Bean Discovery

So my mother has just informed me that my mystery beans are not "black eyed peas" as I thought.


She says those are "purple hulls" and of course mother knows best.  Not to mention all the years she dragged me as a kid to go "bean picking" in Patterson Pass farms every season.  Up at the crack of dawn to drive from Oakland to Patterson where my parents, sisters (if my mom could make them go) and I ride  behind the farmers tractor which would drop us off in the field of our choice (usually my mother's).  We would go out into the various fields and pick pounds ( like 25 lbs.) of various fresh beans and sometimes other vegetables and fruits.  Yes, Mom was a little excessive always preparing for "just in case".  Now I'm always putting away for "just in case" :).

    

(Who'd have thunk I would love to garden after all that torture)

We'd usually be done by about 11 am when it began to get warm and would spend the rest of the day shelling and snapping beans and Mom would freeze them.  So as I said Mom should know what the mysterious beans are.  But since I'm hard headed, I still had to check....

Ok, so if they are "purple hulls" then why aren't mine turning completely purple?

So further investigation is necessary here...right bean, wrong color...ok so i'll leave them on the vine a little longer and see what happens.

By the way Purple Hulls like there close cousin the Black Eyed Pea is a southern pea that like the warm weather. According to the University of Florida the 

"Purple Hull Group                                

Seed pods show some purple coloring, either at tip or all over. Seeds may or may not be crowded. Usually white peas with buff, brown, or pink eyes.
Examples: Jackson Purple Hull, Dixie Queen, Herbken, Knuckle Purple Hull, Pinkeye Purple Hull, Purple Tip Crowder, Purple Hull, Big Boy Purple Hull, Coronet, and Crimson."

So, Mom has it, they are a variety of Purple Hull Peas.  But Mothers are always right, right?

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

On to the next...

Garden Update

The garden is reaching a transition point where I really need to pull up all of the lettuce type plants and plant some hardier things in their place (or not).

Eggplants

(Japanese Eggplant)

Peppers

Ok I have to admit that I ran out of room in the garden and had to plant this bell pepper plant in a pot.  But it's doing great especially since I took it off the deck ( I noticed one of the bells had gotten a bit of sun scald, so I moved it to a somewhat shadier spot).

(Poor Bell outside the garden in a pot)

(Sun Scald - Where the sun has burned the fruit.). This can be prevented by making sure the fruit is well protected wite plenty of leaves and making sure that the plant is well watered so the leaves don't wilt when the sun is at it's hottest.  Sun Scald doesn't ruin the fruit, however that spot is usually mushy and and soft.  I will usually pick the fruit and cut out the soft spot or donate the whole thing to the compost bin.

These peppers can be eaten at any stage.  They will go from green to red (this particular type). The red peppers will have a much sweeter taste than the green.

This little guy looks to be on his way to turning red, so he won't get very big.  But the little ones taste just as good as the bigger ones, so I won't be discriminating in the kitchen.

(Mild Poblano Peppers)  I'm a real wuss when it comes to hot peppers, but I usually grow them to put in my pickles every year because my mom and husband like 'em spicy. No pickles this year so I can grow mild flavored peppers for salsas and sauces that I can eat.

 (Mild Chiles)

Squash

So I made a poor planting decision by planting this squash in front of my cucumber plant.  You can see the cucumber leaves peaking out next to the fence.  I had to make a decision and dramatically cut back this plant although I hated to do it. So what you see now is a quarter of the plant that it originally was. It was also beginning to encroach on my bean plants on the bottom right.

The trellised Butternut Squash experiment still seems to be doing well.

Beans

(Various Shelling Beans - Cranberry, Black Peas, Navy, Edamame etc)

(Soy Beans)

(Green Beans - lettuce in front that needs to be put out of it's misery, and a very vibrant Sweet Basil plant to the far right)

Plants on Their Way Out

(Left to Right - Arugula, Broccoli, Mustard Greens and Collard Greens)  The Collard Greens will be staying

Tomatoes

Even with the late start, the tomatoes are doing well.  They've reached about 6' tall and are doing well with the new staking hybrid system.  I've been using the mini sprayers on the drip line to keep the ground consistently moist while doing a slow deep watering about every 10 days.  I fed them with fish emulsion which I've been doing about once per month.  There are only about 8 tomatoes on the vines and I think this is because the very warm weather we had in the past few weeks. Tomatoes don't really like to set in temperatures over 90 degrees.  Hopefully, the mildness of this past week will make some more of those babies pop up.

I found a nasty horn worm chomping on my plants the other night.  I had seen the signs for a few days but was unable to find the culprit, so I snuck out with a flashlight around dusk and caught him red handed.  Of course I gleefully took out all of my aggression on him.  I realized I should have taking a picture of him before he became a green slimy blob and the after picture was a little too gross to post. So, you'll just have to take my word the he was punished appropriately.

