BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?

Subject: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:01 PM

Time again to compare notes amongst we Mudcat gardeners. I've been picking large sweet onions out of the garden for weeks now. This is partly for use, but mostly strategic late-season thinning so that some of the small ones will hopefully now fill out and also become 1-pounders. I've been cutting and using chard for several weeks also. The old plants wintered over and are going full-tilt now.

Of the crops that I have planted since the last frost, the tomatoes are taking the lead, though the peppers are making good headway. I picked my first ripe cherry tomato two days ago (Tuesday). It will take ages for the eggplant to get big enough to flower, and the squash are small and won't bloom for a while. I popped the flower heads off of the garlic last week. My neighbor tells me this will make the bulbs bigger. We shall see.

I have lots of herbs that came back from last year. Thyme and lemon balm are particularly prolific this spring.

What do you have in your garden? (And Bobert, what are you trying to transplant?)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:12 PM

You're just gloating about your Texas weather, incha? Most of us in the northern hemisphere aren't harvesting anything other than roses and herbs. I'm going to put out my tomatoes this coming weekend (Victoria Day in Canada). I'm putting in all heirlooms this year, hoping to save the seeds (let me know if you want some): Green Zebra, Yellow Pear, Chadwick's Cherry, Black from Tula and Memorial Polish Paste. Can't wait to slice them up and drizzle on the basil oil ...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:13 PM

*sigh, fret, whinge*

and I'm still wating for it to be "safe" to set things out.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,Giok
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:23 PM

I'm just surveying the terrible damage that the late frosts have done to my plants and wishing I didn't care about the blackened and shrivelled shoots on the ash trees, the dead sumac, and the blackened blossoms on the rhododendrons.
Giok ;~(

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: jeffp
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:24 PM

We're taking it easy in the garden this year. We have 2 dozen garlic plants in a tub which are growing very nicely. We'll harvest them in late summer, then replant in late fall. My Cascades hops are already up to the balcony. The Willamettes are considerably slower. They'll be harvested in the fall. The thyme, mint, sage, and parsley are all thriving without much assistance. That's pretty much going to be it this year.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Sooz
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:57 PM

I'm hoping we've had our last frost now, but it will be two weeks before we're sure. The potato leaves are frost scorched and most things are a bit slow but we will have salad leaves, radishes and herbs for the weekend.
First tomato in about 8 weeks if we're lucky SRS!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: CarolC
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:01 PM

Rosemary, thyme, parsley, onions, and carrots from last year. I harvested the seeds from last year's volunteer lambs quarters and planted them. I have a nice (but small) crop of those. Lettuce and chard are coming up nicely. Other greens are coming up, but slowly and less robustly, even though I planted everything at the same time this year. We've been harvesting strawberries for a few weeks. The strawberries have established themselves nicely since I planted them last year.

I probably won't do tomatoes this year because although they started out very robust last year, they did end up suffering from several problems as the summer progressed. There are several kinds of legumes (clovers and some others) that have volunteered in the garden containers and I have decided to leave them in. My hope is that they will reduce the need for nitrogen supplementation in the containers this year.

The portulaca have come back from last year all on their own, although they are not blooming yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: mandoleer
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:21 PM

The first potato plant appeared in February! Seems to have given up, though. One growing in the compost pile seems to be keeping going, and there's another one where I used to have a compost pile - over 10 years ago! - coming up quite nicely. I don't grow vegetables, I let them grow if they want to. I usually get a nice little harvest of new spuds from the compost. Why the other one has appeared is completely beyond me. (I used to have rhubarb, but at 1lb of sugar to 1lb of rhubarb to make it edible it was a waste of time. Took years to get rid of it.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:21 PM

I'm raising blisters - and a fine crop it is!

Actually, I've concentrated much more on flowers than vegetables. I'll probably write something about that in a different thread. However, I have a couple of rows of Kentucky Wonder pole beans planted, quite a few varieties of peppers, some parsley, basil and dill, and enough tomato plants to supply us with all the sandwich material we (or anyone for miles around) could possibly want between now and frost.

As for the herbs and tomatoes, I'm trying out Carmen's container gardens. She bought three specially designed planters a couple of years ago. I'll try to remember the brand name and post it - especially if the planters do as well as advertised. Just to be sure, I set out a few tomato plants in a more traditional garden plot.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:01 PM

Asparagus, lettuce, spinach, chives -- a dandy salad!

Too bad I don't seem to be able to get lettuce and tomatoes at the same time here in the DC area...

I've planted peas (which came up rather spottily -- we'll see if there's a harvest eventually), cukes, tomatoes, peppers, and squash. Guess I'll try and get the beans in this weekend. Last year some critter ate every last bean plant, so I'm hoping for better luck this time around.

