An Abundance of Cruciferous Vegetables

Or Another Record of My Wandering Thoughts, also Known as Speed Blogging or This and That.

Only three turnips came up (Not gonna use as many old seeds next year.), but they were a good size. I was afraid they might be woody since they were so big, but they weren't.

Yesterday, I harvested all of the radishes and turnips in our little garden. We added radishes from a friend and roasted a large sheet pan full of them. And while they were roasting, turnips were boiling on the stove. We had good eats for supper, but when I returned to the house after being out, it stunk! All of that lovely sulfur from the veggies was wafting through the air. Luckily, a couple of hours of the exhaust fan helped. But what's for lunch today? Radishes, turnips, and broccoli because, you know, you can't have enough of those cruciferous vegetables. : )

Speaking of broccoli, when we went to our first pregnancy class, the instructor was talking about a healthy diet and sang the praises of broccoli. That made a big impression on Ward, who encouraged me to eat broccoli often. However, my stomach said it only wanted white food--saltines, boiled chicken, and boiled potatoes. 

Newborn Wally

And while Ward was paying attention to the nutrition part, I didn't hear much after they said it was common to get stretch marks on your buttocks. What?! I understood them on your stomach, but not on my bottom. You may wonder how that turned out. However, I don't think I will go into where various stretch marks are or are not located on my body. You're welcome.

A competition between the breaded and beer-battered fish.

And speaking of smelly food, we had a fish fry for my father-in-law's 92nd birthday over the weekend. We usually have these family events at his house, and this was no exception. The weather was touch and go with rain starting and stopping, but in the end, we were able to have it outside. The fish was slated to be fried outside under a tarp, rain or shine, because of the smell. It turned out well, and a good time was had by all.

There goes the timer. Times up!

Until next time...

X is for Xeriscape Vegetable Gardening

Fig trees like dry feet, so would be good for xericaping.
(I know. Figs are fruit not vegetable.)

 If someone had asked me if xeriscaping was compatible with vegetable gardening, I would have said no, at least not for the vegetables I'm familiar with. I would have been wrong. There are some vegetables that will do okay without lots of water. With a bit of poking around, I found information that will be useful to me while gardening here, even though on paper we have adequate rainfall. The problem is it's all an average and we usually have a long dry spell at some point in the summer. Here are a few tips I learned about growing vegetables without much water.

Miss Lander's oregano

--There are many herbs that do well in dry conditions. Oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and lavender are some of them. Currently, I am not growing any herbs, but I have had good luck with oregano, rosemary, and lavender in the past. They thrived in the "plant and forget" environment I provided for them.

--Plant vegetables that mature quickly, so they will be ready before the long dry part of summer arrives. Good ones for this are radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, and beets. I have all of these growing now. I got them in earlier than last year, so maybe I will have a better yield before the warmer, drier weather sets in.

Miss Lander's sweet potatoes

--Okra, sweet potatoes, and muskmelon do well in drought. I won't be growing any of these since they're not my favorite.

 --Raised beds and/or well tilled soil allow roots to grow deeper, so the plant will be less effected by no rain. We put in raised beds last year and tilled the soil below them before we filled them. The soil in them is a big improvement to the native rocky soil.

 --Mulching is a good way to retain moisture. We mostly use straw for this and we have some leftover for last year.

 --Legumes do not need as much water as many vegetables. We're growing peas now, but not sure we will have room for any of the warmer weather ones. 

--Install a rain barrel to collect water to use later. Ward installed a rain barrel last year for my birthday. It has been very handy this spring for watering the new plants.

So how about that. I am already doing some of the things recommended for xeriscape gardening. I was just doing them to make things easier.

How much rainfall do you have where you live? What do you do about watering plants?

Sources:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/xeriscape/integrating-vegetables-and-herbs-into-the-xeriscape-garden.htm

https://www.rainharvest.com/blog/?p=474

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping#:~:text=Xeriscaping%20is%20the%20process%20of,eliminates%20the%20need%20for%20irrigation.&text=In%20some%20areas%2C%20terms%20such,smart%20scaping%20are%20used%20instead.

J is for Joost Elffers

And who or what is Joost Elffers you may ask. Joost Elffers is co-author with Saxton Freymann of series of picture books that are illustrated entirely with photographs of fruits and vegetables. They are very clever and imaginative with great pictures.

Joost was born and raised in the Netherlands and later moved to the US. He was a book packager who put together books getting them ready to publish. He worked on several notable books including Tangrams, Secrect Language of Birthdays, and The Power of 48 as well as the food books.

If you haven't seen one of these books before, I recommend you check your local library to find one. They are definitely worth a look.

One of the pages from Fast Food.

One of the pages from How Are You Peeling?

H is for Healthy

 Vegetables and fruits are healthy. Or is it healthful? Somewhere, back in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, I think I remember learning the distinction between healthy and healthful. However, I've been confused by their usage for years now, so I think it's finally time for me to figure it out. 

After consulting Grammar Girl,  American Heritage Dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster dictionary, here's the bottom line - healthy is okay to use in all circumstances. Healthful is used only to mean conducive to good health. Healthy can be used as a synonym for healthful as well as a healthy person.

"But wait," you say. That's not right. Healthy can only refer to a person (living), and healthful must be used for things (nonliving).  That was the preferred usage for a while. In the 1800's there was a big push to differentiate between the words healthy and healthful and that lasted into the 1940's but has been on the decline since then.  However, the American Heritage Dictionary says that both have meant conducive to good health for over 400 years, and today, healthy is used almost exclusively for both meanings. That explains why using healthy sounds right to my ears. And that simplifies things, too. If I use only healthy, I'll be okay.

