Something to look forward to!

    Things are definitely winding down in the community plot. I've pulled all but one of the tomato plants after harvesting all the remaining tomatoes. Now the raised garden looks so empty. I have some chinese broccoli and bok choy seedlings that I started some time ago. I'm not sure if I want to transplant them in the raised garden though...I'm finding that controlling bug/bird damage is more challenging in ground compared to my little container garden. But space...space is an issue. I'll just have to think about it some more.
      There some exciting new developments at my balcony container garden. First, I started one zucchini (Dark green zucchini/Raven) in a 5 gallon container. It is having some problems with aphids, but I have been treating it with some soapy water and it seems to be somewhat in control. Overall it is a healthy looking plant.

Green Raven Zucchini in a 5 gallon container

And look-see. A little baby zucchini!

Little baby zucchini!

In another 5 gallon container, the surviving champion bush cucumber is doing well. I have to thank Carol for sending me the seeds!

Champion bush cucumber in 5 gallon container

As you can see, it is suffering from powdery mildew. I've been spraying it with baking soda solution...and I plan to go buy some Neem oil. If there are other solutions please let me know.

Little baby cucumber #1

Little baby cucumber #2

Despite the powdery mildew, there are some tiny cucumbers starting to fruit. So cute. There a whole bunch of little flowers so I hope I will be harvesting many more in the future. Thanks Carol!

GTTC - eggplant, zucchini and tomato curry

I decided to attempt making a eggplant curry that my mom makes (we call it indonesian curry but I'm not sure if it is really indonesian).  I don't have the exact recipe but I tried to guess based on my memory of watching my mom make the curry. I used all three types of eggplants and supplemented the curry with the zucchini.  I also used the jalapeno and the early girl tomatoes.

The curry tasted very good, not as good as when my mom makes it but good. I think I prefer the dish without zucchini so next time I'm going to just use the eggplants. Out of the three eggplant, the ichiban fit the best for this dish because it had better texture than the gretel and fairtale (I couldn't really tell these two apart) which were more creamy. I'm going to try to grill the gretel and fairytale next time to get a better taste of the eggplants.

Linking to Wendy's blog for the garden to table challenge!

Warning! Nasty pictures...vine borers

I was cutting off some of the yellowing leaves on the zucchini plants. After I finished I went to pick up all the leaves and saw the most disgusting white grub.  It took me a while, about half the day, to realize this was not a good thing. I googled vine borer and saw a picture of an insect that I had seen a couple of times on the balcony. Before work, I checked the zucchini in the smaller container. Bad sign #1.

Near the bottom there was a saw-dust like pile right where the larvae most likely dug into the stem. I took the scissor and cut into the vine and found this:

and this:

EWWWWW! I was so disgusted I had severed the stem completely. I salvaged all the small zucchinis on the vine and threw the plant away. After work, I wanted to check the plant in the larger container. I slit the stem and found some damage but didn't find any larvae - it is possible that I just missed it. I tried to removed all the damaged stem and attempted to put it all back together.

I tied up the stem to close it up, wrapped the larger stem with a paper towel and buried the smaller stem under some fresh soil (after tying it up).

I'm just going to keep an eye on it and see if it survives the surgery. Maybe it is too late but I'll also try to start some seeds for the fall.

July 4, 2011 - Harvest Monday

Happy July 4th! I hope the weather holds up so I can go see the fireworks! But the sky is looking like it wants to rain.

In the garden I've been getting some more early girls which is very exciting! The summer squash continues to produce, but I have to pick them small since there were no male flowers blooming (I finally saw one today).

The jalapenos now have a little kick to them. I like them sweet, but spicy is delicious too! I see some salsa in the future!

I want to restart some dill since the first batch was starting to get brown. I thought they would get bigger and bushier. Maybe the pot is too small. I am thinking of trying the dill that Granny sent me.

Linking to Daphne's blog for Harvest Monday!

Harvest - June 20, 2011

There wasn't too much of a harvest this past week. I had a whole bunch of basil that I forgot to take a picture of.  But here is the "harvest" from last week - I'm hoping there will be more eggplant...and I can't wait for the tomatoes!

I'm linking to Daphne's blog for Harvest Monday!

GTTC - Jalapeno, zucchini salad & rosemary

I have no names for most of my recipes...Here is a stir fried jalapeno with salt/pepper and little soy sauce. This works only because the jalapeno is sweet and not spicy. When I was little, we used to have this dish made out of shishitou pepper (I'm not sure if there is an English name for this). Every once in a while we'd get a spicy one but that was part of the fun. It worked well with jalapeno too!

