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Goodness gracious! So much going on in the garden right now and so much to do! It seems like there is never enough time for it all but Bookman and I do what we can and that just has to be good enough.
Before we went to Albuquerque last weekend we had been watching our zucchini plants flower like crazy and grow bigger and bigger. Where are the zucchini? We looked and looked and couldn’t find any. Well today I found some. Couldn’t miss them really, they are so huge. How could I not have seen them before? Zucchini bread anyone? Bookman will also be making zucchini latkes and if they aren’t terribly woody, there will be zucchini noodles too. And zucchini relish. I’ve been antsy to try making relish. So excited to finally have zucchini! Must now keep a close eye on them in the garden to avoid more like this. There are a few lemon squash out there almost ready to pick. A day or two probably. At least those are bright yellow, hence the name lemon, can’t really miss them.Also before the trip, I was in a battle with the slugs over the potato plants. I went
away for three days which meant the slugs ate every single last bit of green. Today I dug through the straw to see if there were at least some small potatoes. As I was digging I discovered why I had such a hard time with the slugs. We used straw for mounding up around the plants and while the top layer was dry, beneath it was wet, and, judging from the number of slugs I exposed to daylight, a happy haven for them. Seems I provided a near utopian paradise. But there were potatoes! Not big, but quite a few, enough that Bookman and I have decided that we will try again next year. But next year we will not be using straw! I planted a little patch of amaranth this year as a kind of experiment to see how it grew in our garden and to discover if it was worthwhile to make it a regular thing. Amaranth is a grain that is high in iron and calcium and higher in fiber than whole wheat. It’s a versatile little grain that you can cook up for breakfast or “pop” and use in salads. You can also make pudding out of it and all sorts of other things. I am not certain how much we will get from out little patch. It is a tall and pretty plant with think red stalks and red-veined leaves. It is just starting to flower. I am not certain how large the flowers will get, but it looks like they might get pretty big. Since it isn’t a grass I don’t have to thresh it like wheat or oats, I just have to dry the seed heads upside down in a paper bag and then shake out the seeds. Sounds easy enough. We’ll see if that is true!Walter has quite a lot of crabapples on him for such a little fellow. They are getting ripe and I picked a few today. Can you say crabapple jelly? I’ve never made it before but Bookman and I are both very excited to give it a try. I have to go on a hunt for a good recipe. If you have one, will you share it with me?
The okra is also starting to get pods. I have never eaten okra before. I know a lot of
people hate it but there are many who love it. It is a highly mucilaginous vegetable that needs to be cooked just so in order to avoid the slime. I only have one plant so it will be a while yet before I have enough to actually do anything with them. Can I freeze the pods, does anyone know? If they are tasty I will plant more next year, especially since they are pretty plants.Bookman called the fencing people we are contracted with to install chain link fencing around the chicken garden. We are still at least three weeks away from getting it installed apparently. Good thing I am not waiting for it to be installed before moving on to building the chicken coop! I drew out the plans of what we want it to look like and how big, where to put windows, roosts, access and egg doors and all that. Now we have to figure out the materials list which then might lead to a few height and size adjustments depending on standard lumber sizing and all that.
Bookman is going to call the city on Tuesday to find out if we can start building the coop now without having first gotten permission from the neighbors and going through the whole permitting process. Rumor has it the city is still planning this year on changing the requirement of getting your neighbors’ signatures. The city will still require a permit though because the coop has to be inspected annually. The city also requires a site plan submission so they can be sure
the coop is sited according to city code. I’m confident our coop location won’t be a problem, it is far enough away from inhabited buildings and well away from the garage of both my nextdoor neighbors. Plus there will be a fence before we have chickens and eventually there will be a screening hedge along the alley.I want to finish the coop this year, but, if for whatever reason we don’t manage to, as long as we get pretty far along we will have time to finish it before the chickens move in. We will get chicks in March and they won’t be old enough to move out to their house until early to mid May. I think I mentioned the coop and the run will be covered with a green roof. Is it bad of me to have already begun thinking what plants I want to plant in it? Most people plant sedums but I’m not going that route, I have other ideas!
