Audrey 3 has more colors, a Harvest

I returned from a weekend trip to visit the inlaws and had to see how things are at the plot.  The cabbage that had been nibbled on as of the 10th has been pretty well decimated.  Thankfully, I have two leftover plants that I can insert in their place if need be.  The Boy and I spent a fair amount of time deadheading marigolds although that is likely pretty pointless.  Wifey mentioned that temps are supposed to really start dropping.  I'll have to salvage what I can of the tomatoes and peppers before they get frostbitten.

Most interestingly it was neat to see all the colors on Audrey 3.  Other than the moonflower, I'm not sure what else there is.  The flower seeds were a mixed assortment from a few years ago.

The harvest was consistent with the last few.  A good number of tomatoes, some carrots, and a few peppers.

The totals:

• 1 lb 7.8 oz tomatoes
• 1.6 oz cayenne peppers
• 2.9 oz carrots
• One 3" long 1.75" wide bell pepper
  

Rainy Day at the Plot - Shallots, Leafcutters vs Cabbage, a Harvest

With a tropical storm moving northward from Florida, we have a lot of rain today and more to come throughout the weekend.  That being said, its been a few days since I was at the plot and I needed to check on progress.  Here's a view from the gate to our plot.

I found a number of tomatoes that had fallen from their vines due to wind gusts over the last day or so and harvested them.  I'll have to let them sit for a bit because they're not quite what I'd ordinarily pick on my own.

In my meandering, I found that we have our first snow pea!  There are also a few flowers on other plants.  That bed is also filled with leaf lettuce that I need to harvest.  It's a good thing that the lettuce in Wifey's raised planter box on the front porch is about done.

I was diasppointed to see that a few of the new cabbage plants have been victimized by leaf cutter insects.  Unfortunately, the bug dust I applied the last time I was out (when the plants were still whole) has washed off in the rain.  I'll have to reaapply once all this rain stops.

I was happy to see that betyween the addition of some soil (really, excess peat moss I need to dispose of from grass seeding at the house) and all the rain we've gotten has encouraged one of Wifey's shallots to finally come up.  One down, a bunch to go!

The harvest is about the same as the last few have been.  It's still nice to be able to provide some food for the family even when I'm in the midst of furlough.

The harvest totals:

• 1 lb 12.6 oz tomatoes
• 0.9 oz beans
• 0.5 oz cayenne peppers
• 0.5 oz radishes
• 1.3 oz carrots
• 1 snow pea (buried under beans in the picture)

The Furlough Continues! - Harvest, Weeding, and Observations

I took a break from practicing my Mr. Mom impression to head out to the plot for a bit this afternoon.

Given that it rained yesterday evening, I thought it would be a good time to put another piece of plastic in on the fence line.  Another one down, a few more to go.

I spent a fair amount of time doing weeding; the original walking onion bed, radish beds, all of the tomato beds, the lettuce/snow pea bed, pathways.  While in the walking onion bed, I saw a number of bulbs sprouting.  I transplanted some to bare spots and harvested a few to give to Mom #2 who wants to give them a try.

I was also excited to see both flowers on the snow pea plants, but also our first fall snow pea!

The basil has all been cut back considerably.  I considered removing them entirely, but some were showing signs of new growth.  I cut back to near the new growth to see what would happen thinking that maybe there would be new shoots.  Maybe not, but given it's near the end of their season and there are few butterflies and bees now that I see no harm in making the attempt.

A lot of time was spent deadheading marigolds. While poking around the plot searching for wilting marigold flowers, I also saw that there were some fledgling borage plants adjacent to the borage box.  Apparently, some of the seeds took root after the flower heads fell off.

On one of my trips to the compost bin to dispose of dead marigold flowers, I noticed a volunteer starting to grow along the fence line.  I have no idea where they came from, but they're definitely Four O'clock plants.  The seeds could have come from anywhere.  We're always amazed at the places we find our Four O'clock volunteers in our yard.  They must really be susceptible to wind currents.

Throughout my work at the plot, I was kept faithful company by a Tigerswallow butterfly.  Initially he was skittish at my attempts to take his picture (my phone camera is the same lousy one, unfortunately), however, he came to be more accustomed to my presence after some time and let me take his picture.

The harvest today was quite impressive.  To Wifey's disappointment (she's tired of canning them), there were a lot of tomatoes. 

The totals:

• 1.1 oz beans
• 1.0 cayenne peppers
• 0.8 oz carrots
• 1.1 radishes.  (4 radishes)
• 1 red pepper - 2" long 1.5" wide
• 1 cucumber - 2.5" long
• 2 lb 12.9 oz tomatoes

The elevated box at work

Back in March I made an elevated box for Wifey for our front porch so she could grow salad greens in it.  I hadn't thought ahead and installed drainage holes so she didn't use it in the spring.  When I made a box for our neighbor, I learned from that mistake and had them drilled right off the bat.  A few months ago we emptied the box and Wifey drilled holes in ours.  The box works considerably better, although, the wood on the underside has discolored from the lack of initial drainage.

A month ago Wifey bought some lettuce starters at a Howard County farmer's market and planted them in the box.  They've done quite well and we've had a number of salads from the box as a result.  Wifey's currently letting some of the lettuce bolt so we can try to save the seed for the spring.

