Corn, Corn, Corn

Ships A'Soy

<p>Two lbs of soy beans destined to become Edamame. </p>

What's That I Ear?

And plenty more where that came from.

Moon over Brussels

Here's a night shot of the Brussels sprouts starting to form.

In a Pickle

Ok, so its not a pickle yet, but here is there first cucumber. The plant is much healthier than last year (They develped a virus or something and barely produced last year.) But now the problem is that the vine is  outgrowing its climbing structure. We may be in for many more like this one.

It's a bird! It's a plane!...

Its a cauliflower! This ones yellow and just barely starting to form down in there. Maybe Casey will nuw believe there is going to be some production here.

My favorite farmers market...

...is my backyard.  From left to clockwise: kohlrabi coming in slowly now just a few at a time, spinach, baby potatoes from one yellowed plant, one garlic bulb from a late mistake transplant that already died back, one small red onion bulb that kept getting broken off, and one green onion that couldn't survive the rabbits.

Basically all blunders and random vegetables.  Fried up in an egg scramble you'd never know it.

Chickpea damage

Our best guess is that the heavy rains this spring caused some damage in the chickpeas.  Their roots can't handle excessive water.  Now that the heat is on I bet it won't be a problem.

(This is my first attempt at the Android blogger app.)

What's up, Doc?

I was thinning some carrots yesterday (the ones the bunny hadn't already nested in) and found one that was actually developing!  Casey told me to take a picture, but I forgot until I took a bite

Kohlrabi and early garlic

Kohlrabi may look like a weird Star Trek vegetable but it was very easy to grow. Kyle sowed it early and that's all the work it took. Not every single plant swelled up like they should, but it was still a decent amount. This first two pickings wasn't all that much, but after peeling them they went very well sauteed with scrambled eggs.

Smelled like cabbage, was supposed to taste like mild broccoli but instead it blended nicely in with the potatoes in my egg scramble. I would say we plant an entire box (16 sf ft) next year rather than just the portion (6 sq ft).

This first batch doesn't really help you see what they look like....I cut the leaves off first.

This second batch shows the leaves. You will notice that the vegetable is just a swollen steam basically.

Two of my garlics have already dried out and fallen over. I was aiming for the 4th of July, but I figure I better take these out. From what I have read you don't want to let the leaves completely dry out because you need to make sure the bulb has enough viable "papers" to properly store. These two are smallish (about the size you normally get at the store). I hope the rest are bigger!

Kale recipe

Colcannon

I guess this is getting back to my roots, sort of. It's an Irish dish (I think we are more Scottish on my dad's side)

Does this really need a recipe? It's basically just mashed potatoes with boiled or steamed kale. The "recipe" I referenced was heavy on the butter. I went easier on the butter and added some bacon drippings. Skin on the potatoes for more vitamins. Heavy on the pepper.

Volunteer squash sprouts in the compost.

More leafy greens

Kale for me (and some calcannon, perhaps.)

And mounds of romaine lettuce. Kyle's colleagues are expecting it. I think Kyle should take over for Oprah: "You get romaine! And you get romaine! Everybody gets romaine!"

Old friends and a new one

See that zucchini forming at the base of that flower on the right?

And this cute crook neck squash?

Kohlrabi. This is new this year and new to me. We better start picking these before they get too big and woody.

Rehab for house plants

Our previous house plant blunder was Edition Sansevieria. This one we shall call Edition Airplane Plants.

Chlorophytum comosum, commonly called spider plant, is a very common house plant. I have heard that they are hard to kill. HA! Those folks must have never met Kyle and his cats! We kept them outside last year, but brought them in for the winter. Knowing the cats would have a field day with them, we put them on top of the refrigerator. Basically no sun and many forgotten waterings. Then we figured out the in garage on the window ledge....it's an east facing window, but that would be better than nothing. Still forgot to water them. At that points the cats were not allowed into the garage, in hopes we could protect our seedlings. The plants started to recover. Then came the cats once our seedlings were put out in the garden. They chewed off all the top growth. And knocked the pots off the sill. These plants are sad looking. Out to the front porch for a hot summer of rehab.

Why Edition Airplane Plants? As a kid I always called them airplane plants. I am not sure if my grandmother had called them that (she had given us a set before she died that we kept going for years) or if I came up with it. Perhaps it's because the baby plants reminded me of the small airplanes on amusement rides. Not sure, but to me they are not spider plants...they are airplane plants!

Green Onions

Green Onions are just immature onions. Before they bulb out they grow their tall tops. I thinned a few just to see out they are progressing. The one on the left had been in the refrigerator so it looks white from condensation. I think these are white onions (maybe yellow) but we also planted some red onions that seems to be much further along and even starting to bulb out.

Pre-storm harvest

They warned of a perfect storm. The front...the humidity...the sheer. Winds..rain...baseball sized hail. So we figured we should harvest anything that was ready in the garden. Right now that basically means various leafy greens. This included the last of the bok choy and a final large strawberry harvest. And another huge bunch of mustard greens there on the right.

These are the various lettuces with the spinach in the middle.

These strawberries made another tasty (but ugly and runny) pie.

