So its been awhile since my last post

Even though its been about a month since my last post and things have been beginning to slow down.  The cucumber vines are almost dead and looks to have developed some disease on the vines.  I only have one zucchini plant left after the 2 weeks of constant rain, which ended up rotting one of the plants out.  The tomatoes plants are slowly dying due to the overabundance of rain we have had and not having enough sunlight during the day to dry out the stems.  I tried cutting some of the branches to thin out the denseness of the tomato "bushes" that I had this year, but haven't seen any real health improvement in them since.  The potato plants finally died off... which is a good thing because that's when you know to dig them up.  I harvested about 3lbs of small potatoes, but will the only way to see if I did a good job is to cook some up to eat.

One positive thing from all of the rain we received is that my herb garden has blossomed quite well.  Have really enjoyed using fresh basil and oregano in my homemade garden tomato pasta sauce.   The mint and chocolate mint has been a nice refreshing twist on our morning smoothies too.

As the school year starts getting closer and the summer plants fade away, I will need to either decide if I want to try a fall garden again this year or just cover my beds with compost and cover and wait until next spring.


Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

Cucumbers: 27

Tomatoes: a little over 32 lbs  

Zucchini: 6

Peppers: 8

Potatoes:  about 2 dozen small potatoes

So my estimated savings according to the USDA National Fruit and Vegetable Retail Report (this week's issue)

cucumbers @ 2 for $1  =  savings of $13

tomatoes @ $2 a lb = $64

zucchini @ $1.50 a lb = $18

peppers @ $1 each = $8

potatoes @ $2.99 for 3lb bag = $2.99

total savings @ $106+  (not counting the cost of fresh herbs and scallions)  

With the addition of the soaker hose and a timer, the cost of water was minimal this year.  The cost of vegetable plant seedlings were about $2 for 6 pack of tomatoes (bought 2), each cucumber and zucchini (2 each), peppers 3pack (4 packs), potatoes (free from our pantry)  so my costs were @ $20 for all the seedling plants. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

The HEAT is ON!!! Saying hello to triple digit temps.

So now that central Texas has officially hit the triple digits, I foresee my garden gradually dying.  With it positioned to get about 11 hours of sun a day, its already starting to show signs of distress and fatigue.     Even though we have already had a few triple digit days, I am still harvesting a little over 2lbs of tomatoes a week.   YEA!

My cucumber vines are done for for the season and it looks as of today, that I am down to one zucchini plant left.   Six of my pepper plants in the newest garden addition are shriveling up like and old man who's been in the pool to long.  This past week I found my little melon plant hiding in the potato stalks with his cord gone.   I took him inside and cut him open.  Tasty little fellow.   About the size of a softball, but nevertheless, it still counts.

 I found a recipe for quick pickling in the latest edition of Everyday Food, so I gave it a try with some of the many cucumbers that I have harvested in the past few weeks.  Haven't tried them yet, thought I would give them a few days to marinate.  The heat has also been a killer for my herbs, which are also exposed to the sun for a good 8 hours a day.  I still want to build a decorative fence in front of the herb bed to give it partial shade for later in the day.  I just have to call the gas company first before I start digging holes.   No new recipes lately, just enjoying the tomatoes via more gazpacho and CBLT (Canadian bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches).  Canadian bacon is healthier than regular bacon.

Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

Cucumbers: 26

Tomatoes: 392 oz = 24.5 lbs

Zucchini: 5

Peppers: 6

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

A much needed rain today after 2 weeks of heat

It didn't last long, maybe a good 15-20 minutes, but good ol' rain is always better than city of Austin water.   Since the last time I posted I haven't done much to the homestead.  I re-reused some old plastic gutters.  They were originally on the house but were taken down after some of them were damaged by the hail storm we had a few years back.  I then cut them into 3 ft length pieces and hung them in my classroom to use as bookshelves.  I took them down last year after my students kept leaning on them and ripping them out of the wall.  So now I linked them back together again, drilled some drain holes in the bottom, hung them on the fence and planted some lettuce and cilantro seeds in them.  Lettuce only needs a an inch or so of soil to grow in, so hopefully I will get a nice selection of salad leaves in the next few weeks.

