What to do with a mess of peppers...

From Julie Sahni's magnificent Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking...
HYDERABAD HOT GREEN CHILI PEPPERS BRAISED IN ALMOND-CREAM SAUCE (Mirch ka Salan) + For some Indians flavoring food with hot chilies is not enough. They want to eat the chilies in their own right. So here is a recipe from Hyderabad of chili peppers braised just as you would any vegetable, in an almond-cream sauce. In the recipe I recommend Anaheim chilies, as I find the hot green chilies too strong. But for those with a fiery palate, poblano peppers probably would be more suitable here. FOR 6—8 PERSONS

• 7 tablespoons light vegetable oil
• 1 cup minced onion
• 3—inch stick cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon shredded fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¼—½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup coconut milk, plain yogurt, light cream, or a combination of all these
• 1 pound mildly hot fresh green chilies (such as Anaheim, preferably small ones), slit
• 2 medium-size tomatoes, cut into 1-inch-thick wedges
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste
• Heavy cream or milk

1. Measure out the spices and place them right next to the stove in separate piles. Heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy skillet until hot and add the onion. Over medium-high heat fry the onion until light brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning (about 10 minutes).

2. Add the cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and almonds, and continue frying until the seasonings look a little shriveled and the almonds begin to darken (3—4 minutes). Add the coriander, cumin, and cayenne, and let sizzle for 1 5 seconds; then add the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until the mixture looks like a thick pulp and the oil begins to separate from the gravy. Add the ½ cup water and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until the water has blended in and the sauce develops a nice thick consistency. Turn off the heat. With a spatula transfer all the sauce to a howl.

3. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil to the same pan. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chili peppers. Sauté, turning them, for 3 to 5 minutes or until they are well coated with oil, look glazed, and begin to steam. Add the tomatoes, increase the heat to high, and continue cooking, turning and tossing, for an additional 1 or 2 minutes.

4. Add the reserved sauce and mix well. Lower heat and cook, cove red, until the peppers look wilted (about 10 minutes). Do not overcook or they will become too limp and soft. Check and stir a few times to make sure the sauce is not sticking or burning. Stir in the coriander and salt. Turn off heat. Serve warm. If desired, fold in a few tablespoons of cream or milk to mellow and velvetize the sauce.

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

I planted a bunch of bronze fennel last fall, aiming to attract Black Swallowtail caterpillars. They decidedly prefer my garden's Florence Fennel, which is about to bloom. I wonder if I'll be able to harvest fennel seeds? That's one of my favorite spices...

Tomatoes

(tomatoes on the trellis -- matt's wild on the left, tiffany in the middle, better boy in the background

(tiffany, with thirty-eight walnut-sized or larger tomatoes and another dozen or so smaller. i've already harvested no fewer than a dozen. it's a VFNT hybrid, so no disease problems. pretty good flavor, great texture, good keeping. nice to have smaller tomatoes (3-4 oz). they look exactly like those "tomatoes on the vine" from the grocery store, growing in clusters of 4-5 fruits. from TGS.)

better boy. i've harvested several tomatoes that weighed in at more than a pound. delish. but in the end, the tiffany produces more tomatoes and the size is better suited for eating.

another shot of tiffany, from the other side, so you can see how many tomatoes are on one vine. the whole bush must weigh 30#, and i've had to add a bunch of strings to keep it up. they didn't break during the heavy winds this week.

i don't know if you can see this: but in the middle of the photo, a sun gold, growing in a large pot, that has hit the 9 foot limit of the conduit i'm using as a pole. i've decided to pull all the leaves from the bottom 1/3 of the plant and make it into a tree. my garden is a mess.


'yellow currant' (TGS). not a very good pic, but what a tomato! it's already at 10', much better behaved than matt's (it grows upright and the stems are self-supporting with a very little bit of help), more prolific than sungold, and the tomatoes are pretty good. if you look carefully, you can see the scads of tomatoes that grow in clusters of about 20 1/2" tomatoes.

