I weeded everything with my old garden weasel, then dug the last two rows. Then i planted the squashes and cucumbers and the three Job's tears seedlings. I also planted a third row of green beans. The ones i planted a week ago still haven't come up, its been a bit cool out so hopefully its just that.
I've had not-so-good germination this year.
None of the 3 Beit Alpha seeds sprouted, only one of the 3 Delicata squash sprouted, out of 4 Spacemaster cukes, only 2 came up. The Banana Legs tomatoes sprouted 2 out of four. Happiness came from the Golden Zebra summer squash. Every seed came up, i actually had to thin them.
I managed to get everything done just before some thunderstorms blew up, so everything is being watered in naturally.
Its supposed to be sunny and warm through next week once the storms clear out tonight.
Showing posts with label job's tears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job's tears. Show all posts
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Kale
Got all the kales planted Sunday. At least the ones that came up... i know, in reverse. Kale should have gone in before the tomatoes. But that's how i roll. lol
One of the Job's Tears finally sprouted. That will be popped in when its finally recognisable so it won"t be mistaken for regular grass.
The Delicata squash are no-shows so far. The only cukes up right now are the Specialty White and Boston Pickling.
One of the Job's Tears finally sprouted. That will be popped in when its finally recognisable so it won"t be mistaken for regular grass.
The Delicata squash are no-shows so far. The only cukes up right now are the Specialty White and Boston Pickling.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Herbs, ornamentals, peppers and other things...
Herbs-
The Basil really did well. Nice plants reaching almost 3' tall. I had picked a bunch of it this summer and made some yummy pesto with macadamia nuts and olive oil. I also pulled some more plants this past weekend when it looked like we were going to have a frost- the one that didn't happen. I washed, dried the big stems and then plucked the leaves for the dehydrator. They are taking forever to dry. I don't know why, maybe it was sheer volume and the low setting. The heat has to be on the lowest setting, just gently warm. But its still taking a long time, and the humidity up here had been rather low for those days. I'll have to keep trying.
I think i might try a variety with much larger leaves though. It might make harvesting it easier. Its a thought i hope to remember later.
The Rosemary is still doing great out there, its more hardy than the basil so it will look nice for a while longer. I'm still going to harvest and dry as much as i can. I might try and bring in a few of them for the winter. I have never successfully kept a rosemary plant alive long term in the house, but its worth a try with my own seedlings.
I get to make some hand-bashed herb mixtures and sauces now that i got my big stone mortar and pestle. I have been ogling these things for years. I have a medium sized ceramic one, but its not the heavy duty granite thing i just got. Its a lot like the one i first saw Jamie Oliver using how long ago? They were almost impossible to find then, but i kept looking. Then i found them about 5 years ago, but to ship a 26 pound mortar and pestle was craziness... until i went looking again about a year ago and found ImportFood.com
They sent me THIS Mine is the 8". They only charged me $8.98 to ship it, Priority. I ordered it Sunday evening and i have it today. It really is very nice. Such a great company!
Ok, ok.... back to the garden stuff! lol
Shiso (Perilla/Shisho)- It took its time growing but it did start to take off as the summer went on. It has a really brilliant mahogany-red and the scent of the leaves is somewhere between basil and fresh tangerine rind. Its very interesting. I might pull it and try and see if it makes a good house plant since i haven't done anything with the leaves yet other than pluck a few to sniff.
The peppers this year just didn't impress. I think the ZsaZsa were so tempremental, by the time i got the seeds to germinate the plants were way behind. It has one singular fruit on one of the plants, but it is small and i don't think its going to grow much more before frost.
Same thing with the New Ace- i did get maybe 3 reasonably sized peppers from it. Not nearly grocery store sized, but tasty enough. The "Fooled You" Jalapeno were interesting... they were not hot at all... which is what they were described as. But i guess the joke was on me cause a green pepper without heat is.....guess what? A sweet green pepper. I guess i was expecting the pepper to retain the musky, smoky flavor of hot peppers but without the heat. But it didn't happen that way, without heat a pepper loses those traits, at least in this case. So it was a disappointment in a way, but not because there was something wrong with the seeds or the plants, it just wasn't what i had hoped it would be.
I won't bother with it again, i'll grow the jalapenos that keep their heat. Since i live in a cooler place they may not be as ripping hot as the ones grown in the South anyway.
