What are you eating from your garden?

[applestar]

Sounds like you’re eating a super healthy salad!

Don’t you think the flowers smell like honey just as you eat them?

[Gary350]

Sounds like you’re eating a super healthy salad!

Don’t you think the flowers smell like honey just as you eat them?

I will check that out tomorrow. I never thought about smelling the flowers.

[digitS']

Gary, remember when we spelled Beijing, "Peking?"

Written English and English-speakers have trouble with Chinese pronunciation. And, with the pronunciation of many, many different languages. Fact is, dialects in English are not well defined in our common, written language.

Bok Choy and Pak Choi may be sorted out and standardized at some time so that there is an "accepted" spelling. Personally, I'm not happy that Gai Lan seems to be used more and more often when I was happy with the name Guy Lon. As a teenager, I knew a kid named Lon. Nice guy, I wonder what happened to him ...

Steve

[Gary350]

Today, Pak Choy Taco Salad. I picked about 40 Pak Choy flower tops with leaves, 2 scoops of broken taco shells, 2 scoops of taco seasoned meat with, spices, onions, beans. 3 squirts of salsa, 2 scoops of cheese.

[imafan26]

That would be the stage to pick gai lan or Chinese broccoli, just as the flowers are budding up. Bok choy and pak choy are different here. Bok choy is green stemmed and pak choy or pe chai has a white stem. The flavor is a little different. Any choi is a cabbage. In the mainland both are called Bok Choy. Shanghai bok choy or gai choy are green stemmed, pe chai and pak choy are white stemmed. There used to be only the large version, but now there are mini versions of both. Anglicized spelling has many forms. Napa cabbage is called Won Bok here. In the markets, the names used could be different depending on who the customers are. ong Choi (Chinese water spinach) is labeled as Kang kong in Filipino markets. Won bok is rarely labeled as Napa Cabbage here. When people cook they will be particular about using white stem vs green stem bok choy because the flavors are different and they usually don't interchange them. They are in season at the same time, so there would not usually be a reason to substitute. Gai lan may be substituted for choy sum or Yu choy sum, because choy sum has a shorter season. Choy sum is sweeter and more tender than gai lan.
https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/chin ... d%20manure.
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-ingre ... fy-greens/

I stir fried the Tokyo Bekana this morning with garlic, oil, onion, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. I had it with Bul Go Gi. A little too much at one time. I am paying for it now. It was good. However, not a good idea to cook down 7 cups of mustard greens and eat it all in one meal.

[Gary350]

Yesterday we had real stir fry for dinner with real chicken & onions it was very good. Today we have frozen heat & eat stir fry it was not very good. Garden broccoli is very good. Wife wants cooked broccoli, I like broccoli not cooked.

[Gary350]

Lunch, chicken sandwich with, 6 romaine lettuce leaves & 6 Pac choy leaves. I need to eat like this for every meal while supply lasts.

[imafan26]

Today, I picked 309 g of bush beans, but made bacon with snow peas and garlic today. I had the peas in the frig awhile and they needed to be used first.

[Gary350]

Lunch, 2 slices of sourdough bread, 8 Pac Choy leaves, 8 Romaine lettuce leaves, big scoop of chicken salad. Yummy.

[imafan26]

I never thought to use pak choy for lettuce. I have always stir fried it. It sounds like a good idea especially for the baby boks.

[imafan26]

I steamed the beans I picked yesterday and melted some butter. Simple and delicious with my hamburger patty and mushroom and onions.

[Gary350]

Dinner, hamburger with 8 pac choy leaves & 8 romaine lettuce leaves, slice of onion, cheese, musturd, mayo and baked beans..

[PaulF]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

[Gary350]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

[applestar]

I harvested almost 2 loosely filled gallons of brassica side shoots and florets, tender leaves etc. (broccoli, napa cabbage, cabbage) on Tuesday, and added them to a whole chicken soup this morning.

After separating into tender shoots/leaves vs. fibrous and tougher stems, pressure cooked the stems in water that potatoes and sweet potatoes had been steamed over, then vitamixed and then strained out all the fibrous bits, then reserving, pressure cooked and picked out the rib and back bones, neck bones, wing tips, added cut up meat that had been seasoned and marinating in gin, and onion/garlic, plus the potatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, etc. and the tender florets and leaves. Dried oregano from last year and recently picked purple dead nettle.

[PaulF]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

Our rhubarb was grown from small plants about fifteen years ago. We started with six or eight starts and they have produced a huge quantity ever since. They have never been thinned and just keep doing very well. Just lucky I guess.

