Sunday, December 30, 2018

Garden Log -- December 30, 2018

My sweet and hot pepper starts

The sweet peppers went into the seedling cups today! I'm using a seed starter mix that was recommended to me by many of the gardeners in my FB group, ProMix.  I wish I could get it locally, but they didn't carry it at Home Depot.  I may try Lowe's the next time I go into town.  I had to order from Amazon.

  1. Doe Hill Pepper - these are the seeds I picked up at Monticello this past year when we visited there. An heirloom from pre-1900s. Yellow pepper
  2. Paradicsom Alaku Saga Szentes Pepper - yellow pepper
  3. Peperone di Cuneo Pepper - Italian from Cuneo, Italy Yellow and Red pepper
  4. Giant Sweet Devil's Horn - orange pepper
  5. Manganji Pepper - Red pepper from Kyoto, Japan
  6. Friggitello Pepper - another Italian pepper, green fry type
  7. Aranyalma Pepper - Hungarian pepper, yellow
  8. Rosso Dolce Da Appendere - red fry pepper from Southern Italy
  9. Chocolate Mini Bell - small maroon/brown red peppers
  10. Lilac Bell - purple bell peppers

I know....too many.  Good thing we love sweet peppers around here.  These will go out to the greenhouse on a heat pad tomorrow.

Next up, tomatoes, sometime early this next week.

Garden Log --- December 29, 2018

I'm having a hard time controlling my impulse to plant something.... dang! This cold weather had better let up soon. It appears that we're in for a few really cold days next week, even some possible ice in the forecast.  I've continued to get a few tomatoes from the greenhouse....not many but a few.
I've not been happy with the fall/winter garden, we lost a lot of it with a real early frost and one night that got into the teens, so I was really bummed. Despite my neglect, the remaining plants have kept right on growing - the really hardy ones! I was surprised at the endive, something I've never grown before. 
Kale, endive and corn salad (mache)
Three trays of microgreens in the greenhouse

I got a piece of sugar cane from my FB garden group and it's rooting on the windowsill in the kitchen.  This thing is rooting FAST! I guess I'll pot it up to begin with, not quite sure what or where I'll put it.

Snap peas, broccoli and more kale
Chirimin Haikasu cabbage, Casper kale and another shot of the endive

Another experiment with some seed I got from my FB garden group.  I had to soak these guava seed for a couple of weeks before planting (I followed the advice of a couple of You-tube gardeners.) They actually soaked closer to three weeks because of Christmas doings, but one set had started to sprout in the water, so I had to get them in their pots. I had 12 seeds each of Colombian Red and Apple Red guava seeds. They are in the greenhouse on a heat mat now.


Now for some excitement!! It's time to start the baby plants for the spring garden.  First up, the peppers, since they are the most reluctant to germinate and take FOREVER.... Yesterday I set them all in water to soak, and today they went into the little seedling cups. I put two in each, and will separate them if they all germinate (highly unlikely!) 
  1. Beaver Dam 500 to 1,000 shu
  2. Shishito most are sweet, but a few will be hot
  3. Sugar Rush Peach 100,000 to 200,000 shu (saved seeds)
  4. Large Jalapeno - 5,000 shu (saved seeds from last year's hybrid, LaBamba - who knows what I'll get?!!)
  5. Poblano pepper, 2000 shu
  6. Lombok pepper, mild, zero to 1,000 shu
  7. Spanish Padron tapas pepper, 500 to 2,500 shu
  8. Feher Ozon Paprika pepper, very mild heat

Today I put the sweet peppers in the soaking cups, and will plant them tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Cookies for Christmas, Part 1

I've been in "getting ready for Christmas" mode this week and making some sweets for the various events that are coming up.  I started this past weekend while I had some help from my granddaughters! We made these delicious peanut butter chocolate candy spoons!

I did most of the chocolate dipping (using regular dark chocolate and white chocolate chips) and the girls did the decorating.  They love using sprinkles. 
Then on Monday I made these delicious no bake coconut pecan praline cookies (they're much more like candy, if you ask me!) I've made these for the past three years and they'll be in my Christmas cookie list every year -- my favorite!
Then yesterday I made these (also no-bake!) Oatmeal cocoa cookies.  My mother made these back in the day, and I've made them for our family forever.  They are easy and almost fool-proof.  Also quite delicious!
Today I made these snowball cookies -- this recipe has been around for so many years (my mom made these, too!) and are called by several names.  Here in south Texas the most common name is Mexican Wedding cookies. 




San Antonio Fruit Box Hooch, Part 3

The San Antonio Fruit Box Hooch was finished and I bottled it this week.  It is a lovely color, and while not completely clear, it's not terribly cloudy either.  The taste is okay, although I'm not a good judge since I wouldn't really think to drink this straight.  I'm going to experiment with it in some mixed drinks - something fruity like a Mai Tai maybe?
I used a picture of John on the label from our last trip to West Texas - although the label wasn't as clear as I'd like -- I really hate my printer and need to get a new one.  I swear printers were put on earth to irk me!!! Arghhhh!!!!
All bottled up and out in the bunker!