Ornamental stuff-
I guess i could say the Ornamental Eggplant, the Birdhouse Gourds and the Job's Tears should fit here.
The Ornamental Eggplant really delivered the "Pumpkin on a Stick" that i was hoping for. A bunch of brilliant orange, tiny, pumpkin-like fruits are all over the stems. I need to pick some for a little fall display on the dinner table. I need to pick them for a picture anyway.
The Birdhouse Gourd was both a success and a pain in the row. It tried to take over the back half of the garden earlier in the summer. Even after being chopped, clipped, and dragged into submission it still got designs. Every time i looked at it i have the Pinky & The Brain cartoon theme song stuck in my head.
But, though i have not plucked them yet, it looks like i have some really nice gourds to dry out. One is huge and the rest are more manageable. I won't grow these again in a garden so small as mine, but i might get to use the space in my parents' garden next year. They haven't been using it much in the last few years.
The Job's Tears are doing really nice things. There are a lot of seeds still on the 2 plants and i have picked a small handful. The only trouble i have had is knowing when to harvest the seeds. The ones i tried were a bit too young. When they dried their coats got a wrinkly texture and turned a shiny white instead of the expected shades of slate and graphite gray. I was worried that the seeds would mature so fast on me that i'd miss picking them and they'd drop to the ground and be ruined for beads. Or that frost destroys their looks too.
I tried picking some more a few days ago, some of the seeds were getting very dark brown and a clean straw-colored shade. Those seem to be drying naturally and are showing the expected lustrous greyscale colors. I'm quite happy with them actually. I can't wait to mix them with other beads of natural materials like shells, earth tone stone beads, coconut, fresh water pearls.... They've re-inspired my interest in doing hand made jewelery. I even dug out my bead stash and made a few things in anticipation :0) I think its the neatest thing to be able to go out into the garden and harvest my own beads.
Fresh picked:
Comparison of dried and fresh. Drying takes about a week for color to develop.
The darker the fresh seed the more blue-grey the bead ends up.
The Basil really did well. Nice plants reaching almost 3' tall. I had picked a bunch of it this summer and made some yummy pesto with macadamia nuts and olive oil. I also pulled some more plants this past weekend when it looked like we were going to have a frost- the one that didn't happen. I washed, dried the big stems and then plucked the leaves for the dehydrator. They are taking forever to dry. I don't know why, maybe it was sheer volume and the low setting. The heat has to be on the lowest setting, just gently warm. But its still taking a long time, and the humidity up here had been rather low for those days. I'll have to keep trying.
I think i might try a variety with much larger leaves though. It might make harvesting it easier. Its a thought i hope to remember later.
The Rosemary is still doing great out there, its more hardy than the basil so it will look nice for a while longer. I'm still going to harvest and dry as much as i can. I might try and bring in a few of them for the winter. I have never successfully kept a rosemary plant alive long term in the house, but its worth a try with my own seedlings.
I get to make some hand-bashed herb mixtures and sauces now that i got my big stone mortar and pestle. I have been ogling these things for years. I have a medium sized ceramic one, but its not the heavy duty granite thing i just got. Its a lot like the one i first saw Jamie Oliver using how long ago? They were almost impossible to find then, but i kept looking. Then i found them about 5 years ago, but to ship a 26 pound mortar and pestle was craziness... until i went looking again about a year ago and found ImportFood.com
They sent me THIS Mine is the 8". They only charged me $8.98 to ship it, Priority. I ordered it Sunday evening and i have it today. It really is very nice. Such a great company!
Ok, ok.... back to the garden stuff! lol
Shiso (Perilla/Shisho)- It took its time growing but it did start to take off as the summer went on. It has a really brilliant mahogany-red and the scent of the leaves is somewhere between basil and fresh tangerine rind. Its very interesting. I might pull it and try and see if it makes a good house plant since i haven't done anything with the leaves yet other than pluck a few to sniff.
The peppers this year just didn't impress. I think the ZsaZsa were so tempremental, by the time i got the seeds to germinate the plants were way behind. It has one singular fruit on one of the plants, but it is small and i don't think its going to grow much more before frost.
