growLively

More fall tomatoes ripening...

I wish I could identify this tomato variety for you...but I can't...it's top secret. LOL. If I told you, well then, you know what I'd have to do to you. It's one of my Organic Gardening Magazine test varieties. And, it's awesome. It's not often you can plant a spring crop of tomato and have it continue to produce and ripen through the entire summer and fall here in Texas. With a fantastic flavor to boot! Normally, once spring plants have produced their early summer crop, the heat of summer pretty much does them in. Then, we plant a second fall crop in mid-July. These babies have just kept on truckin' since spring. The plants are indeterminate and have gotten big and a bit rangy over the growing season, but the fruit are fantastic. It's a saladette type fruit. These are planted in my front yard and I usually just end up eating the ripe fruit right off the vine. So tasty...

 

I'll fill you in on this tomato next spring once OG publishes test results...

What to plant right now...

This is what I planted this weekend....

Still time to get broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and other cole crops planted. Don't forget cool season herbs like dill, fennel and cilantro. Chard, sorrel, lettuce and spinach can go in the ground as well. In this bed, I ripped up a few 'Golden Mama' Tomato plants on their last leg. They were still covered with fruit, but I'm going to make green tomato pickles with what I harvested from them.

This is also the perfect time to plant pansies, violas and other cool season color like Iceland Poppies, foxglove, snapdragons and the like. They will perform much better next spring if you get them in the ground before the first frost (Avg. here is Nov. 17th). I usually do a combo of purples, blues and whites. But every once in a while I shake things up with some orange! I know...livin' on the edge, eh? LOL. So this year's cool season combo is blue and orange, with some purples here and there. (Didn't have the heart to pull out the pretty little gomphrena in the photo...maybe next week). I also planted up some hanging baskets with 'Purple Rain' trailing pansy...fabulous!

Fall Tomatoes...

My fall tomatoes are going gangbusters. But for just a tiny bit of late blight on a few of the plants, most are just about as healthy as they can be. The 'Green Zebra' plants are about 7-feet tall right now! Due to cool temps however, fruit is ripening very slowly. Chances are I'll still be picking a lot of green fruit right before our first frost. But that's ok...just means I get to make fried green tomatoes!

'Green Zebra' in the back are dwarfing everyone else...

'Celebrity' plants have a lot of nice fruit on them and some are finally starting to turn a bit yellow..

 

As usual, 'Golden Mama' plants are absolutely loaded with fruit. They have gotten just a tad bit of late blight, but nothing that's keeping them from producing nicely. I have some Roma's fruiting well also. There is one of my Organic Gardening Test varieties, a saladette type, that is still producing and ripening from the plants I planted in spring. VERY unusual. It's definitely a winner and will be my main pick for the review they publish next year. Can't tell you what it is yet, but it's awesome!

Time to make pepper relish...

Back to those peppers taking over my refrigerator...last night I managed to get the first batch of pepper relish made and canned some up. I still have bowls of peppers in the fridge and plenty yet out in the garden...but it's a start!

Pepper relish has plenty of vinegar in it, so it's not mandatory that you have to process the jars, but, if you want to store them for a long period without refrigeration it's a good idea to go ahead and water-bath process for about 10 min. 

There are lots of different ways to make relishes with peppers. My mom makes a highly blended pear/pepper relish that is to die for. So you can be creative about mixing other ingredients. I kept this one pretty straightforward.

Lots of peppers (mild, hot..and one habanero! You can mix whatever peppers you like)
A few cloves garlic (I'm not crazy about onions, but they are what most people use)
1 Tablespoon of sea salt
2 1/2 cups organic apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar.
2 cups organic sugar (less if you want a not-so-sweet relish)

• Food process or hand chop (with gloves!!) the peppers. Remove seeds.
• Place peppers, garlic (or onions) and salt in a 6 quart pot. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 10 min.
• Sterilize your canning jars in the canner with water boiling (you don't have to process your jars if you're just going to keep them in the fridge, but you should still sterilize the jars or run through dishwasher first)
• Strain water off peppers and place back in 6 quart pot. Add vinegar and sugar to peppers and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 20 min.
• Pack pepper relish into sterilized jars. Pack down to press air bubbles out. Wipe lip of jar clean with dishtowel. Place lid on jar and secure ring, not tightly, onto jar.
• Place jars into water bath canner and process for about 10 min. Start counting processing time when water comes back to a boil. 
• Or, just fill jars and place in the fridge. Again, the relish will last a long time in the fridge even without canning.

Super yummy!!!!

 

It's a Pesto Party!

It's getting chilly out there folks...that means that very soon, all that beautiful basil out in the garden is going to take a nosedive. You know what that means right? Time to make Pesto...lots of it! I started making batches last night and will continue to do so until we get a frost. Basil can suffer from cold damage at temperatures of 40F or below, so just remember to use it before it gets too cold.

Here is one bunch I picked last evening. A few different varieties mixed in there. Sweet basil is the large-leafed variety. 'Sweet Aussie' the small green leaves, 'Pesto Perpetuo' the small variegated leaves and some 'Purple Ruffles', the dark purples leaves. All basil varieties have a different flavor and fragrance so its nice to have several to choose from.

