Tour of Garden and Hydroponic Systems Used

I love walking in my little garden in the morning while I have my coffee.  Here is what our garden looks like so far this year.

The strawberries are coming along in the NFT system( short for Nutrient Film Technique).  This system is made up of 4" sewer pipe, a plastic tote, pump, and wood.  The water flows continuously through the pipe.  The strawberries are planted in a 3" net pot with coconut coir.

 

The tomatoes are planted in the dutch bucket system.  The water also circulates but only a few times a day.  This system is set up on a timer.  The buckets are filled with perlite. Even with no dirt the tomatoes have a good tomato taste not watery as I was afraid they would be.

 

 

This is our Kratky system which we call the ponds.  The Kratky system is made of Styrofoam, plastic and some wood for the sides.  The water and fertilizer does not flow through this system it just sits in the pond.  This system is best suited for lettuce. 

 

Vertigro pots are also good for growing strawberries.  These pots are filled with coconut coir and perlite.  The plants are watered at the top with the nutrient water solution. 

Hydroponics has so many positives
No weeds in hydroponics so the plants get all the nutrients.  No waste of water - in Florida this is so important. Plus they look beautiful growing in these systems.

This Weeks Harvest

 

 R has been planting squash, zucchini, and potatoes this week,  He works early morning and late afternoon delivering mail to the post offices and picking up the bulk mail in the afternoon.  This gives him time during the day to work in the garden. I also work at the post office but I am a carrier and so I do not have as much time during the week to harvest my veggies. This Sunday morning I could hardly wait to get in the garden and see what I had.

 

Here is what we picked today.

 

6 1/2 lbs red tomatoes

 

6 lbs green tomatoes (R tired to trim some of the dead off the bush and broke it so we had to pick the green tomatoes off the broken stem

 

4 1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts

 

1 head cauliflower

 

1 pint red strawberries

 

large bunch of cilantro

 

large bunch of parsley

 

We still have plenty of lettuce in the hydroponic garden but we pick it as needed.

 

 

Well I better get outside --- still some of Sunday left to work

Cold Weather --It's Time for Stew

My grandpa Worley owned a BarBQ place in Georgia and that is where I spent most of my time as a kid. Eating there, playing  there, and as I grew older I worked there. My favorite thing to eat was the brunswick stew over BarBQ bread. To me Brunswick Stew is the ultimate comfort food because it always bring back memories of my grandma and grandpa.



This is my recipe for Brunswick Stew



1 small boston butt around 1 to 2 lbs
1 cup frozen green lima beans
4 large potatoes
1/2 cup worcesterhire sauce
1 large onion
1 -10 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can cream corn
salt and pepper



1. for the best stew cook the boston butt and onions in crock pot for 12 hours but any cooking method will do as long as you cook the meat until it is tender don't forget to salt the pork



2. cook green lima or butterbeans (as we call them) in small amount of water - salt to taste and cook until beans fall apart or as I call it mushy and most of the water is gone



3. peel and cut potatoes into small cubes



4. In large stew pot add cooked and shredded pork and onions and all the juice collected in the crock pot, the cooked lima beans, the cubed potatoes, can of stewed tomatoes, and 1/2 cup worcestershire sauce



5. If stew is too thick add chicken broth or water



6. cook this (adding chicken broth if it becomes too thick) for one hour



7. add can of cream corn and cook 30 minutes



8. be sure to stir often as the corn will stick to bottom



This stew can be frozen in small containers and will keep for about 3 months


This is my favorite stew  not only because of the taste but I love the memories that come with it. 


If you have a favorite stew recipe let me know.  I love soups and stews and I enjoy trying new recipes for them.

Brussels Sprouts --It Takes Patience

Finally after 6 months of waiting I have my first real picking of Brussels sprouts.  I say first because I did pick some to cook a few weeks ago. The first week of September I planted the Brussels sprouts and it seem to take forever for them to even get any size to the plant.  Finally I started to see a few sprouts in January and this day in February  I finally cut the sprouts off of two plants

First I cut the leaves off the plant.  Not sure if taking off the leaves is good or bad but it sure looks beautiful to me..  The little sprouts popped right off the bush.

I only picked the bigger ones at the bottom and left the smaller ones at the top.  Can't wait to see how tall the bush will grow.

I weighed the sprouts to see how many I had and it totaled 2 and 1/2 lbs.  I was pleased.  Since R isn't home this week I am putting the sprouts in the freezer for later. 

 

I blanched the sprouts for 4 minutes in boiling water

Then I cooled them in the ice bath



Next I spread them on a cooling rack on a baking tray

Put the rack in the freezer and then bag them after they freeze. They can be thrown in a freezer bag at this point but I do no like them to freeze in a big clump.

It may be strange to get so excited over growing things in my garden but it is what it is. LOL

A Little Time Off

Sometimes you just have to take a little time off.  Yesterday R and I went fishing on the Ocklawaha River.  Neither of us really know how to fish but we have the boat, we have the equipment, and we have a Florida fishing license.  I prefer a pole and a live worm where as R likes a rod and reel and some kind of fake thing on his hook.

After a few hours of killing off a few worms and getting his jig hung in the lilly pads we finally gave up.  R swears there are no fish in the Ocklawaha River.  After this boat ride, because you really can't call it a fishing trip, we headed home.  R with his hurt pride and me with a little sun on my legs went home and did a little farming.  When the temperature is 86 degrees it makes you want to go fishing and also do some farming. 
Today is a work day (outside of home and where I pick up a paycheck). So for the next four days I can only dream of fishing /boating. Let me know what you like to fish with and any tips on catching a fish would be appreciated.

Making Tomato Sauce Today

I feel like I am bragging when I post about making tomato sauce from the tomatoes in my garden and it is February.  But it is what it is!!  We had several days of temperatures in the 40's here in Florida and we did not like it at all. 

This Monday morning I just felt the need to do something with all the fresh tomatoes we have.   We love salad and we eat it often but we still have extra tomatoes.

Here is the bowl of tomatoes I used in my sauce today.

The tomatoes are a mixture of black krim and early girls.  We both like the acidity of the black krim tomatoes and this tomato is our choice for eating in salads and making sandwiches.  Here is the desciption of this tomato from the burpee seed catalog

 aka Black Crimson) Krim is Russian and Ukrainian for Crimea, which is a peninsula in the Ukraine. The heirloom tomato tomato Black Krim is named for it.  This rare, and outstanding tomato yields 3-4" slightly flattened dark-red (mahogany-colored) slightly maroon, beefsteak tomatoes with deep green shoulders. Green gel around seeds. Fantastic, intense, slightly salty taste (which is great for those not wanting to add salt to their tomatoes

Another blogger (can not remember which one) uses the vitamix  blender to make tomato soup so I decided to try my ninja.  No peeling or chopping needed-- just wash and throw whole tomatoes in the blender.

I did feel the need to remove the seed. This was easy and as you can see --not much waste.

Seeds from the juice after it was strained

I cooked the juice until it was the thickness I wanted and it turned out very tasty.  Since I only have half a quart jar I will store in the fridge until I need it this week.  For longer storage I would put it in the freezer.

Today in February I feel lucky to be making tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes from my own garden.