Gardening: 2013–2015

[Okanagancook]

Shelby, I don't feel so bad looking at all your wonderful tomatoes. I have a bowl full plus 8 lbs diced in the fridge ready to make the Indian Tomato Chutney recipe from eGulleters. If you have not made this, it is worth considering.

[hummingbirdkiss]

tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes as well my house looks like Shelby's but add a pile of tomatillos…I have so many tomatillos this year and half are reseeded and sporting the same fruit they did last year ..nice deep dark purple ones…! (obviously I am still lame and have not even tried to replace my photo let alone post a photo here not sure why I am blocking it I have tons of photos! ) …I am eating them, sharing them and  drying them ..no canning but the one vine i have a new sauce tomato on ..it is loaded I am guarding it and it will be sauce! ….I believe i will have enough to can some sauce this year ..but will have to do it outside on the propane burner .(no kitchen still and that is not moving along for a while …(artists can not be rushed and my husband and our friend are doing pouring my countertops out of concrete )

 

We have no water the ground is dry ..the food might as well be dry as well  ..so what I can not eat ..especially the tomatoes and I am trying to eat as many fresh ones as I can! …is either dried into tomato powder or as slices to be added to olive oil later 

 

I have so many eggs..the ducks started laying double yolkers and wow I remember our last ducks did this for a year before the eggs just were giant with a single yolk (I love duck eggs so much more than chicken especially for baking )  …has anyone tried to dry eggs? I was thinking just for smoothies and adding it to things rather than reconstituting ..right now i am boiling and feeing them back to the ducks and chickens if I can not take them to the food bank …and give them to the neighbors and eat them (I am eating eggs and tomatoes of some kind 3 times a day right now because I am so busy putting stuff "away" I have no time to sit and enjoy…

 

I am going to trade for chiles today a friend is bringing us  a few cases of chiles from NM and I have him hooked up in return …that and some corn I need to put the corn tomatoes onions garlic and roasted green chiles together for the summer magic right???? and I can not grow corn well (I have some but not enough) and our local corn is so good this year (but= it is almost toooooo perfect I had some last night and all the corn is exactly the same sized ..but so flavorful!)  ..and while I did grow a huge plant of scotch bonnets …they are doing really well! I eat one or two  a day now, flavor is right on I can close my eyes and be in the islands… and looks like the harvest will keep going ….the ghost peppers have not pollenated but the plant is healthy I will just bring them both in as house plants or put them in the green house they look strong and like they will last) 

 

the grapes are blushing I could get lucky and the concords will ripen .then I am making basement wine if that happens for sure! The old school kind of grew up sipping ….blackberries ending … apples, pears, Italian plums,  Asian pears all ripening in now if we get a month of sun more I will have a second fig harvest (I did last year) ..

 

time to buy next years planting garlic ( I replant the biggest I grow but always like to buy and add new garlic ) 

Prepping the beds since last months harvest (I plant garlic the same bed 3 years at a time ..kind of like dahlias I move them every three years as well) 

 

we did an inspection of our bee hive this weekend and found our bees have been REALLY busy ..I did not see we had a back yard honey discussion but I had to harvest several pounds of honey comb just to get into the hive …first year a top bar hive it was a HUGE mess of honey combs and pissed off bees..I mainly got the hive on a whim and a traded my old mountain bike for it ..I have had to pollenate my squash by hand and thought "why not " right? so I did and you are not supposed to have honey the first year of a top bar from what I have read? well  have a half gallon of strained honey in jars …and that was only half of what I needed to pull out but I got scared and left …I also left all the bowls knives and spoons I used and everything is sparkling clean from the bees reclaiming what they lost ..I told them it was not me it was a bear that tore up the combs ..I do not want to take your time if there is another place to talk about this ..but the combs were being built sideways and we could not pull the bars up to check the health of the hive so I had to cut the sideways ones off and straighten the huge honey filled combs so they could have them back …I took a very tiny bit and it was almost a gallon total with what I gave them back to reclaim and that was just on two bars and not the main combs!!! 

 

 i just finished painting a Langstroth hive ..the top bar is fun and more natural I am glad I have it but after tasting the honey and playing with the bees wax? we are hooked there is no going back …s are so calming and my neighbors are so happy with the honey bees in their gardens ..I can not imagine gardening with out bees ever again ..I said that about the chickens ..then the ducks ..now the bees …LOLOL does it end? 

