Giant Beet!

Aug4

Lookee what I found under a bunch of leaves! A Chioggia beet that weighed 9.6 lbs! I bet if there had been a State Fair this year, it would have taken 1st place for biggest beet! Notice the beet tops look like my hair!

Here you see me opening it up.

and then I sliced it into ‘beet steaks’.

We grilled them on the BBQ! I thought it would have been woody and tough but it was not. I was going to drizzle balsamic vinegar on them but they didn’t need it. It was so delicious and sweet and soft. Of course I would never grow them this big on purpose but rather grow them much smaller. I was just glad it turned out well.

2019 Garden pics!

Sep6

Here are some pics of my garden this year. Now that we are in September, I wanted to capture it in all it’s glory before it’s gone. I’ve worked hard tweaking out the infrastructure with new framed beds and weed barriers and wood chips in the paths this year. Having retired from the Santa Fe Farmers Market two seasons ago has allowed me to do more in the garden. I also added some perennial fruit like raspberries and blackberries since I don’t need space for 125 tomato plants anymore! By mid-October or sooner, it will be toast with the first frost so might as well enjoy it while I have it. I have an abundance of flowers this year that I grew for my edible flower class and besides being beautiful and edible, they attract many beneficial insects and pollinators. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Polana raspberries

Rosso de Lucca dry beans

Nasturiums

Entrance into the garden

Lemon Gem marigolds-edible!

Edible cosmos-sulphureus variety

Santorini tomatoes

Waltham butternuts

More edible flowers

Kalibos cabbage-Eastern European heirloom

Rugosa Friulana summer squash from Italy

Borage flowers in strawberry patch

Polana raspberries

Flowers by entrance

me-The Tomato Lady with harvest

harvest time

Dutch shallots

Large Barred Boar-seeds from Wild Boar Farms

Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper

Chiogga beets

Leek flower

June bearing strawberries

morning glories gone wild

beets-chiogga on left/Cylindra on right

Dutch shallots curing

Black cherry tomatoes and Santorini tomatoes

Mystery yellow tomato with Purple Cherokee tomatoes

Goliath tomatoes

Himrod grapes

Pollinator flowers

tomato harvest

Cylindra and Chiogga beet harvest

Jul21

Chiogga beets on the left and Cylindra beets on the right

I just harvested my beets I planted in the spring and got 13 lbs! I grew two heirloom varieties- Cylindra and Chiogga.

The Cylindra beet is originally from Denmark although the seeds are available in the states as well. They are a rather long, sweet buttery beet which is great when sliced. It is a dark red and actually grows a little out of the soil so they are easy to see when they are ready for harvest. One of my favorite varieties of beets.

The Chiogga (pronounced kee-OH-gee-uh) is an Italian heirloom that was establish in the 1840s. It is a round beet that has beautiful pink and white concentric stripes inside and the flavor is sweet as well-another favorite of mine.