A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

Today, I went WAY down on of the nearby highways (almost all the way to the outskirts of NYC). The primary purpose was to get to a Michael's Crafts down there (a certain kind of glass bead I use a lot of is now being discontinued, and their online store stock tracker told me the branch down there still had three strands).

However it also turns out that, down there, there is not one, not two but FOUR Indian Grocery stores (well three, one turned out to now be out of business). So I have actually been able to restock my supply of several of the seeds I am growing this year, against the possibility of crop failure.

I found four 5lb bags of the small mung beans from which I get the black mottled ones and two2lb. bags of horse gram that have some more black ones (the third store had horse gram as well, but, based on a quick check of the top three or four, it looks like the companies fields have now had a rouging, and black ones are no longer going to be found in them.

I also got one 5lb bag of mothe beans. I don't SEE any mottled or black ones in it but I DID see the contamination I am used to. For some reason I have never figured out, bags of mothe beans have always been and still are, laced with significant amounts of guar beans (what you get gaur gum from, also an Indian vegetable in it's immature stage). Why I do not know (mature gaur beans taste extremely bitter until the gum is processed, so, unless they are picked over at the houses, I imagine their presence makes the dal made out of the mothe beans taste terrible.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Today, I went WAY down on of the nearby highways (almost all the way to the outskirts of NYC). The primary purpose was to get to a Michael's Crafts down there (a certain kind of glass bead I use a lot of is now being discontinued, and their online store stock tracker told me the branch down there still had three strands).

However it also turns out that, down there, there is not one, not two but FOUR Indian Grocery stores (well three, one turned out to now be out of business). So I have actually been able to restock my supply of several of the seeds I am growing this year, against the possibility of crop failure.

I found four 5lb bags of the small mung beans from which I get the black mottled ones and two2lb. bags of horse gram that have some more black ones (the third store had horse gram as well, but, based on a quick check of the top three or four, it looks like the companies fields have now had a rouging, and black ones are no longer going to be found in them.

I also got one 5lb bag of mothe beans. I don't SEE any mottled or black ones in it but I DID see the contamination I am used to. For some reason I have never figured out, bags of mothe beans have always been and still are, laced with significant amounts of guar beans (what you get gaur gum from, also an Indian vegetable in it's immature stage). Why I do not know (mature gaur beans taste extremely bitter until the gum is processed, so, unless they are picked over at the houses, I imagine their presence makes the dal made out of the mothe beans taste terrible.)

I remember years ago a friend and I used to drive all the way to Toronto to go the Indian section of town to shop for mung beans, aged basmati and myriad spcies at all the little grocery bazaars. Friends thought we were crazy to go that far to grocery shop, but hey! there was no where else to get fresh curry leaves! And there is just no substitute for them. But for all my shopping I have never heard of horse gram. I cooked with the green dahl beans, the split yellow ones, the split red ones and I did try the urad dahl (which I think are the split black gram) but 'mothe' is not one I'm familiar with.

Considering the bags you buy, you must make a lot of dahls? Do you ever grow any of the spice finds, like black mustard, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom? I used to use a lot of hing, which I loved, and recently read that it's processed giant fennels - which was surprising.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I remember years ago a friend and I used to drive all the way to Toronto to go the Indian section of town to shop for mung beans, aged basmati and myriad spcies at all the little grocery bazaars. Friends thought we were crazy to go that far to grocery shop, but hey! there was no where else to get fresh curry leaves! And there is just no substitute for them. But for all my shopping I have never heard of horse gram. I cooked with the green dahl beans, the split yellow ones, the split red ones and I did try the urad dahl (which I think are the split black gram) but 'mothe' is not one I'm familiar with.

Considering the bags you buy, you must make a lot of dahls? Do you ever grow any of the spice finds, like black mustard, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom? I used to use a lot of hing, which I loved, and recently read that it's processed giant fennels - which was surprising.

Horse gram is Dolichos biflorus. They're sort of flat, and small.