(Horn Worm Damage)

(Horn Worm Damage - branches cleaned of leaves)

I bought this great book the other day called " Bug Off" by Jerry Baker.  It had great natural remedies for getting rid of every critter you can think of.  He has a recipe in the book for a citrus spray for any soft bodied caterpillars, slugs, snails etc.  He says to take citrus peels and boil them in hot water.  Let the solution sit 24 hours and remove the peels from the water. Spray the solution on the plants (not in directly sunlight of course).  I'm going to try this on a test section and see what happens.

On a lighter note the Kellogg's breakfast has a potential two pounder plus hiding in the lower half that is still growing.

(Kellogg's Breakfast)

The Pineapple also has a few nice size ones coming in.

                            (Pineapple)

This is my first time growing the Sioux, so I really don't know what to expect from this guy.  It's supposed to be very heat tolerant, so I'm hoping it will set more midsize tomatoes than the others, but it's been rather disappointing so far.

I'm going to do a little bit a research and see what I can do to help these guys a long.

Preserving Green Beans

I mentioned the other day that the worst part of preserving the garden harvest was preserving in 100 degree weather.  Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and blanch and freeze last week's green beans.  And YES it was 100 degrees outside!

For those of you unfamiliar with this process, here goes.

1. String, snap and wash your green beans as you would if you were preparing to cook them.  Wash them well to ensure no flowers, critters or anything else you don't envision yourself eating get into your batch.

2.  Boil a large pot of water, enough to submerge your beans in with plenty of room.

(My old faithful preserving pot)

3.  Bring the water to a boil

4.  Fill another large pot or bowl with ICE WATER

In order to blanch vegetables you need to submerge them in boiling water until they turn brightly colored (not cooked!).  The vegetables are then quickly submerged in ice water to cool them down quickly.

5. Place the green beans in the boiling water, stir continuously (usually 2-3 minutes)

6. Remove the beans quickly and place them into the ice water, stirring as you add the beans.  DO NOT POUR THE HOT WATER INTO THE ICE WATER WITH THE BEANS!

I love these dip strainers, I use them from everything from frying, steaming or quick straining.  It has a long handle that doesn't heat up.

Notice the Green Beans are now a vibrant green.  you could chose to place the beans in freezer bags and place them in the freezer.

I prefer quick freezing my vegetables so they freeze quicker and can be individual thawed as I often cook for just myself.  Quick freezing also reduces the amount of water in your bags, thus decreasing the chances of your veggies being mushy when you thaw them.  Lastly, quick freezing forms less ice crystals in the vegetables which reduces mushiness and creates a quick protective ice layer over each bean.

To Quick freeze.

1.  Spread the blanched beans on a parchment or wax paper covered cookie sheet in one even layer.

2.  Place the cookie sheets in the freezer for approximately an hour

3.  The beans will be frozen solid and can now be placed in your freezer bags and placed in the freezer.

Get your beans in the freezer immediately and remember to label and date your containers.

So, now you can make any number of servings from your bags without sacrificing freshness.

Oh by the way, I figured out what the mysterious beans are:  I should be ashamed of myself.

BLACK EYED PEAS! or you may know them as Cow Peas.  Every great wanna be farmer has a DuHHH moment and this was mine.

A pleasant surprise since I was regretting not planting any this year..

This Week's Harvest

Well folks, the novelty of all the fresh veggies is starting to wear out. Time to start thinking about starting to do some preserving.  Preserving and I have a love hate relationship.  I love making all the jams, sauces and pickles, I just wish it weren't a 100 degrees out when I have to do it.  Sweating over a boiling canning pot is just not my favorite thing in the in the summer.  Maybe tomorrow...maybe not :).

Yellow Squash, Japanese Eggplant, Green Beans (Left to Right)

So, I experimented yesterday with the eggplant because I couldn't bring myself to make the usually Green Thai Curry in this heat.

I made Chicken and Salmon Burgers (Chicken Burgers and Salmon Burgers separately) with leaf lettuce from the garden, goat cheese and grilled sliced eggplant on whole grain toasted buns.  (Mayo/Mustard/Ketchup to taste).  This would probably be great with with roasted peppers, but they aren't ready yet :).

Yummmmm.  

About the Herbs

I've spent plenty of time babying the summer veggies in the garden, but haven't mentioned much about the herbs and flowers.  They tend to be pretty self sufficient and require minimum handholding outside of some trimming here and there.  Although, the garden had a slow start because of the abnormally cool start to summer and up and down heat waves the herb garden loved it.

This is the main area I usually grow my herbs with extras dotted around the yard for companion planting and insect control.  But aside from their beautiful flowers and ability to attract many beneficial insects, I forgot until recently how many ways herbs can be used.