Same thing with the New Ace- i did get maybe 3 reasonably sized peppers from it. Not nearly grocery store sized, but tasty enough. The "Fooled You" Jalapeno were interesting... they were not hot at all... which is what they were described as. But i guess the joke was on me cause a green pepper without heat is.....guess what? A sweet green pepper. I guess i was expecting the pepper to retain the musky, smoky flavor of hot peppers but without the heat. But it didn't happen that way, without heat a pepper loses those traits, at least in this case. So it was a disappointment in a way, but not because there was something wrong with the seeds or the plants, it just wasn't what i had hoped it would be.
I won't bother with it again, i'll grow the jalapenos that keep their heat. Since i live in a cooler place they may not be as ripping hot as the ones grown in the South anyway.
Ornamental stuff-
I guess i could say the Ornamental Eggplant, the Birdhouse Gourds and the Job's Tears should fit here.
The Ornamental Eggplant really delivered the "Pumpkin on a Stick" that i was hoping for. A bunch of brilliant orange, tiny, pumpkin-like fruits are all over the stems. I need to pick some for a little fall display on the dinner table. I need to pick them for a picture anyway.
The Birdhouse Gourd was both a success and a pain in the row. It tried to take over the back half of the garden earlier in the summer. Even after being chopped, clipped, and dragged into submission it still got designs. Every time i looked at it i have the Pinky & The Brain cartoon theme song stuck in my head.
But, though i have not plucked them yet, it looks like i have some really nice gourds to dry out. One is huge and the rest are more manageable. I won't grow these again in a garden so small as mine, but i might get to use the space in my parents' garden next year. They haven't been using it much in the last few years.
The Job's Tears are doing really nice things. There are a lot of seeds still on the 2 plants and i have picked a small handful. The only trouble i have had is knowing when to harvest the seeds. The ones i tried were a bit too young. When they dried their coats got a wrinkly texture and turned a shiny white instead of the expected shades of slate and graphite gray. I was worried that the seeds would mature so fast on me that i'd miss picking them and they'd drop to the ground and be ruined for beads. Or that frost destroys their looks too.
I tried picking some more a few days ago, some of the seeds were getting very dark brown and a clean straw-colored shade. Those seem to be drying naturally and are showing the expected lustrous greyscale colors. I'm quite happy with them actually. I can't wait to mix them with other beads of natural materials like shells, earth tone stone beads, coconut, fresh water pearls.... They've re-inspired my interest in doing hand made jewelery. I even dug out my bead stash and made a few things in anticipation :0) I think its the neatest thing to be able to go out into the garden and harvest my own beads.
Fresh picked:
Comparison of dried and fresh. Drying takes about a week for color to develop.
The darker the fresh seed the more blue-grey the bead ends up.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Dehydrating celery
I don't have my Excalibur yet, haven't even submitted the order. But while i wait, i still have mo other dehydrators.
I'm using my Nesco to dehydrate the celery since it is the one that has the solid inserts. I can't find any inserts for the Durabrand.
Celery shrinks dramatically when dehydrated, so the solid fruit roll inserts are critical.
Before
After
On a nice dry day like yesterday it takes only about 6 hours to do a batch (the Nesco only fits one full bunch at a time). I had two of the large bunches of celery. Not the neatly trimmed "celery hearts" that come only about 10" long. Hubby likes to buy me the giant rough and ready whole thing. It usually comes with the dirt still on it. and a lot of gangly green matter. So its more of a pain to clean and stuff. But i use my mandoline slicer to make the thinnest slices i can and then put them on the trays. The slicing goes pretty quick.
I try to keep them spread out a bit, but not too picky. They get shifted at least once during drying to make sure all surfaces are exposed to drying air.
They don't need to be blanched or pretreated in any way.
The two large bunches of celery end up dehydrating down to easily fit inside a standard sandwich size ziplock bag, though i have a 4oz jar i saved to store them in. The jar once held basil pesto.
I plan to use these celery bits in soups, stews, broths and such. I read that they can be powdered in a blender and then mixed with sea salt for home made celery salt (if watching sodium or supplementing potassium, i'm sure potassium rich 'lite salt' could be used).
My refrigerator will freeze celery without fail and i'm tired of finding out that it has just before i go to use the celery. So i hope i will have better luck with this storage method.
I think the Excalibur could do this in one batch, so i look forward to that. I need to get it soon so i can dry my peppermint and basil. I don't have good luck air drying herbs and these two dehydrators i have don't have temp control.
