Hot Pepper Redo

I repotted 2 more habaneros and they seem to doing fine 2 weeks later. The first pair died within days. These lost a few leaves initially, but now I can see new growth starting on the stems. A little sunshine today will do them well!

It actually rained again today, but just for a little bit. But they still got outside for some sunshine most of the day. 

What about those turnips?

What do I do with turnips, you might be wondering. Actually, even Morgan has expressed his reservations over the turnips. It seems he's completely forgotten about the things we made last year - sautéed greens with white beans, roasted turnips, mashed turnips...

Last night, we (mostly I) made turnip greens potato soup! It was great (if I don't say so myself). And we (mostly Morgan) love any recipe that let's us use our Cuisinart hand blender that emulsifies food into soups (seriously, Morgan loves this thing). 

I started by sautéing onions in the Dutch oven (my favorite "tool") and then adding the potatoes and chicken broth. I also added 3 very small turnips that came with the bunch of greens, but we had more greens by far. I let this simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, I sautéed the turnip greens in some oil and garlic. 

Eventually, I added the greens to the potato mixture. I can't say I added them with any rhyme or reason. Just at some point, I decided to add them.

I let that simmer a little more, until the potatoes seemed soft enough to blend. Another 10 minutes or so. I just kept squeezing individual potatoes with the tongs to see how easily they smooshed. Very scientific. Eventually it seemed they all were very smooshable. 

Then it was ready to blend! I added a small amount of skim milk, but I've done similar recipes and added no milk. It just depends what we have in the house. The potatoes give it the creamy texture regardless of if you use milk. Some might use heavy cream, but I like to keep the recipe light. 

And voila!

I topped off each serving with some cheddar cheese just because we had some and everything's better with cheese. 

It made enough for 4 bowls - dinner for two and lunch for two!

Basically this recipe works with anything in substitute for the turnip greens - spinach, radish greens, squash, leeks. We use this "recipe" almost all year long, but my favorite is with leeks for potato-leek soup, but we'll have to wait for the fall for that!

So far...

It's been raining for what seems like an eternity here. Yesterday, I announced, "The sun is out. Finally!" But actually the sun wasn't really even out. It just wasn't raining. It was still cloudy. Today, it's raining again. Usually I'm a firm believer in "Yay rain! It's good for the plants!" But this has me wondering if maybe a plant can have too much water. I know potted plants that don't drain well can be over watered. (I think this was my habanero problem. I changed to a soil-less mixture, recommended for container vegetables and repotted 2 more. They seem to be doing fine, so far.). I also know that sometimes seeds that are over-saturated rot and don't germinate.  I've heard of this specifically with bean seeds.  But I'm not sure if vegetable plants in the ground can be over-watered. I imagine they'd be better off with some sunshine every once in awhile, but I once read that plants get a lot more sun through overcast skies than we realize. I assume it also depends on how well the soil is able to drain. It seems to be draining alright since I haven't seen any pooling or puddling in the garden. 

Anyway, all that's to say, here's the garden so far! 

My plot is the first one closest to the camera with the eye sore of a trellis! On the far left we have loads of tomato and pepper plants. Then we have loads of green beans - most of which are bush plants and won't vine up that trellis, but at least a few should vine.  I hope. Then I have a row of turnips followed by a row of lettuce with zucchini starting to pop through in between the turnip and lettuce rows. The reason I did this was because: 1) I realized I didn't have any room for zucchini and I adore zucchini (see earlier post about my adoration for zucchini and all things zucchini-related); 2) the zucchini plant will create shade for the cool weather loving lettuce and turnips; and 3) the turnips and lettuce should be "ripe" and able to be picked long before the zucchini starts really taking off and taking up  room. It's a little bit of a gamble, but I think it'll be ok. 

"Do you even like turnips?" You might be wondering. Yes. I do. Last year's CSA had me wishing we had more. I really liked sautéing the greens as a substitute for chard and roasting the turnips as an alternative to potatoes. 

I'm hoping to plant more turnips in the fall garden. I'm just not sure when the turnips are ready because they're growing underground, but garden advice columns seem to indicate that I'll see them poking through the dirt about when they're ready. I hope the wildlife doesn't get to them first. I also made sure to plant the turnips a few weeks apart so we'll have 2 "harvests."

Another mistake I noticed is that the trellis will probably cast a shadow on my sun-loving tomato and pepper plants, which isn't ideal. I hope they get enough sun that a little late day shade won't hurt them too much. Besides, there probably won't be that much vining up the trellis anyway, but we'll see. 

Habanero Problems

Just when I thought, "Everything's going great! I have nothing to talk about!" This happens. What is this? My habanero pepper plant lost all of its leaves. 

Let's back up. These plants were doing really well in their cell packs. Sometimes I like to compare my plants to the ones in stores and mine looked better! 

When I transplanted everything, I didn't have room in the garden so I decided to put 2 habaneros in pots so I could take them with us when we move in a few weeks and gave away the rest. 

Everything was looking good. I even read that a little bit of cold (but not frost) was good for pepper plants (but not eggplant). 

Then I noticed a few leaves had fallen off. Then a few more. Now they're nothing but twigs. This is a bad sign. 

But I have no idea what exactly "this" is. 

