Mis-labeled Peppers - Again!

Last year a friend gave me 2 jalapeño and 2 cayenne pepper plants.  As the plants grew, I could see that a couple of them were mis-labeled.  One jalapeño was clearly cayenne, and a cayenne obviously jalapeño.

This year I started my own seeds.  And of course, now I can't find any record of my purchases!  I was under the impression that I'd bought Jalapeño, Hungarian Wax, Ancho, Anaheim and sweet Gypsy peppers.  I also purchased 2 Garden Salsa plants.  When I gave plants away to friends, I thought I'd given away all of my Anaheim by accident and only wound up with 2 Ancho.

Now all the peppers are growing by leaps and bounds and all have peppers popping out like mad.  I can see that there is mis-labeling again - but this time by me!

Jalapeno

The plants labeled Anaheim are clearly Jalapeño and there are 2 of them.

Hungarian Wax

I got the Hungarian Wax right

Gypsy

The Gypsy plants (4) are also correctly labeled.  They will be anything from yellow to red and are sweet peppers which are growing in pots.

Garden Salsa

The Garden Salsa are right, too, but then I bought them!  They will be red at maturity.

Unknown Pepper 1

Unknown Pepper 2

The plants labeled Jalapeño are obviously 2 different peppers.  It looks like I kept an Ancho after all, but I'm not sure which is which.  One plant is taller and the foliage is darker green.  The peppers on this plant are just starting.  The other plant has a well-developed pepper.  After looking online, I can see that the Anaheim will be a lighter green than the Ancho.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  And maybe next year take more care when labelling!

Confetti Cole Slaw and Garden Update

I make a mean cole slaw - even if I do say so myself!  I apply the "kitchen sink" method - I put in whatever I have on hand, and the more ingredients the better.  Tonight my husband is grilling a steak and baking a couple of our Pacific Russet Potatoes.  A cole slaw is a great addition to the menu.

Ingredients for Confetti Cole Slaw

Tonight's batch will have purchased red and green cabbage, Cripps Pink apple, kohl rabi from jollityFarms and from our garden onion, 3 kinds of kale and carrot.

Veggies prepared

All of the vegetable ingredients  are chopped into pieces except the carrots, which I grate.

Confetti Cole Slaw

The dressing is simple and the amounts vary with the size of the coleslaw.  To salad dressing I add a squirt of liquid honey and drizzle apple cider vinegar to thin the dressing down.  It's all tossed together and put in the fridge until dinner time.  A great addition would be toasted sunflower seeds, but today I didn't have any on hand.

While out in the garden gathering the ingredients, I snapped some pictures to show progress.

Corn, bean arbour, 2 pots of basil and leeks behind them

The corn is growing by leaps and bounds.  In hot weather, you can practically see it grow.  It's now taller than the bean arbor, which has vines snaking all over its top.

Corn silks

The tassels crown the plants now and silks are bursting from the stems where the cobs are forming.  It's hard to believe that the corn was just planted out 7 weeks ago!

Health Kick Tomatoes

We've already had a couple of Gold Nugget and the Health Kick tomatoes are just about big enough to start colouring up.

Yellow onions curing in the sun

Today I pulled up the yellow onions and left them on the surface of the bed to start the curing process.

Butternut squash

In the compost bin, Butternut Squash vines are spilling over the edge.  I placed planks to help them to the ground, but they're ignoring them, choosing instead their own path.

Garlic and Onions - When to Stop Watering

Each year I stew over this subject.  Onions are simpler, but when to stop watering the garlic always makes me think.

GARLIC

Garlic plants at the beginning of July

My situation is outside the norm since I'm vegetable gardening in what amounts to a giant container garden.  Not only that, but this year's extreme early heat and lack of rain makes the situation more complicated.  I've been keeping watering longer than I normally would because things are drying out so quickly.  If you stop watering too soon, the garlic won't fully develop.  If you water too long, you run the risk of the garlic splitting the skins - which I've definitely had happen in the past!  The drying foliage is only one indicator.  I've also been keeping watch by digging up a couple of bulbs.

