these got boiled for about 8 - 10 minutes, and shocked in ice cold water for about 16 - 20 minutes.
It's nearly Halloween...
19 hours ago
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Can you say "corn pics"?
yeah....FINALLY. (i know).
these got boiled for about 8 - 10 minutes, and shocked in ice cold water for about 16 - 20 minutes.
these got boiled for about 8 - 10 minutes, and shocked in ice cold water for about 16 - 20 minutes.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
European Plums
My 15 month old son and I ate the very first 2 plums picked from our tree that I planted 2 yrs ago. It was not the type I expected but they were just as sweet and yummy! My son and I seem to love to graze the garden and papa barely gets a glimpse of some harvests we have. ha! that's what he gets for not coming out into the garden with us.
I know there is a third plum on that tree somewhere...we will have to find it...and possibly take a picture of it before it is eaten!
I know there is a third plum on that tree somewhere...we will have to find it...and possibly take a picture of it before it is eaten!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Finally.....CORN
Yes, folks...since eating my first ear of corn, that I grew, with my 15 month old son, I decided to do more corn harvesting today. I picked the largest ears, which came out to a total of 12 ears.
I researched how to best preserve this corn, since there is no way 2 adults and one toddler can eat 12 ears of corn in one sitting, and I chose blanching. Blanching is a technique of quickly boiling and quickly cooling down the item being blanched. My ears of corn varied in diameter between 1" to 1 1/2". So blanching time is around 8 minutes, cooling time 16 minutes. I didn't have much ice to cool down 12 ears, so after bathing in some cold water, i put the ears of corn on cookie sheets in the fridge.
After they cooled for a while, I cut the corn kernels off the cob, packed them into 2 - 3 serving sizes in quart freezer bags and put them in the freezer. my husband ate a blanched corn cob and i ate a fresh one, so from 10 left over ears of corn, I got 3 quart bags.
This was my very first time growing my corn and watching them grow, as with everything else that is edible, was a great adventure! would I grow them again? Maybe. if there is nothing else I would like to try to grow next season, then I might just plant some corn, since I do have some seeds. They are very easy to grow, and I have to admit, I was lucky since there were no worms in my corn (I didn't use any mineral oil to prevent them from getting through to the corn).
I researched how to best preserve this corn, since there is no way 2 adults and one toddler can eat 12 ears of corn in one sitting, and I chose blanching. Blanching is a technique of quickly boiling and quickly cooling down the item being blanched. My ears of corn varied in diameter between 1" to 1 1/2". So blanching time is around 8 minutes, cooling time 16 minutes. I didn't have much ice to cool down 12 ears, so after bathing in some cold water, i put the ears of corn on cookie sheets in the fridge.
After they cooled for a while, I cut the corn kernels off the cob, packed them into 2 - 3 serving sizes in quart freezer bags and put them in the freezer. my husband ate a blanched corn cob and i ate a fresh one, so from 10 left over ears of corn, I got 3 quart bags.
This was my very first time growing my corn and watching them grow, as with everything else that is edible, was a great adventure! would I grow them again? Maybe. if there is nothing else I would like to try to grow next season, then I might just plant some corn, since I do have some seeds. They are very easy to grow, and I have to admit, I was lucky since there were no worms in my corn (I didn't use any mineral oil to prevent them from getting through to the corn).
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Note to self on next year's growing season...
...more beans...all kinds.
...zucchini amount was good (although since we've been having freakishly cool weather lately, I could've probably had more by now). I have 6 plants.
...space out the tomatoes more...I had 8 plants planted in one "plot". maybe plant 4 plants in a zigzag fashion and plant pepper plants where the other 4 plants have been removed. just plant plum tomatoes. forget about the round ones. maybe some grape tomatoes...
