Early April in an Austin Urban Garden April 5, 2012

I’ve been so busy lately, I’ve gotten way behind on this blog.  The gardens are coming along nicely with our frequent rain.  The tomato plants I planted on the side in February, in defiance of the threatened last frost, are taller than I and have set fruit.

The tomatoes planted in early March are growing and flowering like crazy, which is a little more time appropriate.  The Matt’s Wild Cherry volunteers have set a ton of tiny fruit.  This is my least favorite tomato variety, and I will continue to harvest for a while, then dedicate the space to something I enjoy more.  

 

I’m getting 5 to 10 strawberries a day and have been for a couple of weeks.  I’m eating some and freezing some for later.  Because my volume is low, I purchased some Poteet Strawberries for jam.  I made strawberry, vanilla, meyer lemon jam with meyer lemons from a friend’s tree in Houston.  My meyers were done weeks ago.

The onions are the garden star right now, as I’ve harvested probably 30 fairly large onions that had bolted.  I’ve eaten some bur dried most for storage in a mesh bag that the G and S Oranges come in.  I have loads more to harvest, probably this weekend, as one by one they are showing signs of wanting to lay down.

 

The peppers are just in the ground and flowering, as they tend to produce better in the heat.  I’ll put in more peppers, watermelon seeds, cucumber seeds and squash perhaps in the onion beds once I harvest those and amend the soil with compost and a bunch of new soil.  

I’d love to hear how your gardens are growing!

 

Mid April in an Austin Urban Garden April 16, 2011

The garden is in full splendor right now, and producing lots of food, with more on the way.  I’ve eaten at least a bushel of strawberries over the last couple of weeks, and now the plants are setting new fruit.  The Chandlers have proven to be the biggest and sweetest and most prolific this year.  The Blackberries are setting fruit as well, and I expect to be eating Blackberries in the next several weeks.

The tomato plants are looking gorgeous and all 12 plants have set fruit.  Not just one tomato each, each plant has multiple bundles of tomatoes.  I think the difference may be my buried bucket root watering experiment.  I have tomatoes like never before.  Will they be stolen as they ripen like last year?  We’ll see.  I have not heard the mockingbird lately.  So far, no pests at all.

Big Garden filling out

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Tiny Cucumbers

I’m going to need to plant more cucumbers, if I’m going to have enough to pickle.  Might need to get this done today.

The Jalapeno and Serrano peppers are already needing to be picked.  I tasted on last week, and it was completely devoid of heat.  I’m hoping those that I’ll pick today will at least have a little heat.  It takes hot weather to produce a hot pepper, and these are ready a bit early for that.

Peppers

I planted a couple more Ancho Chiles yesterday and will be looking for different varieties at this morning’s Farmer’s Market.  I have room for more where the onions were.

I have now pulled up all but a few onions.  A big burlap bag of dried onions hangs in the pantry and this box of onions, still drying, needs to be hung up as well for long term storage.

Dried Onions

The Sugar Snap Peas are abundant right now as well, and I’ll be enjoying some of these for dinner tonight.

Sugar Snap Pea

The potatoes are huge and flowering, but I’m going to give them at least two more weeks before I start digging up new potatoes.  I’ll pull some as new potatoes, then let some mature.  The carrots need another week, and I’ll have a nice harvest of those, which I’m looking forward to.  The leeks are slow, and although they can come up at any time, I want the fat leeks I see at the markets.

This is such an enjoyable time to be in the garden, and I’m thankful for its productivity this season.  Last Spring was riddled by bugs, and squirrels and unknown beasts, and this Spring has been a pleasure.  Fingers crossed that it continues!

Almost Fall in an Austin Urban Garden September 5, 2010

The garden is a little boring right now.  The only thing that I’m eating from the garden is serrano and jalapeno peppers.  The lettuce I sowed last week, didn’t survive the heat – it came up, but the sun baked it and it disappeared.  The broccoli is up and looking good.

Baby Broccoli

For comparison sake, I planted more corn a few days ago.  I’m trying to compare growing seasons and different varieties, since I have enough space to do it.  One of my friends makes fun of me for my corn garden, and says I need a Golf Cart combine to harvest my little 5′x5′ patch of corn.  I won’t be sharing.  But, the newly sowed corn is peeking out.

