Harvest 9.10.09

While we were watering the gardening we noticed a few things needed to be picked. We finally picked our first Lilac bell pepper and the first of the grape tomatoes. YUMM!! This is the last of our Spaghetti Squash. This weekend we are going to pull it up and plant some artichokes for next year! YUMM!!

Farm Update #16

This morning I decided to snap a few photos of the garden. While we are doing some cleaning of old plants and weeds here are some of the good things growing!

The giant pumpkin vine...



Eggplant finally blossoming...


Bell peppers finally turning colors...


Salad bar... YUMMM!!!

Stuffed Zuchinni Recipe

I had this HUGE zucchini Farmer Bob gave us a little while back. I figured it was a great chance to make some stuffed zucchini!

1/2 lb of ground lean turkey (can use meatless meat or ground beef if preferred)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 tablespoons of water
1 cup of diced zucchini
1 big zucchini
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray
1/4 cup of low fat stredded cheese

1. Preheat oven (or toaster oven) to 400.
2. Slice big zucchini lengthwise into two halves. Then half that. (You'll have 4 pieces)
3. Scrape out the seeds and lights spray them with cooking spray.
4. Place in the oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile the zucchini is baking....
5. Cook the turkey in a pan until fully cooked.
6. Place turkey in a mixing bowl and set aside.
7. Place the diced zucchini into the pan and saute up for about 5 minutes.
8. Toss all the seasonings, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, water, diced zucchini up with the turkey until mixed well.
9. When zucchini buzzer goes off, take out and spoon mixture into the zucchini.
11. Top with shredded cheese.
10. Place back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Outcome:
2 servings (one serving shown)



Nutrition:

What's zone 9?

Photo Source

One of the things I never paid much attention to was our our first/last frost dates are. I figured, hey we live in SoCal so I can plant what I want, when I want. Right? WRONG! After all the denial, I finally looked it up.

Zone 9 = Average dates Last Frost = 30 Jan / 28 Feb
Average dates First Frost = 30 Nov / 30 Dec

--USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps

Basically, this is saying I can probably garden well into November and even push it. We have some BIG BIG plans for the garden next year so it seems like we'll be doing all the renovations in Jan 2010 so we can start the garden in March. What renovations? We are finally going to finish off the retaining walls and put in a new sitting wall on the hill. We are also going to hook up a better irrigation system and build a new trellis for the grapevines and raspberries.

Back the the idea of planting and harvesting. I think I'm pretty much done planting for the rest of the year. What is out there is out there.

Freezing Spaghetti Squash

We harvested quite a bit of spaghetti squash the other day.

Now, we love spaghetti squash but we will not eat all this in one week. I figured why not freeze it and be able to to enjoy the fruits of our labor in the "dead" of our winter. I know, our dead of winter is like 60 degrees. :)


Wash and cut the spaghetti squash lengthwise and toss into the oven at 400 for 20 minutes (i do it till it's lightly golden). Once it's cool, take out the spaghetti strands using either a spoon, fork or a ice cream scoop. Pack in freezer bags and store.



To reheat, take it out a few hours before from the freezer and let it thaw out a bit. Now, cook it any way you'd like, stir fry, steam, bake into a dish! Enjoy!

Pests in the Garden

In the early spring I found lettuce caterpillars and aphids. I researched and found the the answer to it all was planting Marigolds. Now it's late August and one of my cherry tomato plants is slowing dying. While cleaning out all the dead branches I noticed this little guy chilling.



I wondered if there were more and found another one dead and withered up. Not knowing what type of pest this was,I looked him up and I think it is a tomato hornworm.

After much research, it seems that the only two ways to get rid of them is to pick them off and drop them in soapy water, or dust them with a chemical. I will go with the soapy water for now.

Chili Peppers

While I was watering the garden, I noticed some chili peppers ready to be harvested.



We don't eat these so we quickly washed them and then stuck them in the freezer for my mom.

I haven't taken many photos of the garden because it's in a bit of a transition. Hopefully we'll get things straightened out and will post this weekend!

Container Gardening...

When I moved all our herbs, I didn't really have a good place to put them so I threw them in a container. I've never done much container gardening before so this was new to me.


Basil, chives, sage, oregano, and something else

I also wanted to grow some more cucumbers and peas. I had these two long containers that had annuals in them. We chucked all of them and planted more seeds. I've shown photos in the past but here are they today! Cucumbers are already blossoming!!!



So far, so good! Can't wait to see how high they will grow! At the moment we are using twist ties we got from the produce section at the market. seems to be working like a charm! The vines are already 3 times longer than when I had them laying on the ground.

Farm Update #16

Lots of things are still growing in the garden.

Pumpkins




Bell Peppers


Salad Bar


YUM!!!

Zucchini Bread

Yesterday I ventured over to Farmer Bob's house and got a TON of veggies. While the majority of them are going to be chopped up and put in the freezer, I decided to make some nice and yummy bread.


Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup flaxseed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg substitute
2 tablespoons of Agave Syrup
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini


Directions

1. Mix dry stuff and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix egg, sugars, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Stir in vegetables.
4. Add dry ingredients.
5. Pour into greased bread pan. Bake 45-55 minutes at 330 degrees until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Outcome:
1 loaf yields nine servings




Nutrition:

Recipe Section

With all the food we've grown, I wanted to start an area about what to do with it. All the food highlighted here is from either our garden, a friend's garden or the farmer's market down the street from us. We'll be showcasing all sorts of meals from appetizers to desserts.

Thanks again for baring with us during this time of transition!

Learning to grow a new life...