...more peppers...can do without the jalapenos. [ask me in a few weeks on this one. they taste very bitter and it may be due to less watering than it would like. one of my pepper varieties is supposed to turn red upon ripening, so i am waiting for that to see if the taste of them improve]
...depending on the corn development, maybe plant same amount of corn. (the cool weather seems to have slowed down the ripening process).PLANT CORN!! Corn was WONDERFUL. I had 12 plants, and got about 17 ears off of them. I blanched them, shocked them, and de-eared them to freeze and store for later eating. yum!! golden bantam cross. (i bought this year's corn plants as seedlings.)
...more flowers...i just love the color! plant earlier too. at least zinnias, calendula, and nasturtiums should be a mainstay. maybe marigolds as well. try yellow with red. purple/blue with white.
...eggplants are okay. can throw them into everything. No eggplants. Husband doesn't really care for them.
...can't say anything about the melons...none have ripened yet, although i've seen a few globes. I had one charantais. and like melons...they NEED DAILY WATERING. the biggest melons were eaten through by critters before i could get a taste of them, so they were quickly thrown into the compost pile. the one i got to try was small and the taste was sweet but.....weird. i didn't like it. if you want to grow melons, try watermelon again and WATER DAILY!!
...if i grow cucumbers again, i need to make sure they are watered every day as long as it stays hot during the day. they didn't even like the every other day watering. need DAILY watering.
...NOTE: grow the cukes and the watermelons near each other. they both need LOTS of WATER DAILY.
...any other suggestions of vegetables to grow?...
...zucchini amount was good (although since we've been having freakishly cool weather lately, I could've probably had more by now). I have 6 plants.
...space out the tomatoes more...I had 8 plants planted in one "plot". maybe plant 4 plants in a zigzag fashion and plant pepper plants where the other 4 plants have been removed. just plant plum tomatoes. forget about the round ones. maybe some grape tomatoes...
...more peppers...can do without the jalapenos. [ask me in a few weeks on this one. they taste very bitter and it may be due to less watering than it would like. one of my pepper varieties is supposed to turn red upon ripening, so i am waiting for that to see if the taste of them improve]
...depending on the corn development, maybe plant same amount of corn. (the cool weather seems to have slowed down the ripening process).PLANT CORN!! Corn was WONDERFUL. I had 12 plants, and got about 17 ears off of them. I blanched them, shocked them, and de-eared them to freeze and store for later eating. yum!! golden bantam cross. (i bought this year's corn plants as seedlings.)
...more flowers...i just love the color! plant earlier too. at least zinnias, calendula, and nasturtiums should be a mainstay. maybe marigolds as well. try yellow with red. purple/blue with white.
...if i grow cucumbers again, i need to make sure they are watered every day as long as it stays hot during the day. they didn't even like the every other day watering. need DAILY watering.
...NOTE: grow the cukes and the watermelons near each other. they both need LOTS of WATER DAILY.
...any other suggestions of vegetables to grow?...
Friday, July 23, 2010
Growing Corn (Part II) and a Morning Harvest
Yes, I have to take pictures. They will come!
But, I wanted to share what I read up on corn. (This is the first time I've ever grown corn, so I find this info fascinating!) The flowers on the tops of the corn plants have the pollen that needs to fertilize the corn so that the corn develops the yummy juicy kernels on the ears. Well, for the fertilization to occur, the pollen needs to fall onto the tassels.
And to tell when the corn is ready to be picked, you look at the color of the tassels...the turn from whitish to reddish to dark red/brown. Most of my corn tassels are at the reddish stage. And I did kinda cheat...I cut some of the flowers and hand-pollinated all the corn tassels I could find. (hey, I want to make sure I get SOME corn out of this :-) ).
Also, normally you drop some mineral oil on the tassels to prevent worms from getting into the corn and eating it, but I haven't done that. I'm hoping they leave most of my corn alone. Since we don't eat too much corn, I may not grow this again, but it was truely interesting to see, since I've never saw corn grow before. Instead of corn next year, maybe pumpkin, winter squash or potatoes...
