Lucky you!

I was hoping to have lots of things from the garden this year, but my fall gardening efforts just aren't turning out too well. I did have some nice leeks though. I pan browned them, and then poured in some white wine and simmered until they were tender and the liquid was gone, then squeezed on some lemon, and they were quite tasty.

Would have been nice to have salad and some nice Brussels sprouts straight out of the garden, though.

Hi mauirose

Remember that we asked about lima beans some time ago?
I am glad that I listened to the gardeners wise advice.

On the left are the Musica pole beans still producing and the other dish has the pink Christmas lima beans (we like them) an also Farmerdilla wonderful limas!

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We also ate the Chinese pumpkin papaya sweet, different varieties of bush sweet potatoes, and oriental greens.

Silvia

Our dinner was pot luck. Our contribution included butternut squash ravioli, stuffed mirlitons (chayote squash) and pickled green beans. Of course we grew the butternut squash, the chayotes and the green beans. We also brought a bunch of herbs to inspire the other cooks. Made ground up corn meal from the Hickory King that we grew -for corn bread- but did not get around to making it yet.

I can probably time things so that we have fresh green beans next year, but I do not think I can time the potatoes so they are ready for November.

Hmmm, are leeks hard to grow? i love leeks and that recipe sounds delicious Lantana.

Sylvia those limas look great, you always post such pretty pictures. i received some 'Madagascar Beans' in a trade and they sure look like Christmas Limas, glad to hear you enjoy them. How long have the Musica beans been producing now? Seems like i saw a picture of them some months ago.

Isn't it fun to bring dishes from the garden to potlucks? But really Cabrita, i can't believe you ground your own cornmeal! Sounds hard ; )

Cabrita

You have the best recipes, I did your squash ravioli, but using my pumpkins instead and they came out delicious, thank you for posting the recipe. I am also amazed that you grind your own cormeal. Fantastic!

Mauirose

Thank you for your nice comments.

A friend told me that it is easy to grow leeks from store bought ones. All you do is plant the root after using it for cooking. It works, I have mine growing that way.

I planted the Musica beans the last week of August, I have been picking daily, limas and the musica beans, even though it is getting cold here. I picked that dish yesterday.

Silvia

Rats, i missed the recipe for the butternut squash ravioli, do you know what thread it was in?

So far winter squash/pumpkins are out of my reach due to fruit fly pressue. I'm going to try planting some Kabocha this weekend now that guava season is winding down (guava is a wild host). Crossing my fingers that i'm not banging my head against the wall.

i was starting to think those Musicas had been producing for 5 or 6 months and was getting very interested, LOL. Thanks for clarifying.

Mauirose, I don't know anything about growing in your zone, but here, leeks are very easy. They grow slowly, but require very little care. They can be started from seed really close together like other alliums. Transplant them when they are small, and hill some dirt and mulch around them as they grow. They are not bothered by pests, and do fine with my haphazard watering schedule. They do take all season to grow though - I think I transplanted mine around May 1, and have only eaten a few smaller ones up until now.

Mauirose

Butternut squash ravioli from Cabrita.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: butternut squash ravioli

from the garden
Delicata squash...squished up with butter and brown sugar
Brussel's sprouts
Roasted garlic

Chives and parsley
Hot pepper condiments

From my garden...

green beans
mustard greens
sweet potatoes
butternut squash...also with butter and brown sugar...

Mauirose,
Mahalo for the info. Here in zone 6, New England, for Thanksgiving dinner, used shallots, hard necked garlics and Waltham Butternut Squash from our garden which is now under a mulch of leaves, straw, grass clippings and seaweed. Will survive on store bought veggies for a month or so until I start weekly shopping at the farmers' market in Waimea on Big Island. Love those twenty five cent strawberry papayas.

Silvia, thanks for that info about planting the leek roots!
I have a leek area in my garden and want to keep them coming year round if possible.
Can you use them when they flower?

Guess i might give leeks a try Lantana, thank-you. Just noticed another thread about growing leeks as well.

