What is edible in your garden that you pass up each year? Probably quite a few things! The young leaves of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, rutabaga and radish are all edible and can be added to salads or cooked as greens.

Peas are another overlooked edible plant. The vine tips and the blooms are edible and can be added to salads. (Don't confuse garden peas with ornamental sweet peas which are poisonous!) There are even more: cucumber, apple, scarlet runner bean and squash blossoms-which are well known for stuffing and eating. It makes you take a second look at your garden once you realize so much more of it is edible. The catch? You need to make sure you are gardening without chemicals, and that anything you eat is free of animal waste or anything else that may contaminate it. Plus, the vegetable and fruits I mentioned here are on the safe list, you may see a mention of a plant, flower or herb that you just aren't sure about. Better to be safe than sorry, so don't eat anything you are in doubt about.

EDIBLE LILIES
ONLY the daylily, the Hemerocallis species is edible. The other types of lilies aren't. If you dig them you will find many "tubers" all attached together. But if you find just a bulb, then that is not the edible type of lily. The daylily blooms can be eaten as squash blossoms are. They can be added to salads also. Remove any green sections before eating and if you've never eaten them before take it easy--some people have a stomach reaction if they overdo.

Vegetable Blossom Soup

Ingredients:
60-70 squash, bean or cucumber blossoms, washed
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped sweet onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
6 cups. chicken or vegetable stock
Garnish: Chives, Chervil or other herbs

Remove any stamens from the blossoms. Set aside. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are softened. Reduce the heat to low, add salt, pepper and squash blossoms and sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add the stock, increase the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve hot, garnished with herbs.

SPIDER MITES ON TOMATO PLANTS:
You can use soap sprays but they must be sprayed on all parts of the tomato plants--especially the underside of the leaves and then again 2-3 days later. They also are very low on the tomato near the ground-- may be attached to stem with a webbing of sorts. Watch for this and spray there too.

MORE: Tips for harvesting and using homegrown cucumbers!
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/cucumbers2.html
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