Mid-October Garden

In one word: DRY.  Of course, that's no surprise.  October is normally the driest of months.  By today's tally, it's been a month and six days since the last rainfall.  There's really no chance to speak of in the 10 day forecast.  I'm all out of the rain water that I sequester in buckets and barrels beneath the drip line behind the house.  All except for one barrel that the honeybees use to drink from.  So I've been running the sprinkler every day.  This is a sprinkler that Mom & Dad got me and we have really put some mileage on it.  We move it from one location to the other in the garden to get moisture in the soil.  This is a photo from a few weeks ago.  Even despite the lack of rainfall, the plants have grown nicely since then.

Amazingly, even as hot as it's been, the bug pressure hasn't been bad at all on the bok choy.  We've clipped all of this and eaten it since I took the photo.  It grows back quickly.  We usually cook these down like you would with any greens, but Tricia adds some ginger, lime juice and grated parmesan to the top of them.  They are really good.  This isn't something I grew up eating, for sure.  In fact, I would have turned my nose up at it, but now, I like it.

We like to plant a big variety of lettuce in the fall.  Even if we get a freeze, if we cover it, we've been successful in saving most of it.  I want to show you a new variety of lettuce we're trying out from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com).  This is called "Flashy Butter Gem" lettuce.  First time we've tried it and we achieved a phenomenal germination rate on it.  We won't know how it tastes for a week or two, though.

The leaves are a nice green color with what appears to be bloodstains on them.  I guess I'll overlook that trait.  Sure is lovely looking, though, with the morning dew beading up on the leaves before the sun evaporates it.  Just a beautiful lettuce.

But you need more than lettuce for a salad.  How about some cucumbers?  We've got some coming!  These cucumber plants looked atrocious the other day as some worms were feasting on the leaves and actually killed two plants.  That's when I dosed them up with some Neem Oil.  I'm impressed with that product.  It killed the pests and the cucumber plants quickly put on fresh new growth.

Lots of blooms coming, too!  I'm excited about some fall cucumbers for the salad.  I've got a few other garden reports coming in the next few days.  Stay tuned (and get out and enjoy this nice weather - it was 52 degrees here last night!)

Checking in on the Fall Garden

Gardening can be a risky enterprise sometimes.  In our side yard, something has been clipping my sugar snap peas and they haven't been able to grow very much.  As soon as they get any new growth, something nibbles it down to the ground.  Rabbits?  Rats?  I figured I would set one of my cage traps that I've had success eradicating all the possums in the neighborhood to catch the culprit.

Yeah...  No.  Cage traps are indiscriminate.  This cat is NOT the culprit, but boy was he mad.  I think it is the neighbor's cat.  With much hissing and discontent by the trapped feline, I was fortunately able to let him out of the trap without him scratching me to ribbons.  I hope my neighbor doesn't notice the cat's scratched up head that he got trying to escape from the cage.  Anyway, we have sugar snap peas trying to grow.

Here is my spinach.  It is young, but I have a 30 foot row of it and it appears to have all germinated.  Spinach is one of those things that is fantastic eaten fresh.  It doesn't even compare to the canned Popeye spinach.

I have two rows of carrots popping up.  There are three varieties planted: Danvers Orange, Cosmic Purple, and Atomic Red.  Our carrots always flat-out produce.  We still have bags of blanched carrots in the freezer from last year's crop.

Several varieties of lettuce are planted.  Here is a red romaine.

Here is a black seeded Simpson:

I like the fall garden because you can pretty much count on less bug pressure.  That isn't always the case.  Worms are eating my chioggia beets, bull's blood beets, and swiss chard like nobody's business!

Not to worry, though.  After we get a cool snap, the beets will put on new leaves and they'll be okay.  We need cool weather.  The bok choy is bolting.  They are wanting to flower and go to seed.  We find this makes the leaves bitter.  Cool weather would slow this down.  It appears to be cooling now, so maybe that will save the bok choy crop.  Otherwise, we'll feed all this to the milk cows.

Finally, we have some red Russian kale.  We only planted a third of a row this year as it is always so prolific.  We find that even though we eat it several times a week, we cannot possibly eat it all.  We give some away and we end up feeding a bunch to the cows.

Next week, perhaps we'll take a look at the tomatoes, okra, radishes, and cole crops. 

