Salad Experiments

My amaranth is finally taking off with beautiful green and purple leaf production. I tasted my very first nibble just a week or so ago. I definitely had mixed feelings. I keep reading that it is sweet and spinach-like... not so (maybe I didn't water frequently enough?). The initial taste is good, however quite strong. Then there is a sneaky little subtle aftertaste that is quite bitter. This sent me into a sour mood as all I can grow mid summer is bitter greens. Yet I did not let my grumpy disposition last. Instead, I decided to take on the challenge of finding ways to enjoy eating everything that I was growing, including my amaranth. So far I have come up with two salads that I quite enjoy, with hopes of finding more. The greens mostly don't matter... I have been using the last of my cabbage, a little store bought lettuce, lots of swiss chard, and a modest dose of amaranth. Top that with whatever beans are ready to be picked. Then for the salad dressing, what makes or breaks it for the bitter afterbite. I tried Farmgirl Fare's cabbage and swiss chard salad dressing... incredibly good despite my dislike for cottage cheese. In this recipe it was subtle enough to allow the greens to come through. Yet with the amaranth it didn't quite cover the aftertaste. Last night my husband and I made a sweet egg yolk based dressing. It was wonderful! You could still taste the distinct differences between the greens, yet there wasn't a hint of bitterness. I am overjoyed... I can now harvest greens to my heart's content without worry of fearing the eating process.

Bolting and Harvest

Over the last two weeks a great deal of bolting has occured in the garden. Almost two weeks ago the spinach started to go. By the end of that week, even the newly sprouted baby spinach was trying to set seed. The buttercrunch lettuce bolted last week and the bibb lettuce 2 days ago. The Bok Choi was on a similar schedule to the spinach. The heat has definitely picked up. I don't know if it was that, or if I missed watering too many days while at work. Either way, yesterday would have done them in with our 100 degree heat. I pulled up quite a few heads of each. It is so sad to see it go to waste. I left a few in place for seed collection.


On the up side, I harvested the larger of my two cauliflower yesterday. We ate it with steak dinner. Yum!




Amaranth is finally growing... apparently it likes the heat. I now have 4" tall plants with 3-4 true sets of leaves each. The final attempt at direct sowing also seemed to work... they are starting to show a set of true leaves. Next year I will winter sow and keep in cointainers, then can put in the place of other salad greens as those bolt. They definitely don't need to take up space in the garden before then.




I have one lone purple carrot sprout. I will try more soon in containers.

The bush beans are showing flowers. Now that the bak choi is out of that area, I wish I had planted twice as many beans... is it too late?

Partaking from the garden, finally!

This week we have had multiple salads from the garden: spinach, bibb lettuce, and buttercrunch lettuce. Buttercrunch is a definite favorite. Spinach isn't bad, but I think I need to keep looking for the perfect variety.

Stir fried bak choi with ginger and garlic was pretty good, but a little bitter. Jared loved it because it brought back memories of Indonesian meals (bitterness and all). Tonight I steamed swiss chard and poured peanut sauce over it. The peanut sauce definitely helped since I am still getting used to steamed (aka wilted) leaves. Growing up that was never something I ate. While I was cooking I tried a few nibbles of the swiss chard fresh... I was shocked at how salty it was. Who would've guessed?

The most exciting eating thus far has been the few sugar snap peas that we have munched on. Yum! Next year I will plant at least twice as many of those for sure!