Tennessee 2021 Garden

[Vanisle_BC]

Your right, Imperial gallons are larger than US gallons.

Ha, I was just joking. Any utensils we can buy here are sized for the US market, in US units of volume. But we still get our auto gas in full-size gallons. Grocery items vary. Many stores display both lb & kg prices but the kg is in tiny print like an afterthought; unless the stuff is really expensive, in which case they boldly show the price per 100g. to make it look cheaper. $3.50/100g. looks so much better than $15.90/lb.

I've begun recording my garden yields in grams. So much easier to add them up than messing with ounces & pounds. But I still convert the final totals to pounds 'cause that's what I grew up with and I have more 'feel' for it.

It's been a great year for tomatoes. So far we're at over 27.5 kg or 60lb; and our largest ones - Longkeeper - are still ripening on the vines.

[Gary350]

I learned something interesting on a tomato growing TV show. The man that was growing several acres of tomatoes said, first ripe tomatoes are about 3 ft high up on the new plants, the next ripe tomatoes are about 4 ft high up, the next ripe tomatoes are 5 ft up then 6 ft up and so on. When tomatoes are ripe in the 5 ft area leaves die in the 3 ft area. When tomatoes are ripe in the 6 ft area leaves die in the 4 ft area and so on. When leaves are no longer useful to the plants in the area where there are no tomatoes the leaves are allowed to die. It appears like blight killed the leaves but the plant allowed leaves to die so it was easy for blight to take over sickly leaves. Cut off all sickly leaves, cut off all stems that once had blossoms & tomatoes. Plants will grow 20 ft tall if you stake them up that high and plants grow new tomatoes only in the area where new leaves grow.

I have noticed this for 30 years but I always thought blight was killing my plants.

Today I pulled off all bad tomatoes then trimmed all the dead limbs, dead leaves, old blossom stems.

I have 3 good tomatoes for the kitchen. We will have a few ripe tomatoes for the kitchen every week until first frost. Wife made Chili yesterday & tacos today.

[applestar]

That’s interesting and consistent with the recent videos I watched — a market farmer said to trim all leaves up to the blushed cluster of big fruited tomatoes and then cut off the leaf opposite the cluster and one node above after harvesting first ripe fruit. For cherry tomatoes, he said to do the same after harvesting first group of ripe fruits from the mass cluster.

I’ve been doing this as part of regular pruning/cleanup regimen but was wondering what to do now that the still growing indeterminate vines have grown up over my head and I’m cutting off leaves at my eye level — your post explained it, although now I will be running into the “not enough time for newly set fruit to mature before first frost” problem — they need about 45-50 days. …for this reason, the northern growers are encouraged to stop the vines from growing beyond green fruits that still have chance to reach at least color-break/blush stage.

Another video by a hobby backyard gardener said to cut off the big leaf just below and opposite a large fruit once it has reached full green size and this technique has consistently averted blossom end rot — the explanation being that the calcium that would have been distributed to those leaves will be directed to the fruit.

[Gary350]

I’ve been doing this as part of regular pruning/cleanup regimen but was wondering what to do now that the still growing indeterminate vines have grown up over my head and I’m cutting off leaves at my eye level — your post explained it, although now I will be running into the “not enough time for newly set fruit to mature before first frost” problem — they need about 45-50 days. …for this reason, the northern growers are encouraged to stop the vines from growing beyond green fruits that still have chance to reach at least color-break/blush stage.

Another video by a hobby backyard gardener said to cut off the big leaf just below and opposite a large fruit once it has reached full green size and this technique has consistently averted blossom end rot — the explanation being that the calcium that would have been distributed to those leaves will be directed to the fruit.

I have the same problem finding time to do pruning and cleanup the plants. Every sense we had the flash flood several weeks ago we have gotten more & more rain from hurricane after hurricane. My garden has been a swamp of mud for a month & tomatoes are split open and rotting on the vines. I was finally able to prune & clean plants yesterday.

The neighbor up the road has a very interesting way of staking his tomatoes. He has a 2"x2" wooden stake in the ground that stick up 7ft tall. He has a flat cloth belt 1" wide that he wraps around the wooden stake & tomato plants all the way to the top of the stake. He cuts off almost all the limbs and leaves. Plants look so weird being strapped in place to that wooden stake with no leaves the entire length of the main plant stems and big 1lb size tomatoes all the way up to the top. It looks so artificial & fake looking like its not a real tomato plant but there are 50 tomatoes 1 lb tomatoes on each of those 20 wooden stakes. It appears to me from looking at his tomato plants don't need leaves he his 95% of the leaves cut off. I wish I had taken a picture of his tomato plants, here is a drawing I made. I don't understand how he can have the full length of the stake completely covered with 50 big tomatoes my plants don't grow tomatoes the full 7 ft of the plant all at the same time. I need to take to him again. I need to try this next year.

