Monica

garden progress

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 22:46:13 GMT

Remember my cohabitating cherry-tomato plants from a week ago? The wisdom of the Internet was conflicted, some saying to transplant and some saying I'd just have to give up on smaller one. I opted for the former. And lo, they both have more room to sprawl now. I bought some wooden stakes when I got the new (larger) pot, but they're too big, so in the short term they're being helped by (longer) crossbow bolts and in the medium term either they'll take a liking to that climbing wall I've put them near or I'll get some dowels or something.

I sure hope that rainspout isn't going to be a problem. I'll monitor that. There is a drain in the ledge between the spout and the pot.

The rest of the colony is doing fine too:

And the basil seems to be doing fine despite some initial drooping. We've had Caprese salad twice already.

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oops?

Sun, 31 May 2020 19:32:53 GMT

I probably should not have planted those two, small, cherry-tomato seedlings together in that one big pot:

The question is: what do I do about it? Is it safe to attempt to transplant one of them into another pot and center the remaining one? Or are their roots already likely entangled and I should just leave it?

I'll know better for next year. Also, this is remarkable growth since last Sunday. The description from the nursery used words like "small" and "compact". Google now tells me this means I can expect a height of 3-5 feet. (Google had not told me what kind of bounty I can expect from this -- all summer, the Internet says, but I mean yield, not timing. I guess I'll find out whether I needed two plants or one would have sufficed.)

I feel a little frivolous posting this when around me the world seems to be burning with hate and racism and abuses by those in power and I can't even really grasp it all yet. :-(

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this is how it begins

Mon, 25 May 2020 00:32:17 GMT

Last year one of my spring CSA boxes included a cute little basil seedling. And I said "huh -- I wonder if I can help it make more basil or if I should just recognize my ineptitude and eat it now". But lo! I decided to be daring, and I was rewarded -- that picture is from July, and it it just kept going and going (with periodic trimmings, a subject I still consider black magic). And I said to myself that hey, we should try that again. I entered this spring with plans to buy a basil seedling.

Then the pandemic happened, and the food-supply network is not as reliable as it once seemed, and siderea wisely counselled people to grow food if we can. And I said to myself that, well, I'm not going to try to plant a whole garden with attendant kneeling-on-ground (or in my case pavement) and weed-battling and the like (and anyway I don't have places with the right sun exposure), but I can expand from one pot. I ventured out to buy two seedlings, basil and rosemary, and one more pot because I only had the one.

But herbs, while delicious, aren't really food in the sense of sustenance, so I thought some more about what I use a lot of and what is practical in pots and durable enough to withstand my ministrations, and so when Grow Pittsburgh (the people who supplied that basil seedling to the CSA) started its weekly seedling sale and one week I was able to get stuff (as opposed to everything being sold out in the first few minutes), I decided to add cherry tomatoes and lunchbox peppers (those are the miniature ones that come in red, orange, and yellow) to my plans. And because my basil seedling that I'd had for a few weeks now was not looking super-perky and the basil had been the whole point of this excursion, I ordered a couple more basil seedlings, and a little redundancy for the others (for parity). I ordered a couple more pots from Amazon to hold them.

Once they were in proper pots and getting more quality outdoor time they started to perk up, and the Internet told me that I was overcrowding some of them. And, well, this is how it begins.

( photographic evidence )

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growing herbs

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 02:24:51 GMT

I am not equipped with gardening clues, but last year one of my spring CSA boxes contained a basil seedling, and I was able to keep that plant healthy and bountiful all summer. So between that success and liking basil rather a lot, and also because food shortages and venturing out are concerns, I want to try growing at least some herbs if not also some small vegetables. (Any such projects must be growable in pots.) But where to get seedlings? (Not my CSA; they cancelled this year.) I was starting to look at mail-order options (which do, it turns out, exist -- quality unknown).

Today we needed an item of household repair and did not want to wait a month, so we went to Home Depot. They are being careful and we are being careful. And lo! Home Depot has a garden shop that has plants for sale now. (I'd been thinking I was a few weeks too early.) So I now have these two additions to the household, and another pot (because I only had the one from last year), and I will do some Google research about cherry tomatoes (which they had in abundant variety but I don't know what they require or how to choose).

The basil plant is very small (they all were); perhaps it is in fact early to be doing this. (Maybe I should have gotten a second one as insurance.) But look at that rosemary go! I'll keep the basil inside on a windowsill for a while, but the rosemary might need to go into a proper pot before too much longer.

