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applestar
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Re: what are you eating from your garden today 2018

Freshly snipped lettuce in three colors — Valmaine, Rosemary, and a Black Rose. Added freshly squeezed organic lemon juice, freshly ground Himalayan Pink salt and black peppers, evoo, organic tahini, organic Dijon mustard, kefir whey, sliced organic strawberry (from the store-California, I believe), organic honey. Dressing was so yummy I had to find a spoon and scoop out the remainder. I’ll have to make some more tomorrow. :D

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The only things doing well enough to eat right now are overwintered chard, kale, green onions and beets. I did pinch off a bunch of garlic scapes that I can use as a mild seasoning. I will saute' some chard and kale tonight to go with the twice baked potato casserole and grilled boneless pork loin chops I'm cooking for dinner.

I have 3 different varieties of chard with the Fordhook Giant being the largest and the Bright Lites being the most colorful and that makes for an interesting presentation.

I did notice earlier that my Japanese yard long beans are finally coming in, but they are too few and far between right now to make a meal of them, but it should only be another week or so and I'll be picking enough to make a side dish, if not a whole meal with.

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rainbowgardener
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today's harvest:
strawberry bowl.jpg
So for brunch we had a big omelette for three of us, with our own eggs and a whole bunch of chard from the garden and the strawberries. :) Some of those strawberries were as big as the big ones you get in the store.

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Suddenly it feels like the garden is in full swing and very bountiful.

Besides the strawberries, today's harvest included this:
broccoli and kale bowl.jpg
broccoli and kale.

Some of the kale is starting to bolt. I looked at it and thought, wow, it really is related to broccoli -- the flower stalks and flower buds look just like broccoli. :)

And besides all that, I brought in a whole huge bowl of salad greens. The greens are getting ahead of me, even though we've been eating a lot. I might blanch and freeze some.

So dinner tonight was a big green salad with herbs; a stir fry of asparagus, broccoli, chard and kale with seasonings, lemon juice, and orzo; and ice cream with strawberries for dessert.

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digitS'
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rainbowgardener wrote:... Some of the kale is starting to bolt. I looked at it and thought, wow, it really is related to broccoli -- the flower stalks and flower buds look just like broccoli. :)...
For the first time, we have been cooking and eating the kale buds. They are a little stronger flavored than broccoli (those plant starts went out into the garden yesterday) but very tasty.

DW just brought in some chives for our scrambled eggs with cheese lunch ...

The cilantro plants from 2017 were real nice before the tractor guy got to the big veggie garden and put them all under ground. Just like broccoli, it's way too early for ripe tomatoes (those plants are still here at home). So, there was no opportunity to have homemade salsa. (My green onions from sets aren't even up ... altho' I was a little late getting those in the ground.) Anyway, we had cilantro in a curry and in a stew - turned out to be a very good use for them :) .

Steve

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I'm one of those people who can't stand the taste of cilantro, but I grow a little bit of it to become coriander. :)

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So nice to see a pre-view of my own garden to be... I hope! :D

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applestar wrote:So nice to see a pre-view of my own garden to be... I hope! :D
Did you see the garden pictures here: viewtopic.php?f=79&t=73953&p=419489#p419489

Those were taken three days ago and everything is visibly bigger and more lush than then. We are in full spring, where the garden is growing and producing like crazy. Tomatoes and peppers have blossoms. Corn plants are six inches tall and have been weeded and mulched now.

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rainbowgardener wrote:I'm one of those people who can't stand the taste of cilantro, but I grow a little bit of it to become coriander. :)
I am on your side as far as the taste of cilantro. There was a lady in the local market one day that was next to me in the produce section and we were both looking for parsley, but all they had that day was cilantro and she commented that "it tastes like soap to me" and that pretty much describes how I feel about the taste too.

I grow parsley for as long as I can but our summer heat gets to it and it fades fast. I'm trying it in a large planter on my back porch that only gets direct sun in the morning to see if it will last a bit longer.

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digitS'
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Should it apply?

