Winter Vegetable Harvest

Here are a few of the things I picked yesterday.

Veggie envy here calalily. Everything looks wonderful. Especially the broccoli and the squashes. Roasted veggie time.

Oh man, Calalily. I'm getting hungry! I love all the colors. The Skittles commercial says "Taste the rainbow" but I would much rather eat the above rainbow.

Those pictures are beautiful. Im envious too.

wow I am envious you can have all of those different veggies at the same time.
Great job !

I just wanna learn HOW and WHEN!!!

If there is anything I love more then veggies, it's pretty veggies! Those are gorgeous

Enter the squash blossoms in the photo contest!

I had a reply typed, then internet connection decided to go south (wireless ATT data card, worst service I've ever had). I have more photos to upload, cucumbers, bell peppers, beets, carrots........now is prime growing season in the valley.

Photo contest? The one in the fall? I'll try to remember and enter.

Great harvest! You need to fire up the grill, Cala....baste that food with olive oil/garlic and we'll all be right over!

Shoe (eating last years frozen veggies/canned veggies and hankering for food like in your pics!)

Ubie,
How're you "putting up" your veggie harvests for the freezer?

Basically, I've been harvesting tons of broccoli. I wash it really, really well, then drop it into a pot of boiling, lightly salted water, for as long as it takes me to mash em under the water. By them, I'm fishing the stalks out, and quickly plunging them into an ice water bath. Then, I spread them out on a cookie sheet for a hot second in the fridge to chill the individual stalks so they won't stick together in the freezer bags.

That's about it. What do you do?

Pretty much the same, Linda. W/broccoli I often just gently steam it til it turns a dark green, then plunge it in ice water til cool/cold. Normally you'll find if you blanch something four minutes (for example) then leaving it in the ice water for the same amount of time will chill it perfectly, no need to lay it out and put it in your fridge to chill.

For me I get to pick broc fresh most of the fall/winter unless we get a hard freeze. If we have one coming up I'll pick it and store it in the fridge (unwashed and in bags) for nearly a week and it tastes just fine and doesn't go limp. Note, "unwashed"...wet broc goes limp fast; wash it just before you use it.

Glad you had a bumper harvest. I saw pics somewhere of your huge broc heads!

Shoe

Whats the purple veggie? Potatoes? Those pictures could be postcards or posters they are so pretty.

Calalily

You grew those in a greenhouse, right? If not, are there any homes near you with about a 1/2 acre of land for sale real cheap? I just might pack up the wife, my favorite rocking chair, the dog and my raised beds and become your neighbor if I can have that variety of vegetables at this time of year. Another requirement, there can't be any humidity.

Purple veggies are potatoes if they're round and one eggplant in the front is long.
Not grown in greenhouse.
House next door is for sale, 1.75 acres on the water. (fresh water, not the Gulf)

Shoe and Linda, I freeze my broccoli and other veggies the same way. With the cauliflower I make soup and freeze that. Bud loves my cauliflower soup and it is easy to make.

Windy today, 71 this morning, but going to be 47-50 Friday night. Crazy weather.

Calalily,
I need that cauliflower soup recipe! Please...

Linda, it is so easy. In a big pot melt one stick butter (or use olive oil if you prefer), cook one chopped onion until translucent. Add 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I prefer chicken broth), one large cut up head of cauliflower and two medium size potatoes (cut them up), 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, chopped and one teaspoon Herbs de Province. Cook 20-25 minutes, until cauliflower and potatoes are tender. Using a potato masher, mash cauliflower/potato mixture until just lumpy. Reduce heat to low, add one cup milk (or half and half) and one cup shredded cheese (I use colby-jack but other kinds work well). Cook on low for about 10 more minutes stirring often, serve hot or cold.

