in the dirt

2012-02-29

2011-10-14

Link Sharing - Planting Heirloom Garlic

This is what I am planning on doing this weekend!

growingwithplants.com - planting-heirloom-garlic

-Ms Derr

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. - Robert Louis Stevenson

2011-10-10

Dog & Yard Sitting and Winter Prep

Dog sitting in NoPo cuties: Penny& Julio - they are so adorable!

The house down the street caught fire on Saturday at 3am Shawn's car under the police tape. Luckily no one was in the house at the time.

Yard sitting in the Moreland hood

Purple pepper is really pretty!

Fish pepper not ripe yet :(

Cloche full of peppers trying to stay warm

Plot work - removing tomatoes and prepping for the winter

Sidewalk garden - Cleaning up and putting to bed.

Chard and Marigolds above.

Sunflowers and Brusell Sprouts Below.

While biking around North PDX and found train full of tanks?

-- Ms.Derr

2011-09-30

Canning for 2012?

2012 - The end of the world! According to the Mayan calendar at least so I am prepping so when the end of the world comes I will at least have some canned goodness.

Canning Peaches:

Whole Peaches in Honey

Whole Peaches with Black Pepper and Brown Sugar

Ginger Peach Preserves

Ginger Brandied Peach Jam

Pluot Jam

A Delicious fruit that is a cross between a Plum and an Apricot

Beautiful Red Jam

Tomatoes

Chunky 5 Ingredient Salsa

Summer Jelly: Tomato and Basil and Pepper

Whole Tomatoes

7 Headed Garlic Tomato Sauce

Very Berry Pepper Jelly

Not real spicy mostly sweet.

That is at least part one of my canning adventures in September. I will post more pictures soon!
-- Ms.Derr

2011-09-01

Sidewalk Tomato Thieves Again....

I try to be nice - but I am a little ticked off at the moment!

2011-08-19

Bean Helda Romano Pole
Sidewalk Pentagon
This bean is awesome! They grew at least 8 feet tall on a small bamboo tepee in the pentagon and I think I should have planted 10 times the number of plants. I ended up eating them as fresh green beans and they were superb! I didn't wait for any of them to mature into a shelling bean - oops.

Nichols Garden Nursery: Open Pollinated. 70 days.
Often referred to as the "Italian Gourmet Bean". Twice the yields of other Romano varieties. 6' vines are loaded with 6"-10", flat-podded, tender green beans with a unique rich flavor. Good fresh, for green-shelling and canning. Superb for freezing. Brown seed.

Oregon Giant Bean - Pole Snap Sidewalk Neighbor-bed

I planted these in the neighbor bed to accompany the squash that I have there. I has taken over the support that I had for it and I had to rig up something else kind of quickly (so it doesn't look the best). I am waiting to taste this bean, it is going to be my shelling bean for the year and hopefully I will be able to dry a bunch to save.

Adaptive Seeds: NEW for 2011. This is the bean that introduced us to dual purpose beans. One of the best snap beans we have ever eaten. We like to cook them when they are big and still juicy, although at that point they have strings like an old traditional string bean. They are also tasty when smaller and stringless, but have a much milder flavor. You can use them as (huge) fresh shelling beans and for dry beans. Their pods shed off a fair amount of rain when drying down and the plants tolerate shade and cold wet weather very well. Most famous for being an Oregon heritage bean popular since the 1930's and it appeared to be lost recently. Our “genuine” strain comes from a local seed saver in Foster, Oregon who has been saving them for over 20 years.

Scarlet Runner Beans or Oregon Lima Bean
Plot A-frame
This plant came from the Portland Community Garden as a seed saver via my gardening buddy K. It has started growing up my A-frame at the plot. love, love, love the flowers and how it just climbs it's little heart out.

Wikipedia: Phaseolus coccineus, the runner bean or scarlet runner bean since most varieties have red flowers and multicolored seeds.

It differs from the common bean in several respects: the cotyledons stay in the ground during germination, and the plant is a perennial vine with tuberous roots (though it is usually treated as an annual). This species originated from the mountains of Central America.