I'm not very recipe oriented when it comes to making pesto.  I just sort of throw it together. Have on hand some garlic, EV olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, roasted pine nuts, a little salt and LOTS of basil leaves. I use my one "as seen on tv" gadget purchase, my Magic Bullet, LOL, to make my pesto. It's all I use it for but it's totally worth it! I quarter a couple cloves of garlic, throw in a table spoon or so of pine nuts, a pinch of salt, a healthy helping of olive oil, a few chunks of the cheese, then stuff the jar full of basil. Pulse this combo (or process in food processor) until it reaches your preferred consistency. You'll just need to adjust the ingredients to reach the flavor you like best. Some prefer more or less garlic. Then, you can simply freeze portions of pesto in an ice cube tray, covered with plastic wrap. Once the cubes are frozen, put them in a freezer bag and seal. You can keep it for about 6 months in the freezer. That should keep you in homemade pesto until next spring, when you can plant fresh basil plants. YUM!

Fresh Peppers = Skillet stuffed peppers for dinner...

It's that time of the fall season where I find myself overrun with peppers. Peppers of all sorts. Which is wonderful, but then I'm in a rush to use them and preserve them. I've been picking them for days and, like the "squash incident" of summer '09, they are starting to take over my refrigerator! Tomorrow evening I'll be making a batch of pepper relish to can...mmmmmm.

 

This evening I decided to take a few of the nice large bells and make stuffed peppers for dinner. For me anyway, the husband won't touch 'em! His loss! I made the filling from Quinoa, black beans, tomatoes, peppers and seasoning. Topped with some Fiscalini cheddar I found in the fridge. As I'm gluten free right now, I topped them off with some polenta instead of bread crumbs. Pre-heat the oven to 350, then bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the heat of your oven and till the peppers are tender. YUM.

Time to Plant: Garlic

I planted a few varieties of garlic yesterday. The entire month of October is prime garlic planting time. Purchase culinary garlic bulbs for planting (preferably not from the grocery store-often they are treated to prevent sprouting). You'll usually find varieties of Softneck, Hardneck and Elephant garlic. The Softnecks are better adapted to warmer  climates. Hardnecks will have a hard shoot that emerges from the middle of the bulb. They often have a more strong, hot flavor. Elephant garlic produces huge bulbs but a milder flavor. Split the bulb up into the separate cloves. You can peel the tunic off the clove if you want to but you don't have to.  Plant each clove about two-inches deep and each clove several inches apart. Choose a sunny spot with rich well draining soil. I plant mine in raised beds. Fall is the best time to plant garlic as it needs a cool period to develop a root system, before it begins to put on heavy bulb growth with the return of warm temperatures. 

The following spring, leaves and scapes (flower shoots) will emerge and grow through spring. Fertilize your garlic with an organic veggie/herb food in early spring, just as the leaves begin to emerge. When it turns hot plants will bolt (flower) usually late-spring early-summer.  After bulbs have bolted, you'll wait to harvest them until the lower leaves have started to turn yellow and die off. Once you've harvested your garlic, you'll need to let it cure (dry down) for a couple of weeks. Don't cut off the foliage or roots. Set them in a shady dry spot, perhaps a shed, where they can dry. After the foliage/roots are completely dry, then you can trim them if you want to and store. You can save a few of your garlic bulbs to re-plant the following fall, or eat it all and buy new ones!

Fall harvest of beautiful beans...

Aren't these grand? Just picked from my garden, French wax beans called Roc D' Or. You can get organic seeds from Seeds of Change. These are a crisp bean with a buttery flavor. Plants don't take up much space with a max height of about 15"-20". I direct seeded these into the garden for fall harvest back at the end of August/early September. In our area of zone 8 you can plant beans in early spring, around the end of March, June and again in mid- August through early September. I find this last crop to usually be the easiest. 

These plants will continue to produce until it gets cold. All the while, these helpful legumes are enriching the soil with Nitrogen they fix themselves from the atmosphere. A nice bonus for the next crop you plant in that spot. What beats free fertilizer? Ok, a few things, but hey, in the vegetable garden you take the free fertilizer!  Mmmm, can't wait to eat these...

What to plant this weekend...

Ok, it's been rainy, but the weekend is supposed to be nice. That means you have nice soft moist soil just waiting to be planted. So what can you plant right now? Well, a bunch of stuff! Any of the cole crops, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and the like. You can plant from transplants and you might still have time to go ahead and start some from direct seeding as well. Swiss chard, kale, collard and mustard greens (transplant or seed). Salad greens can be direct seeded right now. Also, direct seed radishes, beets, turnips and carrots. The weather is perfect for their quick germination. It's also the perfect time to plant cool season herbs like dill, parsley, cilantro and fennel. Garlic! Don't forget your garlic. The month of October is the perfect time to get your garlic cloves planted. Separate, but do not peel, the individual cloves. Plant about 1-inch deep and several inches apart. You'll harvest bulbs in late Spring. You can plant onions from seed right now, but not from slips or sets. You'll plant those in January. Oh, and don't forget your fava beans. direct seed those in garden now. It's a bit too late to seed peas...they really need to go in the ground in early September.

Here is some Swiss chard in my garden that I seeded back in August and then again in September. 

Harvesting fall vegetables

Here's a quick update on whats coming out of my fall garden right now. Swiss chard I planted from seed is big enough now to harvest. The sorrel (from Julie) is going strong and has put on lots of new growth with all this rain. Cool season herbs like dill are kicking into gear. Lots of peppers coming right now and a few more eggplant. Some wax beans are ripening as well. Basil is still going strong. And..got four eggs yesterday. Haven't gone out to check on today's nests. The color didn't translate in the photo well, but there are two green eggs, one blue and one white.