 

ok my friend talked me into planting ground nuts ? does anyone else grow them? I have never eaten them the plant is beautiful and the idea they can make me sick is not appealing after the famous  sunchoke episode of 2004 ..

 

second I have a  bed of sunchokes and really loved the taste of them cooked like chips ..and also mashed..but they caused such severe cramping and GI distress I just dig them up and give them to friends who are not affected so badly ..they are a very cool plant I like growing them but have to contain them for sure…..can anyone eat them>? if so can you tell me how you made them into food that did not cause such horrible problems form the inulin I guess? am assuming? they are a wonderful tastily little thing but the aftermath of pain is not worth it ..

 

that and the ground nuts? what can I do?  i have never tried ground nuts as I said but what I read it said "can cause sever reactions " generally not on the first taste but the second or third? ..wow I can just enjoy the plant but would love to eat them both if i can with out consequence! 

 

any advice or info on either would be appreciated! otherwise I can find someone to eat these I guess LOL ..I wish I had not had that bad experience with sunchokes ..wow that was pain like no pain a person should feel over food! 

 

Happy gardening!!!  I love reading what others are doing and if you can direct me to a thread on honeybees,dehydration of everything we can think of, suncholkes or groundnuts that would be great! 

[Shelby]

First of all, Hummingbird, I GREATLY enjoyed reading this.  You have GOT to post pictures.  I'm dying to see all of this!!!  Seriously, you should either post here or do a blog.  I would hang on every word and picture.

 

I've never grown tomatillos.  I don't know how they would do around here, but you've inspired me to at least look them up and see.  I know you are enjoying your tomatoes a ton!

 

I think you should also start a honeybee topic.  I find that FASCINATING.  I'd LOVE to see pictures of all of that, too.  For the first time in many years, I've seen honey bees here.  I'm sure they have a wonderful hive somewhere that I'd like to find.  I, too, would blame my honey stealing on bears   .

 

I'm no help on sunchokes or ground nuts.  In fact, I'm going to have to google to see what a ground nut is.  I've never eaten a sunchoke either. I'm feeling deprived. 

[hummingbirdkiss]

Shelby thank you so much you are so sweet to comment like that.  ..I will try to post photos I promise you are all so generous with your words and photos I just love reading everyones posts and following our garden dramas as well ..it is crazy out there isn't it .there really is drama in the garden every day …I am going to do a severe cut back this fall and if anyone wants fig starts I am happy to share I always feel guilty pruning a potential tree and throwing it out ..that is why I have so many figs I keep making new trees ..there is no such thing as too many figs anyway. 

 

my corn the chickens tore up came back and this is my first 3 sisters that really thrived beans are some rare Italian white bean a friend gave me ..corn is the colored popcorn and the pumpkins are sugar pie of some kind all gifts I tossed them into a bed I made out to an old bed frame along with some Oregon rock dust a friend sent and holy crap that is my most prolific bed I have never seen so many pumpkins 

saving seed because they are delicious as green pumpkin curry I made it twice already so even if they do not sweeten they have wonderful flavor and I can cook them all summer instead of waiting for frost 

[cyalexa]

Terminal harvest of one basil plant that was starting to make flowers. The salad spinner contains slightly damaged leaves that will be used over the next couple days. The colander contains most of the plant. Most the the big leaves will be stacked (10g each stack), rolled, wrapped in plastic and frozen. The smaller leaves will be pureed with olive oil and frozen in ice cube trays. A few stems are in a glass of water. Hopefully one or more will root and I will replant and/or try to limp a pot or two through the winter. 

 

 

[ElainaA]

Terminal harvest of one basil plant that was starting to make flowers. The salad spinner contains slightly damaged leaves that will be used over the next couple days. The colander contains most of the plant. Most the the big leaves will be stacked (10g each stack), rolled, wrapped in plastic and frozen. The smaller leaves will be pureed with olive oil and frozen in ice cube trays. A few stems are in a glass of water. Hopefully one or more will root and I will replant and/or try to limp a pot or two through the winter. 