What else is new,  Jennie and I made a batch of zucchini muffins to use up one of the zucchini's we still had and again, they were a huge hit at our church small group... its quite funny what kids will eat when they don't know what the ingredients are.    Last night we made a zucchini gratin and it was really good.  The recipe is from Food Network  (Ina Garten's recipe)

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, plus extra for topping
• 1 pound yellow onions, cut in 1/2 and sliced (3 large)
• 2 pounds zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch thick (4 zucchini)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup hot milk
• 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup grated Gruyere

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a very large (12-inch) saute pan and cook theonions over low heat for 20 minutes, or until tender but not browned. Add the zucchini and cook, covered, for 10 minutes, or until tender. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes. Stir in the flour. Add the hot milk and cook over low heat for a few minutes, until it makes a sauce. Pour the mixture into an 8 by 10-inch baking dish.
Combine the bread crumbs and Gruyere and sprinkle on top of the zucchini mixture. Dot with 1 tablespoon of butter cut into small bits and bake for 20 minutes, or until bubbly and browned.

For lunch one day I decided to grill up some random fruit and veggies that were left over from other meals from earlier in the week.  As you can see, I grilled two ears of corn in the husk (I have found out that this is the best method for grilling corn, because the husk keep all the moisture inside, plus the smell of roasted corn always reminds me of fairgrounds and carnivals.)  I sliced a cucumber up long ways about 1/4 inch thick, threw on half a red onion, a few cherry tomatoes (from the garden) and some pineapple.  After grilling it all for about 10 minutes, I cut up everything but the corn, mixed it together, added some feta cheese, salt and pepper, and a little bit of olive oil. Not a bad way to use some leftovers.

The tomatoes are still going strong, as well as the zucchini.   The cucumbers though, I feel, are not fairing so well.  I did pull up some potatoes to see how they were doing and from one stalk, there was one medium-sized potato and about 5 fingerling sized ones.  I replanted them so that they would get a little bigger.  

Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

cucumbers: 22

Tomatoes: 309.17 oz = 19.32 lbs

Zucchini: 5

Peppers: 3

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Garden fresh Grilled Zucchini Rolls and Gazpacho

Last night we had some yummy and easy to make grilled zucchini rolls and gazpacho, with all but one of the ingredients coming directly from our gardens.

Grilled Zucchini Rolls
one zucchini cut thin on a mandolin lengthwise
1 package of goat cheese
basil
mint

Grill the thin slices of zucchini for just a few minutes (until you get some nice grill marks on both sides)
chop the basil and mint and mix with the goat cheese
Put a teaspoon of the goat cheese mixture on the zucchini slice and roll it up.  I doubled the zucchini layers for each roll, because the mandolin sliced them really thin.  There not pretty but they are tasty.  It's that easy.

Gazpacho
add to a blender the following ingredients:
1/2 blender of tomatoes
2 small cucumbers
zucchini (what was leftover from the rolls)
jalapeno pepper (seeded)
2 Tbl olive oil
1 Tbl red wine vinegar
salt
pepper

Blend it all together and serve.. I am not a Gazpacho fan, but I loved this one.. ate 2 bowls of it!

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Zucchini Pizzas and Fried Green Tomatoes

So the other night I was a little too ambitious with my dinner plans.  I grilled sliced zucchini from my garden and charred some tomatoes.  I then mashed the tomatoes and placed the zucchini slices on a cookie sheet and covered them with the mashed tomatoes and some mozzarella and put it in the oven at a low temp to melt the cheese.  When it was ready, we sprinkled some chopped basil (from the garden) on top.

While that was in the oven, I was roasting some cabbage and bacon on the grill and frying up some green tomato slices in the kitchen.  After and hour and half of cooking, we finally were able to sit down and eat it all.  