We have bok choy from the covered beds in the backyard garden. The plants were started in the greenhouse and moved under the plastic film and pvc hoops about 6 weeks ago. Admittedly, I had a small electric heater and fan in that 180 square feet of protected growing several nights because there were flats of tomato plants sitting across the center path. Most of those tomatoes are in less-protected circumstances (against house, on deck) although I kinda wish that they were back under plastic since it is only 41°f, right now!

The covered beds are mostly used for sowing seed for several types of greens. Not many bok choy were moved in so we waited for mature plants. Now, there is the need to transplant most of those started under those hoops out into the open garden.

Bok choy grown under plastic film seem especially tender ... :)

Steve

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I've had a couple days of picking yard longs and Kentucky Wonder green beans and have already cooked one batch down with some onion, garlic, ham and a bit of chicken stock. I have another nice size helping I'm going to grill tonight to go with some nice N.Y. Strip steaks and some sautéed mushrooms with onion, garlic and herbs.

My soybeans are ready to pick and will do that on Saturday. I pick them all at once and parboil them in salted water, drain and let them cool, then store them in quart bags to use as edamame. From the looks of things I wouldn't be surprised if I get about 4 gallons of them by the time I'm done.

The Kale and chard is starting to bolt and the chard will need to be replanted soon. Should have found a spot for more chard a few weeks ago, but it is what it is.

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Snow peas! Had pasta with pesto (made last year and frozen) and veggies, including broccoli, kale buds, snow peas, onion tops.

I have one more dinner worth of frozen pesto and then no more until there's enough basil in the garden to make it fresh again. :( Pesto will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no pesto! :D (Apologies to R. Crumb :) )

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I went out to water some of the garden and saw that just since yesterday morning I've got a lot of yard longs and Kentucky Wonders to pick. I took off about 40 yard longs and at least 3 lbs. of Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and this was after picking some yesterday morning.

I also found 3 pickling cucumbers ready to remove from the vines and see where I have several slicing cucumbers in the 3 inch range that will remain until at least 6-7 inches long before picking. A few of the 100 or so corn plants are starting to show signs of getting ready to make ears and they are now slightly over 6 ft. tall. They keep growing like they are and I may have to get a stepladder to pick corn.

Also my okra plants are showing new buds and they will be coming soon.

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I decided to pull and pick all the soybeans off the plants and I got 4 gallons worth of soybeans off a 25 ft. double planted row. I brought them up to the kitchen, washed them off in the sink to remove any dirt, dust, etc. and parboiled them in a big pot of salted water. It took me 2 boils to complete, then I spread them out on a big towel on the kitchen table to cool and bagged them up in quart freezer bags and wound up with 14 for the freezer and 1 big bag for the fridge to munch on tomorrow.

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Sounds lovely @gumbo — I envy how easy they seem to grow for you.

I’m eating lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, more lettuce, and a bit of Chard. :lol: — Cos type Valmaine, Bibb type Rosemarry, and looseleaf dark burgundy Black Rose.

...I topped a big bed of torn lettuces with a portion of baked red snapper for lunch, served tossed with udon noodles and steamed wonton, torn up sushi nori, and my own whipped up honey mustard dressing — Dijon mustard, kefir, cold-pressed sesame oil, honey, and good pour of rice vinegar... and one mashed up umeboshi (dried to jam-like whole salty pickled plum) Fresh lemon squeezed over all to finish. :D

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Applestar, I think what I like the most about growing soybeans is the fact you plant the seeds and just let them do their thing. They are extremely hardy plants that don't need a lot of tending to, just watering and weeding around them.

Once the pods of the beans fill out, it's time to pick them off the plants. I pull the plant from the ground and then take the beans off. I had quite a few with over 20 nicely filled pods and the least I picked off 1 small plant was 12.

That's about as easy as it gets for gardening in my book.

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dinner tonight was very veggie fried rice - brown rice cooked and then stirfried with lots of veggies, at least half veggies. It was a bunch of veggies, but from my garden was snow peas, kale, onion tops, broccoli, basil and then a couple of our home grown eggs scrambled and mixed in.

But the garden has been getting ahead of me, so tonight I blanched and froze up 3 quarts of snow peas, one quart each of chard and kale (that is a lot of leaves, given how much they cook down). The snow peas are tedious, because each pod individually has to have the strings down the side edges pulled off.

