A real Farm to Table Dinner....

on the river in downtown Chicago...and in honor of our special guest from the Pacific Northwest!  Everything served, with the exception of the salmon and blueberries, had been harvested from Walnut Hill Farm the day before!

Bruschetta - A mix of heirloom tomatoes and Genovese basil atop grilled garlic knots

Beet Salad with Chevre - Bull's Blood and Detroit Red beets

Pacific Wild Salmon on bed of grilled onions and squash - Walla Walla onions, Dark Star zucchini and Yellow Crookneck squash, Maxibel Haricot Verts, and Danvers 126 carrots

Zucchini Bread

Blueberries topped with Greek Yogurt and served with Chocolate Garlic truffles

A ton of tomatoes?

Not quite! How many tomatoes will one tomato plant yield?  I was hoping to have an answer by the end of this summer.  Although I thought I'd be more diligent and weigh all of my produce each week, I found it easier to do a simple count.  I can backtrack at the end of the season and divide by the number of plants.  To date, I've harvested 502 of these beauties!

Experimenting with hydroponics

These oakleaf lettuces are thriving in the greenhouse and are ready to harvest in 28 days.  Perhaps they are a solution for winter salads.

Planting for a fall harvest...

Once garlic and onions have been harvested, beds are planted with a fall harvest in mind. Kohlrabi, beets, carrots, spinach, kale, and a variety of lettuces should keep us going through November!

Mmmmmmmm.....

.....mmmmmm...good!

Hidden treasures....

When preparing one of the beds for replanting, I discovered this nest of bunnies just below the surface.  I count six...and one has her eyes open, so I'm thinking they're about 10 days old. This means they are almost old enough to be moving on!  Now I know why my beet leaves continue to be devoured each evening.  Mama has stayed close to her babies!

Mid-summer bounty!

From arugula to zucchini...and so many delicious things in between!

First Annual Garlic Fest....

was a huge success!  Thank you to all who helped! And now to decide...what to plant in those empty beds!

The scapes have been cut...

...and enjoyed! And we seem to be on schedule for harvesting garlic next weekend.  Garlic scapes are the flower bud of the garlic plant. I removed the buds several weeks ago to encourage the bulbs to thicken up. Scapes make a fabulous addition to a flower arrangement with their elegant twirls, and they are absolutely delicious to eat!

Here's to our red, white & blue!

Happy 4th of July to all!

He can't get enough of them....

...he is crazy about beets!  He's eaten their tender leaves as soon as they sprout, ignoring the carrots and lettuces nearby. After replanting 3 times, I finally fashioned a cage out of chicken wire to protect my young crop.  This past week he made mischief with my cages, prying the edges up and crawling though the tunnel.  Needing to know exactly who this nightly marauder is...I set up the time lapse camera which took a picture every 60 seconds from 8PM to 5AM.  BUSTED!  Makes me think that we haven't really been fair to poor Mr. McGregor!

Summer solstice may have come and gone....

but the best is yet to come!

The first to appear....

is a Cherokee Purple!  Can't wait!

Lunch from the garden!

It is such a delight to be able to harvest fresh ingredients for our summer meals!

The last of the kohlrabi...

The last kohlrabi is harvested, bringing the total to over 50 pounds!  It is such an efficient vegetable...ready to be harvested just when you need the space for tomatoes and cucumbers.  Chef Mario made an exquisite soup with some of them, something that may be duplicated during opera season.  Will plan to start seedlings in August so that they can be in the ground by September 1.