Movie: Ingredients

The Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA is screening Ingredients, a documentary about the local food movement in the United States, on Thursday, July 29th at 7pm.

The Mutant Sunflower

Welcome thyme2garden! Good luck with your SFG!

Last year I planted ONE dwarf sunflower. I guess I was afraid to go overboard. This year I am growing the same variety (actually using leftover seeds), but planted SIX! Ooooh...Ahhhhh! The seedlings barely survived because something was eating them and I feel like they have taken forever to grow. Planted in April, they are now just getting to be about maximum height (3-4 feet) with the sunflower heads starting to form.

Anyway, the other day I was taking a quick scan of the garden and noticed that one sunflower was "not like the other"...

I lost count at 15 heads (some of which are indicated above)! None of the other sunflowers are as tall as this one or has this 'problem.' I wonder if I got a rouge seed of another variety!? Will they all form heads with seeds?

Stay tuned to see what happens!

Red Silk?

Is this normal? As much as I know about gardening, I know way less about growing corn. Overall my two corn varieties appear to be doing well, and started to get tassels, especially the Brocade Sweet Corn. I noticed the first silks starting to appear last Sunday, but then on Tuesday, the were all red! I had assumed that they would stay white/yellow, as you find them on the ears of corn in the grocery store!

The male tassels have red pollen, so does this mean that the silks have gotten pollinated? I hope so!

Acting like Mr. McGregor

This is "peter rabbit" outside my garden gate....

This is "peter rabbit" inside my garden plot before I chased him away!

He/she was quite cute and not too phased by anything until I started chasing it around! This is the first rabbit I have seen in the garden. I hope he/she stays out!! No munching on my veggies "peter rabbit"!!

Coleslaw

I love coleslaw..even the kind you get in restaurants! However, the kind that I grew up with was made with pineapple, and without vinegar! It adds a great sweetness and soft contrast to the crunch of the cabbage and carrots! Now that I think of it, I am not sure where this recipe came from, but I feel that it is unique enough to call it Saumsiegle Coleslaw, since my family has been making it for as long as I can remember!

Coleslaw made with first Market Prize Cabbage of 2010

Saumsiegle Coleslaw
~1 head of cabbage
~About 3-5 carrots (enough to balance out the amount of cabbage)
~canned pineapple, chunks or 'tidbits' (i tend to buy the rings and cut them to 'tidbit' size)
~miracle whip

Cut cabbage and carrots. Combine in bowl. Drain canned pineapple and dump in bowl. Add miracle whip until ingredients are coated (to your liking). Enjoy!

Harvest Monday: Lots of Garlic

I had a great harvest yesterday! The biggest news, is that after almost 9 months, I harvested my garlic! My pickling cucumbers, sunsugar tomatoes and sungold tomatoes are producing really well. My sugar snap peas are almost exhausted, as the plants are starting to die back. Growing impatient, I picked a few carrots. They were tasty, but all very small. My cabbages are almost all ready, so I picked the largest one...coleslaw is on the menu for this weeks' meals!

I now have 11 heads curing for future use. About six heads had various problems with them, however I am hoping to use a few of their cloves in the near future. Overall, I am very happy with my first garlic harvest. The bulbs averaged about 2" around, pretty close to the size of the original heads of the cloves I planted in November.

Trying to Beat the Heat!

We finally had relief on Saturday after about two weeks of hot, sunny, dry weather. However, mother nature decided to give us the rain to us all at once! It poured for at least an hour, causing some major flooding that made nationwide news. The water had nowhere to go since the ground was so dry. People were stuck under overpasses, cars started floating away, even the Fenway dugouts needed to be pumped out. Unfortunately, it appears that we are now back where we started, with the extended forecast back to hot, sunny, and dry.

Garden Updates

I spent a few hours this morning tending to my back perimeter flower bed. My experiment of trying to grow a few flowers from seed failed miserably. There were just too many weeds, and I didn't want to pull anything, in hopes that the flowers would appear. So, today I pulled everything up. I am still undecided about what I should do here, since weeds tend to come in through the back fence as well.

I am anxiously waiting for a ripe, yellow pear tomato! Overall, my tomatoes are sprawling everywhere and producing nicely. I am still waiting for a ripe "large" tomato. None appear to be turning red yet.

Unfortunately, I discovered about 8 Roma II tomatoes with blossom-end rot. I did some research, and I narrowed it down to two potential causes...calcium deficiency, or drought stress. I sprinkle egg shells around my tomato and pepper plants, so I am not sure if the calcium deficiency fits. However, the we have had drought conditions!

The Black-seeded Blue Lake Snap Pole beans are starting to form as they compete for space with my cucumbers! I was not expecting pink flowers!

7/11/10

Vacationing with Veggies

Welcome Giddy Fingers! Thanks for following me! I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July! I had a wonderful, long weekend in Maine, relaxing and taking advantage of being in the outdoors! Kayaking, star-gazing, badminton, loons and lobster were all I was concerned with, while my growing veggies dealt with an impending heat wave in Boston!

Even though half the jar was eaten, I was inspired to have a photo shoot with one of my jars of pickled sugar snap peas while picnicking in Castine! I highly recommend this recipe from smitten kitchen if you want a break from eating the peas raw! My count is over 300!