Melons 香瓜

Hybrid Charentais Melons
(Park's seeds)

Open Pollinated Charentais Melons
(Botanical Interest seeds)

Sierra Gold Cantaloupes (muskmelon)
(Ferry Morse seeds)

Harvest - June Week 3

Counter clockwise from upper left:

French filet bush beans, French filet bi-color pole beans,
Chinese yard long beans & cherry bomb peppers,
American snap beans, Italian sweet peppers,
Italian pole beans, Chinese watermelon radish.

French filet bi-color pole beans.
Renee's Garden 2009 seeds, good germination, fast grower.
The bean changes color from green to yellow as it matures,
it's easy picking when the the yellow bean
stands out against green leaves.

French filet Rolande bush beans.
Renee's Garden 2009 seeds, good germination, fast grower.
(Is this the 1st flush of beans?)

Chinese watermelon radish -- 滿堂紅
Lee Valley 2009 seeds, good germination,
fast grower, 47 days from germination to harvest.

The cut is at bottom 3rd of the root,
the red color is more intense at the top.

Chinese red seed yard long beans and cherry bomb peppers.

Italian sweet pepper -- Jimmy Nardello
Bottom -- American Blue Lake pole beans.
Top -- Italian Santa Ana pole beans.

Watermelon Radish 滿堂紅蘿蔔

47 days from germination to harvest.
Lee Valley seeds, mild radish taste, will grow again.

Sweet and sour watermelon radish pickle 涼拌甜酸蘿蔔

Bean Flowers 四季豆花

Painted Lady Runner Bean

Painted Lady Runner Bean

French Rolande Bush Bean

French Rolande Bush Bean

American Blue Lake Pole Bean

American Blue Lake Pole Bean

Strayed white bean flowers among IWK red.

Insuk Wang Kong Runner Bean

French Bi-Color Pole Bean

French Bi-Color Pole Bean

Chinese Yard Long Bean -- black seed

Chinese Yard Long Bean -- red seed

I collected these bean flower photos to help identify and record the variety of beans I am growing, these are lovely flowers if view closeup. The Italian beans were sown few days ago, they will be producing flowers in about 6 weeks from germination, and I'll add them to the collection later.

Green Fingers 波斯迷你黃瓜

Persian Baby Cucumber “綠手指”
Renee's Garden seeds

These mini cucumbers are finger size -- slender, smooth, and thin-skinned, they grow to approximately 3"-5" with crispy sweet clean taste without bitterness. I have been snacking on them as I garden.

The seeds are expensive, there are only 10 seeds in the envelope, but they are self-pollinating and mildew tolerant which are very important to me. Last year my cucumbers were stunted by mildew and attacked by cucumber beetles, I had to destroy the plants. Having disease resistant seeds help a lot, hopefully the darn beetles go somewhere else this year.

Green Beans 四季豆

Left: American Blue Lake pole beans
Right: French Rolande bush beans
Center: Cherry Bomb hot peppers

There are only 3 plants in this experimental EB.
1 Insuk Wang Kong - red flowers
2 Blue Lake - white flowers
(Photo 6/2/2009)

French Rolande - white flowers
(Photo 6/16/2009)

Blue Lake -- this is the second batch I picked, we ate the first harvest last week. It is a prolific producer, I pick a small handful of beans everyday from these 2 plants. If one is to grow 16 plants in an EB (as suggested) there will be plenty of beans for a family of 4. The taste and texture of this stringless green bean is suitable for Chinese stir-fry dishes, it would be good in casseroles and soups also.

Rolande -- this is the first harvest which is not much, that is to expected in a bush bean. I like the taste and texture of this bean, it is tender and sweet with minimal cooking and seasoning, my favorite way of enjoying this filet bean is to blanch it briefly in boiling water, drain, and toss with garlic butter or extra virgin olive oil, JJ likes it with a dash of Newman's Olive Oil & Vinegar Salad Dressing.

Both types of beans were picked at very young immature stage, the American beans are shorter and thicker with larger seeds, the French filet beans are slender and longer with smaller seeds. Blue Lake pole beans keep on giving, the more one picks the more they produce (跟你拼了)。 The filet bush beans have shorter life cycle, they produce 1-2 flushes then die, it is only good for short season and catchup crop (人家姑娘不高興咩)。

Taste Test
Everyone in the family prefers the French filet bean, a real gourmet treat. It is sweet and tender without beany taste, best use when fresh. Blue Lake tasted beany and more substantial, good for stir-fry when use fresh (or use for freezing and canning). It definitely needs more seasonings and longer cooking time than the French filet beans.

