Gardening: 2016 (midyear)

[ElainaA]

1 hour ago, cakewalk said:

Wow. I always thought the squash-in-the-unlocked-car stuff was an urban legend, (Or rural legend, I guess.) If I had a car, I'd drive it to your neck of the woods and leave it unlocked with the trunk wide open!

I have been known to leave bags of zucchini hanging on the door knobs of neighbors who do not have gardens. Only when they are not home, of course.

Recently a friend called to ask "Did you leave these squash here?" I hadn't. So I guess I'm not alone.

Edited September 2, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[ChocoMom]

Speaking of....I just got back from the old house/site.   Plucked and hauled a FIVE AND HALF POUND zucchini off that same monster plant!  Plus. 4 cucumbers, 2 more normal sized zukes, and 3 more crooked neck.  

Yes, please bring your cars and trucks. I am sure I can fill them adequately.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, cakewalk said:

Wow. I always thought the squash-in-the-unlocked-car stuff was an urban legend, (Or rural legend, I guess.) If I had a car, I'd drive it to your neck of the woods and leave it unlocked with the trunk wide open!

 

How about eight inch okra?

 

[DianaB]

Every year we get a few mushrooms popping up in our garden, earlier in the year we had some small specimens that I know not to use in cooking but more recently we've had kilos of these larger specimens.  We've been rounding them up and disposing of them but I would love to know if they are edible.

 

Any ideas?  

 

Some garden creatures obviously love them, tops will often have bites missing.  This one looks to have perhaps already served as an 'entrée' for something.

[rotuts]

the problem w animals and mushrooms as a testing system :   they don't often hang around for their autopsies   

 

just a guess.

[Tere]

Maybe, maybe not. White mushrooms with white gills are tricky as there are some poisonous ones. Consult a very good fungi ID book and be cautious! I had some on the lower field that looked a bit like that and ended up not being edible.

[Wayne]

 

@DianaB

From the photos I can narrow it down to 3-4 genera most of which are toxic.

I would suggest contacting a local Mycological Society to get a firm identification.

 

 

[dcarch]

7 minutes ago, Tere said:

------- Consult a very good fungi ID book and be cautious! ----------------------------

 

Good idea. After you ID the specimen, with 200% certainty, then throw then away.

You should never trust books, pictures and your judgement, even you are 500% certain.

 

dcarch

 

[Toliver]

On 9/1/2016 at 9:14 AM, Shelby said:

Never leave your car unlocked during zucchini season.

Don't think of it as trying to get rid of excess zucchini.

Instead, you're spreading the "Gospel of the Zoodle". 

[kayb]

Grill those babies. Cut 'em in half, brush the cut side with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss them on a medium grill. I like to cut a thin slice off the opposite side and brush that with olive oil.

 

I could eat 'em all summer long like this, as long as I've got the grill fired up anyway. And sometimes I'll light it particularly for this. Yellow crookneck squash is good this way, too.

 

[Shelby]

Beat the raccoons to this one.  Take that, coons!

 

 

Sure wish I had some prosciutto to wrap around some of this.

 

I was introduced to that by a mom of one of my friends when I was in like 4th grade.  Seemed so exotic to me.  I stuffed myself that day lol.

[Okanagancook]

On September 2, 2016 at 3:32 PM, kayb said:

Grill those babies. Cut 'em in half, brush the cut side with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss them on a medium grill. I like to cut a thin slice off the opposite side and brush that with olive oil.

 

I could eat 'em all summer long like this, as long as I've got the grill fired up anyway. And sometimes I'll light it particularly for this. Yellow crookneck squash is good this way, too.

 

A friend of mine does grilled zucs but she grates some Parmesan on them as they are on the grill.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Yes! I love grilled zucchini, crookneck squash, eggplant, onion, peppers, corn, stone fruits, and whatever else I have on hand that sounds like it might be good grilled when I have it fired up for meats.

[ChocoMom]

So we had some pretty wicked thunderstorms Monday night and Tuesdayam. The garden, of course, is going crazy.  I waded through the rows a little bit last night, and happened to uncover a spaghetti squash that has got to be over 18 inches long.  It looks like a huge, creamy colored watermelon!  Its not even ripe yet, so I haven't a clue how big this monster is going to get.   Is this normal??   There's even more that are on track to get near that size too.  I've never grown these before, and now I suddenly have over 30 of them.  I had no idea.   

[ElainaA]

I harvested the coco noir and tongue of fire beans a couple of weeks ago. Most of them were pretty well dried already but I spread them on screens to be sure. Now they're ready to pack away - and eat. Tongue of Fire  is a type of borlotti. We'll have some of them for dinner tonight.

 

[Okanagancook]

After seeing you plant some beans I did the same.  How do I know when they are ready to harvest?

