Cold Peppers

Winter decided to make a final push here in Arkansas. The temperatures on Sunday fell dramatically and the whole state was under a hard frost warning for both Sunday and Monday night.

So, we ventured out to the farm in a swirl of bone-cold wind (particularly jarring since we've been enjoying mid-70s weather) to protect our peppers and tomatoes with homemade cloches.

Our plants owe a debt of gratitude to our addiction to seltzer water because we had a large quantity of empty plastic bottles on hand. Adam, ever the boy scout, tells me he was saving these for just this purpose. We'll remove them on Wednesday when the temperatures return to their normal springtime haunts.

One Tomato, Dead Tomato

Not sure what happened to this hapless tomato but it just did not make it!


Our other tomatoes look great though. You win some, you lose some.

In other news, today we planted potatoes! Yukon gold, red and sweet potatoes.


We used a similar method as we did last year:
1. Cut off portions of the potato with several "eye sprouts",
2. Plant the potato chunks with the "eye sprouts" facing up
3. Cover with dirt and mulch.

Our potatoes did well last year so I'm hoping we are just as successful this year - particularly with those sweets!

Up next:
1. More planting (flowers, herbs and beans)
2. Figure out our watering system

A time to plant

Today we planted:

Cabbage and Collards



Peppers - banana and bell (please pray they don't turn out like last year!)



Strawberries!





Beefsteak tomatoes



We also re-planted our rosemary, thyme and oregano from last year.

Still need to plant:
flowers
herbs
potatoes
okra
beans
carrots
squash
corn

Other to do:
build a tool "shed"

On the Menu: Lasagna

I've noticed, since we started this garden garden blog thing, that I feel guilty when I make a meal that isn't entirely composed of our vegetables.

Or when, heaven forbid, I don't have time to freeze some vegetables (let alone cook them) and they go to waste.

Tonight though, I put away those guilty feelings and made a lasagna that contained only 2 of our garden ingredients: tomatoes and thyme.

Like most things, I didn't really have a recipe for lasagna that has fake meat, some vegetables and no ricotta cheese (more on that later) so I took a few recipes and cobbled them together.

I found a recipe for bechamel sauce and, since we never have cow's milk or real butter in our fridge, turned it vegan. Here goes:

Vegan Bechamel Sauce
2 1/2 Tbs vegan margarine or butter
2 to 2.5 Tbs flour
2 cups soy milk
ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour. Stir until it is a golden color. In another pan, bring the soy milk to a boil. Pour the milk into the butter/flour mixture and stir continuously until smooth. Bring to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes. STIR CONTINUOUSLY until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to taste. Set aside.

Vegetarian Lasagna
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
20 olives, chopped
1 box of no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup bechamel sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 package fake ground beef
fresh cherry tomatoes
dried thyme

First, I cut the cherry tomatoes in half. I put them in a dry frying pan and cooked them over low heat for just a bit to loosen the skins.


Then I briefly sauteed the onions and bell peppers. I didn't want them too soft because I figured they'd cook some more in the lasagna.

Then, I browned the fake ground beef (which Adam says looks like worms) and added the olives.

Now its time to start assembling the lasagna. First spray the bottom and sides of the pan with non-stick spray. Then, start with a layer of sauce...just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Next, add a layer of the noodles. The box told me to make sure the noodles overlap so that, when all the goodies are piled on top, they don't fall through the noodle layer.


Now, add half of the bechamel sauce on top of the noodles. I sprinkled some of the dried thyme on top of this layer.

Then add half of the meat/bell pepper/onion/olive mixture. Put 1 cup of the cheese on top of that.

Add half of the tomato sauce and half of the cherry tomatoes.

Repeat all of the above steps but make sure to end with a whole pile of cheese on top.


Cook the lasagna for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees. I should have covered the lasagna but we ran out of aluminum foil so I cooked it uncovered. But, luckily, the cheese did not burn!

Side note: I made a bechamel sauce in lieu of using ricotta cheese. Apparently, in Italy, ricotta cheese is never used in a lasagna. I don't know if this is true or not and it wasn't really the reason for my substitution. The real reason is that ricotta cheese makes me want to vomit. So I avoid it, whenever possible.

Picture of the Day

What ISN'T doing well

Lest I give you the impression that every plant in our garden is going great guns, take a look at this bell pepper plant above. What? You say that all you see is a stick?

Exactly.

Our bell peppers have never really done anything. When they first started growing, the bottom leaves died and fell off. Now, ALL of the leaves are dying and falling, leaving us with what you see above.

And absolutely no bell peppers.

As I mentioned before, we aren't the only ones afflicted with this problem. But we don't really know how to solve it and we are about to pull all of our bell peppers. If it had been up to Adam, we would have pulled them long ago but I'm slightly more optimistic (or naive, take your pick) and we've left them.

