Peas, Pests, and Garlic Scapes

Peas! Peas! Glorious Peas!

Pea Pods before the 4th of July!

Peas are in and tonight they were just delicious! Here's a picture of peas with edible pods. Shell peas will be for dinner tomorrow night. Below is a photo of the cover of The Victory Garden Cookbook. I use this cookbook all summer long. Not only does it have recipes but it also gives information on growing and harvesting veggies. Each chapter of the book focuses on a vegetable and is in alphabetical order. Last night I realized that I was going to pick peas today so last night I pulled this cookbook out to look up recipes for peas. I wound up making a scampi recipe with peas and served it over wild rice. It was pretty darn tasty. Another favorite is to cook shell peas and serve over rice with some butter and mint...yummy! The secret to cooking peas is to barely cook them. They should retain their beautiful and bright green color and still be crispy. No soggy yellowish peas please!

Great Cookbook!

Since there are so many peas and I hate canned peas and don't have freezer space to freeze them I will be bringing them to the local soup kitchen tomorrow. On Thursdays they serve soup and sandwiches and said they would love some garden produce. I have a ton of lettuce, radishes, dill, beet greens, and strawberries so I'll bring some of them over. It was easy to find places to bring produce to. I just typed in "soup kitchen" into Google. Then I typed in "food pantry" and then "homeless shelter". For each entry I also typed in my town and state and each time up came a list of organizations in my town. They each had a contact phone number so I called. I will go tomorrow to the one that answered and said they'd like some. Now the thing with bringing produce to places like food pantries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters is the produce needs to be of excellent quality and newly picked and cleaned very well. The staff at these places have all they can do just to get the food ready. Cleaning produce is very time consuming so they really appreciate when it arrives clean and ready to go. Don't ever bring anything that you wouldn't eat yourself.

OK...now onto pests. Below is a picture of some shiny Mylar ribbon that I put over the corn patch. Last year I planted 3 plantings of corn before I found out about this product. The crows kept pulling the newly emerging corn plants right out of the ground! The crows won't cross this shiny ribbon! It works like a charm. I get mine at Johnny's Selected Seeds since it's so close by. But I saw a similar product at Agway.

1st and 2nd corn plantings

More pests!! See the bean plants below?! UGh!!! I've mentioned a few times that slugfest '09 is a big hit in my very wet garden this year. Here are a few of what should be my dilly bean plants. I figured you should see the not so good plants as well as the ones that are doing well. I haven't done the beer trap yet because it won't stop raining! I have lots of seed left and as soon as this rain passes (it's only been the past 27 days!) I will replant.

Slug damaged bean plants

And even more pests!!

Striped Cucumber Beetle ... Hate them!

Today I noticed the dreaded striped cucumber beetle on my pumpkin plants! When I went to squish it, it flew away. Bugger!! Then I noticed tons of them! Not good! You've got to get rid of these things as soon as you see them. They were just having all sorts of party fun and orgies all over these poor pumpkin plants! So I hopped into my car and went to Johnny's to see what I could use on them. I think it's important to apply organic ingredients. But just because they are organic doesn't mean that you can just be willy nilly with them. They do kill insects after all. The thing that worries me with applying anything is the bees. I don't want to kill bees! So I am very careful not to apply when a plant is in flower. Try to get to the plant before it flowers.

I have ignored these awful pests in the past and regretted it. They are what we call, vectors. Vectors are organisms that carry disease and inject it into an unsuspecting host.Well, according to a website I just read, in this case the disease is carried in and transmitted through the insects' fecal matter. I know; gross! Anyway, in this case the host are the squash plants. And the disease that these dreaded insects carry is called, bacterial wilt. So the disease is a bacterium. Bacteria are living organisms too. They are tiny but they can be very powerful. Now the thing with bacteria is that most of us believe bacteria are bad and that we should kill them at all costs. Because of irresponsible media coverage and hype we are misinformed to believe that all bacteria are harmful. Oh contrair! Most bacteria on Earth are beneficial and down right essential. Think about what would happen to all the dead creatures if we didn't have certain bacteria that act as decomposers. Ewwww! I don't even want to think about how high the piles of dead stuff would be! Bacteria is the reason dead stuff returns to the Earth that they came from. Bacteria also keep our intestines and skin healthy. But...when it comes to this creature and the bacteria it carries; well that's a different story. Bacteria wilt is a deadly disease and if it's injected into your squash plants it'll kill them. So...get rid of these insects ASAP! Here's a good link if you'd like to read more about this insect, disease, and their fascinating relationship with your squash plants:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2139.html

