Squash and Beans Update
First off, check out how this melon is looking.
Secondly, we got our second egg today! Whoot whoot!
The bean crop has over taken the trellis Drew made for it.
We also have this white squash forming.
Good things all around.
Monthly Archives: August 2014
Egg!
In the evening on August 22, 2014, approximately 17 weeks from when we received our baby chicks, Drew ran into the house and proudly displayed their first egg. Hooray! We were a little nervous about their egg laying capacity, so I am very happy to report this news. We think we know which chicken it is, as there is one with a much larger comb than the others. We will be patiently awaiting more!
Pickled Peppers
Another 40 jalapenos came out of the garden this week. This time Drew took on the task of pickling the peppers. I learned that you can’t can jalapenos without a pressure cooker, but you are able to can pickled jalapenos just with a water bath. We got to try an earlier batch out on hamburgers a couple weekends ago when I gave my dad a jar. Not too shabby. It brought out my dad’s hiccups, so I know they are good.
Melon
In one of our seed orders we received a free packet of melon seeds. We planted it out front in the box around our tree, not thinking anything would happen. We just found a couple of these guys!
Gumbo
Today was the day to use the okra we harvested. Gumbo seemed like a good choice. It ended up being a very long process, but I wanted to try to make an authentic version.
First I made the roux, which entailed stirring this for half an hour straight.
Then I got the main broth, veggies (including a couple of our very own green peppers), and meat boiling.
Time to cook the okra. This stuff is a gooey mess.
And a few hours later we ate.
Although it was tasty, I’m not sure I’ll take the time to make it very often. I’ll have to find a short cut version.
HOT peppers
The Congo Trindad pepper has ripened in our backyard. When I researched more about it I found out it was a type of habanero pepper. Yikes! That’s seven notches up from a jalapeno. A jalapeno is between 2.500-8,000 scoville units while the Congo Trinidad pepper is between 150,000-300,000 scoville units. The only thing I can think to do with these is make hot sauce.
Upstairs the Brussels Sprouts (left), Cauliflower (middle), and Kale (right) are sprouting as the beginning of my fall crop.
Zuta Peppers
We harvested a nice variety of goodies this weekend; tomatoes, okra, peppers, hot peppers, and cherry tomatoes.
The Zuta peppers stole the show. I think they turned such a beautiful color. To use them, we made a deconstructed stuffed pepper and a vegetable quesadilla. They had an even better flavor than bell peppers, which works out well since my bell peppers are doing miserably.
Botinecka Zuta Peppers
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Blossom End Rot and Fried Green Tomatoes
Fried Green Tomatoes
Our latest issue has been with our tomatoes. First, some of them are getting blossom end rot. The ends start to turn dark and leathery and will eventually start to rot the whole tomato. We found this with several of the green tomatoes on our plant last weekend and, in order to save the fruit, we went ahead and picked the tomatoes, cut away the bad areas, and made fried green tomatoes. I had never tried fried green tomatoes before since I’m not a big tomato fan, but these were great. Thanks Drew!
Apparently, one way to quickly stop blossom end rot is to dissolve Tums in the water that you pour over the plants. This condition is caused by a lack of calcium which is exactly what Tums are made of. We’ll see if it works.
The other issue is that we have some sort of critter starting to eat our tomatoes before they ripen. We’ve harvested a few and are trying to ripen them in brown paper bags. If that seems to work we will go ahead and take them all.
Mini Eggplant Parmesan
To use my eggplant I decided on Eggplant Parmesan. I’ve never actually tried the dish before and I realized, while looking through recipes, that it consists of a TON of red sauce and cheese. I went with a mini version to fit the scale of our eggplants. The eggplants were sliced, dredged in egg, then panko flakes, and baked in the oven. Once they were done, I added a dollop of tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese on top and broiled them for another minute or two. They tasted a bit like pizza bites.
A pic of our recent stash.
Veggie Rolls
The other night we had a couple of vegan guests over which really stretched my cooking abilities. Every time I thought I had a great idea for a dish, I would later realize it had cheese, eggs, or butter in it. Ugh, being a vegan is no fun! I eventually decided on making veggie spring rolls using some of our cucumbers and basil.
I started by chopping the cucumbers, red pepper, carrots, lettuce, green onion , and basil.
Then you dip the rice paper in warm water to loosen up, lay it out on a damp dish cloth, and fill it with the vegetables.
You roll it up…
And serve. It was actually much easier than I expected. I made a peanut dipping sauce and bought a sweet Thai chili sauce to go with it. Food just tastes better when it’s from your own garden.