[Gary350]

I went to farmers market this morning hoping to find someone selling home grown cabbage. I bought sweet red chilies from the oriental lady she is always fun to talk to. She is a smart lady all the local people have corn to sell July & Aug she plants corn later so she has corn to sell Sept & Oct and no one else has corn & she sells things no one else has. I have been wanting to buy her bitter melon but I have no clue how to fix it, she said, most people don't like it. I ask her the name of the sweet chilies she kept saying, sweet peppers. Maybe sweet peppers is the real name. We might eat sweet peppers for dinner tonight & I will save the seeds & plant a few seeds tomorrow to make sure they germinate. These red chilies are about 7" long.

[Gary350]

Bug of the day, good or bad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ryiTNYneQ

[applestar]

It’s a tussock moth caterpillar but I can’t tell which kind. Looks similar to “white marked” which is considered a pest. There is a “brown-tailed” which can sting if touched bare-handed.

[Gary350]

It’s a tussock moth caterpillar but I can’t tell which kind. Looks similar to “white marked” which is considered a pest. There is a “brown-tailed” which can sting if touched bare-handed.

I went outside and looked at the worm it was on the same leaf. It has a brown tail, 2 red dots on its back near the tail & a red head. When I was in grade school all the farm people use to say, If its red kill it dead. That means, red spot, red stripe, any part is red, killed it dead. Black widow spider has a red spot. Red velvet ants are red & black. Tiny little spider small enough to set on a pencil eraser is dark red. Scorpions turn blood red during mating season they become several 100 times more poisonous. I cut worm in 1/2 with clippers.

[Gary350]

We just got home, been gone all day checking out a campground we have never been to. Wife ordered a pizza & I checked out the garden. Onions at the back of the house are coming up. Boc Choy is looking good. Broccoli & Cauliflower are finally tall enough to be noticeable. Cabbage is growing in a few places. All Tabasco plants are loaded. 9 large sweet bell peppers on 3 of the 4 plants. I propped up the fallen caster plants with wooden legs. I picked 1 ripe tomato.

[Gary350]

This morning I investigated, why is the garlic not growing there are only 1/2 a dozen plants? We had 29" of rain sense garlic were planted a month ago did garlic cloves rot? Garlic are 2" above flood level. I carefully removed soil and all the garlic cloves are there & tops are about 3/4" tall. It appears the problem is my fault I forgot to keep garlic in the refrigerator 2 months before planting, hard neck cloves always grows tops in 3 to 5 days. Why do moles like garlic & onion bed better than any other place in the garden they never eat or damage garlic or onions? Moles could be doing onions & garlic a favor by loosening the soil so onions & garlic will grow bigger. Soil has, no fishing worms, no bugs, no grubs, no cut worms, no living things in the soil moles must be eating them all. Soil compaction is very hard after all the rain and soil is still wet it won't dry out in 50° & 60° weather.

[Gary350]

This evening I made 1 winter potato row for 34 plants while soil is dry enough to be worked. I used a string and a string level to make sure the row is level so seed potatoes will be 3" above the water level all winter. Seed potatoes need to be 3" below soil surface so they don't freeze. Most of my seed potatoes are about 1" diameter with 1 eye they should grow about 1 lb of potatoes per plant. When eyes grow 1" long seed potatoes are ready to plant. I won't be planting this row until about Dec 1st unless eyes are ready sooner. The last time I planted winter potatoes in Dec was about 25 years ago. Interesting thing about winter potatoes there is no above ground plants but it still grows a good crop of new potatoes. I might need to plant 1 more row of winter potatoes I have a lot of 1" saved potatoes with eyes sprouting. I am also going to plant 1 row of potatoes March 1st. This garden if flat and holds water it is hard to plant once rain starts. Garden at the other house sloped down hill 1 ft in 100 ft water drained away it was easy to work in winter rain.

Yesterday I learned what the Home button & End button do in the key board.

[Gary350]

My plants look spindly like they need sunlight. Lots of dark gray clouds for a month so maybe they do need sunlight. I gave plants more fertilizer & water today. Long skinny roots allow plants to fall over. Should I push soil up around all plants to force them to stand up? If I could grow a salad bar I would eat nothing but salad, maybe some grilled chicken pieces with salad too. Pak Choy looks the best but nothing like what I see in the grocery store. Fertilizer & water is not working with dark over cast sky every day.

