As the air gets colder by the day, and the garden spits out its last peppers and cherry tomatoes of the year, it was time for a little cleaning-out of the containers on the roof. Some are still growing radishes planted not too long ago; some still have potatoes branching out every whichway in the soil. I pulled up all the carrots that had been slowly digging deeper into their keg-containers, in three different shades and shapes.
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What to do with a random smattering of peppers, pole beans, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes to harvest on any given day? Well, one of the easiest things you can do is to put them out, fresh, as a fresh salad or crudite platter. After doing this a couple times this late summer, it occurred to me that they would do better with a thick, tangy dip on the side than a thin coat of dressing, so people could snack on them on their own time.
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In a word: we’re totally fine! Yes, Red Hook, Brooklyn was looking to be the eye of Hurricane Irene according to many experts’ forecasts in the few days before it hit the East Coast. But luckily, we chanced out, and our little rooftop garden suffered only a few snapped sunflower stems as a result. Hallelujah, almighty!
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They say you should pick cucumbers before they get too big and start to turn yellow, a sign of over-ripeness. Well, we apparently missed the boat on this one — weeks ago, it seems. While peeking underneath big leaves in a particularly lush and crowded row of the garden, I came across this enormous, deep-orange… thing.
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Yes, it’s Friday, but that means we can still squeeze in a day of playing Name That Plant! There are all sorts of them just now perking up on the roof. Like these little, triangular peppers, with a vivid purple hue. They pack some pretty good heat, too.
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‘Tis the season for deviled eggs — not that anyone here minds eating them all year. It’s also high season for eggs from the hens, who lay almost one a day each. Must be all the spent grain they’re getting, and their yolks are as orange as ever from more leafy greens from the garden to eat.
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I’ve misplaced some of the half-empty seed packets that were used this spring, so it took me a little while to retrace what this plant’s called. But it has definitely been the question of the hour at the brewery, since their stalks are so productive that I’ve been handing out one of these incredibly long, purplish-pink, somewhat string bean-looking objects to everyone and anyone who comes by on any given day.
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This is another tough one. I don’t expect anyone to have seen it or eaten it before, as I certainly haven’t until inspecting the leaves and gently plucking them off, like an archaeologist at a dig. It’s a very unusual leafy green, that’s at least for sure.
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It’s high time I shared the revelation that’s come to our rooftop garden. This project has been months in the works, and years if you count the work of my consultants on this project, who have dedicated their life’s work to exploring and sharing the virtues of SIPs (sub-irrigated planters). And now that the sun has been beating down hard on the rooftops of Red Hook, these uniquely outfitted keg-containers have proven themselves so much worthy of the effort that was put into them. The plants in SIPs are really outdoing all the others.
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Spring is evidently still in full-swing on the rooftop, although the warm weather might have us think differently. These pole beans have just hit their stride and are proliferating with a handful of mature pods each day. They’re an heirloom variety that I’d previously never heard of nor seen before buying their seeds. Yellow when mature, the pods are edible and have a distinct curled shape. Think you can guess what they’re called?
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