Friday, December 7, 2018

Garden Log --- December 7, 2018

The greenhouse garden continues to grow - I've got a few trays of microgreens going in there. The seeds are getting a little old, but still getting some germination from them.  I'm going to have to get some fresh seed soon. 
The Ampletomate Himbeerfarbig tomato plant has started blooming.  Since it's in the greenhouse I'm giving it a good shake every day to help with germination. I put this one in a hanging basket since that's how it's promoted, and it's about 1-1/2ft. tall so far. If it starts to drape over, I'll hang it.
Not sure which this one is but I have a few blooms on it, too.
Out in the main garden I've been bringing in a few of the choy's - these went into a stir fry the other night.  This is the Toy Choy. Really delicious!
I received some cuttings and seeds from my FB garden group this week and I got them all planted out in the greenhouse.  There were some Paw Paw seeds that went into the fridge as they need to be chilled for a few months before planting.
There's Lavender Scallops, Crown of Thorns, Tumeric roots and Devil's Backbone. 
 I salvaged some of the bunching onions from the summer garden and have repotted them - these things are the most forgiving plants -- they pop right back even after being ignored and abused all summer.
JR and Ashley brought me a HUGE box of succulents that they cut back from their front yard this fall, and one of the plants was this Mother of Millions.  I'm trying to re-pot it and it's starting to respond. 
And finally, I've started to gather some seeds from the spent Morning Glory plants.  These are a mix of pink and blue varieties. 
I'm starting to plan the spring garden and decide what I'll be planting - the weather is rainy today, and cold, so that's the perfect way to spend my time. Now, how am I going to get John to expand the field garden by a few more rows?   ha ha!

Monday, December 3, 2018

Closing out the 2018 Garden

A nice year in the garden, although not nearly as good as we've had in the past.  I blame the manure we bought that was too hot. ðŸ˜¡ The plants all struggled at the beginning of the spring and that set them back for the whole summer.  Oh well, lesson learned!  With only about 23 pounds of tomatoes, compared to over 60 pounds in 2017, I was sorely disappointed. Sigh. BUT -- the peach crop made up for that! Here are this year's veggie stats, with the fruit stats after that:

