Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Yes, it's that time again! You wouldn't know it from the weather out there, with our snow last week, and much colder than average temps, after the warmest Feb on record for the area! It didn't bother the garlic and shallots - only 2 empty spaces in that 40' double row I planted.

I'll post my lists when I have more time; suffice it to say, I have fewer new peppers, and fewer old tomatoes - still looking for heat resistant varieties! I also got a different bitter melon, as the one last year stopped when it got hot. I also got a Thai melon that is supposed to be heat resistant, a green bean that is touted as heat resistant, and a few new greens, as usual.

OK, here are the lists, the Misc veggies are all in there, because I didn't want take the time to separate all of the new from old, but I did that already in the peppers and tomatoes.

A new one that I'm wondering if anybody has grown or bought before, is the Chinese Kale. The variety I got looks like it is grown more for the huge stalk, than the leaves: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/chkabigboy.html


MISC:

*= new variety

Hybrid Choice Bitter Melon*
Hybrid Small Round Wax Melon*
Thai Yellow Sweet*
PEASBEANS

Bush - Inspiration*
Butterbean - Edamame*
Pole - Blauhilde
Pole - Blue Lake
Pole - Meraviglia di Venezia - Yellow Romano*
Red Noodle

EGGPLANT

Green Beauty*
Hari
Ichiban
Neon

GREENS

Bok Choy Win win
Chard - Perpetual Spinach
Chard - Neon Glow
Chinese Kale - Big Boy*
Kohlrabi - Grand Duke
Kohlrabi - Kolibri
Lettuce - Bluch Batavians
Komatsuna
Misome*
Senposai
Tyfon*
Zen Tatsoi

MELON


Mammoth Melting Sugar snow pea
Sugar Spring Bush*
Super Sugar Snap

WINTER SQUASH

Butternut - Polaris

NEW TOMATOES:
Large varieties :
Black Vernisage
Blight Buster
Cherokee carbon
Chocolate Sprinkles
Defiant

Cherries:
Candy Sweets
Chocolate Sprinkles
Sunchocola
Sungreen
Suntreats
Sweet Treats

NEW PEPPERS:

New:

Aleppo
Buena Mulata (Purple Pepper)
Carolina Reaper
Godfather sweet
Habanada
Jimmy Nardello sweet
Mosquetero Ancho
Thai Chik Fee Na (new source)
Thai Dragon (new source)
Thai Nippon Taka (new source)


As usual, I will be eating a near vegetarian diet, once these start producing!

Dave,

Not much here; it hasn't stopped raining or gotten consistently above 50F yet, and there's no sign of when it will.

Last year's garlic is coming up on its own, though. And the chives survived the snow, as did (surprisingly) the zaatar and parsley. I'm going to need to replant the oregano though.

If it does, I'm planning on planing more sweet peas, and taking another shot at tuscan kale, this time planted in the ground. The orach and lettuce were also real successes, as were the lemon cucumbers, so those are all probably coming back. Not sure what else I'll plant, though; we don't get enough full sun for bigger cucumbers or tomatoes (or, for that matter, peppers).

Dave, what do you do with all of your produce? I know you preserve some of it, but you must harvest pecks and pecks of veggies.

Becky, That's why I said that I become a near vegetarian! I have been trying to use up all of last year's harvest, but I probably won't.

One thing that I have done with that extra butternut squash was dry it and powder it, and I used it in sweet breads. I also powdered the dried eggplant (I have a LOT of that!), and put it in Indian flat breads. Haven't perfected these, but the VM makes an ultra-fine flour out of these things, and 1 oz dried = 1 lb fresh butternut, and 1.45 oz for eggplant, so the flour is very concentrated.

Our garden is the strangest ever. The greenhouse was flattened by the winds. Steve built a netted cover and moved the citrus containers near the porch, under the net. We had fewer lemons and limes. However, a kumquat tree be bought, not sure what I was thinking) produced like mad late spring. The fruit was left on the tree since I've no clue what to do with it. We don't eat a lot of jam or preserves. Steve planted a Haas avocado seed and it is now huge towering over the citrus. He found another wild one (must have been in the compost bucket over a year ago) and he planted the little plant in a container and it is now also huge. Unfortunately, I believe the plants can be really big and still not produce avocados, but he's hoping.

Our serenity? Spinach survived and is growing again. The red Swiss Chard loved the weird weather and it is beautiful. Ditto for a couple of types of mint and thyme. The sage is there but puny, but the rosemary is huge again. We also have a huge Thai basil that somehow self propagated and is trying hard to bolt. It was partly covered by the fallen greenhouse. The biggest loss for me was the tarragon. Not a bit survived and we can't find any to replant.

Steve repotted the spinach and put an Italian basil plant and some cilantro (ugh) in the next pot. They were doing well. Then last night he went out with a flashlight with the dog and found the pot covered in snails and slugs chomping away. Not sure covering the plant in salt will do the trick.

I got so spoiled not having to buy herbs or veggies, that now that I want to cook again (had major periodontal surgery) I'm lost. Hopefully now that the weather damage cleanup is done, we (meaning Steve) will be able to grow good stuff again. That is if we can keep Sunny from destroying all the sprinkler heads.

Alina,

1. For slugs and snails, try Sluggo. Apply once every 2 weeks, more frequently if it rains. Slugs/snails eat it and die, but it's harmless to people/pets/plants (it kills them with an excess of iron).

2. Avocado trees need to be at least 5 years old to fruit.

I am going to try a few items in hanging pots this year - I have a fairly shady yard so most plants don't do well, but I have this ugly thing in the backyard with hooks on it for eight hanging baskets so I thought 'why not try veggies there?' I hope it will keep the bunnies from eating every damn thing. I have given up on tomatoes; since we have excellent farmers' markets around it isn't that problematic. I'll plant some lettuce, maybe try some squash in the almost sunny part of the garden, haricot vert, carrots, and radishes.

My perennial/biennial herbs are going gangbusters (chives, mint, parsley). The basil plants I purchased died a strange death; I'll have to find more. Rhubarb is great and I will freeze some this weekend. That's all I have time/energy/sunlight to do.

Darcie,

Huh, how will you get enough soil into the hanging containers for serious vegetable growth? I'm planting in containers for some stuff, and those containers weigh maybe 50 lbs each ...

Last year I planted an Earth Box with my herb collection. Everything did very well.
However, as Fuzzy pointed out, those containers get VERY heavy.
When it came time to replant I had to dump out the old soil but it weighed so much that I couldn't take the bag of dirt to the can to get rid of it. I had to wait a get my handyman to do it for me.
I think I'll have to limit myself, in the future, to just a couple of pots.