Cosmo spring garden 2020

[Cosmo spring garden]

My weedy mess of a garden is still thriving! I had to pull out two pumpkin vines because they were crowding the watermelon vines. I got 5 nice pumpkins! The okra plants are huge! I love okra flowers. I had 5 nice size luffa gourds and lots more to come. My winter squash is doing amazing this year too. You can see the sweet potato vines trying to take over everything. I do need to weed tho.....its too hot and humid so I'll stay inside lol. The orange flowers from 4th to last pic are butterfly weed. They took forever to germinate and that's all the plants I got from a whole seed pack so I'm babying them. I'm tired and I still have much to do.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Here is probably all the painted mountain corn I will get this year. Lots of worm damage so most will be saved for seeds. Its absolutely beautiful. The pics dont do justice to how pretty this corn is!

 

[digitS']

Cosmo',

Have you tried daikon sliced thin in a sandwich? It is different from "American" radishes but that was how I liked French Breakfast radish as a kid. Mom would bake bread, slice it and cover with homemade butter. The sliced radish completed it .

Now I have meat and jalapeños added as a takeout sandwich at a Vietnamese restaurant. I takeout the jalapeño before I begin so that I can sample it as I eat the sandwich .

Kitazawa Seed has so many radish varieties it's crazy! The one I bought is Saisai and it's supposed to be special for greens. I had a Russian white radish that I saved the seed from for years. It had hairless leaves and we used it in stir-fry. Tasty that way but then I tried cooking regular, hairy radish leaves and learned that the hair disappeared with cooking. I'm not planning to have them in a salad, either way, but nice big leaves and the prospect of slices of roots in homemade bread appealed to me. Missed it! But, you know ... I did eat some of the seed pods while they were tender .

Steve

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Cosmo',

Have you tried daikon sliced thin in a sandwich? It is different from "American" radishes but that was how I liked French Breakfast radish as a kid. Mom would bake bread, slice it and cover with homemade butter. The sliced radish completed it .

Now I have meat and jalapeños added as a takeout sandwich at a Vietnamese restaurant. I takeout the jalapeño before I begin so that I can sample it as I eat the sandwich .

Kitazawa Seed has so many radish varieties it's crazy! The one I bought is Saisai and it's supposed to be special for greens. I had a Russian white radish that I saved the seed from for years. It had hairless leaves and we used it in stir-fry. Tasty that way but then I tried cooking regular, hairy radish leaves and learned that the hair disappeared with cooking. I'm not planning to have them in a salad, either way, but nice big leaves and the prospect of slices of roots in homemade bread appealed to me. Missed it! But, you know ... I did eat some of the seed pods while they were tender .

Steve

I do nibble on few seed pods. I'll have to try the daikon radish again. Thank you for the great suggestion about putting it on sandwiches.

 

[baymule]

A no cook pumpkin pie? Did I read that right? What?? No recipe? I may have to grow pumpkins next year!

Painted Mountain corn is like garden jewelry, it is beautiful. I have mine about half shelled out. I planted my Texas Seed next to @thistlebloom 's Idaho seed and kept special rows for the purpose of saving seed. I also had rows for cornmeal. I had a row of Idaho seed between 2 rows of Texas seed, next year, I'll plant a row of Texas seed between 2 rows of Idaho seed. That will be the second year of mixing it up, so it should be rock n' roll after that! LOL

Worm damage? Not a problem. Just winnow the corn seed like the radish seed and the bad seeds will blow away. That is too beautiful of a crop not to make cornbread from!! I shell by hand and watch closely for damage. I just shell around it and give the cobs to the chickens to pick over.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

A no cook pumpkin pie? Did I read that right? What?? No recipe? I may have to grow pumpkins next year!

Painted Mountain corn is like garden jewelry, it is beautiful. I have mine about half shelled out. I planted my Texas Seed next to @thistlebloom 's Idaho seed and kept special rows for the purpose of saving seed. I also had rows for cornmeal. I had a row of Idaho seed between 2 rows of Texas seed, next year, I'll plant a row of Texas seed between 2 rows of Idaho seed. That will be the second year of mixing it up, so it should be rock n' roll after that! LOL

Worm damage? Not a problem. Just winnow the corn seed like the radish seed and the bad seeds will blow away. That is too beautiful of a crop not to make cornbread from!! I shell by hand and watch closely for damage. I just shell around it and give the cobs to the chickens to pick over.