Oh brain trust, what vegetables, as opposed to herbs, are pretty idiot-proof and container-suitable? If I'm watering one pot it doesn't seem a big deal to water two (that's why I added the rosemary), and if I'm watering two it doesn't seem a big deal to water three, though I grant that this logic has its eventual limits.

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produce of unusual size

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 19:23:24 GMT

Since our CSA didn't do a winter share this year, we signed up with Imperfect Foods to see if it delivered better produce value than the local grocery store. They take stuff that isn't "pretty" enough for grocery stores and try to make use of it, so your carrots might be huge, your sweet potatoes might be cracked, and your peppers might be misshapen, but who cares? I'm pretty satisfied so far; you get to pick what's in your box and the quality is decent.

Sometimes there are surprises. Pop quiz: which of these items is of unusual size, the mini watermelon or the "purple" daikon radish?

( answer )

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winter CSA, week 9 (final)

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 01:02:58 GMT

Final share:

2 heads lettuce
1 bunch tatsoi
9 medium carrots
1 large yellow onion
1 large sweet potato
1 pound buckwheat flour
cheddar cheese
rhubarb preserves
lemongrass soap (one of these things is not like the others)

This was the only share of the season to not include apples. (I still have apples; that's fine. I just assumed it was one of their things -- there'd always be apples -- based on the previous eight boxes.)

This was my first CSA experience, so I don't have anything to compare it to other than what people I read have written about theirs. I liked it; I appreciate getting stuff that's in season and local, and that somebody else has figured out what that is and gathered it for me. I mean, when I go to the store the produce section has stuff from all over and I'm not especially dialed into the agricultural cycle, so I'm likely as not to be buying stuff that was shipped in from across the country (or farther). The CSA also introduced me to things I'd never bought or cooked with before.

Of course, the flip side of all that is that you'll like some things more than others, or be able to use larger quantities of some things than others. I could do with a little less celeriac next time. Overall I ended up with quite a bit of grain (flours, corn meal, spelt berries, etc); it'll take a while to go through that. It's good, but we just don't use a lot of it -- if each of those two-pound bags had been one-pound bags, with more of something else to compensate, that would have been fine.

This particular CSA adds processed foods (like jams and relishes) more than I expected, and I put in my feedback that I'd like to see more raw ingredients instead except for when it's stuff I can't make at home myself. I don't have an apple press so I appreciate the cider, but I can make my own salsa.

We've signed up for the weekly spring share, which starts in three weeks.

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winter CSA, week 8

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 03:49:11 GMT

11 carrots (varied sizes)
3 green meat radishes
7 Empire apples
5 "white" potatoes (I expected the skins to be lighter; haven't looked inside yet)
lettuce
Rosie Asian greens
2lb spelt berries (what the heck are... ok, got help from Google)
dozen eggs
quarter pound of "cowboy coffee" cheese (there's an espresso rub)
jar zucchini relish (who knew?)

I might need to pickle some of the radishes. My pickled daikon radish back at the beginning of the season worked out pretty well, but I like them more than Dani does. Do radishes roast well, I wonder?

There's one delivery left in the winter CSA. We signed up for the spring share, which is weekly for eight weeks (after a gap of three weeks, if I recall correctly). We'll make decisions about summer later; for that we have options for both size and frequency.

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winter CSA, week 7

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 01:54:42 GMT

5 Rome apples
3 celeriac (one small) (late substitute for the beets we were expecting)
4 medium blue potatoes
16 small carrots, generally around 4" long
large bunch arugula (that is the one front right, isn't it? it's bigger than past arugula, but the bag back left doesn't look like arugula)
bunch tatsoi
bag mizuna (this is a new green for me)
half gallon apple cider
2 pounds pastry flour
small jar green tomato relish ("think of it as a more mature salsa")
6oz piece goat's milk Parmesaanen

The preview email, once again, included a picture not of the cheese but of the goat.

The cornbread recipe that came with the cornmeal in a past box calls for pastry flour, which I didn't have then but do now. Last time I made it with regular flour, so I'll see if I can tell the difference with pastry flour. Meanwhile, this bag of flour comes with a recipe for pancakes. Neither cornbread nor pancakes are pastry in my mind, but I'll assume that the term "pastry flour" is expansive.

(The CSA linked to a short article about the difference between pastry flour and regular flour, but the site goes overboard with annoying in-page ads, so instead of linking to it I'll summarize: pastry flour is lower in protein than normal flour, which means it's lower gluten, which means it makes biscuits, scones, pie crusts, and quick breads lighter and flakier.)