[applestar]

I think it’s better to hill them up. Especially the rosette forming greens need to be hilled to base of the rosette so they sit stable/solidly.

Once their stems harden, they won’t be able to straighten up much — only the tender growing stems with grow upwards.

Some gardeners use three stakes per broccoli and cauliflower to keep them from falling over. I’ve also tried using wire flowerbed border fence.

[Gary350]

I went to the garden to hill up pac choy & cabbage and like magic the tiny plants are all standing straight up bigger & fat. I think 2.5" of rain made plants stand up and get big & fat. This was so sudden I don't know what to do. I see whole plants for sale in the grocery store, should I pull whole plants up or can I pull off leaves & let the plants keep growing? I'm going to have about 25 plants that all need to be harvested at the same time. Wow these were fast growing I planted them a month ago. We have rain in the forecast for 3 days.

First seeds planted did not germination well. I crawled through the garden planting seeds in the empty places between the plants that grew. I should have a full row of pac choy if new seeds grow. 75% of the lettuce never grew & I have no more lettuce seeds so I filled that row in with pac choy seeds. I filled in the broccoli & cauliflower rows with more broccoli & cauliflower seeds. Cabbage row was terrible germination I can see 4 purple plants they are probably purple cabbage. I planted more cabbage seeds I think there are 4 kinds of cabbage in this row. These tiny little micro small seeds are hard to plant we should have a good crop or random volunteer, broccoli, cabbage, pac choy, cauliflower all over the place. I accidentally dropped the cauliflower seed bag it landed in a muddy place open end down. I had to scoop up seeds with mud. How do you remove 70 tiny seeds from a mud blob. I rolls up Pea size mud balls then squeezed the mud balls flat to see how many seeds are in each mud ball. 2 or 3 seeds in each mud ball is ok with me. I dropped each mud ball in a 1/2" deep hole and covered them up. I think I accidentally learned a better way to plant tiny seeds.

[imafan26]

Looking good.

On bitter melon you can find a lot of Filipino recipes that use it like Pinakbet and Sari Sari. Chinese will stuff bitter melon with pork and steam it. Bitter melon can be cooked into an omelette or used in a stir fry. It is bitter. The smaller melons are more bitter than the long Chinese ones. The trick to bitter melon is to add it in last and shake not stir the pot and don't over cook it. That is what makes it even more bitter. Filipinos like to pair something bitter with fish since it takes away the fishiness of fish. The fruit and the leaves are supposed to help lower blood sugar for diabetics and it is a good source of Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/bitter-melon

[applestar]

I believe you can harvest individual leaves of pakchoy like leaf lettuce, but with cabbage you actually only eat the leaves that headed up.

I suppose you might delay development of individual cabbage plants if you harvested their outer leaves. (Not sure but you could experiment if you have plenty).

You also could eat the young outer cabbage leaves as culls when thinning them in rows.

[Gary350]

For many years I have wondered why pepper load up with blossoms & produce about 50 sweet bell peppers in Oct. I use to think cool weather caused this but we still have 80° temperatures. Now I think it is sunlight shortage. Our daylight hours are 3 hours shorter but our daylight is very dark & over cast sky 25 days every month. I picked another sweet red pepper. Pepper plants are loaded with too many blossoms to count. We have lots of mushrooms growing I wish I knew if they are safe to eat. Sweet potato plant leaves are looking good with this rain & now they are not in full shade 80% of the day.

[Gary350]

These little 1" cherry tomatoes have been a life saver sense I bought them about 1979. I save seeds every year. They survive our hot summer weather & produce tomatoes all summer when all the other tomatoes have died, these keep producing until frost kills them. I don't remember the name, I have not seen 1" tomato plants for sale in 20 years. I picked several tomatoes today for another dinner salad. My Pac Choy is not as large as grocery store plants, we have 2 days of grocery store lettuce left. I made another very good salad this evening with chicken, this was dinner. Lettuce, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, chicken, red onions, red peppers, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, blue cheese ranch dressing, black pepper, tomatoes, 1 red Tabasco pepper.

[Gary350]

We have had about 6" to 7" of rain sense I hilled up this potato row about a month ago. I have been waiting to see how much the loose soil will settle. I hope my seed potatoes will hold off and not need to be planted until sometime between Thanksgiving & Christmas. Garden is 6" of mud again this may be a much harder project than I expected 6" of mud is not easy to work in. Once I have seed potatoes planted about 1" above water lever then I need to get a truck load of free mulch at the country recycle center to cover potato row with 2" of mulch so they don't freeze this winter. Maybe I should play it safe if we have another week of no rain I might plant seed potatoes anyway. There won't be any above ground plants & new potatoes will be ready to dig up May 15 or sooner.