anyway -- the in-ground tomatoes are all planted using the posthole method (thanks, delta charlie!), with one slight improvement: i dig out all the crappy sand in a narrow (maybe 18" diameter) hole, enough to fill a 5-gallon bucket. the sand gets dumped in a low spot in my yard. i use three or four paper grocery sacks, stacked together to form a very thick, stiff bag, to line the hole: i fold the top edge down a few times, enough to form an even stiffer cuff around the top of the bag, so the bag remains open and is about 2' tall. then, i stuff the bag into the hole i've dug, leaving the cuff a bit above the surface. i fill the hole with straight-up compost from my kitchen-scrap heap. i usually add a handful of water-retention crystals (i nursery friend gave me a ton of them for free), and then i test the ph and adjust with sulfur. (for whatever reason, my compost is a bit sweeter than tomatoes like it.) (oh, and without complicating things too much here, the tiffany was not planted using the paper bag method, but instead using two large nursery pots with their bottoms cut out and then tied together with twine through the drainage holes, forming a cylinder about 2' long. it was way too much work, very awkward to install, and led me to the paperbag method.)

the cuff lets me do two things -- i fill it with mulch and it allows me to water more easily (just fill the cuff with water and let it seep in). it also keeps the bad soil out.

anyway, the paper bag just makes the posthole method a bit easier, since you don't have to worry about the sand collapsing back into the hole. it also keeps the nematodes out, though for how long, i don't know. every week or so, i add a couple handfuls of compost to the top of the bag to fertilize the tomatoes and keep the soil level constant.

i haven't dug one of the tomatoes out yet, but presumably the roots of the tomatoes will eventually make it through the paper bag. the plants seem pretty low in their watering needs.

oh, the trellises i've used are made from leftover chainlink fence posts. it was a lot of work, but is VERY sturdy (i did a pullup on it, and i weigh about 200 pounds!). the lighter one in the front of my bed is made from conduit -- $15 total cost in parts and it took me less than 15 minutes to install, since the conduit is stiff and narrow enough to push by hand through the sand to a depth of five feet. the elbows were more expensive than the 10' conduit lengths.

ok, i've goofed off enough here. now's time to goof off in the garden!
an update: i take back what i said about the paper-bag method's superiority over the nursery pots. when i cleaned up the garden at the end of the season, the bags had completely disintegrated, and much of the organic material in the hole had dissolved into the surrounding sands. but the nursery pots were still full of humus. so, though they are more difficult to install, i will definitely convert all my tomato holes into nursery-pot holes.

Garden update...

An ornamental banana coming into bloom...

A pomegranate in bloom...

'Little Fingers' from TSG. Cool, no?

The pickleworms have met their match...

Panzanella

Another from-the-garden recipe. I'm totally overwhelmed by the number of cherry & currant tomatoes that are ripening now.

My wife is a first-rate baker. She uses the levain method: no yeast, just naturally-occurring bacilli and yeasts. Florida's got some of those. She bakes at least three times a week -- huge, two-pound loaves. We eat it with every meal. Her bread is dense, pocketed with fissures and holes, wheaty, slightly acidic without being sour. The crust is thick, crispy, and golden. We've lived for long periods in Europe, in the heartland of good bread, and hers would stand toe-to-toe with any bread I've ever eaten.

Here's what I did with it...

Panzanella
This will serve two for a main dish or four as a salad. The point is to create a gustatory party of colors, textures, flavors and smells.

• a few handfuls of cherry/currant tomatoes, or a couple of large tomatoes. I like to use a mix of cherries (Sun Gold, Yellow Currant, Matt's Wild). If you're using small tomatoes, just squeeze them by the handful -- careful of the mess. Or dice the large tomatoes medium.
• lots of scallions, preferably red ones (for the color). tops and bottoms chopped roughly
• tomato-friendly herbs: mint, basil, oregano and parsley. A few handfuls of each, though let the parsley predominate.
• a few cucumbers or sweet peppers, chopped roughly (a little something crunchy)
  
• 1/2 c. flavorful olive oil (bring out the good stuff)
• 3-4 tbsp. of red wine vinegar
• salt (I like flake sea salt) and pepper (coarsely ground)
• 1 pound peasant bread, ideally a little stale, torn into 1 inch chunks
  

Mix the tomatoes, scallions, herbs, cukes, peppers, oil & vinegar in a large salad bowl. Let them sit and marry for a while. About fifteen minutes before you're ready to eat, chuck the bread into the bowl and toss it all very well. Serve, with copious amounts of cheap but excellent wine.

And the winner is...

I wanted to quickly note the State of Tomatoes in my garden. On January 6, I planted three full-sized tomatoes:
-Tiffany (a VNFT hybrid from TGS)
-Better Boy (a VFN hybrid)
-Matina (from TGS)

Tiffany produced early (end of April) and prolifically. Smallish (4 oz), perfectly round, smooth (no shoulders). OK flavor, very good texture. Fair number of seeds. They look just like those "tomatoes on the vine" you get from the supermarket. Somewhat subjectively, I'd say these hang around on the vine for a long time while ripe without suffering for the delay. Good yield, and it's nice to have smallish tomatoes.