Wow! That must have been one huge basil plant.  Mine, on their second growth after one severe cutting, are starting to flower. It has to be another pesto day really soon.

[Okanagancook]

Apparently the roots and stems have loads of flavour. I have way too many plants out in the garden and so may try doing an oil infusion.

[Shelby]

Terminal harvest of one basil plant that was starting to make flowers. The salad spinner contains slightly damaged leaves that will be used over the next couple days. The colander contains most of the plant. Most the the big leaves will be stacked (10g each stack), rolled, wrapped in plastic and frozen. The smaller leaves will be pureed with olive oil and frozen in ice cube trays. A few stems are in a glass of water. Hopefully one or more will root and I will replant and/or try to limp a pot or two through the winter. 

What a great idea to put some stems in water.  I'm copying you

[ElainaA]

Some garden pictures:

 

 

The garlic harvest was about a week ago. This should be enough for seed garlic and to get us through the winter. Maybe. We use a lot of garlic.

 

 

My third planting of lettuce and other salad greens is about an inch high. The first planting has mostly bolted and the second will soon. I need these little guys to grow. There are 4 kinds of lettuce, green and purple mizuna and arugula.

 

 

Shelby! You've taught me to look more closely at the flowers in the vegetable garden. This is a sunset runner bean. There are masses of beans and they are very good. Sadly many developed while we were away and a re too big and tough to eat. I'm going to try saving seeds. These were so pretty and prolific I want to do them again.

 

 

I'm growing cardoons for the first time. You have to blanch the leaves for a month before harvest. I just did this yesterday. In September I'll have to figure out how to cook them.

 

 

And, as usual, my best 'crop' are the morning glories. I planted 4 plants by the gate years ago and they have self-seeded ever since.

 

Elaina

Edited August 16, 2015 by ElainaA (log)

[cyalexa]

My garden is very small. I have a low tolerance for heat and sun. As soon as it hits 90 degrees F, I retreat to the air conditioning. I have learned not to plant more than I am willing to care for. 

 

The "kitchen garden". In the foreground, basil being allowed to to go seed and my tomato plant (yes, I only have one).

 

Clockwise, starting at the lower left: flat leaf parsley seedlings, I hope (the spent adult plant was here); what's left of a basil plant harvested a couple days ago, thyme, garlic chives and jammed up against it (because I can't get to the roots of the garlic chive plant) a celery plant; a very old and partly dead rosemary; lettuce seedlings sort of in the center; on the right edge a sad looking epazote plant. Don't know what happened to the epazote, generally it thrives. Fortunately, I have plenty of seeds including some recently potted. 

 

The west end, clockwise, starting at 11 oclock: thyme, garlic chives, garlic chives, celery, volunteer kale (several plants), tarragon, rosemary. 

 

 

My fig tree, more of a bush really.

 

 

There will be many figs this year!

 

 

 

Blackberries in the background - done for the year. Oregano and the empty garlic bead in the foreground. I'm having the garlic bed extended about 16 feet. 

 

 

And in the house, safe from spider mites (I hope!); a replacement rosemary and sage seedlings. After a hard frost I'll move them to our little greenhouse. Note to self: Order beneficial mites next spring. 

 

[Shelby]

Elaina, your garden is beautiful.  I loved looking at everything.  I could hang pictures of your garden on my wall it's so pretty!  

 

I love the hanging garlic.  Do you bring it inside after it's dried more?  How do you store it?

 

I mistook that runner bean flower for an Iris at first.  That is one gorgeous blossom.  

 

I love the Morning Glories.  I have a few of those.  Must plant more.  I'm not good at flowers, though.

 

Cardoons.  I had to google them.  I love artichokes so I can't wait to see what you do with them

 

Cyalexa, small is good!  I hear you on the heat.  

 

I love all of your spices.  You've inspired me to try to grow some inside over the winter.

 

And the FIGS OH THE FIGS!!!  I'm jealous.  

Edited August 16, 2015 by Shelby (log)

[cyalexa]

I love all of your spices.  You've inspired me to try to grow some inside over the winter.

 

And the FIGS OH THE FIGS!!!  I'm jealous.  

