Harvesting Summer Vegetables from My Garden

July 28, 2022

Harvesting Summer Vegetables from My Garden

Here at my Bedford, New York farm, we're picking lots of wonderful and nutritious vegetables from the garden.

Earlier this week, my housekeepers Enma Sandoval and Elvira Rojas harvested a bounty of beautiful vegetables - beans, artichokes, peppers, Swiss chard, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and more. While the heat has affected some of the cold-weather vegetables, others are thriving.

Here are some photos.

: There has been so much growth in this vegetable garden in the last couple of weeks. Many of you ask what I do with all these vegetables. I share most of them with my daughter, Alexis, and her children, Jude and Truman – they love all vegetables. I also serve them at my dinner parties and share them with my friends and staff here at Bedford. And, I use them for various media shoots whenever needed, or when we test recipes here at the farm. Nothing is ever wasted – whatever isn’t used goes to my chickens, geese, and peafowl.

: One can harvest any time of day, but when possible, the best picking time is early morning, when the sun is just clearing the eastern horizon and greens are still cool and dew-covered from the previous night. Here’s Elvira picking some of the peppers.

: Sweet peppers, such as these banana peppers, have a long shape that tapers down to one to three lobes at the bottom. We have so many peppers growing.

: The cauliflower also looks great. Cauliflower is filled with nutrients. They hold plenty of vitamins, such as C, B, and K. Cauliflower is ready to harvest when the heads are six to eight inches in diameter. When picking, cut the stalk just below the head, leaving a stem of about two inches long.

: The right time for cabbage harvesting will depend on the variety of cabbage planted and when the heads mature. Look for heads that are firm all the way through when squeezed – that’s when they’re ready.

: Red, or purple, cabbage is often used raw for salads and coleslaw. It contains 10-times more vitamin-A and twice as much iron as green cabbage. We picked several heads of cabbage.

: Look at our bed of kale – very pretty with ruffled leaves and the purple and green colors. Kale or leaf cabbage is a group of vegetable cultivars within the plant species Brassica oleracea. Notice, the central leaves do not form a head.

: Kohlrabi, also called German turnip, is a biennial vegetable – a low, stout cultivar of wild cabbage. White kohlrabi bulbs have a neutral, sweet, and subtly peppery flavor close to broccoli, turnips, or cabbage, but bulbs are much milder. The leaves and stems are also edible and have a taste similar to collard greens or kale.

: You can find green, purple, white, and even blue fleshed kohlrabi. Typically found at farmers markets, purple kohlrabi is favored for its crunchy texture and sweet flavor, utilized in both raw and cooked dishes.

: Under the leaves in this area are the edamame beans – whole, immature soybeans, sometimes referred to as vegetable-type soybeans. They are green and differ in color from regular soybeans, which are typically light brown, tan, or beige.

: Elvira also picked beans. Beans grow best in full sun and moist soil. Bush beans are second only to tomatoes as the most popular vegetables in home gardens. Bush beans, or snap beans, are eaten when the seeds are small. They are also called string beans because of a fibrous string running the length of the pod. Purple beans are so pretty – violet-purple outside and bright green inside with great flavor.

: These yellow beans are also pretty. Bush beans grow on shrubby plants and are very prolific producers. They can continually produce throughout the season with the proper care. In general, bush beans should be ready in 50 to 55 days.

: And here, the green colored beans are also ready for picking.

: Everything is collected in buckets or large bowls like these and then brought up to my flower room, where they are washed if needed, then bagged and stored in the refrigerator. I am looking forward to many meals with all this wonderful produce.

: Swiss chard always stands out in the garden, with its rich red stalks. Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable often used in Mediterranean cooking. The leaf stalks are large and vary in color, usually white, yellow, or red. The leaf blade can be green or reddish in color. Harvest Swiss chard when the leaves are tender and big enough to eat.

: We’re always growing lettuce. Lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cultivated plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. We always grow several varieties.

: Lettuces can generally be placed in one of four categories: looseleaf, butterhead, crisphead, and romaine.

: We planted more than 100-tomato plants this year. All the plants are now well-supported by bamboo stakes. We’re growing both hybrid and heirloom varieties. There are already so many fruits growing, but they need a little more time before harvesting.

: Sweet bell peppers are popular in the garden – all grassy in flavor and super-crunchy in texture. I love making stuffed peppers – so easy and so delicious. Enma wipes them down before putting them in the fridge. I’ll wash them just before cooking.

: She does them same for these peppers. Be careful when picking peppers – always keep the hot ones separated from the sweet ones, so there is no surprise in the kitchen.

: Here’s a bowl of garden fresh artichokes. I love artichokes. We have many growing! Artichokes are actually flower buds, which are eaten when they are tender. Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open. When harvesting, cut the stem approximately one to three inches from the base of the bud. The stem becomes a useful handle when trimming the artichoke.