Oh, i wandered around the garden again yesterday- with the camera. More progress with the Job's Tears plants. They are pretty cool looking the way the seed pod develops. It looks like i should get enough seed to replant next summer and then from those i should get enough to make something pretty:
The ornamental "pumpkin on a stick" eggplant fruit are beginning to go orange
...and i'm eying the corn.
The silks have dried up, but when i pulled a few test ears, i got mixed results. I have many small ears that have fully formed kernels, the rows aren't skipped like they get with inadequate pollination, but they are scrawny and widely spaced. I am told that the flavor is very nice despite that. Another of the test ears was perfectly formed, but the kernels were immature even though the silk was indicating it was ready to pick. I think lack of rain has a lot to do with this early and incorrect signal.
Where i planted the seeds rather thickly (trying out a theory that is supposed to help the stalks not fall over so readily-it worked but...) i don't think they got as much sun as they could have. I didn't account for the sun's direction correctly- assuming that the corn would get tall too fast and shade out things too early-- so it went where i put it instead of a better spot.
But i'm going to orient my rows in the opposite direction next year and the corn will be in the final row.
My rows run roughly East to West, i'll have them going North/South. With the corn at the back, there will be little shading.
I'm going to buy that 1 year subscription to GrowVeg soon so i can plan it out.
I'm using my Nesco to dehydrate the celery since it is the one that has the solid inserts. I can't find any inserts for the Durabrand.
Celery shrinks dramatically when dehydrated, so the solid fruit roll inserts are critical.
Before
After
On a nice dry day like yesterday it takes only about 6 hours to do a batch (the Nesco only fits one full bunch at a time). I had two of the large bunches of celery. Not the neatly trimmed "celery hearts" that come only about 10" long. Hubby likes to buy me the giant rough and ready whole thing. It usually comes with the dirt still on it. and a lot of gangly green matter. So its more of a pain to clean and stuff. But i use my mandoline slicer to make the thinnest slices i can and then put them on the trays. The slicing goes pretty quick.
I try to keep them spread out a bit, but not too picky. They get shifted at least once during drying to make sure all surfaces are exposed to drying air.
They don't need to be blanched or pretreated in any way.
The two large bunches of celery end up dehydrating down to easily fit inside a standard sandwich size ziplock bag, though i have a 4oz jar i saved to store them in. The jar once held basil pesto.
I plan to use these celery bits in soups, stews, broths and such. I read that they can be powdered in a blender and then mixed with sea salt for home made celery salt (if watching sodium or supplementing potassium, i'm sure potassium rich 'lite salt' could be used).
My refrigerator will freeze celery without fail and i'm tired of finding out that it has just before i go to use the celery. So i hope i will have better luck with this storage method.
I think the Excalibur could do this in one batch, so i look forward to that. I need to get it soon so i can dry my peppermint and basil. I don't have good luck air drying herbs and these two dehydrators i have don't have temp control.
Oh, i wandered around the garden again yesterday- with the camera. More progress with the Job's Tears plants. They are pretty cool looking the way the seed pod develops. It looks like i should get enough seed to replant next summer and then from those i should get enough to make something pretty:
The ornamental "pumpkin on a stick" eggplant fruit are beginning to go orange
...and i'm eying the corn.
The silks have dried up, but when i pulled a few test ears, i got mixed results. I have many small ears that have fully formed kernels, the rows aren't skipped like they get with inadequate pollination, but they are scrawny and widely spaced. I am told that the flavor is very nice despite that. Another of the test ears was perfectly formed, but the kernels were immature even though the silk was indicating it was ready to pick. I think lack of rain has a lot to do with this early and incorrect signal.
Where i planted the seeds rather thickly (trying out a theory that is supposed to help the stalks not fall over so readily-it worked but...) i don't think they got as much sun as they could have. I didn't account for the sun's direction correctly- assuming that the corn would get tall too fast and shade out things too early-- so it went where i put it instead of a better spot.
But i'm going to orient my rows in the opposite direction next year and the corn will be in the final row.
My rows run roughly East to West, i'll have them going North/South. With the corn at the back, there will be little shading.
I'm going to buy that 1 year subscription to GrowVeg soon so i can plan it out.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tomatoes, finally.
We did get to pick one tomato on the 5th of August. It was a Siberia. The Siberia have given us about 6 more since then. Hubby says they are good, one the small size (like a really big cherry tomato) not very sweet but very tomatoey.
