Chrissy,
I have known a lot of people to put salt on watermelon. I don't know if it might be a Texas thing or not. I don't like it with salt....
This message was edited Sep 14, 2007 7:10 PM
It's beginning to look like the tropics,5,wintering in!
I'm a salter, but try not to over salt things (easy to do if you don't have your glasses on). I guess you all know that adding salt to "anything" will bring out it's natural flavor. I learned that from Alton Brown (food network, for those that don't know who AB is).
Chrissy, now that you've posted a photo.... I also have seen these in the grocery store. Just didn't know what the heck to do with them, so I left them there. I'll consider trying one next time I go.... if I remember and see them. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I love roasting things with olive oil. Especially vegetables. And I'm also a big balsamic vinegar fan too.
Janet
Warning ....they will give you hundreds of fruit out of one choko...
and pretty quick too....I have read that some are very prickly...look for the ones with a smooth skin if possible .During the great depression chokos saved many from starving....it was even used as a substitute for apple in apple pie....cooked up with cinnamon and lemon juice and sugar.It makes really wonderful pickles and is a great low cal filler for soups and stews....the Indian folk go nuts over them ....my Indian in laws used them in a great many curry dishes.
If they are available go get some just place them in a polystyrene
box after you see the shoot start to come out and make a dent in the potting mix and lay the choko on it's side...it will put it's roots into the soil....you will need to overwinter it in a warmish place if you get very cold(somewhere in the house).and then next Spring go dig it out and plant....once in the garden they die down in the Winter ...and come back when it is warm. Allow somewhere it can romp away....cause it climbs over everything.....most folk tend to grow it on the back fence......chokos cost a dollar each now because they have come back into fashion at ritzy joints now....rediscovered by younger people who have never tasted one before!
A dollar each! My gosh, we used to get 4 lbs for a dollar! The times they are a changin!
Hold on a minute!!!!
Is this a fruit or a veggie????
Cook it!!!Fruit! Can you eat it in the raw state????
Sounds wonderful the way you cook it,I'd put it in with a rump roast!!!!
Sorry there are none to be found around here!!!
Hmm might try a asian store!!!
Stixs and Stones,I start about April pulling things out and planting them,but this April and the hard freeze,caused some setbacks this spring,so it was May before I got everything planted,and the ground was so cold,it took some time before things started growing.
I'll try to get some pics this weekend,I'm digging things up slowly,because the weather seems to be on the warm side into October.
Careful with all that salt,leads to high blood pressure and water retaining!!!!
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/28/1062050612273.html
A bit of info on the choko folks....hope it works...never done this before....gulp!
cloud gazing again.......Chrissy, the choko looks like a really weird face..
Great article,frying in butter sounds good to me!!!
Does it stay green when ripe?
When to you know when to pick it?
I went looking for them today when at the store but never saw any. Typical around here. You want it they don't have it.
pepper, if you have a grocery in Kansas City that caters to the ethnic groups, you will find them there.
Probably. But I am on the outer fringes and stay out of the city as much as possible. Crazy MO drivers. LOL. But I will have a friend who lives up there look for me. She loves trying new things.
Just going back to the mite discussion for a minute, have any of you tried predatory mites? I find that they work wonders in the greenhouse.
My big problem is mealy bugs. I tried the Bayer, but it doesn't work on woody plants - but it is tree and shrub??? I spoke with the pesticide expert at a greenhouse supply company, and he recommended Safari as soon as it is labeled for use in NY. (and it is expensive!!!) I have to use systemics because my tropical plants are too large and dense for spray. I've been releasing beetles and lacewing larvae to try to control the mealy bugs outside, and I'll release as again as soon as the greenhouse is loaded for the winter.
These are some of the plants in the walking garden (the plants get walked in for the summer and walked out for the winter):
Good luck trying to find and plant them ...they are terrific....just don't try pulling them out of branches of trees.....they hurt when they hit you.I am off on this fine Sunday Morning to enjoy a quiet day and will take some pics to post in my thread .....have a great time everyone and TM don't hurt yourself!
Groovin .....ooooh...on a Sunday afternoon........yehhhh....couldn't get away too soon .....ooooh......no no no.....la la la!
LOL. We think the same of you too Chrissy.
Beautiful db!!!! And looks like you also have a lot of work ahead of you! I have no choice out here...no one will ship insects (they would die in the time it takes things to get to me). So, no ladybugs, no predatory mites, no lacewing. I have a yard full of various geckos and tree lizards, and they are all fat - but they can't keep up, so its the systemics for me, alas.
Bugs killing bugs,sounds great where do I get them???
Funny thing,something flutter pass me tonite,as I was locking the door to the greenhouse,Went to check it out,guess what a praying Mantis,didn't know they flew,the usually walk a round a lot.
So thats one bug,hope he gets fat all winter long!!!
Real cool all morning,sprinkled every now and then,but know rain,didn't get any plants dug
up like I planned ,instead starting working on my banana greenhouse,hope to keep it warm enough for the bananas and a few palms,looks like it's gonna take a few weekends to get it done,hate getting old,body just gets tired to quickly anymore,up and down the ladders wore me out!!!!LOL
Looks like the weather getting warm again next week close to 90* temps !!!