Spanish Rice Recipe

Years ago my mom used to make a recipe she called "Spanish Rice" on occasion.  I loved it and she often made a very large batch so we had leftovers.  Since my brother and I moved out and mom and dad aren't cooking quite as many recipes as they used to when the house was full, the recipe somehow got lost to time.

After I graduated college, I tried getting the recipe from my mom a few times and was typically met with "well.......I don't know.......I just put stuff together as I had them and mixed to taste."  I tried making it a few times and was met with many a failure.

About a year ago I called mom and really grilled her on what she thought she put in there with the idea that unlike my chili recipe, I would painstakingly measure everything I put in until I was happy with the resulting flavor profile.  Given there are many fresh ingredients in the recipe and many things that I grow, I felt it right to include it here.

Below is the recipe in two forms.  One is based on if you only want to use 1 cup of rice.  The other is based off 1 lb of ground beef.  The latter version yields more.

Ingredients - "1 cup" version:

• 3/4 lb ground beef
• 1/4 - 1/2 green pepper (diced)
• 1 small/medium onion (diced)
• 8 oz tomato paste
• 1 cup of uncooked rice
• 4 large cloves garlic (crushed)
• 2 T chili powder (to taste)
• 1/2 T paprika (to taste)
• 1/2 T crushed red pepper (to taste)

 

 Ingredients - "1 lb" version: 

• 1 lb ground beef
• 2/3 green pepper (diced)
• 1 1/3 medium onion (diced)
• 10 oz tomato paste
• 1 1/3 cup of uncooked rice
• 5 large cloves garlic (crushed)
• 2 2/3 T chili powder (to taste)
• 2/3 T paprika (to taste)
• 2/3 T crushed red pepper (to taste)

 

Preparation:

Cook the rice.  In a large pan or wok, brown the ground beef.  Add the crushed garlic, onions, and green pepper and cook down.  Add seasonings.  Finally, add the cooked rice to the beef mixture and stir.

Planting Cabbage Starters, Harvest

Although there's a relatively lengthy list of things to do, we didn't have much time at the plot this afternoon; it was getting too close to Baby Girl's bedtime.  We prioritized and planted some new cabbage starters that we had purchased from the local MOM's.  In the chance that we would be purchasing some sort of fall plant starters, I had planned ahead and brought the leftovers of a bag of peat moss and two more of the faux terra cotta pots our neighbor had given us a few months back.

Once the four of us arrived at the plot, I put a mix of compost from our compost bin (finally breaking down nicely) and the peat moss in the two pots then planted a starter in each pot.  I also planted the last Brussels sprout starter that was leftover from when I planted those.  I removed the last ground cherry and one of the two marigolds in that box and planted two of the cabbage starters in there as well.  Unfortunately, one of the cabbage starters is still homeless.

The last chores to be done were that I watered while Wifey and The Boy harvested stuff.

The total:

• 2 lbs 6.4 oz Tomatoes
• 2 gr peppers (2" long 1.5" wide)
• 2 radishes at 0.5 oz
• 4.1 oz green beans
• 0.8 oz cayenne peppers
• 2.4 oz carrots
• 10 ground cherries

Walking Onion Growth, Plot Status, a Harvest

The family was out and about this afternoon so we made a trip to the plot to do some watering and check on things. 

The walking onions Wifey transplanted are coming along nicely.  I've been watering them each time I go out and fertilized once shortly after they were transplanted.

As I think I've mentioned before, we have two kinds of volunteer tomatoes -- large ones and some small ones.  The larger ones we think are decedents of Wifey's grandfather's variety (aka the Robbins Avenue tomatoes) that he cross-pollinated years ago and the smaller ones are from some of last year's that never would ripen.  The Robbins Ave ones are developing a blush on them.  The tiny ones are starting to be like they were last year -- they split and aren't turning red.  In this case, the insistence to remain green seems very militant.  They remain green despite having received some treatments of bone meal.  I think that I really need to make use of the soil tester in the spring.

The harvest was about as I expected.  It's late in the year and so the tomatoes and peppers are slowing down.  We harvested our first two of the new radishes I planted about a month ago.  Wifey found a stand of carrots all bunched together somewhere and pulled them as well as a few others.  The remaining two boxes of beans are continuing their small resurgence.  I still can't get over the change.  I think it's been about a month since I first posted that I thought they were done.  Nope! 

The totals:

• 13.6 oz tomatoes
• 2 radishes
• 2.6 oz carrots
• .6 oz cayenne peppers
• 3.2 oz green beans
• 11 ground cherries

A Harvest - Tomatoes, Carrots, and Cayennes

We made a trip to the plot today to fertilize and water.  There was a bit of a harvest although I have to admit that some of the tomatoes likely shouldn't have been picked just yet under ideal circumstances.  A few of what I harvested were found on the ground for one reason or another, though.  I guess I'm concerned about worms continuing to feast on my tomatoes and apprehensive about when an unexpected frost will finish them off for the year.

The harvest totals:

• 12.9 oz tomatoes
• 0.5 oz cayennes
• 0.9 oz carrots

While I was watering at the plot, Wifey meandered around with The Boy taking pictures.  Once again, they're quite pretty to look at.  Of particular note is that we finally have some baby cucumbers developing.  Better late than never, I suppose.