Weekly Garden Thread - September 2-8, 2023 [I Scream, You Scream We All Scream for...Salsa? Edition]

September 2, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[GaltAdonis]

Hi garden folks!

.

I've got the INDOOR winter salad garden now started.
Going to attempt fresh lettuce and herbs indoors all winter for salads.

The first of the Black Seeded Simpson trays are planted.
I'm planning the next trays to be Baby Spinach
(maybe Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach), and also
Heirloom Ruby Red Leaf lettuce and maybe Buttercrunch.

The primary question I have is -

WHAT VARIETIES of lettuce/spinach and any other vegetables/herbs
may do well indoors by a south-facing window over the wintertime?

I'm in the Northeastern US - central coastal New Jersey.
I will augment the natural light from the window with
a combination of flourescent grow lights and maybe some incandescents.

And as an experiment I will try one broccoli plant per 5 or 6 inch pot -
to see how - and IF - that actually works.

What say y'all?
Any advice? Or am I Looney for even trying this? (Might as well use the Den for SOMETHING, right?)

Something other than starting tomato and pepper seedlings indoors
so that I have biggish healthy plants to put outside in
mid May sometime - which I've been doing for decades.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You’ll have better results with cool-weather crops indoors over winter. Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Arugula, etc. Leaf-lettuces are easier to grow as you can use them as ‘cut and come again’ plants. Anything that ‘heads’ such as the Buttercrunch can be problematic.

I do a lot of sprouting and grow microgreens (for cutting) in the winter months.

It’s fun to experiment - so if you hit upon something that works really well indoors in winter, let us know! :)

[Pocketdoor]

Thanks, I will start cutting them back some. I do have another batch of Green maters closer to the ground. I think those horn worms are so beautiful, I save them for fishing bait. The hatched moths are really cool too. They are about the size of a hummingbird. I seen them pollinating my orka too.
My Okra is over 6’ tall and still growing.

[GaltAdonis]

"...Leaf-lettuces are easier to grow ..."

.

I've had wonderful luck with Black Seeded Simpson lettuce over the years. (Outdoors, of course.)
Pull off the biggest leaves & eat 'em. Let the rest keep growing.
That why they were the first seeds in the dirt in this indoor wintertime garden experiment!

I'll keep you posted & informed as this endeavor 'sprouts' forward....

[GaltAdonis]

Here's a question - Is it possible (or advisable) to grow BASIL indoors?

Anyone know?

In the past I've grown them outdoors in 3 gallon pots with success. So....

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I understand completely! They do not like dogs!

So the local police force is aware of them running a shooting range on their property? Maybe keep track on a calender. And if they are shooting wild game the local warden would need to know so they can check their hunting permits? (Maybe the warden should be alerted to the fact that there is a white deer in the area?)

Good luck!

[Liz]

You ran out of chips? So whatcha gonna do w/ all that nifty salsa? Try this.

Egg Bites
The "in" dish, these baked egg bites are an easy version of the ones made popular by Starbucks.

Ingredients 5 small tri-color baby potatoes, thinly sliced ¼ stick butter 10 small eggs 1 small yellow bell pepper, finely chopped 1 small tomato, finely chopped ½ cup fresh spinach or mushrooms ¼ cup chp ham ¼ cup chp white onion 12 mozzarella, pepperjack or cheddar cubes

Directions In sprayed 12-cup muffin tin, place a thin layer of potato slices on bottom. Add a little butter on top. Bake 350 deg 5 minutes.

Mix eggs, bell pepper, tomato, spinach, ham, and onion in a large bowl. Ladle egg mixture over warm potatoes. Top each muffin cup with a cheese cube. Continue baking til eggs are set, about 20 minutes. Serve w/ a side of salsa.

[Liz]

A good DIW tip:

If you’re ever able to afford a Prime Rib Dinner again, here’s my little tip: Ask for an End Cut and just get the ‘Queen’ size. It will be well-done but it will be a HUGE piece of meat, because no one every asks for it.