I made a little salad with the zucchini mixed in with dill and a simple vinaigrette. I only used a small sprig of dill but it gave a wonderful flavor.

Finally here is one of the few recipes I know using rosemary. It is so simple yet delicious. You pan fry the chicken with olive oil and just as the chicken is cooked you add some rosemary (let it cook for bit) then add balsamic vinegar. Let the vinegar evaporate a bit and that's it.

Chicken with rosemary sauce with beet greens and zucchini

I'm linking to Wendy's blog Greenish Thumb for garden to table challenge. Thank you for hosting the GTTC challenge!

Fairytale Eggplant flowers

The fairytale eggplant are flowering! They are similar in color with the ichiban eggplant flowers but the fairytale flowers come in clusters. It is so very cute! I hope they don't start dropping like the ichiban flowers !

These plants are supposed to get to 16-18inches, so they stay small. Right now, the plant is only 8 inches tall. The eggplant fruit is supposed to be small, but the flowers are blooming very close to the soil. So hopefully when the eggplants start fruiting I can keep them off the soil.

The zucchini continue to strive. In the larger container, the zucchini is draping to the back of the container towards the railing. I can't turn the container around because then it would be difficult to add water to the reservoir. So, I decided to stake it so that plant will grow up.

While working with plant, I noticed that right under the mulch I saw a cluster of white wormy looking thing. I yelped a little bit thinking it was maggots or something, but it turns out it was a cluster of roots growing towards a little chunk of fertilizer that I did not mix into the soil very well. I do not enjoy working with the fertilizer...it smells like fish food. yuck!

Overall, the plant seems to be outgrowing the pot (so weird because the plant in the smaller pot seems to be OK). I added ~1 gallon of fresh potting mix (with fertilizer and a little bit of coffee grounds). Hopefully this give the roots a little room to grow.

Harvest Monday - June 13, 2011!!

Please join Daphne and see what people are growing around the world! Here is my contribution from last week. Harvest from Saturday that went into the pasta - ichiban eggplants, jalapeno, zucchini (that didn't pollinate), some peas and basil:

Here is today's harvest...currently transforming into my dinner! The jalapeno plant is full of peppers. They are not spicy so I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. The harvest includes jalapenos, mesclun greens, purple and sweet basil (which are really wanting to flower/bolt), some peas (I think these will be the last since they are just drying up...to bad), zucchini (the biggest one so far) and ichiban eggplant!

I have to post the zucchini on the plant, the biggest from the smaller container! The zucchini plants are now full of female flowers with no male flower in sight...so I suspect I will have many unpollinated zucchini. I'm not sure if there is a way to promote the growth of male flowers. I'll have to google it.

The eggplant flowers continue to drop. Currently there are 2 little eggplants growing, and a few small flower buds but it seems they just want to fall off:(  I think it is the heat since I am flicking them to pollinate.

The early girl is fruiting like mad, but all the fruits are still green. But overall the plant is doing well.

And the Giant Jalapeno is doing well. The Bonnie plant page says this variety is suppose to get to 4 inches...so perhaps I should let them grow a little bit more before I pick them next time.

I am happy with how much the garden is producing! Happy Harvest everyone!

GTTC - Eggplant/summer squash penne pasta

I was able to harvest some eggplants, zucchini, jalapeno and a bit of basil. I made a very quick penne pasta with all the ingredient and tomatoes I had in the fridge. There is not set recipe, I just sauteed some garlic, onion, tomatoes and the garden harvest (with a pinch of salt and pepper) and tossed it with penne pasta. It was really good.

Thank you Wendy for hosting the weekly GTTC challenge. It is so much fun to cook with the vegetables you grow! She has a great looking pie this week, I warn you that your mouth will water but you should go check out the beautiful pictures on her blog!

Eggplants flowers are falling!!

I'm really enjoying the ichiban eggplant. I love the purple flowers and the leaves are very soft and velvety - unlike the zucchinis that are prickly. The foliage recovered from the under-watering incident however it seems the plant is in stress. I've been noticing that the flowers are dropping off, the stem and all. It seems that there are 3 possible reasons the flowers fall off - lack of pollination, under-watering and heat. I'm not sure if the heat issue is linked with pollination. There is nothing I can do about the heat, but I could definitely water consistently and try hand pollination.

Poor flowers are dropping....

Its so strange that it is not just the flower part that is falling, but it is dropping from the stem. I originally was looking on the plant for ugly looking insects, but I haven't found anything. My course of action will be to ensure proper watering and when the flowers blossom try hand pollinating (and keep checking for eggplant flower predators). The other "story book" eggplants (gretel and fairytale) are doing good...I think. The leaves are getting much bigger (soft and velvety too) but they are not getting tall. And in fact they are starting to flower - this makes me happy but I'm worried that it won't grow vertically. I'll just wait and see what happens here.

