Around The Garden - And a HUGE radish!

Dear Folks,

I was away with a relative following their surgery and found these big radishes when I got to harvesting the other day.  Part of the root broke when I harvested it so I could tell they were still nice and crisp. What to do?  Roast!  See my use of them in one of my "Made Over" soups using fried chicken, below.

One of the very few non-edible plants I have are Poinsettias - red and white, which I purchased as seedlings last holiday season and transplanted into the garden his past spring.  They need some "dark" or shade to color according to my prior readings and I found the right spot for them.  This collage shows 23 days of coloring (top to bottom) and I could not be more pleased. This red is on track to be gorgeous by Christmas!

I also have a white and it is coloring very nicely.  The white is harder to capture with the camera, but it is showy in the garden.

One of the delights for me, as I love the holidays and growing citrus, is the citrus trees "decorating" the garden with ripening fruit.

One of our Navel oranges is coming along nicely.

We recently purchased a Mandarin Tangerine and I have chosen not to remove the fruit, just can't resist the possibility of enjoying one or more of these ripening fruits.  There is new growth on the branches and we are monitoring the tree to ensure it remains stable.

Our Limequat blooms and fruits multiple times of the year and right now is no exception.  If you look closely you can see a baby fruit on the left of the photo.

I took several of these photos, including the bottom Red Poinsettia, after our rain the other day.

More color in the form of Magnolia Blossom Sugar Pea flowers.  I LOVE sugar peas and grow them every year.  They are all delicious, but I am choosing to grow more of this variety just because of the stunning flower.  We can eat the flowers, but then I would miss out on the sugar pea pods which won't be far behind now that the plants are blooming.  I need to get more seed sown to continue being able to harvest as long as possible into the warm spring.

Nasturtiums are starting to bloom too.  I am thinking about drying various of the flower petals of edibles, in the refrigerator to keep the color better, and use them as a garnish for meals later on.  I will update as I have something to show you later on.

Fall in the garden is an amusing time, because there is fall, as in the temperatures dropping, the day light hours shortening, "some" leaves coloring and falling . . . and then there is FALL!!!! in our garden which generally occurs after a first winter storm/rain and the next morning the heretofore clear ground, is covered in leaves.  FALL!

Roasted Radish

Although I love to eat the skin of radishes, in the case of those big ones, it was too knarly to enjoy.  So I peeled most of the skin off, diced them, tossed them with a tiny bit of mixed and melted uncured bacon fat, avocado oil and butter, seasoned with salt and some of my dried dill and roasted at 400 degrees (stirring half way through) for about 40 minutes.  Nice, sweet, slightly spicy crunch.

Next - soup.

Made Over Fried Chicken Soup

Made over is an old fashioned term and I like to use it - it means using left overs and I was in the mood for soup yesterday, so far one of the coolest days this season.

I had homemade broth, some left over fried chicken (including breading), fresh harvested salad greens from the garden, broken linguine pasta and the roasted radishes.

Bring the broth to boil, cook the pasta, add the chicken to heat through, shred the greens and divide into soup bowls, ladle in the soup and top with the roasted radishes.  So many flavors and textures in this warming and satisfying soup.  Give it a try!

I hope you have a lovely week in the garden and kitchen with your bounty!

You can still purchase one of my books or calendar for in time for gifting.  Click here for my publisher site, OR here for Amazon.


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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