I’ve done that in the past, and there is always enough left over for Eggs and Prime Rib for Two the next morning. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Mom’ has a way of keeping Basil going in her kitchen all winter long.

I’ll let her ‘splain. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yes, there is a lot of give and take in Nature, for sure.

Never thought of using the horn worms for bait, but they would be perfect. A big old Wide-Mouth Bass would LOVE that snack, or a big fat Crappie, or a Bluegill! :)

Man, I miss Yellow Perch! We used to catch them by the bucket-full when I was a kid. You hardly ever see them, now. On our stays at ‘the cottage’ where my Grandparents retired; we’d have a Fish Fry every Friday night from all of the fish we caught during the week.

Big Silver Lake, Wautoma, Wisconsin. *HEART*

Grandpa and I used to harvest some grub that made a gall on the sturdy stems of Goldenrod. If you found that gall and split it open, there was a white grub in there that was great for fishing. It probably has gone the way of the Yellow Perch. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Black Seeded Simpson is an awesome lettuce variety - it’s been around since 1850. I LOVE it’s chartreuse leaves; they look so pretty in a salad with all the other ‘boring’ lettuce colors. Those leaves look SPECTACULAR with purple Kale in a salad bowl.

Seed some purple Kale in your winter experiments. I like ‘Scarlet’ from Baker Creek. It’s another that you can cut the outer leaves when small and it keeps coming back. It also works well in a micro-greens mix, or for basic sprouting.

Can’t wait to hear how things go this winter - when I’m up to my butt in snow and you’re growing lettuces. ;)

[MomwithHope]

Actually it lasts until late January. We just don’t get enough sun in west Michigan. You can cut some young stalks and put them in a wide mouth ping canning jar. Or if you have one of those totally round small fishbowl size jars even better. Just change the water every couple of days. You’ll get nice white roots soon and it will be perfectly happy. We don’t have city water though if that makes a difference. I chop my extra fresh basil, put in a quart Ziploc freezer bag, add olive oil, enough to coat it all. Squish it around a bit, flatten seal and freeze. When you want some fresh basil just break off some.

[MomwithHope]

Sorry ping = pint. At my age I don’t want a lot of indoor plants to take care of.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Brilliant! I make those ‘egg cups’ fairly often around here. Adding Salsa to the mix would be perfect!

I made up a batch of fresh Salsa today. Beau ate about half of it as a snack!

It really is the best of the best - everything but the onion was out of the garden and my only excuse for THAT was that Wisconsin grows a LOT of root crops in the middle of our state where the Glaciers ground the soil to a lovely sandy loam. Carrots, Taters, Onions, etc. ‘Dirt Cheap’ for me, so I don’t bother with them in my garden. OK - I DID grow German Butterball potatoes this season, but just 12 hills in an 8x4 raised bed. Meh. My soil, even in an AMENDED raised bed is still not that SANDY LOAM that taters crave. Enough production for a dozen meals but we won’t make it through the winter on THAT, LOL!

Reminds me of the book, ‘Make The Bread, Buy The Butter.’ To get the most bang for your buck, you need to look at what is available in your area on the cheap and what household foodstuffs are cheaper to make yourself.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Ping to Post #52.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You’ve inspired me. The other day I was doing some re-arranging in the garden, getting ready for fall plantings.

I had a LOVELY ‘Lemoncello’ Basil plant, which is a new & improved lemon-flavored Basil that I am just CRAZY about. It has nice BIG Leaves, where as other lemon basil varieties in the past always had such small leaves.

Anyhow, I have six cuttings from that plant in a Mason jar on the kitchen counter near a west window that gets good end of day sun. Waiting on roots... :)

[MomwithHope]

Just change the water often. I might try that basil next year. I only grow sweet basil

[GaltAdonis]

Thanks!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Liz! Nice appitizer or picnic food! (I happen to have some chedder and eggs!) Bet some cooked bacon in the center would taste good too!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

It is a nice spread! Used some peppers today.

I have to start harvesting the rest of my peppers and freezing them for the winter! Need to clean out the beds for garlic and potato onions.