But after arriving at the garden and finding the above, I'm about ready to relent.

Something else that isn't growing well, almost overnight, has been our squash. They started getting these milky white coating of fungus all over them and they just didn't look healthy. Adam theorized that it was because we were watering them at night and, after speaking with a more seasoned farmer, he determined that he was correct.

After one day of watering during the day, instead of at night, the squash started making a rebound.

Amazing.

The only other plant that isn't thriving is a tomato. ALL of our tomatoes are doing great except one and, of course, it is the one that was a gift. For whatever reason, it started getting all wilty despite the fact that it was getting just as much water as the rest of the tomatoes. It is a Brandywine tomato so I'm not sure if they have different requirements than roma or beefsteak.

So there. I've sufficiently tarnished your picture-perfect vision of our garden and our small reputations as gardening professionals.

A mixed bag and some mixed feelings

I didn't much like being at the farm today.

It was hot and the mosquitoes were biting and I kept inadvertently harvesting the wrong things. Grabbing the stalk of a flower that hadn't bloomed instead of the one that had. Or yanking off a pod of okra that was a bit too small.

So I wasn't feeling the farm today. And it wasn't feeling me either.

I was attacked by a garden stake.

Twice.

Despite all of this, we had a great harvest today. Along with the now-regular harvest of collards, kale, herbs, cucumbers and squash, we were able to harvest (for the first time!) the following:

Flowers

Okra

And tomatoes.

Of which I don't have a picture. On account of the fact that I was too busy cursing that garden stake. For the second time.

Today was a first in other ways too. We had our first sunflower bloom:


And our first corn feather:


In light of all its bounty, I suppose I can forgive the farm its many faults today. I'll give it another chance and go back tomorrow.

But I'm bringing bug spray (non-DEET of course). And perhaps an ax as punishment for one particular garden stake.

UPDATE: Adam tells me that what I called "corn feathers" are actually called "corn tassles." Silly me.

Picture of the Day

Roma Tomatoes!

Adam and I are away from the garden this weekend so you'll have to make do with this picture of our tomatoes that I took in the middle of last week. These Romas were literally nonexistent one day and there the next. It will be interesting to see what they are like when we return to the garden after the weekend.

What did we NOT plant today?

It was a full day at the farm today. Lots of sunscreen, lots of water and lots of planting. We were grateful for the near-constant breeze that wafted up from the river but, needless to say, that breeze will be gone (and sorely missed) come the summer months.

Alright, down to business.

Here is a list of what we planted today:

sweet corn

pole beans

sunflowers

peppers (bell, jalapeno, chili and banana)

tomatoes (cherry, Roma, beefsteak, heirloom brandywine)

wildflowers

zinnias

cucumbers

zucchini

okra

carrots

radishes

red onions

Sadly, I don't have enough pictures to correspond to all of this activity. Once I remembered my photography duties, the sun had already begun to set and the light was no good. But I did manage to get a few off before the sun fully set.

But, as you can see, our shadows were l-o-n-g when we finally started packing up.


Here is one of our corn/bean rows. The corn seeds are in back and were placed every 6 inches or so. The beans are in the front part of the row and placed in-between the corn seeds. Also, the sunflowers were planted in the row directly behind the corn/bean row.

Next up is one of our beautiful little bell peppers. We probably have more bell peppers than any other plant in the garden. Which is good since we eat them ALL THE TIME. We eat them more often than we eat tomatoes.

Most of our pepper and tomato plants are ones we grew from seeds. However, some of our seedlings just didn't look hearty enough for the great outdoors so we hedged our bets and bought some plants at a local nursery.


And here is one of our lovely tomato plants all warm and snug in its cage. The cages, lest you accuse us of tomato cruelty, are strictly for the tomatoes' benefit. They send their little stems out the openings and, as they grow, the cage provides support for those (hopefully) tomato-laden stems.


We prepared all of the beds today in the same manner as before. Hoe and rake the bed to break up clumps. Scatter peat/compost mixture. Water afterwards with the liquid fertilizer/water mixture.

You may have noticed that many of our plants have depressions around them. We made those in hopes that during the next rain, which is sure to come any moment now, some rain will gather in these little "volcanoes" instead of running off the side. We'll see how that goes.

Oh the way home, I quizzed Adam about what plant he is most excited to be growing/harvesting/eating and he, of course, said the chili peppers. He wants to make hot sauce.

My "top plant" is definitely my lovely okra! I l-o-v-e okra and simply can't wait until they are ready to harvest.

We have plans for most of the vegetables. But some of them (ahem, radishes) I'm at a loss of what to do with. Especially in such large numbers. I am excited about learning to can and sharing that (possibly harrowing) process with you. Any tips, pass them along. Please.

Naturally, we are pretty tuckered out after such a day. Off to bed we go....with visions of homemade tomato sauce in our heads.