Oh ya...no storm. Just a little rain. All for naught.

Eat your green vegetables

That's kale on the left, spinach on the top right, and baby bok choy on the bottom right.

Spicy sausage, a bit of garlic and onion, and chicken broth I made from a the remainder of a chicken came together to make a great soup. The kale went in first to cook a bit longer, then the bok choy and the spinach last. My first time cooking kale....and first home cooked bok choy. The bok choy is GREAT as it absorbs the salt and flavor from the broth. I picked the rest of the bok choy and added it to the soup the next day.

Note on the bok choy: I don't know why ours did not form a true head. It grew super fast and started going to seed quickly. Mostly I just picked the bottom leaves off the stem.

Mustard Greens

Despite growing up in the South, my mother never ever made any kind of greens....ever. None. I don't think she ever even served any kind of spinach cooked in any dish. No canned spinach. Only fresh in salads sometimes. Perhaps its because we are only Southerners by happenstance, not by birth. Having lived in several places in the South that would be considered far more Southern than Fayetteville, Arkansas, I have been exposed to far more greens in my adult life than my childhood. About a year ago I started cooking greens on a more regular basis.

At first it was just cabbage (never had it ONCE as a child), which Kyle loves. Then it was collard greens, which take quite a bit of bacon grease to taste good....or you just eat them because you know they are good for you. Then came beet greens from the garden and radish greens as well. Those were actually not planned last fall, but mere after thoughts. I considered planting collards this year, but they were left out of the plan. This spring I have had three rounds of radish greens and Kyle planted some beets that are bred especially for tasty greens. That brings us to mustard greens. They were planted a bit later than most of the early spring garden, but they sure are producing! This is the first batch I picked, and there are several batches left.

While the other greens are often stewed in the crockpot to make them tender, the mustard green recipes I found called for wilting in butter (or bacon grease) then cooking with just a cup or two of water until they reach your preferred tenderness. The cooking process takes less than 20 minutes, though prep time includes washing. Luckily these greens had very little dirt on them. Supposedly I was supposed to harvest them when they were smaller, but these were tender enough and had a great taste. WAY better than collards or the other greens I have tried.

Strawberries

Our strawberry experience has been part blunder part success. The one's I planted last year did their job of spreading last year, but our friend had some in pots that over grew and rooted all around. I feared that the potted ones would not survive a cold winter, so I transplanted them all to make one full bed of strawberries. The first berries this year were eaten...rabbits?...squirrels? So we caged them. We still have a bird problem, but we managed to get a few harvested in spite of appetites of our animal friends.

From 5/14

From 5/17

Made today.....yum!

No, I didn't make the crust...two frozen Sam's Club crusts were fine enough. I believe this was the first time I have EVER made a fruit pie. I normally do pumpkin and pecan at holidays, but never fruit ones.

Black radishes and random ingredients

Black Spanish radishes that really didn't turn out. Perhaps they were not spaced far enough. The tops made great stewed greens.

The few Black Spanish radishes that turned out.

Not that big and Kyle says the taste bad.

Some cooking ingredients I gathered for an Indian dish. Broken green onion tops, chives, parsley, and cilantro.

Mid-May walk through

One of the potato cages. They have been mounded up with extra compost. The newspaper help holds the soil in the chicken wire cage.

The chives blooming

Red leaf lettuce

The patch of romaine lettuce. Big producer.

Mustard greens

First strawberries

Spinach and sharing

Spinach

The first spinach was picked today. Really it's just thinnings, but they are about as big as mature spinach. I am not very impressed. The lettuce seems easier to grow. Perhaps spinach is something that should be left to the local growers and just be purchased at the farmer's market each (and every) single time I go.

All this garden-fresh produce is educating me on the water demands of our food. The lettuce, spinach, and greens all require extensive washing to get out all dirt and grit. Think of those lettuce and spinach bags at the grocery store. Triple washed....in California. The water used to wash your spinach might have been transported by canals and pumps for 300 or 400 miles. Then that water usage is basically exported to Arkansas. By not buying spinach locally, you are letting big agribusiness take very subsidized water resources out of a state facing consumer restrictions. Some Wiki reading on "hidden" or "virtual" water.

Sharing

The first batch was for Gail (sp?), one of Kyle's colleagues. The second bunch is for my food systems doctoral friend Angie. A third bag (unseen) of prepped radishes goes to my friend Laura.

PS. I was wrong about the rain....it was 7 inches in just a two day weekend. Four day total is 8 inches....with more falling today. We have plenty of water hear....why should we export our water from California?

More signs of spring

Spring means April showers....and these April showers are too much. 2.85 inches BEFORE the constant rain today. We will probably close to 4 inches in the past four days. Even the raised beds have standing puddles.

First full salad, April 19th: baby romaine, mesclun, chives and radishes

This is one of the two rabbits that reside under the deck. They like strawberries, sweet potato leaves, soya leaves, and other dry bean leaves.

Clematis bloom

I think the dark red and the pink one are different varieties that made it into the wrong seed pack. I hear there is a variety likened to Easter eggs....and that pink one sure looks like one!

Radishes pulled April 22nd: