Today's harvest

[larry_stewart]

My hydroponics is only a 20 gallon fish tank, with about 13 pods on top. Not using too much electric ( can't say the same about my AC with all the 90 + weather we've been getting lately. I would love a huge system. Let year at the flower show, they had someone from a university give a lecture about the system they had at their lab, I got his card and was supposed to arrange a private tour of their facility, but never got around to doing it. Then, recently, at the 4th of July festival in Philly, another university had a portable aquaponic lab ( in a trailer) and were educating the public on it. got his card too to arrange a private tour of their main facility. Maybe I ll keep that as a winter thing to do.


Nice variety of shapes, sizes and colors, Pep.
My Cukes have kicked in, I'm up to 5 quarts of pickles, cucumber salad or other cuke products.

 

[pepperhead212]

My hydroponics consists of 12 gal and a 28 gal tubs, which I cut lids for from scrap plexiglass, and spray painted white. This last year I tried a floating lid, made of Styrofoam, but I'm not sure if that worked as well. I have an old powerhead in each one with a sponge filter, and a single airstone, and the plants grow faster than outside! I also made a cloner of a bucket, with holes drilled in the lid for the small baskets, and most cuttings root within a week.

 

[larry_stewart]

My hydroponics consists of 12 gal and a 28 gal tubs, which I cut lids for from scrap plexiglass, and spray painted white. This last year I tried a floating lid, made of Styrofoam, but I'm not sure if that worked as well. I have an old powerhead in each one with a sponge filter, and a single airstone, and the plants grow faster than outside! I also made a cloner of a bucket, with holes drilled in the lid for the small baskets, and most cuttings root within a week.

I took the easy route.
I got mine prefab in amazon, basically fits over a 20 gallon fish tank.
Works well, but only produces so much.

Have been picking some new nbabu potatoes the last few weeks.
I have several potato beds that go to the end of the season, but I always buy too many seed potatoes , along with the ones in the kitchen that are sprouting or the ones from last year that have almost met their end. I usually take the extras and plant a few potatoes one each large pot ( about 5 gallons) and then I dump a pot each week or so as I need them until I get to harvest the big ones.

 

[blissful]

Nice potatoes! Our potatoes, kennebecs, are in the regular (not raised) garden in rows, they are nice size bushes right now, no flowers yet.


Two kinds of garlic, and one is ready to come out today. Russian Red is coming out today. Music is still all green, so it's not ready.

 

[bbqcoder]

Two kinds of garlic, and one is ready to come out today. Russian Red is coming out today.

Can you post a picture of what the Russian Red garlic look like? I'm interested in seeing what the stalk and leaves look like.

I agree that Larry's potatoes look great. I'll see if I can post a picture of mine from last year. I'm growing 6 different kinds this year.

How are people dealing with the Colorado potato beetle grubs? Have you found eggs on the underside of the leaves and crushed them?

I've been picking the grubs and putting them in a container with water. The infestation hasn't been too bad.

 

[blissful]

I don't have recent pictures from today, but this is russian red.

This is a hardneck.
We pulled off two tops while harvesting and dug them out, then one root dislodged from one bulb, and we used it in the kitchen, for a salad.

 

[bbqcoder]

then one root dislodged from one bulb, and we used it in the kitchen, for a salad.

Thanks for the pics. I don't think I have ever seen a case where the roots came off a bulb. Why do you think that happened? Was the garlic past its harvest time so that it started separating?

 

[bbqcoder]

Here are some pictures of the alliums in my garden.

At my house, I have two 4x10 beds dedicated to mostly garlic. Probably 10 bulbs of each varieties and ~16 varieties altogether.

This is the second bed. You can see in the foreground that I have shallots (gray & yellow) and potato onions.

Onions (yellow, red, and white) started from sets. I like to grow them from seeds but I got a late start this year so my seedlings weren't as developed as I would have liked.

At the community garden, there's a shared area where we grow stuff for everyone to partake in. Last year, it was pumpkins & butternut squash. This year, I planted garlic and onions. Some of the onions that I started from seeds are here. I usually like to plant my onions in clumps of 4.

Lastly, this is a picture of my personal plot at the community garden.You can see the shallots/potato onions in the foreground and then two groups of garlic. Not sure why it happened but I had more yellow tips on my garlic in the community gardens versus my house. To the far right, you can see some of my potatoes growing in "raised beds". Between the alliums & potatoes, I have some golden raspberry bushes that I plated this year.

 

[blissful]

bbq-I'm not sure. We've never had it happen before but the ground was really dry and hard, and it ripped off, exposing the garlic with no root portion to each clove. It could be over ripe or just a fluke too. It was just one. Everything else looks good on the harvested garlic--nothing is bursting out of the wrapper, which happens when it is over ripe.

 

[larry_stewart]

This is what my counter will look like for the next 3 months ( in another few weeks there will be there addition of tomatoes)

 

[pepperhead212]

Looks good Larry! My cukes are much slower, but the tomatoes are really starting to ripen faster than I can pick them. And I was looking at all those green peppers yesterday - as always, I will be flooded with those, when they start ripening.

Yesterday I put some more eggplant in the dehydrator, along with some tomatillos, this time. The purple ones are still behind the green ones, with none ready to be picked yet.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yesterday I put some more eggplant in the dehydrator, .

What do you do with your dried eggplant?

 

[larry_stewart]

What do you do with your dried eggplant?

And tomatillos ?

Those are two veggies Ive never thought of drying as Im not sure what I could do with them from the dried state.


My tomatillo plants are Tall , healthy, and flowering quite a bit, but haven't noticed any fruit setting in.


Not sure if I posted this pic yet, but look who surprisingly hitched a ride wit me, back home from the garden store.

 

[GotGarlic]

And tomatillos ?

Those are two veggies Ive never thought of drying as Im not sure what I could do with them from the dried state.


My tomatillo plants are Tall , healthy, and flowering quite a bit, but haven't noticed any fruit setting in.


Not sure if I posted this pic yet, but look who surprisingly hitched a ride wit me, back home from the garden store.

I haven't tried it, but some people put dehydrated vegetables in soups and stews. You could probably use them in a salsa, too.

 

[pepperhead212]

I haven't tried it, but some people put dehydrated vegetables in soups and stews. You could probably use them in a salsa, too.

That's actually what I do with them. I use a lot of the eggplant in curries and other Indian stew type dishes; even in many dishes that have a fresh vegetable, just to get some more veggies in the dish. And the dried tomatillos do make a good salsa. They reduce from 1 lb to 1.45 oz, but I usually use 1.6 oz to make a pint of salsa, and I found that if I toast the dried pieces in the pan, when toasting the dried chiles, it gets a flavor like broiling or grilling them. I just press them against the pan, as I do with the chiles, to get some caramelizing, then soak in the hot water, and when soft, blend smooth.

 

[dragnlaw]

All is good to know, thanks!

I love eggplant, but being single there is only so much I can eat. Drying them for winter usage is fantastic. I would never have bought them to add to a stew or soup per se but to throw in some dried? Great!

 

[larry_stewart]

Possibly a dumb or irrelevant question, but do you dry them peeled or unpeeled ?

 

[dragnlaw]

Having never done them I will just jump right in with an answer.

If they are young and thin skinned it would probably be preferable to leave the skin on.

Older and tougher (skins) I would remove.

so speaketh the one who really doesn't know..

 

[pepperhead212]

I never peel them, except for the parts of the peel that have turned brown - the little pieces I always remove, when using them fresh. I never notice the peel in the dishes I use it in.

Oh yeah - another thing I have done with dried EP - I ground it into flour in my VM! I use this frequently in flatbreads, substituting it for some of the flour.

 

[blissful]

Oh yeah - another thing I have done with dried EP - I ground it into flour in my VM! I use this frequently in flatbreads, substituting it for some of the flour.

That is SUCH a great idea. There is no really good way to preserve eggplant by canning or freezing, and they come in at a fast rate. Also, especially this, that you use it in breads. I have tomato powder (both whole tomatoes dehydrated then ground, and also the pulp/peel after running canning tomatoes through a mill), and mushroom powder, and I forget to add anything interesting to my breads. Thank you for that.