Do you learn to make a distinction between healthy and healthful?

Thankful Sunday, October 11, 2020

 I am thankful for homegrown vegetables.

We haven't been big vegetable gardeners. There are many reasons for this, but over the years our vegetable gardening has consisted mostly of a random tomato plant here or there. That is until this year. During the intense first couple of months of the pandemic lockdown, I decided that we needed raised beds for a garden. Ward built two plots and we began planting. As I have mentioned before, all of our spring/summer plants and seeds were given to us by friends. From them, we got a meager modest harvest of brussel sprouts, lettuce, cucumbers, crookneck squash, carrots, and bok choy. We enjoyed each serving of what we grew and savored it since we knew there weren't many more to follow. The deer, rabbits, and stink bugs needed their share, you know, and uncooperative weather didn't help the plants either.

In August, I planted a few things for a fall garden just because. The turnips and radishes have done quite well, and one lettuce plant and one pea pod have so far escaped the rabbits. But the most exciting part is that I picked three tomatoes from the revived plants. (Between the deer and the stink bugs, we got only one tomato from five plants during the summer.) I love fresh tomatoes! And if the weather cooperates, we may get more. So for our homegrown vegetables and the tastiness they bring to our table, I am thankful.

This morning I finally got around to thinning the carrots and some of them are big enough to eat. The tomatoes weren't quite ripe, but I wanted to pick them before we got rain from Delta and they possibly split. And when that happens, the bugs always get there before we do. Also, I pulled some radishes and turnips. The biggest ones are pictured. The radish is about the size of a baseball and the turnip is about the size of a softball.

Thankful Sunday, July 12, 2020

I am thankful for the Delete button.

Well, it has finally happened. After all of these years, my little, obscure blog has finally gotten some disgusting robo comments. I am very thankful for the delete button so I don't have to see them one more time. If they show up again, I guess I will have to go to reviewing the comments before publishing them.

In other news, here's a quick note before I go to work.

Speaking of going to work, I am back in the building but only interacting with other coworkers. We are doing contactless pickups at the library at this point in time and phone service. Masks, cleaning, and social distancing are going well there, but I do get tired of the mask after an hour or two. I'm still a little stressed answering the phone because I was just starting to catch on, in my new position, to all that is involved with answering questions when I had a 4 month hiatus because of COVID-19. I was busy teleworking during that time with training and programming, but I didn't have to figure out the details of peoples accounts. At least I am very polite as I sometimes fumble through providing people with what they need.

And speaking of programming, I will be doing a virtual program for the library in a couple of weeks and that is occupying a lot of my time. I will be reading, doing experiments, and a craft. It's difficult to technically manage all of that with one fixed camera (my phone or Ipad mini)  and I seem to be trying something different every day. I'm getting closer, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. All of our programs are live for legal reasons. It would be easier if I could record it, but that is not the policy presently.

In the meantime back at home, they are almost done with all of the construction. And what's the most important part of that? The port-a-potty is gone. It was cleaned regularly, but with the heat, it didn't always smell the best.

And speaking of heat, we have gone over two weeks with temperatures over 90 and no rain. I am getting tired of it and so are the plants. I can tell you that I'm not ready to move to a hot, desert climate.

And speaking of plants, despite the heat and lack of water, we are getting some vegetables from our small garden. We have been enjoying lettuce, peas, several kinds of cruciferous vegetables.and two kinds of squash.

And speaking of food, I should go now and fix my lunch for today.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday, May 26, 2019

I am thankful for Uncle Billy's Garden.

I love gardens. Vegetable, flower, tree, shrub, formal, informal. I like them all. Yesterday, I had a pleasant time visiting one when Ward and I visited Uncle Billy's and Aunt Martha's garden. Aunt Martha invited us to pick some of their bumper strawberry crop, a very lucky thing for us. While Ward picked strawberries, I took a look at other things that are growing in their garden right now. Here are pictures of a few of them.

Uncle Billy has raised beds for many of the things he grows. This is a new location for the strawberries this year and apparently they like it.

The broccoli is doing well and hasn't been besieged by worms yet. Aunt Martha will be freezing some today. The cauliflower (no pictures) is happy, too.

The potatoes are blooming. To the right of them, Uncle Billy has planted corn.
Notice the high deer fence in the background. It seems to be working.

Besides strawberries, we also picked lettuce. Aunt Martha plants a variety pack of seeds each year that makes a very pretty bed. There are onions planted behind the lettuce.

Along the back fence, they grow hops for their sons to use in beer brewing.

The raspberries have just started to get a couple of small green berries. There are also blueberries and figs growing in other beds.

The watermelon and cantaloupe have just sprouted. Uncle Billy has black plastic around them because those crops like heat. 

The tomato plants are looking big for this time of year. 

Red clover was Uncle Billy's cover crop.

Ward and Uncle Billy hard at work. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I may have done more eating of strawberries than just picking them. :)

So for Uncle Billy's garden that he and Aunt Martha shared with us, 

I am thankful.

Harvest

Stir fry tonight.

(Thanks, Uncle Billy, for sharing your harvest.)

Thankful Sunday--July 19, 2015

I am thankful for:

Fresh berries 

Sweet corn on the cob

Grilled squash

Tender green beans

Crisp lettuce

Marinated cucumbers

and especially Tomatoes right off the vine.

In other words, I am thankful for summer harvest time.

Harvest with Miss Landers

Miss Landers has a vegetable garden in the local community garden, and we went harvesting with her.  See some pictures of our outing below.