Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 24, 2010 at 5:24pm

hahaha....How true! Very handsome young gardener you have Adriana.

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 24, 2010 at 4:02pm

Straight From the Garden: Turnip Green Casserole
By Sara Novak | Sat May 22, 2010 08:00

Don't waste your turnip greens, throw them into a casserole.

We had a fabulous day of picking and planting at my good friends David and Ginny's organic farm in Orangeburg, S.C. We planted rows of cabbage and sweet potatoes and we harvested rutabagas, eggplant, spinach, mustard greens, romaine, scallions, broccoli, and turnips. The next step is putting the food to work so that nothing goes bad. I'm in menu planning mode with enough local organic produce to supply a small grocery store.

First off, I'm making turnip green casserole. The greens cook down a lot so a casserole is a great way to use them. Also, the greens go bad first so you want to make sure that you put them to use. The turnips and the rutabagas will last for a while in the refrigerator.

The casserole or gratin is pretty healthy as well. While I'm not a vegan, I try and only use local dairy so that I know where it's sourced at all times. In this case, I used an eggless canola based mayonnaise. Greens are a big part of a southerner's diet because they are loaded with nutrients and cheap to grow and maintain. We love them down here, from turnip greens to mustard greens and everything in between.

Turnip Green Casserole

4 lbs turnip greens, cleaned, de-stemmed, chopped
½ cup vegan mayonnaise
2 local eggs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
1 tsp sugar
The juice of ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup bread crumbs for garnish
Garnish with 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Method

1. Clean the greens by filling up the sink with water and adding the greens. The sand will fall to the bottom of the sink. Remove from the water. Cut out the stems and chop.

2. Boil for about 5 minutes to remove the bitterness. Add to a blender to chop even more finely.

3. Combine the greens with mayo, eggs, cheese, horseradish sauce, sugar, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Empty into a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

4. Top with breadcrumbs and cheese. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

(Sorry to say that since I can't plant a garden where I live, I have to resort to some interesting reports about other people's gardens.... 'sigh')


http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/straight-from-the-gard...

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 24, 2010 at 5:21pm

This is a terrific substitute for mayonnaise. Tastes great and NO EGGS are used...

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 25, 2010 at 7:18am

Yes, but I've seen it in my local groceries in the Organic selection. Trader Joes sells it too, that's where I pick it up.

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 25, 2010 at 7:22am

Post pictures and a video! I don't even have a patio to hang an upside down tomato plant...boo-hoo. Just some herbs and flowering plants on my window sill. I'll post a picture of that pitiful little green zone that I have soon.

Permalink Reply by Chuck G on May 24, 2010 at 8:56pm

I think those are Marigolds, a yellow variety.

Permalink Reply by Chuck G on May 24, 2010 at 9:18pm

I decided to try the upsidedown tomato, since I have never tried it before. I just used a big grower pot(about 7 gallons). I also didn't have much selection on the varieties, but I picked on called Atkinson, which is supposed to be good in the heat and is indeterminate, meaning that it continues to grow and set fruit all season. Determinate tomatoes grow and flower and fruit in one big push to set a single crop, like if you want them all ripe at once to can. For most people just growing tomatoes to have some for sammy-iches and salads, indeterminate tomatoes are the kinds to grow. Indeterminate tomato plants also get lots bigger.

My other tomato plant, I started way back in early April, is a yellow pear, the little yellow salad tomato. It does great in the heat and looks cool in salads.

There are a few ones almost ripe:

I also have some potted citrus trees. The first is called a "Lemon Drop" It's a hybrid between a regular lemon and a Kumquat, which is a little very hardy orange like plant with berry-like fruit that you eat the whole thing, skin and all. The lemon drops are about the size of golf balls, and I eat them skin and all, the skin is sweet and the flesh tastes like a lemon-grapefruit. Really good. This one grows, flowers and fruits continuously.

I also have a potted mandarin orange called a satsuma that are totally fabulous. The fruit is just like those clementines, super sweet, with a super easy to peel skin. These set one crop that is just forming now and ripens in November here in Texas.

Finally these are not a food plants, but eye candy, varieties of Hoya:

Permalink Reply by Chuck G on May 25, 2010 at 3:17pm

I was out on a hike today in a new nature area near our home. As a nature area, it needs a lot of work, much of it is just old hay fields and hundreds of acres of weedy non-natives like Johnson grass, but there are lots of areas that are really nice too. In one such area, just as I was getting hungry, guess what I found all ripening in the sun? Dew berries! Dew berries are like really low growing, viney blackberries. They're a little small, a little seedy, about like raspberries, and a little tart, but over all really good. Some places there were so many that I could get 3 or 4 in one hand-pick. I ate about a pint in 10 minutes. Next time, I'm going earlier, when its cooler, and bringing a big container to fill!

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on May 31, 2010 at 5:22am

Green Bean Season

By TARA PARKER-POPE
May 28, 2010 - NY Times

Martha Rose Shulman calls green beans her “go-to spring vegetable.” The key, she says is proper cooking: four to five minutes of either steaming or par-boiling. Green beans are great on their own or tossed in a salad; they can also be paired with pasta or rice dishes. In this week’s Recipes for Health, she offers five delicious ways to prepare green beans, including a longer cooked Mediterranean bean stew that is packed with flavor.

Green Bean and Mushroom Salad With Creamy Vinaigrette: Inspired by a salad at Bouley restaurant in New York.

Warm Green Bean Salad With Frisée and Walnuts: Can be made with frisée — or baby lettuces, arugula or radicchio.

Greek Stewed Green Beans and Yellow Squash With Tomatoes: A Mediterranean style bean stew that resembles Greek and Turkish ladera.

Green Beans With Potatoes and Garlic: Inspired by a Spanish dish that’s made with the flat green beans that we call romanos.

Garlic Green Beans: Try the green garlic now widely available in farmers’ markets, or regular garlic; almonds contribute a crunchy texture.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/green-bean-season/

Permalink Reply by Chuck G on July 16, 2010 at 10:47am

Here are some new pics of the edibles in my yard:

This is a buttercup squash I planted so it could use the dead palm petioles(leaves that froze last winter) as a trellis. It only gets about 1/2 to 1/3 of a day of sun, but luckily, squash plants don't need full sun. Buttercup squash is the absolute best; baked, it has a bright orange, dry, very non-stringy flesh, perfect with lots of butter or EV olive oil.

Another view of the buttercup squash. Look closely near the center of the pic, near the living palm petioles. I have a little friend standing guard over my squash. Here's a closeup:

She is a common garden spider, or orb weaving spider, Argiope aurantia

Standing guard over my figs I have a fake owl:

I also have some plastic snakes and some of the rope snakes. I stick a piece of wire in the head end, so they can be hung in the tree.

These figs are ready!

Here's my yellow pear tomato, still setting fruit in the 95+ deg F Dallas heat.

I planted a new Metley plum tree, and have mulched it with all the small twigs, leaves and other stringy fibrous yard trash, plus banana peels and avocado skins. It is planted on a 4 inch mound, and the mulch is mounded, but a doughnut hole left around the trunk.

Plum tree yard trash mulch.

I have staked the plum, not by the main trunk, but by several side branches. The side branches are pulled down to about a 45 deg angle, because that's what stimulates them to set fruiting spurs. Also, the trunk is not held too rigidly, and can move with the wind, and thus toughen up for the day when all stakes are removed. (I mow my grass once a month, whether it needs it or not!)