Biking
I missed my long bike ride last weekend, missed it mightily. But it is good to take a rest so as not to get burnt out and all that. I had a friend join me again this week for part of my ride, about the first 16 miles/26km. It’s amazing how fast the time goes when I have company and we are chatting the whole time. I’ve been working to up my average speed to 15 mph/24 kph and I am happy to say I did it! I am really pleased about this. By the time I get to my race at the end of September I should even be a little bit faster. So exciting!
I started doing interval training twice a week on a stationary bike indoors. Have you ever done interval training? It sucks. But it is supposed to help me be fitter and faster. You know you are in deep with a sport when you are willing to do stuff you hate in order to get better at it. Also, I need up my core workout. I’ve been doing free weights since early spring and they have helped build upper body strength, something I have never had much of, but I need to start doing even more focused exercises. Like intervals, this too sucks. I’m resigned to the weights, I don’t love them but I don’t hate them either. But I am not keen on doing side planks and a variety of other strengthening maneuvers, but I have to do them if I want to get faster and stronger. Maybe as a side benefit I will get some sexy abdominal definition? I’m getting some nice muscle tone in my arms, a friend of mine even remarked on it the other day out of the blue, so why not some abs? It could totally happen! However, this does not mean the core workout stuff sucks any less.
Surprise zucchini are the best 🙂 – last couple summers was full of them. I’m still waiting for mine so far this summer tho 😛
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Ha! They are! You very likely have some lurking and waiting to surprise you too 🙂
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Because of all the rain in May and June, we had an epic battle with slugs. First, I tried crushed egg shells, which helped a little. Then I tried the beer in saucers and had hundreds and hundreds of snails and slugs for a couple of weeks, happily drowned. Now that we are back in a drought, fewer problems with slugs, but the heat is burning stuff up.
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Jenclair, oh now! You can’t catch a break from the sound of it! Hope things moderate for you a bit soon!
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Yeah intervals totally suck. But hey, they bring results, so hope you can enjoy those soon at least.
Too bad about the slugs. Loved the title of this post though. Sounded like a horror film.
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Nikki, that’s what I keep telling myself regarding intervals, it helps ease the suckiness just a tiny bit. And the slugs may have eaten the potato plants but at least I still got some potatoes. As for the post title, glad you liked it! 🙂
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If you slice the pods into little disks you can freeze them and use in stews this winter
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Jeanne, thanks for the okra tip!
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I used to get lots of okra through my CSA, and the only way I really liked it was cooked in a summer stew with corn and tomatoes. The sliminess was an asset there because it had a nice thickening effect on the stew. I was just wishing the other day that my current CSA had given me some okra because I had all the other ingredients for summer stew. Maybe I’ll put that on my farmers market list for this weekend.
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Teresa, you and Jeanne both mention putting okra in stew so that’s what I will have to plan on doing. Don’t know if it will be a summer stew, but I’ll get chef Bookman on it! 🙂
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Your garden sounds like it could almost be a full time job, but look at the happy (and yummy results!). If nothing else, at least you get the joy of beautiful plants all summer even if the harvest is small. I wonder what crab apple jelly tastes like? Is it tart? You’ll have to let us know. And I asked (on a postcard) if you had your chicks yet, but I see that is all a work in progress–what happens if your neighbors say no? Can you still build? How cool that you are so into cycling–I like the idea of getting stronger–I have toyed with the idea of getting a personal trainer at my gym–just a few sessions to help me get a more efficient work out but they are not cheap, so I will keep at my usual. It sounds like you have a good goal to work toward since you will be racing later. Do you think you will get to bike at all over winter?
