A Seed Saver's Garden

[digitS']

Can't help with the mallow .

Wow. Apples smaller than a nickel!!

I wonder what kinda vinegar they would make.

American Vinegar works

Four different types of ACV ... plus 2 more with berry additions.

 

[heirloomgal]

Balsamic? No!! I don't understand what people like about it.

I eventually bought the highest quality ($) I could find, thinking maybe I didn't like it much because what I had was mid-cost along the price spectrum. Still though it was way too strong with an off taste. I don't get it either. It seems to be in so many recipes out there.

 

[heirloomgal]

i really don't like the hot sauces with a lot of vinegar flavor in them but i do like certain dishes with more rather than less. German potato salad isn't quite right without enough in it.

True. I find mixed bean salad (the kind with cooked bean seeds - chickpeas, kidneys, pintos etc, not the snap bean one) needs enough vinegar to taste right too. When the oil to vinegar ratio is right - - - pure heaven in a bean salad.

 

[heirloomgal]

My families "base" red vinegar is the one from American Vinegar works. NO ONE in the house likes balsamic, and I'm actually ALLERGIC to it (gives me INCREDIBLE gas diarrhea and cramps*.

They make a rice vinegar as well, though my mom prefers another brand to theirs (one of the store ones, don't remember which)

I also remember being very happy with cane vinegar (vinegar made by fermenting sugarcane juice, it's used in a lot of South East Asian cooking,) but there, it makes a bigger difference both where it comes from and how it's prepared (same as wine vinegar will vary based on the wine they use). Steens (from Louisiana, one of the easier ones to get) uses what is basically un-boiled down molasses (i.e, allow to ferment a bit and go brown) and it a little heavy. Some of the Asian ones can be really harsh. The best I found was from somewhere in Martinique but that was back when I was a child and I only found it once.

Allergic? Do you know the component that you react to? I have no idea how that vinegar is made. I've never heard of cane vinegar, sounds rather interesting. Molasses vinegar too. These must be a real specialty items because for all the markets I've been to I've never seen it. If I ever see them, I'll give them a try.

No idea on the plant ID @Pulsegleaner, I don't know what kenaf is either. Admittedly though, the leaves do look a little like roselle to me - but it's been years since I grew it and the memory of the leaf type is foggy.

 

[heirloomgal]

Can't help with the mallow .

Wow. Apples smaller than a nickel!!

I wonder what kinda vinegar they would make.


Four different types of ACV ... plus 2 more with berry additions.

Maple cider vinegar on their list. Now that looks interesting!

 

[Dahlia]

I eventually bought the highest quality ($) I could find, thinking maybe I didn't like it much because what I had was mid-cost along the price spectrum. Still though it was way too strong with an off taste. I don't get it either. It seems to be in so many recipes out there.

We use red wine vinegar on our Greek Chicken Salad, plus I put some of the marinade from the kalamata olives too. Very yummy!

 

[heirloomgal]

We all had corn on the cob again with dinner, which was bittersweet, because a part of me wants to hoard all those seeds for drying. The cobs are only medium sized and some of the plants only have one or two ears on them. But they are SO GOOD I couldn't help myself. We had a dinner to match them too; bean burritos, okra, rice. I think next year I should plant a space for those corn 3X the size, if we want to actually eat lots of corn through the summer. I should have plenty of seeds () for next year to do that much. This year the seed supply was scant.

All the progressions in the edible landscaping project have been a real learning experience. First, the look was too sparse. Then individual plants bloomed, which was nice, as the vegetable plants gained in size. Still looked a bit thin though. Then things seem to fill in a little, and now we're totally filled in and some of the plants have even dried their seeds - delphiniums, bush beans, marigolds, poppies. I think the idea has potential, though I didn't 'nail it' this year. I had a good start. Tonight I noticed one of the delphinium plants I clipped is reblooming in light blue next to the celosia plant which is blooming in hot pink. The beans beside them are covered in white flowers. It's a nice combo.

