Chinese Proverb

My girlfriend’s parents are in town from Hong Kong for a visit.  Her father is interested in gardening and cooking so we brought him up to my house to check out the garden.

As he helped me harvest tomatoes, I came across one that was severely damaged on one side.  The skin was broken and that half was starting to rot.  I hurled it over to the compost.

Later my GF explained that her father asked why I threw away the tomato.  She said it was because I’m American and therefore wasteful.  I told her the tomato was half rotten, I didn’t understand how that made me wasteful, she said her father said the tomato was half fine and didn’t know why I wouldn’t have just thrown away the rotten half.

Point taken!  As frugal as I think I am and as frugal as others in my peer group think I am, I’m really still a product of American super-market culture.  Don’t get me wrong, I know how lucky I am to have been born with that luxury, and I’m not complaining.  This was just an “ah-ha!” moment for me.

Foraging

Here’s a great site for those of you interested in foraging for wild food here in the Houston area:

http://houstonwildedibles.blogspot.com/

After reading this site I was delighted to find that one of the “weeds” in my yard was elderberry!

Dinner 1870s Style

Hopefully the third try at blogging will be the charm here.  I’ve been reinvigorated by a busy week answering gardening questions for friends, and then the dinner I whipped together tonight….

It’s been a banner year for my tomatoes.  I think the hard freezes this past winter but a big dent in the insect population.  It also helped that the weather this spring has been fairly cooperative.  It got warm but not too hot pretty quickly, and was not too rainy and not too dry either.  These are the tomatoes I got off of just one plant on Sunday:

When the tomatoes are ripe, I like nothing better than a BLT on toast.  I didn’t have any lettuce tonight, but I baked a loaf of bread, whipped up some home-made mayo, and fried up some bacon from the hog my friend raised for me last fall.  Washed it all down with a dark ale home brew.  It would have been difficult to get more “home made” than this!

Salad Update

5 week update on the lettuce, mesculn mix, and beets I started from seed:

I also applied a third dose of fish emulsion today.  Last one was about 3 weeks ago, first was with initial planting.  

The kale has not fared well.  I had it in peat pots outside since the weather was so nice.  Looks like a squirrel got into it and ripped them to shreds.  I’ll probably give it another crack next weekend.

Picked up some chard at Wabash yesterday.  It looked so colorful, I couldn’t pass it up.  Plus I really like chard, it’s like a sweeter spinach.  Anyway, planted that today as well:

One thing that may be obvious from the pictures of the lettuce and mesculn is that I’m experimenting with denser plantings and less mulching.  Not sure how that will work especially since this is the height of weed season.

Another Idea for Stale Bread

I wrote previously about making croutons, but this morning reminded me of another use for stale bread, French Toast.  The French call it Pain Perdu which means lost bread.

To make, crack a couple eggs into a bowl.  Mix with about a cup of milk and about 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Dredge your stale bread slices through the mix and cook on a hot griddle.

I only had buttermilk in the house this morning, and it worked well with the French Toast.  Added a little tang to it.

Winter Planting

The hurricane and a couple personal issues forced me to put this project as well as most of the garden on hiatus for the fall.  The cherry tomatoes (actually grape tomatoes) did fantastic in the container.  Been harvesting batches for 6 weeks now.  The bone meal seemed to do the trick.  The cucumbers I planted a week or so later didn’t fare as well.  I got one nice big cucumber off two plants.  As I mentioned though the garden was greatly neglected this fall.

Since it was about 85 degrees out today, I was in the mood to try a winter planting.  In bed number one I planted a Mesclun mix.  The seed packet was pretty old, so I’m not expecting much.  I finished the other half of the bed with red leaf lettuce seeds.

In bed number two I planted half beets and and left the other half ready for kale which I’m starting indoors.

I was running quite low on compost so I added some peat moss left over from my failed blueberry experiment to get some more organic material in there.  I instantly regretted adding as much as I did as the bed turned that peaty orange color.  Oh well…

Cutting Back Tomato Plant…Redux

After consulting a horticulturalist, I’ve decided to abort my experiment in cutting back the tomato plants.  Seems while you can cut them back for a second season here in Houston, the production will diminish and the plant will be weaker inviting more pests now and in the future.

I pulled out the tomatoes and the peppers (which never did anything for me this year), and planted some bush bean seeds.  Seemed the logical thing to do to fix the nitrogen and because this is the time of year to plant bush beans!!  I also started a cherry tomato in a large container on my deck.  More info on these project will be forthcoming.

More Eggplant

Picture from 7/27:

Harvested on 8/2 (ate on 8/3, yum):

The eggplant is in full swing now.  There’s another one ready to be harvested this week and one probably a week away.  That’s a total of 4 so far this year.  I’m optimistic that one of the other flowers is about to form a fruit too.

Recycle Food – Special Double Feature!

Here’s a couple ideas for recycling your food.  It’s thrifty and tastes great!

Yogurt

Whenever I buy milk, I always buy a little more than I need.  After having it open in the fridge for about 8 days, I’ll turn it into home-made yogurt.  Not only does it taste better than anything store bought, but it doubles the life of your milk.

How to make yogurt:

Slowly heat your milk up to about 180 degrees F.  A candy thermometer helps through the process.  Stir frequently and don’t let it scald or form a skin.

Once you’ve heated up your milk (essentially pasteurizing it), let it cool to somewhere between 120 and 115 degrees.  Or cool enough that you can hold a finger in it for 3 seconds, but don’t let it get too cool!

Poor your warm milk into an air tight container and mix in a few tablespoons of starter.  Your starter could be a store bought container with live active cultures or you could start with some of your last batch.  Make sure the starter is about room temperature before adding it to the warm milk though.

Seal your container and cover it with a towel or blanket to keep it warm.  I stick it in a cooler box too to help insulate.  Leave it undisturbed for 10-12 hours.  Presto chango, yogurt!

If you don’t like the taste of plain yogurt mix in some honey, maple syrup, blueberries, peaches, or strawberries.  Any clear liquid on the top is whey which you could either pour off or mix in.

Croutons

Have some stale home made bread?  Cut it into small squares and fry in a little olive oil.  Add some ground black pepper, parsley flakes, and a little powdered garlic to make croutons.  Best served warm.

Planning the Fall Vegetable Garden

Urban Harvest will have two classes coming up on planning the fall vegetable garden:

http://www.urbanharvest.org/classesevents/calendar/fallveggarden.html

I understand the class on 7/26 is full but there are still openings for 8/2.  Bob Randall, who is probably the leading expert on permaculture in the Houston area, will be teaching the class.