Harden the Flesh

Everything in the garden is slowly finishing the harvest. The giant, Big Boy tomatoes are all starting to give their last hurrah as well as the okra. However, the ones we looked forward to the most this year had to be, without a doubt, the butternut squash and pumpkin.

We’ve grown squash before but not on this level and the drought last year killed the pumpkins, so we were tickled to see so many forming on the vines. And if you’ve been following the blog then you know the small problem with had with the lack of bees early on in the season that had us worried. The boy freaked out for a short period saying that there wouldn’t be enough of either at the end of harvest. But I think this week proved him wrong.

Butternut Squash and Sugar Pie Pumpkin

The tally so far is four squash with four more on the vine and five pumpkin. The squash range in size from 3.19lbs to 4.38lbs, while the pumpkins are a little bit smaller at 2.47lbs to 3.53lbs. I think we made a killing. Typically, the squash can go for .99/lb or up to 1.99/lb depending on when it’s in season. The pumpkin, normally in the grocery stores starting in mid- to late-September can run .99/each to .99/lb. When you’re talking 3 to 4lbs it starts to add up. Never mind the fact that I knew what went into growing these particular fruits and didn’t have to worry about pesticides, insecticides, GMO, and other unsavory growing conditions associated with larger scale farming operations.

Now after harvest, you have to ask yourself “how can I store this bounty aside from freezing since pumpkins and squash are not recommended for home canning?” Great question. Harden the flesh. Sounds stoic and something you’d hear in a Schwarzenegger film, but the heart of it is similar to potatoes and onions that you’d prepare for root cellars.

Once you cut the fruit, give it a gentle wiping with a solution of bleach and water that helps to prevent mold and premature rot (1:10 ratio). Place the cleaned squash and pumpkins in a nice warm area for one to two weeks (80-85F); this allows the outer flesh to cure. This curing process gives the pumpkin a chance to firm up before long-term storage and unripe fruit the chance to mature.

From there, the fruit can be stored in a frost-free area that is not too damp, such as an enclosed porch or shed optimally with temperatures between 50-55F with humidity 50-70%. Set the fruit in a single layer on top of porous material to allow for proper airflow such as straw, crumpled newspaper or cardboard. Done correctly, the pumpkin and squash can remain in storage all winter – roughly two to three months. Important though keep away from apples since they emit ethylene gas that speeds up the ripening process.

Final Thoughts

Don’t forget to start thinking about next year’s garden this fall. Order catalogs, visit the local library, browse Pintrest and other image based boards to gather ideas. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Beet Juice! Beet Juice! Beet Juice!

Now I want to watch Beetlejuice...but never mind that. Today, I spent my late morning canning. It's something that I've been doing for the better part of two weeks. See it's one thing to grow or harvest vegetables and fruits, quite another to store said items. Needless to say, the pantry is beaming with canned goods to the point that DB called me a "prepper." Um...not even close. But getting there. The shelves are stocked with strawberry margarita jam, peach jam, peaches, applesauce (reg. & spiced), apple butter, dill relish, daikon, salsa verde, and my newest adventure, beets.

I've never played with beets before. Sure, my grandmother would try to get me to eat store bought commercially canned beets and I would have none of it. But after asking a friend about beets and pickling them, I decided to give it a go. Picking up a bunch from the farmer's market on Saturday, I got started on my adventure...this morning. What? It's Labor Day weekend. I spent most of my time away from home with family...swimming....and going to RenFairs....

So, beets. When I read that beets would stain whatever it could leak it's juices onto pink, I didn't think it would be that bad...I think I should just cut my nails now before I go to work instead of having my boss ask why my fingers are bright pink. Best to avoid that situation if possible. And when I removed the jars from the water bath, one decided he didn't like being upright and for a second there I thought all hope was lost as juice dribbled out. But the seal took, I just made sure to label that one as the "tipper" so it gets eaten first. As far as I know all the juice is cleaned up and the sink doesn't even look that bad. The interesting part is going to be trying these home canned beets.

Final Thoughts

Don't forget that it's not too late to start sowing for the fall harvest. Great ones to think about are carrots, Swiss Chard, Spinach and other short term, cool crop varietals. Right about now the pumpkin vines should start to die back and the fruit themselves begin to finish off their color. Our 'Sugar Pies' are almost ready for harvest!! Lastly, I leave you with the double headed sunflower. Yes, double. The individual heads grew together to form this:

A double headed sunflower.

