Garden Update: Everything In Full Swing

Just an update on all the growth going on.  It is happening so fast at this point.

Roma Tomato:  Over 30 tomatoes on it

Nectarines growing great.

Blackberry's from flower to fruit.

Some Betsy Tomatoes starting to turn red

Succession garden growing great

Collard greens and a radish for a salad.  Look at the size of that radish!  And look how beautiful those greens look.

Cucumbers all over the place.

Three sisters garden is like a jungle.  How compact I planted the corn may have stunted some of the stalks.

Squash are emerging every where now.

Grape flowers have turned to fruit.

So lots of changes in very little time.  This week we canned 9 pints of meat sauce, though I didn't take any pictures.  Lazy!  We also made chicken stock and canned 4 quarts.  Again, Lazy and didn't take any pictures.

Propagating Tomato Plants From Cuttings

I have to give a hats off to Texasprepper2 on Youtube.  I never would have thought to try and root a tomato cutting this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLWB7XiKuF0

I decided to snip a sucker that was about 10 inches long and try to root the cutting.  I placed it in water and in about a week you can now see the roots appearing out the stem.  Pretty Cool!

I wonder what else you can try and do this with?  I'll try some other plants as well.

Solar Cook'in Again: Hocks with Beans and Rice

Cooking solar is so different from any traditional method.  You really have to practice it with different recipes   and learn.  The point is to know how to use it before you are forced to use it and make critical mistakes.  I'll share any problems or issues I have with these recipes with the help of my wife who is a Chef.

When we begin harvesting the garden, my wife will be blogging on how she is utilizing everything and I'll be sharing canning and other preservation.

On to the Hocks with Beans and Rice.  Put a couple of Hocks in the granite pot followed by two cups of rice and .3 lb Navy Beans, .3 lb Lentil, .3 Split Pea.  I did NOT soak the beans overnight.  That may come back to bite me but it's part of the experiment.

 I covered it with a mix of spices to include:  Tomato bouillon, salt, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, tiny bit of cayenne, and 2 bay leaves.  I covered with water to about an inch above the contents.

The solar oven has been preheating but it's been partly cloudy day to that may play into the cooking time as well.  I've stirred it occasionally as I've adjusted the aim of the oven.  It's sat around 250 most of the day.

Here's after I stirred it one of the times.

The clouds had a little effect, but it finally cleared up and the oven is a consistent 325 degree's.  I had to add more liquid as the rice and beans soaked it up.

It's finished.  Some lessons learned:

1. Too much rice and beans.  1 cup rice and .25 pound beans (not soaked).
2. Cooked beans with meat for 2 hours (or more depending on how hot the oven is) making sure water is always present.
3. Add in rice, stir, and cook till rice is tender.

I guess the big lesson learned to anything you make is to add ingredients based on how long they traditionally take to cook so it all comes together at once.

Overall though, great taste.

Canning Salsa

If you are not linking from my wife's blog.  You can go to this URL to see her salsa recipe and steps.

PENDING LINK

We have enough for 16 pints of salsa.  It makes it real easy to have salsa anytime you want without the work every time to make it.  This is a great recipe and a hit with family and friends.

These are our two canner's.  The one on the right is the first one we ever owned.  Something cheap with a rubber gasket to just try and learn and get comfortable.  The other canner is a 21 Quart all american metal to metal lid.  It's awesome.  Love it!

The first step is to sterilize the jar's and lids.  All new lids as these are jar's we've used before.  Just boil the jars in the canner and put the lids in a pot with water on medium low to heat up.

Now that the jars are sterile, we fill each pint with hot salsa to a 1 inch head space and make sure there are no air bubbles.

Wipe all the jar lips and fasten the lids finger tight.

Make sure the jars are covered by at least 2 inches of water.

Once it comes to a boil, process for 45 minutes.  It will heat faster if you put the lid on.  I didn't seal either one though.

Remove from heat and let stand to cool to room temperature.  This is where you will hear the classic "pop" as the lids form a vacuum.  Any lids that do not form a vacuum you should refrigerate and try canning again or use in the next week or so.  We've had very good success with all our canning.

Now enjoy anytime you have a hankerin for some salsa!

Solar Chuck Roast: Cooking with the All American Solar Oven

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Thought it would be great to detail using a solar oven for cooking and what I am learning from it.  I've already cooked bread, chili, and a whole chicken.  Great flavor and exceeded my expectations.  If anybody wants me to experiment cooking something and posting about it, just let me know.