Rain & cool temperatures garlic is coming up and cabbage, pac choy, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, are growing much faster.

I keep finding finding volunteer Tomatillo plants all over the garden. I don't remember tossing they all over the whole garden but maybe I did. Maybe there will be a few volunteer plants April that I can transplant.

Chickweed is a nightmare 6" of mud makes it impossible to hoe or pull it up. Last winter chickweed was 12" deep I cut it down with the lawn mower about April. Last year chick weed & grass were so tall garlic could not been seen but it did good anyway.

Our yard is full of these green leaf plants, I see black people everywhere picking it in baskets along the road & in fields. Years ago I stopped and ask them about it. They eat is like greens, cooked greens & ham, cooked Spinach. I want to call this stuff plantain but I don't think that is the correct name. It is good as lettuce & makes a good salad, good on tacos & sandwiches.

Sweet potato plants are loaded with leaves. Suddenly we have more greens than we can eat. I want another big dinner salad, wife wants a pizza.

[Gary350]

Sweet bell peppers are having a problem, soon as peppers are large enough to start to turn red color they rot??? It is hard to know when peppers are finished growing larger until they begin to turn red. I gave plants more calcium but that is not helping. Maybe I should pick peppers sooner before full grown that might be best.

I pulled up a large pac choy plant and made a dinner salad. Pac choy is bitter so is the sweet potato leaves, I think 85 degree weather is the bitter problem. Salad is good with chicken & tomatoes. Dressing hides the bitter flavor.

New 5G laptop computer with Windows 11 arrived Friday it will not let me type codes, now I have to type 25 degrees instead of 25alt248. alt 248 makes this page close and the computer goes back where it was 3 pages ago. Laptop keyboard has no Home & End buttons. 15" laptop key board is made for some one the tiny hands I need a real keyboard 2" wider. Lots of worthless junk ADs come up, both sides, bottom & top of screen it keeps me busy clicking that junk away.

[Gary350]

I put cardboard in the onion bed to cover up and kill chickweed before it rained. No rain came but 35 mph wind blew cardboard away. I staked down the cardboard then watered it so it is heavy maybe it won't blow away. Wind dried out the cardboard. When I get time I will go get a truck load of free mulch to cover up chick weed. TV said, storms & tornadoes went north to St Louis. Good I don't want any more rain. After being sick 2 days I am behind on things that need to be done.

[Gary350]

I planted winter potatoes today, I was getting worried our fall rain will start today we have storms on the way. There may not be a better day than this to plant winter potatoes. I found 50 Kennebec potatoes with small eyes to plant. For some reason I have 2 Pontiac red potatoes with eyes also. If things go as expected each Kennebec plant will produce 1 lb of new potatoes so 50 plants should be 50 lbs of new potatoes. Pontiac red usually produces 4 lbs per plant so 2 plants should be 8 lbs of new potatoes.

I have enough mulch to finish the last 6' of the potato row if I can find 12 more potatoes that are growing eyes.

I picked up a truck load of free mulch for the potato row. Potatoes are under about 3" of soil & 4" of mulch that should keep them from freezing. It is not likely potatoes will produce above ground plants before it gets cold, first frost is 3 weeks away.

My 1 bean plant has 7 bean pods.

Volunteer Cilantro is coming up in several places. Seeds I planted have not come up yet.

I also put mulch over the cardboard in the onion bed to hold down cardboard & block chickweed from growing.

Soil in 3 sweet potato pots looks dry I have not watered them.

It started raining 5 minutes after I came into the house.

[Vanisle_BC]

What's the most productive potato that's good all-round; boiled, mashed, fried, roasted & baked (white flesh preferred), haha! ?

[Gary350]

What's the most productive potato that's good all-round; boiled, mashed, fried, roasted & baked (white flesh preferred), haha! ?

I think Kennebec is the best flavor white potato but not the most productive for me in our hot summer weather. I usually get 1 lb of new potatoes per plant. People that live in cooler climate and have softer soil get 2 lbs to 4 lbs of new potatoes per plant. I have never grown Kennebec in winter so this year is a learning experiment.

Red Pontiac potatoes like our hot weather I often get 4 lbs of new potatoes per plant. I don't grow this potato often we don't like it as much as Kennebec. Red Pontiac is probably a healthier potato to eat carbohydrates are low about 50% less. There are other red skin potatoes I have never grown I'm not sure if they are low carbohydrate too. Red Pontiac have Red skin and white inside.

[Gary350]

This morning I planted the last of my Romaine Lettuce seeds on the north end of the onion bed. I planted about 500 seeds in a 32" x 6' space. There will be no onions planted here until March 1st.

