The Kohlrabi and The Mystery Squash

Many years ago, my sister Michelle gave me this cookbook for my birthday - "Garden Way's Joy of Gardening Cookbook" by Janet Ballantyne. Then one time when I was moving, I lost it. I knew it at the time and I searched and searched for it but I never did find it. So I had to buy another copy, because this is the most awesome cookbook if you are a vegetable gardener. It has a section for every vegetable you can imagine, with so many different types of recipes. If I am inundated with any one thing, I just go here and get some new ideas. I use it so much in the summertime.

Which brings me to the kohlrabi. I always plant a few kohlrabies because my husband really likes them. Several were ready to be picked last week, so I now have them in the house. A lot of times we will just eat them raw with salt, but I was looking for something different. So I pulled out my cookbook and found several saute recipes. Below is the one I chose to make and it was delicious.

Kohlrabi Basil Saute
from Garden Way's Joy of Gardening Cookbook by Janet Ballantyne

2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 Tablespoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup diced sweet red pepper
4 cups diced kohlrabies

Heat the oil in a large saute pan and add all the ingredients. Saute for 8-10 minutes, or until the kohlrabies are tender. Serve at once.

We also ate the mystery squash. To me it is a cross between a white pumpkin and a patty pan squash, and it was edible. I peeled it because the skin was tough, but not really thick. Then I sliced, marinated, and grilled it. I left the seeds in because they didn't seem too big or too many, but I think next time I would take them out.

I love fresh from the garden meals, don't you ?

A Vile Liquid

Well despite all of the fences we installed to discourage the deer from romping through our garden, one deer still was visiting the all-night buffet and snacking on melon leaves, beet tops, pumpkins, and zucchini, and yes, I mean the actual pumpkin and zucchini. Basically everything that came within it's path, which we could see from the hoof prints in the dirt. And then it would exit through the garden gate, knocking it over each time.

Enough, I had procrastinated long enough. When my Big Max pumpkin leaves were chomped off (luckily not all of them, I think a recovery can be achieved), I got out the blender. I had a jar of old cayenne peppers from a garden past, dried and stored away for some purpose, at the time not knowing how I would use them. Today I knew. I would make a potion so vile, if that deer took one bite, it would get the surprise of it's life.

Here's my witches brew.
A bunch of dried cayenne peppers
Several heads of old garlic
Tabasco sauce
Water
Just a splash of canola oil (to help adhesion)

I whirled it all up in the blender, strained the liquid into a spray bottle, and went to work.
Warning! If any of these steps can be performed outside, do it. If not, proper ventilation is essential. The oils released by the peppers caused me much sneezing and gasping if I breathed too closely to it. Also, be careful not to touch with your hands or get in your eyes.

I sprayed all the plants in the garden. And this morning I am happy to say nothing was touched. I added more water to the leftover ground bits of pepper to let it steep for a new batch. I'll reapply every couple of days or after rainfall. I hope this finally solves my deer problem.

Help - What is this ?

I am appealing to you for help with identifying this squash like thing. On my garden diagram I have it listed as Patty Pan Squash but it doesn't look like what I think of patty pan squash to be. Maybe because of the color, this is very white and the patty pans I grew in the past were more pale green. Because the shape looks similar to what I think it could be. I am trying to decide if it's ready to be picked and if it can indeed be eaten. I may have to pick one and experiment. Since I have it labeled on my chart I must have bought it this year because the mystery volunteer plants I transplanted from other parts of the garden are labeled as such and are definitely more vining (probably gourds or pumpkins). This plant is more bushy, like a zucchini. Please comment with your thoughts and ideas. I thank you in advance.



I am also posting this picture of flowering onion heads just because I like it. It makes me think of outer space - each round flowering head being an enclosed orb space station where a whole community of people could live.


And here is a picture of those evil deer creatures. In this photo they are far from the house and the little ones are looking deceptively cute. But beware, they have been known to cause much crying, wailing and cursing!

Hummingbird Takes a Drink!

I was going to call this Hummingbird Captured on Film! But I couldn't because it was taken with a digital camera and Hummingbird Captured on ? what do you even say, I don't know.