Get a magnifying glass and go round up any mantis....some frogs
....anything like that ...and offer them free room and board.. and all they can eat ....a Winter holiday!
I am sure with your climate they would be only too glad....I found three tiny frogs happily sitting in my angels trumpet leaves this morning getting ready to gobble up all the little critters that come along for their Angel banquet .Frogs eat lots of bugs....the blue tongues are out in force.....they eat a lot too...do you have lizards that help you out?
Stay out of the bad weather ...although it has always been my experience that things move better in the dampish cooler weather...suffer less shock.
The lizards around here are plentiful but I don't see them very often. They have lots of hiding places. lol
We have lizards http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=3882378
They end up in the funniest places - a couple of times in the house, which is not easy to do. They like to rest inside the rolled up bamboo screens and when we let them down, they fly all over the place.
We have somehow been blessed to have geckos the last two years. so glad to have them
This message was edited Sep 17, 2007 9:39 AM
I have no idea what we have. They look like garden snakes with 4 legs. I call them garden lizards. lol
Oh Pep - watch out! If your green tree lizards are like our green tree lizards, they are mucho sick making for any Curly or Whiskers who may catch them! My Bogie ate one when we first got on island and was sick for several days! Now, any gecko or lizard that manages to get in the house gets captured and released outside as soon as we notice them. One little gecko, maybe an inch long was hanging in the middle of the ceiling for a day or so, I thought he had gotten out, but found him later under a basket, and very belly up. My boys probably tortured him for hours and wore the poor little beasti out!
Use to have horny toads ,but haven't seen any in years,,funny this morning went out to get the newspaper,gave the pond a once over,and saw my big bull frog on a rock,and a field mouse running across the water lettuces,don't know if the frog was out of the pond for he was scared of the mouse????
We had chameleons when were kids. I got kicked out of school one day because I had one on my shoulder all day and when it moved a teacher was startled. he he he
Always wanted a horned toad - my uncle was an amateur prospector and always promised he'd bring me one from the desert. I think maybe Mom put a bug in his ear about it, cuz I never got one. Don't know why - we had all manner of critters around the house when I was growing up.
Don, the horned toads used to be plentiful that no one even looked up. DDT took care of that. Now they are endangered. So sad...no way to know how many things were killed.
I saw a lizard today that was black with the yellow stripe and a blue tail!! The tail was gorgeous!!
Woah! Now that's different!
Well I hope my big bull frog ain't scaring any of the lizards off!!!!LOL
Maybe it's all those plastic snakes and big bugs scattered around the garden!!!!LOL
Pepper,did you get any of that wind today,came home from work everything was blown over
and all dried out!
aaaawwww, Don. With all that hard work. It's just not fair.
Christi,
With any luck we might get some rain.about 65 miles to the west of me,if it would just stay together long enough to get here,wind tried everything out today.
Will pray that the wind dies down and rain is soft and gentle.
Goodnight
Amen!!!
Nite!
Sending you hopeful thoughts of gentle breezes and nurturing rain!
Did you get your rain?.....we are having pretty bad winds and black outs down under.....trying to blow some water up your way TM but I don't think it will reach......I can't even imagine how you cope with all that you must do to save your babies......our winds have blown most of the blossoms off the trees (#^*#%).....it happens almost every Spring ....sometimes that works in our favour because it debuds the future crop so you get fewer but much larger fruit......however sometimes it takes it all off and you miss out that season.......I hope not .....they are warning us that the weather and the drought then flood (along with fuel increases) will cause the price of food to skyrocket this Summer.....huge shortages of everything.....most of the wheat crops have failed.......they have also just announced that our water restrictions are here to stay regardless of whatever the weather brings in future....no sprinklers and only handwatering 5 days a week....watering- can only....we get to use the hose twice a week before 10 am and after 4pm.....this means no lawn again ....and you end up losing some things if you haven't mulched like mad.....I use a large rock at the base of each fruit tree and shrub ....along with the mulch ....this helps to retain the moisture (an old bushies trick).....Do you ever have such restrictions?....our water bills are set to double too.......we have rangers who drive around checking to see that you are not using a hose......I suppose it gives someone a job....I hope the rain comes/ came your way.......blowing madly..
chrissy
Hiya Chrissy! We definately have to be sparing of water here on the island, but its not real bad this year. In Colorado we always had restrictions...and there were guys out in trucks making sure that people complied. Hope it doesn't get too bad in your area....maybe the winds will just have given you a bigger fruiting...keeping fingers crossed and good thoughts for you.
Thanks Shari don't worry ....I am grateful every day to live here....so many really bad things happening weather wise in so many places....golly I sounded so ungrateful....didn't mean to.......look at TM......and even in the tropics killer weather too sometimes.loved your article on the frangipanni Shari....and eagerly await my dear things to come into flower.....my green sapote has flowers on it...the first time ...does anyone know anything about them?....never tasted one.....pretty tree bought on impulse about 8 years ago ....first flowering causes great excitement!....don't know if it will amount to any fruit ......well we wil see.Always something to get excited about in the garden.....how did you go with your ti plant has she recovered?