Mary Mary quite contrary...

[blackeagle603]

...how does your garden grow?

Spring comes early here in SoCal.

On the one hand you might complain about lack of seasons here (there are seasons, just change and colors are more subtle).

On the other hand it's possible to keep a vegetable garden going year round if you're not too far inland/high up and avoid hard frosts. Got some baby steps going.

Part of my response to the food riots thread was to translate fretting and general econ/political anxiety into action in the library and garden. Maybe it's part nostalgia for me. Growing up we had a large (40' x 100') garden every year and quite a few fruit trees. Grew some healthy blacktail deer on our green beans and apple trees. (grrrr -- varmints! that's another story).

First I read up on root cellaring. Not quite a dead end in this Mediterranean clime but not too high a priority for us here. It's too warm. Cellars are more useful longterm to keep things from freezing than overheating. I sent my gardner/food preserver older Sis in Seattle a copy of that book and she really got into it.

Looks like canning and drying are higher priority pursuits in this warmer area. That and learning year round crop rotation for your particular microclime. Starting tomatoes now. Pickling cukes will be next. It might be aa bit early for cukes but kids are excited about canning pickles. I want/hope to get them engaged/invested in this whole thing.

I'm planning to plant mounds of corn around lower lot avocados. When they get established I'll put beans in the mounds (to climb the cornstalks) and then pumpkins around the open areas to keep weeds down. At least that's the theory. Biggest concern I have is if rats find the corn... Rats? We got lots of rats! Traps, baits and cut back on the outside cats feed...

A couple pics...

Ditch witch rental today to get main supply lines into the "lower 40."

[Rich Jordan]

Sounds wonderful. We're in a townhouse so we have no real way to do anything sizeable. Pam got a tabletop Aerogarden (sort of a hydroponics unit) that we're growing herbs and lettuce in; if it works we may get another for tomatoes. Outside of that all we can do is a potted tomato or a strawberry pot out back, neither of which we've had much luck with in the past (and now with no back fence, thank you so much association, it will be worse).

Someday I want to do a garden like we did growing up. We had a 15' diameter circle from a removed 'semi-buried' doughboy pool that we turned into a stellar garden back in Las Vegas. We actually grew enough tomatoes, lettuce, swiss chard, green peppers and the like to completely stop buying store produce. We never could get fruits or berries of any kind to do well except for one pomegranate tree.

[SeekHer]

Great pickle recipe...

Do what you have to prep them and into quart sealers place 3 big sprigs of fresh dill, 4 tbl Kosher Salt, 4 whole garlic cloves and vinegar (White Pickling) to cover = Kosher Dills...but they have to sit in a darkened space for up to two weeks (longer then any other dills)...One aunt adds a teaspoon of sugar as well...try both ways and see which you prefer!

After eating all the cukes from the jar, blanche cabbage leaves and put into the leftover brine and wait 5 to 7 days--Sauerkraut...You can do this two maybe three times then the potency is faded…then take out the garlic cloves and eat them while drinking the juice…very healthy!

I'm having for lunch both cabbage and pickles with venison burgers, homemade ketchup, relish and mustard but store bought tomatoes and lettuce...

[blackeagle603]

Excellent SH. I'll give put that one in the recipe box.

My grandma was the mad pickler of Cooks Hill. She put up an amazing qty of pickles each year well into her 70's. Everyone wanted to be on her Xmas gift list. Between her pickles and sweets she made a great gift basket. Her fudge and dip chocolates were legendary too. She'd worked as a confectioner as a young woman in the 20's and 30's before loosing the farm in the dustbowl and moving west. Oh my achin' arteries...

I can't even remember all the type of pickles she'd put up: dill, sweet, bread & butter, cocktail...

The whole back wall of her 2 car garage was floor to ceiling 10" shelve cabinets of pickles. Down the side were other preserves (fruits, jellies, jams, etc).

How many cukes mounds did she plant? I don't trust my memory that well and you'd think I was crazy if I guessed a number.

Spring thru fall she worked 8 hour days in her flower and vegetable gardens. We'd get paid with a giant dill pickle when we helped her trimming Iris or wheeling mulch/sawdust. Those dills were to die for. Don't ever bite one unless you wanted it to bite you right back. My older sis has promised to send that recipe my way.

[HTRN]

Seekher, that sounds interesting. I noticed it doesn't use pickling salt, though.


HTRN

[SeekHer]

Seekher, that sounds interesting. I noticed it doesn't use pickling salt, though.


HTRN

I missed that and neatly dodged the swipe with the towel the wife tried to get me with when I told her and corrected it below for four (4) tablespoons Kosher/sea/coarse salt and they have to sit in a darkened space for up to two weeks (lids on just lightly) before sealing and refrigerating--depending on personal taste...

You can add up to another 2 tbl of salt as the original recipe called for six...Some people add a couple of bay leaves but we prefer it without...

Blackeagle, we planted 60 pickling cukes plant and 20 quick growing, 20 slow growing and 20 slower growing so we had cukes all summer and fall for salads etc. and enough for pickling...My wife starts hers in a cold frame--just two old storm windows on an angled plywood box with the interior walls painted dark brown)...