Test bulb

Two days ago, the bulb I dug up looks to be ready.  The cloves are clearly defined under their paper wrappers.  I've therefore stopped watering the garlic which will sit in the ground for a couple of weeks before I dig it up.

I recently learned another tip in garlic harvesting.  I've always pulled up the garlic, but a recent West Coast Seeds newsletter talked about carefully digging it up so that the bulb is not harmed in any way. After the garlic is out of the ground, I always tie and hang it out of the sun to cure.  When good and dry I cut off the stems and roots, then store the bulbs in open paper bags which I put in a cupboard on an outside wall.  And of course I always save the best bulbs for planting come October!

ONIONS

This year I grew 2 varieties.  I always grow Copra which is such a good onion and keeps so well, but thinking that not enough seed germinated, I bought a bag of yellow onion sets which were planted in the same bed.

2 varieties of onions growing in the same bed

Naturally, the sets have matured much more quickly than the plants grown from seed and a week or two ago, the yellow onions started to fall over which is a sign that they're maturing.  The Copra onions are still stiffly upright and have some time yet to go so they're receiving a good watering every day.  I have now stopped watering the yellow onions and will pull them up in a day or two.  Unlike garlic, onions can be dried in the sun.

Yellow onions

I'll just leave them on the surface of the bed for a few days.  Then, I'll brush off any clinging dirt and put them on racks to finish curing in the potting shed.  When the necks are completely dry, I'll cut off the stems about 1" above the bulb and trim the roots.  Then they'll go down into our heated crawl space for storage.  I'm anticipating that the yellow onions won't keep as well as the Copra do, and we'll definitely use up these ones first.  Since the bulbs are so much smaller than Copra, it probably won't take long to use them up.

Onions and Garlic are two crops that I would always grow.  They don't require a lot of care and the yield is wonderful.  And garlic is the easiest - the major growth time occurs during the winter and spring when it doesn't even need to be watered!  There's nothing like home-grown garlic and onions!

Nettles, Dock - and the Placebo Effect!

Stinging nettle - the culprit!

While pulling up the finished snow pea vines, I accidentally brushed my hand against a nettle plant.  I knew the plant was there, but forgot to remind myself!  And did it hurt!  Having been taught from an early age that the dock plant always grew near nettles and that the dock leaf rubbed on the sting would neutralize it, I immediately started hunting through the garden for some dock plants.

Young weed growing in the garden

Grabbing what I thought was a young dock plant, I rubbed it vigorously over the sting and got almost instant relief.  Thinking about it afterwards, I thought, "That wasn't a dock plant - it was plantain!"  So why did it relive the sting?

Dock plant

Run to the Internet! And there I discovered that perhaps there's nothing in the old wives' tale!  Rubbing the leaf of just about any plant will do the same thing.  The plantain leaf was cool and moist - that bed having just been watered.  The coolness and moisture from the leaf may have diluted the stinging agent in the nettles and rubbing may have spread it further.  Whatever!  It worked, which is a good thing!  Nettles and dock usually grow in moist areas and other than my raised beds, there are no moist areas in my garden these days.  I certainly wasn't going to run down to the irrigation pond to find some true dock!

Maybe next time I discover a nettle plant in my garden, I'll remove it so that I don't have to test any more old wives' tales.

Ice Pack Sleeve - A Clever Idea

Okay - this is a gardening blog and this is not a gardening post, but it's such a clever idea I had to write it up anyway!

Our local Volunteer Fire Department and First Responders sent out a call for someone with a sewing machine to stitch 2 seams on face cloths to make sleeves for ice packs.  They didn't care about thread colour, just something to hold an ice pack.  They also said that when they hand them out, they never see them again, so something quick and dirty was needed.  Having recently gotten back into sewing, of course I volunteered!

Our Fire Chief delivered 2 dozen new face cloths to my doorstep and I was set.  I'm lucky enough to have a serger and that makes sewing a pleasure, trimming the seam and binding the edges.

I folded a face cloth inside out and serged the bottom and sides together.  This gave me the sleeve inside out.

I went ahead and stitched the rest of them - assembly line style - and left them to do the finishing when I'd finished the serging.