I planted some little purple annual salvia plants, and those have flowered very nicely among the vegetable plants. The ruffled green kales are big and luxurious looking, the purple stemmed beans amongst them make for a nice combination. I think I'll add more pansies in the future, and maybe even some in ground petunias. The Fair Play rose I got keeps blooming every time I cut off all the flowers for the vase, so I'd like to maybe buy one more next year and add it. That extended flowering is nice. The Lemon Thyme and Lemon Balm hold their own nicely too.

The cabbages have proven to be the most difficult customers in the project. On the one hand the leaves on the purple cabbages are big and dramatic, beautiful really for a veggie. But the worms are something else. I'm hopeful with my new cedar shavings idea. The worms were eating right into the small forming heads and putting holes all over the leaves (along with really gross poop), but the cedar seems to have stopped that. I noticed today the heads have recovered and are perfectly smooth with no holes. Next year, if I try again, I'm going to layer the ground with a thick layer of cedar shavings and keep a bucket of shavings nearby so I can sprinkle them on every week or two. If that doesn't work, then I'll have to abandon that landscaping plant.

I'm also wondering if rows might be better than the cottage style I went with. Something carefree about the kitchen garden 'potager' look, at the same time, I find straight rows deeply satisfying.....

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Allergic? Do you know the component that you react to?

Know, no, but I have a pretty good suspicion. I think it's the various kinds of fungal spores it picks up during the ageing process. They seem to cause contractions in my bowels.

Interestingly, I've read that those same spores as supposed to be good in inducing labor in overdue pregnant women. There's some restaurant in California that serves a salad with a balsamic dressing, and some scientists noted that overdue women who are the salad generally started contractions in a few hours.

I have no idea how that vinegar is made.

You start with an alcoholic base. Then, a group of bacteria called "mother of vinegar" are added. the bacteria turn the ethanol into acetic acid, making vinegar. You can later transfer that mother to another batch (if you've ever seen what looked like a jellyfish or blob on the bottom of a bottle of vinegar, THAT'S the mother.)

I've never heard of cane vinegar, sounds rather interesting. Molasses vinegar too. These must be a real specialty items because for all the markets I've been to I've never seen it. If I ever see them, I'll give them a try.

AMV also makes (or was making a honey vinegar it should really try (they sent us a small sample already). That might be a way to recover less good batches of my mead.

No idea on the plant ID @Pulsegleaner, I don't know what kenaf is either.

Hibiscus cannabifolius, also sometimes called Indian Hemp. It's a fiber plant, same as most of the other "hemps" of the world.

The real problem is that the leaves on both species can vary wildly in shape from variety to variety (they don't ALL look like hemp leaves). Plus, I can't seem to find a good picture of the Senegalese Green Roselle as a plant, for leaf comparison (plenty of the calyces, but none of the whole plant).

Admittedly though, the leaves do look a little like roselle to me - but it's been years since I grew it and the memory of the leaf type is foggy.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Can't help with the mallow .

Wow. Apples smaller than a nickel!!

Bear in mind I'm not 100% sure this is the same tree as the one before, or even if it is a true species apple ( as opposed to a crabapple species). Since the tree has basically been all but dead for the last ten or so years, it's possible that the one I was thinking of really DID die, was removed and the one I thought I saw behind it grew into its space. I HAVE a few seeds I recovered from withered "hag apples" the previous years, but, even assuming I could get such old apple seeds to germinate it would be decades before I'd have a tree whose fruit I could compare.

The main reason I think this is a real apple is that the leaves look more like those of a real apple to me than those of any of the local crabapple species.

I wonder what kinda vinegar they would make.

Hard to tell. The things taste absolutely foul, bitter as hell. However since I am told sour and bitter apples make the best hard cider (the same way you wouldn't want to eat wine grapes as table grapes, they'd be too sour), and cider vinegar comes from hard cider, I really don't know.

 

[ducks4you]

I am not THAT allergic to vinegar, but if I throw it to the back of my throat I will gag.
Still, I love vinegar based slaws, and anything With vinegar, so I put up with it.