Wife talked me out of growing carrots this year. She said, why pay $4 for seeds when you can't even grow $1 worth of carrots. You can buy 5 lbs of carrots at the grocery store for $4. She is right but I like growing carrots I love the tops in salads. No one is selling 500 seeds packs anymore. We are having a mild winter if weather continues like this I can still get a 50 cent crop of carrots with $4 worth of seeds. Half long carrots might grow better in mulch.

[Vanisle_BC]

Gary, thanks for the chuckle - 50 cent crop from $4 worth of seed ! I feel the same way about corn. It takes up so much space & hides the sun from neighboring beds, yet I can buy it at the store for nearly nothing.

But don't you find the grocery store carrots lack the flavor of the ones you grow? And they take up little room in the garden. This year I just scattered the seeds rather than making marked rows or squares. As I pull out babies for the kitchen I make room for the others to get bigger: Thinning by eating

[imafan26]

Gary, I get it too. I planted carrots and they are sprouting now. My carrots never seem to mature on time. When they are big enough, it is warmer and bitter. I did not harvest carrots one year and let them bloom. They were beautiful, just like their cousin Queen Anne's lace. I did not get any seed from it either. But , the seeds I have were free seeds. Of course I did buy over $100 of seeds, so I guess, they weren't exactly "free". At least is was better than the "free" Brunswick cabbage seeds I got. I don't have the space for a head cabbage and it would not do well in my yard anyway.

Corn would also take up most or all of the space in my in ground garden. The only good thing about it is that it is one crop where I harvest and eat almost every ear as long as I only have it in my home garden. I would get about 67 ears on average. I can plant three corn crops in a year. I could not plant much of anything else in the main garden though except for the perennial kale, Italian parsley, aloe, Basil, Jamaican oregano, and culantro that are pretty much permanent residents there.

One year I made a mistake and planted corn in 2 plots, one at home and one in the herb garden. The both came in within a couple of weeks of each other, and that was too much corn for me to eat or give away fast enough.

[Gary350]

Gary, I get it too. I planted carrots and they are sprouting now. My carrots never seem to mature on time. When they are big enough, it is warmer and bitter. I did not harvest carrots one year and let them bloom. They were beautiful, just like their cousin Queen Anne's lace. I did not get any seed from it either. But , the seeds I have were free seeds. Of course I did buy over $100 of seeds, so I guess, they weren't exactly "free". At least is was better than the "free" Brunswick cabbage seeds I got. I don't have the space for a head cabbage and it would not do well in my yard anyway.

Corn would also take up most or all of the space in my in ground garden. The only good thing about it is that it is one crop where I harvest and eat almost every ear as long as I only have it in my home garden. I would get about 67 ears on average. I can plant three corn crops in a year. I could not plant much of anything else in the main garden though except for the perennial kale, Italian parsley, aloe, Basil, Jamaican oregano, and culantro that are pretty much permanent residents there.

One year I made a mistake and planted corn in 2 plots, one at home and one in the herb garden. The both came in within a couple of weeks of each other, and that was too much corn for me to eat or give away fast enough.

When we lived at the other house I had a very small garden. I did several experiments growing corn in small crops. I planted 28 corn seeds in a 3'x3' square, 4 rows 12" apart, 7 seeds per 3' long row. When tassels started making pollen I wrapped the corn in a white bed sheet to hold in the pollen. We had 28 very large good ears of corn. LOL.

Several times I planted corn in a 10'x10' square. 11 rows 10 ft long with 12" between each rows with 21 seeds per row. 230 ears of very good corn every time. A 10'x10' crop of corn is hard to weed, you need long arms or a very long handle hoe..

[Gary350]

Our Pak Choy plants are larger than what I see in the grocery store. 85 degree weather must be too warm 1 plant is growing seeds. It makes a very good salad with, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, blue cheese dressing.

I picked the last of the tomatoes then cut down all plants but 1 plant that has 22 green tomatoes.

400 onions that I planted next to the house and doing good. Garlic in the garden looks good too.

We give up trying to cook good Oriental food at home. We found a new restaurant that delivers for $2 and the food is much better than the other 3 Oriental restaurant we have been going too. We place our order by phone or online food is at our door in 25 minutes, 2 lunches plus, tax & delivery = $15.75.

Almost a full moon tonight. Camp fire on patio & wine makes if fun.

[imafan26]

Pak choi matures fast in like 45 days. The flowers are edible too. If it were choi sum you would actually wait until the buds appear before harvesting them. The size of the pak choi depends on the variety there are short pak choi as well as tall ones. I have both and bok choy as well. Here pak choi can alse be called white stem cabbage or pe chai (Filipino, Chinese). I actually prefer the baby bok and green stem cabbage, but they can be used almost the same way. The flavor of pak choi is milder than bok choi.