 

[ElainaA]

33 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

After seeing you plant some beans I did the same.  How do I know when they are ready to harvest?

 

I wait until the pods are getting quite dry. You can harvest earlier but then you will need a place for them to dry out longer. I always dry mine for a couple of weeks anyway - if any beans are still moist when you package them they can mildew. I use a window screen on a table inside. I pull the entire plant then shuck the pods. Err on the side of 'not quite dry' rather than over dry - or the pods may open in the garden - you don't want to lose any beans!

What varieties did you grow?

[Okanagancook]

Do you have to dry them before cooking?

i wasn't in the mood to write stuff down when I planted them so I am not sure what I have.  Duh. They are from a bulk food place that had bean varieties I had never seen before.  Could be Anasazi or Appaloosa. Or more likely the third bean I bought which is not labelled, pic of the dried bean and my fresh one.  They look ready? Yes or no?

[ElainaA]

@Okanagancook I have no idea what variety they are but they look great! No, they don't have to be dried. You can harvest them fresh. The pods in the picture look very fresh - I tend to wait until the are shriveled and dry looking. Fresh shell beans are considered a delicacy in Italian cooking (and probably other ethnicities as well) but I never seem to get to harvest mine when there are enough still fresh. You can't really mix dried and fresh beans. I let mine dry because they are so much better than store bought beans ( and cheaper than expensive varieties - about $1.50  for seeds gives me about 4 cups of dried beans, which equals 4 meals.) I actually like the taste of beans that have been dried over those cooked fresh but that's just me.   If you can easily puncture the shell with your fingernail then they are 'fresh' - either cook them right away, freeze them or dry them. If the skin of the bean gives resistance then they are getting dry. Your dry beans look a lot like pictures I find of appaloosa beans. Whatever they are I bet they will be delicious - SO much better than store bought beans. 

Edited September 8, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Okanagancook]

Thank you for the great information.  I found my bill for the beans and I think they are the Anasazi.  The Appaloosa are more slender.  I don't think I have ever had fresh beans so I will cook them fresh and freeze some, but after I taste them fresh. Not sure how many I have.

they probably take 20 minutes to 30 minutes to cook?  IP for 7 min?

 

i just picked the ones in the picture.  I can leave them in the garden longer.

[ElainaA]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

Thank you for the great information.  I found my bill for the beans and I think they are the Anasazi.  The Appaloosa are more slender.  I don't think I have ever had fresh beans so I will cook them fresh and freeze some, but after I taste them fresh. Not sure how many I have.

they probably take 20 minutes to 30 minutes to cook?  IP for 7 min?

 

i just picked the ones in the picture.  I can leave them in the garden longer.

I don't think you need to cook them anywhere near that long, Fresh shell beans cook quickly. My dried tongue of fire beans cooked in about 25 minutes after an hour's soak. Here's a post from David Liebovitz's blog:  (I love his blog.) He does say about 20 minutes - that surprises me. 

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/fresh-shelling/

Edited September 8, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Okanagancook]

Thanks for the link.  I will start testing them after ten minutes, they are not that big.  I have a basil vinaigrette from making infused basil oil so will use that to dress they right out of the pot.  

[Wayne]

 

@Shelby

Beautiful melon. It's one of things I've never had any success growing primarily due to the endemic powdery mildew in my area. Many a year I put in and babied the vines to end up with one or two stunted fruit.

 

I've been off-grid for awhile and returned to find the fall plantings I put in before leaving starting to show some life.

 

This bed, which originally was planted last fall with garlic and harvested in July was replanted with bush bean (lower half) and the top half reconditioned then later planted with beets, daikon and watermelon radishes. Once the bush beans had given their all they were removed, the soil reconditioned and replanted with more beets, bok choy, tatsoi and a variety of lettuces. Other beds have more lettuces, radicchio, spring radishes, more beets and a Hail Mary final planting of bush beans.

 

 

There are still lots of chard, kale and collards and these will last until they're killed by frost.

 

 

Habanero peppers. With this hot summer all the hot peppers have been very productive.

 

 

 

I found this growing a few months ago from the gap between the fence boards and let it grow. I last planted these two years ago so it was a bit of a surprise to see it.

 

 

Mouse melons (Melothria scabra) beside cherry tomatoes for scale.

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Mouse melons!  What are those like? Do you eat them whole, like kumquats or grapes? 

[Okanagancook]

Beautiful greens Wayne.  Out here in the Okanagan it's too hot to grow summer greens.  

Our weather has turned and all of a sudden the air smells like fall.  However, next week looks like a return to sun and mid-twenty (C) weather.  

The wine grapes are getting near picking time.  Some varieties are already being picked.

 I just have root veggies left out there.  I do have green tomatoes on the plants but they are just getting rough skinned and will never really ripen so they will be headed to the compost bin next week.