Harvest - June Week 3

Napa cabbage and short white stem bok choy.

Salad bowl -mainland girl, romain, and bibb.

Cook's Garden Summer Mix lettuce thinning and baby spinach.



Left: American Bule Lake pole beans

Right: French Rolande file bush beans
Center: Cherry Bomb hot peppers



Spinach

Have Tomatoes 你有番茄嗎

Chinese Purple (Don't ask, I know nothing about its origin.)
Tradewind seeds

Polish Opalka
Tradewind seeds

These two tomato plants are growing like gangbusters, there are 23 Chinese Purple tomatoes on the plant, it is producing more fruits than leaves which is good. The Polish Opalka grows more leaves than fruits despite the same growing environment and nutrition. I still don't like the way Opalka grows, its leaves are wispy and limpy as in half dead.

The Italian Pompeii is struggling with calcium or water issue, I have been picking off BER tomatoes as they developed, hopefully the issue will resolve itself as the plant adjusts its own metabolism.

The American Black Brandywine is growing steadily and catching up with lots of flowers but have yet to set fruits. There's a lavender plant nearby with many bees buzzing, there will be tomatoes coming from this plant, this is a late bloomer.

Charentais Melon OP 法國種香瓜

French melon

Open pollinated seeds from Botanical Interest Garden.

6/9/2009 -- Three plants in half whiskey barrel.

The melon plants have double their sizes since June 9th, they are climbing trellises and overspill the planter. These open pollinated plants were the last to germinate and the last to transplant by as much as a month compare to the other two types of melon seedlings, but this OP outperform Park's hybrid Charentais and Ferry Morse's American Sierra Gold in early fruit production department.

The other two varieties were planted 4 weeks earlier, as of today there are plenty of flowers but no babies. Those plants are not as vigorous as the OP variety, this is something to consider for next year's planting. The real test for the 3 varieties of melon will be in taste and texture. I'm hoping the this OP melon taste test will win my heart because it is such a vigorous and easy plant to grow.

Butterfly Pea Vine (Clitoria Ternata) 藍妹子

June 18, 2009

June 18, 2009 -- today's blossom, click to see larger image.
2 spent flowers and a 4th flower bud forming in the middle
all on one vine, the other plant has not begun
flower production yet.

June 18, 2009 -- 3rd blossom

June 11, 2009 -- 1st blossom

June 11, 2009 -- there's another bud forming on the top branch,
click picture to see enlarged image.

June 11, 2009 -- long awaited blue flower finally blooms.
(Tahai seeds)

Bush Beans vs Pole Beans

The French beans are stronger and climb faster than
the Chinese yard long beans despite 3 weeks late start.
There are pods on the YL, filet beans beginning to flower.

French bush beans -- Rolande

French Rolande under leaf cover.

Bush beans are early producers, they produce beans in one flush and they are done for the season, whereas pole beans takes longer to start producing but they also produce for longer period of time, say until frost hit them. Commercial farmers usually grow bush type because the beans can be harvested at once by machine.

It is difficult to harvest bush beans for the home growers due to its height, one must bend and kneel to find the beans growing below dense leaves; harvesting pole beans is more enjoyable, they hang on vines and much easier to spot, no bending and kneeling required.

If I were to grow bush beans again, I'll be growing them in containers for easy harvest and to save precious real estate for other crops.

Garlic Scapes & Chives 蒜苔﹐韭菜

Left -- garlic scapes 蒜苔/蒜芯 (33 stalks)
Right -- garlic chives 韭菜 (1.3 lb)

Garlic scapes with Chinese bacon 蒜苔炒臘肉

Garlic scapes kimchi 韓式泡蒜花苞

The scapes appear a bit mature, they should have been cut a week ago, but I have not thought about them since they were planted at the old house until W asked, fortunately they are harvested in time for a delicious meal. The scapes remain tender, sweet, and juicy to about 12" below the flower bud.

Garlic scape is once a year treat for the home gardener when growing garlic, not all garlic will develop a central flower stalk (scape), there are two types of garlic -- "soft neck" and "hard neck", the soft neck garlic does not develop a stalk whereas the hard neck garlic forms a flower stalk (scape) which must be removed to encourage larger bulb formation, if the flower stalk is left on the plant it would spend its energy to set seeds and finish its life cycle instead of growing the bulb.