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Danielle, the garden could definitely be a full time job! I’ve never had crab apple jelly before so I am not entirely sure how it will taste. Given the amount of sugar that goes into the recipes I’ve been looking at, it will be sweet. When the city changes the rule, it won’t matter what the neighbors say, however, if I need their signatures in order to begin building a coop, I don’t anticipate there being any trouble. If there is, I guess we will have to wait for the rule change and be ok with the delay. Personal trainers are expensive even for only a couple sessions but it could be worth it if there are specific things you want to work on. Outdoor biking will slow down and likely stop eventually over the winter because of snow and icy road conditions. But should a fine day happen on a weekend I will totally take advantage of it!
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I never had okra until I moved to the South. It is definitely an acquired taste but I love it now. If the okra is very fresh I make a tempura batter and quickly fry them (I know, fried foods aren’t all that healthy, but everything in moderation.) I also like it in soups. I sure do envy your garden. Mine was a total bust. I’m doing something wrong, just don’t know what it is. In a couple of months I’m going to try lettuce. I am so impressed by your biking!
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Grad, I agree with the moderation! We hardly ever fry anything but Bookman breaded and fried some of the monster zucchini and oh, what a treat! Thanks for the okra tips! Sorry your garden ended up being a bust. It had such promise early one! Don’t give you though, eventually you will find something that works! The biking is great fun and I am enjoying myself immensely 🙂
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I bet Southern Living has loads of recipe ideas for okra. I’ve never cooked much with it despite being a southern girl, but I do like a nice fried okra dish now and tehn.
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Jenny, ah, hadn’t thought of that! Thanks for the tip on where to look for recipe ideas!
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I love okra! Particularly in Indian recipes.
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biblioglobal, ooh, I didn’t realize Indian recipes use okra. I will have to look into that!
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I love reading about your garden….you should do a book a la… a man, a woman, two cats and their wondrous garden! I LOVE okra, and like biblioglobal says, we Indians have many recipes for some delectable dishes!
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cirtnecce, glad you enjoy reading about my garden! I enjoy writing about it 🙂 There is a new cookbook out here of vegan Indian dishes, I’ve been thinking of buying it. I bet there are some recipes with okra in it! Guess I am going to buy it for sure now!
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Ach, I admire you for being able to do the things you hate in order to get better at a sport. I can honestly say I’ve never had that feeling… I think I may be terminally lazy. And congratulations on your courgettes – ours have been really small this year, but we tell them size doesn’t matter. 😉 Slugs, though, ugh! May they still find their utopia, but NOT in your garden!
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Litlove, nah, I can’t imagine you as terminally lazy, maybe you just haven;t found the right sport yet! Until I started cycling a few years ago I thought the same thing. Even the courgette plants are huge this year. It’s a different variety than I have grown before so I am not sure if it is the variety or if they are just overachievers! I actually prefer them smaller but I can’t complain really. Slugs are so gross and I hate squishing them. I keep wishing I had chickens this year to toss them to instead!
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I’m fascinated that you are a vegan American and have never had okra. I know you’re not form the south, but still, I just would have assumed. Mr Gums doesn’t like the sliminess but I have had it cooked where it’s been more crisp than slimey and have liked it. It is most often cooked in stews, but I think with care you can cook it more lightly. I haven’t tried it myself yet.
As for crabapple jelly, here I will invoke Mr Gums again. We haven’t made crabapple jelly but he did make japonica jelly from the japonica “apples” on our tree in our previous house. The recipe may not be the same and, anyhow, since we left that house 18 years ago I don’t imaging we have it anymore. Just want to encourage you to try!
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whisperinggums, until a few years ago when my natural food cooperative had some okra on special from a local farm, I didn’t even know what okra looked like! It is just not something that gets sold in grocery stores in the northern US. But I decided to grow it after reading about it in a gardening book, how its flowers are so pretty (a relative of hibiscus) and how it likes the summer heat. My single plant is doing beautifully, though I have yet to see the flowers because they are closed by the time I get home in the evening from work.
We will definitely be making jelly. Found an easy recipe. We will be getting some cheese cloth this weekend to strain the juice from the pulp. I’m looking forward to trying it!
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I must Google the flower. Didn’t know that.
Yes Mr Gums had to do all that straining. Good luck with it.
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