Is that a Cucumber?

Oh, the pickle. I love pickles. Dill pickles, sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles, I love pickles. Especially on a warm summer day. We tried planting pickling cucumbers this year but the newly discovered neighborhood chipmunk loves them just as much so we’re only left with two burpless cucumbers. That’s fine, they’re more than making up for what they lack in numbers.

Part of the Cucurbitaceae family, the cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) has a long and luxurious history with mankind. You can find them in arid climates or the tropics, in Africa, Asia, or the Americas. In terms of cucumbers, most historians believe they arrived via India being cultivated in that area for at least 3,000 years.[1] However, no wild cousins have been found in the region between the northern part of the Bay of Bengal and the Himalayas.[2] The trade roads introduced these spiny fruit to Greece and Rome. Colonialism helped to spur the movement of cucumbers to new heights through the expansion to North America in 1494.[3]

The fruit can be eaten fresh, pickled, cooked, or any other way you can think of it. My grandmother loves to take fresh cut cucumber and soak it in apple cider vinegar for a half hour. Kind of like the poor man's pickle. Think it’s the same thing as a gherkin? It’s not. In fact, most West Indian gherkins (C. anguria) are a different species rarely grown in the United States. If you’re looking for one try to find those with a “prickly” oval fruit about an inch long.[4]

Most cucumbers are frost sensitive that love warm seasons. The vines can grow rapidly so it’s best to have a trellis ready for the seedlings once they start to emerge; however, there are newer varieties that do well in containers. At this stage, it’s best to provide cover from leaf munchers (i.e. bunnies, chipmunks, etc) otherwise you’ll be like me and walk out to a cucumber plant nibbled to the ground. Most varietals take 55-75 days to reach maturity, but to speed things along feel free to start seedlings indoor and transplant when all danger of frost is gone.[5]

Now, you’re probably asking, “what are you doing with all your cucumbers?” Great question. Pickle relish. I know, I know, I don’t have “pickling” cucumbers. But does that matter? It really doesn’t have to and can be up to personal preference. Most would argue against it due to the size of the seeds in the average cucumber. So scrounging the web for a recipe (my favorite thing to do), I set out on a quest to find a recipe that didn’t “require” pickling cucumbers.

Prepping for the relish making ^_^

I found one on Eating Richly’s blog. There’s a nice dill flavor and the turmeric really makes the color pop – but not as insane as some of that neon green relish, you know which one I’m talking about…laced with petroleum derived food coloring…Most of the time spent on the relish went into the brine bath. Otherwise, it was a cinch to whip up several half pints of this lovely condiment.

Is there anything in the grocery store that you’ve decided to make yourself? If yes, post a comment and tell us the what and why!

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[1] Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Coneé Ornelas, ed. The Cambridge World History of Food, Cambridge University, 2000. http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/cucumbers.htm (accessed August 19, 2013).

[2] Aggie Horticulture, “Pickles and Salads Owe a Debt to India,” Texas A&M Agrilife Extension, http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/vegetabletravelers/cucumber.html (accessed August 19, 2013)

[3] Kiple & Ornelas, 2010.

[4] Aggie.

[5] “Watch Your Garden Grow – Cucumber,” University of Illinois Extension, http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/cucumber.cfm (accessed August 19, 2013).

Persistence

There's a tangle of morning glory vines along the back retaining wall. For the last few days, we've been watching this tangle reach new heights. Normally this is achieved through a trellis, a backyard tiki lamp or in the case of one year, a shovel that got left out one night. Not this time. This time it's a flower. Just a single flower struggling for all it's might against the strangle hold of these pugnacious morning glories.

And of course, it's a sunflower.

Pushing through life

Of all the flowers in my garden, it would be this one. A part of the daisy family, this North American beauty follows the movement of the sun, tracking the light throughout the day. The sunflower in many religious contexts is seen as a sign of adoration, warmth, and the search for enlightenment. To top it off, I didn't plant this flower, nature did. And it's finding it's own way through life even with all the obstacles using it for their own benefit.

So take this flower and go about this new day with a revitalized belief in yourself.

Fruit or Vegetable?

The baby eggplant

I always like this time of year when you can see the fruits of your labor maturing. Take for example the eggplant. I’m probably like most adults that are a product of poor households in the fact that I never had a variety of fruits or vegetables as a child. A majority of Americans only partake in the potato, corn, or tomato aspect of these wondrous products. So it wasn’t until I was older that I tried to venture out with my tastes in food.

