Fall Garden: Week 2. Plus, Thai Basil Chicken Recipe!

This week's harvest: cherry tomatoes and loads of Thai basil.

This week brought more backward steps than forward, it seems. Pests reigned in my Fall Garden, with maurading hordes of finches destroying all of the spinach and beet seedlings. They also snipped away at my Blue Lake green beans:

Whiteflies, aphids, and fruitworms conspired to damage the established side of the garden. I gave up and removed the lemon cuke and the purple Cherokee tomato. I pruned the cherry tomato and drenched everything in Neem oil, soap, and Bt.

Still hopeful, I purchased Brassica starts and planted them where the doomed seedlings once sprouted:

Two kinds of broccoli, and one sixpack of Brussels sprouts.

Realizing that the finch horde, or "locusts with feathers" as @mattlovell calls them, will forever pluck tender green sprouts from my direct sowing, I went ahead and started 36 peat pellets of spinach, beets, and more in the aquaponics grow tray. It is protected by a cube of bird netting, and gets flooded in fish water many times a day. A sixpack of Swiss chard joins them in their anti-avian haven.

I did go ahead and direct sow a bunch more beans, this time "Mellow Yellow" wax beans. Also, I got inspired to plant nearly an entire packet of radishes so that I can try them roasted. I hear they are amazing that way. I even took the plunge and direct sowed one mound of regular green cukes.

Well, since the week's work consisted mostly of culling and sowing, the harvest was relatively meager. Still, I managed to put together a meal primarily grounded in homegrown vegetables:

Thai Basil Chicken

1. Wash and chop fresh veggies:

*1 onion
*1 straightneck squash (reserved in the crisper from midsummer harvest)
*lots of garlic
*12 Serrano peppers
*6 whole Cayenne peppers
*large pile of Thai Basil

1. Mince and marinate boneless chicken thighs or leg meat:

*oyster sauce
*fish sauce
*soy sauce
*juice of 2 limes
*splash of white wine
*splash of olive oil

Mince the chicken into the smallest dice possible.

Marinate while preparing the veg and carmelizing the onion.

Gently brown the onion and then add a ton of minced garlic. Fresh is best, but from a jar sure is faster!

Add chicken and stir fry on high heat until cooked. I also added the whole cayennes and chopped, seeded Serranos at this stage.

When the chicken was cooked through, I added the squash and let it soften for a few minutes. Then, in went the cherry tomatoes and the Thai basil. I cooked until the tomatoes softened, and then poured in a can of Coconut milk. The mixture continued to rapidly boil for just a few minutes to thicken and meld the sauce.

Served over plain Jasmine rice. Fresh, homegrown, and delicious!

Thanks for following my Fall Garden journal. It is fun adding on a recipe to each week's haul. The blessings flow whenever we add our labor and love to the land.

Love,cat
@creationofcare

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