Matina has been very disappointing. Nice tomatoes, but they actually ripened later than Tiffany (I bought them because they're supposed to be very early), and the yield has been low.

Better Boy produced a large crop, a week or so later than Tiffany. Fewer in number than Tiffany, though the yield seems roughly the same in weight. Beautiful, flavorful, dense flesh, low in seeds. I weighed one today at exactly 16 oz. It deserves all the praise it gets. I'd like to sniff and say "well, it doesn't have the flavor of a Brandywine..." or some such, but let's face it: Perfectly ripe, homegrown tomatoes all taste really really good. Subtle differences in flavor shouldn't overshadow more important criteria. It makes sense to me to choose varietals that are prolific and disease resistant. Beyond that lies only snobbery parading as discernment.

 

 

Deland, Florida (32724) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

Deland, Florida (32724) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground: "Statement as of 5:05 PM EDT on May 20, 2007

... Record low temperature equaled at Daytona Beach...

The low temperature this morning at Daytona Beach of 54 degrees...
ties the record low for this date previously set in 1984."

Jene's Tropical Fruit

Jene's Tropical Fruit: "Jene’s Tropicals offers a diverse collection of Florida tropical plants and other tropical fruit trees from around the world. All of these Florida tropical plants are extremely healthy and ready to be shipped to many places within the USA. Jene’s Tropicals take great pleasure in sharing amazing Florida tropical plants and tropical fruit trees with you!"

Berries:
| Blackberries | Blueberries | Mulberries | Raspberries |

really really amazing weather

All winter I complained about how screwy the weather was (recall the tornadoes that affected the area twice this winter). Well, today's weather was simply unreal: High 70s, with a dewpoint in the 40s:Another backdoor front passed through last night (I think), pulling down nice air. This kind of weather typifies our February and March weather. By this time of the year, we're usually sweating it out in the upper 80s with dewpoints of 74. Not quite unbearable, but not comfortable, either. We hardly used the AC since, well, December. It's dry and the sun is hot and the day is long. With an early morning, daily watering, my plants are going wild.

Myrciaria cauliflora, Jaboticaba fruit tree

Myrciaria cauliflora, Jaboticaba fruit tree: "MYRCIARIA CAULIFLORA
Jaboticaba Fruit Tree

FAMILY: Myrtaceae
ORIGIN: Brazil
AVERAGE SIZE: 25'
LIGHT REQUIREMENTS : full sun
WATER REQUIREMENTS : average
MIN. TEMP.: 35°
FLOWER: white flowers that grow on the trunk
COMMENTS: delicious edible fruit"

On the plus side of things...

A little yin, a little yang. My gardenias, in all their glory...

Organic control of pickleworms...

OK, I RAGE, RAGE RAGE AGAINST THE WORM!

Damn them. Oh, I am SO tempted to get out that bag of Sevin my mom gave me "just in case"

... See how they like the taste of Carbaryl! (pant pant pant)

I'm a little worked up. Witness the ravages:

(Egg cluster, entry hole, damage, caught in the act...)

We eat a LOT of cucumbers. I had such a great run this year, though, that even with full-time, all-out cuke eating, I had enough to make several batches of pickles. I even had the fungal issues completely under control through regular copper spraying, hygienic culture, and trellising:

(A single plant, trellised over four strings. It reached the top of my 6' trellis, and was beginning to spread over the wires that run between my two trellises.)

I almost ripped them out of the ground, since everything that I've read about these buggers indicates that, short of smothering them in insecticide, there was nothing to be done. Surrender. All. Hope.

But, poking around on the Web, I found this...