There is still so much out there, I should do more....

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rainbowgardener
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Wow, where do you live that you have ripe tomatoes already? Florida? South Texas? Southern California?

Here in zone 7, I have baby tomatoes on my plants. I have tons of parsley in my garden, because it over-wintered from last year.

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This one was not from MY garden, but I had to put it in here — a gifted Spaghetti Squash from last season stored over the winter. I cut the ends to make flat, cut in half and scooped out the seed cavity, then lightly sea salted and then, baked cut side down on sunflower seed oiled baking sheet, adding water in the pan to keep from burning. Then loosened the flesh with fork and added steamed shrimp, broccoli and carrots from Chinese take out. I heated up a jar sauce - vodka cream - in a sauté pan, opened up the middle and added EVOO until hot, then quickly sautéed a diced shiitake mushroom from my garden. Once the shiitake was cooked, I mixed it into the sauce and poured over the plated squash bowl, then drizzled double fermented kefir.

Image


...that was yesterday...

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Looks yummy. How do you store squash that long?

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I will ask the lady who gave them to me. :wink:

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It’s been raining all week, and the lettuce is starting to flop over. So I went out to trim the flopped leaves, some had already spoiled, some were still decent, but not good enough when you are harvesting tons. I found 3 slugs, one was HUGE. :x

I sorted out the ‘decent’ lettuce to give to one of our two kitties who LOVES lettuce... and still had this much good lettuce for the humans.

Image

For the kitties, I decided to make a special treat to tempt them BOTH. Last night, they were given the squash shells to finish cleaning up whatever squash was left, so I used them to make special kitty salad for the two of them — lettuce, carrot peelings, bonito flakes, cold-pressed sesame oil, and cat vitamin supplements powder.

As you can see, they loved their breakfast — the one licking her chops is NOT the one who typically loves lettuce ... but she loves anything cucurbit. :D (Yes our kitties are strange :lol: )


...and... For myself, I made — let’s call this Japanese+Chinese+Korean fusion rice bowl - donburi/bibinbap.

Image

Diced carrots cooked in 1/4 inch of water, then leftover white Chinese rice added to steam and reheat. Large bowl prepared with cold pressed and roasted sesame oils, Japanese rice vinegar, double fermented kefir, mashed umeboshi. Add and toss the heated rice and carrots in vinegar dressing.

Cover the rice with torn up lettuce, then push aside the lettuce into a donut and make a hole in the rice mixture.

Start roasting the fried spring roll skin chips and reheating a fried wonton roll in the toaster oven.

Use the same pot to reheat Chinese leftover shrimp chow mein (shrimp and Chinese cabbage in white garlic sauce) and pour into the hole in the middle.

Arrange crushed chips (I toasted them on a foil, then simply wrapped the foil closed and crushed them) and the fried wonton roll, and splash some more Japanese rice vinegar over the lettuce.... Mmm it needs something ...don’t have Korean hot sauce... OK Shichimi Togarashi spice mix will have to do.

Accompanied with GOOD oolong tea.

...yes, this was very very delicious. :()

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strawberry and snowpea salad.jpg
Tonight's dinner salad: garden greens with strawberries and snow peas also from the garden, and avocado, almonds and feta cheese. Entree was a potato, white bean, and kale hash, with garden kale. Went out and picked a whole bowl of strawberries and another bowl of snow peas. This was the yummiest salad I have ever made. Partner ate it plain and I had it with a little poppyseed dressing. Excellent either way.

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Rhubarb cobbler.

For breakfast with a banana ... was that a serving of vegetables with my USDA serving of fruit ..?

For the cobbler, I just poured the waffle batter over the chopped rhubarb and sugar - even forgot to grease the baking dish. (Should have started this 2 weeks ago.)

Steve

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People coming over for dinner Friday.. Menu will be:

green salad with some store lettuce, but also garden greens, herbs, and lots of cherry and saladette tomatoes, garnished with marigold and bee balm petals.