I bought this one from Honeyville Grains during their 20% sale.  Love this place, ships to your door for $4.99 regardless of weight.  Check it out, you won't be disappointed.  This model is an upgrade to the global sun oven with a bigger chamber, aim sights, 2 granite pots, 2 bread pans, 3 dehydrating racks and a water pasteurization indicator.

Today, I decided to do a chuck roast with vegtables.  A two pound chuck, mixed veggies, some spices, and cornstarch.



2 pound chuck roast in a granite pot



Mix of veggies, spices, and cornstarch

I rough cut the veggies and put them around the roast.  Spread the mix of spices and cornstarch on top, added about 1/4 cup of white wine (normally would be red, but the white was open), and 1/4 cup of water.  It doesn't take alot of liquid cooking solar.  Use alot less than you think you need.



Let the oven pre-heat.  I put it out this morning and anticipated the sun's path and we went to the store.  When we got home, the oven was at 340 degrees.

I placed the roast in the oven, sealed the doors, and check it every 30 minutes to adjust the aim to maximize the design.  You can see the concept for aiming in the second picture below.

The roast sits on a rack that rotates depending upon the angle you set it at to keep whatever you are cooking level and also to allow the heat to circulate the dish like a convection oven.

I kept this in for 3 hours of direct sunlight and then allowed it to cool to warming until we were ready for dinner.

There are multiple advantages to cooking this way living in a very warm region.  First, you are consuming no electricity or gas.  Second, you don't raise the temp in your home which in turn doesn't force your AC to run.  The trickle down effect to saving you some money is fantastic.

Ok, time to eat!  Hope you all enjoy.

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Couldn't Resist: New potatoes for Dinner.

Pulled up one of the plants last night.  Just really curious!  Pulled off 3 nice young potatoes and added them to the beef stew.  The plant had another 6 very small potatoes on it, just too small to use.  But, a good sign of a big harvest to come.

UPDATE:  I was wondering if I might have left some in the dirt, so I dug down and found 3 more potatoes so 6 usable in total and 6 too small but that would have been 12 total on the plant.

Garden Update: Sucession garden growing fast.

Wanted to show the difference in two weeks that the 4x4 garden has experienced.  The left picture is from 5 April, the right picturer from 17 April.

 



5 April

17 April

 

You can see from the photo below, the vine is begining the end of late flowering.  Should have fruit soon.

 

 

 

The canopy really came in well with the major prunning I did.

 

 

I moved the tomato's over to the fence by the blueberries to regulate the sun a little bit.  As it gets hotter here in south Texas this will help with the afternoon strong heat.  One thing with the grow bags, I have to water every morning.  Really healthy plants, one Roma's has 26 tomato's growing now.

 

Blackberries are flowering now.

 

Been a while Garden Update

Sorry it's been a while.....life happens.

 

Big update on progress.  It's all cool though!

 

Here's an overview picture of the garden.  You can see the three sisters garden, grape vine, succession garden, grow bags, and the window sill planter

 

 

Here's a shot of some of the first beefsteak tomato's.

 

Here's the three sisters garden with a close up shot so you can see the squash and beans.  Not yet worried about overcrowding but I really pushed the envelope on this design.  If I need to thin it I will and learn for next year.

 

Always nice to see the grapes starting out.  After pruning so heavy this year I wasn't hopeful about a decent crop but it looks as if it's not going to be bad, and I'll get the shape of the vine I want.  BTW, no leaves yet on the 42 potted cuttings but it can take some time.

 

 

 Here's a nice shot of some of the Roma tomato's.

 

 

 

 

The secession garden is doing really well. The cucumbers were thinned and are vining out well. The peas are growing well in the back right. Some Cherokee beans in the back left. Lettuce, collards, and beets succession nicely as well as the radishes in the bottom left.

 

 

 

Here are the parsnips and the carrots. The parsnips in the closer half of the picture.

 

Didn't expect any blueberries this year so this is great.  I have 4 blueberry bushes. 

 

This garden has everything!  Strawberries, garlic, onion, sage, blackberry, oregano, thyme, dill, mint, and onion.

 

 

The fruit tree has a ton of nectarines starting to grow.

 And lastly, the hummingbirds.  They make my day.