I meant no bake pumpkin pie. My daughter saw this in her kid magazine and asked me to make it. Here is the recipe where I got the idea for it but like any other recipe I changed it all up lol. This is what I did:

Graham cracker crust: pulse until crumbly and kind of sticky in a food processor 10 whole graham crackers and 5 tablespoons butter. Press it really well onto a pie dish on the bottom and sides. Stick it in the freezer until ready to use.

Vanilla pudding: 2.25 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
5 tablespoons corn starch
1/3 cup sugar (I used sugar in the raw)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoon butter

Mix milk, cornstarch and sugar in a saucepan really well than cook on medium heat while continuously whisking until its thick and bubbly. Remove pot from heat and add vanilla and butter and mix to combine. Let this completely cool in the fridge.

Pumpkin:
I used about 2 cups of homemade puree which was kind of watery so I added 2 tablespoons of corn starch, few tablespoons of maple syrup and heated it until it was thick. If you use canned pumpkin you can avoid the corn starch and just add the maple syrup and combine.
Let it cool in the fridge.

Mix the vanilla pudding and pumpkin mixture really well, pour it in to the graham cracker crust and chill for few hours before serving.



After reading this you might just want to follow the recipe from the magazine lol.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

First of all, yes - eggplant is a magnet for bugs. I mentioned the potato beetles on mine, somewhere around here ...

Secondly, I also have some radish plants for seed. The brassicas have seed that isn't too difficult for me to deal with. A tarp goes down on the lawn. The pods are thrown on it and I tromp around on them with my #13 Hush Puppies. After awhile, I clean the tarp off and get things in a 5 gallon bucket. Position my step ladder and take the bucket about 8' above the ground (depending on how much wind is blowing).

Dumping the bucket back down on the tarp, maybe a couple of times does the job fairly well.

The radish I'm saving for seed this year is a daikon. It's supposed to primarily be for greens. I should not have planted it in my hoop house. Too much warmth, and it began very quickly to bolt to seed ... this was after the slugs chewed up the leaves! The seed is not easily available and I only had a small packet and few plants. I'll give it another try.

Steve

Thank you for the suggestion about how to get the seeds out. I put a cloth down and walked all over the dry plants and most of the pods came off! Saved me hours of work! Now I will again do that with the pods and winnow it and get the seeds. Here are all the pods in a box. Thank you!

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

This puffs arch is my favorite in the garden right now and it is growing so many gourds! I pulled back some woven fabric to get ready to till the area so I can plant more corn. Also harvested some cucumbers and okra. Okra were breaded and fried and some will be put in the freezer for later. I wonder if I'll need to re fry them or bake them again? I had to put some bantam cochin pullets and roos in with the ducks and they seem to be getting along well. I hope they will scratch the bedding up a bit. I plan to use the duck bedding for the corn garden next week. If you d a tomato hornworms in the greenhouse yesterday after it had eaten an entire tomato plant! Those suckers are hard to see. They blend in so well! I'm already tired but still have so much to do.

 

[baymule]

Here’s how I put up okra. I cut them in half inch pieces like for frying. I spread them on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 250 degrees F. I bake the maybe 10 minutes to get the okra hot, then take it out to cool. I bag it up in serving portions and freeze. To cook; let thaw completely, so lay out the bag in the morning. The okra will be really slimy, this makes the cornmeal stick better than when it is fresh. I season the okra with garlic powder, black pepper, and seasoned salt. Then I stir in cornmeal until the okra is coated and fry in hot oil. Yum!

If I only have a little okra, I cut it, put it on a Pyrex bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Here’s how I put up okra. I cut them in half inch pieces like for frying. I spread them on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 250 degrees F. I bake the maybe 10 minutes to get the okra hot, then take it out to cool. I bag it up in serving portions and freeze. To cook; let thaw completely, so lay out the bag in the morning. The okra will be really slimy, this makes the cornmeal stick better than when it is fresh. I season the okra with garlic powder, black pepper, and seasoned salt. Then I stir in cornmeal until the okra is coated and fry in hot oil. Yum!

If I only have a little okra, I cut it, put it on a Pyrex bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.

That sounds easy! Thank you!