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.

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!

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!

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. 😡 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