Nancy

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:26 PM

Got a fine crop of greenfly, the blue tits are loving them....

Got a better crop of cat poo.... seem to be Crap Central for at least 6 cats.

But I still have 8 - 10 different flowers including violets, periwinkles, clematis, pyrocantha (although that's slow this year, still budding, whereas last year it was nearly over by now) and fuschia.

The chives are struggling through the ivy and the rocket has moved pots, so salads will be cheerful again next month (my rocket is vicious).

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:28 PM

I'll be heading out to the garden soon with the 1 lb margarine tubs and a cheap bottle of beer to entrap the snails and slugs. This is about the time they start appearing and they can do major damage.

I had a potato coming up in the temporary compost pile, but it has suffered some kind of setback. I don't know if I want to try to transplant it to the regular veggie bed or not. I've had to but a wire enclosure around the garden to keep the dog out. That's new this year--a dog.

Big Pink Lad: I saw an article in Martha Stewart Living recently about some of the Siberian tomato cultivars that are quite striking in their appearance and flavor. Are you doing some of those?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: CarolC
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:07 PM

Last year I thought there was a squirrel taking one bite out of every strawberry, pepper, and tomato in our garden. This year, I have discovered that at least with the strawberries, it wasn't a squirrel at all. It was slugs, eating one hole, about a quarter of an inch deep and a quarter to a half inch wide, in each one of our strawberries. I caught the culprits in the act. But they are mostly not a problem right now. I think the mockingbird that likes to hang out in the tree near the garden containers has eaten the slugs.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:18 PM

Herbs are all doing great! Today is Frost Day here, so it's safe to put out the stuff I bought today. Raspberries, strawberries, aubergine (and a red water lily for the pond).

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:21 PM

SRS ... I too got a dog this year. Beagle, a bit of an idiot. I too have had to put a fence round my raised beds. Fortunately it only needs to be a foot high as the little bugger never looks up!

The Black from Tula variety is one of the Siberian/Russian tomatoes. I had a salad of these heirlooms last year at teh Cafe Brio in Victoria, BC; one slice each of four different ones, red, yellow, green (though ripe) and black (which looked off-putting) total size about one very large tomato. It cost $14.95 (!) but my goodness it tasted fabulous.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:23 PM

Nothing is going out just yet. Last year the final frost was in the second week of June. I have herbs that go out in the morning and in at night.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bobert
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:36 PM

SRS, an others,

Sniff... I'm going to have to forgo a veggie garden this year because of the move down to Luray, Va.

But, the P-Vine and I have now taken 8 trailer (10 foot covered trailer) loads of our gardens down to the new place... I've lost count but its in the 200 plant range... We still have about another 100 including the last ones to go which will take 6 men and a boy to dig out and load...

We've moved about 50 different ferns, another 30 different hostas, another 20 evergreen and dicidiuos azaleas, though we have over 100 babies that we've been nursing all winter from cutting. We've move several criptomeria, a dozen rhodos, various grasses and ground covers, pulminerias, all of our wild flowers. Welll, not all of them since all we need in some of them are enough to get us started... But all the trillium, some blood root, some tooth wart, twin leaf, shooting star, trout lillie, marsh lillie, jack-in-the-pulpet, May apple, wild geranium, larkspur, etc. etc....

I'm also scouring the woods looking fir seedling from my two Japanese maples.... They are too big to move but I think there are half a dozen abbies to take...

The biggies will be some of our specimen evergreeens, including the unbrella pine which is 8 feet tall, a Oregon Green Pinas, a large criptomeria crestada, a 10 foot magnolia, and miscellanious stuff to big fir big pots....

Anyone wanta volunteer to come hang in Luray and help with all the replantin'???

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:41 PM

Bobert, do the new owners of your West Virginia property know that they'll be moving into a moonscape once you finish moving the green stuff? You must have written a special addendum to the purchase paperwork to get to take all of these plants.

And think of all of the planting you have to do when you get there. Whew.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:44 PM

Slugs.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:22 PM

Not many slugs here, thank goodness! BPL, ya need to watch those heirlooms for wilt and stuff...they are NOT VFN resisant.....the black Russian varieties are neat! So are the white ones!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:30 PM

Carol you plant lamb's quarters, I weed it out. An abundent wild plant up here.(MN)
The only thing I've harvested so far is asparagus. Looks like I could pick some rhubarb soon also.
I don't plant for at least another week or two but progress has been made and the garden is tilled!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:49 PM

Until we have proper fencing, I've long since given up growing stuff to feed the deer. And although I'm not going to put any tomatoes in pots on the deck this year, I did manage to keep a steady supply of rosemary throughout the year out there and my chives are just fine..... except for the aphids.