Corn on the cob fresh from the garden!

zucchini and summer squash (from farmers market) with garden tomato slices

some kind of bean dish for protein: falafel? veggie chili? 4 bean salad? lentil soup? swiss chard with garbanzo beans? etc

homemade bread

homemade ice cream with peach-blackberry jam topping

Oh yum!!

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Yesterday, I pulled a bunch of big purslane from under the corn. Once the hot weather settles in, the leafminers make purslane inedible, so this was a good time to remove most of them from the garden as well, before the infestation becomes too severe.

I had to pick the leaves out carefully because they were already starting in a few of the leaves, but I ended up with a nice clean pile of tender tips and leaves to make a potato salad based on a recipe rainbowgardener posted a while back. I tweaked (of course... because I can’t help myself :> ) — used rice vinegar and Dijon mustard, safflower mayo+kefir; added hardboiled eggs, diced yellow sweet pepper, not quite ripe tomato, and polish dill pickles, and my own bread and butter dilly summer squash in place of capers.

Image

DH made a face about the “green stuff” but he made a potato salad sandwich between slices of potato bread, and said he liked it. Image

Subject: Purslane Potato Salad
rainbowgardener wrote:I thought I had posted this here before, but I looked and looked and couldn't find it.

Purslane is a common garden weed, but very edible - tasty and nutritious.
Image

Russian Potato Salad With Dill and Purslane

Time: 30 minutes

12 ounces whole small fingerling potatoes
3 to 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, or as needed
3 tablespoons Greek or other thick yogurt, or Lebanese laban or sour cream
1 to 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
2 to 3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon brined or rinsed salt-cured capers
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice, or as needed
1½ to 2 cups purslane with tender stems, cut into 1- to 2-inch lengths, or ¾ cup purslane leaves.

1. Place potatoes in cold water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until just tender, about 15 minutes. Rinse with cold water and drain well.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine mayonnaise, yogurt, dill, scallions and capers. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

3. Slice potatoes thickly, removing as much skin as easily comes off, leaving on a little for texture and ease of slicing. Add potatoes to mixing bowl, and toss gently to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add purslane, fold together with potatoes, and serve.

I add celery and/ or green peppers for crunch. You could pretty much use your favorite potato salad recipe and just add purslane to it.

I am making this for a company dinner tonight! Always like to introduce people to the joys of eating weeds! :)

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Yesterday, we had lunch with my parents at their senior community. We’ve always praised the potato salad there, but my DD2 told me “your” potato salad — meaning the one made with purslane posted above — tastes better. :-()

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Not potato salad with anything special, just potatoes and peas. But, that has now ended and the pea vines have been pulled. In that soil, bush bean seed has been sown.

While we wait for those Jade and Velour beans, we have plenty of snap beans to harvest at the moment :) . By the time they play out, the Rattlesnake pole beans should be producing. We will keep our fingers crossed that this late July planting of snap beans can be harvested before fall frost. I have both succeeded and failed at this in the past. The 15th of July has always worked but it would have been a shame to have pulled the peas before this week.

Fresh cucumbers, everyday! My most common location for eating a cucumber is behind the wheel of the pickup, on the way home from the garden ... refreshing!

The ripe golden cherry tomatoes continue at a trickle but they are being joined by some red cherries, the Bloody Butcher, and even a beefsteak! I couldn't identify the beefsteak because foliage has hidden the plant marker. It was also the only one ripe but that won't be the case for long!

Some of the spring greens are just distant memories but I've had baby beets until they have outgrown that designation. It's really time to move on to the chard ... and the different kale varieties have been available, right along.

Very soon ... sweet corn!

Steve
with more potatoes to dig :D

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Peppers! I harvested some Jaloro peppers (white jalapeños) and wanted to make classic sausage and cream cheese stuffed poppers but decided to try a variation.

Diced the white Jaloros, orange Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn, and a green jalapeño that was partially starting to turn red. Diced leftover cooked bratwurst, added 1/2 cream cheese and 1/2 blue cheese dressing, grated hard cheese, nasturtium leaves, tender tip branches with leaves and tiny green peppers from the Barker’s Hot pepper plant I accidentally broke off today, EVOO. Mixed well and scooped onto hollowed out halves of baguette. Diced the center of bread and put in the bowl used for the mixture and added salt, oregano and marjoram, and EVOO, mixed well and pressed onto top of the mixture, then baked at 350 for 15 minutes until bread and croutons were toasted. Yum, yum!