The tomatoes look great, especially those in the Earthbox.  Most are flowering but none have set fruit yet.  The peppers are going great guns.  The cucumber/butternut squash looks great.  Can’t wait to see which it is.  A few days ago I planted Royal Burgundy Bush beans.  They aren’t up yet.

Royal Burgundy Bush Beans

Something is coming up where I planted the potatoes.  I’m not sure it is potatoes yet. I’m fairly confident that many of the potatoes composted because the soil was so warm.  I’m on a wait and see still for the potatoes.  I’ll plant more lettuce and perhaps some chard today, and hope for the best!

Earthbox Beats the Heat August 27, 2010

I’ve been chronicling my Earthbox adventures since Spring, when I gave myself one (OK, two).   I figured if we were going to sell them, I should be able to talk about them from experience.  The Spring tomatoes in my Earthbox were the most productive, of all the tomatoes I planted, and the least afflicted with pests, although I’m not sure the Earthbox gets credit for that.  They turned into a wild tomato jungle, just two plants in one little box.  I attributed the difference to the fact that the Earthbox holds water in a reservoir, that the plants can seek out as needed.

Now, I’m doing the same experiment with Fall tomatoes which I planted a few weeks ago.  Not surprisingly, the tomatoes planted in the Earthbox look better than those in the raised bed.

Tomatoes in an Earthbox

Tomatoes in the raised bed

The most interesting thing about this is that the tomatoes in the raised bed almost didn’t make it at all, during those triple digit days, and had to be covered.  They are spindly and just don’t look good.  The tomato plants in the Earthbox never even needed to be covered, they just soldiered through the triple digits, sucking up water from the reservoir, I guess and are greener and much heartier.  I wish I’d invented it, I think they are amazing.

Dog Days of Summer – How to protect the garden August 14, 2010

By this time last year, after prolonged record setting heat, I had pulled up most of my herbs because watering them was such an unpleasant chore.  Now, they are mostly safe under the shade of a pecan tree on my patio, and I’m still watering them every day.  The tomatoes in the raised bed are still looking good. I think I got some particularly heat resistant varieties, mostly Valley Girls.  Still, this morning, I improvised some shade cloth from burlap and covered the most exposed tomatoes up.  It reminds me of the straw hat that will adorn my head this afternoon when I deliver soil in the heat of the day.

burlap shade cloth

The corn in the Three Sisters Garden is now setting tassles!  The other two sisters have mostly given up their fight through the heat.  I’m watering the corn, and everything else right now, every day in the early morning.  The corn also gets a misting in the heat of the afternoon.

tassles on the corn

The lone watermelon is growing every week. I’m not sure how big this variety is supposed to get, because I always lose the cards that say all that important stuff, but it looks healthy nonetheless.

Ever Growing watermelon

I planted two tomato plants in an Earthbox, hoping that the constant supply of water provided to the roots would help them through these final (hopefully) horrid days of heat.  They look as good or better as those in the raised bed.

Tomatoes in Earthbox

The serrano peppers need no protection, and are setting peppers faster than I can keep up with.   However, the pimiento varieties I bought the last couple weeks at the farmer’s market did not tolerate the heat at all and gave up the ghost rather quickly.

happy peppers

Sorry for the foggy pictures.  I’ve got a gazillion people coming to my house this weekend and I was impatient with the camera fogging up, so I just rolled with the bad pictures.

No Grocery Store, Day 219 – Thunderheart Bison Dinner Series #3 August 8, 2010

For late breakfast, two scrambled eggs, and a link of Dai Due Champagne sausage.  Nuff said.

Dinner for this day has been in the works for a while.  My friends Christian and Jamie and I started doing Thunderheart Bison dinners a while back.  The first one still might be my favorite dinner ever.  Last night, runs a very close second.

Christian recently interviewed the chef at Fonda San Miguel about their most popular dish, Carne Asada.  We immediately thought about doing a similar dish with Bison tenderloin.

Christian has the spices already ground and assembled when I got there.  Peppers, chipotle, cumin, annato, and clove.

