Planting Garlic.10.5.18

Spanish Roja Garlic to Plant.  10.5.18

Planting Garlic.  10.5.18

Today I planted the first batch of garlic.  These starts were from Territorial seeds.  I planted two strains:  Music and Spanish Roja.  The Music garlic cloves were among the largest I've seen.

I didn't intend to plant so much, but this is the size package sold.  I also want to plant some that I saved from this year.  I will need to clear additional garden space.

Learning - I hope - from mistakes made, these are all in the fenced in area where I had sauce tomatoes.  I hope the fencing is deterrent to deer and rabbits, which caused delay and probably smaller cloves this year and last year.

The rotation for this area overlaps garlic planted last year.  Also sweet corn and attempted okra.  There was no evidence of disease last year, so I'm thinking it's OK.  Last winter, this area was ducks, and this year it was tomatoes.

Smith Fig. Hardy Chicago Fig. 10.2.18

Smith Fig.  10.2.18

Smith Fig.  10.2.18

 Even though I don't have much expectation regarding Smith Fig, I left the tree in that space.  This tree is better adapted for the hot, humid Louisiana climate, not the cooler Pacific NW.  Two winters ago, I thought it was dead.  But it came back.  Last winter was very mild.  This summer was longer and hotter than usual.  This tree grew significantly.  The brebas were plentiful but fell off when small.  Today I noticed some ripe figs.  The one on the left appears overripe, the one on the right about perfect.  Both had sublime flavor - the expected flavor for dark figs, rich, sweet, juicy.  Now I will be checking, daily, for more ripe figs.

The lower pictured figs are from Hardy Chicago.  Also called Chicago Hardy.  I started this tree from a cutting taken from my Hardy Chicago fig tree in Vancouver.  It's interesting.  These are smaller, darker, sweeter, and richer, than the ones in Vancouver.  The site is sunnier, dryer in summer, more exposed.  I don't know about the soil differences.  I'm very happy with these figs, too.

Hardy Chicago Figs.  10.2.18

Hardy Chicago Figs.  10.2.18

Persimmons Almost Ripe. 10.1.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  10.1.18

They are still hard to the touch.  With the changing color, I think we will have ripe persimmons soon.

Transplanting Dwarf Apple Trees, Progress Reports. 10.1.18

Minidwarf Liberty Apple, 2 Years After Transplanting.  10.1.18

These were dwarf trees that did not perform well in their established locations, so I decided to transplant them.  The trees were about 13 years old, but possibly older  The Liberty on M27 was still a small bush, about 5 feet tall.  I think the Jonagold was also on M27 but because of its vigor, had grown to about 8 feet tall.  In their original location, they had competition from a massive old Cherry tree, and were shaded on their south and west sides.

I decided there was not a lot to lose.  I transplanted these trees on 12.3.16.   I pruned branches that were too low.  They were given generous waterings for their first summer, and watered about once weekly, or every other week, for their second summer.

I'm very happy with the result.  Now they are in full sun, and have no lawn or large tree competition.  Both trees produced like crazy this year.  The Liberty put on about a foot of height, and the Jonagold filled in new branches where they had been sparse.

Dwarf Jonagold Apple Tree, 2 Years After Transplanting.  10.1.18

This is the best production that I have had from either tree.  I am happy that I moved them.  More importantly, this shows that dwart apple trees, even once that are more than 10 years old, can survive transplanting and be planted in a new location with good results.

Now I have two columnar trees that need moving.  Rainy season will begin soon, and the area is prepared, so as soon as their apples have been picked, they will be ready to move.

Apple Tree Made from Root Stock Sucker with Grafted Columnar Apple Scion. 10.1.18

Columnar Apple Tree 10.1.19

This post is a follow up on a columnar apple tree, that I created by grafting a columnar apple tree scion to suckers that arose from a semidwarf apple tree that I removed several years prior.  The suckers were from below the graft, so I knew they were from rootstock.

I think I grafted those in 2015.  Last year, I wanted to move the resulted tree to Battleground.  So I dug out the rootstock, and cut it from the original trunk.  That was last year in October.

This Spring, the tree bloomed.  Since it did not have much root mass, I removed most of the flowers but allowed a couple of apples to ripen.  I also watered it about once a week this summer.