When we first started out, we didn't have any idea of what we were were doing. To be honest, we didn't even know if what we planted would even grow. We set out and built a wall on our hill to use up some of the wasted space and made a garden. It started out pretty simple and then grew to take over most of the hill we had. So far we've harvested more the 54 lbs of food and realized we had a bit of a knack for it. Not to shabby for our first year in production.

Now, I'm not saying we know what we're doing now, if fact we don't. Every day I'm wondering if I should do this, or do that. I'm constantly looking up plant diseases and tend to fall asleep with my organic gardening book on my lap. But with all the said and done, I'm amazed at what a garden can do.

The garden not only taught us alot about micro farming but also about our lifestyle. We became more eco-friendly and conscious of what we ate. We exchanged the rice for squash and left the canned tomatoes at the grocery since we had a bush spitting out tomatoes left and right. Snack time meant going to the snow peas and pulling off a few to nibble on before dinner. It's been quite a journey these last few months and can't wait to see what errors we made and what surprises we stumble upon.

Website Changes

Hey everyone,

I'm making a few website changes over the next few weeks. I've realized the more I want to talk about something I'm usually wanting to talk about all things dirt related. So, I'm going to spruce up this blog a bit. First off, I finally bought a real web address:
www.learningtosow.com. If you're already using an RSS Feed, you're fine.

Now, don't hate me for the fact I'm adding paid advertisers too. Right now we are just showcasing Google Ads but I'm in the process of setting up a real ad network of sorts. If you'd like to advertise please email me at linda@learningtosow.com.

Also, if there is anything you'd like to see more about, please feel free to drop off ideas of what you'd like to see. I'm also looking for any newbies who'd like to contribute to this blog. :) The more the merrier I think!

So, bare with me in the next two weeks getting all the changes completed. Thanks again for following my little journey!

Our Favorite harvest

We've grown, so many different things if I had to pick something I was the most excited about, it is this: GARLIC!!!!



What's been your favorite thing to grow?

Things you learn along the way...

Okay, so like I said before, we're learning as we go! Before last spring, I had no clue that we needed to "feed" the plants. I never knew that marigolds are nature's way to keep pests away. I never knew egg shells are the answer. I just figured you dig, throw seeds in and just water. For some, it is that easy, for other things it's a little more difficult.

One thing I realized is how important bees are. I first read how they are needed for corn. With no bees, there's no corn. Now, I realized how extremely important they are to pumpkins. Well, I just found this fantastic article on how to do the pollination yourself if you find yourself deficient in bees. I usually see a few bees chilling out in our pumpkin blossoms. Now I understand what they are doing when they go from one blossom to another. I had no clue there was a male blossom and a female blossom! So tonight I am going to go inspect our "little" pumpkin vine and see how many females we have on there. I know we have lots of males and those males are good for making tempura with! Yum!!!

Off to see what else is worth finding in the garden!

Farm Update #15

I usually do this weekly but wanted to give a little glimpse of what the garden looks like every morning.



Pumpkin blossoms


Tomato Blossoms


Cucumbers learning to climb


Our mini giant pumpkin

Baby Star Melon




New Pea Seedlings


Radishes from the Salad Bar area

Farm Update #14

If I could pick one color describe the garden, I'd pick yellow. We have lots of blossoms and flowers coming out right now. Too many to photograph, so here are a few highlights!

Giant Pumpkin Vine

Bees doing their thing in one of the many pumpkin blossoms

Pretty Giant Sunflowers

Star Melon Blossoms


Our friend Farmer Bob has a big garden at his ranch. His puts ours to shame to be quite honest. In fact, we went over there on Saturday to "steal" some veggies and fruits. Below are just a FEW of the squash he's growing on top of some corn. We also grabbed 15 lbs of oranges. Oh so juicy! I could feel bad but I did give him a spaghetti squash... ya, just one, but it really was a big one! :) Thanks Farmer Bob!

Making a salad bar

Finally a not so hot Saturday. We ended up spending the day in the garden. Planting more seeds and moving around some herbs and flowers. Remember our Herb garden? Since we harvested a lot of the herbs already (while the rest we moved to a container plant) we decided to create a salad bar. We planted spinach, carrots, beets, radishes, and lettuce. I know I know, it's August 1st, and why would I do this. Well, I don't know what I should plant or not because of the seasons since where we live we don't get more then two seasons here (Yay Southern California!). So we'll see how this goes.

We did something different too, since we wanted to make sure some these crops get enough moisture, we took a few six packs (no not the beer kind), cut them up and placed them in the ground. This way it can catch water and take the water to the roots too! This could be an ingenius idea for doing this but I will wait to see how everything grows before I mark this as a victory for thinking outta the box. :)



In our salad bar garden, we have carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, and spinach. Can't wait till next weekend and hope we'll start seeing some sprouts!

Farm Update #13

Our little stick is now a grapevine


The hill has been taken over by spaghetti squash! YUMM!


The newest addition to the family... 3 new tomato plants


The original cherry tomato plant has given us well over 14 lbs and lots more to come


Notice anything different? We harvested the corn and cleaned out the area to plant more small tomato plants. We're going to sell them a our local farmers market. Here's hoping they grow like our first one!

Our multi cultural pepper plants in the back, the front row is eggplant


The Giant Pumpkin vine is growing!



Our Super Sunflowers... They are now 7 ft tall.

Our little cucumber seedlings

Farm Update #12

Peppers and eggplants newly planted!


Spaghetti Squash blossom and our first big squash!



our little Cherry Tomatoes are just producing like crazy!


We've picked over 9lbs of tomatoes in the last week. We ended up making spaghetti sauce with it... Oh SOOO good!