Lemon Balm (Right) Sweet Basil (Left)

Lemon Balm is great for repelling mosquitos.  It is also said that fresh lemon balm teas is good for improving mood and calming nerves.  I usually let this one grown big and large to repel as many of those bloodsuckers as possible.  I also spread the cuttings throughout the back yard and the pleasant lemony aroma is great for calming the potent smell of the compost bin.

Garlic Chives -  These guys have a great garlicky taste and are great in asian dishes as well in the usual dishes you would use chives.  

The delicate white flowers are just ready to open in a few weeks.  The last throughout the season and add great contrast to the green grassy like fronds of the chives.  Garlic Chives are flat and look exactly like a wide blade of grass unlike it's cousins the Onion Chives and basic Chives.

Thai Basil - My all time favorite in the Basil Family.  Probably because I love Thai food.  This basil has a somewhat sweet licorice like flavor.  It has a more slender leaf than your usual Sweet Basil and has beautiful dark purple flowers.  Thai Basil loves the warm weather, so it is best to plant it way past your last frost.  If you want to harvest your leaves, it is best to pinch off the pretty purple flowers so the plant will focus on growing juicing leaves instead of flowering and going to seed.

You would use Thai Basil in Thai Curries, salads and misc. stir frys.

Thyme (Left) Onion Chives (Top Right).  Thyme a kitchen staple survives year round here in the Sacramento area.  The plant begins to flower in early spring with pale lavender flowers.  The leaves are very small and delicate and should be removed from their stems before cooking.

As you see, the Onion Chives look very much like the Garlic Chives.  The Onion Chives have a dark lavender round bloom that shoots out during the summer.  The bloom stalks usually flower and dry up by end of summer early fall.  The Chive family reseeds itself every year and comes back the following.  And when I say come back, I mean the come back any and everywhere.  I started with two or three patches of chives and now have about 15 throughout the herb garden, so feel free to indiscriminately thin them as you see fit.

Box Basil - This is my first year growing this little guy and it grows to be a nicely formed beautiful little tree like plant.  As you can see the leaves are much denser and smaller than your average Basil, but don't let it's small stature fool you.  These little guys have a great spicy taste that I have just begin to experiment with.  It's been great in pasta and it made a wonderful pesto.  I'm preparing to trim this little guy as you can see it's beginning to overtake one of my low watt lights.  I'm still trying to figure out how to trim it without taking away from it's wonderful shape our making it get to leggy.  I'll keep you up on what happens.

Fennel - Ok this is my first year growing Fennel.  I was always afraid of planting it near some of the other herbs as they don't mix well especially with Dill.  And since I can't afford to screw up my Dill for my pickle making every year, I usually avoided Fennel in my yard anywhere.  BUT, this year I'm boycotting making pickles (I usually make them every other year due to the intensive amount of work it takes) so I found a back corner of the yard and planted some Fennel, a far back corner of the yard no where near my gardens.  Because I understand the Fennel re-seeds itself.  Ok so here's the deal, sometimes I plant stuff that I've never eaten and have no idea what to do with it....so we'll see what I learn this summer with Fennel.

Sweet Basil- As I said earlier, I usually plant most of my herbs in the Herb Garden, but I do interplant some favorites in my vegetable garden to attract the beneficial and keep out or at leasts distract the bad guys.  This baby is nestled between my tomatoes, peppers and pole beans.

Rosemary - Now of all my plants, the Rosemary has grown leaps and bounds over all the others. Obviously, she loved the odd weather.  Rosemary also is a perennial that survives year round here in Sacramento.  I never find that this plant ever has any problems with insects.  It has a very thick course branch with a sticky residue.  One great thing to do with Rosemary is to take the branches and use them to make kabobs.  The flavor is infused into the meat and vegetables when cooked.

The herb garden also has Lemon Basil, Flat Parsley, Cilantro, Cinnamon Basil, Tarragon, Dill and Mint.  I did not plant the mint - I'm not that crazy.  I have torn it out because it has such a lovely aroma around the deck and since the dogs love to romp through it they also smell minty fresh. Oh and mint repels fleas and ticks by the way!

10 Great Reasons to Grown Herbs

1. Fresh herbs make dishes taste so much better than dried

2. You can make your own variety of Pesto

3. You can pick your herbs fresh as you need them and only what you need

4. No more wilted herbs in the fridge

5. Herbs are cheap to grow 

6. You can freely experiment with different herbs without running to the store

7. Dried herbs and spice mixes make great gifts

8. Herbs have many uses besides cooking, most have been used for medicinal purposes for years

9. Herbs are low maintenance

10. They make wonderful ground cover and most flower beautifully and can be used for flower arrangements and potpourri.

HERB BUTTERS

Herb butters are great on many things you'd normally use butter or spreads.

Try these spreads on bread, roasted corn on the cob, seafood, steaks, potatoes and wow pretty much anything.

These rolls can easily be frozen or kept in the fridge.

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to/make-flavored-butters.aspx