Category Archives: My Gardens

What works and doesn’t work in the home garden. Great garden ideas, practices, blooms and growing suggestions

Beautiful Black Hungarian Pepper

Posted on September 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Beautiful Black Hungarian Pepper

It is a pleasant surprise to find only a hint of heat in this 4″ tall black peper. Catalogs said it was mildly hot. In a recipe, it would be hard to identify this as the hot pepper.  I just mixed it in with the bell peppers in the gazpacho. Chop and add this to the bell peppers when freezing for future stews and chilies.

Stake pepper plants to keep them from snapping off suring thunder storms or heavy winds. photo: PBH

I will grow this pepper again to add another level of flavor in recipes calling for bell peppers. It is thin walled, smaller and not a juicy as most bells.

Who knows? You may think it is spicy. Could it be the soil or the temperature affecting the flavor?

Learn more about how this pepper did in my zone 6, Southeast Missouri Garden. Read my Hub Pages evaluations for tomatoes and peppers :

Black Hungarian Pepper tastes more like a bell pepper than a jalapeno.

 

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Todays Harvest Basket Sept 18, 2012

Posted on September 18, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket Sept 18, 2012

Todays Harvest Basket Sept 18, 2012

End of the garden vegetables. A few green beans that haven’t been eaten up by the bugs. They will be steamed and served with lemon and chives. (RG)

Peppers are beautiful but smaller than usual this year.

The red peppers are Red Cheese, sweet and mild. So called because at one time the red pepper was used to color the wax used to coat cheese. (BC)

The black peppers are just barely hot Black Hungarian. Thinned walled (BC)

I picked a couple dozen TAM jalapeno. These peppers have the flavor of jalapeno but are with less heat. I’ll use some of these to make a bottle of pepper vinegar. (BC)

The yellow pepper is called Ozark Giant. It is big, thick walled, sweet and juicy. (BC)

A couple of beautiful Gold Medal tomatoes, also much smaller than usual. When sliced, these tomatoes are a beautiful gold yellow with red centers. Gold Medal is an heirloom with that rich  tomato flavor. (BC)

Riesentraube Tomatoes are the 30 or 40 sweet red 1-oz fruit (BC)  An excellent salad tomato and I have dried hundreds of these tomatoes this year. This winter they will go into soups, stew and chili. (BC)

There are some small eggplants that will be become a simple version of ratatouille to serve over pasta. There are three small eggplants in the upper right corner of the basket. The leaves of this plant are lacy with so many flea beetle holes. (RG)

Ozark Giant

Hungarian Black

Red Cheese

 

(RG) = Renee’s Garden

(BC) = Baker Creek Heirloom Seed

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Posted in Harvest Basket, My Gardens, Oh Grow Up!, preserving the harvest

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Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket

September 4, 2012.

That big butternut squash weighs over 3 pounds.

Tomatoes, butternut, garlic, peppers, potatoes

I did not count the Riesentraube cherry tomatoes, but just one tomato plant produced all of these. They filled a 2.5 quart bucket. Riesentraube means “Giant Bunches of Grapes.” Plant them once – you will always have these little German heirloom cherry tomatoes in your garden.

Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed is giving out free Riesentraube with some seed purchases. I suspect Gere is trying to cover the world with little pointy tomatoes. They are prolific.

Drying Cherry Tomatoes

Riesentraube is an early producer. When the big tomatoes start producing, I start drying these little cherries. Here is how I use these hundreds of cherry tomatoes: Tomato triage for too many tomatoes.

While I was cleaning out a raised bed, I found two pounds of these little potatoes. I did not plant potatoes this year. They came up from spuds I missed last fall!

TAM, a very tasty milder Jalapeno, just keeps producing.Kepp watering this pepper and it keeps producing as long as you keep picking peppers.

Quart sun pickles.

 

I left this jar of sun pickles out on the retaining wall for another day or two. When I made these, it clouded up and rained for three days. Which was good for the garden. But who knows about sun pickles?