I use the butter and half and half when I make it. This is a wonderful soup for a cold day (well, cold to me as in below 60), but it is also great served cold for lunch on a hot day. You can make it pretty with a garnish of shredded cheese and parsley sprigs, but I don't have time for the foo-foo stuff. The orange cauliflower makes a beautiful soup, the purple variety makes pinky purple soup. I can eat blue mashed potatoes, but not purple soup!

Thanks, Susanne!

I'll be making this one soon!

I put out 9 trays of leggy-stupid, floppy seedlings yesterday, and, sure enough the wind knocked them all over. Built a windbreak, and left them out there. Hope they make it. Temps in the mid- to high-50s today, but down to 41° tonight...

If they do make it, it's gonna be one great tomato season!

Glad you asked for the recipe, Linda.
Glad you posted it, Susie! I'll give that a try. We love tater soup so this will be a nice change. (Shhh....Alex/DD doesn't care for cooked cauliflower so I'll sneak this by her and see what happens! *grin)

I'm in GG's Zone today, WINDY with big storms predicted, isolated tornadoes (isolated?), so I have plants out under the overhang of the shoffice, in the g-house protected from the winds, etc. Hope the winds are are you have to deal with today, Linda.

Shoe

No rain in sight today. Just blustery winds. Trying to harden off these OLD seedlings. When I backtracked my sowing schedule, they should've been in the ground on....Monday coming up???...

They got leggy stupid cause that RO potting soil makes em grow so fast! Darn soil steroids!

If I use that stuff again, the seedlings will be in the ground by the 8th week without fail. And, knowing what I know now, I won't start the 8-week count before the 8th week is at optimum plant out soil temps.

I have a 2nd batch of seedlings I started in a 50-50 mix of the Sunshine Seed starting mix + the Roots Organic potting soil, on February 12th. They were outta the shoot just like the 100% RO, except, this time, the temps will be at optimum for transplanting them out at the end of the 8th week.

I think I'm like you, I'd cut the RO since it seems to have such high N ingredients in it. Plus cus I'm a miser and would want to stretch it as far as I could. :>)

High temps and low light levels will contribute to legginess, too...so that might be something to monitor as well.

Later!....

This is just one of several fine specimens of the seeds I started on Jan 1st in Roots Organics. This tomato is Peron and he is Looking Good. It'll be a planting marathon weekend. Dunno why RO would cause a leggy tomato but it certainly is not my experience. Just sayin'......

gg, how has the weather been? Cloudy and overcast, wet and windy? I'm wondering if the legginess you are experiencing is more to do with light than anything else. Here in cloud-free Phoenix, my tomatoes have been sitting out in the yard, exposed to long days of full sun. Not hot and blazing, that will come later, but weak, winter sun - and lots of it. Just an idea. March 1st will be the 8-week mark for my seedlings.....which look more like small trees than seedlings actually.

I have more pics to post but it's happy hour and DH is calling.......[edited for a couple of typos]

This message was edited Feb 24, 2012 5:19 PM

MAMMA MIA !!
This is the best looking tomato plant I have ever seen.
GREAT JOB !!

Ditto! Nice looking tomato plant, Mary. Picture is suitable for framing. :>)

Shoe

GGs seedling are/were inside at that time. So it wasn't due to light at least not sunlight. Mary what size grow bag is that?

The thing with RO or products like it that already have amendments in them, is that the grower has little contol over the plant's growth rate. This is something that some of us who grow in larger amounts have been discussing. I think that's why it works so well for some and not for others. I can control my plants growth with temps and fertilizer and have actually had to hold back fertilizer and water in winters that lasted longer then expected. I have plants that were seeded Jan 3rd. most of them went to their new home on Feb 11th at 6"-8" the rest are about 2 inchs tall still in peat pellets they will get potted up this weekend and be sold on the 9 th of March.

For me it just works better to fertilize as needed by putting alittle fertilizer in the water, since I need to water anyway. But if the plants are growing too big I can hold back and regulate their growth. I think it boils down to what works best for each person's schedule. My buyer doesn't want plants that big but it is a beautiful plant, good job. Not all the plants I've seen grown in RO looked that good.