Since trying eggplant, I have used it in many forms from soups (ratatouille) to pasta dishes (eggplant parmesan) and anything in between (baba ghanoush, anyone?). But the best we’ve found so far is the Spicy Peanut Eggplant Stew as described in the Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The little purple fruit growing on our plants have a future in the culinary arts.

Yes, I said fruit. Botanically speaking the eggplant is a fruit (see also tomato, cucumber, chili peppers, and some pod vegetables). In some European countries, it is known as aubergine and is part of the nightshade family.[1] While some species of the nightshade family are toxic due to the high levels of alkaloid, most edible varieties contain healthful benefits. Other members of the nightshade (night growing plants) family include potatoes, tomatoes, chili-, and bell peppers. Eggplants themselves contain small amounts of potassium, manganese, copper, vitamins B1, B3 and B6, folate, magnesium, and tryptophan while also being low in fat and cholesterol.[2]

Grown in a variety of sizes, colors, and textures, the eggplant is a warm season plant with sensitivity to frost. It’s best to transplant the tender plants after all danger of frost has passed in your area. And don’t think bigger eggplant are better. Instead, cut them when they are 6-8” long with a glossy, smooth flesh. Cutting them early results in a more palatable, less bitter flesh with smaller seeds to contend with compared to the larger ones. If you grow your own eggplant try to use it right away after harvesting since eggplant do not store well.

When you get ready to cook it there is the option to salt it. The salting only draws out extra moisture and doesn’t draw out any bitterness. Think of eggplant like a sponge. You want to remove the extra water and air trapped in the cells to ensure that whatever flavors you cook with are soaked up into the meaty flesh.[3] In addition, it reduces the amount of water bleed out and rate of oil absorption. Prior to using rinse off any salt then dry with a paper towel.

What are your thoughts on eggplant? Have you tried any other varieties aside from the classic black beauty?

Beautiful sunflower along the house

Aside from eggplant, there's a lot more going on in the gardens. The sunflowers are bursting with color and there's even one in the backyard - I don't know how it got there. But the morning glory are using it as a trellis. The 'Early Girl' tomato is almost ready for harvest while I still need to plant something in the empty void of the raised bed since we pulled out the spent sugar peas. The butternut squash is starting to change colors while the pumpkins are starting to gain weight. All in all a sight to behold.

The house sparrows are flocking to the feeders with their young in tow teaching them the ropes in foraging backyards for food and dirt baths. The mighty bird dog he thinks he is, Jake tries to constantly chase them from the yard to no avail. At the end of the day, I like to sit back at watch the zany antics conspiring in my backyard.

Final Thoughts

They're not much to look at but I leave you with my children as my closing remarks, enjoy!

Sputnik and Wicket pretending to be beached whales

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[1] “Nutritious Eggplant is a Misunderstood Veggie…er…Fruit.” The Florida Times-Union. February 17, 2011. http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/food-and-dining/2011-02-17/story/nutritious-eggplant-misunderstood-veggie-er-fruit (accessed August 6, 2013).

[2] IBID.

[3] University of Illinois Extension, “Watch Your Garden Grow – Eggplant.” http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/eggplant.cfm (accessed August 6, 2013).

We Got Worms!

We've been really enjoying the fact that our local farmer's market has been pushing towards Green Living. This included a fair attached to last week's market that focused on sustainable practices and organic foods. Demos/discussions were held every hour, which included one on vermicomposting. Now, we've been composting for a few years, but vermicomposting. Our first thought: what the hell is it?

Scouring the web we came up with this: worms.

Ok...but how does it work? The lovely Kate Jerome, our demo host, explained that the worms work in the same way as composting.[1] Instead of just breaking down the food and paper waste, they act like mini garbage disposals. Even better? The bin - either bought or made - can stay in the kitchen year round. Begin the experiment!

Preparing the bins

Layering the material

We went out to the local Big Lots! and picked up two plastic bins. Of course, with the limited selection we had to make do with clear bins. Problem is, the worms are night crawlers, but thank goodness we keep a steady stock of black spray paint. A few coats later and some fun with a hand drill and our bin is ready for assembly.