Yesterday, I gave a pint size baskets of tomatoes to my neighbors along with a good size cucumber.  Afterwards, I checked the garden and harvested some more tomatoes (after throwing about a dozen of them in the compost pile... thanks to the stinking aphids), 2 peppers, and another large zucchini.  My backyard gardening neighbor gave us some "hot" jalapeno peppers, so I am thinking maybe now I should start learning how to pickle things and make some jalapeno jelly too.  

Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

cucumbers: 20

Tomatoes: 187.36 oz = 11.71 lbs

Zucchini: 4

Peppers:  2

Beans: handful of Lima bean pods

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Best summer harvest yet!!!

After killing a few adult aphids and several baby ones, I picked a good amount of tomatoes and 4 cucumbers.  Today's weight of tomatoes is 45.47 oz, so roughly 3 oz shy of 3 lbs.  The two large green tomatoes will be sliced and fried for some yummy fried green tomatoes tonight.

Running total of Produce

cucumbers:  19

tomatoes: 146.14 oz = 9.13 lbs

zucchini:   3

peppers:  0

potatoes:  0

peas/beans:  

There are about 3 peppers that I so want to pick but I think I will let them stay on a few more days to get some growth to them.  The 4th zucchini is about ready too, so will have to keep looking for some more recipes.   This week we are going to do some zucchini rolls filled with shrimp and goat cheese grilled on the grill. 

We have been doing our best to eat and cook with all the tomatoes and cucumbers but we just can't seem to put a dent in them.   I have packaged up a pint size each for my neighbors along with a good sized cucumbers  (some green ones).  I will keep the yellowish ones to eat for myself.  

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Zucchini bread

Our first recipe using some of our garden grown zucchini is some yummy zucchini bread.  We used a Paula Dean recipe.  It was enough to make one large bread (which we took to our small group last night and we left with just an empty plate).  Even the kids at it up... little did they probably know though that it had zucchini in it... all they saw where the chocolate chips.  Besides the large bread, we also had enough to make 5 mini loaves to eat our selves and share with family and friends.

Here's the recipe we used.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread by Paula Dean  ( but there's not a single pat of butter in it!!!)
3 cups all-purpose four
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease 2 9x5" loaf pans
Sift together four, baking powder, salt, spices, and baking soda
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until well blended.
Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, pecans, chocolate chips.
Stir in sifted ingredients.
Pour into loaf pans.
Bake for 50 minutes.  Mini loaf pans for 25 minutes.  Check with toothpick.. comes out clean.. its ready.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Surprise zucchini today

After helping my father-in-law move into his new house over the weekend, I hadn't had time to check the garden in two days.  I already knew I had a zucchini that was about ready to be cut off so as I went to get it this morning it had doubled in size.  Zucchinis grow fast.  I did my usually walk around picking a few ripe tomatoes (today's haul was a little over 13 oz).   As I was rounding the back side checking on my cucumbers, low and behold, I was surprised with another 10" zucchini that I hadn't seen before.  So I told Jennie that we will have to make some zucchini bread soon before they go bad.

 
 With the netting on top of the tomato plants, the stems are now reaching about 6 ft long so they are beginning to lay sideways and starting to crowd out and shade my sweet pepper plants and into my kale "tree".  Not sure what to do, so will just leave it be for now.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

I think my garden has officially made its value just in tomatoes so far

This morning I found some more ripe tomatoes ready to be picked.  Thanks to Jennie's yarn scale, I am able to get a correct weight on my tomato yield.  Today they weighed in just a hair over 2 lbs.  I think its about time I start swapping produce with my neighbors, because I can't eat this many tomatoes.  Went to HEB this morning for the weekly grocery shopping and was able  to plan a whole weeks of meals using mostly produce from my garden.  Only spent $76 for this week, that of course includes store bought produce that is organic.   My wife and I try to eat mainly organic or local.  My garden is grown organically, as well as I can.  No one can be 100% organic if growing outside.

Found another zucchini this morning about 7" long.  I am going to wait a few days before picking it, simply because I already have 2 sitting in the fridge.  Thinking about making some yummy zucchini bread with it and one of the meals for the week will be grilled zucchini pizzas.

