I added a tofu ricotta, cream sauce, and mushrooms. Topped with nutmeg and cinnamon. Chris wasn’t a huge fan, but I thought it was pretty good. Next time though… I think I’ll leave out the eggplant. Hah.

Today’s pick:

Our eggplants are loaded with beautiful white and purple fruits. The white eggplant is a variety from Monticello – apparently one that Jefferson grew, and has been passed down through the generations. They are good sized, long fruits – nearly 12″ long, and each plant has at least 8 fruits on it. What a great find!

Temperatures have been consistently reaching the 90s this month, with a few streaks in the 100s. Pair that with 2″+ of rain each week, and you have the perfect weather for eggplants and peppers.

For some reason, though, our tomatoes are not ripening. We’ve picked a few small cherry tomatoes, and today I picked a couple of nearly-ripe orange tomatoes (Amana Orange). They both have pretty big cracks in them though, and look like they could start to go bad soon. Torrential rain is not great for heirloom tomatoes; it causes them to grow too quickly, and then they crack and are prone to insects and rotting.

In other news, I picked a Hungarian Carrot Pepper and, not thinking, took a bite out of it. The description on the seed packet just said “Great for frying.” No mention of heat. FYI – hungarian carrot peppers are HOT. Right up there with cayenne peppers, but it’s a different kind of heat. I’m sure they are terrific for frying… and I’m curious to see if they are more tolerable when cooked!

My niece and nephew spent the night at our house last Thursday, and while they were here, we watched the Disney/Pixar movie “Ratatouille.” There was a two-year-old and a three-year-old, and Puck and two cats… And so I missed about half of the movie, but the dish has been in my mind.

Coincidentally, I picked one ripe eggplant and a half dozen little courgettes from the garden the other day. Since it was fairly warm out, I didn’t want to start up the oven… So I decided to hang out on the deck and try making a “grilled rattatoulie.”

Step 1: cut and grill zucchini, eggplants, onions, and peppers.

Step 2: layer vegetables in a disposable pie tin. Add garlic, basil, and thyme; drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, and top with about 1/2 jar of tomato sauce.

Step 3: Cover with tinfoil, and grill at medium-high heat for 20 minutes.

… Serve with other items that have been wrapped in tinfoil and grilled. For example, buttery garlic bread. It was really good!

We spent much of the day out in the sun, and went for a nice bike ride. Beautiful weather this weekend, and rain possible tonight. I always hope for rain over night.

The daisies are in full bloom! I also picked our first small zucchini, one eggplant and a pepper, a head of broccoli, a bunch of chard, rosemary, sage, thyme, and basil this afternoon. Tonight for dinner, I think we’re going to try making ratatouille in mini bread loaves… on the grill, with garlic bread. Curios to see how that works!

Kallie says, “Happy 4th of July!”

I picked up a package of white eggplant seeds at Monticello this winter, and I’m really excited about these! I wasn’t sure what shape to expect from the fruits, and I’m glad these are long and skinny.

I’ve never successfully saved eggplant seeds before, but this fruit came out early for the season, so I’m hoping it’s a good northern variety that we can keep growing. The rest of the eggplants are loaded with flowers. I put in standard black eggplant as well. Looking forward to seeing the garden explode after this heat wave!

I finally started hardening off tomatoes and peppers this week. Last year I decided to start fewer plants inside, and purchase more at the local greenhouse… but I ended up buying seeds anyway. It is just so hard to resist starting plants inside! I already put in all of the cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi – and seeded radishes and carrots. The rest of the garden should be seeded within the week, so all that’s left will be tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.

They look pretty good; if the weather patterns hold most of these should be able to go into the ground next weekend. I do have a row cover and some fabric in case temperatures drop into the 30s later this May.

We grew three varieties this summer – Rosa Blanca (pink), Snowy White, and Black. This weekend, I think I’ll make some pita bread and baba ganouj.

Seedlings planted March 5th: Tomato, Jahrdale blue pumpkin, and Brussels Sprouts

It’s that time again! I’m excited about this year’s garden. We saved a lot of seeds from last year – various chili peppers, amana orange tomatoes, and jahrdale blue pumpkin seeds (from my uncle’s pumpkins). We also ordered some seeds from Amish Land Seeds, which arrived last week. We planted them yesterday: Great White Tomato, Pineapple Bi-Color Tomato, and Heirloom Eggplant Mix.

… Tomorrow afternoon Chris and I have a meeting which may lead to an incredible change in our gardening this summer. I am both excited and nervous, but will have to wait to post more details later.

… and this is what happens when you let it snow before pulling your eggplants out of the ground (or, rather, out of their pots). The original idea was to move the eggplants to a warmer location once it got cold, and hope to extend their production a bit. But, alas, they didn’t produce as much as I had hoped and prolonging their lives just seemed futile.

We woke up yesterday morning to a dusting of snow on the ground, which melted and returned throughout the day. The snowfall is pretty light, but it’s been steady since at least 7:00 last night, and doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon!

Chris got all of the tomatoes out of the ground, along with the cucumbers and beans. The eggplants are slowly dying in the cold. The only thing left is the pumpkins, which are mostly orange now. The carrots are still in the ground, but they’ll stay there for a while longer. I’m not sure how the kale and lettuce Chris planted is doing – the newer bunch of carrots are coming up nicely, and Chris did put some storm windows over them to protect them from the snow. His plan for the weekend is making cold frames.