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309K views 3K replies 350 participants last post by  mtnairkin 
#1 ·
Spring is here! Happy, happy!

So, what are you harvesting now and how are you storing it? Love to hear what everyone's busy with. :)

Here on the Gulf Coast, I've dug my Louisiana multiplier onions (walking onions aren't ready yet). Hung some in an old peanut net bag and froze the rest.

Picked enough rose petals to make a little rose petal jelly that I canned up.

Dehydrated strawberries, enough for 2 pints. Never again-too much slicing! :eek:

Hoping for dewberries in the next couple of weeks. Yum!

What's everyone else doing?
 
#42 ·
Thank you for the reminder to get some radish seed sown! I've grown daikons for the past several years (I'm a big fan of kimchee from both the greens and the roots).

The big radishes are fun to let them run their full life cycle, too. The flowers are popular with the pollinators and the young seed pods are tasty. The big roots are supposed to break up the subsoil to some extent.
 
#346 ·
Pickled Radishes

Attached picture of the first of my Cherry Belle radishes. Destined to be refrigerator pickles.
How do those of you that make pickled radishes process them? There were no recipes in my 2 canning books for them, and the first 5 recipes from google results were for refrigerator pickles. I gave up after 5. :eek::

Are they just good for refrigerator pickles?

Thanks.
 
#44 ·
I've dug up my multiplier onions. These onions multiply from the root. The attached pic of two bunches shows how many green onions develop from only 1 root. I usually get 8 to 10 green onions from one root bulb planted in August.

Multiplier Onions are different from Walking Onions.

Multiplier Onions multiply from the root.

Walking Onions multiply from the top set. Like a Slinky, the plant bends until it touches the ground and the top sets take root or until the seeds from the top set disperse.

As you can see from the attached pic, Multiplier Onions are like green onions but much larger. I keep a few to plant the next season; sliced and dried a few; put a few bags in the freezer.

After the first purchase, they need never be purchased again. Now that's economy ! :thumb:

I received mine as a gift from a relative who received hers from a fellow church member who received his from a relative in Louisiana . . . . .

Cool, huh?

Grass Plant Grass family Flower Sedge family


Please click on image to enlarge.
 
#49 ·
SheepishLion,

Would you believe that my DH, born and bred in southeast Texas, had no idea what a dandelion looked like or what to do with them? It amused me no end. :D:

Have you ever made dandelion wine? I've never tried it but it is supposed to be an excellent source of iron and relaxation.
 
#52 ·
Well, I've never seen a real cactus or a tumbleweed, so I can relate. :D:

I have tried dandelion wine before, but something usually goes wrong with it. I'm not much of a winemaker apparently. I might try again this year, since they are just starting to get nice big blossoms on them. I also want to dry and roast some of the root to make "coffee" from. Anybody else tried that?
 
#51 ·
This is the first pint of pickled Cherry Belle radishes for this season. Zingy on salads in place of salad dressing (trying to keep off the weight I lost).

How are you storing radishes?

View attachment 86265

Please click on image to enlarge.
Those never last long in our house. I usually make baby radishes pickled whole. Yours look yummy. :D:
 
#53 ·
Holy Toledo, you learn something new everyday... I did not know that tomato plants were actually perennial, we just grow them as annuals because of our weather. If you can keep the temps at 75 in the day and 65 at night (10 degree window) never let it get down to 55 degrees, and keep it getting the right amount of light you can get them to keep growing.

Check this out... this plant is 18 months old.

http://lifeabundantly-alim.blogspot.com/2013/02/heirlooms-hybrids-and-gmos.html



I guess the EPCOT center has a giant tomato tree as well setup in a greenhouse. The EPCOT tomato apparently set a record by producing 32,000 tomatoes in a year....
 
#57 · (Edited)
Walking Onions a.k.a. Egyptian Onions are ready for harvest now.

I guess the reason they are called Walking Onions is that they seem to "walk" across the ground, kind of like a Slinky "walks" down the stairs. These wild onions generate top sets that weigh down the plant tops until they touch the ground, where they then put down roots and make a new plant. Cool, huh? :)

Grass Plant Grass family Botany Aquatic plant


As you can see from the photos, the top sets of my wild onion patch are "walking" across my concrete sidewalk so they won't be able to put down roots.

The tiny, brown, round bulb-type top set is very crunchy and has a wonderful onion taste. I dry them and keep them for seasoning in soups and stews. They are also good fresh in salads.

The onion plant itself can be pulled and used like any other green onion.

I wish my patch were larger so that I could have more of these tasty treats.

Right now, they are mixed in with my roses bushes and seem to have a deleterious effect on caterpillars crawling up onto my roses.