 

You could probably grow figs if you chose the right variety and planted it in a protected area. Mine is about 10 feet from the south-facing brick wall of my house. Most winters it dies back and starts over in the spring. Cutting away the dead wood is a bit of a project but a worthwhile one. I have had pretty good luck with sage and rosemary in pots in the house. Other herbs, not so much. A couple years ago we bought a small greenhouse and they are all happier out there as long as it is not too hot. Even with the windows open and fan on I think it's too hot now. Also, while I have never noticed spider mites in the greenhouse I do not want to tempt fate by supplying their favorite plants. I'll wait until after a hard frost. In the winter we set the greenhouse thermostat to 40F. Even on the coldest days it generally does not get below 40F in there until well after sunset and rewarms quickly once the sun rises. 

[ElainaA]

 

I love the hanging garlic.  Do you bring it inside after it's dried more?  How do you store it?

 

 

I love the Morning Glories.  I have a few of those.  Must plant more.  I'm not good at flowers, though.

 

 

Shelby - 

I'll let the garlic dry for a couple of weeks then trim off the stems and roots. I just store it the same way as I do my onions and shallots - in either slat-sided wooden crates or plastic milk crates. The wooden ones look nicer but its all in the garage so it doesn't really matter. Last year I lost several of my stored winter squash to mice - nothing like taking what looks like a perfect squash from the shelf for dinner and finding that the entire back has been eaten away. The mice have never bothered the garlic or onions. Yet. 

 

 

If you let your morning glories drop their seeds you will probably have more. At least in my climate they self-seed like crazy. They come up all over my garden - I weed out the ones away from the fence. I have several large flower beds besides the veggies. The flowers do get neglected this time of year though.

 

My garden is very small. I have a low tolerance for heat and sun. As soon as it hits 90 degrees F, I retreat to the air conditioning. I have learned not to plant more than I am willing to care for. 

 

The "kitchen garden". In the foreground, basil being allowed to to go seed and my tomato plant (yes, I only have one).

 

Clockwise, starting at the lower left: flat leaf parsley seedlings, I hope (the spent adult plant was here); what's left of a basil plant harvested a couple days ago, thyme, garlic chives and jammed up against it (because I can't get to the roots of the garlic chive plant) a celery plant; a very old and partly dead rosemary; lettuce seedlings sort of in the center; on the right edge a sad looking epazote plant. Don't know what happened to the epazote, generally it thrives. Fortunately, I have plenty of seeds including some recently potted. 

 

The west end, clockwise, starting at 11 oclock: thyme, garlic chives, garlic chives, celery, volunteer kale (several plants), tarragon, rosemary. 

 

 

My fig tree, more of a bush really.

 

There will be many figs this year!

 

Blackberries in the background - done for the year. Oregano and the empty garlic bead in the foreground. I'm having the garlic bed extended about 16 feet. 

 

And in the house, safe from spider mites (I hope!); a replacement rosemary and sage seedlings. After a hard frost I'll move them to our little greenhouse. Note to self: Order beneficial mites next spring. 

 

Cyalexa -

I am so jealous of your figs! And I do like your herbs; I have a small herb garden. I also have a clay container with rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram and mint right outside the front door. It's so easy to get to that I find I rarely go to the actual herb garden except for chives, which I don't grow anywhere else. 

What do you do with the blackberries? And all the figs?

 

 

Elaina

[cyalexa]

 

I am so jealous of your figs! And I do like your herbs; I have a small herb garden. I also have a clay container with rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram and mint right outside the front door. It's so easy to get to that I find I rarely go to the actual herb garden except for chives, which I don't grow anywhere else. 

What do you do with the blackberries? And all the figs?

 

 

 

Almost all of the blackberries end up on my husband's cereal. My favorite things to do with figs include salty cheese and meat. I give a lot to friends. I have had pretty good luck drying them, just in a brown paper bag in the refrigerator. This year I'm going to try drying them in a Nu-Wave oven that was a gift. It's too much trouble to clean to use for general cooking but I think it will dry figs well. You can tell by my answers that I don't make jam/preserves. 

[Okanagancook]

Nice garlic ElainaA!  Mine are hanging in mesh bag in our cool wine cellar.  I have run across a couple of bulbs with some rot already.  Can't believe it.  I hung mine an extra week and a half with two fans trained on them make sure they were nice and dry.  Do you get that problem?  Your look really dry like mine were only yours look like they were dried outside.  I have mine in are double sized garage.