Chinese food is so easy to make.

You slice the beef accross the grain and pound it to tenderize or you can use baking soda.
Marinate meat 1 lb (beef, pork, chicken)
1 tsp baking soda (tenderize meat, optional)
1 tbs Oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs water
1 tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp white pepper (Chinese prefer white pepper, but I don't like the taste so I use black pepper)
1 tsp sugar or sugar substitute
1 tbs cooking wine (Shaoxing wine or Sherry) It is easier to find sherry than good shaoxing. I use dry sherry.

Combine all the marinade ingredients, add meat and massage the mixture for about 15 seconds and let it sit covered in the refrigerator for about 30-60 minutes while you prepare the vegetables.

Cut up your vegetables into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Sauce: Combine the following in a small dish and set aside

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cooking wine

Heat wok. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. If you are using ginger or garlic add that now and stir fry. Remove garlic when it browns do not burn or it will be bitter. Set aside in a large bowl.

In the flavored oil on med. high heat, stir fry the marinated meat until it is cooked. It should only take a couple of minutes to brown and set aside in the bowl with the garlic.

If you need to add more oil then add a tablespoon at a time.
Stir fry each vegetable separately until crisp tender. This is an important step don't skip it. It tastes very different when you stir fry the vegetables separately than when you throw them in together. The individual flavors are more distinct and some of the vegetables end up over cooked if they are all cooked together. Set the cooked vegetable into the same bowl with the meat and garlic after each is done. Add oil as needed to fry the vegetable without sticking. It should only take a few minutes to stir fry each vegetable until crisp tender. Green vegetables like broccoli should turn a brighter green when done.

After all the vegetables are stir fried. Add everything in the bowl back into the wok and add the sauce.
Stir fry until heated through and serve on hot rice. If you want a thicker sauce make a slurry of cornstarch and water and add a little at a time the sauce will thicken and become glossy as it cooks. Add only enough of the slurry to get the consistency you desire. To much and it will gel.

If you don't have the light and dark soy sauce. You can use regular soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is fermented longer so it is sweeter. You can add an additional 0.5-1 tsp of sugar or sugar substitute to the sauce if you only use regular soy sauce. You can taste it and decide if you need to make it sweeter. The sweetness offsets the salt. I use low sodium soy sauce, so the sugar in the marinade is enough for me. Honey gives it a different taste, and I sometimes use honey in the marinade instead of sugar.
If you like the taste of sesame you can also add a tsp of sesame oil to the sauce and 1-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds as a garnish. Salt to taste. There is so much salt in the oyster sauce and soy sauce, that I really don't need to add any.

velveting meat (tenderize tough meat) alternative to the above meat marinade
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp vegetable oil or light sesame oil
1 tbs dry sherry or shaoxing wine
1 tsp sugar
Slice one lb of protein (beef, pork, chicken) into thin slices across the grain for beef. It helps if the meat is partially frozen. It makes it easier to slice thin slices. Combine ingredients and massage it in to the meat for 15 seconds. Cover and refrigerate 30-60 minutes. Prepare as above. 1 egg white can be added to the cornstarch to make a slurry before adding the rest of the ingredients. This will make the cornstarch layer thicker and more "spongy".

[Gary350]

Pak choi matures fast in like 45 days. The flowers are edible too. If it were choi sum you would actually wait until the buds appear before harvesting them. The size of the pak choi depends on the variety there are short pak choi as well as tall ones. I have both and bok choy as well. Here pak choi can alse be called white stem cabbage or pe chai (Filipino, Chinese). I actually prefer the baby bok and green stem cabbage, but they can be used almost the same way. The flavor of pak choi is milder than bok choi.

Chinese food is so easy to make.

You slice the beef accross the grain and pound it to tenderize or you can use baking soda.
Marinate meat 1 lb (beef, pork, chicken)
1 tsp baking soda (tenderize meat, optional)
1 tbs Oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs water
1 tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp white pepper (Chinese prefer white pepper, but I don't like the taste so I use black pepper)
1 tsp sugar or sugar substitute
1 tbs cooking wine (Shaoxing wine or Sherry) It is easier to find sherry than good shaoxing. I use dry sherry.

Combine all the marinade ingredients, add meat and massage the mixture for about 15 seconds and let it sit covered in the refrigerator for about 30-60 minutes while you prepare the vegetables.

