Gardening: 2016 (midyear)

[Okanagancook]

Here is a great site for all things garlic https://www.garlicfarm.ca/growing-garlic.htm

 

my garlic is usually ready second to third week of July.  The tips of the leaves start to go brown about two weeks after the scrapes.  I do check the bulbs in the ground and usually pull one or two up for immediate use.  Stopping watering a couple of weeks before harvest is also important.

[Okanagancook]

It is a lot of garlic but none of it goes to waste.  First there are cloves for replanting.  Garlic for my brother, Kootenaycook.  Garlic for my best friend.  Garlic confit in the freezer.  Garlic butter in the freezer.  Whole roasted garlic for the freezer.  Fresh garlic which usually lasts me until February if they have been cured properly.

 

i am making lunch for a group on Tuesday and one of the people is allergic to garlic.  Sheesh, that really limits me.  I am discovering that almost everything I make has garlic in it.

[ElainaA]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

 

i am making lunch for a group on Tuesday and one of the people is allergic to garlic.  Sheesh, that really limits me.  I am discovering that almost everything I make has garlic in it.

I empathize. One of my very close friends is allergic to the entire allium family. No garlic! No onions! No leeks! I find cooking for her extremely difficult.

[Jacksoup]

@shelby. Sorry for your garden loss. Have lurked and watched it grow for a couple of years. Seems like you have a plan to restore most of it. Am glad for you.  Our stuff

The basil

[Jacksoup]

The cukes. Some of the tomatoes and some, just some of the thousand plums

Edited June 19, 2016 by Jacksoup
Et change nine to some (log)

[Jacksoup]

And the never dying oregano

Edited June 20, 2016 by Jacksoup (log)

[Deryn]

I have discovered that up here oregano is the new mint - and should have been grown in a container only. I planted one small plant last year in a sort of 'rock-herb' garden down below my decks above a granite retaining wall. The original plant very much survived the winter and now I am also finding patches of oregano everywhere within 40 feet of it - in the grass, as 'weeds' popping up in a patch of gravel I have been two decks, and anywhere weeds are growing anyway. The only good thing is it smells better than stinkweed I guess. I definitely will never have to buy oregano again either.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Wayne]

8 hours ago, Deryn said:

I have discovered that up here oregano is the new mint - and should have been grown in a container only. I planted one small plant last year in a sort of 'rock-herb' garden down below my decks above a granite retaining wall. The original plant very much survived the winter and now I am also finding patches of oregano everywhere within 40 feet of it - in the grass, as 'weeds' popping up in a patch of gravel I have been two decks, and anywhere weeds are growing anyway. The only good thing is it smells better than stinkweed I guess. I definitely will never have to buy oregano again either.

 

 

One of my areas for perennial herbs has a sage, a lemon thyme and an oregano. I learned the hard way that I had to 'prune' (take a spade and remove outer growth roots and all) the oregano and the thyme to about a 12 inch diameter circle in the spring and usually twice more during the growing season. Otherwise they would take over.

The nice thing about these three is they can be used all year. Even in the dead of winter they are great for cooking.

 

 

[Shelby]

Kay, I love seeing everyone's harvest   I might have to live vicariously through you so keep 'em comin'  

 

Jacksoup love the plums!!!  I can just imagine how wonderful one tastes ...warm from the sun.....drooool....

[Okanagancook]

Here is my garlic, what's left of it (See the I will Never Again thread), hanging in my dog run.

[Jacksoup]

@Shelbyif you or anyone has any ideas for hundreds of plums, I'd love to hear them.  We still have plum jam from last year.  The NY times plum cake is a staple.  We're thinking of having a plum picking party just to offload them.

[kayb]

Can you dehydrate them? I've never tried, but would think it ought to work...

[Jacksoup]

@kayb thanks that's a great idea.  Just got a dehydrator

[djyee100]

6 hours ago, Jacksoup said:

@Shelbyif you or anyone has any ideas for hundreds of plums, I'd love to hear them.  We still have plum jam from last year...

 

I vote for the dehydrator also. I bought some dried Santa Rosa plums at the market a few weeks ago, and they sure are good. Dried fruit is versatile to cook with and you'll have it long after plum season is over. I'm thinking of things like dried plum compote over vanilla ice cream and poundcake, or roast pork loin stuffed with dried plums.

 

Richard Sax had a recipe for plum crisp in his Classic Home Desserts cookbook. It was a variation of his rhubarb-strawberry crisp. See the "Variation" note at the end of the recipe. I haven't tried this one but I like Sax's recipes in general. Here:

http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0618003916&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true 

 

I was going to recommend Plum Chutney and Vieux Garçon, a preserve of fruit made with brandy and sugar. But if you still have plum jam from last year, perhaps these preserves are not your thing. If you want links to the recipes, let me know and I'll post them.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Umeboshi?

