recent photos

Some out takes from the previous months, mostly re”pete” of recipes, some did not warrant a posting by themselves.

Hamburger Buns

Dough Wrapped Hotdogs

Dumpling Soup

Thai styled Grilled Chicken

Roasting Coffee Beans

Broth

Pesto

Eggplant, Smoke Roasted Tomato

Eggplant, Smoke Roasted Tomato, Flatbread

Fried Dumplings

Chicken Breast, Tomato Curry

Chicken Broth

Noodle Soup

Cold Noodle Soup

Grilled Cauliflower and Veggies

Garden update

The hot weather has receded, cooler temperatures albeit humid,  scattered showers prevail. One single tomato stalk remains of the hydroponic DWC , a caterpillar munching on the last green tomatoes, as soon as this is done I will move on to most likely growing greens that will last during the fall.

The soil based tomato plant still thrives providing us with almost a daily supply.

A friend has been hanging around for a while, sharing some tomatoes with him.

Interior of the tomato stem

The Garden update/ tomato review

The mid summer doldrums are with us, hot,  balmy and humid weather. The nights are cool. The hydroponic tomatoes and soil grown tomatoes continue. The hydro tomatoes have ceased to grow, some of the foliage browning and dry,  the formed fruit continued to ripen. Some fruit harvested. Most likely a root temperature issue, too hot ! Planning either year round indoor growing or different vegetable next year for hydroponic system.

The soil based tomato plant has thrived still providing new fruit, the first formed fruit ripened and picked. Backed off the the nutrients and since the last rains some watering just from the rain barrel some times twice a day.

 

Two different varieties, Roni and Sakura, the Roni should be the larger of the two. Seeds sourced from High Mowing Organic.

July 16

July 16

Soil based plant. July 23 2018

Hydroponic Deep water culture, outdoor July  23

Uses so far. Salsa. Not shown, tomato sauce for gnocchi, salsa || with chicken and corn chips.

Pizza, hot weather , so baked in the convention oven. Maybe grille outdoor later in the season.

We usually hardly ever buy tomatos from the store , too many disappointments , once you taste them from the vine fresh. The taste of ours are excellent tomato taste, it seems they are at peak sweetness 24 hours after picking. Still good after that robust tomato flavor, no mealy texture, would like to dry some for storage but I think most will be eaten. A delicacy.

Garden update

Hydroponics: same as last year even with only 2 plants , the leaves started wilting . The massive root ball seems to be too big for the size on the reservoir. Possible next year a single Dutch bucket system for each tomato plant. Shifted to a recirculating system to add more capacity to the nutrients and require less topping off as the growth rate increases the more nutrients are used some days topping off at twice  a day. I occasionally trimmed the plants of shoots , but even just two plants, they grew massive main shoots from the base and went into the budding stages quickly. Don’t know if the plants will survive and continue during the heat wave, as of now none no substantial browning of the leaves buds are intact. Overall I like the type of tomato larger than last years cherry type. We will see about the taste when ripe.  addendum: some of the shoots have regained their strength while some have browned.

Conventional gardening: One of the tomato plants, hydroponically started was transplanted to soil, a small piece of weed stop fabric was used at the base. The growth rate was a bit slower than the hydro system, but there is no signs of stress on the plant. Soil temp is of course cooler than the exposed hydro reservoir. Continued to feed and water it with about the same nutrients as the hydro system. Roughly looks about the same or a bit less fruiting than the hydro system.

If it’s July then it raspberry picking time. No maintenance per say  on the bushes in the yard.  They  have spread into 2 different areas , during the off season they were mowed with a buffer zone between them. One section receives more sun that the other. About a 15 minute pick time today at high noon heat and sun, the midday siesta broken by the occasional sound of mowers, weed wackers and blowers in the hood. Good  harvest, some berries falling from the canes as I move them,  possibly an earlier pick might have yielded more but those on the garden floor may be for the birds or propagation. Today is a 12 ounce yield. July 03 , 1 lb 5oz. July 06 1 lb, 10 3/8 oz. July 08, 1 lb. 11 oz. July 12: 1 lb 2 oz

The berry bushes , side yard, have produced some berries but they quickly disappeared , managed to eat a few while mowing the yard a week or two before. The Viking aronia have some berries may be less than last year. Two cherry bushes have blossomed one is recovering when it got ran over by driving my pickup to the rear door when the basement clean out was underway severing one of the main shoots. After nutrient feed, many base shoots have sprung.