A Quick Look at the Fall Garden

The other day my new job in Lafayette took me a little south and west from the office and I found myself driving down roads that I haven't driven down in years and years.  On an old country road between Loreauville and New Iberia, Farmers were in the middle of sugar cane harvest and as I looked at the cane, it dwarfed the tractors and 18 wheeler tractor trailers loaded with the chopped sugar cane.  I had never seen sugar cane that tall before.  While sugar cane is grown right down the road from where we live, it is not nearly this tall.  My first thought was that perhaps this was a different variety of sugar cane.

But then I looked at the soil.  It was rich and black as onyx.  There's the answer.  It is the rich soil that makes the cane grow like Jack's beanstalk.  The soil is everything.  Unfortunately, the soil 50-something miles west where I live isn't near that good.  Not even close.  We work every year, though, to amend our soil with manure, compost, organic matter, lime and other amendments to improve it, but this takes work, time, and great patience.  Truth be told, I'd like to import some of that black soil to Jeff Davis Parish.

But despite the soil deficiencies and the weather struggles we've had this year, we're still growing fresh vegetables.  Let's take a look.  Here is some healthy looking (and healthy for you to eat) Russian Red Kale.

I love to see the dew-kissed leaves.  While the leaves are still small - about five inches long and four inches wide, it won't be too much longer before it's time to pinch a nice little bunch of these to cook down for supper.

Here is a 24 foot row of Bok Choy or Chinese Cabbage planted from seed I saved from four years ago.  The germination of this saved seed was off the charts.  They are planted really thick as insurance against poor germination, but now I know I didn't need to do this.

I'll thin them out by plucking out a 'mess' of the baby bok choy to braise as a healthy, tasty side dish for supper.  The young, tender leaves are tasty.    

If there is such thing as growing candy in the garden, this is as close as it gets. Here is a portion of a 24 foot row of Sugar Snap Peas.  The young peas are reaching skyward with their tendrils about to grab hold of the trellis.

When these sugar snap peas bloom and put on pods, many of them never make it in to the kitchen to be stir fried - they get eaten right out here in the garden.

These are late this year due to the unusually wet August that delayed planting, but our carrots are just popping up.

And here is some baby spinach.  I planted more spinach a couple weeks later than these were planted to have a staggered harvest.  Raw spinach is good.  So is creamed spinach.  That might be good on the Thanksgiving menu.

One row over is the cabbage, then cauliflower, and then broccoli.

There's other items coming and I've yet to plant my mustard and turnips, but it is a good start considering the delay.  I'll show the fall tomatoes a little later.  It is really going to to be a race to see if we get any tomatoes before the first frost.  They have their first blooms now.  Who knows?  It is November and in the 80's still.  It is an abnormal year for sure.  That's what makes gardening the adventure that it is!

Touring the Spring Garden in Late December

It's not really spring, but it feels like it.  Let's take a look at the garden.

Today it was 77 degrees and tomorrow it will be 81,
Christmas Eve in the South underneath a hot, muggy sun,
In the photo below there's broccoli, bok choy and eggplant,
The broccoli and bok choy are starting to pant!

We picked some beautiful eggplant, purple and shiny,

They were huge - not in the least bit tiny.

Tricia cut them up and sauteed them with garlic, onions and butter,

They were so delicious, they made me stutter.

 

The Red Romaine was growing real nice,

I'll cover them up, if we ever get ice,

That doesn't seem likely as it is 80 degrees,

I'll have a nice tossed salad, if you please.

There's some Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce right down the row,

Healthy, green, and curly, don't you know?

As I survey the leafy lettuce, I'm starting to sweat,

I think I'll have this with a nice vinaigrette.

These types of lettuce are named Rocky Top Mix,

Blushing and pink - just for kicks,

So pretty to look at, you may not want to eat,

They're so colorful, fresh, healthy and sweet.

This last type of lettuce is called the Oak Leaf,

It pairs nicely with chicken or with beef,

The leaves of this type looks like its namesake,

But pick them with your fingers, not with a rake.

And here's a row of broccoli with a nice big head,

Eat a bunch of this and you won't soon be dead,

You can feast on the head and eat the leaves too,

Green and tasty and healthy for you.

