What are You Eating from the Garden?

[ducks4you]

Not the catView attachment 42176

DON'T LET YOUR CAT EAT YOUR PRODUCE!!!

 

[Dirtmechanic]

DON'T LET YOUR CAT EAT YOUR PRODUCE!!!

I think she was after milky cocktail

 

[flowerbug]

I have the same thing with mine. Small plants with a pepper load. I think, partly because of the heat, the peppers raced into fruit production and stunted themselves. Had the first fruits been removed the plants probably would have grown more normally.

when we planted the pepper starts out in the gardens back towards the end of May i snipped off the flowers and haven't touched them since other than to water them. there are some small peppers on them now. about 3 inches long. sunshine will help.

peas, peapods, green onions...

 

[flowerbug]

i should try to get out and pick some peapods and peas to have with our burgers today. it is hard for me to do this because i'm really trying to increase my seed supply of these peas so while they are all very tempting i'm also fighting off the temptation to pick them all.

 

[digitS']

Mostly, I wanted to update on transplanting a few chard plants. I'm not sure why I wasn't sure if I could move them successfully, other than that I've never done that with their beet cousins and growing chard is still somewhat new to me. So, I took a few out of the big veggie garden and plunked them down in the backyard beds - back there past the bok choy with some cilantro flowering amongst them. It worked fine and, since it is a prefered method to fill the garden, starting in flats might be something to do in 2022.



The bok choy is still available but only growing in this rather shady end of a bed. Nevertheless, there will be bok choy started in August for the fall. You can see that these plants are rather chewed upon! That's by both the slugs and the sparrows. Since sparrows eat slugs .... Oh well, there is the distant garden with its limited sparrow (& slug!) population.

With the chard, we are eating quite a lot of amaranth. Not those little volunteers scatter between the bok choy and chard just yet. Cut-and-come-again works okay with this amaranth if it's in a good location. That distant garden with its exposure, most of the amaranth needed to be harvested quickly because of bolting.

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

Mostly, I wanted to update on transplanting a few chard plants. I'm not sure why I wasn't sure if I could move them successfully, other than that I've never done that with their beet cousins and growing chard is still somewhat new to me. So, I took a few out of the big veggie garden and plunked them down in the backyard beds - back there past the bok choy with some cilantro flowering amongst them. It worked fine and, since it is a prefered method to fill the garden, starting in flats might be something to do in 2022.

View attachment 42241

The bok choy is still available but only growing in this rather shady end of a bed. Nevertheless, there will be bok choy started in August for the fall. You can see that these plants are rather chewed upon! That's by both the slugs and the sparrows. Since sparrows eat slugs .... Oh well, there is the distant garden with its limited sparrow (& slug!) population.

With the chard, we are eating quite a lot of amaranth. Not those little volunteers scatter between the bok choy and chard just yet. Cut-and-come-again works okay with this amaranth if it's in a good location. That distant garden with its exposure, most of the amaranth needed to be harvested quickly because of bolting.

Steve

I always start my Swiss chard in pots indoors and plant out in about 3 weeks time. How do you prepare amaranth?

 

[heirloomgal]

i should try to get out and pick some peapods and peas to have with our burgers today. it is hard for me to do this because i'm really trying to increase my seed supply of these peas so while they are all very tempting i'm also fighting off the temptation to pick them all.

I know the struggle.

 

[digitS']

The amaranth is prepared in the simplest of stir-fries, @heirloomgal . Or, since there may be no additional ingredient than bacon or sausage, I should simply say - sauteed.

With all the purple, it would just be something of a mess with broth and any other ingredients added. They turn rice purple .

Before, I tried several green amaranth varieties. One was called a "white." They didn't grow well. A friend had some of these in her garden for several years and was happy with how they tasted and how they grew. She had the seed from another friend. I think that they must be an ornamental variety but, hey, that's okay. They provide summer "greens" and follow one of my longtime favorites: baby beets.

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

The amaranth is prepared in the simplest of stir-fries, @heirloomgal . Or, since there may be no additional ingredient than bacon or sausage, I should simply say - sauteed.

With all the purple, it would just be something of a mess with broth and any other ingredients added. They turn rice purple .

Before, I tried several green amaranth varieties. One was called a "white." They didn't grow well. A friend had some of these in her garden for several years and was happy with how they tasted and how they grew. She had the seed from another friend. I think that they must be an ornamental variety but, hey, that's okay. They provide summer "greens" and follow one of my longtime favorites: baby beets.

Steve

Sounds yummy. I had a friend years ago prepare for me 'callaloo', which was delicious. I believe it is an amaranth, not 100% sure. I tried growing callaloo seeds at some point later, but the plants never seemed to achieve good size so I never bothered trying it. Maybe I should have, as that was one of the best cooked greens I'd ever had.

Do you pickle any of the baby beets? I love them that way, grew up eating those.

 

[digitS']

We had an olde fella on TEG from Oklahoma, originally from the East Coast, but living in southern California to be near his son and family. @hoodat talked about callaloo .

One of the amaranths that I tried might have been the same as grown and known as callaloo in some places. None of the other varieties did well. Even if this is probably an ornamental variety, it is not one with the very large blooms.

Different tastes! No, I'm not a fan of pickled beets. In fact, it's only been recently that I have been interested in eating beet roots once they are beyond marble-size. Although, I have eaten beet thinnings from childhood. Tastes change, don't you think?

Steve