[Gary350]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

Our rhubarb was grown from small plants about fifteen years ago. We started with six or eight starts and they have produced a huge quantity ever since. They have never been thinned and just keep doing very well. Just lucky I guess.

If you grow Rhubarb is the sun they have malic acid & oxalic acid. If your grow potatoes in the sun they turn green and you can't eat them. If you grow Rhubarb in the dark for about 3 months about March to May there is no malic acid or oxalic acid.

[PaulF]

Wow! Talk about learning something new every day. Some of the plants are small enough I can give it a try. Always up for something new (to me.) Thanks.

[Gary350]

Wow! Talk about learning something new every day. Some of the plants are small enough I can give it a try. Always up for something new (to me.) Thanks.

Forcing Rhubarb is very popular in England. I don't know anyone in USA that does this. I tried it with 30 gallon trash cans wind kept blowing the trash cans away. 1x2 boards did not block out all the UV light. Buy a 2x8 board 10 ft long cut 1 piece for a top end, then cut the rest of the board in 4 equal pieces to build a tall square tube. I learned thinner boards block visible light but not ultraviolet light. I tried to buy 30" tall clay forcing pots several years ago I could not find any in USA. I bought a bag of cement to make my own 30" forcing pots but my Rhubarb plants all died TN is too hot and dry for Rhubarb. I have an idea that Rhubarb might grow good in TN if I plant them so plants never get full sun, bright shade might work here June to Feb., then total darkness March to May.

My grandmother was from Sweden she knew about Forcing Rhubarb she tried to explain it to me when I was about 8 or 10 years old but I did not understand it.

[Gary350]

Tacos for dinner with lots of Cilantro.

Our Cilantro is 3 ft tall we had 87° weather a week ago now its starting to bolt, we need to eat as much as we can before its gone. We have been eating Cilantro for about 2 months, it does not save well in the freezer it looses it flavor.

[digitS']

We also had our first meal with Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis . It is the first veggie out of the hoop house. Some lettuce will be ready soon.

The rhubarb could be harvested and, it's about time for a cobbler. A couple of flowers were taken off.

Steve

[Gary350]

Chicken & Hams sandwich on sour dough bread with a whole Romaine Lettuce plant on it.

[PaulF]

Asparagus and rhubarb made into a strawberry rhubarb crumble.

[imafan26]

Eggplant, peppers, Tokyo Bekana, komatsuna, tomatoes, green onions. citrus fruit (lemons, calamondin), sweet potato leaves, cucumber, thyme, and mint.

What I am not eating are the habanero. They are just falling down.

I picked all the red tomatoes yesterday because of the forecast rain. The tomatoes don't taste good when they get waterlogged. So, I have a few more left to eat as well as a couple of cucumbers I picked but haven't got to yet.

[applestar]

Harvested a bunch of lettuce from the Marveille de Quatre Saisons that is being grown cut-and-come-again style under one of the VGC low tunnels.

Also harvested tender tips from the mugwort growing in a planter box on the patio.


Traditionally the tender spring tip sprigs are used to make green “kusa” or “yomogi” mochi.

I made some shiro an (white an or sweet bean jam) with navy beans for this. An is more typically made with adzuki but I ran out. This turned out to be surprisingly delicious. I might need to grow some, but is there seed source for navy beans? Is that a generic name?

2:1 combination of mochi rice (short grain sweet/glutinous rice) and mochi mugi (pearled glutinous barley). Used the Vitamix.

White potato starch used to dust, and added a dehydrated cherry leaf for each mochi to sit on. (I found out a bird planted, volunteer cherry has the most fragrant leaves with scent that is closest to what I remember as mochi liner leaf.)

*Note — Don’t worry about the mugwort not looking fuzzy enough. Those sprigs had been washed pretty aggressively since there were ants (and bugs) on them.

[imafan26]

Tomatoes. I picked them on Friday before the rain came. I had some with breakfast.

[Gary350]

Harvested a bunch of lettuce from the Marveille de Quatre Saisons that is being grown cut-and-come-again style under one of the VGC low tunnels.

Also harvested tender tips from the mugwort growing in a planter box on the patio.

Traditionally the tender spring tip sprigs are used to make green “kusa” or “yomogi” mochi.

I made some shiro an (white an or sweet bean jam) with navy beans for this. An is more typically made with adzuki but I ran out. This turned out to be surprisingly delicious. I might need to grow some, but is there seed source for navy beans? Is that a generic name?

