Steven Helmer Publications

My zucchini is well past the starter plant stage, but this Wisconsin weather just isn't going to work for me to put it outdoors, at least not as long as the temps are dropping to the thirties at night. So, I brought some planters and a bag of dirt to the office with me this morning and guess I'll just grow it indoors for a while. Perhaps by the end of the week I can finally take them outside, especially since I may need to do the same with my tomatoes soon.

  My zucchini plants are starting to get flower buds on them, and one looks like it might start blooming any day now. There's just one problem, it's still too cold to plant them outside. We've had one or two days this April that weren't terrible, but it was in the 20s this morning. So, at this point, I think I may need to call an audible, get some buckets and just plan on growing the zucchini in my office. At the rate it is going, I'm going to be harvesting before I can put the plants outside.

  I checked my office garden this morning and saw my bell pepper seeds are sprouting.  These were the seeds I collected from some bell peppers I bought at the store, putting them aside when I chopped the peppers for dinner. So far at least, it looks like I will be getting my money's worth. Of course, they are just seedlings now and still have a long way to go before I get home-grown peppers. However, taking the seeds from the peppers I purchased did save me some money already. I spent $1.50 for the peppers. Most seed packs cost more than $2.

  It hasn't been a great growing season this year. Too much rain early on and while there were some hot days, there have been just as many cool days. I did, however, manage to get a decent quantity of peppers from my garden. Since we're going to be having colder temps heading into September, I decided to pick what was left and get them in a freezer bag. It's a mix of bell peppers, sweet peppers and our local favorite, Beaver Dam peppers. This means it is a blend of sweet and spicy. It'll be perfect for the chili I plan to make tonight and for mixing in with eggs and other recipes.

It's a bit too humid outside to do any real yard work but I did manage to get out a bit with my camera and take some photos of some of the things I have growing around the outside of the house. Here are a few of them.

I had to stop at the grocery store yesterday afternoon anyway and decided to find something for dinner while I was there. As I was walking through the freezer section, this product happened to catch my eye and, figuring it would make a different side dish, I picked up a bag ($3.90). Overall, I was happy with this purchase. I ended up making these in my toaster oven and they came out better than expected. Even though the bag referred to them as "crispy" carrots, I figured they would come out a bit on the soft side (as usually happens). Instead, they really did have a crisp texture to them. I thought the product also had a unique flavor. The breading complemented the carrot slices without drowning out the carrot flavor. It worked both as a side dish and my wife and I also thought they would also be a decent snack item as well (she especially liked hers with a side of ranch dressing). The only real negative is the product didn't take the next step by having a gluten free bre...

Overall, my garden is far from done. My tomato plants are still producing as are my green bean and cucumber vines. And, thanks to the squirrels planting the seeds, I'm going to have some pumpkins even. However, I decided to clean up some of it. My lettuce, which had gone to seed, is now in the compost pile and I pretty much gave up on my corn, which was knocked over by one of the surprise pumpkin vines. I'm debating on the zucchini plants, which are still green but don't seem to be producing any more. I left them for now, but I'm guessing I'll wind up pulling them up by next weekend if I don't see any more on them. One wild card is a surprise squash plant that popped up by my beans. It's just now starting to flower so I'm going to wait and see what happens with that one.

I'm having zero luck with my green beans this year. I have plenty of vines but they haven't even flowered yet and it's almost August. My black beans, however, are doing pretty well. I opened up one of the pods last night and they look like they are just about ready to be harvested. This is my first year growing them so I'm having to Google the instructions about when to harvest, how to dry them, etc. But, it looks like I will have enough for at least a couple dishes. I might have to plant them in a larger quantity next year. On another note, I think my zucchini plants are just about done. I picked quite a few off of them this summer but the sun is starting to shift a bit, causing more shade in the back yard and the plants are looking like they are about to die as a result. Good thing I still have a fridge full of them. I should also be able to get some spaghetti squash before those vines die on me.

There is a lot of great food to choose from but, instead of leftover turkey, you are trying to figure out how to use all that zucchini.

My daughter's skating club came up with this idea (well, actually, they may have borrowed it). Members were asked to bring any extra garden vegetables they wanted to get rid of and they set up a veggie exchange table at the ice rink last night. It was a surprising success with people bringing everything from zucchini to garlic to share.

The zucchini wasn't quite as large as it normally is when I pick it. But, it was about the same size as what I can buy at the store so I picked some yesterday afternoon. I also picked some of my yellow squash and a couple onions. Since it stopped raining, I decided to chop everything up, combine it with the leftover chicken that was in the fridge and put it on the grill with some butter. This turned out really well and I have some leftovers for lunch today. I must admit, I sure did miss having some fresh vegetables. I can't wait until everything else is ready to be picked.

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but I had these Christmas deer next to my house and, mostly because I didn't want to carry them up the ladder into the attic, I decided to re-purpose them and try to use them as a fancy trellis. I staked them in and planted pole beans around the legs. My hope is the beans will wrap around the wire and still produce while looking kind of cool. I also decided to try a couple new things in the garden this year. I am planting garlic and black beans, two things I've never attempted to grow before.

I haven't picked them in a couple of days and, since I took the day off from work, I decided to get caught up. I've been doing a good job keeping the cherry tomatoes eaten (I take them to the office with me as an all-day snack). But, this time around, I might have to share. A lot of these are really ripe and I just don't think I can get through them all by myself. In addition to the cherry tomatoes, I also managed to get about a half-quart of green beans, another bowl of Roma tomatoes (I've been giving those to my parents so they can include them when they are canning) and, for the first time ever, some potatoes (I'm not regretting not planting more hills). Sadly, I think the gardening season is going to end early this year. The plants are already turning brown so, before too long, I'm going to be forced to just pull everything up and prep the garden for winter.

OK, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration. But, at least for a few seconds, it sure seemed that way. Since it is kind of cold out today (almost fall-like), I decided to make chili for dinner. And, since I had some chili peppers from my garden, I figured I would cut them up and add them to the chili. Before putting them in the chili, I asked my wife if she wanted to try a piece. This was not meant to be a cruel prank or anything like that. I had just tried one myself and, while it had a pretty nice-sized kick, I didn't think it was anything that was too spicy and figured she might want to sample it before it went in the chili. Well, she put a small piece in her mouth and, the second it hit her tongue, she started coughing from the spiciness. The next thing I knew, her head was under the faucet as she was trying to drink water as fast as she could. If I weren't concerned about her, it would have been almost comical. I think the only thing missing was smoke coming fro...

It wasn't too bad of a night garden-wise. I ended up with plenty of cherry tomatoes along with some lettuce and chili peppers. I ended up making a garden-fresh salad to go with our fish dinner tonight (without the chili peppers).

It's not much, but I managed to get some out of my garden today (mostly peas and green beans). Considering we've been getting so much rain and cool weather, I'm willing to take what I can get this year.

I went out to water and noticed a hint of orange in the cherry tomato plant. I pulled out two and it looks like I'll have some more by tomorrow. I'm actually pretty excited about this. I love cherry tomatoes and garden fresh ones are the best. In fact, these two are already gone, though I was nice and gave one to my wife.

I had to use store-bought cherry tomatoes (mine aren't ripe just yet) but I was able to make a nice salad with lettuce, onions and green beans out of my garden today. And that sure did hit the spot. You never realize the difference between garden-fresh and store-bought until you've picked and used your own vegetables. Now I can't wait until the rest of the stuff is ready, especially the tomatoes.