[2734] FRUIT BAGGING FOR PROTECTION OF CUCUMBER AGAINST THE
MELONWORM, DIAPHANIA HYALINATA, AND THE PICLEWORM,
DIAPHANIA NITIDALIS.
J. O. G. de Lima1 & E. A. da Silva1, 1Laboratório de Proteção de Plantas, Univ. Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Av. Alberto Lamego 2000, 28.015-620 - Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil. E-mail joscar@uenf.br.
In all regions of Brazil, the melonworm, Diaphania hyalinata, and the picleworm, D.
nitidalis, destroy several cucurbit fruits, especially cucumber, which if unprotected is
seriously damaged. Besides the frequent use of insecticides, no other single method is effective for protecting cucurbit vegetables. In order to find an alternative to insecticides, an experiment was carried out in the field to test the efficacy of paper bags for protecting the cucumber fruits against the pickleworm penetration. Bagging was accomplished no more than 24 h after the flower pollination (beginning of the flower wilting process).
In the four treatments used, the percentages of bored cucumber fruits at the first harvest (04.20.98) were: 1. Conventional application of insecticides (weekly application of deltamethrin at 5 g a. i./ha): 40.0 %; 2. Bagging the fruit and no insecticide application: 27.1 %; 3. Weekly application of deltamethrin (5 g a. i./ha) before and after bagging of the fruits: 30.0 %; and 4. Control (No insecticide application and exposed fruits): 52.4 %. Because of the poor quality of the paper bags, some of the bags split open at the first harvest and this number increasead at the second harvest (04.28.98). Due to these problems, the experiment was discontinued. However, the preliminary results were promising in that bagging reduced the need for application of insecticides. In addition, the color and size of the fruit were not altered by bagging. There is great potential for bagging of cucumber, especially using a new type of microperforated plastic bag, which is currently being tested.

Notice that the bagging is 50% more effective (40%/27%) than the conventional insecticide.

Guess what I'll be doing tonight?

Drought outlook

Pickleworms!

Damn them. They have arrived. The end is near.

We had a good run... Good bye, cucurbits!

Gazpacho

I made a dishy gazpacho tonight from the garden. Is there a better way to simultaneously use up overripe tomatoes and celebrate summer?

• 3# of ripe tomatoes
• 1# of cucumbers
• 1/2# green pepper (any sort, I used a couple of banana peppers)
• 1 clove garlic
• 5-6 summer onions (large scallions, or use 1/2 of a small red onion)
• 1 c. good olive oil (not too expensive, not too cheap)
• a few pieces of stale hearty country loaf, torn into pieces
• as much sherry vinegar as your care to eat
• a lot of salt, I like flake sea salt

for garnish: chopped hard-boiled egg, diced green pepper, basil (purple offers a striking contrast), chopped scallion

Chuck it all in a blender, in batches if you have to (mix it all together in a large pitcher when you're done blending).

Serve with garnishes and some toasted country bread.

Carrot Sweet Treat Hybrid

Recommended from the FLA forum, GardenWeb.

Customer Favorite
Carrot Sweet Treat Hybrid
Superb carrot flavor and delicious crunch.

Easy to grow and full of vitamins. 1,500 seeds per packet; sows a 40' row; 1 oz., about 300'. Ready to harvest in about 70 days. Superb carrot flavor and delicious crunch these 5" sugary spikes are one of the best salad carrots we've ever pulled from the ground.

but who buys drinks?

Tantric secrets of the invertebrate world...

lovebug - Plecia nearctica Hardy

Copulatory behavior begins with the male darting and grasping a female that is flying through the swarm. The pair falls to the ground where they couple. Initially the male is positioned on the back of the female and both sexes face the same direction. After coupling, the male turns 180° and faces the opposite direction. Successful genitalic engagement takes from 1.5 to 10 min.

From now on, I'll reference "genitalic engagement" in all such discussions with my wife...

Rain!

It rained last night and today, a total of about two inches, perhaps a bit more. This evening we enjoyed the cool, drier air (73 degrees and 61 degrees for the dew point -- which translates into very comfy conditions). This "backdoor front" (backdoor because it comes from the north) is rare this time of the year. Our May winds are usually from the south-east, not the north-east:

Last night's rainfall was more characteristic of a winter storm than a summer rain, which is usually caused by instability brought on by the sea breeze interacting with the much hotter air over the peninsula. We're in the midst here in Florida of an epic drought and hellfire, so the rain is welcome, whatever its provenance.

It was actually too cool to sit on the patio with drinks. That never happens mid-May. My foxgloves and poppies are living large.

seeds

In my ever useful Parks dome, my female child and I planted...

• Rows 10 + 9 A, B cucuzzi seeds from Bill (it's really too late, but why not try if I have a couple spots free?)
• Rows 8 + 9 Ethiopian Kale from ECHO (s'posed to be heat & humidity tolerant)
• Row 7 more New Zealand Spinach. I real bugger to start.
• Row 6 Papaloqeulite (a Mexican herb that Bill gave me). The seeds remind me of those from zinnias.
  
• Row 5 Roselle

Update: The roselle was up the next day...