Harvest to Table

This is Part III of a four part series; see series list below. Below is a list of cool-weather vegetable varieties for your garden. Select plant varieties that are suited for cool weather or that come to harvest quickly when planting cool-season gardens. Cool-season plant varieties are best suited for planting the kitchen garden in [...]

Cool-season crops are best suited for planting in autumn, winter and spring. In spring, cool-season crops can be planted just before or just after the last frost. Planting cool-seaon crops in autumn and winter takes a bit more planning. To plan and plant your autumn and winter garden follow these steps: Step 1. Start with [...]

The time for sowing depends upon where you live. What to plant depends upon the season and weather. Vegetables are generally divided into two categories: cool-season crops and warm-season crops. Cool-season crops and warm-season crops: Cool-season crops should be planted so that they mature when the weather is cool, either in spring or early summer [...]

Flavor is probably the best reason for selecting a tomato for kitchen garden growing. Once you have identified your favorite tomato (or tomatoes), the memory of that fruit’s flavor will easily get you started in spring and keep you going until harvest year after year. Getting to know new tomatoes and their tastes will bring [...]

  Just tender cooked borlotti beans–often called cranberry beans–are a tasty late summer snack. Use your thumb to pop open the fresh-picked speckled pods, place a few handfuls of beans in a skillet and cover with just an inch of water; add a couple of cloves of garlic, pepper corns, and fresh sage, and simmer [...]

Costoluto Genovese is a large, juicy Italian heirloom tomato with an acidic-tart full-tomato flavor well suited for slicing and serving fresh or cooking. Costoluto Genovese has been a Mediterranean favorite since at least the early eighteenth century. The key to this mid-season beefsteak’s rich tomato flavor is heat. Grown away from the dry, sun-drenched gardens [...]

  The cubanelle sweet pepper is tasty lightly roasted and served on a summer sandwich or green salad. Core and seed three or four of the long tapered cubanelles and place them on the grill or about five inches below the oven broiler element and cook until the skins blister and char on each side, [...]

Baby corn fresh picked is sweet and crunchy. You can eat it whole out of hand–yes, kernels and cob together, add it raw to salads, or cook it quickly in stir fries. Fresh baby corn among crudités is a summer-only delight. But fresh-picked baby corn–not the baby corn out of a can swimming in a [...]

Slice the pencil thin long bean into 1 to 2 inch bite-sized pieces and stir fry with a bit of ginger then serve as a side dish with pork or fish. Add sliced long beans to soups or more simply add them blanched or raw to a salad just as you would the French haricots [...]

Too many apples? Sometimes, yes. The best way to large delicious apples is thinning the crop. Thinning apples basics. Thin the fruit to a distance of twice the diameter of the fruit at maturity. If you expect the mature apples to be 3-inches across, leave 6 inches between each apple after thinning. If you’re not [...]