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veggie chili tonight with tomatoes, peppers, herbs from the garden.

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Sweet Corn!

A little too early, one of mine was yellow as it should be, the other ear was more cream color. The kernels were small but sweet!

That was Thursday and we are taking a bucket out now because there must be more! Most everything is available now although the sweet peppers apparently had just too much trouble during the spring weeks. They will need a little more time. The Galia melons will be ripening soon and the cantaloupe next.

Steve :D

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Tomatoes, Tronchuda cabbage/kale, Dazzling Blue Kale, eggplant, Shishito peppers, sage, oregano, Purple Petra basil, and garlic were turned into a short order sauce with left over cooked hamburger patty for a sauce over bowl of brown rice last night. As the last minute, I realized I could also add celery and parsley, but was too lazy. :P

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today I turned the tomatoes, chard, peppers, and herbs into a big batch of swiss chard lasagna (similar to spinach lasagna), which went into the freezer for winter. It is very satisfying, seeing the freezer gradually fill up! I have a bunch of canned jars of marinara, salsa, and various jellies and a lot of soups, stews, and lasagna as well as various veggies in the freezer.

Other days the veggies go into various varieties of stir fries.

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rainbowgardener
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This isn't exactly "eating from the garden" but:

Image

Another kind of harvest. That is oregano, basil, sage, lemon balm, lavender, yarrow, bee balm, tansy, spearmint, rosemary, and summer savory. There was tarragon and thyme that aren't in the picture, because they went straight into my spice cupboard. There will be more of all these to come yet this season.

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Fifteen varieties of "black" tomatoes, a few hearts, too. Snapped a pan of second harvest green beans and the cucumbers are still going strong. Beans and cukes are from the big animal waterer raised beds. Best year ever so we will continue to use the big tubs.

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Ao Shiso (Ao Ba - green leaf) — Japanese green perilla. It has a distinctive aroma. Larger leaves are sometimes also called Oo Ba (Big Leaf) because it is used to wrap freshly cooked hot rice in a neat little bundle to eat.

I’m currently eating mine with leftover brown rice re-heated with a little water and mild NY cheddar melted in, finished with chopped green onions and finely minced green perilla. I like it a lot — for Some reason, the flavor combo creates aroma reminiscent of mushrooms.

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From pictures, it looks like Ao Ba has larger leaves than the perilla that volunteers each year in my veggie garden. I have never found a kitchen use for mine but my red perilla has very pretty foliage.

Never have there been more than a half dozen volunteers although one is allowed to bloom and set seeds each of probably 6 or 7 seasons. Do I understand correctly that perilla is considered an invasive in some areas of the Atlantic states?

This year, we deliberately started more plants from seed. About 10 of those were transplanted along the driveway in a very difficult area. It's okay if the plants grow tall enough (only about 18") where they can get some sunlight. The perilla couldn't do that although it's well above 24" in the garden with full sun. Maybe, it was mostly just transplant shock. The plants did bloom, despite me trying to keep the flowers pinched off. Now, I'm worried that I may have a million volunteers next year ... still, that is difficult for me to imagine. It just hasn't been a very aggressive plant here. Wish I could trust it as an ornamental.

Steve

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applestar
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In my garden, Red is more vigorous/reliable than green. Partly because green tends to get eaten by caterpillars and slugs more than the red, but also it seems like the green ones don’t self seed and come back next year as well. A possible reason is that finches and juncos love the perilla seeds. Maybe they tend to eat the green ones’ more.

Green grows taller than the red, however, and have larger leaves. Red is more ruffled and frilly. The ones I have anyway.

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Red is stronger here. The red and green crosses. I have a lot of hybrids. The green has a milder flavor the red one is more bitter and is good for pickling in ume juice. Finding ume with juice, now that is becoming much harder.

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Yep I have crossed ones that look like bronzed green and crossed ones that look like less purple red. The bronzed green-looking ones remind me of photos of “Korean” perilla. It is stronger than pure green but still has the green perilla aroma.



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