This morning, I decided to make my garden rounds since I haven't done that in over 24 hours. I was able to harvest quite a few things...first was 3 of the 4 apples growing on our small 4-in-1 apple tree. this apple is the early summer apple. I probably could have picked them a few weeks earlier, but I wanted them to become really red all around. The largest 3 were at that stage, so I picked them. I still have to taste them, probably tonight.
I also harvested 2 zucchini, my first 2 cucumbers (yum!) and it doesn't seem like there are any other cucumbers anywhere near close to picking, so I have to savor these. And I also picked some lettuce for our sandwiches for lunch.
Another exciting thing I saw this morning were small globes of charantais melon starting to develop! this is another first for me...kinda reminds me of the watermelons I grew 2 summers ago. I hope I get some to eat. I'd like to see what all the hype is about on these melons...
But, I wanted to share what I read up on corn. (This is the first time I've ever grown corn, so I find this info fascinating!) The flowers on the tops of the corn plants have the pollen that needs to fertilize the corn so that the corn develops the yummy juicy kernels on the ears. Well, for the fertilization to occur, the pollen needs to fall onto the tassels.
And to tell when the corn is ready to be picked, you look at the color of the tassels...the turn from whitish to reddish to dark red/brown. Most of my corn tassels are at the reddish stage. And I did kinda cheat...I cut some of the flowers and hand-pollinated all the corn tassels I could find. (hey, I want to make sure I get SOME corn out of this :-) ).
Also, normally you drop some mineral oil on the tassels to prevent worms from getting into the corn and eating it, but I haven't done that. I'm hoping they leave most of my corn alone. Since we don't eat too much corn, I may not grow this again, but it was truely interesting to see, since I've never saw corn grow before. Instead of corn next year, maybe pumpkin, winter squash or potatoes...
This morning, I decided to make my garden rounds since I haven't done that in over 24 hours. I was able to harvest quite a few things...first was 3 of the 4 apples growing on our small 4-in-1 apple tree. this apple is the early summer apple. I probably could have picked them a few weeks earlier, but I wanted them to become really red all around. The largest 3 were at that stage, so I picked them. I still have to taste them, probably tonight.
I also harvested 2 zucchini, my first 2 cucumbers (yum!) and it doesn't seem like there are any other cucumbers anywhere near close to picking, so I have to savor these. And I also picked some lettuce for our sandwiches for lunch.
Another exciting thing I saw this morning were small globes of charantais melon starting to develop! this is another first for me...kinda reminds me of the watermelons I grew 2 summers ago. I hope I get some to eat. I'd like to see what all the hype is about on these melons...
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Corn
The following pictures are of my Golden Bantam Cross corn taken this evening...
Here is what my corn plants look like this evening. The parts sticking straight up on the corn stalks are the flowers. They need to be pollinated for the corn kernels to grow plump (from what I understand). Wind is the main pollinator, which explains why corn plants need to grow so tall.
Here are the flowers up close. the purplish/reddish parts look like they are actually hanging on by a thread and they all do the shimmy in the wind.
I have about 4 corn tassels sprouting out of growth coming from the sides of the corn stalk. So far, at most, I see 2 ears of corn on one stalk being produced.
Here is what my corn plants look like this evening. The parts sticking straight up on the corn stalks are the flowers. They need to be pollinated for the corn kernels to grow plump (from what I understand). Wind is the main pollinator, which explains why corn plants need to grow so tall.
Here are the flowers up close. the purplish/reddish parts look like they are actually hanging on by a thread and they all do the shimmy in the wind.
I have about 4 corn tassels sprouting out of growth coming from the sides of the corn stalk. So far, at most, I see 2 ears of corn on one stalk being produced.
Corn (part II) and Lettuce
You can see the tassels from the new corn coming out...woohoo....i may get some corn this year!
Here are some lettuce leaves I harvested this year. yum! I read that if you pick lettuce leaves and some milky substance oozes from where the leaf was torn off, the lettuce is bitter-tasting, but although some of my lettuce had this, it still tasted pretty good.
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