The green pods are edible whole but in some varieties (the scarlet runner) tend to become fibrous early, and only the seeds within are eaten. The seeds can be used fresh or as dried beans. The starchy roots are still eaten by Central American Indians. In the UK, the flowers are often ignored, or treated as an attractive bonus to cultivating the plant for the beans, whereas in the US the scarlet runner is widely grown for its attractive flowers by people who would never think of eating it.

FYI: Runner beans contain traces of the poisonous lectin, Phytohaemagglutinin, found in common beans and hence must be thoroughly cooked before consumption

Dragon's Lingerie Tongue Bush Snap Bean
Sidewalk Pentagon and Pot
I grew this bean last year with mixed results. I think this year is the same. I am not quite sure if this bean really fits the bill. It is tasty but the plant is very low growing and doesn't produce very many pods per plant but it seems to have done better in pots than in the Pentagon. I love the color and it is tasty but maybe need a better placement - more pots perhaps.

The Dragon Tongue bean is a dual purpose bean, qualifying as a fresh pod bean as well as a dried legume. The bean has a warm cream color with vivid violet variegations throughout its stringless pod. Its shape is broad and the bean measures to an average of six inches in length. The pods are crisp and succulent. The entire bean can be eaten raw or cooked. When cooked, the bean looses its variegated colors.

That is a brief analysis of the beans that I had this year. I will probably be adding to this list next year or editing this a little as I go forward.

Resources:
nichols garden nursery.com
Adaptive Seeds.com - Oregon Giant Beans
wikipedia.org - Phaseolus_coccineus (Scarlet Runner Bean)
specialty produce.com - Dragon_Tongue_Beans_

-- Ms.Derr

Potato Tire Harvest

Harvested 3.5lbs of huge Yukon Golds from the potato-tire (2 tall) at the sidewalk garden.

Yukon Gold Potato description:
- early season (70-90 days)
-good keeper
-good yields
-originally bred in Canada
-not drought tolerant

Potato Tire Experiment:
Found 2 tires placed on top of each other
Layers of straw/ compost/ dirt
Cardboard under tires

Thoughts on plant:
-good sized tubers
-looks really nice
-not very many tubers per plant
-early season (my other varieties are still flowering)
-taste TBD

Thoughts on Potato Tire:
-very easy clean up
-think it kept it warmer than in ground soil
-easy to harvest
-portable (moving it to the plot)
-dried out fast - especially placement from hose/ variety
-stayed really wet when it rained this spring/ water pooled in the pockets of the tire (not sure if good or bad)

Resources:
homecooking.about.com - yukon gold history
coloradopotato.org - yukon

-- Ms.Derr

2011-08-16

Cobbler in Paradise

When I walk through the door to go home to visit my folks, my mom requests a baked good.

So luckily the black berries were ripe and harvested from the back yard and yellow peaches from a local produce stand. I love Northern California and their drive through fruits and veggies.

Fruit (black berry and yellow peach) Cobbler

The biscuit dough:

1 1/3 c. flour

3 TBS sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 TBS non-dairy butter

1/2 c. non-dairy milk

2 tsp vanilla extract (variation)

1/4 - 1/2 c. coconut flakes (variation)

1-2 TBS milk or butter to brush top of dough

Filling:

4-5 c. fruit (Black berries and peaches)

1/2 c. sugar

2 TBS flour

1 tsp lemon or lime zest

Bake at 350-375 for approx 30-45 minutes depending upon your oven as I have learned.

Adapted from the Joy of Vegan Baking Cookbook

Funny how one of the cobblers disappeared - Thanks Mom!

Resources:
The Joy of Vegan Baking

2011-08-04

Garlic Harvest

I harvested my garlic this week finally! I thought that these were supposed to be early harvest garlic so I am a little surprised that it took so long (maybe it has something to do with rainy spring and summer we have had this year). As you can see below my beds are over crowded and I was trying to clean it up the bookcase so that I can get some good new fall veggies in there.

I read to wait and harvest until the bottom couple of leaves died, which leaves a protective papery layer around the heads. I expected to be able to harvest it a lot sooner, so I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to harvest this modest amount of garlic! Now for the drying process and getting it braided and hung up to dry in a well ventilated area of the tiny aparment.