2:1 combination of mochi rice (short grain sweet/glutinous rice) and mochi mugi (pearled glutinous barley). Used the Vitamix.

White potato starch used to dust, and added a dehydrated cherry leaf for each mochi to sit on. (I found out a bird planted, volunteer cherry has the most fragrant leaves with scent that is closest to what I remember as mochi liner leaf.)

*Note — Don’t worry about the mugwort not looking fuzzy enough. Those sprigs had been washed pretty aggressively since there were ants (and bugs) on them.

How do you make navy bean Jam? Dry grocery store navy beans are 99¢ for a 1 lb. bag, wife makes soup with them. I make BBQ baked beans with navy beans. 35 years ago I planted grocery store navy beans and they grew.

[applestar]

Soak and cook with 3-4 times water. First time you only cook for about 30 minutes, then pour all the cooking water off and add fresh water. Cook until soft enough to mash. (hold a bean between thumb and forefinger and see if you can squish it. Test several from different parts of the pot.

Note that navy beans don’t soften completely and fall apart like adzuki.

Pour off excess water until beans are barely covered, but reserve the water. Use a blender, food processor, or stick blender (my choice) to mash almost smooth (flat type potato masher can work but won’t break up the bean skin as much — this is also OK … just depends on desired texture), adding more reserved cooking water to moisten if needed for machine blending.

Return to pot. Add sugar (I use about 1/2 to 3/4 by weight to weight of dry beans, but typical recipe uses more) and salt (about 1/2 tsp for 1cup dry beans). I just add sugar and salt to taste.

Heat to slow bubbling stirring constantly with silicone spatula to scrape constantly. You want the mixture to thicken so that scraped pot bottom doesn’t fill back up right away, and the the sugar has cooked enough that it starts to look translucent and surface of the jam becomes shiny/glossy.

I normally only use unrefined cane sugar, but used allulose sugar substituted for half the sugar because I wanted whiter sugar for this. But when making adzuki bean jam, I substitute half the sugar with brown sugar or date sugar.

For more refined taste, you are supposed to pour off the cooking water completely two times. I don’t bother. I also save the poured off water and use to fertilize in the garden as soil drench or diluted in foliar spray.

The bean jam (an or anko) is not just for mochi and rice-based desserts - it’s also good on bread slices, piped in soft rolls or donuts, or on plain sliced bread rolled up, pancakes, etc. It’s also a popular ice cream flavor and good mixed into vanilla ice cream.

[imafan26]

Tomatoes, cucumber, green onions, eggplant.

[digitS']

Just about to have lettuce and bok choy ready in the open garden. Meanwhile ...

We have so much of that plus other Asian vegetables from the temporary hoop house that we can barely keep up. (Truth be known, we can't .) That protection withstood what the nearby airport recorded as a 69mph wind gust, yesterday. It's still windy & rather chaotic in those 180 sqft ... someone can do the metrics . Meanwhile ...

We had the thermometer dropping back below 40⁰f (4⁰C). Apparently, that will be true the next 2 mornings with Monday being the coldest. I have the hose and sprinklers set out to mitigate the cold with 55f (13C) water. Since I have already transplanted some of the tomatoes and cucumbers, I plan on doing that well before freezing. Meanwhile ... There's stir-fry for lunch .

Steve

[Gary350]

Today I am having strawberries with chocolate ice cream. Yesterday it was strawberries with vanilla ice cream. We have so many strawberries we have to invent ways to eat them. Strawberries over, lemon cake, or cinnamon cake, or chocolate cake, or a donut. Chips and strawberry dip. Strawberries and peas. Strawberries & cooked carrots. Bowl of just strawberries. Wife said she is tired of strawberries already. I'm NOT adding sugar berries are plenty sweet. Strawberries sandwich was good. Strawberries rolled up inside several lettuce leaves was good. Puree strawberries in mask potatoes it makes RED mash potatoes. Strawberries with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top, or chocolate syrup, or cake sprinkles, or whip cream.

[applestar]

My “go to” when I have extra fruits but not enough to want to make preserves are
1) smoothies — fruits, yogurt, juice or milk … some vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, celery, carrots, etc. + ice (or not)
2) baked goods — pancakes, muffins, cobblers, pies … soft fruits like strawberries also makes good no-bake pies


…my strawberries just started coming in on ones and twos— lots of green ones out there

We’re currently eating leaf celery, carrot tops, and beet greens, and occasional lettuce, herbs like mints — apple mint, chocolate mint, citrus mint, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, and oregano.