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winter CSA, week 6

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 03:37:24 GMT

two bunches hydroponic lettuce
one bunch Rosie Asian greens
six Rome apples
three rutabagas (two bigger than my fist)
one watermelon radish
seven shallots
thirteen baby turnips (are these baby scarlet? that seems the least-unlikely among the varieties they list as possibilities)
four red potatoes
two heads garlic
dozen "pastured" eggs
jar of, nominally, chopped tomatoes, though it looks more like puree to me
8oz jar Japanese knotweed honey

The eggs came with this note: "since these are washed, you'll want to store in the fridge". This raises two questions. First, washed? Second, when wouldn't I store raw eggs in the fridge? I always do, so this note puzzles me.

One of their suggestions for the radish is roasting. I've never roasted radishes, so I might give that a try (though some of it will almost certainly go into salad). The jar of tomato stuff will probably end up in a soup or stew. Most of the roots are good for roasting, though I'll try to broaden my horizons there. (Potatoes aren't the only thing that can be a gratin; turnips work too, I'm told.)

They note that the honey is good for tea. That's handy, as we like tea and, just last night, were noticing that the current jar is nearly empty. (Knotweed?) The hechsher (kosher certification) is one I hadn't seen before, Earth Kosher. ("K" on a globe.)

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winter CSA, week 5

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 02:18:31 GMT

12 small carrots (4-5" long)
one celeriac
six yellow Delicious apples (better for cooking, they say)
three medium golden potatoes
five small-medium red onions
two rutabagas (these are new to me)
one bunch arugula
one bunch hydroponic lettuce
one bag tatsoi (this is new to me)
two pounds cornmeal
one jar salsa
one piece "Kiss of Kerry" cheese, est. 8oz

None of the greens really look like arugula to me, but that's what the manifest says. I think the stuff in the zipper bag (the left-most batch) is the tatsoi, based on image searches.

The lettuce will become a salad (I still have some radishes for this, too), and the other greens will go into stir-fry, an omelette, or soup. Lots of this is good for roasting, and one of the celeriac recipes from last time was very good so I'll check my notes and do that again. There is cornbread in our future. Dani doesn't like applesauce (I learned tonight) but does like baked apples, which is what I've been doing with some of the other apples (also stuffing into squash). There's apple crisp or apple cobbler in our future too, and I might just make some applesauce for myself even if he doesn't want to share it. (I like applesauce!)

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winter CSA, week 4

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:53:22 GMT

Today's themes: (1) giant squash! and (2) how am I going to use all those greens while they're still good?

~~two~~ three bunches arugula (two different farms, one labeled hydroponic -- turns out one bag had two bunches)
one bunch endive
six Rome apples
one stripetti squash (this type is new to me)
five parsnips
three fingerling sweet potatoes
two bulbs garlic
three medium-large shallots
two green meat radishes (these are new to me)
dozen free-range eggs
jar pumpkin butter

I'm glad to get parsnips; I quite like them as part of a roasted-vegetable mix. And the eggs are well-timed; I was just about to have to buy more. (I did have to buy more carrots, so I have some to roast with the parsnips.)

We're not keeping up with the apples, largely because both our workplaces get fruit deliveries so we're not taking them for lunch. Plus we got inundated with desserts (baking season, I guess), so I haven't been making cobblers. It's time to change that; I like cobbler. :-) We've had some baked apples, and apples are one of the things I stuff squash with, and there was an apple-beet salad that I'll make again with the last beets. I have a recipe for a soup with (butternut) squash and apples that sounds good. I can always make applesauce, though Dani doesn't like it as much as I do. I welcome any other non-dessert suggestions. (Desserts I've got plenty of.)

I need to figure out how to divide and conquer the squash. We can't eat all of it at once; would unused portions keep better raw (carve off a meal's worth and cook that) or cooked (cook the whole thing and then store)?

I also welcome suggestions for arugula and endive. Salad, yes, and I understand that arugula works well in pasta. Do they stir-fry or saute well? Does either work well in soups?

So far I like having a farm share. I think we're eating better, I'm learning to use new-to-me produce, and we might even be saving a little money, surprising as that seems. We signed up for the spring CSA (weekly, eight weeks). We're undecided about summer; a summer share might produce more greens and zucchini than we're prepared to absorb. On the other hand, the summer share has options for both small and standard boxes and for weekly and biweekly pickups; a biweekly small box is a possibility. We'll decide later.

Random question: what makes brown eggs more or less brown? There's noticeable variation in this dozen and it got me wondering.