[ElainaA]

Nice garlic ElainaA!  Mine are hanging in mesh bag in our cool wine cellar.  I have run across a couple of bulbs with some rot already.  Can't believe it.  I hung mine an extra week and a half with two fans trained on them make sure they were nice and dry.  Do you get that problem?  Your look really dry like mine were only yours look like they were dried outside.  I have mine in are double sized garage.

I always dry the garlic - and the onions and shallots- outside. Our garage just doesn't get enough airflow to really dry them. I give them quite a long time - mainly because I can sort of forget about them and do other stuff.   I've never had problems with rot. I find that garden garlic, even when well dried, is much wetter than store bought garlic. The outside can look dry but the inside cloves are still wet. I think this is especially true with soft neck garlic due to the double circle of cloves. What kind do you grow? I have about 75% hard neck and 25% soft neck. I'll dry the soft neck for a longer time.

[Okanagancook]

ElainaA I grow hard necks and I don't really have a shaded area where I can hang them.  They were pretty dry out of the ground as I had stopped watering for two weeks before harvesting them without any rain falling on them.  So I was surprised when I got a couple of rotten ones.

 

Do yours get any sun where you hang them?  I could string them through the dog pen up high which has a north-east exposure so they would only get the morning sun.

[Okanagancook]

Found a 'lurker' this morning

 

[ElainaA]

Found a 'lurker' this morning

 

 

Watch out - if you blink the zucchini expand exponentially. 

 

My garlic (where they hang) get morning sun. They also get a lot of wind. Everything here gets a lot of wind. I sopped watering but he have had rain every 2-3 days until very recently.

 I have about 75% hard neck and the rest soft neck.

[Okanagancook]

The 'lurker' is out of luck.  I stuffed him with wild rice, brown rice, pancetta, fresh basil leaves, parsley, hot sauce, mushrooms and grated cheddar.  I'll save him for company seeing he is so big.

[ElainaA]

I have multiple 'lurkers'. I usually turn them into zucchini bread ( I have the BEST recipe, she said egocentrically,) and freeze it. We just finished last years (I think 8 loaves) but yesterday my oven refused to come on. It seems the ignitor is dead. With luck the repair guy (and here there is only one major appliance repair guy) will come tomorrow or maybe Thursday. So the zucchiniis sitting in the refrigerator waiting. We had some grilled tonight for dinner,

[suzilightning]

For some reason even with Rutgers, which is an old variety, I've not had trouble with blight this year.  Except for chipmunk blight.

 

Mountain Magic looks and tastes like Campari to me.  (That's Campari the tomato.)  I've seen Mountain magic described as low acid, but to me it tastes pleasantly acidic.

 

Maybe because this year we had a lot less rain than we did last year.

 

And the blasted chipmunks have been eating almost anything in sight...

Edited August 19, 2015 by suzilightning (log)

[Shelby]

I'm in the lurker club, too.  I swear this one wasn't there yesterday.  Can't see the tape measure but it's about 14".  Hello bread or zoodles lol.

 

 

Pickage today:

 

 

The farmers only did a test cut of the corn last week.  It's still not dry enough for harvesting.  However, there were some ears left on the ground so I gathered them up this morning.  The birds love these in the winter.

 

 

Matilda is still eating and growing.  She added to her web.  It's HUGE now.  I named the second spider Madison. We had a third one....small, wee spider, she was.  She had a cool web going.  I couldn't find her a couple days ago.  I figured she was out hunting.  Then, I made it over to Madison's web....she was eating the third spider.

 

Yes.  Madison is a cannibal. 

[cyalexa]

I am so jealous of the tomatoes. I want badly to make another tomato pie. Farmers' Market on Saturday!

[ElainaA]

Shelby - I found a relative of Matilda's in my garden this morning. Obviously, the Northern branch of the family. She's built her web in a most inconvenient (for me) spot - stretched between the garden fence and one of the tomato cages. The web is nearly invisible and I'm afraid I damaged it before I saw it - and ended up with some web and a dead fly in my hair. She is out there repairing it as i type. I'll be more careful.