Wednesday, August 28, 2013

OKRA OKRA AND MORE OKRA


The plants are beautiful with their large green leaves and pale yellow flowers.
As beautiful as the okra plants are they can be brutal to the skin when cutting the pods.  The itchy feeling is quickly gone as soon as soap and water hits the skin.  This is never a deteriorate from cutting this delicious veggie. 

This is the perfect vegetable to grow in the extreme heat of summer.  It seems the hotter the weather the more pods it produces. 

I love okra!! Sauteed, fried, Pickled and in soups  -- Okra is the best.

My freezer is slowly filling up with okra for the winter. Here is how I freeze okra

Wash and dry ( I use newspaper -spread out on counter - with a top layer of paper towels) Let okra air dry for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Then I slice pods into small circles and put in bags in freezer.  This can be used for soups or pan sauteing.

Another way I prepare okra is by cutting off each end in putting the okra pods in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes then immediately into a cold water bath.  I drain the pods but do not air dry.  I cut the pods and shake them in cornmeal.  The cornmeal will stick without anything else added.  I then place the corn mealed okra on a tray and place in freezer.  After they have frozen I put in a freezer bag. This way they do not stick together.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Hydroponic and Dirt Gardens are doing good

Hard to believe when it is still 95 degrees outside that it is time to get a move on the fall garden.  I told pawpaw last night that if we don't pick up the speed it will be time to get the plants in the ground and we want have enough to plant. Gotta get those seeds in the starter cups now.

We did plant a few squash, pumpkin, kale, broccoli, and collards last week.  Hoping to put the kale, collards, and broccoli in our hydroponic system and see how they grow compared to the ones we start in the soil. 

The squash and pumpkins were started in my newspaper pots.  I made these according to the directions of a YouTube video.  I just googled newspaper pots and came up with several videos then I chose one, followed the direction, and made several pots.

The newspaper pots are great for the squash and pumpkins.  Another free seedling starter pot we use is the pods from our keruig machine.  PawPaw used the coffee grounds in the compost pile and he also read the grounds are good for his blueberry bushes. 
 
Cucumbers are coming along but the kale and broccoli are slow grow.  I think it is too hot for them to sprout. 
 
Here is an update on our hydroponic plants
the eggplant has doubled in size in only two weeks and it is starting to bloom.
Bell peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are really growing.
 
One good thing comes from the heat.  Pleanty of okra for the freezer and for making pickled okra. 
 
So Much Work !! but I do love our garden.
 
 
 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Fall Garden Plans

Since I am not spending my free time harvesting, canning, freezing, or dehydrating my vegetables-- I am dreaming of my fall garden and surfing the web for gardening ideas.

When me and Rog  return from our trip to Chicago it will be time to start planting.  This year we are going to set up a hydroponic garden.  We have been ordering our supplies and watching loads of youtube videos.  There is a youtube guy --MHPGarderner-- that has over 200 videos which most are about vegetable gardening.  MHP is where we are getting most of our information for hydroponics.

I have been growing sweet potato slips for the last month.  Three little sweet potatoes have produced enough slips to plant a row in our garden.  I place the potatoes in a container with toothpicks holding half of the potato out of the water


 










Hydroponic Vegetables

After many hours of watching YouTube videos, ordering and shopping for supplies, and getting our seeds started we have started to assemble our dutch bucket growing system. Hydroponics is growing vegetables without soil.  The system takes some knowledge to get the equipment setup and a few already rooted vegetables.

As I was searching for gardening techniques on the Internet I found several videos from MHPGarderner.  He covers a lot of farming ideas from planting straight into the ground, growing veggies in his greenhouse and the idea that really caught my eye- hydroponics.  So we used a lot of his ideas and here is a pic of our new system before the plants have been added.


If you are interested in this system then be sure to check out MHPgardener. 

Our soil is so sandy and really does not have the nutrients needed for a great garden.  We have had to work with the soil and add compost, muck, and chicken poop to the small garden area we have.  We are hoping this will be the answer to expanding our growing possibilities.

Once our buckets are lined with a paint strainer and the perlite is added then we will plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the buckets. A small pump will pump the nutrients into the buckets and excess will drain back into the reservoir (AKA blue container).





The lids need to be added to the buckets.  Roger has to drill a 3 inch hole in the center for the plant.  The lid helps keep the rain water out (somewhat) and the wind from blowing the perlite out of the buckets. 

Can hardly wait to see if this works!!!




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