The Modern Victory Garden

It finally smells like summer outside.   The temperatures warmed up dramatically today (20 degrees warmer than just two days ago) and when I stepped out of the office this evening I was greeted with that distinctive smell of summer – warm sidewalks, and lawns that are getting dry in the summer sun and are starting to smell reminiscent of a hay field.   It’s heavenly after such a prolonged period of cool, overcast, and wet conditions.                            

Things are heating up in the garden too.   The pea patch is almost ready for the big harvest.   I watered it well this weekend knowing that we were heading into a forecasted warm spell and I think the combination of sunshine and a good soaking will push the pod development into overdrive.   Unfortunately, my daughter and I will be traveling to Spokane this weekend for a visit with my mom and other family members and I will not get back until late Sunday afternoon.   My husband will be staying home to care for the animals and while he always helps me do the pea shelling process – it would be asking too much to have him do all of the pea harvest etc on his own.   They will just have to wait until Sunday or Monday evening after I return.    

The warmer weather is kicking the broccoli into high gear too.   I harvested a bunch of it this evening along with a few small onions – which went into a beef and broccoli stir-fry with teriyaki sauce and rice noodles.   I have lots more central heads and side shoots that will be ready for harvest over the course of the next several days.           

Monday I harvested more zucchini and sugar snap peas – which was also turned into a stir fry dinner, only this one was with chicken, sliced zucchini, sugar snap peas, in a sweet and spicy shanghai orange sauce and served with cooked rice.     

I also harvested a bunch of celery Monday.   Notice the red celery in the picture?    This is Red celery that was grown from seed provided to me by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.  It's not brilliant red but it definitely has a blush to it!      

I use celery to cook with predominantly and like to keep large gallon zip lock bags full of frozen sliced celery in the freezer so I can scoop out what I need for recipes.   It’s very convenient and if you are cooking with celery, then frozen is just as good as fresh.   I slice the celery up and place it on a tray and freeze it solid before then placing it into the zip lock freezer bag.   This keeps the pieces separated so they are easily scooped out of the freezer bag.        

Celery, onions, and peppers do not require blanching before freezing - so processing them is very quick and easy.   I like to harvest celery throughout the season and just keep adding more of them to the zip lock bag until it is stuffed full.      

Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I return home from my short road trip on Sunday to find the Siletz tomatoes starting to ripen from the final arrival of summer and my peas just ready for harvest.                       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener