Garden Update - August Rule

August is by far the most rewarding in the vegetable garden. Most vegetables are starting to fruit and the tomatoes are ripening and everyday there is a few to be picked. I am seeing bitter gourd, snake gourd, ridge gourd and brinjals besides the occasional butternut or delicata squash.

Cooked delicata squash like its other name sweet potato squash, tasted very similar to sweet potato. Cooks very fast, very delicate and tasty.

Split delicata squash -

The August rules is not to buy vegetables other than onions, carrots and potatoes. We have been surviving on vegetables and greens from the garden.

Beans - long beans, string beans and broad beans

I have never tried growing squash. Zucchini is the only one I have tried and they were a disappointment this year. Squash has done pretty good considering the seeds are from god knows how many years ago. The ridge gourd which gave fruits like crazy a couple of years ago have lost their potency and are only flowering and fruiting very sparsely. The age of the seeds does matter.

Green Chili Time

The chillies are just starting to make their presence felt. The very tender green chilies are not spicy as the fully mature ones.

Produce from the Garden

Date	Vegetable	Quantity	Recipe
August 16 - 25, 2010	Tomatoes	10-20 everyday	Frozen
Aug 15, 2010	Snake Gourds	3	Snake Gourd with split val beans
Aug 17, 2010	Ridge Gourd	1	Ridge Gourd with tomatoes chutney
Aug 18, 2010	Black Nightshade greens	8 packed cups	Stir fried greens with coconut
Aug 20, 2010	Swiss Chard and Mustard Greens	3 Cups	Greens with toor dal
Aug 21, 2010	Black Night Shade, Bitter Gourds	1 cup, 5	Chutney, Puzhikuzhambu
Aug 22, 2010	brinjals	10	Brinjals with black channa