August 2025 – Harvesting and Cooking out of my Garden

August 2025 As usual with gardening some things exceed my expectations while others… not so much. Keeping in mind that I planted late and this is the first time I’m planting in this garden, my expectations were low. I was just thrilled to actually garden again! For some reason (and I’m not the only one it turns out) my cucumbers didn’t really show up. And this year, of many many years in memory, was the first summer where we actually saw enough rain. And I’m thinking that that was the problem with the cucumbers. They remain sad, stunted, and looking a little drowned. Though they have many blossoms it is getting real late in the year for growing here in northern Minnesota.

This is the first time my cucumbers haven’t overwhelmed me. Usually they would be covering the entire fence and exhausting my efforts to keep them harvested.

They aren’t the only thing here on the farm though that didn’t show up this year. While I usually have hundreds (yes hundreds!) of tiger lily blossoms this year I have just a handful. Its a real bummer and has me super concerned.

The entire north side of the house would usually be full but this year I only have a few that came up.

I was going to transplant them this fall up by the garden…

But now I’m not sure what to do as I certainly don’t want to do more damage to them now that they didn’t come up.

Those tigers have been my pride and joy since I saved them out of Grandma’s back flower beds when I first moved in.

I can always depend on my green beans and peas to do well and have harvested several meals over the last month. My carrots, radishes and beats were a bit tragic but my squash is growing!

My tomatoes are doing wonderfully though this is the last time I’ll ever try to grow bell peppers again. The tomato “cages” I purchased on Amazon are brilliant. They’re so cool in fact that I plan on buying more of them for my peonies next year after I transplant them to the West side of my garden this fall.

I was reminded though that the produce is actually not what excites me the most about my garden.

It is actually the fresh herbs!

August 2025, I’m just too frugal to buy fresh herbs most of the time. The sticker shock is unbelievable – they charge like $1 a leaf!

My Rosemary didn’t come up (big bummer because I really love Rosemary) but my Thyme, Oregano, Basil and Sage did really well!

So well, in fact, that I’m trying something new this year in making fresh herb infused olive oil. I have a post coming out all about it later!

I love cooking with fresh herbs, we sprinkle them on everything from steaks to baked potatoes. A pile of fresh chopped herbs does remarkable things to a bland deli salad when I’m too lazy to make my own.

They’re amazing tossed over toasted bread with butter, cheese and garlic salt.

This fall I’m going to gather all of my chives and herbs, wash them, chop them, mix them together and freeze them in a big bag to use all winter. I dried my herbs at one point but I find they maintain their flavor better frozen and that gives my lazy butt an excuse to not go through the process of drying them.

By August I’m usually getting tired of grilling everything but this year I expanded my choices, learned some things and I’m enjoying it more than I ever have.

I’m making bacon, burgers, salmon, shrimp, brats, hot dogs, steaks, potatoes and just about every vegetable we like. And I’m not just “making” them, I’m making them pretty damned well and am thrilled.

I’ve finally perfected the art of pizza on the grill!

August 2025, there are so many options out there when it comes to grills and its a pretty ridiculously heated debate online. Propane, wood, pellets, charcoal or gas. Flat top or grill top or both and do we want to have a smoker too?

We have at least narrowed it down a bit.

Currently flat top grills are all the rage and I can see why as a regular grill limits what you can actually cook on it. Who doesn’t want to make scrambled eggs in their back yard?

For me though the point of my grill is to actually grill things. If I want to make eggs I’ll just cook them inside. So, at least in my opinion, the flat top grills are irreplaceable for folks who camp a lot or who don’t access to a full kitchen for a while. But that’s not me usually.

So, we at least have that narrowed down and we know we’ll either be going with propane or pellets.

I like the idea of a pellet grill because there are lots of different pellet flavor options and the one we purchase will include a smoker too which is something we’ve always wanted.

I am hesitant though because I don’t know what kind of control I’ll have over the heat compared to propane…

Decisions for a different year!