Type Name Lb. Ounce  
Beans, dried Cranberry Fielder 0 1 0
Beans, dried European Soldier 0 4 0
Beans, dried Mayflower 0 6 0.9
Beans, dried Missouri Wonder 0 0 0.5
Beans, dried Pink Flamingo 0 9 0.1
Beans, dried Yellow Eye 0 4 0.2
Beans, Green Maribel, Calima, and Jade 17 2 0.1
Beets Burpee Golden 0 10 0.7
Beets Chiogga 1 13 0.4
Beets Cylindra 0 10 0.4
Beets Sweetheart 1 0 0.8
Broccoli Purple Peacock 0 3 0
Broccoli Rapini  0 6 0.2
Broccoli Waltham 0 5 0.4
Cabbage Chirimen Hakusai 2 11 0.2
Cabbage Filderkraut 2 15 0.7
Cabbage Michilhili 4 4 0.9
Carrots Atomic Red 0 7 0.7
Carrots Black Nebula 1 1 0.2
Carrots Juane de Doubs  0 7 0.2
Carrots (Mixed - leftover carrot seeds) 3 8 0.9
Carrots NutriRed 0 5 0.1
Carrots Rainbow F1 0 2 0.1
Carrots Shin Kuroda 3 3 0.3
Carrots Solar Yellow 0 6 0.2
Celery Golden 0 15 0
Celery Peppermint Stick 0 4 0.7
Celery Pink Plume 4 2 0
Celery Red Venture 1 0 0
Corn Sweet Berries & Cream Corn, Incredible, Jackpot 3 9 0.9
Cowpeas California Black Eye 0 0 0.8
Cowpeas AR-5 India      
Cowpeas Ram's Horn 0 0 0.3
Cucumber Beit Alpha  1 4 0.8
Cucumber Persian 1 2 0.7
Cucumber Long Green Improved 1 13 0.6
Gourd Crown of Thornes 1 15 0.1
Greens Minutina, Erba Stella  0 0 0.1
Kale Dazzling Blue 0 5 0.7
Kale Lacinato 0 10 0
Kale (Mixed - left over seeds) 0 8 0
Kale Pentland Brig 2 4 0.1
Kale Portuguese Walking Stick Kale      
Kale Red Russian 0 9 0.3
Kale Scarlet 0 5 0.2
Kale Siber Frill 0 3 0.6
Kale Tronchuda 2 15 0
Lettuce Matina Sweet 0 7 0
Lettuce Merlot 0 7 0.8
Lettuce Romaine Red 0 2 0.5
Lettuce Salad Bowl Red (2) 0 11 0.9
Okra Kasturi Okra - India      
Okra Orange Jing 2 4 0.8
Onion Bunching (PC Farmer's Market) 0 0 0.5
Onion Stuttgarter 0 6 0.4
Onion Tropeana Lunga Onion 0 1 0
Pak Choy Hong Tae 1 0 0
Pak Choy Extra Dwarf  3 6 0.8
Peas Amish Sugar Snap      
Peas Dwarf Grey Sugar      
Peas Dwarf White Sugar      
Peas Green Beauty Tendril      
Peas Oregon Sugar Pod       
Peas Royal Snow      
Peas Spring Blush Tendril      
Peas Sugar Snap 4 2 0.3
Pepper, Hot Hatch 0 9 0.6
Pepper, Hot Sugar Rush Peach 0 14 0.6
Pepper, Hot Jalapeno LaBamba 0 2 0.5
Pepper Chinese Giant      
Pepper Gypsy Hybrid 0 5 0.5
Pepper Habanada 0 0 0.3
Pepper Jimmy Nardello 0 12 0.4
Pepper JR's Orange 0 8 0.4
Pepper Lipstick 0 6 0.2
Pepper Marconi Red 0 4 0,9
Pepper Stocky Golden Roaster 0 5 0.6
Pepper Sweet Cheese Red 1 14 0.3
Pepper Topepo Giallo 0 5 0
Pepper Violet Sparkle 0 9 0.6
Spinach Palco 2 5 0.7
Spinach Regiment 1 9 0.8
Spinach Viroflay 2 0 0.4
Spinach Gigante d'Inverno 0 13 0.8
Spinach Bloomsdale 2 5 0.5
Spinach America 1 9 0.8
Spinach Black Magic 2 13 0.3
Spinach Red Kitten 0 8 0
Squash, Summer Dark Star Zucchini 1 1 0.1
Squash, Summer White Scallop 0 10 0.1
Squash, Summer Zapallo del Tronco 0 9 0.5
Squash, Summer Zephyr 2 9 0.5
Swiss Chard Cardinal 2 10 0
Swiss Chard Erbette 4 0 0.5
Tomatillo Purple Coban 1 9 0.6
Tomatillo Yellow 0 3 0
Tomato Arkansas Traveler 4 1 0.2
Tomato Black Mountain Pink 0 6 0.1
Tomato Brad's Atomic Grape 0 11 0.7
Tomato Cream Sausage 2 1 0
Tomato Flathead Monster Orange 2 0 0.3
Tomato Karos 2 2 0.6
Tomato Large Barred Boar 1 2 0.8
Tomato Rote Zahnrad tomate 6 0 0
Tomato Rumi Banjan 0 15 0.6
Tomato Voyage Reisetomate 1 5 0.2
Tomato Wisconsin 55 Gold 0 6 0.1
Tomato Zluta Kytice 0 2 0.6
Tomato, Dwarf Silbertanne 7 15 0.2
Watermelon Black Diamond 8 1 0.3
  Total of all Vegetables: 152 8
4

Type Name Lb. Ounce  
Peach Rio Grande (5) 120 4 0.4
Peach Loring      
Peach Red Skin 0 11 0
Peach Sam Houston 5 6 0
Peach LaFeliciana 0 2 0.3
Peach TexStar (2) 18 9 0.7
         
Apple Gala      
Apple Pink Lady      
         
Nectarine Suncoast (2) 1 11 0
         
Plum Methley 20 5 0.1
Plum Gulf Beauty (2) 0 0 0.5
Plum Santa Rosa (2) 1 1 0.7
         
Elderberries York (2)      
Elderberries Adams (2)      
         
Strawberries   0 10 0.6
         
Jostaberries Jostaberries      
         
Blackberries Brazos      
Blackberries Chester Thornless (1) 1 1 0.8
Blackberries Aztec Thornless (5)      
Blackberries Sweetie Pie Thornless (3)      
Blackberries Arapaho Thornless (2)      
         
Raspberries Black (3) 0 0 0.2
Raspberries Glencoe Thornless (2)      
         
Fig Brown Turkey      
         
Banana Truly Tiny [2]      
Banana Dwarf - Cavendish      
Banana Dwart - Green      
Banana Dwarf - Orinco      
         
Mulberry Dwarf Everbearing (2) 13 14 0.5
Mulberry Russian (1)      
         
Pear Orient      
Pear Warren      
         
Pecans Choctaw (2)      
  Pawnee      
  Kiowa      
         
Grapes        
   
  Total of all fruit: 183 14 0.8