Happy Harvest Friday! Here’s what we picked this week…
Last weekend we were doing a pizza night and Nick requested I make a sun-dried tomato pesto that I’d made a few times this summer for pizzas. I had just enough of my Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes left, so I got to harvesting some basil!
I’m so proud of my basil plant this year. It’s lasted since spring without ever getting woody or dying! Normally my basil plants turn into trees and stop producing by mid-summer. This year I was really good about cutting it back all the time, even if it meant the basil just went into the compost. It paid off!
The basil was morphed into this beauteous pesto.
I’ll share the recipe soon! Like I said, I’ve made it several times this year, but this is the first time the camera caught it. And it is super delicious.
We used the pesto as the sauce on a veggie pizza, which included heirloom tomatoes, mini zucchinis (how cute are these?!), mushrooms and garden peppers.
The pizza was amazing, but sadly the peppers have started to become bitter. I’m not entirely sure why– Google suggests drought, which would make sense here in California, but we do water them every day, so I don’t know.
So anyways, that just meant it was time to pull up the pepper plants and replace them with something else! I left the jalapenos because they are still hot and spicy, not bitter. But my sweet peppers are gone!
Nick’s dad sent us his old juicer so I have been really into making juices. It’s a really great way to use up everything in your fridge that’s about to go bad. Nick’s favorite combo is a beet-apple-ginger mix. We are growing a ton of beets, so that’s perfect! This week I harvested a few beets and carrots for a batch of juice. I don’t know why my beets look so weird. They are kinda long and skinny. (They taste completely normal and delicious.) Maybe it was the variety? We planted these way back in the spring, so I can’t remember!
This juice had beets, carrots, a few (garden) chard leaves, apples, celery, ginger and lime.
It was one of my yummiest juices yet! It’s also a win because the leftover pulp is great composting material.
What we planted this week: Radishes! Radishes are really quick-growing fall crops. Since I had some garden space open up, I planted a bunch. We also planted some onions and elephant garlic. Each of these is one clove of elephant garlic. Holy moly!
Onions and garlic are both crops that will grow all winter and should be ready at the end of spring or summer. We’ve never planted onions or garlic before, so this will be an experiment.
And just because it’s out of control and lovely… here’s one of my 5 or 6 chard plants…
What did you harvest this week? Do you have any ideas for rainbow chard? Please?!
That pesto looks delicious, can’t wait to see your recipe! Looks like you have done a great job with the gardening all of your veggies look so delicious.
Sun-dried tomato pesto sounds amazing! I think I would request that every week, Jess! Can’t wait to see the recipe! And that fresh juice sounds so light and delicious! I love the pretty color, too. Have a great weekend!
Omg that garlic <3 please save some and make me that Vinny Testas roasted garlic head when I visit
Haha! It won’t be ready yet when you’re here but they sell the stuff everywhere around here so we will definitely have to make some!
Not only is your garden growing like gang busters, but y’all do such a good job of putting the fruits of your labor to good use. I’m all about that pizza (more cheese!). And I’ll echo everyone else: pesto, yum! The chard looks perfect for when people wrap their burgers in a big ol’ leaf, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Ooooh that’s a good idea!! Or lettuce wraps of sorts…!
I want to plant garlic next year. My basil was pretty miserable this year. So sad.
oooo that sundried tomato pesto sounds delightful!
So jealous of your garden! You inspire me Jess : )
With a yard like yours you have to start planting some stuff!! Everything grows amazingly everywhere in California! 😉