The rest of the plants are finally going from green/white to a yellowy color and many are becoming very red.
I took photos a few days apart over the last week or so that i haven't made any entries:
.
These i picked on the 12th
I got to have the little pear tomato, it was a bit mealy, but it has been dry. The flavor was nice.
I have gotten a few more tomatoes since then
(edit in that picture)
The corn is continuing to be motivated
Some slender ears, they have gotten a bit fatter since this picture was taken
.The purple tomatillos have put out a number of berries
The ornamental eggplant is looking interesting
The big pumpkin is getting very orange. Not bd for my first pumpkin...and the accidental one that it is. The other two are looking fine, the middle sized one is beginning to ripen as well.
I discovered that i do have a big birdhouse gourd. It is buried in a tangle of vines and has to be close to 2' tall
The squashes are looking nice and it looks like i will have a plentiful harvest of them. The Carnival (pictured) has at least 6 that i can see and the Long Island Cheese is working on at least 4.
.
I didn't photo any cucumbers, but we are averaging at least one a day. Not enough to do anything with, but perfect for an occasional snack. I will plant more next year, even though the production level is not overwhelming- i want to try some cucumber recipes with the extras.
The watermelon has been a toss-up. I had some nice Pony Yellow forming but they got to Candlepin bowling ball size and then cracked in half. I do have one round melon still going strong, its almost standard bowling ball size now, but i'm not sure which variety it belongs to. The oval watermelon is still growing nice. I checked them for cracking yesterday and all seems well so far.
I wonder if i will be able to figure out when they are ripe enough to pick.
oval
Shiso
Purple podded green beans in flower
The purple beans are taking their sweet time, but the Provider beans are still going, slowly but i can get about a pound every 4 days.
I think my "Venous Orange" is trying to flower. No scent so far, which is disappointing.
Back view of garden. The weeds are taking over. I simply can't keep up at this point.
Oh, and this is what Job's Tears plant looks like as its going to work on making seeds
I hope i get enough seed to replant next year and get some for beading projects.
I saw one sweet pepper forming, its not tiny anymore. I saw some of the hot peppers flowering, no eggplant yet. The summer squashes are still going, the herbs are doing great. I pulled a few more beets but i'm leaving the carrots a little longer. The melon leaves are turning a bit yellow, not sure if this is disease or dryness.
So that is the rundown to catch up.
The rest of the plants are finally going from green/white to a yellowy color and many are becoming very red.
I took photos a few days apart over the last week or so that i haven't made any entries:
These i picked on the 12th
I got to have the little pear tomato, it was a bit mealy, but it has been dry. The flavor was nice.
I have gotten a few more tomatoes since then
(edit in that picture)
The corn is continuing to be motivated
.The purple tomatillos have put out a number of berries
The ornamental eggplant is looking interesting
I discovered that i do have a big birdhouse gourd. It is buried in a tangle of vines and has to be close to 2' tall
The squashes are looking nice and it looks like i will have a plentiful harvest of them. The Carnival (pictured) has at least 6 that i can see and the Long Island Cheese is working on at least 4.
I didn't photo any cucumbers, but we are averaging at least one a day. Not enough to do anything with, but perfect for an occasional snack. I will plant more next year, even though the production level is not overwhelming- i want to try some cucumber recipes with the extras.
The watermelon has been a toss-up. I had some nice Pony Yellow forming but they got to Candlepin bowling ball size and then cracked in half. I do have one round melon still going strong, its almost standard bowling ball size now, but i'm not sure which variety it belongs to. The oval watermelon is still growing nice. I checked them for cracking yesterday and all seems well so far.
I wonder if i will be able to figure out when they are ripe enough to pick.
Shiso
I think my "Venous Orange" is trying to flower. No scent so far, which is disappointing.
Back view of garden. The weeds are taking over. I simply can't keep up at this point.
Oh, and this is what Job's Tears plant looks like as its going to work on making seeds
I saw one sweet pepper forming, its not tiny anymore. I saw some of the hot peppers flowering, no eggplant yet. The summer squashes are still going, the herbs are doing great. I pulled a few more beets but i'm leaving the carrots a little longer. The melon leaves are turning a bit yellow, not sure if this is disease or dryness.
So that is the rundown to catch up.
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