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pretty radishes

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 04:19:47 GMT

The watermelon radish is as advertised:

With shaved carrots and pickled daikon radish on a bed of lettuce, it makes a lovely combination of colors. (The photo was pre-dressing, which was vinaigrette.) Tasted good, too. :-)

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winter CSA, week 3

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:14:20 GMT

Today's haul (a week early because of holidays; next one in three weeks):

barese (a member of the Swiss chard family? described as similar to bok choy and good in stir-fry)
six Crimsom Crisp apples
2 bulbs garlic (the other pile of garlic in front is delayed from last week)
shallots (a couple large and a few small)
five carrots (three large), counting the "Siamese carrots" there as two
one watermelon radish, named for its distinctive coloring when you cut it open, which I haven't done yet
six beets
six golden potatoes
one butternut squash (smaller than last week's giant)
8oz maple syrup
2 pounds spelt flour (they recommend brownies and chocolate-chip cookies)

I'll use some barese, shallots, garlic, and maybe shaved carrots in a stir-fry. Some of the barese might go into a tofu hot & sour soup (I have a crock-pot recipe to try). I'll make the recommended brownies and maybe cookies. They included a recipe for a salad of roasted beets and apples that I'll try. I'm not sure whether to eat the radish raw (in a salad) or do something else with it.

In followups from last week: the celeriac with peas was tasty; the celeriac mash (with potatoes and horseradish) was ok (under-horseradished); I used a little of the daikon radish in a salad and pickled the rest (yum). And the butternut squash I roasted. We had some of the goat cheese with dinner tonight.

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winter CSA, week 2

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 03:14:50 GMT

Good haul today. I'm glad I brought two cloth bags; it was easier to distribute the load that way than it would have been to carry the box.

dozen free-range eggs (I assume it's the chickens that are actually free-range, not that the eggs are ambulatory)
head hydroponic lettuce (same type as last time)
one large butternut squash (estimate 4 pounds)
one Celebration squash
six Rome apples
two pieces celeriac root
four medium red onions
six small purple potatoes ("Magic Molly")
two daikon radishes (I think; they said we'd get either daikon or "green meat" radishes and these look more like the pictures of the former)
8oz chive and onion chevre (with hechsher!)
17oz jar apple butter
expected but not present: garlic

I sent email asking about the garlic, wondering if it had been delayed, and they wrote back right away and said the farm hadn't sent them quite enough so some boxes didn't get it, but they'd have a bag with my name on it at next week's pickup. (It's a biweekly CSA, except that they moved the pickups in the week of Dec. 25 a week earlier, so next week.)

My choir has a pot-luck dinner next week, so I'll do something with the butternut squash for that (not sure what yet, but presumably it'll involve roasting). I plan to pickle at least one of the two radishes; I love pickled daikon and have never made it before (have never actually bought fresh daikon). Celeriac was new to me; I used one tonight to make this dish with celeriac and peas and it was tasty. I'm planning to use the other to make this mash with potatoes and horseradish. Not with the purple potatoes, though; that would look weird. Those I'll roast, probably, maybe with rosemary.

I sometimes bake acorn squash filled with apples; on the other hand, squash is nice with savory herbs too. I don't need to decide right away. One way or another, I know what to do with all of this.

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winter CSA, week 1

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 04:13:07 GMT

We joined a CSA for the first time, finally enticed by a pickup location at my workplace. The first pickup was today.

1 head hydroponic lettuce
1 bunch Chinese cabbage
about a dozen small carrots (about 6" long)
1 spaghetti squash
3 shallots
3.5 largish fingerling sweet potatoes (I assume the .5 was an accident and somebody else has the other half)
1 black Spanish radish (the manifest said "radishes"; Wikipedia said they're bigger than red radishes; this one weighs about half a pound)
7 Empire apples
half gallon apple cider (not from the same farm as the apples)
2 pounds unbleached bread flour
5oz Bewitched cheese: "Enjoy this exclusive one time only cheese from Hidden Hills Dairy, available only to Winter CSA members! This cheese is a mix between their Buttercup and an Alpine Cheese. Great for snacking, making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich, or as an addition to mac and cheese! If enjoying as a snack, let it come to room temperature first."

For some of the flour I'm going to follow their suggestion of Japanese milk rolls, assuming I can find dry milk. (! That shouldn't be hard, but it wasn't to be found anywhere in our usual grocery store!) I don't know yet how I'll use the black radish; maybe sauteed with shallots and cabbage (and thinly-sliced carrot?), or maybe roasted with carrots and sweet potatoes (and shallots?). I'll do something savory with the squash. There might be apple cobbler in my future, but apples are good for eating raw too. By default the lettuce becomes salad, but I welcome other suggestions (for any of this).

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