A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

Looks like the mysterious thing in the mung bean pot with the super long leaves is getting flower buds now, so I guess that will be the next one to make seed. STILL no clue as to what it is (I looked up what urd bean leaves look like, as the only one of the minor beans I haven't grown much, but its leaves are no where NEAR that narrow or hairy.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Four bits of news

1. One more ripe green cherry tomato brought in (may be from different plant, hard to tell)

2. First Phantome du Laos fruit ALMOST ready (mostly white but still a bit green on the shoulders, so I'm giving it one or two more days.

3. First female flower on the cucumbers. As soon as I can (it currently looks like it's about to rain hard), I might go out with a brush and make sure it gets pollinated.

4. Whatever that legume that I transferred from the side to the back is now has a flower about to open. Maybe when I see the flower (or the seeds, if it takes) I'll be able to tell what it is!

 

[ducks4you]

WOW, @Pulsegleaner ! I have a Fall Gardening buddy!!!

 

[heirloomgal]

@Pulsegleaner I think I grew Phantome de Laos years ago, I know I have the packet for it from Tatiana's. I looked in my photo files and found this. I'm not 100% sure, but I do believe this was that tomato. I remember it had a slight green blush on the shoulders too. You can sorta see that in the back piece of tomato. Tasted great.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Hmm, maybe that means it's ready now. I'll check again tomorrow. If it is, I'll bring it in, and eat it in a few days (before I do, I want to test the "put in in your window to test for ghosts" thing.

 

[heirloomgal]

I am LOVING these cherry tomatoes., 'Pinky'. They taste fantastic, only prob is they do tend to split a bit. I water them too much I think. The pot seems to dry out so fast and I'm always adding water. The trusses on these are pretty wild. This is I think my most productive cherry this year, with 'Sweet Apperitif' a bit later but equally loaded with smaller tomatoes.

The Red Nightshade berries are finally....red!

Cleaned out the bush bean beds, only 2 rows left in this one and two other isolated plants I'm giving a bit more time to mature. Weird to have some (nearly) empty beds already. Feels like I blinked and 2 months passed.

My first attempt at 'Nigel' beans. I love them!!!

I grew Youdou #1 last year, and this year I'm trying Youdou #2, beans from China. They were slow to start but finally the pods are coming in.

The 'Mona Lisa' beans that I'm SO EXCITED to get seeds for. I'm hoping all the pods can mature in time!

'Dow Purple' pole bean. For such a late start, they have caught up admirably, and the amount of pods they grew in so short a time is impressive.

Argh!! They're breaching the support!

A bean variety I got from Europe. Haven't cracked open a pod yet, a highly anticipated moment!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

OK, the mystery vine flower has opened.

It almost looks like Tinga (though smaller) but I know that the seeds you sent me were the first Tinga seeds I ever grew.

Also picked the Laos tomato.

Edit: Looks like it might be Lathyrus sylvestris, except that's supposed to have groups of flowers, not single ones.

 

[heirloomgal]

OK, the mystery vine flower has opened.

It almost looks like Tinga (though smaller) but I know that the seeds you sent me were the first Tinga seeds I ever grew.

View attachment 67773

Also picked the Laos tomato.
View attachment 67774

Edit: Looks like it might be Lathyrus sylvestris, except that's supposed to have groups of flowers, not single ones.

That looks exactly like a Tinga pea, even the foliage. Could it be a late germinating straggler tinga maybe?

Love those ghostly white tomatoes.

 

[heirloomgal]

I was watering the carrots today and noticed a fairly big rogue weed had taken hold in there; when I bent down to pull it I saw that it was no ordinary weed - it was a New Zealand spinach plant. Sort of ironic, because last year I tried to actually, purposefully grow that plant from seed in a container, but they never grew well (too small a pot I think) and I wound up tossing the whole planter. Right where this one had sprouted too. It's one of those plants whose seed location is a bit difficult to decipher, and I discovered only as I tipped out the plant to the ground that it actually made some, though none seemed mature. Anyway, this species has been around for awhile and there are always seed packets for it on the shelves in the spring, but it really doesn't seem popular. I don't know a soul who eats it. Okay, maybe one, but they eat all kinds of weeds so that doesn't really count.

It occurred to me that I should put it aside for dinner and actually cook & eat it - something I've never done though I did grow it once many years ago. (It resprouted the next year that time too.) I had water boiling for the corn on the cob, so I rather carelessly threw the whole stem of the spinach in the pot with the corn. I expected it to taste like cooked grass - or worse. There must be a reason no one eats this. I have no idea where the courage came from, I've avoided trying it until now. It didn't cook for long, maybe 3 or 4 minutes and I pulled it out, plunked it on my plate, added a pat of butter and s & p. Closed my eyes for added courage and took a bite. I couldn't believe it. It was wonderful. The texture was actually superior to spinach, spinach tends to really shrink right down, but this maintained a bit of substance. The flavor wasn't as strong as spinach, which has a bit more of an oxalic acid bite I think, but this was still pleasing. A milder but good tasting green - which can't be said of either spinach or chard. I'm not a huge greens person either - I add kale to the soup, chard too, and I love fresh lettuce but I don't do much beyond that. Herbs I guess. (I've tried turnip greens and bok choi and I didn't detect any taste in either of those.) I don't like to grow spinach, delicious as it can be, because it bolts so darn fast. New Zealand spinach can apparently go all summer long with no change in taste or texture.

So, I may grow this again on purpose, only in ground not a container, so that I can get it to it's maximum size. I checked out it's nutritional profile and it looks pretty good!

7 Health Benefits Of New Zealand Spinach - DoveMed

New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) or tetragon is a leaf vegetable, grown for its edible leaves and can be used as food or an ornamental plant for ground cover. It is native to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Chile and Argentina where the flavor and texture resemble spinach.

www.dovemed.com

 

[digitS']

I was happy enough with the taste of New Zealand spinach.

Dad and I shared a garden in his backyard for about a dozen years. He was the one who planted those. Nothing much happened with the plants the first year. Then, they came back like crazy! They blanketed a large part of his garden that Spring. A weed of his own making ... It didn't take too much trouble to eradicate them, however.

Steve