The Anecdotal Gardener...2013

Every year I struggle with the same garden conundrum - how many of each vegetable to plant? Of course, I struggle with this prior to starting my seeds in mid-March, but end up brushing it off by just starting dozens of seeds and vowing to make the decision later.  I thought I had this under control this year by only starting 8 of each, but I complicated matters by putting 2 seeds in each block of soil. And almost all of them came up. I immediately declared, "Off with their heads!" and decided to just discard the excess seedlings, but when the time came for re-planting, wouldn't you know it, I had a change of heart and I attempted to save each and every seedling. And I did!

 

So for the second year in a row, I've ended up with more plants than any one person can plant in a 6'x12' garden, or consume. I'm faced with the same problem as I was faced with last year. "Are 11 Roma tomato plants too much? Can we consume the bounty from 12 banana pepper plants? What about six eggplant?" And this year, for the first time, a real problem is what do we do with 11 habanero pepper plants? Those suckers are hot! Anytime you plant a crazy amount of anything, you're going to have to come up with a crazy amount of recipe ideas.  Last year, we battled the zucchini: sautéed, grilled, stuffed, fried, zucchini bread, zucchini quiche, zucchini and tomato soup.  If I'm being honest, I can't think of that many uses for a pepper that hot. The beauty of the zucchini is also that I absolutely adore zucchini.  "'Adore' is a strong word to describe your feelings toward a vegetable," you might be thinking to yourself. And for many vegetables, it would be a strong word, but not for the zucchini. I adore zucchini.

 

Then, year after year, I have this moment: "I don't even like tomatoes!" I mean I do. I can eat a few, but the thought of having to consume nearly two dozen plants' worth of banana peppers or tomatoes is a bit daunting.  Without fail, every year, I start having thoughts of giving away plants.  "Surely [so-and-so] would love a few plants..." I think to myself.  For some reason, these thoughts are quickly met with a feeling like I'm giving away a child.  "But these are my plants...I started them. I cared for them; maybe I can make room for them somewhere."  But there isn't always room for them.  Last year I was able to fit most of them in (I only gave away one banana pepper plant), but the garden looked like something a bunch of people committed to an insane asylum might plant.  Several cherry tomato plants squeezed in between 8 different types of tomatoes, and surrounded by banana pepper plants.  We struggled to consume those cherry tomatoes too.  But in the end, we loved having our go-to cherry tomato dish every week.  I mean every week, like religiously.  It was a recipe for cherry tomatoes: sautéed with garlic, parmesan, and basil and served over pasta.  It was simple and delicious! And we ate it every week, around Monday or Tuesday, after harvesting them on Sundays. 

 

Another thing I struggle with every year is what I'll call the initial-garden-planting-brain-fog-and-feelings-of-inadequacy.  As I sat there, earlier this week, attempting to replant several turnip and lettuce seedlings, I was overwhelmed with this "I have no idea what I'm doing," feeling.  My husband observed, "I feel like you have this problem every year, but it always turns out fine." He was right. Every year I sit there stumped by the garden arrangement and how to delicately handle the seedlings, even though I've spent months planning the garden lay-out, meticulously drawing garden plans on graph paper.  I sit there stumped.

     "Where's your garden lay-out that you printed out?" Morgan asked.

     "Oh, it's useless, it'll never work," I replied.  I ended up sitting down right there in the garden and doing a brand new sketch of the garden.  I immediately realized I really could only fit 12 caged plants, which would consist of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and I would need to narrow these plants down to fit the garden. Not to mention that now I'm worried my garden plan won't have enough room for cherry tomatoes or zucchini because those are the vegetables I really love the most. Oh, and green beans! Last year we made and canned dilly beans and they really turned out to be a favorite of both of ours.

 

Also, as I start gardening season 2013 in a new community garden - not just new to me, but new to Earth - I see other confused gardeners roaming around the garden.  Even more confused than I am. They're like me from 3 years ago; sponges hoping to glean information from anyone or anything.  "It might be too soon to put out tomato plants," I casually commented.  "You probably can't start tomato seeds in the garden...especially not in mid-May."  They marveled at me, "How do you know these things that you know?" I wasn't sure of the answer either.  From growing up? From books? From other gardeners? Yes, some of the information I know has been gleaned from these sources, but generally, the answer is: anecdotally.  A process of repeated trial and error.  Some trials you win and some you lose (and that's not a pun because I'm a lawyer by day).  Like with all things in life, you read a few books and try a few attempts and eventually you figure out what works and what doesn't work.  You may never know why something works or something else doesn't work, but you learn something and you stick to what works best.  For me, some things I remember and repeat year after year, other things I forget and so I repeat the errors year after year. It's all part of the process.

Happy gardening!

Week Five

Yesterday, I let my plants get some sun on top of my car. They seemed to do pretty well. This time outside helps them start to acclimate to outside conditions like wind and sun. Some leaves got spots but I think this may be because I watered them and got water on some leaves. They came back in around 6pm. They need to acclimate more, but they won't go in the ground until the end of May so they have some time.

Week Four

Everything is doing well! I did a head count and right now I have 6 eggplant, 10 habaneros, and 11 banana peppers. In the other room I have 11 roma tomatoes growing. I also started turnips, radishes, carrots, and two types of lettuce out on the balcony. They can tolerate colder temperatures, so they're just out there until the community garden opens.

In other news, check out this prosciutto, goat cheese, and arugula flat bread we made Sunday night!