Cucumbers and Pickles

Posted on August 24, 2013 by almostfarming

The Mexican Sour Gherkin

Looking like teeny tiny watermelons, their distinctive light and dark green “rinds” do stand out.
The Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra) is an heirloom native to Mexico and Central America, where it’s known as Sandita (little watermelon).

Overall, it just a bizarre little veggie.
Vining up to 10 FT, these babies definitely add interest to your garden.
It does, however, take forever to grow. Weeks and weeks later, it finally takes off, with tendrils climbing everywhere.
And weeks after that, little bitty ‘melons’ start to appear.

Finally, we get to try one….

Yowza!!! They don’t call it ‘sour’ for nothing, folks. It’s got a bite to it
fer-sur.

It’s a cucamelon!! ( without anything to do with melons)

Between the Gherkins, the Lemon, the Dragon Egg and the Boston cucumbers, You can only eat so many, and give so many cucumbers away until they start piling up….then it’s pickle time.

I’ll try to pickle the Gherkins later this week, but atleast I was able to can the rest.

Backyard Goings On

Posted on July 27, 2013 by almostfarming

Things are staring to move and groove. Or should I say grow in the back yard.
Lets play another round of photo catch up 🙂

Okra

California Wonder Green Peppers

Peppers and Eggs

Boston Pickling & Dragon Egg Cucumbers

Sitting in the Garden

Here come the Girls

Yay! Rainbow

Can’t go wrong with Zinnias

Lets Ask Gary…Bug #4
Found this guy (already dead) outside tonight. Very cool to look at…

Cats, Squash and Flowers

Posted on July 19, 2013 by almostfarming

My main man…Mr. Kosh

Pita and Potato

Green zucchini and yellow summer squash.

I used them, plus some garlic I picked a few weeks ago.

And this is what I made with them.

The Flowers

Not really flowers, but it looks cool.

Just a few things we picked…

okra, anyone?

Posted on August 30, 2012 by almostfarming

for the last 3 years, i have planted okra. the 5ft+ plants with cool hibiscus flowers. some green, some red. just an overall cool and interesting plant. and it would be even better if one could just eat it off the plant. by the way…NEVER eat it right off the plant. you make that mistake once. i liken it to eating glass. odd tidbit, eating raw taro leaves has the same effect… (ask me how i know). anywho, its one of those foods you grow and end up asking your self, what the hell am i going to do with all this? well, after giving it away, i stir fry it with garlic and tomatoes, and serve it over mash potatoes, or, bread it in corn meal, and either ‘fry’ it in olive oil or bake it, and of course, give more away. i did cut it up, bread it and freeze it last year. which just reminded me, its still in the freezer. hmm. i suppose there’s always pickling it… not so much

black beans and brussels sprouts

Posted on August 6, 2012 by almostfarming

the black beans are almost done. i picked a few today. eventually the entire plant will have dried bean pods on them and i’ll take the whole plant and beat it into a can…so the dried bean fall out.

i decided to pull the brussels sprouts. they were covered with cross-striped cabbage moth larvae and cabbage loopers. they had really done some damage to the foliage. I was picking them off by hand (daily) and feeding them to the chickens, but after being gone for a couple of days, i lost the battle. i could have sprayed them, but had made the decision a few years ago to have ‘no spray’ gardens. (which is way i gave up on growing broccoli. even after constantly picking off cabbage loopers, i would still find what was left of them after boiling or microwaving the broccoli…yuk)

wait…there’s one more garden

Posted on July 31, 2012 by almostfarming

i forgot to include one last garden. i have a plot at Gabriel’s Place (community gardens) that i maintain. its a 3X5 raised bed and whatever is harvested from it goes straight to the community or used in the food kitchen on site.

i went by today to check in on it, and its not doing too badly. the super sweet cherry tomatoes were just that. tiny tomato balls of sugar. yum. there were some carrots also ready.

powdery mildew and bad chickens

Posted on July 30, 2012 by almostfarming

i think its the end of my dragon’s egg cucumber. powdery mildew wins.

also, i just came home to find the girls in the upper garden. guess they wanted cucumbers and beans for dinner. i do not have a photo of that…i was too busy yelling and spraying them down with the super soaker 9000. instead, i have one of the ‘new girls.’ this is vera and flo.

this is alice, although, i usually call her ‘little girl’

another mistake?

Posted on July 29, 2012 by almostfarming

i picked a few of the green zebra tomatoes from the upper garden because i noticed they were turning reddish. green zebras do not turn red…however, the violet jasper tomatoes, cousin to the zebra, do. nuts. did i mislabel the seeds when i planted them? i was so careful. other than that, i guess i should check to see if a branch of the violet jasper grew through the green zebra cage and i just didn’t noticed when i picked it (wishful hoping).

green zebra (i think)

what i thought was green zebra’s…

the harvest so far

Posted on July 24, 2012 by almostfarming

slowly but surely we have been picking vegetables out of the gardens. i’ll just attach photos, instead of listing everything.

the many gardens

Posted on July 9, 2012 by almostfarming

i have several gardens and finally, the each have their own names. it makes it easier to us to describe where something is planted…e.i. needs watered or weeded.

this is the lower garden. i have included before and current pictures.

the lower garden is planted with zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, beets, onions and brussel sprouts

on one side of the lower garden is as an attached raised bed…this is the lower flower bed

it is planted with sunflowers

then there is the upper garden

it is planted with tomatoes, peppers, beans, onions, chard, basil, okra, eggplant, tomatillos, cukes and flowers

almost last, is the upper wall garden…not too original, but so far it works

asparagus, watermelon, rhubarb, and sweet potatoes are planted in this bed

what’s left…there are two raised bed, 3’x5′,one for each of the boys. and lastly, there are two raised beds, 4’x20′ at the shop. i will get pictures of that later

the boys gardens have/had carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cilantro, spinach and flowers

almostfarming

…urban style

Category Archives: plants

Cucumbers and Pickles

Backyard Goings On

Cats, Squash and Flowers

okra, anyone?

black beans and brussels sprouts

wait…there’s one more garden

powdery mildew and bad chickens

another mistake?

the harvest so far

the many gardens

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