Here's an odd cauliflower, and yes it is purple!,

Eat this for supper and it will cure your hirple,

The definition of hirple means "to limp",

If you eat purple cauliflower - you're no wimp!

And there you have it, girls and boys,

Fresh vegetables under the tree - not any toys!

And I heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight,

"Eat your veggies today or eat them tonight!"

Growing and Cooking Bok Choy

I have two rows of Bok Choy planted in our fall garden.  It is also called Chinese cabbage.  To be honest, it is called a lot of things.  Choy means 'vegetable' in Chinese.  We discovered this vegetable three years ago and it has proven itself to be a staple as a side dish for supper.  There are different types of bok choy and it is also spelled bok choi, pac choi, Shanghai greens and a multitude of other variations.

It grows pretty quickly and is ready to eat in a couple of months.  The first row I planted was from a seed packet given to me and it was labeled as Asian Greens. These are similar to the Bok Choy that I've grown except the leaves don't have the characteristic 'soup spoon' stems like the others do.  The leaves, other than that, look pretty similar.

Asian Greens

We have been clipping leaves off of the plants at the head of the row.  You can see where the plants have been harvested at the bottom right of the picture below:

Picking a few bok choy plants

In this photo, you can look at the stems to see the difference between Asian greens and Bok Choy.  Notice how the stems are long with no scallop or spoon shaped stems.  The leaves and stems are delicious!  In the few days since I took this photo, the bugs have discovered just how delicious the leaves are and have put more than a few holes in the leaves unfortunately.

Healthy Asian Greens

Here is the second row of the more traditional Bok Choy that I've grown since 2012. The plants are stocky and more compact and the leaves are held by fat, 'soup spoon' shaped stems.

Bok Choy

Bok Choy is said to be one of the most healthy vegetables on the planet and a 1 cup serving provides more than 100% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A and about 2/3s of the RDA of Vitamin C.

Vitamins from the "Farmacy"

So I pulled a bunch of Asian Greens from the first row and washed them off in the sink.  They'll last longer if you don't wash them, but I was going to cook them quickly.  I added a little butter to the bottom of the skillet and let it melt while the skillet warmed up.  I added a sprinkle of kosher salt and along with a splash or three of Soy Sauce and let it stir fry for a while.

Stir Frying Asian Greens.

And in no time at all, it is ready to eat!

Grab a plate!

Bok Choy, Chinese Cabbage, Pak Choi?  No matter what you call it - I call it GOOD!

Putting the Fall Garden In

It is hard to imagine as I looked at the thermometer on our car showing an outside temperature of 105 degrees in the church parking lot on Sunday, but it is indeed time to start getting the Fall garden planted.  This weekend I made a good start by weeding the areas that I want to plant and then sprinkling some organic fertilizer over the top.

Then, trying something new this year that I learned from Herrick Kimball's Deliberate Agrarian Blog, I'm planting on 30" rows this year.  I think they'll give the plants more room to grow than the 18" - 20" rows that I normally pull up.  As I look at the seed spacing recommendations, the wider rows will give me the ability to plant two furrows on top of each row, giving me a side by side spacing that makes better use of the space I have in the garden.

Using baling twine that I salvaged off of the round hay bales, I measured and marked off the 30" row width and shoveled out the dirt between the rows, allowing the width of the shovel for the walkway between rows.  I may widen the walkway in further years to the two shovel-row width that Mr. Kimball suggests, depending on how this works.  I used a hoe to lightly work the soil and then used a flat rock rake to smooth out and shape the row.  I was pleased with the way the new rows turned out.

One bed ready

It was hot and humid, though, and I completely soaked two shirts before noon just working up the two rows you see below.  I grabbed a stake that I used to stake up some pepper plants a few years ago.  Amazingly, it hasn't rotted yet.  It is the perfect tool to make small trenches in the top of the row measuring exactly 12" apart. Perfectly priced, too!  You can see those indentations in the row on the left below:

The Second Bed is ready with trenches for seed planting

The first plants that I need to get planted before it is too late include some of the cole crops:

• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower

I plant several different types of each of the above.  For example, I like to plant 'regular' broccoli' and Romanesco broccoli, 'regular cauliflower,' green cauliflower and purple cauliflower.  For starters, I wanted to first plant some bok choy.  Bok Choy is a chinese cabbage that is delicious stir fried.