It seems to me through the years the different type of the fruit producing plants either raspberries, tomato or bush cherries have their annual “day in the sun” as far as fruit production.

Green Chili Tomato Jam

Adapted from blog Cooking without Limits

Substituted a few ingredients for a savory chili sauce\ jam.

Rough measurements, and by taste to get a sweet\sour taste.

Very  good use for tomato and hot peppers.

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Green jalapeno peppers with seeds…  about 125 grams, processed in a food processor

white sugar……. 68 grams

apple cider vinegar …. about 51 ml

bottled lemon juice and peeled processed orange  combination ….. 2 tablespoons more or less

Tomatoes, cherry/grape type  is what I have harvested recently.

Pour the vinegar, sugar, orange and lemon juice in a pan

boil for 5 minutes, add the hot  peppers, Add tomato (amount by eye) to achieve and desired consistency.

Cook on low heat to thicken, adjust measurements if necessary, place in jar, cool and refrigerate.

Due to the size of the tomatoes, the sauce has a high concentration of seeds versus pulp. A good condiment to have on hand not only for toast etc. but a cooking ingredient for sauces and marinades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hydroponic update II

07/11/17

Some wilting of  some the leaves on some of the plants, could be from

• too high a nutrient level
• root overcrowding of the reservoir, too many plantings for the capacity of the reservoir
• not enough aeration of the nutrients
• inadequate flushing of the reservoir, 2 week intervals
• too much sunlight
• not enough air flow
• accumulation of rainwater overfilling reservoir
• all of the above

The tomatoes continue to bloom and ripen despite the drooping leaves, some leaves have browned,

Some of the leaves were removed  from the lower parts of the plants to promote air circulation.

Tomatoes ripen at different sizes, possibly from different nutrient mix, Open Sesame, Beastie Bloom, Cha Ching. (Fox Farm nutrients) Different stages of growth on the vine locations.

Next year, most likely less plantings, only one per net pot, only 3-4 per reservoir.

The NFT lettuce and greens system in on hold for now,  read an article on Meniscus membrane systems. Could continue during the colder months indoors or earlier.  No rush whatsoever.

07/16/2017

More of the leaves have browned and drooped or dried. Dropped nutrient level, and checked the PPM more frequently. Tomatoes  still ripening and harvesting.

07/20/2017

The PVC tomato tower was a success, plenty  of places to tie on support lines

Cut back a lot of the dried growth

Some of the tomatoes have a grape like skin and fruit

07/30/2017

  Cut back browned plants, harvested tomatoes on the vine for ripening.

Drain and cleaned out net pots , lava rock and flushed reservoir light solution of Sledgehammer. Massive root ball one one side of the reservoir .

New growth on remaining plants.

Trashed trimmed vines

The root system was so dense, I had to cut the roots of the discarded plants

Flushing of the reservoir with a weak Sledgehammer solution and clean water

Sun ripened tomatoes from the vine.

08/03/2017

 Now I trimmed down to one plant in one net pot. the plant is still growing and producing fruit. but of course the harvest will be much less. Some trimmed vine fruit is ripening off the vine. The flavor of these tomatoes are not sweet, so to speak, but have a good balanced tomato flavor that I’ve grown to enjoy. It’s difficult to get a good sweet tomato even from the store as a certain variety has to be at the peak of flavor and that is a very short time. Overall I like this type of tomato that’s  for container gardening and will grow it again. I’ve learned the limits of this setup.