Finally have a few Aladdin sweet and bell peppers that are getting to a good size.  The larger ones should be ready in about a week.

Pest problems:  Loopers (larva of moths) or some cutworms are devouring my kale leaves and aphids are starting to eat my tomatoes.

Possible solution: I might try to mix me up some Garrett Juice to help with the pests.  J. Howard Garrett has written several gardening books.  Some of my favorite are:

Garden Tip:  don't get tomato pollen in your eyes... it stings!!  It's the one drawback of clumping my tomato plants this year.  I was reaching deep in the depths of the clump and a leaf rubbed my eye.  From now on its safety glasses for sure.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Fresh Garden Salsa Recipe

I have taken and modified my brother Jeff's hot sauce recipe over the years.

3 cans Rotel tomatoes (reserve some juice)
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/3 cup fresh chopped onion
1 1/2 - 2 tbs. chopped garlic
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes (gives it the heat)
3 dashes of chili powder
1/4 generous tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt (for taste, I use a little less)
1/2 tbs. lime juice
1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce
splash of white wine vinegar

Pour all into a blender and blend (time will depend on your thickness preference) If its too thick and chunky for your liking, add some of the reserved tomato juice to thin it out.
Will make about a pint of salsa and will last about a week in the fridge.

So over the years I have made this salsa and don't use the recipe as it is.  I tend to add and taste the ingredients as I go, not really using actual measuring spoons.   What I plan on doing this time is using the tomatoes, cilantro, and onion from my garden.   I will throw the big ones on the grill and char them up to give the salsa a more smoky flavor.

Made a pint of the salsa in the Magic Bullet yesterday and Jennie and I polished it off in one sitting.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Tomatoes are a coming!!!

As of today, I have harvested 3.5 lbs of tomatoes from the large cherry tomatoes and some Phoenix tomatoes.  Pulled a few cucumbers as well today because they were looking a little yellow.  This will give  the other ones a little more energy and juice to mature better.

One disappointment for today is after constructing a net tent over the length of the entire beds, I discovered that one of my Brandywines (a little larger than the size of my fist) was just starting to turn red and low and behold, I find a place where something started eating it.  Not sure what it is, the net is far enough away that it couldn't be a bird and its too small to be squirrel, so its got to be an insect of some sort.  The problem is, is that I haven't seen many bugs on my tomato plants.  I will have to do some night surveillance to find the culprit.  I went ahead and left it on hoping that whatever it is will continue to focus on that one tomato and leave the rest alone.

Now I just need to find some good recipes to cook and enjoy my harvest thus far.

Running total of Produce

cucumbers:  12

tomatoes: 3.5lbs

zucchini:   2

peppers:  0

potatoes:  0

peas/beans:  0

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

First fruits of summer 2012

Summer Garden: day 67


Thanks to the extended cool weather, I have been able to enjoy the garden with little watering and some of its first fruits of the growing season.  So far the cucumbers are winning... with eight fruits already harvested for eating.  The zucchini plants have already produced 2 good sized fruits, both about 11" long. What I have been waiting for are the tomatoes.   There are dozens of really big green ones just waiting to turn red.  I picked 2 medium sized a little early, because a third one had already been attacked by a bug.  Jennie put the two in the window and they continued to turn redder.  This morning, I went out to cut the second zucchini and saw a small cherry tomato ready to be picked.

Produce total as of today:
Cucumber: 8
Tomato:  3
Zucchini:  2



The tomato plants have now become a 5ft high dense jungle that has outgrown my homemade tomato cage/grid.  The good thing though is that all the branches are holding on to each other for support (survived a severe thunderstorm with some pretty strong winds about a month ago), plus the dense foliage is hiding the redness of the ripe tomatoes from the pesky birds in my backyard.  I think the squirrels though are a bit smarter and will eventually find them.

5ft tomato plants

                                                    

Brandywine 

Large Cherry tomatoes

another Brandywine

The pear tree has some small fruits on them, but probably won't make it to a worthy size of being eaten.                   