 

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Peeling Tomatoes

Posted on August 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Peeling Tomatoes

Dunking tomatoes in boiling water is the easiest way to peel them. photo PBH.

  • First, set a big pot of water on the stove to rolling boil. Half fill a sink with ice an water.
  • Next, choose the ripest tomatoes. Cut an ‘X’ into the blossom end of the tomato. Core the tomatoes now or later after they have cooled. If you do it now, the skin is just that much easier to remove.
  • Then, carefully drop a few tomatoes into the boiling water. I drop 4 to 6tomatoes in at one time. Allow the water to return to a boil. (usually about 1 minute.) Remove tomatoes with a slotted spoon and dunk into the ice water immediately.
  • Allow the big pot of hot water to return to a boil and drop in more tomatoes. In the mean time, peel the tomatoes after they cool in the ice water. Cut out the core or the green stem end, if you haven’t already. (This is when I do it. It seems like I get more of that tough, tasteless core out.)
  • If you want to remove the seeds, cut to tomato in half and squeeze it. Use your finger or a spoon to scoop out any remaining seed pockets.

Now your tomatoes are ready for processing, making salsa, spaghetti sauce or simply canning.

Making salsa

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Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on August 17, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket

August 17, 2012

Riesentraube tomato there are about 90 of these little 1 ounce tomatoes, all from the same plant. Riesentraube means “bunch of grapes”.  Seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Indigo Rose tomatoes are the row at the top of the basket. Just over a dozen to these saladette tomatoes are all picked off the same plant. Seed from Nichols Garden Nursery

Outside the basket are a 3 small pink Brandywines. After a long, hot summer, these heirloom Brandywine tomatoes are much smaller than the usual tomatoes. Tomato seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

3 Italian roma tomatoes are Pompeii. Bigger than most plum tomatoes, these are meaty and rich-flavored. Great for sauce or dried. The seeds are from Renee’s Garden.

Today is really all about the tomato. The Riesentraubes are in the dehydrator now. By tomorrow evening they will be “Sun dried” tomatoes. The majority of tomatoes sold as “sun dried” are dried in a deydrator. It’s faster, safer, cleaner.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 15, 2012

Posted on August 15, 2012 by | 2 comments

GBBD 8-15-2012 Hot, Hot, Hot August

Cut and come again bright pink zinnias stand 3 feet tall.

With vivid colors and long stems, theses zinnia make excellet bouquets lasting for a week or more.

 

Morning Glories are at their best. Morning Glory, “Grandpa Ott’s”

Seed for Morning Glories and Zinnias are from Renee’s garden

Lots of ruffled lettuce leaves which held up longer in the spring than most lettuce. When lettuce bolted, these lovely lavender flowers will soon produce seed.

The bright green lettuce was in a mesclun mix. I do not know what it is. Or, I would buy more. I let it go to seed and it’s bloom those lovely lavender flowers. Anyway, I hope to gather a few seed in a couple of weeks.

Senorita Blanca™ Spider Flower Cleome hybrid.

The cleome is a great flower to show off and contrast with vivid colors.

Supertunia® Watermelon Charm has been a hummingbird magnet this year. It’s self cleaning and easy care.

The Senorita Blanca™ Spider Flower Cleome hybrid and Supertunia® Watermelon Charm are trial plants from Proven Winners and will be available next spring (2013).

Lycoris squamigera (resurrection lily) is a plant in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae

Lycoris squamigera’s (resurrection lily) sudden late summer appearance is reflected in its common names: surprise lily, magic lily, and resurrection lily.

The lovely lavender bloom is an eggplant flower. Photo by PBH

“We can have flowers nearly every month ofthe year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Our Host Carol always has a beautiful site.

Last months GBBD

Vegetable garden report. August 15, 2012.

The drought has shown no mercy on the vegetable and herb gardens. Then heat wave and drought broke. We got some rain, so the peppers and tomatoes are productive again. With the deluge of tomatoes, I made small batches of salsa and all my favorite tomato dishes.