Here is the tree.  It is looking good.  I think it will take off and grow better next year.  There were some additional suckers that I cut off.

The tree when dug from the original location is shown below, from post 10.1.17.

Columnar Apple Tree Grafted onto Rootstock Sucker.  10.1.17

Tweaking The Fig Freezer Jam Recipe. 9.27.18

Fig Freezer Jam.  9.27.18

I tweaked the fig freezer jam recipe a little, to make it a little less firm.  I meant to make it less sweet, too, but miscalculated.

This is 1/2 of the box recipe.  The box recipe makes too much for me.  Measuring out the contents of the pectin packet, I used the scale to portion out 1/2 of the packet.  That is a little more than 2 tablespoons.

This recipe used 6 cups of figs that I had rinsed, cut off the stems, and cut into half.  Most were Hardy Chicago but a few were LSU Tiger.


Fig Jam Recipe:

6 cups of fresh figs, cut off stems and cut in half.
1/4 cup lemon juice.
1 cup water.
1/2 packet of Sure Jel pectin for low or no sugar added recipes.
1 3/4 cups sugar.

Transfer the figs into food processor, along with the lemon juice.  Pulse to chop roughly.  I like having chunks of figs in my jam.  I had to process in 2 batches.

Transfer the chopped figs into large sauce pan.  Heat on low to medium heat with occasional stirring, to bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, make a slurry with the pectin in the water.  I poured in a little water, stirred thoroughly, the gradually added more of the water while stirring to keep it even.  Then in large bowl, microwave a minute, stir, microwave another minute, stir, to dissolve all of the pectin.

Pour the dissolved pectin into the hot fig mixture.  Stir, continue heating until it reaches a rolling boil.

Transfer into clean labeled pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at the top.  Add the cap, then let cool overnight.

These gelled very nicely, a little less firm than the last batch.  These are not sterile canned, so I store in the freezer until using, or for shorter time - a few weeks -  in the fridge.

I think the cooking helps break down the fig structure a little, but it's not cooking long enough to destroy nutrients and flavor.

Easy Apple Sauce from Fallen Apples, Using Slow Cooker. 9.27.18

 I'm not that big of an apple sauce fan.  Rarely eat it.  Looking for something to do with extra fallen apples of all varieties, I found some apple sauce recipes.  This could not be easier.

About 8 medium apples.
1 cup water
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon.

Peel the apples, cut into half.  Slice pieces of apple from the core.  Less than 1 inch thick will cook faster than thicker pieces.  I pour the water and lemon juice into the slow cooker, then as I slice apples, throw the apple slices into the lemon water.

When the cooker is fairly full, about 8 or 10 apples, depending on size and how much is lost from bruises or insect damage, sprinkle on the cinnamon and salt, stir to coat the slices with lemon water.  Cook on "High" setting for 3 or 4 hours, until apples are soft.  Use potato masher to mash the apple sauce.  This is very easy.  Pour into quart jar and allow to cool.  Better after refrigerating. 

I also portioned some into ziplock freezer bags, and froze for use later.

 By using fresh apples, no sugar added, and slow cooking, the flavor comes out excellent.

Sweet Corn. 9.27.18

These are from the last batch of sweet corn, planted in June.  Trinity.  I'm surprised to be eating fresh sweet corn from the kitchen garden in late Sept.  I think of it as a summer crop.  There are a few more ears to go.  Trinity is my favorite variety, it tolerates the cooler Spring here and produces until now.   Delicious bicolor sweet corn.

Daffodil Planting. 9.27.18

Bi-Mart had inexpensive packages of daffodils.  I planted these in rows.

I'm less enthusiastic about daffodils in the front borders.  They are messy far longer than they look nice.  Still, they start growing so early, they give me hope for Spring.  Then the flowers are so cheerful.

So this time, they are in rows at the ends of the vegetable garden.  I can still appreciate them.  When the dry off, I can dig them up and store to plant elsewhere, or leave them in place. 

Squash Harvest. 9.25.18

I harvested the squashes.  This is plenty for us.  The largest is "Pink Banana Squash" which I love for the flavor and amount produced.  The small pumpkins are "Winter Luxury Pumpkin".  The butternut squashes turned out small.  In my garden, they don't do as well.  The others were volunteers, likely crosses of summer squash or zucchini, with pumpkins.