Great thread Sylvia, thanks for linking, can't believe i missed that one.

ruthie/spiced ham, you guys put on quite a spread. i gotta plan better next year.

sconticut you spend your winter in Waimea? Nice. That's a pretty good price for papaya!

I wanted to comment on the corn, mostly for people from my zone or near it....I will not grow Hickory King again. However, I will grow Hopi blue again for sure. There is only one spot on my property where corn will grow, a sweet spot that I think got lots of applications of composted horse manure over the last 50 years. Corn is exotic to me and very interesting. I got even more interested in it after reading 'An omnivore's dilemma'.

I have been trying various varieties just for fun and to see how feasible it is to grow a crop in a 1/4 acre for grain (...not very....). It is OK, but just for holiday type meals. As I said, it will only grow well on that patch... I will have enough for corn bread to go with the New Year's black eye peas. It was nice to have something made from a non GMO, completely organic non hybrid corn, and share it with our loved ones, some of them do care about these things.

The Hickory King grew vigorously and gave us decent production, but the stink bugs were on it like it was going out of style. It was a real pain to take the kernels off the cobs, since I sorted out the ones that got stink bug damage. It was also more difficult to grind, and i could not get rid of a bunch of really hard bits on it. For comparison the Hopi blue gave a larger production, grew as vigorously if not more, had no stink bug damage and was very easy to grind up. Could it be that the Hopi blue is a flour corn and the Hickory King a dent corn? I also loved the blue corn bread a lot better, even though I also like the flavor of the hickory king. Making corn bread out of freshly ground corn meal is so tasty, even with a less favorite variety.

Anyway, as I said I love Hopi blue for corn bread and it does well here (in case any zone niner reading this is into trying it). I originally grew Hopi blue for tamales though, but I did not like it for tamales. I am still looking for some good tamale corn, and I would prefer blue. I know some blue corn is used in tamales since we get some at out local Farmer's market in South Pasadena, so what corn do they use?

Thanks for the compliments on the raviolis. They went over big here in this crowd too, so they are on request again for the Christmas menu! Enough time between Thanksgiving and Christmas that I will feel like making them and eating them again, so that is OK. Also, first year that we grow ENOUGH winter squash. Curcubita moscata is our friend.

Hi Cabrita

Thank you for your nice and detailed explanation about the corn that you planted. I do love corn, unfortunately, like you I probably only have a 1/4 acre, no space for corn. :o)

Sometimes, I do plant and get some decent harvest. I have a large kernel variety given to me some time ago, it is not too sweet and can be eaten fresh. I have also grew a red and black heirloom varieties.

And I love tamales, from the time that I lived in Arizona, I am going to miss the Christmas tradition of the tamales. I have not eaten one with blue corn meal, which I also like and bought fresh in New Mexico.

Here is the corn that I planted last season

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I am glad that I did not have a problem with stink bugs. They were in my tomatoes this fall season, but I did not have corn then. Something to think about it...

And I also agree on the winter squash, I had a good season and I am still enjoying them in various dishes.

Silvia

I froze the last of my kale from my garden so I could make an awesome sweet and savory kale recipe for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that's all I had stored besides canned tomatoes and I didn't want to share those with anybody.

I picked turnips, baby carrots and arugula from underneath my rowcovers for Thanksgiving. There wasn't quite as many turnips or carrots as I'd hoped for, but tons of arugula! I also picked some fresh rosemary and thyme.

This was only my 2nd year having a fall garden, and last year was really just lettuce that I picked way too early thinking it would die. So I was really impressed to have fresh food at the end of Nov. :-)

I made it all into mashed turnips & potatoes (with the greens stirred in- so yummy!), roasted carrots & brussel sprouts w/ the herbs, shallots & garlic, and an arugula, pomegranate seed & pecan salad w/ balsamic vinagrette.

I also bought a log of nasturtium lemon butter that I had made in October and froze for the bread. It was all a hit with the family.

Here is a picture of it all packed and ready for transport to my mom's. (also pictured is a pepper and some homegrown kung pao chili powder that we didn't end up using)
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Here is a link that might be useful: my gardening blog