Cut up your vegetables into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Sauce: Combine the following in a small dish and set aside

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cooking wine

Heat wok. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. If you are using ginger or garlic add that now and stir fry. Remove garlic when it browns do not burn or it will be bitter. Set aside in a large bowl.

In the flavored oil on med. high heat, stir fry the marinated meat until it is cooked. It should only take a couple of minutes to brown and set aside in the bowl with the garlic.

If you need to add more oil then add a tablespoon at a time.
Stir fry each vegetable separately until crisp tender. This is an important step don't skip it. It tastes very different when you stir fry the vegetables separately than when you throw them in together. The individual flavors are more distinct and some of the vegetables end up over cooked if they are all cooked together. Set the cooked vegetable into the same bowl with the meat and garlic after each is done. Add oil as needed to fry the vegetable without sticking. It should only take a few minutes to stir fry each vegetable until crisp tender. Green vegetables like broccoli should turn a brighter green when done.

After all the vegetables are stir fried. Add everything in the bowl back into the wok and add the sauce.
Stir fry until heated through and serve on hot rice.

If you don't have the light and dark soy sauce. You can use regular soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is fermented longer so it is sweeter. You can add an additional 0.5-1 tsp of sugar or sugar substitute to the sauce if you only use regular soy sauce. You can taste it and decide if you need to make it sweeter. The sweetness offsets the salt. I use low sodium soy sauce, so the sugar in the marinade is enough for me. Honey gives it a different taste, and I sometimes use honey in the marinade instead of sugar.
If you like the taste of sesame you can also add a tsp of sesame oil to the sauce and 1-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds as a garnish. Salt to taste. There is so much salt in the oyster sauce and soy sauce, that I really don't need to add any.

velveting meat (tenderize tough meat) alternative to the above meat marinade
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp vegetable oil or light sesame oil
1 tbs dry sherry or shaoxing wine
1 tsp sugar
Slice one lb of protein (beef, pork, chicken) into thin slices across the grain for beef. It helps if the meat is partially frozen. It makes it easier to slice thin slices. Combine ingredients and massage it in to the meat for 15 seconds. Cover and refrigerate 30-60 minutes. Prepare as above. 1 egg white can be added to the cornstarch to make a slurry before adding the rest of the ingredients. This will make the cornstarch layer thicker and more "spongy".

Thanks for this information. I never knew to cook each vegetable separate. I always cooked them all together until broccoli changed color. We need to buy a few things at the store then give this a try.

[Gary350]

There is probably 1000 or more Tabasco peppers on these 3 plants. I often like to have 1 pepper a week to eat but don't know what to do with all theses peppers. These are so hot 1 pepper goes a long way & I love the flavor of these spicy little peppers. Chili powder from this would be fire hot. What goes in hot comes out hot the next day.

I will put an AD on market place to see if I can give them away if people come pick there own peppers.

Pac Choy is looking very good today there are too many too large all at the same time. I may need to give some of them away too.

[imafan26]

When cabbages get bitter it is usually from stress or they are too old. I forgot to mention. If you are cooking leafy greens like choi or Swiss chard. Keep the stems separate from the leaves. The stems take a little longer to cook so they should go in the pan first and the leaves a little later. The leaves only have to be cooked until they wilt and that does not take long.

If the greens are not too bitter, blanching the greens in salted water helps remove some of the bitterness. Strong flavors also mellow it. lemon, ginger, garlic, honey or sugar, and my favorite salt substitute, oyster sauce. For swiss chard, most of the "earthy" taste is from the stems, so when the leaves are very big and older, I only keep the leaves.

Sometimes, the bitterness is still strong. Then I would make a kim chee or salted cabbage pickle. The bitterness will still be there but it will be used as a condiment so it can be complementary to other flavors. Sweet+salty+sour+ bitter.

It helps when making a stir fry with bitter greens to add other ingredients and have less greens like onions, mushrooms, carrots, bamboo shoots.

If you saute greens in garlic and olive oil add a touch of lemon or vinegar for sourness, salt or soy sauce, and some sugar to take the edge of the bitterness.

[Gary350]

Today I am making, Grandmothers Sauerkraut. This recipe is so mild flavor I call it, cooked cabbage with a better flavor. I have made this before it is good. I am also learning to do Steam pressure canning instead of Boil pressure canning it works much better. Steam canning you only put 2" of water in the canner, water boils and steam cooks the jars. As always I only wash jars clean, I never boil sterilized the jars, you can not kill bacteria twice.