Sorcha and BPL, I grew black krims a couple of years ago and I wasn't all that impressed with the flavour. Is there another black variety?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Bobert
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:55 PM

SRS,

Believe it or not, even after we've taken what we want, the garden these folks will get is probably still the finest in the county... We have so much that all we are doing is a little thinin'...

We haven't put the house on the market yet but, believe me, no one will know that we took anything... This is one rich place and stuff just grows and grows and grows....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Alice
Date: 19 May 05 - 08:34 PM

Well... the dandelions got cut down in the first mowing of the lawn this week. Other than that, nothing can be planted until June, so harvest time is a long way off.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Tinker
Date: 19 May 05 - 08:53 PM

Some critter tried to harvest my Solomon's seal last night. Chewed off the blossom and pulled it out by the root. UGH!!! Hopefully it'll retake. Sage, thyme, chives, lemon balm and catmint are all abundant, but otherwise it is just time to get things out here. Harvest is aways away.

Tinker

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 19 May 05 - 09:21 PM

Well the social side of the gardening season has just opened in the east with the show called "Trade Secrets" .. Lots of exotic and herrloom verities did abound ... I am not much of a plantsman but I know that they come for pots AFTER the plants are bought .So as a flowerpot maker I'm harvesting gardeners !!! We did The Gramercy Garden Show on Lexington Ave. put on by the Brocklin Botanical Garden and then the Boston Spring Garden show put on by the Mass Hort. Both shows were amazing. If you get the chance to hear Karol Klyne or Dan Hinkley speak they are both full of great tips and brilient information. On the East coast the next big get together is The North Hill Simposium at Mt Snow June 24th ( reservations needed) Also in June Old Sturbridge Village has a gardening get together the weekend of the 11th ,12th and 13th . Christie Hingebottum is their horticulturalist and she is a delight . I am also helping with a show called " A Place To Take Root " witch is on the History of flowerpots in North America. That show is at the US botanic Garden Wasington DC for the next 5 months. I think we will gleen lots of information on flowerpots from that show ..
                   As far as my back hillside goes the Trillium are comming up nested in the poison ivey as always . Rather poetical in a way .. All the best , Guy

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Janie
Date: 19 May 05 - 09:41 PM

The kale and broccoli will soon be finished. Snowpeas and sugar snaps are in bloom. Turnips and radishes are over with and snap beans, cukes, zukes and yellow squash are up. I held off on setting out my tomatoes and peppers because it has been a very cool spring, but I hope to plant them out this weekend. The chives are in full flower and the french sorrel is getting big. Basil and summer savory just went in the ground. I have already broken flowerbuds off some of the garlic, while others are not showing any buds at all yet.

In the flower garden, hesperis, ox-eye daisies, coreopsis, roses and peonies are blooming to beat the band. Phlox drummondii in assorted colors is blooming. The larkspur and yarrow are coloring up, and the asiatic lilies are starting to bud. The pansies and violas in all my pots still look good, but will be ripped out next week to be replaced with warm weather annuals. Bobert's solomon seal likes it here, and I think his hellebore will too, once established. The moth mullein is starting to bloom, but I can't find any of my "Southern Charm" verbascum. The hydrangea is starting to bud.

Several hundred people toured my garden and 9 others this past weekend for the Hillsborough Spring Garden Tour. The weather was great and I had a grand time smoozing with gardeners from all over the region as they came through.

Hello Allan and Carmen, and hang in there Leo, it will warm up!

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 01:20 AM

I want to drive up and haul away some of the stuff in Bobert's yard--except it probably wouldn't grow down here. It sounds like a wonderful place that you're leaving behind--I hope where you're going makes up for it! (And does the bear shit in the woods make good fertilizer?)

I could have picked the dandelions in the back yard, except that now there's a dog peeing back there I guess I'll leave the dandelions in the lawn. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 May 05 - 02:53 AM

We have TONS of rhubarb. There's brroccollii (never sure which letters are double in that word). The herbs are doing great, but because I grow them to sell and business is booming, I'm having trouble keeping up with demand. anyone want a list of the 50 or more herbs I'm growing? nah...I thought not. Our front porch and wall are absolutley beautiful...we have a wisteria which produces an incredible number of flowers which smell heavenly, and I planted a clematis montana rosea at the foot of it..that is now climbing up and through the wisteria and producing masses of flowers too...both are climbing up the Virginia creeper which covers the front of the house. Altogether they look stunning.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Metchosin
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:02 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot my rhubarb! How could I? Made two pies last weekend and its one of the few things that holds no appeal for the deer.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:23 AM

Had our first Rhubarb Crumble last night, lovely!
G..