Carne Asada Mise en Place

He deftly spiral cut the bison, for a flat strip.

slicing the bison

He had already mixed up some peppers and onions for a flavorful garnish.

pepers and onions

For crunch he fried some corn tortillas.

Fried corn tortilla

Next up, he seared the well seasoned bison in a hot cast iron skillet.

Seared bison asada

While the bison cooked, he made an avocado, tomato, red onion salad and lightly tossed it with oil and vinegar.

Avocado, tomato, red onion salad

The final plate was black bean puree, topped with the bison, topped with the peppers and onions, then surrounded with the avocado salad, and garnished with a tortilla.  The end result was spicy smokey bison, tempered perfectly with the creamy avocado, and cool tomato, with very slight acidity from the vinegar, creamy black beans with crunch from the tortilla.  This is one of my all time favorite meals ever.

Bison Carne Asada

State of the Garden, Surviving the August Heat August 7, 2010

The last week of 100 degree temperatures has stressed some of the garden plants, yet some seem unfazed.  I’m watering pretty much every day, and spritzing the plants in the heat of the afternoon.  The Lemon Cucumbers look horrible, but there are so many flowers on them, they are covered with bees.  Basically, at this point, I’m leaving them in for the bees.  The Purple Hull Peas are gorgeous, and seemingly sprang out of nowhere.  They will be ready to pick when about half of the pod has turned purple, so very soon.

Purple Hull Peas

The one Celebrity plant I left in from Spring, looks like Hell, but true to form, is still setting fruit.

Celebrity Tomato

I also have another watermelon. This one is from a different plant than the last, and is a different variety.  It’s very cute though.

Watermelon

The peppers, of course, are happy as can be and getting hotter by the day.  Heat begets heat, so they are fiery.  I’m going to make homemade Siracha (not spelled right) with the Thai Chiles.

Thai Chiles

The Three Sisters Garden is having mixed results.  The corn looks fantastic, but shows signs of stress at the heat of the day.  The beans and pumpkins are not doing as well, and I can’t predict their outcome.

Three Sisters Garden

The lemons and limes are ready to be picked, I just need to decide what to do with them so none of these precious gems go to waste.

No sign of the potatoes yet, I’m keeping that site slightly damp.  I planted them deep and they are slow, so I’m not looking for signs of life for another couple of weeks.  Hopefully not until it is cooler.

The tomatoes I put out a couple weeks ago are hanging in and a couple have flowered.  I’m pleased with the garden as a whole, but wish this horrible heat would end soon.

Here’s the big garden:

the big garden overall

Tomatoes Three Ways and Seed Potatoes July 18, 2010

I’m on the fence about planting a Fall Tomato crop, because of the pestilence from the now ending Spring tomato season.  It is a major annoyance and so destructive to have so many stink bugs and leaf foots.  But, nothing compares to a fresh tomato, and that is pretty compelling.  The difference in a fresh and store bought tomato is so obvious to me now, I’ve been eating around tomatoes in restaurants that don’t taste homegrown.

So, I’ve been processing my own garden tomatoes to make them last. Last night, I made a cooked sauce, with onions and garlic, and froze it, for later, when we can’t get or grow tomatoes.

Cooking tomatoes for sauce

Simmering them down

Smooth Tomato Sauce

I processed the cooked tomatoes with the emulsion blender, for a smooth sauce.  It is totally unseasoned, for now.  I can season it when I use it this winter.  It is in the freezer.

Today, I went to the HOPE Farmer’s Market to look for lettuce.   Much to my surprise, there was Ben from Salt and Time – I had forgotten he was at that market, and I hadn’t been there for a while.  Johnson’s Backyard Gardens had loads of San Marzano Tomatoes still, so I bought 2 boxes full to split with my serious pizza making friendChristian. I decided to process most of these raw, and began running them through the food mill.

Box-o- San Marzano Tomatoes

So, a couple or three hours working them through the food mill, and I think I’m set for winter.

Raw San Marzano Sauce

The few tomatoes I have yet to process are going to be run through the food processor with a pepper or two, and maybe a bit of cucumber, salt and pepper, and will be a Bloody Mary before this day is over.  I”m feeling pretty good about the state of tomatoes.