THIS is the time in my garden to harvest the pristine mint family sprigs while they are still unbothered by the four lines plant bugs (oregano is already starting to deteriorate)

…Have been harvesting mugwort and processing — tender tips are parboiled and then squeezed out to chop up and then dry for tea or powdering to add to mochi, more mature leaves are being oil extracted and more will be processed with alcohol for tincture. I can start some now with 90% rubbing alcohol for external use, but need to get high proof/% liquor for edible use.

I’d like to get some Greek Oregano as well as rosemary tinctures started too….

[imafan26]

Around here bok choy is different from pak choy. Pak choy or Pechay; ususally refers to white stem cabbage. Bok choy is usually green stemmed cabbage and Napa cabbage is called won bok. Kai choy is mustard cabbage and gai lan is Chinese broccoli, choi sum is a vegetable that usually is harvested just as the flowers are coming out.

I have komatsuna which is also a mustard, but does not have the strong mustard flavor like kai choy. It can be used as a spinach substitute. I can grow it until June before it gets too hot for it. I may still be able to grow some baby bok for a little while longer. Otherwise it is a cool season crop.

[imafan26]

I went to the Master Gardener Graduation and potluck today. I made soba with wakame salad and I kept the toppings separate, kamabuko and Valentine tomatoes from my garden. I had over a pint of tomatoes. I ended up coming home with more than what I brought. I still had 3/4 of the tomatoes, half the salad and most of the kamabuko and I ended up with eggplant, karaage chicken, and mac salad. I am full from the chocolate malasada and lunch, so I am only drinking colored water for the rest of the day. I still have lettuce that needs to be harvested. It is slightly bitter because of the heat, Caesar salad and a Costco rotisserie chicken, and 3 boiled eggs to eat. It is gonna take me a while to get through this. I did give some of the inner chicken breast to the cats. They cleaned that up in less than 10 minutes. They will help eat more of the chicken breast. I cannot give them the outer meat and skin because of the seasoning. I'll make some lettuce wraps with boiled eggs and bacon to use up some of the lettuce.

[Gary350]

Wife saw a strawberry cake at the store she said, I can make that and it won't cost that price and it will taste much better with our free home grown ripe strawberries. She bought a $1.25 yellow cake mix then baked a 1" thick cake. She made real whip cream. I picked another gallon of ripe berries, wife sliced strawberries, and also made some puree strawberry sauce. NO factory made sugar is added. After trying to make this with large strawberry slices wife decided next time to chop berries into much smaller pieces then stir them into the whip cream. After topping the cake with the whip cream & strawberries, cut the cake in 1/2 then set 1 half on top of the other half. It sounds much easier than it is. Then cut each serving of cake then drizzle strawberry puree over the top. I think it will work best to make a single layer cake not a 2 layer cake.

WOW this is so good. We ate this about 1 hour before dinner. Now we are trying to decide if we should eat the rest of the strawberry cake now or after dinner. LOL.

[applestar]

Looks delicious!

[imafan26]

Yummy

[Gary350]

More Strawberry cake. Single layer this time with all the chopped berries mixed into the whip cream.

[Gary350]

Ham, fries, leeks. bake beans, made a very good breakfast. This morning I sliced a golf ball size purple potato into French fries. I did the same to a russet potatoes. I sliced a Leek. I deep fried, potatoes, leek, and ham crispy brown. Purple potatoes taste no different than Russet. Purple potatoes are easier to grow than russet. Leeks are very good cooked & raw they have a very mild onion flavor. I ate about 1/2 of my potatoes & ham before I remembered to take a picture.

[digitS']

We start off the kitchen garden season with chives and scrambled eggs. This morning, it was scallions and cilantro in the scrambled eggs. The onions were started from seed in January and all are growing nicely. There's plenty of cilantro under the hoop house and our enjoyment of lettuce and Asian greens has migrated to the outdoor beds where it looks like the bok choy will soon bolt. That's okay, I think that we may enjoy the flowering stalks even more than the leaves.

That hoop house had probably come down today. We have apparently and fortunately dodged the extreme heat from the Southwest that was forecast earlier to drift up this way. It was 84°f (29°C) yesterday afternoon, which wasn't so bad ... There are plenty of veggies in the 2 beds currently under the plastic but they shouldn't need that protection or the HEAT. Even more bok choy starts to set out .

Steve