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: open mike
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:21 AM

peonies and iris are booming and blooming
asparagus is gone
i planted acouple of root crop plants today:
sweet potatoe
(which sprouted last winter under the sink &
was in a flower pot indoors til now) and
bolinian sun root -- sanchifolia-- which i
think is asputh american cousin to jerusalem
artichokes--sunflower family.

harvested some oregano, and comfrey to dry.

what's this about basil oil??

fava beans are flowering
as is the calla lillies and pansies, violas and johnny jump ups

and ther eis a great crop of weeds...
i have pulled and pulled and pulled
and mowed and kused the weed eater.
i think my hands are permanently
stained. i try to wear gloves, but
can't get the right grip with my
hands covered like that....

there are small green cherries...
and it looks like there will be
plaenty red ones if i can beat the
birds to them...got to hand some
c.d.'s in teh tree to scare them off!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 09:36 AM

Lynne - you forget where you are posting - OF COURSE we want a list of the herbs you are growing...well - I do at least. (though too dang many are not hardy at my place.)

Lost half my basil to frost wednesday night.

Our hydrangea is just barely starting to leaf out, Daffies still going strong.   the earliest Rhodie (PJM) is almost done - azaleas just starting. Buds starting to swell on the later rhodies. Lilacs were thinking about blooming - colour showing but buds just sitting there and not opening.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:09 AM

Leo, it always sounds like you live in Alaska or the Himalayas, not in upstate New York, when you write about how cold and difficult it is to get started every spring.

Last weekend the starter cord on my weed whacker broke, so I had to stop what I was doing to fix it. [Note to self: buy set of longer allen wrenches instead of borrowing from the neighbor.] Now that I've fenced in the garden I'll have to take the string trimmer in to keep the grass paths down. It would be too much work to get the mower in there.

I have these pots from last year that I hadn't done anything with and now they are a charming mix of seedlings from things I forgot I had growing out there last year. Bright red petunias in with white alyssum and portulaca and marigolds. Maybe I can transplant some of the flowers growing up through my brick patio cracks. Tons of lemon balm coming up.

I have two large (maybe 20 gallons?) clay pots in front of three windows that are where there used to be a garage door. In order to mask the fact that concrete runs right up to the house at that point, I put ornamental sweet potatoes in those pots and they're just now spreading out. I want them to spread and disguise the concrete area. Instead of potting mix I used a homemade mix of topsoil and my finished compost, so lots of interesting seeds are sprouting under the sweet potato. I am considering whether to leave or transplant a tomato coming up in one spot. It isn't like I'm short on tomatoes this year.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:24 AM

We are on a ridge - which puts us several weeks behind and several zones colder then locations even a couple miles away. Penn Yan is solidly a zone 5, and gramma's cottage on the lake can be treated as a zone six with confidence. from experience we know that on our property we have to figure zone four is "iffy" and for confidence zone 3. The grape vines are just beginning to leaf out, the apples are just blooming. Forsythia has just barely gone by - it would have lasted longer but we did have a hot day in the last week. But on the other side of the hill (the sheltered side) grapes are almost fully leafed out, apple blossem is gone by, and forsythia is a fading memory.


"frost free" for us is Memorial Day weekend - (I had to dig my car out of a snowbank on Mother's day one year - granted - it melted overnight)

heck - most of the seasonal garden stores around here don't even bother opening until Mother's day.

A killing frost in September isn't unusual though sometimes they hold off until beginning of November (very unusual though)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: John P
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:27 AM

I love living in Seattle. We are eating the lettuce, chard, and cilantro that's been growing all winter. The garlic chives are ready. We put in spinach, parsley, and more lettuce a couple of weeks ago and it's almost ready to start eating. The thyme seems to be good year 'round. The mints are springing up all over the place. I think I'll have to contain them in a big pot. The strawberries are starting, and there's some other kind of berry that my wife got from a friend last year and stuck in the ground. It's flowering now, so we'll be able to find out what it is soon.

We just came back from a couple of weeks in England and found the yard in bloom -- foxglove, rhododendrons, roses, sage, rosemary, rock rose, iris. The magnolia, tulips, and fosythia went off just before we left.

Spring is good . . .

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:30 AM

Janie -- glad to hear the garden tour went well! Do you have pictures you could post? I for one would love to see 'em!

