August Veggie Harvests

I usually grow varieties that the kids will eat for sure - sometimes the fun different varieties can be difficult to convince the kids to eat. These purple carrots were a hit. I cut them into carrot sticks for snacks. Will definitely be planting again next year. 

Carrot growing review: Easy to germinate; definitely give each carrot space to grow, otherwise they don't get as long; plant in looser soil or more sandy soil; I felt like these needed heavier watering but they were fairly easy to grow; would be good for a beginner gardener

Mini tomatoes for my neighbor: absolutely delicious; these are all good varieties to make a fresh pasta sauce too (basically add a little onion or shallot to a pan with fresh garlic, wait until all transluscent, add the tomatoes until they burst, then add in fresh basil - serve over or mixed with your favorite pasta)

Tri-color tomatoes for sandwiches

Mini sweet peppers - I actually do not recomment these. They were not as sweet as expected and took quite awhile to grow. The plants only produced one crop, they do not keep flowering like others. Unfortunately I received the starts from a friend and they were only labeled "sweet peppers" so I will have to do some digging. I'm thinking they might be a "Lunchbox" variety. 

 

It's a Paddleboarding Summer

Check out this beautiful Minnesota August day! This was the Cuyuna Crusher; after Q's race - he can't say no to playing in the water.

After both kids were done, we went to the Yawkey unit swimming lake. There's no other boats allowed so no waves, and extremely calm. It was such a gorgeous day.

Even Q could paddle in the calm waters and get the two of them about halfway across the lake and back. Paddle North is having their State Fair sale so I'm tempted to buy a second paddle board or a Loon's Nest instead. So much fun!

 

Winner Winner Bread for Dinner!

My daughter loves mountain biking. She's joined her schools mountain bike team and has biked for several years. She adores racing and looks forward to the Wirth on Wednesday races at The Trailhead at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis.

This past year, Mill Valley didn't renew their lease (at least that's what I'm assuming) and another local restaurant took over the space. It's Aki's Bread. And so the first place winner gets a load of bread for their prize! She picked out an oatmeal loaf which was absolutely delicious. I'm selfishly hoping she wins again so she can bring home a loaf of sourdough!

 

Homegrown Onions

Onions are fairly easy to grow at home. You need a full day of sun, lots of water, and well draining soil (the sandier, the better). I do not have the right soil conditions for onions but I keep growing them anyway. Insanity gardening happens here because there's some years that I just forget what I've done the few years before. Because I don't have the right sandy soil - my soil is really organic and a lot more compost-y - my onions tend to stay on the smaller side. These yellow onions are from starts from Menards. I bought them last minute after being unable to decide if I should grow them again.

There's a bunch of tips and tricks for onion growing out there. I have seen people say that trimming the small starts a few times before they make a bulb makes them grow bigger and have more layers. If that works for you... do it... I do not see a difference in the onions that I grow - walla walla OR sweet onions. I haven't grown red onions yet, so I may add those to my list for next year. We don't eat as many red onions but I'm always happy to try something new.

And when you cook with homegrown onions, I seem to have to use twice as many in recipes - I made black beans the other night with 3 home grown onions instead of one store bought onion (along with roasted garlic and 2 chipotle chilis, I highly recommend! DELISH!). Even when I grow over 100 onions, they never seem to last more than a few weeks because I use them so often in recipes. We just have a small city lot, so I don't think I'll ever grow more than 100 in a year. I have too many veggies that I want to grow! BUT next year I will take a whole raised bed in the front for just onions (the other raised bed will be just zinnias and cut flowers again until the wood tree logs decompose a little but more). So next year I'll have room for 2-3 varieties of onion instead of just a single variety that I've planted in spurts all over the garden. I will keep them all together to try to get them fertilized and watered on the same schedule so hopefully have larger onions next year.

 

Summer Sunflowers

I have two volunteer sunflowers this year. They're so cute! The top would be a mammoth sunflower - the variety is called Pike's Peak. The seeds are edible. I found them pretty delish after a light roasting and salting. If you've never pulled sunflower seeds off the heads in the fall, it's truly satisfying!

The bottom sunflower is a Van Gogh variety. The petals are large and soft, the seeds aren't necessarily developed for eating so you probably won't find them delish or satisfying. Because this is a hybrid, I was actually surprised to find this in my garden again this year growing so similar to last year! I thought when I saw it that it might revert to one of the parent seed traits instead of another year of Van Gogh. I will let this go to seed and drop the seeds in my front garden beds where either the squirrels can get them, or I wouldn't mind if they grew tall for people passing by on the sidewalk.

I have one other variety that is a maroon and gold (GO GOPHERS!); I purposely am growing those for my husband - he mentioned his favorite flower is a sunflower so I'm happy to accomodate that preference! Sunflowers are fun to grow and I love watching the birds try to land on the tall stalks.

Happy August!