Wednesday, April 30, 2008

First Garden Goodies



So far this growing season my garden has produced lettuce, turnip greens and yesterday I picked the first pepper, a jalapeño. We haven't eaten him yet.

My husband wanted to grow lots of peppers this season because they are cheap to buy, take up little space and usually produce a lot of product. Yesterday we went to the feed store and bought cayenne, Anaheim, red hot chili, another jalapeño, two more bell and something else I can't remember. I also have a bunch of sweet banana seeds planted that haven't sprouted yet.

Over the weekend we planted pole green beans, bush green beans and bush lima beans. Yesterday we planted white field corn and purple hull peas along with three other tomato plants. A Parks Whopper, a Beefsteak and a HBN 444 Southern Star. Also planted a St. John's Wort plant and today I am going to plant a cilantro plant I bought. The okra is also up and looking happy.

Not sure what else we will plant. Probably more of the same as I plan to can and freeze everything I can this season and those are the main staples of any garden. We also have squash planted both regular crookneck and zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant and onions.

I'm ready to start harvesting and eating. I think waiting for the yummy garden goodies is the worst thing about gardening. That and the ungodly heat that arrives around the end of May.



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

jalapeños are wonderful if you seed and cut into match stick strips and deep fry till browned. Eat them straight and the flavor is not over-whelmed by the heat. Loads of vitamins and minerals too.

Anonymous said...

i have my "victory garden" planted as well, all from seeds so i have to wait to sample. yours are looking good , mrs farmer loretta.

Don said...

In some grocery stores you can find jalapeños canned in Mexico and most of them will contain some carrot and onion as well as the magic ingredient, sesame oil. That gives the peppers an altogether different, and I think more delicious, flavor. In past years, using a recipe that I devised myself, I’ve canned some of my own and I love ‘em. I’ve also put up hot pepper sauce with cayenne peppers which is really very easily done.

Loretta, do you have one of those pressure canners that holds several quart-sized jars? If not, you can borrow mine because I haven’t used for several years. It’s much easier to freeze produce, but some things just taste better if they are canned.