Recipe. Fill QUART jars 1/2" from top with chopped cabbage. Do not pack tight.
1 teaspoon of canning salt.
1 teaspoon of sugar.
1 teaspoon of white vinegar.
Will jars 1/2" from top with water.
Work bubbles out of the jars with a knift.
Add more cabbage & water if needed.
Put jars in canner.
Put 2" in canner.
Bring jars to a slow boil for 40 minutes then pressure cook for 40 minutes.
Turn off heat let jars cook naturally for several hours.
Wash, dry, date jar lids.

I am doing pints so I cut recipe in 1/2.

I have 1 quart jar of cabbage left over.

[Gary350]

I made a very good lunch salad with a whole pak choy plants, 1 tabasco pepper, several tomatoes, pork roast, cheddar cheese, blue cheese dressing. Pak choy is sweet flavor and very good I love the crunchy stems. I will NEVER grow lettuce again. Pak Choy is so easy to grow and excellent substitute for lettuce.

A man came and picked most of the Tabasco peppers.

Don't slice & dice Tabasco peppers inside the house they are like tear gas it will run you out of the house.

[Gary350]

I need to finish my potato row but I don't like planting potatoes when eyes are not growing sprouts. I don't want empty spaces in the row where a potato did not grow. I picked out 30 potatoes from our pile and have been soaking them in water to remove the natural enzyme that prevents potato eyes from growing. Now I see eye starting to grow tiny white color sprouts. Today I planted 15 more potatoes about 9 am this makes a total of 67 potatoes planted in this row. Winter potatoes usually grow larger and more new potatoes than hot a summer potato crop. I forgot to fertilize with 0-20-20 so we wait and see how well they do. Hot summer crop I usually get 1 lb of new potatoes per plant.

I pulled up another pac choy plant for lunch salad. Wife said you need to use up the rest of this grocery store lettuce there is only 3 bites before it goes bad. OK throw in on my salad. Cheddar cheese, red onion, pulled pork, left over rice from General Chicken from 2 days ago, & blue cheese dressing. I am loving these salads lunch & dinner every day.

[Gary350]

After lunch I found a sweet bell pepper plant with a broken limb laying on the ground, there are 3 bell peppers on the limb. Limbs are getting too heavy, I used tomato cages to hold up several limbs and hay bail twine to tie up several limbs. I can feel lots of bell peppers among the leaves but too many leaves to see many of the peppers. Then I remember a YouTube video that I saw where the man claims, if you remove the leaves that gives plants more energy to make larger bell peppers. I removed lots of leaves near the peppers so I can see when they are ripe. We lost 3 large bell peppers that I did not know were ripe they rotted & fell off. I have made it easier to see about 30 peppers.

[Gary350]

Today I tilled soil next to the shade tree to plant a potato crop March 1, 2022. I hilled up the soil then got another load of mulch and covered the potato row with 4" of mulch. March 1, when garden is mud & 2" of water all I need to do is plant 50 seed potatoes in this 27 ft row. My laser thermometer shows plant leaves are 30 degrees hotter than the air temperature in summer. 95 degree summer temperature potato plant leaves will be 125 degrees potatoes need to be in full shade at 12 noon. Potatoes are an interesting crop they do not need green plants above the soil. I don't get tired in 70 degree weather like I do in 90 degree weather.

I put the extra mulch in 3 other rows to till into the soil. Peppers like soft soil for their roots. I weeded the garlic 75 of the 95 garlic are growing. 2 volunteer cilantro plants can stay for now.

[Gary350]

Yesterday afternoon I tilled mulch into the soil & this morning my back is so sore I am almost paralyzed. I need Aspercream & Tylenol. Mulch has not aged yet it is long stringy pieces of wood that tangle on the tiller blades. I tilled each row 4 times it is still not good. I put 3 lbs of Urea on the 3 row this will help wood decompose this winter.

March 1 when it comes time to plant the last potato row I need to remember I have a potato planter I need to use it this time.

Question, if you had about 35 or 40 big green sweet bell peppers all on the same day what would you do? Our first frost in about 2 weeks away.

[imafan26]

I'm jealous. How do you get so many peppers? I can get lots of hot peppers but the bell peppers elude me. If I am lucky, and I plant a giant variety I may get 3-5 good sized peppers and that is it. There won't be anymore or they will be minis. I grow them mostly in 1 gallon pots, if they survive that I pot them up to larger pots. (Usually only the hot peppers make it to the bigger pots). I grow them in either potting soil or peat lite and they are fertilized with 6-4-6 with micros. I do have a lot of issues with bacterial spot and nematodes so that is why most of the peppers are in pots in the first place and I only have a few peppers that are not giant varieties that are resistant to bacterial spot. They produce small peppers at best. My hours of daylight are max just short of 14 hours and the minimum around 11 hours. Temperature 69-81 this year.