There are different methods for building a worm bin.[2] However, we decided to keep it simple by drilling a series of holes on the bottom of the first bin that way the worm castings can drain into the bottom bin. There should be something to create a gap though to ensure proper airflow and give depth to the reservoir. It's not in the photos but we have PVC that we used when we created our self-watering containers to aid with aeration. You can use plant saucers, bricks, whatever else you can think of to provide stability and support.

Our worms

Next we added a bed of shredded paper and kitchen waste. Ms. Jerome was kind enough to give those of us who showed up to the demo a cup of her extra red wigglers as long as we pledged not to use them as bait. Well Ms. Jerome, they're not bait!

Now, you're probably asking yourself "Why use worms? What's the point?" Damn fine question.

When it comes to organic material, we're not at the top of the food chain. Something that is barely a 1/2" wide and 3" long provides a vital service to soil amendment. In fact, most artificial soil supplements/fertilizers kill off helpful microbes and earthworms creating a cyclic dependency on petrol based products. Microbes are nature's way of providing equilibrium through the addition of vital nutrients to the soil.[3] This aids in not only the addition of nitrogen (readily available as a gas but not in a plant soluble form), phosphate, and potassium – the N, P, K that you see on most fertilizer packages – but also iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and carbon.[4]

Secondly, between 30-70% of household waste is organic material that can easily be composted. Instead, it is included in overflowing dumpsites as it goes out with the regular trash. Think about what you’re throwing away.

I don't know about you but I'm damn excited to begin this new project!

But just because we have this going for us doesn't mean we can neglect everything else around the house. Nope! The pumpkins are doing fabulous now that the blooms are getting pollinated and we should have six good Sugar Pies by the end of the season. The butternut squash is doing equally as well. Also, we have three baby eggplant which I'm sure DB is counting the days until those become Spicy Eggplant Peanut Soup...The tomatoes are doing too well and I've resorted to using bricks at the base of the cages to keep them upright since we live in a wind tunnel. Other than that, I leave you with my final thoughts which is just a picture, enjoy!

Sputnik lounging

[1] Kate Jerome, “Vermicomposting,” Demonstration at Getting Green by the Lake July 27, 2013.

[2] University of Nebraska – Lincoln, “Vermicomposting: Composting with Worms,” http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml (accessed August 1, 2013)

[3] North Carolina State University, “Vermicomposting,” https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/ (accessed August 1, 2013)

[4] Clell Tompkins, “Worm Composting 101,” http://wilsoncountymg.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/worm_farming_101_by_clell_tompkins.pdf (accessed August 1, 2013).

Q-tip Love

It's nearing the end of July and things don't seem to be slowing any time soon around the house. I've been picking up hours to afford all our outings while the boy has been bashing his brain to bits in order to finish his undergraduate dissertation. Needless to say, it's a bit chaotic.

The garden with me in the background, hi!

Speaking of chaotic...the garden has exploded. I meticulously planned the 4x8 raised bed with square foot gardening in mind. I don't think the plants got that memo. The tomatoes tower over me and try to crowd out the poor bell pepper plant - even with pruning. The butternut squash and pumpkins have run amuck, sprawling across the lawn as if it knows it has better places to be. Let me tell you...nothing says fun like Q-tip pollinating pumpkin blooms because the bees are slacking...(too many blooms to choose from)

By the way, if you're going to play with cucurbitaceae family plants (i.e. cucumber, squash, pumpkin) be careful if you have sensitive skin. I'm out there in shorts and flip-flops with my Q-tips, next thing I know it's hive city on my arms and legs.

Slowly emerging

The, sometimes itchy, fruits of our labors are starting to pay off as we harvested a nice sized cucumber today and over the last week collected 6oz of snap peas (there would've been more but I kept eating them). There are more cucumber on the vines and the super chilies are hanging out until they redden. We've got a few okra and tomatoes that are ripening as well. It's nothing significant with some of the veggies - like the snap peas and okra. But it's something to put on our plates outside the normal farmer's market fare.

As for the rest of the gardens the daylilies and hosta have finally started to bloom with the Black-eyed Susan not too far behind. The sunflowers are already producing wonderful yellow flowers. But the chocolate ones are just starting to open. The golden finches love the sunflowers and I often times see them hanging around our front porch.  Meanwhile, the regular house finches are using the bare patches of our yard as their personal sand bath. There are whole colonies crowded in the 'dead zones.' It's a mad house out there....