Mothe beans are Vigna acutifolia. They look a bit like mung beans, but (usually) pale tan and a LOT smaller (they're also sometimes called mat beans).

I don't tend to plant those for the simple reason I don't generally use any of those (for all I like shopping in the stores, I don't actually like the taste of most Indian food much. I like some of the drinks like chai, but not a lot of the food.)

The only ones I sometimes do plant is the leftover coriander, since I can always use some more cilantro, and I use the seeds in other things (like pickles).

I grow rather more Chinese seasonings, particularly ones I find hard to find in the stores. Plus, cardamom is pretty hard to grow on a home base (no matter which of the dozen or so cardamom species used in various cuisines you are working with.)

And no, I don't usually make dals. I only recently started even saving the leftover seeds to eat them (and have not actually done any of them). The mungs are stored until we can turn them into bean sprouts for stir-frys. I imagen mothe can make bean sprouts as well, the horse gram...well, first I have to see if it can even go full term here.

 

[heirloomgal]

Eggplants. This year none of my eggplant starts spent time in the greenhouse, which is where they bulk up. I had too many peppers in there to fit them in, so I had to settle for outdoor temperatures. They seemed to stay smaller much longer, but finally they are starting to size up. @Zeedman was it you who grows 'Diamond' eggplant? It certainly is a great variety . It's the biggest for sure of all the varieties out there - Rosita, Heart of the North, Thai Long Green, Lavender Frog, Shooting Stars, Violetta Lunga. Shooting Stars is the runner up for vigor, then Thai Green. The Lavender Frogs are the smallest, but that doesn't surprise me since the Mini Bambino's last year were the same, small plants and I think they are basically the same type in different colors. Snails have been a bit of a pain on them, need some DE.

Huckleberries are blushing! That's a surprise, and it's also a surprise how big the berries have gotten. Much bigger than I expected. I really hope these aren't like sunberries and you get a handful ripening at a time! Especially since these basically need to be cooked to taste good.

Decided to totally empty the greenhouse today of pepper plants. The weather is just too hot and my soil mix is too rich, so, they need to stay outside to keep aphids in check. Given the hot weather so far this summer, I think they'll still produce well enough. Even the few pepper pots that I grew outdoors from the beginning are quite developed. Feels so utterly bizarre to have a nearly empty greenhouse.

 

[Branching Out]

I turned off my grow lights the other day, and that felt weird too. Without seedlings under lights the basement is so dark and gloomy.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Did the second, under a strong light check of what I found in the bags late last night. As usual, the amount of kept seeds went down a lot (with the poorish light of the overhead, it is often hard to tell truly mottled, or brown mung beans from ones that are just discolored and spoiled. And now that I have a semi-reliable source for the gold mung beans I wanted, saving the partially yellow ones is no longer a needed thing (especially since the green part is pretty much always over the hilum, and that tends to indicate that there was a problem during seed development rather than a genetic one, and successive seeds will just go back to ordinary all green.)

Did get a few more black mottled (plus, possibly, the first totally black seed coat one I have seen in a while). Also a handful more of black horse gram seeds.

The mothe bag actually did have ONE mottled seed (which surprised me, as I haven't seen even one in a while. Now if I could only find some more pure black of THAT.) and maybe five or six more guar beans (no black or purple ones this time, unfortunately. But again. those are rare).

The horse gram also had a few seeds of some sort of bindweed (which I held onto) and one of what I worked out was some sort of button weed (which I think I tossed out, as it isn't an attractive plant (I grew it back when it showed up in the rice beans) and I don't trust my identification or my herb craft enough to try and use it medicinally.

Couple of urd beans, of course, which I have held onto for now, but will probably discard later (as they seem to be ordinary ones.)

Assuming I ever grow enough of the mottled ones to use some for eating, I wonder what I should do with them. They're small even when compared to the mungs they are in (which are already the smaller kind,) so they are sort of dancing on the side of big enough to use for dal (if I ate it) or bean sprouts. I wonder if I could figure out how to make bean thread noodles? (the transparent kind like they put in eggrolls).