And, the light green brushiness looks very nice contrasted with the red roses. :thumb:

These onions are self-perpetuating so once a bed is established, you never have to buy more, plant more, or rework the bed. That's my kind of veggie!
 

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#58 ·
I spent the morning weeding my cool weather crops, I am about 10 to 12 days out on harvesting radishes and lettuce. My peas are sprouting out nicely, cabbage, daikons, spinach, broccoli, chard are all starting to go pretty well.

I managed to get another 2k square feet of garden tilled up this afternoon and am 1/3 through getting all the rows in it, I am nearly done with the dirt berm running the outside of it next to the fence as well. I am soaking my sunflower, beans, lentils and ornamental corn to germinate them and then plant them in the berms alongside the fence. I want peas, beans, cucumbers and squash growing up the fence and up the sunflowers, to distract things from eating on my garden itself. I may plant black oil sunflower from the feed store outside the fence, they grow into a nice 3 foot plant with lots of flowers that the deer and goats like to eat on. At $18 for a 50 pound bag they are pretty cheap to plant mass amounts of them. I just till lightly and rake the loose soil back and then hand cast seed out, lightly rake the soil back over and we walk across it and then water, they grow great that way. I have grown entire three and four acre areas into sunflowers like that, it looks awesome when they are all bloomed out.
 
#59 ·
Mountain
Your garden sounds awesome!
How do you get cabbage seeds to germinate? I would love to grow cabbages but can never get the seeds to germinate. I've read books but no luck.
Of course, I could just get transplants but I'm determined to learn how to grow from seed!
 
#60 ·
Mountain
Your garden sounds awesome!
How do you get cabbage seeds to germinate? I would love to grow cabbages but can never get the seeds to germinate. I've read books but no luck.
Of course, I could just get transplants but I'm determined to learn how to grow from seed!

Well these we just put 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and covered with soil in the rows and watered when it wasn't raining and the soil started to dry out. I did notice that about 1/3 of my seed did not sprout out or the sprouts were eaten hard to tell which exactly. I will try to germinate some more in the house and fill in the blank spots this next week or two.

I have never actually grown cabbage before so I did not know it was tough to sprout until your post.
 
#64 ·
How long does sauerkraut last at room temperature? Do you have sauerkraut crocks like I see for sale on-line or do you use some other container?

Do you put caraway seeds in your kraut? I had a childhood neighbor who used to do that with her kraut and it was da bomb!

I've never made kraut so excuse my questions if they seem ignorant - They are ! :upsidedown:
 
#63 ·
Summer harvest is underway here on the coast. Yahoo !!

Below are pics of yellow cherry tomato, yellow pear tomato, red grape tomato (Juliette), a rather odd angle shot of sweet banana peppers, and jalapeno peppers.

So far, with the harvest just starting and quantities quite low, we've just been eating immediately everything !

What time of year could be better? Red tomatoes and Purple Martins! :)

Bush tomato Solanum Plant Tomato Fruit

Fruit Plant Fruit tree Flower Food

Plant Fruit tree Flower Fruit Bell pepper

Plant Flower Leaf Plant stem

Flowering plant Plant Pasilla Bell peppers and chili peppers Flower


Please click on image to enlarge.
 
#71 ·
It is early to be harvesting much here in Eastern Iowa. A week ago it frosted 3 days in a row but I had covered our plants and they are cold hardy for the most part.

All we are harvesting is salad veggies, 3 kinds of lettuce, green onion tops, garlic tops, chives, 2 kinds of basil, spinach, and 2 kinds of parsley. Of course, as the rest of you know, store bought cannot compare to fresh from the garden in taste.
 
#73 ·
Blackberries are well under way. 3 plants and I'm picking a quart a day. Woo-hoo!

I've canned blackberry jam and blackberry syrup (good mixed into plain yogurt). We're also eating plenty of fresh berries (and using lots of dental floss). :rolleyes:

Just as importantly, I've given away some fresh berries to neighbors. Sure, I'd have more berries for myself if I didn't just give them away but I just enjoy being part of a friendly neighborhood. No grand gesture; just a small, ordinary, everyday, interaction.

Another strand in the "good will tapestry." :)





Blackberry Mason jar Boysenberry Fruit preserve Berry


Please click on image to enlarge.
 
#76 ·
I got my first 200 radishes last night, a tad early yet but they were quite good.

I cleaned all the greens about four cups worth finely cut, and stir fried them with 1 tsp butter, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp catsup, 1 tsp sugar, two pinches pepper, two pinches cayenne pepper/red pepper mix. Quite a good stir fry, going to try radish mixed with lambsquarters next time..... I can't wait to have baby corns to stir fry in, I am growing about 2,000 smaller ornamental corn plants to use mostly for baby corn production.
 
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