Other things that are going on in the garden:

Now onto a way to attract those bees I was worried about. Below is a picture of a radish gone to flower. I love radish flowers! They are so delicate and are even pretty cut and put in vases. I let some radishes go to flower because the bees seem to love them. Well, bees love most flowers. So consider leaving some of your veggies go to flower. If they are not hybrid plants then you can let them go to seed after they flower and then collect the seed and store it for planting next year. I'll talk about that in a later post.

Radish plant gone to flower

Below is a photo of a garlic "scape". Tall garlic plants get this curly thing on top called a garlic scape. You can cut the curly q's off and eat them. They have a delicate garlic flavor and are wonderful. A friend of mine likes to dice some of these up and sprinkle them over buttered toast. I like the garlic scape pesto. I've also had dilly garlic scapes. I may makes some of them this year. If I do I'll post the recipe I use and how they turn out.

OK...you've just got to visit this website I found before you read any more about garlic scapes!! It's so fun! Go to: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/06/garlic_scapes.html Be sure to watch the video clip, Craig Discovers Garlic Scapes. Be sure to also watch the Garlic Top Salad clip (which shows up under the above clip after it's played). Also watch, How to Dice Unruly Garlic Scapes.

Garlic Scapes

Here's a recipe The Amateur Gourmet posted from the NY Times, "White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip!" I just have to try this!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/183arex.html?_r=2&ref=dining

Taken from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-garlic-scape.htm: "The garlic scape serves as the stem from which the seed head of the garlic bulb is formed. As the bulb begins to grow and mature, garlic stalks also begin to lengthen. During the growth period, the garlic scape begins to curve. Contained within the garlic scape is a great deal of flavor, although the stalk never does reach the level of the pungent garlic bulb itself. Initially, the garlicscape is relatively tender, making it ideal for use as an ingredient in several dishes. As the plant continues to mature, the garlic scape gradually begins to straighten, creating more support for the bulb. At this juncture, the garlic scape is much tougher and ceases to be usable for most recipes."

I also read that even though the scapes look just beautiful in the garden cutting them off sends energy down to the bulbs making the bulbs stronger and I'm assuming bigger. So cut those scapes off and make some pesto! BUT..... if you want to try to get your garlic to self sow then don't cut all the scapes. If you leave some of the scapes they will flower and then make tiny little bulbets. These will fall off and garlic will grow next year. The bulbs you harvest will be smaller than the "real" garlic you plant. But you'll have lots of surprises (garlic plants) sprouting around your garden. You can use these as a mild garlic flavor in the spring when garlic bulbs aren't ready to dig. And garlic is a great companion plant that helps keep the bad buggies away.

For all those scapes you do harvest here's the pesto recipe. It is delicious! We just had some on fresh fresh bread. Will have some tonight on some pasta.

GARLIC SCAPE AND ALMOND PESTO (adapted from:http://www.doriegreenspan.com/2009/06/i-seem-to-be-on.html

Makes about 1 cup

10 garlic scapes (I used the largest I had in my garden), finely chopped

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)

1/2 cup slivered almonds (you could toast them lightly, if you'd like) or use walnuts

About 1/2 cup olive oil

Sea salt -optional - I never use salt so didn't use this

Put the scapes, the cheese, almonds and the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor (or use a blender or a mortar and pestle). Whir to chop and blend all the ingredients. If you like the texture, stop; if you'd like it a little thinner, add some more oil. Optional -season with salt.

If you're not going to use the pesto immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. The pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days or packed airtight and frozen for a couple of months, by which time tomatoes should be at their juciest.

I'm going to make another batch to freeze to use with Broschetta once the tomatoes are ripe.

Another way to use Garlic Scape Pesto is to mix it with some Hummus and spread on Syrian bread...yummy!

Coming next....cilantro!