Looks like maybe my last Mirahani basil plant is conking out as well, but everything else still looks fine.

 

[digitS']

Help me understand something, HeirloomGal. Please.

The eggplants were started indoors under lights – right? They were moved outdoors at about what age/size?

I have grown quite a few eggplant varieties. At one time, I had the idea that Thai Long and other long green types were never bitter. Then the eggplants were located where there was nearby fallow ground with an abundance of nightshade weeds. What a potato bug year!

Okay, every darn pest seems to love to chew on eggplants. Bitterness seems to come right along with stress.

Stress ... i mean Steve!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Bad news, I was wrong about the all black mung bean (it was just another discolored brown one)

Good news, the ones I planted are now flowering, so the odds of me getting seed back are high.

 

[heirloomgal]

Help me understand something, HeirloomGal. Please.

The eggplants were started indoors under lights – right? They were moved outdoors at about what age/size?

I have grown quite a few eggplant varieties. At one time, I had the idea that Thai Long and other long green types were never bitter. Then the eggplants were located where there was nearby fallow ground with an abundance of nightshade weeds. What a potato bug year!

Okay, every darn pest seems to love to chew on eggplants. Bitterness seems to come right along with stress.

Stress ... i mean Steve!

Yes, started indoors under lights. I think I started them a bit later this year than I normally would, but can't remember exactly. They were all still quite small by the time I started hardening them off outside, probably 6 inches. I think they were about 4+ weeks old. Even 2 weeks in the greenhouse for that first bit of early summer can do wonders for them, but I do find the growth very weak. It's remarkable how tough the leaves are now compared to what they were last year at this time. Not too tough for the snails though! But I haven't seen much other pests on them other than red spider mites (when in the greenhouse).

Have you tried sprinkling the eggplant slices with salt and letting them drain in a colander? Apparently that really reduces bitterness. You could also look at the bitterness from the point of view of 'Swedish Bitters', tonic like. The bitters date to the 15th century so maybe something to it? That said, I cannot handle bitter melon and even the bitterness of an aspirin makes me gag, so it's plain wrong of me to encourage others in the 'embrace bitterness' department.

 

[heirloomgal]

If I was a better garden note keeper, or a note keeper at all, I would be able to make a comparison with this season to seasons passed. Which is something I'd like to do. But, I keep too much stuff around already and I am kind of a live in the moment person so I have no notes. It just seems like this year things are really booming; we've had a lot of heat units considering it's only the beginning of July. Is my electric fertilizer working too? This week will be in the upper 80's with real feels ratings close to 100 some days., very high humidity. I could be just forgetting what the early July garden looks like too. Maybe it's always like this and I just don't remember.

I'm happy with the success of my 2 emergency fencing measures, and there has only been 2 nibbles of no significance in other unprotected locations. It looks like what was seriously nibbled will grow back too, even the soybeans. Whether that is time enough for mature seed, I'm not sure. But I'm hopeful. Funnily enough, only 6 of the 'Victoria Rimpans' peas sprouted & it was one of those plants that was one of the 2 nibbles, but only to the previous node. So I got lucky there! 18 pea varieties, and it goes for the single, most rare one. I think it's safe to say once the plants get another week or two of growth they won't be so at risk.

Couldn't resist some of the plant discounts out there right now, and I broke down and bought a couple oregano varieties. Used some clippings in the chickpea, rice, tomato vegetable goulash tonight and it was a wonderful touch of flavour. Got a lemongrass plant, and a couple more flowers. Added some mint and lemon balm to the new flower planters I put together. So lovely to have all those fresh herbs out there to cook with.

Sadly, the asparagus peas are all croaking, the whole planter. I knew they're a more arid loving species but I thought the city compost would be okay for them if I kept it dry. Nope. They are yellowing and fading away. Too rich. If I have the energy I may save some a couple tomorrow, if I can find a place to put them and it's not too late. Too bad though, those were all new seeds from last season. Only 4 plants ultimately made it and I planted nearly all the seeds I had harvested! And that species is no longer available on the racks anymore!