Assortment of greens have been started indoors for the remainder of the summer and fall. I suppose I could start more tomatoes, but will concentrate on greens for now and develop the NFT system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hydroponics summer/fall

This year the outdoor  hydroponics consisted mostly  of cherry tomatoes, Burpee and High Mowing organic Bartelly F1, three plantings, though I did not track how many from each variety. Late start as they require warmer temperatures possibly a heat mat to germinate than other varieties of greens I had grown from  seeds. This was the answer though as to a better variety to grow hydroponically compared to last year as they produced grapevine like clusters of tomatoes. Trellising needs to be improved, not tall enough to support the height of the tomatoes, some stems folded and split and leafs became mottled. Late in the season trimmed lower leaves as it’s probably close the end of the growing season (outdoor). the most recent pick some were more sweeter than others but the fact the they are still growing and ripening is a plus. may also benefit from some type of trellis/plastic wrap for cool weather protection.

Overall a big improvement from last year variety of tomato

 

 

stuffed eggplant

Eggplant is one if those ingredients that can replaced meat or augment it. Usually I prepare one type of eggplant recipe most often, sliced , breaded, and fried, or baked. That  method requires preparation. If you follow the salt and drain routine to remove the moisture from the eggplant this is  more prep time. Occasionally viewing cooking shows on TV gave me the idea to change the routine breaded eggplant recipe.

Stuffed eggplant seemed like a straight forward recipe, remove the eggplant interior  from the eggplant, once sliced in half lengthwise, and return it to the shells after being cooked and mixed with stuffing components and baked.

 

A quick search for Lydia’s stuffed eggplant recipe gave me the starting point for the recipe. Ground chicken thighs would replace the ground beef.  Also I would being using one rather large eggplant.

No breadcrumbs were available so stubborn me, resisting the quick trip to the market to get some, made a quick biscuit recipe. Then when done, further baked  at a low heat to dry it out some what. Finally this was cut to resemble cubes of bread. This biscuit was in the form of one large round biscuit , the dough being pressed into a large diameter cake pan which fit in the microwave/convection oven.

Time wise the stuffing had be be cooled when completed so there was sufficient time to prepare the cubed bread substitute. 

 

The ground chicken was cooked and then added some rice wine, another substitution as I don’t usually have white wine available as an Italian kitchen would. No green bell pepper available either.The Parmesan cheese only measured about 1/2 cup. Now the recipe was coming together, this was along the lines of a meat stuffing one would prepare for a turkey for example.

Didn’t get any pictures when this was done from the oven but the result did remind me of a stuffing for poultry with a filling meatloaf like texture, the biscuit substitute actually better than bread due to the fact it was denser. Cherry tomatoes (we are fortunate to have a small amount of hydroponic cherry tomatoes available, more on that endeavor to be posted) also rounded out the stuffing and thyme instead of parsley, perhaps that accented the the poultry flavor with the ground chicken thighs.

All in all a good meal and as I am partial to cold meatloaf sandwiches, this meal was better the next day un-reheated.

I’m going to rework this recipe as far as the stuffing combination, rice will be used instead of the bread and it most likely will have a more spicy flair.

http://createtv.com/recipe/meat+stuffed+eggplant

 

 

 

Summer 2016

Now that the hot weather is upon us, menus have switched to meals requiring less heat indoors for preparation, except for late hour bread baking.

Here just a few meals via photos

grilled meal

rice and veggie

bread still bakes during the hot summer

simple greens

BBQ pizza

risotto with greens

take out salad

small breakfast

chicken and greens salad

hydroponics greens

Couscous and leeks

couscous, salad , topped with grated cheese

take out roasted veggies

light brunch

Just a salad for now,

salad dressing, (mayo, ketchup, horseradish, hot pepper sauce, hot pepper flakes, sugar, salt, balsamic vinegar)

sliced deviled eggs w/bacon (leftovers)

fresh greens, (lettuce, kale, tat soi.)

croutons (cubed bread, sautéed with garlic and butter.)

grape tomatoes