Food Gardening

[Grott]

I do the exact same thing with broccoli. Divine with some freshly cooked rice.

Mmmm, I’ll certainly give that a try

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Do you grow your spuds in one of those grow bag thingies? The look like a good idea for saving space and your back.

No, grew them in the raised bed, tried the 30 litre pot method before but I didn't drill any extra holes for the drainage so half the pots got waterlogged.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Sent off an email to the seed potato suppliers in SA about the Kestrel spuds and availability for home gardeners, got no reply, will try Diggers and Green Harvest see if they can get them. There is another pommie one called Swift planting to lifting is approximately 7 weeks.
Did a post somewhere about the world shortage of phosphate, we are on the brink of phosphate being mined out and Monash Uni has been doing experiments with thousands of species of plants and the effect of the lack of phosphate, results are dwarfed plants which are packed with cyanide (survival mode) and the sorghum produced enough cyanide to kill a cow.
Amazing how plants can produce cyanide so easily, and how so many plants are toxic, even fungi producing poisons and their roots hardly penetrate the soil. I have a plant in my back yard that if you laid underneath it for 5 to 10 minutes you would die.
Beware the plants.

 

[wynnum1]

Sent off an email to the seed potato suppliers in SA about the Kestrel spuds and availability for home gardeners, got no reply, will try Diggers and Green Harvest see if they can get them. There is another pommie one called Swift planting to lifting is approximately 7 weeks.
Did a post somewhere about the world shortage of phosphate, we are on the brink of phosphate being mined out and Monash Uni has been doing experiments with thousands of species of plants and the effect of the lack of phosphate, results are dwarfed plants which are packed with cyanide (survival mode) and the sorghum produced enough cyanide to kill a cow.
Amazing how plants can produce cyanide so easily, and how so many plants are toxic, even fungi producing poisons and their roots hardly penetrate the soil. I have a plant in my back yard that if you laid underneath it for 5 to 10 minutes you would die.
Beware the plants.

Kestrel, another Scottish variety Elders bought the rights to and sublicensed to a couple of growers

 

[Dave70]

Just a slight note of caution to any budding wicking bedders. I noticed since planting out a few summer veg, they seemed to be doing it tough. Took a PH sample test yesterday and came back with a reading of around 8, so basically depriving the more neutral / acid fancying veg of nutrients. My best guess if that I used recycled concrete for the aggregate, neglected to wash it, and now the residual lime in the cement dust is doing what lime does to soil. Got busy with the Yates liquid sulfur, so we'll see how it goes.
I might ad, all the cruciferous stuff and leafy greens had no issues. But who wants to eat kale year round..

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Sulfur will fix it as will diluted vinegar, had a similar problem with Lilydale toppings and an acid loving Rhododendron.
How old are your wicker beds now Dave?

 

[Dave70]

Sulfur will fix it as will diluted vinegar, had a similar problem with Lilydale toppings and an acid loving Rhododendron.
How old are your wicker beds now Dave?

round nine months old. About a 50/50 mix of decomposed stable manure and premium garden mix for the soil. The fact that its been the driest winter since 2009, actually, stuff all rain whatsoever round my way, and the fact that wicking beds 'wick' I'm tipping would have aggravated it due to the soil not getting the occasional rinsing.
I've hooked up a rainwater tank (we're on town water) for my garden irrigation - and beer - and giving the beds a spray every other day. As far as I know the sulfur need to be broken down by the bacteria in the soil and can be a bit of a lengthy process.

 

[wynnum1]

I think you have to use acid to get a quick change sulfur, phosphoric or nitric but would have to be dilute .With that PH clubroots not going to be a problem .

 

[Dave70]

One bed has pretty much run its course and needs to be replanted anyway so I'll be yanking everything this weekend and going with the dilute vinegar fix also. About a cup per 3.7L seems to be the rate.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I think you have to use acid to get a quick change sulfur, phosphoric or nitric but would have to be dilute .With that PH clubroots not going to be a problem .

Another use for Star-San

 

[Mardoo]

Note to self:
Go easy on the silverbeet next season. Off to cook some now for the second time today.