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, Jacksoup said:

@kayb thanks that's a great idea.  Just got a dehydrator

Not sure what you meant by "plum cake" earlier but this plum torte is really, really good (with almost any fruit).  

[heidih]

Jacksoup - On the plums - I saw this plum sauce on Lucky Peach yesterday and it sounds like a  great condiment. 

 

Link to description   http://luckypeach.com/what-do-people-eat-for-breakfast-in-new-zealand/

 

Link to recipe  http://luckypeach.com/recipes/plum-sauce-92/

 

 

[Toliver]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

Link to recipe  http://luckypeach.com/recipes/plum-sauce-92/

Thanks for posting the link to the recipe. But there must be a typo in it. It calls for 3 & 1/2 pounds of sugar. Surely they must mean cups of sugar, instead of pounds.

Right? 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

Thanks for posting the link to the recipe. But there must be a typo in it. It calls for 3 & 1/2 pounds of sugar. Surely they must mean cups of sugar, instead of pounds.

Right? 

I do not think there is much wrong with the recipe as it stands. If you Google recipes for jams most call for a 2:1 fruit to sugar by weight. I will be interested in what others have to say.

[djyee100]

I think it's correct. Sugar is not only there for taste, but as a preservative. This is a simple canning recipe, without a waterbath or pressure canning step. The sugar, acidity from vinegar (6 cups!), and acidity from fruit are intended to prevent botulism.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

On 6/20/2016 at 7:13 PM, Jacksoup said:

@Shelbyif you or anyone has any ideas for hundreds of plums, I'd love to hear them.  We still have plum jam from last year.  The NY times plum cake is a staple.  We're thinking of having a plum picking party just to offload them.

 

Here are some links to ideas, though I have not tried any of them. 

 

Plum Crazy, from the kitchen.com.

 

The popsicles sure look good to me for a hot summer day or evening.

 

Also my favorite way to preserve the muscadine grapes I can only get in the fall, and only if I am lucky, is to wash, dry and freeze them whole. You could make the NY Times torte with them at this point, I guess. I never have, because I always pop a few at a time out of the freezer and eat as is for a frozen snack or dessert on a steamy summer day. 

 

 

 

 

[kayb]

TOMATOES!

 

 

Not a LOT of tomatoes, but tomatoes, nevertheless. @Shelby, I wish you were here so I could share this early harvest with you!

 

 

[ElainaA]

My harvest is still limited to lettuce, other salad greens, radishes and garlic scapes. Nothing else is anywhere near producing yet. Both the arugula and mizuna are beginning to bolt. It's time to put in a second planting of each.

 

 

[HungryChris]

Shelby, I think anyone who has spent time in the garden can share your pain. It's not how hard you fall, but how well you recover. Wishing you a spectacular recovery!

HC

[Tere]

Picture update from the weekend:

 

Mint plants in and looking healthy. They aren't too overshadowed by the deck above them so I think they will be fine. Even the sickly one at the end is sprouting new growth.

 

 

Herb "hedge" is also doing well. Sticks are down now to stop kitty "gardening".

 

 

Some courgette or squash have sprouted. I am not entirely sure whether the other things are the other sort of courgette or squash, or weeds, lol. Hopefully they will reveal their true nature soon

 

 

Flower bed looking happy. I suppose I should thin the cornflowers and nigella. Nasturtiums and sunflowers  (the edibles) are doing well.

 

 

Basil has just sprouted, tarragon is a dead loss, parsley, dill and coriander all very happy. Mixed salad leaves and rocket have lots of little black beetles but I am picking them off for now. I don't mind sharing. Oriental tree spinach growing well (probably also needs thinning). Broccoli rabe close to harvest. Swiss chard coming on. Two of the cornichon plants have germinated.

 

 

Raab almost ready

 

 

Beans and peas and salsify and carrots and leets oh my! All doing well.

 

 

Oka plant has the weirdest stalk imaginable. Most of the rhubarb is doing well apart from one pot where all four crowns aren't happy. Will try replanting them when phase 2 of the veg bed is done. All of these are intended to be planted out in phase 2.

 

 

Asparagus bed also performed well, only one crown failed in the end. Fruit cage getting there. Sweet chestnut also growing visibly, will be potted on shortly.

 

 

Strawberries!

 

 

Current state of phase 2. Raised beds will go here too. The soil is dreadful so it's really the best bet. Room for some cold frames too. The far end will be a micro orchard. All mulched with gravel again.

 

 

Tomato plants are just starting. Should really grow much earlier next year I suspect. Or buy seedlings from the garden centre. For four plants that's probably just as good.

 

 

Tere's first salad grown by her own fair hand