Nancy

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:32 AM

In general it actually is an "early" spring for us this year - Our magnolia usually hits peak flower sometime between Mother's Day and Memorial Day.    this year it was Mother's day. A couple of years ago "spring" occurred in 5 days - the succession of flowers that usually takes about a month went by in one fwell swoop

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Donuel
Date: 20 May 05 - 11:49 AM

I Planted 2 dwarf japanese red maples that have lace like leaves, a purple leafed hazelnut tree and a cherry tree. The rhododendrons are in full splendor while the azaleas are on their way out. Yesterday the fragrance from 3 blooming iris was sweet and heavy. The exotic grafted hibicus are blooming with nine inch flowers. One starts off as an electic coral but by the end of the day changes colors entirely.

The 4 foot gardenia is is in full constant and fragrant bloom.

I added a dozen or more different shade plants to the front north garden and a row of Coral bells on the side garden. The strawberries are no bigger than a dime and the grape vines are hard to find.
A nepalese vine that looks all the world to be a cannibus indica is about two feet tall and vines without any tendrils.

I am awaitng a shipment from Logee's Greenhouse that includes 2 banana trees that can withstand DC winters, provided they are well mulched in the fall. Also some showey trumpet flowers and passion flowers are due. Too bad the bananas are inedible.

If you are in the area I recommend Behnkes for the best plants. They will always have new things. I loved their cinnamon sage.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: CarolC
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:15 PM

Rustic Rebel, have you ever tried eating lamb's quarters as a cooked green?

My favorite way to eat them is to pick the tender parts and cook them in a frying pan with tomatoes, very ripe olive oil, basil, thyme, some bread crumbs, and parmesan and/or romano cheese. You have to add the cheese after you remove the pan from the heat. (I can't have it with cheese any more because I've discovered that I am allergic to it, but it's still tasty even without the cheese.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:16 PM

John P,

I know better than to try to reproduce the northwestern Washington plants down here in Texas, but I do miss the lush springs up there. I put a Japanese flowering quince in my yard here to go along with the native redbud to get that early burst of pink before anything else. Most of the other NW early spring plants would wither and die here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Mooh
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:20 PM

Rhubarb looks great this year. Lots of new raspberry plants popping up too. The apple tree is in blossom, and with the tulips and iriss, it even looks pretty in the neglected gardens. I think the bride intends to do the tomatoes and other stuff this weekend. I'd like to do cucumbers again too.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:26 PM

Donuel - if it is a musa (banana) and it fruits -the fruit should be edible - but may require cooking - and possibly may be considered "inedible" if it is one of the rare forms that contain seeds. As far as I know none of the bananas or plaintains are actually inedible - though some are not very tasty.

the flower buds of bananas can be steamed or boiled or roasted or baked as well. (Guess I should have just said "cooked")

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 20 May 05 - 01:00 PM

Metchosin - The Garden Path Nursery had great reports on it's black tomato varieties. It's off West Saanich Road if you're in town soon they have losts of plants (and advice).

My rhubarb is prolific, but green. I'm going to buy a red stalked plant but I heard the colour might be more to do with my soil than the plant - anyone know if tyhis is the case? I need red rhubarb for a halibut recipe I got from Sooke Harbour House. You sit a chunk of very fresh halibut in blenderized rhubarb overnight and it cures it. The slices are beautifully pink on the outside and white within.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 01:10 PM

my sources (a web search) say that colour of the stalks is based on variety - not soil conditions. Other sites suggest cooking a few cranberries in with rhubarb to get the red colour if you have green rhubarb.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:16 PM

My rhubarb was described as 'bright red stalks' by the bloke I bought it from. When it came up green I mentioned it to him and he was surprised enough to refund my money (all $2) He'd forked the roots off his own 'bright red-stalked' plant. Someone told me they go red at the end of the season but ... they don't. Bit of a mystery. Stay tuned.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:19 PM

rhubarb reverts to type quite easily. I've known that to happen to several people who transplanted offshoots. Or - if he lets his rhubarb flower you may have got a seedling rather then a division - in which case it is much more likely to be green. (rhubarb doesn't breed true)

(god my brain is clogged with trivia - no wonder I'm absent minded)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:30 PM

The term for a collector of trivia is 'spermologist.' ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:49 PM

A coloquial term I use for the collecting of trivia is my "brain lint filter."

There are some wonderful cooking bananas available in the marketplace these days. Some of them sweeten when cooked, others go through a couple of steps (i.e., plantain or platanos) of being cut up, fried, soaked in salt water, dried, squashed, and fried again. Or some combination thereof. It has been years since I cooked any of it but it comes out tasting more like fries or hashbrowns.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening: What are you harvesting?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:52 PM

BPL - Webster says that's a collector of seed.