A bit of exciting garden news – I’ve been looking for seed potatoes all over, to plant in a couple of weeks for a winter crop.  I have not had much luck, but today, I found Yukon Gold potatoes at Johnson’s Backyard Garden and have them stored in a cool dry place until time to plant.  No potato grow bags this time around, these have a reserved spot in the garden.

Battling Stink Bugs Organically July 8, 2010

This year has been really bad for stink bugs on my tomatoes.  The tomatoes at the Farmer’s Markets are all afflicted with cloudy spot, so I’m not alone.  I’ve tried Safer Insecticidal Soap, which doesn’t phase them (it does help with the leaf-footed bugs).  By now, the stink bugs are huge and have become somewhat evil.  I knock them off, hoping to step on them, and they fly at me.  I talked with several farmer’s yesterday about their methods of battling stink bugs.  Larry at Boggy Creek Farm uses two methods – the most productive is torching them.  Apparently he has a way of torching them without burning the tomato plants down.  The method he recommended to me is pulling them off and plunging them in a bucket of soapy water with olive oil.  He said this method will not do much to get rid of them, but at least I’ll get the shear pleasure of watching them drown.  Springdale Farm also uses the torch method, with less effectiveness.  Yesterday at the Triangle Market, there was one farm with no cloudy spot on their tomatoes, Engel Farms.  I asked Chris how their tomatoes looked so perfect, and he said they treat the plants with Neem Oil and Mineral Oil.  My friend Stephanie also uses Neem Oil and says it works well.  So, now I know what to do.  Buy a torch and some Neem Oil.

No Grocery Store, Day 180 July 1, 2010

The 180th day seems like it should be a milestone for some reason.  But, its just nearly half way.  I started to wonder yesterday, why I continue to keep track anymore, because after the 1 year mark, I don’t see myself running to Whole Foods or Central Market on any regular basis.  I guess at some point it will be nice to look back and see what I’ve learned, and how I dealt with certain obstacles.

Tuesday, I received the Dai Due weekly email of their product offerings available at this coming SFC Farmer’s Market on Saturday.  Some of the hot food available was Axis Deer Chili.  That sounded so good in this rainy, not quite coolish weather and I remembered that I had Axis Deer in the freezer.  Earlier in the year, a friend, upon learning of my Eat Local Challenge, brought me 7 pounds of various types of meat that he shot on the King Ranch.  Axis Deer, Nilgai, Antelope.

Gifted Axis Deer

So, I headed over to Boggy Creek Farm in the morning and bought some huge heirloom tomatoes, a jar of Larry’s Fire Roasted Tomatoes, and some Sand Creek Farm Monterrey Jack.

Larry's Fire Roasted Tomatoes - Boggy Creek Farm

I had a Ceasar Salad with chicken for lunch at Cipollina Bistro, while the Deer thawed.

For the chili, I sauteed my garden onions and farmer’s market garlic in Texas Olive Oil.  I browned the deer meat in another pan and seasoned with cumin I had in the pantry and chili powder I borrowed from a friend.  (Sorry Christian, it will be approximately 6 months until I can pay you back.)  I cut up the whole tomatoes and sauteed them down until I could pull out their skins.  Then I combined everything in a pot, with 2 bay leafs and oregano from my garden, and let it simmer for 3.5 hours.  When the chili seasons were integrated and the deer was tender, I had a bowl, with a bit of the San Creek Monterrey Jack on top.  It was very satisfying on a rainy night.

All local Axis Deer Chili

If memory serves, the last time I made chili, was well over a year ago, and I used Wick Fowler’s 3 Alarm Chili Mix from a box, canned tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, and grocery store chili meat.  I’m thinking this is a real improvement, and it tasted so much better.

For a moment, I wished that I had some Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers, to crumble on top of my bowl of chili, which is how I grew up eating it.  You know, the white crackers?  I looked up the ingredient list to see what I was missing.  Nothing I’d really want to eat.

Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, BAKING SODA, VEGETABLE MONOGLYCERIDES (EMULSIFIER).