I wonder how a silverbeet kimchi would go?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

One bed has pretty much run its course and needs to be replanted anyway so I'll be yanking everything this weekend and going with the dilute vinegar fix also. About a cup per 3.7L seems to be the rate.

You could always plant some veg that will put up with a higher pH (I think beans is one) while the soil neutralizes.

 

[Grott]

I wonder how a silverbeet kimchi would go?

That’s worth a Mardoo, good thinking.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I wonder how a silverbeet kimchi would go?

Its claimed (by more experienced food fermenters than me) that Chlorophyll (green leaf vegetables)
is undesirable in fermented foods. One thing I was disappointed to learn because I've had wheel barrows full of Kale and Silver Beet in my Aquaponics and wanted to make use of excess like Kale Sauerkraut etc. It doesn't make nice ferments like Cabbage or other colour vegetables. YMMV.
Never know unless you try...
I vacuum seel and freeze it for later uses like Spinach and Fetta recipes. No worries substituting with Silver Beet IMO.

 

[Grott]

What if you blanched the silverbeet, dried and then proceeded with the process of kimchi? Does blanching get rid of the chlorophyll?

 

[Danscraftbeer]

What if you blanched the silverbeet, dried and then proceeded with the process of kimchi? Does blanching get rid of the chlorophyll?

Not sure but cooking will kill the natural bacteria that makes it ferment.
I did make a few Kale Sauerkraut up to 5l. Shredded with just enough water and salt to ~2% Salinity.
The ferment was totally successful. It was OK but not as nice as Cabbage.
You could always add it to Kimchi but not as the base malt etc

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Silverbeet stems however...? Diced, good juicy chunky fill option for ferments? I think I have four different coloured Silverbeet atm. All green leaves just awesome coloured stems that you throw into the compost. Seems a shame.

 

[manticle]

Compost goes back into the cycle so never a waste, never a shame

 

[Danscraftbeer]

True that.
I have added cross cut Silverbeet stems into fridged pickles and its nice but the worst part is the stringyness you get in Silverbeet stems especially when it gets large. Even when cross cut short those strings dont breakdown in a ferment. Good fibre value and flavor but not the greatest on the easy chewability scores etc.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Broccoli and silver beet stems finely sliced and fried with garlic add omelette mix and eat.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Still harvesting the broad beans this will be the last of them though, Violet Sicilian, purported to be a Cauli cross Broccoli, goes green when cooked, Savoy cabbages still going almost ready to harvest only the one went to seed.

 

[Bribie G]

I put my silverbeet stems back into compost.

Hey, my okra and leaf amaranth seeds have failed to germinate after a couple of weeks. They were over 3 years old, so I ordered fresh stock from Eden Seeds - should arrive before the weekend.

Of course it goes without saying what is going to happen in the meantime...

 

[wynnum1]

That is the problem with buying seeds buy a packet of eggplant seeds and plant a few and the rest of the seeds go off before can use .

 

[Grott]

Wrap remaining seeds in alfoil and all should be ok for ages

 

[LiquidGold]

Store your airtight seed box in a pantry or somewhere dark and cool with minimum temp and humidity fluctuations.

The hardest thing I've found with growing food from seed is keeping up with the succession planting/sowing needed to achieve a continuous harvest.

We tend to put stems into soups or stocks, usually bundled up together to make it easy to remove after cooking.

 

[mofox1]

Love this time of year... Scotch steak with home grown veg: spuds, asparagus, and garlic. And the rhubarb in my Saison, 'cept that was last year's crop.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Reminds me of when we had some relatives come over from Scotland one of them ordered a scotch fillet and when they put the steak down in front of him he said, 'No, I ordered the fish' !

 

[Grott]

I’ll bet they deep fry their steaks as well WEAL.

 

[Bribie G]

In Europe and USA they are "the taste of summer".. of course here I've been growing them over the winter and it's probably too late to plant any more

Re the "patty pan" squash.
Well that was a stuff up, I assumed they would die off when the summer arrived. Instead they have gone ballistic and sending runners all over the place, loaded with squash. So it looks like they are actually a summer variety, not that there's a serious difference in daytime maxima around here.
I've prepared a bed for the next lot.

 

[Bribie G]

I’ll bet they deep fry their steaks as well WEAL.

Battered first of course.