Anyway, my Husband was very patient and he snapped this photo with our little digital camera, not even a digital SLR. I think it turned out pretty darn good and I wanted to post it to share with everyone.

Meanwhile, at the oriole feeder, there hasn't been much activity except for the ants. I think I put the feeders out a little late this year so next year I will start earlier.

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - July 2008

Gather Ye Roses

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Gather ye roses while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying;

A world where beauty fleets away

Is no world for denying.

Come lads and lasses, fall to play

Lose no more time in sighing.

The very flowers you pluck to-day

To-morrow will be dying;

And all the flowers are crying,

And all the leaves have tongues to say,--

Gather ye roses while ye may.

Many thanks to Carolyn for hosting Garden Bloggers' Muse Day. Be sure to visit her site and check out all the verse posted for this day.

I chose "Gather Ye Roses" because I think it's important to remember to enjoy the garden and life, "stop and smell the roses", so to speak. It's so easy (at least for me) to let all the tasks that need to be taken care of overshadow the beauty in front of us. May your enjoyment of the day and your life be your dominating goal and the necessary tasks that take us from day to day, secondary, but never forgotten. For all too soon it will be fall and then winter and we will pine for the blooms of summer.

Coffee Blooms

Being that it is too wet to even walk in the swamp I call a vegetable garden, and the flower beds are pretty soaked as well, today I will write about one of our potted plants and our first coffee flowers. It's so very exciting. I didn't even think this plant would ever bloom, but would just be a nice foliage houseplant.

Let me introduce you to our coffee plant, formal name "Coffea arabica". We bought this plant at a local home store several years ago. At that time it was small enough that planted would fit very nicely into a styrofoam coffee cup. But how quickly it's grown. It doesn't like direct sunlight, especially outside. Some years we don't even bring it out in the summer, because even the slightest bit of direct sun causes the leaves to burn (as they are here) - and it's barely in the sun, just the tiniest bit of morning sun which can't be avoided as we don't have an awning over our deck.

The other morning John came to get me to show me something on the deck. Surprise! Flowers on the coffee plant. The flowers only last a couple of days and are lightly scented. I can't wait to see if we will get some beans, although I'm sure not enough for a cup of coffee.

Finished Planting - Finally !

Finally, I am finished planting. I thought I was finished a couple of days ago, then John reminded me that there was still one plant sitting on the sidewalk, still needing a home. And this morning, I found a spot for it. So now I am done.

I did a lot of planting the other day when I thought I was finishing up. But I actually didn't start out planting. I started out cleaning seashells. Yes, you read correctly, seashells. Almost two years ago now, we had gone on vacation to the North Carolina coast and took a day trip down to South Carolina where we went on a boat tour which included some shelling. Well John collected the mother lode of conch shells - which have been sitting in our basement, seemingly forgotten. But really not forgotten, I just hadn't figured out what to do with them. So I cleaned them up and now I have a little seashell garden area. They are where I can see them every day and remember what a great time we had on that trip.


Since I had cleaned up the flower bed to add the shells, I thought I might as well put those two remaining flowers in this bed as well, since there was room. I was going to just put them in pots to have on the deck but this is just as well. And hopefully they won't dry out as quickly as they would in pots.

Then I thought the only thing I had remaining was a monster of a Bleeding Heart that John's parents had dug out of their garden beds (the bed was overcrowded with it). Of course since I love Bleeding Heart we had to take it. I had actually been wanting to get a Bleeding Heart. Trying to find the right spot for this large specimen was the challenge. We decided to put half of it next to the Hellebore, where an azalea which didn't make it left a empty spot. The other, larger portion of the Bleeding Heart was to go where a Peony just wasn't performing. But that meant moving the Peony first. Which meant enlarging the Peony bed. You see, if it was just a matter of digging a hole, it would have been planted right away.

Well, I managed to get all that done, take pictures as I planned to post I was finished planting. It was then John informed me that there was still one lone plant on the sidewalk. But now, I can say, everything is planted.

Here is the Bleeding Heart, taking over the Peony's space.
And here is the Peony with the others, hopefully it will be happy here.