Kitchen Garden Log

In addition to green tomatoes, there were 3 cucumbers.
The apples are all eaten now.
There are a few peppers.
4 figs from little Hardy Chicago.

Not much, but not bad for november.

Last weekend I cleaned up one raised bed and planted it with multiplier onions. This is about the 5th year for these. I covered with raked leaves, to keep the dogs from digging.

The cherries, most of the figs, the apples, and the ginkgos have lost most of their leaves.

I moved some oriental lilies to a bed east of the house.
Raked leaves. Used them for mulch around previously-moved magnolia and on the lilies, as well as the winter onion bed.
Chopped up a few tomato plants, and left them in the compost bin.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Not a lot of time to be in the garden. Today, I cleaned up one group of tomato plants. What to do with the green tomatoes?

Green tomatoes.


1. Slice.
2. Dip in egg.
3. Coat in flour with a little black pepper.

4. Fry in olive oil.

5. Salt and eat.

Frying tenderizes them. If you want to be yuppie about it, use tempura mix. They are a little tart, tender inside, and juicy. They don't taste like tomatoes - more similar to other coated/fried vegetables, but with some added juiciness and tartness.

I'm not much of a cook, but this was easy.

And that's what you can do with some green tomatoes.

Schlumbergera

The color is a little off - it's more of a salmon shade.

Given the date, this would be more like "Election Day Cactus" instead of the later holidays.

This year the figs are way behind last year. I'm just happy that there have been a few on Hardy Chicago. This little tree has given 3 last week and may give another 3 or 6 if the weather holds out.

Hardy Chicago

Hardy Chicago

Vancouver. Will the most mature fig ripen without leaves?"


Petite negri.

Fall Begins

Ginkgo fall photo. Leaves remain green so far.

Front ginkgo. Now it's taller than I am. Leaves starting to change color now.

Lots of grapes now. It's dark when I go to work and come home, so I forget to pick them.

Also-
still getting a few tomatoes, beans, cucumbers.

I ate ONE fresh fig yesterday - a small one from Hardy Chicago.

I moved the Magnolia seiboldei to a more sheltered location, north of a fence and east of the house. There is will be less likely to develop sunburn, and need less water in the summer. It's bushy, about 6 feet tall. The roots were actually quite limited, about 2 foot diameter root ball, about 1 foot deep. I did remove one tall stem that leaned the wrong direction, but left the remainder unpruned.

I moved a mature oriental lily as well, near the magnolia. Also a few minor perennials.

epiphylum oxypetallum

It gave me a second chance...

brought inside 2 weeks ago.

5 pm

1230 am

515 am

6 am

Kitchen Garden Log

The workload continues unabated. I can't do much in the garden. In some ways it's on autopilot, except for watering.

Jonagold - this is the first year for some apples.

Mesclun, seeds planted late summer.

Scepter'ed Isle, 8 feet tall.

Hey, wait a minute! Another chance at the epiphyllum.

This cayenne pepper continues to produce. Nice and hot!

Beans, seeds planted late summer.

Canadace grape. The color doesn't come true wtih the flash, it's more red in natural light.

A throwaway chrysanthemum. I left it in the veggie bed for the summer.

Hibiscus. First flower.

Fruit tree order

Maybe it's way too early. I ordered 2 new fruit trees today for planting this winter. Last year's trees came in January, which was an ideal time to plant them.

The new trees are plums. I don't think that I can copy the photos because they are copyrighted, so here are the links -

Shiro plum. Stark's has a lush photo of Shiro plums here. Dave Wilson Nursery gives some more details here. Details that went into this choice are: I've eaten them and they are very good. Those were locally grown. They are self pollinating. That may not be important since they'll be near an aprium and another Japanese plum.

Hollywood plum.

Obviously from the links, they are from Raintree Nursery. Based on older blog entries, my 2007 fruit trees arrived mid february 2008 - and they've grown great.

Today's Catch

This was yesterday's catch - my 'day off'. I made some 'blonde salsa' - yellow tomatoes, yellow peppers, onion and garlic, all from the garden. Very good.

A few more, this is today's catch.

Ning's eggplants. He's had several crops.

The fall planting of beans is blooming. There are tiny beans forming. It might be a race to fall, but maybe this method worked and we'll get a fall crop of beans. This rotation was garlic -> beans this summer.

The slugs ate a few holes in the leaves, but the mesclun grew by leaps and bounds. Good for stir fry or fried rice.

September 11th is my garlic planting day. My day to remember planting garlic, mainly because I was planting garlic on that horrific day. Not much room, since every nook and cranny is filled, but this spot is somewhat open. This location contained beans until a few weeks ago. The bean plants finished bearing, and were fed to the chickens. Nothing goes to waste. I planted cloves from 3 heads of Inchellium Red. Next to find a place for some German Red, which I like better due to flavor but it is not as productive. This rotation was scallions -> beans -> garlic. After planting, I applied swept-up leaves for mulch ans some chicken wire as kitty/doggy deterrent. Neither critter can resist freshly dug soil (kitty for her litter, doggies for digging).

In a note, the work hours are not tolerable, at 13 to 15 hours daily. Fortunately, this time of year, all that the garden needs is watering about every 3rd day, and a little puttering each weekend. We'll see next year if the work report is better.

Lots of tomatoes this week.. AFter so much pessimism about whether they would produce at all, I'm happy to have a good crop.

The dogs had fun at Long Beach this weekend. I slept in the car while Ning drove.

Charlie is so animated that it's next to impossible to get a good shot.