Celery on the right, cabbage in the center, broccoli on the left. Yes, I grow those things. This is the first year for celery.
Picture taken a few minutes ago.
/johnny
Posted on 12/27/2013 12:25:05 PM PST by greeneyes
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I normally wouldn't be up this late but I had a special phone call that woke me, and I checked FR while I was up.
Most of my bread recipes, even in my head are in grams and milli-liters, and I weigh ingredients.
Blend oil is vegetable oil and olive oil (90:10) that I make up and use for general cooking.
That recipe was from memory and on the fly, so I used whatever unit of measure hit my brain first. I'm flexible. ;)
/johnny
“... or let mature to a winter squash which keeps well.” A-HAH! It IS a winter squash that you pick when very immature (one page said 2-4” diameter) to use as a summer squash.
Another page identifies it as “C. Moschata”; that's the second species of squash & some pumpkins; generally the smaller winter squash is that or C. Mixta. C. Pepo is the typical summer squashes.
In one fieled trial of 30 squashes, this one ranked # 1 in taste; #11 in texture.
Zapallo del Tronco, was an outstanding producer, again needing the trellis mentioned above. One plant in a garden of this variety, however, would be more than sufficient. The two plants in our garden yielded 217 fruit.
This variety has the added attraction of being one of four varieties that were least affected by powdery mildew, and was ranked our best tasting squash. A combination of these trellis varieties planted in a home garden would not only produce significant amounts of squash, but their vines could have a decorative effect as well.
... For gardeners short on space, who want to grow mini-pumpkins and summer squash, we recommend the Potimarron and Zapallo del Tranco, both are pumpkins eaten in their native lands as tender summer squash and they can be left on the vine to ripen to a pumpkin.
http://www.mastergardeners.org/projects/mcclellan/2003/summer-squash_end.html
Since they make (relatively) small pumpkins; and they are an heirloom, you'll be able to easily save seed. a week or three after fruits are forming and flowers are still blooming, pick a male flower and hand pollinate a couple of female flowers, and then tape or twisty-tie the petals shut so bees cant get to it. Make sure you mark or have a way to remember which ones you did this to. As the fruit gets about the 2" size, you can lightly scratch a P ("pollinated") or "S" (save!) on the skin with a dull pencil. The scratch will scar & heal over, leaving a permanent mark. Let those fully ripen until the stem turns brown, and 'slips' easily off the vine runner. The seeds in it will be 'purebreds' for next year; just clean & dry them when you slice & scoop the squash for use.
I was squimish my first year. Coming across a Mormon cricket grub, (size and thickness of pinkie and white/clearish ugly thing) had me using gloves and can of soapy water. By the 2nd year of growing our food, I was grabbing grasshoppers, ugly bugs that were rather “filled” and squashing bare-handed. Our garden feeds us and I can and dehydrate most of it, sharing the bulk with my daughter’s family. No bug is taking food from my grand boys mouths! (grin).
Debbi
Apple, it was good of you to trace this squash. I will try to germinate six seeds and use the best three to see if I can successfully grow them. If I were to get that many fruits, I'd can them. I looked in my pickling book for pickling squash
and there are two canning recipes - one sweet and one semi-sweet.
As of today, I have four different type onion seeds up under the grow light.
Addictive, isn't it, nurturing new life that provides for our meals?
/johnny
/johnny
Just ordered Stevia seed from Burpee.
One is broccoli and I have “Di Ciccio Broccoli” - “a traditional Italian variety that produces a 3-4 inch blue-green head with non-uniform, medium sized shoots to follow. Harvest in about 50 days.” I grew up in east Texas and my parents were from Arkansas and the food they had growing up was raised in their gardens. They were excellent farmers of staple foods. There was never a broccoli in our family garden and it was never on our table. I have found I have a hard time accepting “strange” foods like broccoli growing here and it's because I never saw it growing in our garden.
I should be able to grow broccoli here - rightly_dividing, do you grow broccoli here?
The other main one I'm wondering about is celery. I have an envelope of “Tall Utah 52-70 R Improved”. “Tall green Pascal type. Very productive, widely adapted. Resistant to boron deficiency and Western celery mosaic. Harvest in about 105 days.”
If I try to grow this celery, I need to plant the seeds now under grow lamp.
Any of you in Texas grow celery?
Celery on the right, cabbage in the center, broccoli on the left. Yes, I grow those things. This is the first year for celery.
Picture taken a few minutes ago.
/johnny
Do you use avocado oil for anything?
Also, are those plants you posted pictures of planted outside and if so what is the lowest temperature they will stand and not freeze?
I notice you are somewhere in Texas.
I know west Texas gets down to 10° in the winter.
TIA
I don't use avocado oil, mainly because of availability and cost. I have, in some of the fine dining kitchens, but I wasn't paying for it.
/johnny
Your celery/broccoli pictures: OK, I’m planting the celery and broccoli and expecting it to grow.
Those two plants were part of a summer squash field trial by Santa Clara County Extension Master Gardeners, in the famed Santa Clara Valley, south of San Francisco. I included the link to the report in my post to Marcella, if you're interested. Naturally, those plants had every advantage, from climate & season length, to soil preps, to expert care & tending.
I was immediately interested in Marcella's post about that squash, as squash & pumpkins make good, cheap rabbit & chicken food, as well as being a human favorite. It was the "C.Maxima" that caught my eye, as most summer squash are "C.pepo", and don't make good keepers; these are both summer (immature) squash, and a winter keeping pumpkin. The squash & pumpkins are cheap & easy to grow, as well as heavy producers.
When the rabbits are eating them, they get most of their water needs supplied by them, so frozen water bottles are less of a problem, too. They eat them seeds, rind, and all; the chickens also eat the seeds & meat, but leave the shells.
Pellets are not only expensive to feed, but we lost our local feed store, so it adds about $6-7 in fuel costs every time I have to buy more at the next-closest location. As a result, we're trying to add more home grown feeds into their mix. They also get the added benefit of variety in their diet.
The Master Gardeners say they need to be trellised, but that's no problem, as I have some 4'X8' cedar lath panels in the barn that would work well.
I just ordered a bunch of seeds and some little peat pots.
Tomato, Black Cherry
Tomato, Cherokee Purple
Tomato, Big Rainbow
Basil, Christmas
Basil, San Remo
Chives, Common
Cilantro
Dill, Mammoth
Parsley, Single Italian
Rosemary
Thyme, Common
Squash, Summer, Golden Egg
Lettuce, Gourmet Blend
Microgreens
I’ve never grown Rosemary from seed, but if this fails, I’ll just buy a couple of small plants. All I need is for two or three seeds out of a hundred to germinate. I’m going to start much earlier this year.
Holy cow. They look fantastic.
/johnny
You choice of seeds is interesting as none of mine are the same as yours. I suppose I’ll have to stomp around in my mental garden and compare it to the actual plants that come up, until I can decide what is best for here and for me. You have experience and I don’t and this coming growing season will give me part of the experience I need, to see where I screw up next. Every failure is important so I don’t make that mistake when I may need that food to eat.
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