Man, leave town for a few days, and this is what awaits:
Tomatoes. (Lots.) Tomatillos, zucchini, mini red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, Lao eggplant, dragon's tongue beans, Sultan's golden crescent beans, tongue of fire beans, onions, scallions, edamame, blackberries, raspberries, and that knobbly fellow in front, the bitter melon. First one of the season, but they're starting to come on strong. And, thus far, looking healthier than I'm used to seeing my cucumbers.
Fingers crossed?
2 comments:
ooh exciting! My tomatillos are coming thick and fast now - I've already filled two ziploc bags in the freezer in addition to the ones we've eaten fresh. What are you planning to do with the bitter melon? any recipes to share?
And how easy was the edamame and do you think it'd do well in a container? I love those little guys!
Tomatillos - do you freeze them directly, or do you roast them first? Ours very rarely last beyond the fresh stage - since they refrigerate really well - so we've never bothered with long-term preservation.
Bitter melons are, duh, bitter. But very much so, and, like chillis, require practice to enjoy. These days, I can't get enough. You can eat them raw (after scraping out the seeds and sponginess surrounding them) with salt, if you really want bitter. I like them in stir-fries and southeast Asian curries, which is how most get put to use around here. The bitterness works best as a balancing flavor, since the melons don't have all that compelling a flavor alone. They're also good with eggs, if you've got some sour and hot flavors, too. If I'm inundated later on this season, I plan on pickling them for a salty-sour-hot-bitter condiment.
Do note: if you buy bitter melon at a shop where the folks know what it is - Indian groceries, usually - they may want to make sure you know what you're buying. As a young-looking, pale-skinned guy, the first assumption from the nice Indian women is that I'm about to eat the coolest-looking, nastiest-tasting cucumber of my life.
Edamame need space. Individual plants don't, but also don't produce a lot of beans. If you want to try them, I find eight plants per foot works well. Six or eight plants makes a nice, small pre-dinner nibble for two, but unlike Phaseolus vulgaris, you're only going to get one harvest of pods from each plant. They are a real treat, and I like them in a garden rotation, but you might be best off just buying frozen pods to reserve the planter space for something else. Unlike a lot of frozen vegetables, they're remarkably like fresh. I think the frozen pods are better quality than pre-shelled, which are far less fun to eat.
Post a Comment