a garden carrot's along with differences in texture and knowing how that carrot was grown.

Garden failure/re-purposing of the week- I planted two white turnip varieties similar to the 'Hakurei' type on April 7, between two rows of trellised peas. The germination rate was great and I thinned the seedlings. However, the roots were lackluster, small, dry, and hairy. I ripped them all out and used the turnip greens. The poor, blighted roots are still languishing in my refrigerator.