Mary what temps did you grow ur plants at, before they went outside? I found when I grew my plants at 85*, even for just a few days they started to get leggy, when I reduced the temps they looked much better.

Nice looking tomato Mary.
Linda, we had WIND, close to 50mph, it uprooted some large tomatoes I had not gotten around to staking, a large rosemary bush and blew all my squash topsy turvy. Other growers in the area said it was terrible for them also. Forty nine was the predicted low, but we were 56 at 5 am, wind is still blowing. Had a 50% chance of rain, we got about 5 drops so had to water the gardens last night.

Shoe, I have a friend who does not like cauliflower at all. She loved the soup. Bud doesn't like cooked cauliflower, but loved the soup. Now I need to find a recipe for cabbage. The rain made about a dozen heads split and I can only eat so much cole slaw, stir fry cabbage and vegetable soup! I don't have a big crock to make kraut.

I am so jealous of all you southerners with long growing seasons!

Susie, they are such beautiful veggies I can taste them from the photos.

Marcia

Cabbage freezes well...

Sauté a large chopped onion in some oil.
Clean and rough chop ur cabbage into medium to large sections (remove the thick rib running thru the middle)

Back home in Louisiana, we use seasoning ham or "pickle meat," a cut of brined pork butt - can't get it here, so you can either boil the salt out of some salt pork or use some spicy sausage, or smoked turkey necks.

Whatever you choose, chunk up ur meat, and toss it in when you sauté the onions.

Then pile the chopped cabbage on top, sprinkle in ur seasonings, and pour in about 3/4 cup water. The water is to keep everything from sticking, until the cabbage releases it's water. Some people add about 1 tsp. Of sugar to "sweeten" the cabbage, but use ur tastebuds.

Cook on a low to medium fire, stirring frequently to avoid sticking. The cabbage will begin to release it's liquid and should begin browning. Cook to "Al dente" which for me means as soft as you like it, without mushing it up.

Serve over a bed of steamed white rice, with some candied sweet potatoes and fried chicken or a nice pork chop. Set the Louisiana Red Hot Sauce on the table.

Eat ur fill, and freeze the rest.

Linda

1lisa, To answer your question about temperture, I don't have a mechanism to measure the heating mat, they were all sprouted on a mat under a 'shop' light in my back bedroom. I'm guessing the room stayed 70° or so. Once sprouted, the dome came off and the ceiling fan was on, lights and fan 24/7.

They were moved outside around the 3rd week of Jan (I think, did not keep a strict diary). They were on a shady patio all day, back in at night. When temps stayed consistently above 45° overnight, they stayed outside 24/7. I have 2 red wagons (the ones kids use) and a large wheeled garden cart. These carts were loaded up with as many flats as they could handle so I could schlepp the plants into first dappled shade under a mesquite tree during most of the day, back to the patio, then into weak sun, then stronger sun, always wheeled back to snug up next to the house at night. If temps were projected below 45° overnight, I covered all the flats with old sheets. The last two weeks have been very mild with 50° overnight temps. I'm still bringing mine, which are all I have left, everything else has gone to their 'forever homes' ;-) up to the patio at night. Well, actually last night they stayed out under the mesquite tree because I'm planning to plant today and no more babying on the patio.

We had some very windy days (not like Calaliy) and I was not home to move them around and worried all the time I was away that they would be okay. I think that has contributed to those nice, thick stems.

I'm not a huge market grower. This was the first time I grew this many (188 sprouted) but do have an idea that it could be fun to supplement my 'real job' with some extra money growing for others. That will fund my hobby and give me some pocket change as well. I realize that your situation, and many on this board, is much different and RO may not be the right medium for all. It works well for me and the set up I have here.

The bags are half gallon - too big for resale because of the amount of soil it takes to fill one. I'm looking for one quart size. Found them on-line but the shipping is twice the cost of the product and my hydro store doesn't stock the quart size. I'm looking around at other hydro stores, we have millions of those stores since Arizona recently passed the legal marijuana law.