Chinese Cabbage (Bok Choy)

Because they are in the same family, you must be careful with your record-keeping and labeling your rows as all of the seeds look exactly the same:

Bok Choy Seeds

The seeding instructions are pretty much the same and require the seeds to be planted at a seed depth of 1/8 inch and 12 - 18 inches apart, but I plant them only 4 inches apart to ensure that germination is good.  Once the plants are thriving, I'll thin them out.  I can never bring myself to destroy a perfectly good plant, so I always dig the ones out that I need to thin and move to another location to grow.

I'll continue to plant other fall crops as the days go by, including beets, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, radishes, lettuces, mustard greens, sweet peas, parsley, cilantro, and spinach.  Last night we had a terrific storm that blew through, depositing 2 inches of rain on the garden.  That should have all the seeds swollen and sprouting soon. Unfortunately, it knocked out our power last night for a few hours and I wasn't able to post the blog post on Breaking Clarabelle until the next morning.  

Who knows?  With a local economy hurting due to oil & gas prices and a wildly fluctuating stock market, perhaps seeds and a garden full of fresh vegetables is the smartest investment in my portfolio!  We're optimistic about things.  Cooler weather, lower humidity, and a thriving Fall Garden (hopefully) are on the way...

Making Kimchi with Bok Choy

We've produced lots of bok choy this fall and have really enjoyed its crunchiness, flavor, and health benefits.  We have a full row of it and it was planted close together and not spaced.  It is a resilient crop and fast growing.  Out of everything planted in the Fall Garden, it's the first thing that's ready for harvesting.  It was planted last year for the first time and has become a mainstay in our Fall Garden.

The row of bok choy

A few warm days has induced the bok choy to bolt.  Bolting is when the crop sends up a shoot that contains a flower.  In effect, the plant is trying to produce seed to ensure that there will be more bok choy next year and the year after.  We have discovered that bok choy is more tender and tasty before it bolts.

The flower of the bok choy

So that means we'd better either start eating even more of it, give it away, or preserve it.  I picked four or five plants and decided we'd try something new.  We always make sauerkraut, but we've never made the Korean equivalent - kimchi. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made with fermented vegetables.  In this case, we'll use bok choy, instead of cabbage to make it.  Bok Choy is, after all, called Chinese cabbage or Chinese greens by some.

Bok Choy Harvest

We got the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook put out by the Weston A. Price Foundation and written by Sally Fallon.  While I was out in the garden, in addition to the bok choy, I selected some fresh carrots and radishes to add to the mix.  Yum!

Fresh radishes and carrots

The other ingredients besides bok choy (continuing clockwise in the photo below) was fresh green onions from the garden, ginger, carrots, Criolla Sella pepper flakes, radishes, sea salt, whey, and garlic.

The Ingredients

I popped all the bok choy into the food processor and chopped them up real good. The greens transformed into a deep green chopped salad that was heavy with liquid.

Chopped Bok Choy

After removing the chopped up bok choy, I shredded all the other vegetables in the food processor, making a slaw-like amalgamation of veggies.

A multitude of shredded vegetables

I added four tablespoons of whey and one tablespoon sea salt that will act as the preservative.  Whey is a by-product of making cheese or yogurt and we save it in jars in the fridge for lacto-fermenting vegetables.

Adding the whey

After mixing it all up thoroughly, I took a wooden mallet (meat tenderizer) and began scrunching (is that a word?) the mixture all together, bruising it and releasing all of the juices contained int the vegetables.

It's Hammer Time!

I then spooned the kimchi into two wide mouth jars, leaving an inch head space at the top of the jar and then sealed them tightly.  We'll leave these at room temperature for 3 days.  It looks a little scary, know, but we're going to give it a chance...

Letting the kimchi sit for 3 days at room temperature

At the end of 3 days, we'll move the jars to the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process.  I noticed last night the lids were bulging a little, letting me know that the fermentation process is well underway.

So I don't forget...

Once you move the kimchi to the fridge, you can begin eating it, but I'm told that it gets better with age.  A friend of mine who is of Korean descent told me one time that kimchi is delicious, BUT that it packs a powerful smell.  In fact, his wife wouldn't let him eat it in the house.  He had to open the jar and eat it outside.  This is going to be an interesting experiment.  (We might open the jar outside!!)