Being that last year was the season of cilantro  (it was everywhere and wouldn't die), well I think it finally decided to call it quit and is flowering everyday.   This season though I have a new friend that has secretly made its way to my garden beds... basil.  I have found shoots spring up in the potato bed, some around the beans, and some below my kale tree.  Yeah the kale plant is about 5 ft tall with leaves as big as my hand.   Jennie and I are doing our best to manage its growth but there is only so much that one can eat of kale chips.

  

 The Aladdin sweet peppers are starting to grow, along with an unknown melon (most likely a cantaloupe.)



The front herb garden is continuing to do well now that its established, thanks to the two weeks of off and on rain we had a few weeks back.  I make smoothies every morning before work and decided to add some chocolate mint and regular mint to the mix....it definitely gives it that real fresh flavor.

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

A little herbs to make life fresher

 So over the Easter holiday weekend, I spent most of my time re landscaping my front yard.  I made some new beds to put in some herbs like oregano, basil, mint, and some chocolate mint.  I also bought some blackberry plants along with some sylvania plants to attract butterflies. 

 

I actually drew out this design first on paper and then worked on it.  My measurements for the pavers were a little off, but I am happy with the end results.  Now I just have to find some 3/4 -1" gravel rock to fill in the spaces around the pavers.

I reused the large river rock from the side of my house to create a river bed look.  I added some purple fountain grass up front and transplanted my box woods in a triangular pattern.  I built a raised bed to put parallel to the sidewalk to help block of the wind from blowing leaves and trash to my front door.  The only problem, I think my rosemary didn't like the transplant, as it continues to look brown and dead.  The thing about rosemary that I researched on is that it can't be overwatered and it doesn't do well with compost.  So I am sort of stuck on what to do next to help revive it. 

I'm not quite done with the front yard as I have a few more ideas that I would like to try.  Just have to wait for the time and the money to be on my side.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Homemade tomato cages

Week 5, Day 28: April 17

So my attempt to crowd in my tomatoes this year like my brother did last year has me wondering.  There were a few of them that were being overshadowed, so I had to transplant them to an open area.  With the remaining ones, I decided to make a grid of sorts to help keep the tomato plants growing upward and not intertwining with each other.  I used some 36" stakes and some jute cord to create a grid pattern.  Hopefully this will work, only time will tell though.  I have used tomato cages in the past, but its been a 50/50 success.  Most of the tomato plants either grow to tall or the branches break off from the cages.

The potatoes continue to grow, so I planted a few more spuds in the front of the bed a few days ago.  You can see a few little shoots.  Funny too, is that I have noticed a few baby shoots of basil pop up in the potato box and with the Lima beans.

 The peppers are getting a little bit more growth to  them along with the onions in the back.  The kale "tree" has been my longest success to date.  That thing just won't give up.   In the lower left side of the box, you can see a few leaves sprouting from the rhubarb that I had planted about 4 weeks ago.  I wanted to experiment more with some perennials so this was my first.  I want to plant some artichokes and asparagus as soon as I find some to buy.

    

The zucchini now has some flowers on them and hopefully they will make their way to the trellis behind them.  I will most likely have to force them since the sun will be out in front of them.

The new 8x8 bed has had the least amount of new growth.  Mainly because everything was planted about two weeks later than the other beds and I hadn't set up a irrigation system for this one until today.  The 4 4x4 beds have two soaker hoses on them so allow for deeper root absorption and less water evaporation.  As you can see in this pic, I had a soaker hose but upon turning it on, found that it had a hole in it and wasn't quite effective.  So for now, I will be using a simple fountain style  sprinkler, early in the mornings.

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Off to a good start

Week 4, Day 21: April 9

Finally finished the new 8x8 bed.  Planted some cucumbers, peppers, and a few different beans and peas.  This is my first attempt at the peas and beans.  I have always grown them with my students in school but never once thought to actually grow some in my own garden.

 

The potatoes are beginning to sprout and the tomatoes are gaining some height.  For the zucchini boxes, I had to saw off where the old trellis was and reposition it to the back of the raised bed.  Its a little shorter than last time, but I think it will still work.