Thanks to all for the compliments, it's been a fun project. Here's a couple more pics before they go in the ground today...and a fun pic of the hummer out my kitchen window. Someone recently gave me the tulip plant (Valentines Day gift from a client).

Linda, that cabbage sounds yummy. Here's a favorite of ours........I'm OT here but it's Cala's thread and she's overwhelmed with cabbage so....It's from Moosewood.

Oh wow, that solyanka sounds amazing, just wrote it down!
I can second Linda's recipe too, My mother makes it that way, she'll be the first to tell you she can't cook and it's true, but she gets the cabbage 'just right' every time. lol

Those are some lovely mater plants and sweet hummingbird :0)

Ditto on freezing some of that cabbage, Cala. And Linda's recipe is right down my ally, my tastebuds are commenting on it! :>)

Mystic submitted a "Freezer slaw" in the DG Cookbook if I remember correctly, too. You might want to check it out. If you can freeze some you can choose to eat it when you want, not when you have so much cabbage to get rid of.

Mary ("1lisa, To answer your question about temperture, I don't have a mechanism to measure the heating mat, they were all sprouted on a mat under a 'shop' light in my back bedroom.") You don't need to measure the heat mat, you just measure the soil temperature your plants are in. You can use a probe thermometer for that. I use a digital cooking thermometer, same one I use for checking meats. (And yes, I wash it in between uses! *grin)

Your plants are looking good! Hope you got them in the ground today. It'll be weeks before I get to enjoy that success here.

Shoe

Thanks Shoe....I turned and watered the beds, the pH is pinging at about 6.8 all around the yard. One of the raised beds has Azomite, one not - it's an experiment.

The temps right now are in the low 80's and I'm reluctant to transplant when it's so hot. There's a storm headed in which will bring temps back down to 60's daytime and next Wed is 39° overnight....crikey, weather.....I'm thinking to wait till this storm cell passes. Unless we get the hoops in place. Projects, projects....

Edited to add: I was telling DH that he needed to screw in some lug nuts to the side-boards of the raised bed. Lug nuts? he says.....okay, lag bolts. Whatever.... ;-)

This message was edited Feb 25, 2012 7:34 PM

Wow...yes, you have some crazy weather going on out there. You impress me with your Arizona gardening. You sure are off to a great start.

Grinin'...lug nuts. Lag bolts. I have no doubt you two understand each other! :>)

shoe

Id be more reluctant to plant out in the cold then the heat, we all have our ways that work. : )

Shoe, Growing a tomato in Phoenix is certainly a challenge - but I'm a persistent woman! Lisa, today the high/low is 79/39, tomorrow 61/39..it seems we have both hot and cold in the same flippin' day! I'll probably plant out late today, once the shade hits the beds. Which is around 4pm these days. The plants have been acclimated.

Mary, are you sure you are not in TX? I didnt realize that Phoenix had those crazy temps too. You plant out your tomatoes when they are that size?

Lisa, if the conditions had been right, I would have planted them sooner. I think they are MORE THAN ready to go in the ground. I checked soil temp in the raised beds this morning and they are down to 50°. I put the black tarps back on. I'll plant all the contaier ones I have and wait one more weekend to do the raised beds. Another factor is a class on watering systems/drip/etc I'm attending on Tuesday night. I expect to learn something that will improve the way I have the drip in the raised beds laid out, meantime soil temp will come up. Next weekend for sure on the raised beds.....she said with great meaning. ;-)

45mph wind gusts today, sustained winds of about 25mph. I'm glad my toms are still portable and not in the beds. Jeez, being a farmer is tough.

Dratted winds anyway!!! We have been having a windstorm once a week for the past 2 weeks, and now the weather says it will be back again Wednesday- Ours have been up tp 50 with 60 mph gusts. Every time I fear my greenhouse will blow away. When will it stop!