Brassicas

The Romanesco's were the healthiest of the Brassicas when they were young. They were the least affected by the Aphids (read about that here)

and they have been the worst affected as they started to develop.

The heat caused them to turn purple and many bolted. That is the price one has to pay for planting a winter crop in summer.

The Cauliflowers which were doing pretty badly as seedlings have grown to be much healthier that the Romanesco's or the Brocolli's.

And we have harvested a few nice ones. 

See how massive they are

I did soak them in warm salt water bath for a few minutes, and out came a few worms. Something I have NEVER seen happen in my supermarket bought produce. I am assuming it is because we did not use anything (other than some Neem) on these.

Lady's Finger

I am growing two different varieties of Lady's Finger (Okra as it is called in this part of the world).

These are the "Red Okra" seeds i bought from Peaceful Valley Farms. The pods are really long and seem to be doing well.

I planted them in the corners of the beds where I am growing my Tomatoes and they seem to be fighting for space. I did not have good germination rates in some spots and really good germination percentages in other spots on the planter bed.

Last week, I spotted a some ants crawling on the plant and saw this on the flowers. Scales maybe?
In any case, I sprayed them with a liberal dose of my cure all remedy- NEEM, but it does not seem to have much impact. Has anyone had similar issues with Lady's Finger (Okra) and used any

The Green ones were purchased from "Seeds of India" and seem to be of an interesting kind.

The ones above are some of the larger pods that I was able to harvest.

The interesting thing is that the pods are growing out of a plant that is really TINY !

Is it because my soil is too rich or is this a dwarf variety (the seed packet did not offer much insight), and until I find out otherwise I will claim that it is because my veggie garden is on steroids (compost steroids).

Drumstick

Comes with great taste and value is great trouble. (ME)

It can't be more apt than for the Drumstick tree. (Moringa oleifera)

The pods of the tree are a sought after delicacy in south India. The leaves find their way into all kinds of dishes, the most common being in Dals and in Crepes. I wasn't too fond of the greens (in large quantities) because it often led to an upset tummy day ! My favourite way of eating these was to fry the young leaves when making Ghee from Butter.

Talking about trouble, one of the biggest challenges growing these trees at home used to be hassle as most often the "Kambuli Poochi" would find their way there. I have had friends who got bit by these and yet people were not ready to get rid of the tree....I say get rid of the tree because the only fool proof way was supposedly to burn the trunk of the tree. From Googling the web, I think the "Kambuli Poochi's" as we called them are probably the Niger Caterpillars or the hairy Eupterote Molifera. 

When I found that Seeds of India carried Drumstick seeds, I was excited to get it and try growing it in my garden. 5 out of the 7 seeds germinated and then I lost 2 more during the first transplant. The remaining three are doing well for now, and hopefully grow strong enough before winter arrives so they can live through.

Jackfruit

Sometimes the things that make me really excited aren't really fancy. They are things that bring back fond memories of childhood and growing up in India. One such time was when i spotted this in one of the Indian grocery stores. Yes, you saw it right...it is the Jackfruit. One of our friends called it the vegetarian's chicken, because it resembles chicken in texture and looks.

In the township, they were usually sold by these push cart vendors during the time the fruit is in season. You could sample a piece and see how it tastes before buying a big chunk of it. Because, more often than not, the fruit might not be sweet enough, in which case you just dip it in some honey ! In rare cases, we used to have homegrown ones from Vijaya Aunty's, and their fruit was exceptionally sweet.


Guru used to have a Jackfruit tree at home, and anyone who had one would agree that you have to put in some effort to get to the fruit. Soaking the hands and fingers in oil and working through the sticky mess is an arduous task..

The seeds are one of my other favourite delicacy. They are dried and then cooked and added to "Kootu's". I still haven't cooked these seeds I saved (It has been close to 8 months) and hopefully in the next few weeks  I can get one of these recipes posted.

We also attempted to recreate my mother-in-law's Chakka Pradaman (which is a sweet dish like Kheer made with Jackfruits) and failed miserably.

Around the same time I spotted that Park Seeds carried Jackfruit seeds and so I went and ordered them right away. I also saved 2 seeds from my fresh fruit stash, soaked it for a few days in Kelp and planted all 3 in separate pots. Both the seeds I planted from my home stash germinated. The one from Park Seed did not. Of the 2 seedlings, I lost one to some Squirrel/ Skunk digging.

The biggest highlight of the story is that one of those seeds is now doing well and happy.

Coleus

2009 was the year I discovered the Coleus and how easy it was to go about propagating it. I looked for broken leaves, stems when we went to the nurseries. You just put them in a small cup of water and then they start forming roots in a few days. We typically put them into nice potting soil and watered them with a dose of B1 and in a day or two they would be doing well.

I got a bunch of the rainbow blends of Coleus...a few different brands

They seemed to start off pretty well, until the squirrels started to mess with them by digging into the planters when we were in New Jersey.                  

There was extensive damage in two of the pots and some minimal digging in the others.

They are now doing really well. The disappointing thing is that they all look fairly similar (to me)

Cucumbers

It's been raining Cucumbers for the last couple of weeks. This was our first big batch and ever since we have averaged about 2-3 pounds a day.

