Gardening

[ruthcatrin]

My jalapeno's are ripening!!!!



And I've got chocolate habaneros, and sweet chocolate peppers, and Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, and a few onions!

 

[alejandro]

Looks like someone likes her food spicy.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Actually hubby does lol, the jalapenos are as hot as I'll tolerate, and that not in large quantities!

Most of the Jalapeno's will go for jalapeno jelly. The habs, hot wax peppers, and any left over jalapenos will be dried and turned into hot pepper powder.

 

[Robtouw]

Awesome!

 

[ruthcatrin]

 

[alejandro]

That's a nice looking carrot, it's been a while since a have seen non-orange carrots. How's the taste compare to the regular ones.

 

[ruthcatrin]

We've got three varieties of purple carrots, a white carrot variety, and a mini "sweet eating" orange carrot growing this year.

The purples are all surprising spicy. Not HOT spicy, but with a very nice bite to them none the less. Exact flavors vary a bit. For all its size this one wasn't quite ripe (the bottom half wasn't as spicy as the top), most of the rest weren't as big so I'll leave them alone for a couple more weeks.

 

[alejandro]

Good for you Ruth, people just follow the leading tendences and that's how we lose varieties, happened to carrots, happened to dogs and may someday happen to us.

 

[ruthcatrin]

I recently broke down and joined the Seed Savers Exchange. They put ALOT of effort into keeping and expanding heirloom varieties of all sorts of fruits and vegis, and I've been ordering seeds from them for a couple years now. We've discovered we really like a variety of heirloom vegis, such as tomatoes, that we both hate from the grocery store.

Tomatoes for example. I hate tomatoes. The ONLY way I voluntarily eat them is as pizza sauce. My husband is a bit better, he likes red sauce on his pasta and ketchup, but thats it. This year I decided to grow tomatoes to make our own pizza sauce, and after some research and talking to some folks I settled on the Heirloom variety Black Plum.....we have BOTH been eating them straight off the vine! They are SO MUCH BETTER than any tomato I have ever tried before. And the pizza sauce they make is to die for.

 

[ruthcatrin]

A different variety of purple carrot, and a white carrot. These two aren't QUITE as big as the one yesterday, but not much smaller either.

 

[Robtouw]

I'm finding that I actually like the taste of the veggies I grow! The store's not so much, I guess all the dye, wax, chemical washes make them taste different. My hubby was skeptical of eating eggs from our chickens at first,now he won't eat store bought eggs, now it's the same with our green beans and tomatoes. It's sad that there is such a big taste difference, I wonder how many kids never taste real, natural produce?

 

[alejandro]

Anything you put your time and work into it's always better, besides store stuff it's usually industrially manufacture and taste and quallity are not always the main concern.

 

[alejandro]

A couple of off season blossoms.

 

[ruthcatrin]

First potatoes out of the garden!

 

[alejandro]

Never seen those before.

 

[ruthcatrin]

I have never seen purple potaotes in the stores AT ALL. But they're actually a very nutrient packed potato. These are a fairly new hybrid, but there are heirloom varieties that have been around for ages. They tasted just like normal poatoes though!

 

[Smokeycat]

I have never seen purple potaotes in the stores AT ALL. But they're actually a very nutrient packed potato. These are a fairly new hybrid, but there are heirloom varieties that have been around for ages. They tasted just like normal poatoes though!

They make a very pretty potato salad and very unappetizing looking mashed potatoes.

 

[ruthcatrin]

That I can totally believe!

 

[ruthcatrin]

Three different kinds of purple carrots, and some giant white carrots:



Some of which got turned into pickled carrots. The jar on the left is the left over brine, the jar on the right has a mixed variety of carrots. Apparently at least one variety purple carrots "bleeds" purple.....


Something tells me that the white carrots won't be white when we pull them out...

And the rest of the potatoes from the garden:

 

[alejandro]

Nice