 What did come out of the garden became spendid dishes like gazpacho, tabbouleh, bruschetta, canned salsa and the following baked egg in a tomato cup.

I found this baked egg in a tomato on Pinterest. My version, of course, has herbs. Chives, basil, chervil.

 

 

The original baked egg recipe  is on Pinterest.

I loaded my tomato with extra cheese, herbs or real bacon bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I made Heirloom Tomato Quiche. This easy quiche was very good. The recipe is on my Hub Pages.

Next time you make BLTs, cook a little extra bacon to go in this quiche if you like.

 

All ratatouille ingredients are home grown.

 

The recipe for this French vegetable medly is on my Hub Pages.  Ratatouille is my gardens signature dish. Eggplant, peppers, squash, tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs all come from my garden.

 

 

I’m sowing some chervil, chilantro, a bit of arugula and lettuce, looking forward to cooler days.

 

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Wordless Wednesday

Posted on August 15, 2012 by | 3 comments

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

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Posted in My Gardens, My Homeplace, Wordless Wednesday

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Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on August 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket

July 13, 2012

tomatoes, cucumber, squash, hot peppers.

This horrible heat has caused the tomatoes to stop blooming.  Tomatoes are suffering, even though I am watering the tomato plants. It is just too hot to bloom or produce fruit. Even when we get a temperature drop, it will take 5 week to produce a tomato. It takes about 3 weeks for the tomato to grow and then 2 more weeks for the big ones to ripen.

Today I harvested the ingredients, along with the home grown onions and garlic, for ratatouille.

I have loads of tomato information on Pinterest Tomato Everything

On Hubpages  Read My Hubpages about saving seed and tomatoes.

Hubs like this one: What causes tomatoes to crack?

Top Tomato Tips: When Size Matters

Why hot tomatoes stop growing

Sungold tomato. photo: PBH

This tangerine colored cherry tomato is little and the sweetest tomato I’ve ever eatin. This is the only tomato that I will for sure have in the garden next year.

 

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Posted in Harvest Basket, Herbs in the kitchen, My Gardens, Oh Grow Up!

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Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on July 24, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket

July 23, 2012
tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, TAM pepper, onion, arugula

White Wonder cucumber, Grandmother and Uncle Ebb grew white cucumbers like this. They are small, non bitter, great slicer. Photo PBH

This arugula, is a perfect green to combine with lettuce. Tonights salad included the arugula, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion. I make my own salad dressing. Usually a lemon and olive oil is the start of a good homemade dressing.

TAM is Texas A & M jalapeno pepper. Less heat but all the distinct flavor of jalapeno. (The little red peppers on the right.) I’ll roast them, then freeze. That way they will be handy to add to salsa and chili.

 

 

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Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on July 20, 2012 by | Comments Off on Todays Harvest Basket

July 19, 2012

chard, mint, tomatoes

chard, mint, tomatoes

Todays harvest included lots of small tomatoes, some mixed varietys of chard, and a hand full of mint that will go in tabouli and iced tea.

This is how I keep the mint under control: every day I make sun tea. I snip a

Mojito mint planted in terracotta drain tile

bit of mint off one of the four varieties each day. So, once or twice a week each mint (or the lemon balm) gets a bit of a trim. And I get fresh mint for cooking or for my sun tea.

The tomatoes are mostly Riesentraube Cherry Tomatoes, an old Pennsylvania Dutch heirloom tomato meaning “giant bunches of grapes.” They are larger than most cherry tomatoes. and the distinctive thing about them is the little pointy nipple on the end of every tomato.

tlnb – the little neighbor boy-  came by today and told us we would miss him this week because he was going on vacation. I suspect he is right. We do miss our frequent garden guest when he doesn’t come around.

He’s just as cute a Dennis the menace and asks dozens of questions at every visit. Lately he can also answer some of the questions.

“Why do you garden so much?” he asked.

“I know. You like to know where your food comes from and gardening reminds you of your mother and your grandmother,” he answered.

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