The Persian Cucumbers are very similar to the ones we had growing up in India. Though the fat ones from Bangalore or Ooty were sought after (because they were rare in Trichy), I love the tinier ones that are easy to eat and do not need much preparation (skinning, de-seeding or the like).

The biggest issue so far with the Cucumbers has been the challenge in harvesting them. We put them in our old planter beds from last year and they are on the wimpiest of the trellis we have in the whole garden. 

What you see on the planter bed on the left is the container cucumber which seems to be climbing pretty much like the regular Cucumbers. The one on the right are the Persian Cucumbers that are having a tough time climbing the wimpy trellis.

Humble beginnings of the Potager

Many a times I plan and I wish and almost all the time....I dream. Bringing those dreams to fruition is a pretty slow process.

When we did the garden planning for 2010, I had great ideas of planting companion flowers that would attract pollinating insects, ward off the evil ones and also look pretty.

And as with all other ideas I have had, it hasn't made it to the garden as yet, with the one exception of the Nasturtiums.

I soaked them overnight and threw them into my planter beds with the Tomato plants. They started to grow slowly from under the dense foliage of the Tomato plants.

Now almost a few months later I have a couple of different varieties of Nasturtiums blooming

And the Orange

I haven't tried the flowers in my salads but I am hoping that I will have a lot more of them in the next few months that I can pluck some for my salads.

Recycled Concrete Stepping Stones

We picked up a ton of concrete pieces that someone was giving away for free a few months back. (Read my earlier post here). It was with the idea of building a retaining wall to compensate for the change in grade and the stop the neighbour's dog from digging under the fence !

The progress on building the dry stacked hasn't taken off, it needs a lot of investment in time and money that we are not ready to do any time soon. Plus we needed some walkways in the garden.

Over the last couple of months we have been creating walkways and paths in our front and back garden with the recycled concrete pieces, and here is how we laid them out

In the front lawn

In the flower area in the front

And in the backyard

In a few weeks

This is one of those posts that has been lurking in the "draft" stage for a while and gone unnoticed.

Before our New Jersey Trip (1st week of June 2010)

And in 2 weeks .....

The BIG picture

If you have been seeing close up pictures of our fruits and veggies and are wondering about the BIG picture...here is one

The curry leaf tree - August 2010 update

Beginning of the season

And now

We are wondering where we should set it in the soil, or maybe give it another year in the pot so we can move it indoors in winter and by the next winter it is strong enough to survive the winter outdoors.

Ridge Gourds

One of the "exotic" Indian vegetables I planted this year was the "Ridge Gourd". Guru loves the chutney (I should start posting recipes soon) I make with this one and I was thinking that none of them made it this year.

But I think it is the weird weather and the cold front that has been plaguing the bay area this year. With the mercury shooting up ever so slowly, these little babies seem to be emerging.

Beets

It has been raining Beets lately.

The Detroit Dark Red .....

And the Chioggia Beet

These are supposed to have red and white rings......but mine were completely white. Did I harvest them too soon ?

Zucchini

This was our first harvest of the season ....back in June when we returned from New Jersey and found these on the overgrown Zucchini plant hiding beneath the massive leaves.

And we were curious to see how big they might grow.....and this was the biggest one we had

Having exhausted cooking it in all the different ways I could (coming soon), I went to my stash of cookbooks to see what they had to offer. The Cafe Paradiso cookbook is one my favourite ones and as I read Dennis Cotter's words, I said to myself.....I HAVE been packaging water all along.

But then again, the saving grace is that I was trying to cook "Indian dishes" with the Zucchini so far. (I am not counting the failed attempt at making Zucchini muffins or the grilled Zucchinis). Hopefully from now on we can get them when they are about 4 inches long and along with the Zucchini blossom intact.

Most of my Indian friends weren't interested in getting my Zucchini's because they didn't know what to do with it. Dedicated to them are my "Zucchini recipes...the Indian way", coming soon.

The Zucchini muffins that didn't rise

Brrrrrrrr

It is August and I still haven't harvested even one Tomato (from the 10 different varieties I have growing in my garden). A lot of them have set fruit but do not seem to be ripening.

It has been pretty cold here in the bay area and almost seems like it is still early spring. I like it that way, except that I don't get my Tomatoes to ripen :(

The temperature in July and August

Aphid Attack

We seem to have a pretty massive infestation of Potato Aphids on the Tomato plants. The worst affected being the Reise Tomato.

There is some yellowing in the bottom, but the plant does not seem to be affected badly (I might be wrong)

But then we spotted quite a few Hover Flies buzzing around and keeping the Aphid population in check :)

And we sprayed some Neem last Sunday, and I have been hand picking the leaves where I spot a massive infestation and destroy them. But then it does not seem to have much impact on the population, new colonies seem to be emerging on the young leaves every day.

We will be spraying Neem again this weekend and hopefully that will help keeping the Aphid population in check.

And a picture of the exotic Reise Tomato

The Flame Skimmer

Although considered native and very common in North America, this is the first time we have spotted the Flame Skimmer in our garden.

The nice part is that they pose really well for photographs !