Then I snipped off most of the tail which would be on the inside bottom of the sleeve and took the tail on the top of the sleeve back into the stitching line with a big needle.

The sleeve was then turned so the stitching seams were on the inside and the ice pack slipped in to make sure it fit.

In 2 short sessions (this was hard work for the serger if not for me!) all 24 were done and ready to be shipped out!

I wish I'd thought of this idea - it's such a simple one.  Face cloths can be picked up very cheaply at thrift stores and can also be found on sales tables in department stores.  You don't need a serger as any sewing machine can sew a simple seam.  And now that I think of it, perhaps this belongs in a gardening blog after all.  I can slap one on sore muscles next time I overdo it!

June in the Garden

It's been a very dry growing season so far.  Since the end of April we have had precisely 7.4 mm of precipitation.  As I noted in July 2013, I now water mostly by hand.  I used to have watering systems in place, but since our garden water comes from an irrigation pond, as the season rolls along, weed grows in the pond and chokes up the nozzles of the watering system.  Plus, I really enjoy watering by hand.  I know exactly which plants need water and it allows me to keep a watchful eye on the garden.  And it's relaxing!

Salvia Forkoahcei next to cattail rushes - it's tall!

Today while watering I was struck by a plant at the end of the pond.  Salvia Forkoahcei came from seed I purchased through Salt Spring Seeds a number of years ago.  It's a rare perennial that gets really large - almost shrublike - and has tall spikes of blue-purple flowers.  This particular bed has received no water other than the above-mentioned rain water and yet it's doing extremely well in very dry soil.  One reference I found mentioned that deer didn't like it.  It has sown little plants elsewhere and I can see that this might be a valuable plant to have in the garden!

Another view of the pond

The vegetables are the only plants that get watered in our yard, and because we are blessed with a big irrigation pond, they are well looked after.  And in the warm spring we've had, everything is doing well and ahead of where they usually are.

The bean arbour with corn in front of it.  Basil in pots

The beans are scrambling up their new arbour and the corn is growing by leaps and bounds.

Suyo Cucumber and Patty Pan Squash

In one of the 4x4 concrete raised beds I planted a Suyo Cucumber and a Patty Pan Squash.  I put a bit of fencing behind the cucumber for it to climb on.  You apparently get straighter cucumbers this way and the cucumber is definitely doing its part to scramble up the fence.

Gold Nugget Tomato truss

All of the tomato plants have fruit on them.  Gold Nugget is always the earliest to ripen in my garden,  and it won't be long until we can help ourselves to delicious sweet little tomatoes.

The celery is doing well.  I'm making sure it gets lots of water so that the stalks don't become hollow. I imagine lack of water would affect the flavour as well as the texture.

We could sure use more rain and none is in the forecast.  In the meantime, I'll keep watering by hand, observing the garden and thoroughly enjoying myself!

Blanching Snow Peas For Freezing

The snow peas are in full production right now.  Each day I can go out and pick, coming back with more than we can eat in a week.  It's time to start putting snow peas in the freezer!

Most vegetables being frozen must be blanched.  This stops the enzyme activity that causes vegetables to decay.  Freezing doesn't stop this process and if you don't blanch, you could get off flavours, colours or texture.  Luckily it's a really easy process and the basket of snow peas I had ready didn't even take half an hour from start to finish.

A big pot of water was boiling on the stove.  The snow peas had already been topped and tailed.  Ready to go!

Since I want to keep the water boiling, I only do a few handfuls at a time and just keep them in the boiling water until they turn bright green - it only takes a minute or two for snow peas.

Then I scoop them out into a colander under running cold water until they are no longer hot.  This stops the cooking process.

Once drained, I put meal-sized portions in zip lock snack bags.  The bags are put on a tray in a single layer and frozen.  Tomorrow I'll put the bags in one big zip lock bag - or vacuum seal them in a big bag.  Today's production provided 14 little baggies of delicious snow peas which I can steam for a minute or two for dinner, or add at the last minute to a soup or stir fry.  It's a great feeling when you see the freezer starting to fill up with homemade produce!