The generally reliable Big Beef variety, five days old. Always the little miracle to see dry specks of seed germinate with a little warmth and moisture, and to imagine them in four or five months, sprawled around the field (or maybe, supported), producing a steady supply of tasty, hybrid-perfect beefsteak tomatoes!
Veggies
Growing in the dark
Beets, harvested last fall, stored for six months in a covered bin in a cool room, have been busy growing in the dark. This is a familiar early season sight, there are always leftover beets from last year. They’re still firm and tasty, though a lot less sweet. The new growth has a nice crisp texture and a slightly sweet, beet-y taste, what you might expect! They’re headed to the compost heap, part of the spring clean-up. You could call it wasted food, but I think of it as recycling.
The veggies are alright
Checking in again with the veggies in storage, about a month after the last inspection, and they’re all still doing fine! The potatoes are starting to sprout. The red onions, not recommended for long storage, are losing their color on the outside, but still firm, and colorful a couple layers in. Garlic: check! Butternut squash, even with the healed nicks from last summer’s intense hail attack: check! Months since harvest, casually tucked away in a closet/pantry, still delicious!
Veggie sleuthing
Part of the Asian/Southeast Asian veggie section at one of the local supermarkets. Most of these vegetables are unfamiliar, some I recognize. I usually scan for unusual shapes and textures when I roll by, but my curiosity is never that high. I suppose you could see them in an exotic, different cultures way; to me, they’re just…more veggies! This time, I decided to take a closer look, and took a pic on my phone (which was also my shopping list!). So what do we have?
ID-ing everything from the labels in photo and searching the interwebs for info, here goes. Top row, left to right: I couldn’t make out what that first plastic-wrapped veg is. Next, bitter melon, my mom grew this in her community garden. Used in Chinese cuisine. Remove seeds, keep skin, slice, use in stir fries. Or steam, or stuff. Next, eggplant, and daikon radish, both familiar, I’ve grown these. Then, squash (long) is what the label says, but this one has several names: opo squash, calabash, bottle gourd, and others. It comes in different shapes, like the decorative hourglass-shaped dried gourd version, or really long, or this stumpier look. For cooking, it’s another summer squash, like zucchini, so raw, steamed, boiled, sautéed, or grilled!
Bottom row, from the left: This long, skinny veg is labeled drumstick (label cropped out of photo), and it’s also called moringa. They’re the pods from the moringa tree, from Southeast Asia, India. Lots of superfood claims. When used as a veg, there are these pods, and also moringa seeds on their own. For the pods, cut up, put in soups and curries. Next, haldi, is another name for turmeric, which I have as a ground spice and use in my standard breakfast red lentils spice mix. Relative of ginger, native to Southeast Asia. Use fresh the same as powdered turmeric, grate or slice and add to soups, rice, whatever you like. Also, pickle (one way: lemon juice, salt, jar, fridge), use in marinades, blend. Then, carrot, purple/red, prepared a little differently with the tops and tips sliced off. And okra, also familiar. Last, the bumpy-textured veg is labeled karela, which turns out to be one of many names for bitter melon, so same as above!
And where are they from, fresh not frozen in the dead of winter? Carrot, daikon, eggplant and okra are from right here in Ontario, the drumstick is from India, and the rest were grown in the Dominican Republic. All of them I think can be grown here in colder country, except turmeric, which needs many months of warm weather (it apparently can be done here with a few months of indoor growing, then moved outside).
Now that I’ve finally LOOKED CLOSER, I’ll probably try some of the new veg. Of particular interest: drumstick and (remembering mom) bitter melon!
Root food
Beauty is in the frying pan! A sampling from the small cache of onions, potatoes (fingerlings), garlic, all pulled from the ground last summer, sitting since then in boxes and bags on the floor of a closet that could be called a pantry. Still firm and looking not really worse for the months of storage. There’s something extra satisfying about eating tasty food that’s been lying around, unrefrigerated, for several months!
Scratching the zuke
Groundhogs are back again, and they seem to be more active than last year. I’m checking everything out every day to see how far they might go. It comes down to what they turn their beady little eyes and big sharp teeth to next. My garden ravager experience has been for the most part with deer. When a veg garden is new to them, they tend to explore crop by crop. A night or two of nibbling on a new one, then, full-on devouring, and off to the next. So far, the over-sized rodents have focused on lettuce and brassicas. Today, I noticed what look like scratch marks on a single zucchini. I’m no wildlife biologist trained in animal feeding behavior. Still, I suspect some fair-sized beast, like a groundhog, tried to scratch their way into the zuke. And failed. That’s kinda weird, doesn’t look like an A-game effort. Have they given up for good? Or was it a much smaller veg-eating creature? Or something else entirely? The big question is, will the zukes be next?
Kale under cover
Kale and Brussels sprouts are tucked away under floating row cover (with straw-mulched garlic in the back). This is usually to protect them from flea beetles that can devour the seedlings. This year, unfortunately, it’s also a deterrent to the sudden invasion of groundhogs. Invasion isn’t the right word if we’re talking about numbers, as my best guess is that there are only two doing the damage. Their work, though, is so far somewhat alarming. They have a particular taste for lettuce; they’ve already gone under and through the cover to get a it. But in the last couple of weeks, it seems they’re out to at least sample just about everything. Since last year, and especially this spring, I’ve seen several groundhogs in the general area, which is new and a lot. Last season, there was a little veggie munching, but nothing out of hand. So, to a point, live and let live. This time around, seems like it could get more serious. As far as pests and disease, from year to year, if it’s not one thing, it’s another…