Fairy tale Eggplant

Gretel Eggplant

My zucchini plants leaves are turning yellow. I'm not exactly sure why - the fruits are coming along fine. I'm wondering if I need to up the fertilization (since they are producing a lot, maybe the plant needs more food). I was thinking of fertilizing once a month, but I've been reading that containers need more feeding because it consumes a lot of nutrients to grow.

Harvest Monday!!!

I needed to separate this post from pest post to give me encouragement to keep going! I've been looking forward to joining Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. It is really nice to see what others around the world are producing! Here is my contribution...for the first time:) Thank you Daphne for hosting Harvest Monday!!

First ever harvest - zucchini/summer squash, peas, mescluns

Some more summer squash...

Ichiban eggplant

and summer squash...

Mescluns and Peas!

Korean Fried Zucchini

Another post for Wendy's GTTC using a couple more zucchinis I harvested. My roommate in graduate school used to make this for us. I couldn't remember exactly how to make it so I found a recipe here. Was yummy! Thank you Wendy for hosting the challenge:)

My zucchini plant leaves are starting to turn yellow - actually the early girl 50 leaves are too. I'm not sure exactly what is wrong.  It is only the bottom leaves so maybe some of the older ones are just running its course.  So far, I cut off the yellowing leaves and fertilized. I forgot to take a picture but if the yellowing comes back I will try to remember to document it.

Some more zucchini and Ichiban Eggplant!

I am excited to join Wendy in the Garden to Table Challenge over at Greenish Thumb!! I was able to harvest another good size zucchini and little zucchinis that didn't pollinate. I used this and pesto I made from both the sweet and purple basil to make last night's dinner.

Cod and sea scallop with pesto and sauteed zucchini

This morning I harvested a Ichiban eggplant.

I think I may have let it grow little too big.

 My favorite eggplant dish that I can make is a recipe that my mom taught me. It is very simple, and very very tasty. First you take the eggplant and slice in half. Then salt the side that is cut (this is to take any of the bitterness out) and let it stand for 3-5 minutes (you will see it sweat a little). Wash off the salt and pat it dry. Heat a mixture of vegetable and sesame oil and when the oil is hot, place the eggplant cut side down. When one side is cooked (it should look brown/translucent) turn around and cook until tender. Then use dashi soy sauce (you can buy this in Asian grocery store called "mentsuyu"). You can make this soy sauce using a 3:2:1 ratio of soy sauce, mirin and sake (rice wine) and simmering this with dried shiitake mushroom and bonito flakes (but your house will smell like soy sauce). With this sauce you can make a whole variety of Japanese food (as per my mom, my repertoire is very limited).

The REAL first harvest!!

I have been happily watching my little veggies grow. With the zucchini and eggplant, I don't know how big they are supposed to be before harvest. I found information about the Ichiban eggplant pretty quickly (~10 inches) so this eggplant is almost ready for harvest.

The zucchini is a different story. The package says that this variety is called "Summer Squash Burpee's Bounty Hybrid" and it has zucchini on the top too. I found that zucchini is a type of summer squash. I know this is very basic information to most people, but I didn't know there were so many varieties of zucchinis. Here is the package:

The zucchini I'm growing looks nothing like the ones in the picture...So I am confused - do they change color as they grow, or what?

I tried looking for info on this specific variety but can't find anything. I did read that you shouldn't wait too long before harvesting since zucchinis can get bitter - and I've eaten bitter zucchini and it is nasty.  I figured I'll harvest the biggest one, just to see if they are good.
The peas looked ready too.

I really wanted to wait to share this with the boyfriend but frankly I couldn't wait. I tested one.

DE*LI*CIOUS!!!
Since the mesclun green was looking bushy, so I decided today was the day to harvest. Here is my FIRST REAL HARVEST from the balcony container garden. All of these I grew from seeds!!! WOW, I am really proud of myself.

zucchini/summer squash, sugar snap peas, mescluns/basil/arugula

Here is what the zucchini looks like sliced.

The harvest as dinner!

Zucchini sauteed & raw, steamed peas, salad (flower as decoration)

Zucchini/summer squash was DE*LI*CIOUS! It was good raw too (very sweet)! I sauteed it with olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious. The peas were steamed a little (unfortunately some raw fruits and vegetables make my throat itch) which brought out their sweetness. I'm not sure I like the mescluns too much. They taste a little...well, green. It was good when mixed with some basil and arugula...and the dressing.

All done! Can you tell I am super excited? Gardening rocks!