Chive Flower Vinegar

   Every once in a while, I see something online or in a book and think, "I have to try that!"

   Chive flower vinegar was one of those things.  The little chive transplant I was given last year is thriving where it was planted.  The pink flowers are attracting big, fuzzy bumblebees and adding colour to an otherwise all-green, just-getting-
underway garden.  When I spotted a post about chive flower vinegar online, I immediately logged off, grabbed a mason jar, and set off to make some of my own.

   It's pretty simple.  Snip a few chive flowers, rinse under cold water, shake off the excess water, pop into a small jar, cover with your vinegar of choice (I used plain white vinegar), cover, and let it infuse for 2 or 3 days.  Remove the flowers and store the infusion in the fridge.  It is very tasty mixed with oil and used as a salad dressing. It would also be divine used in a potato salad.  I drizzled it over steamed vegetables the other night.  Yum!

 

Day 1 (click to enlarge)

Day 3, ready to enjoy.

Enthusiastic Garlic and Turning the Beds

Greetings from Club Tropicana!

   Not really.  But it sure feels tropical out there.  It's 26 degrees as I type this at 5:00 PM.  It has been in the low-to-mid 20s all week and it is forecast to remain so until the weekend.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky today.

   Yesterday, I began weeding and turning the raised beds in earnest and also worked some manure and kelp into the smaller beds.   Onion sets were planted, too.

   Today, the weeding/bed-turning/poo-incorporating continued.  R. dug out one of the large raised beds (the second one from the house).  We put rotting chunks of the trunk of a fallen birch tree in the bottom of the bed and covered them with material from the compost bin before dumping the soil back into the bed.  (Aside: the material from the compost bin was not at all composted.  It was so hot and dry last summer and the summer before that most of what was in the compost bin ended up being dehydrated rather than breaking down.  For example, the carrot tops were still green and had maintained their frilly form, but were crispy.)

   Tomorrow, we will spot-weed the south garden in preparation for planting potatoes (which, if the temperatures hold, we could do any time now).  R. will till that garden as well.  I splurged on a package of 5 dahlia tubers this week.  When I began gardening, the packages were around $8.99 for 5 tubers. Now, they are $19.99!  Despite two attempts, I have not mastered the technique of overwintering dahlia tubers.  Considering the current price of them, maybe I should try again this Fall.

   The garlic began emerging on April 30th.  Most of it is up, now, including many of the bulbils that were planted in pots.  That's 2 weeks earlier than usual.  They are loving this sunshine.

 

 

   The trees and current bush are all budding.  While turning the raised beds, I found 3 onions and 3 sprouting garlic cloves.  Buried treasure.  The kitties, now in their middle age, are spending most of their days indoors, snoozing.  They occasionally come out to supervise us from the shade of the nearest tree.  I started strawflowers, cosmos, and calendula to eventually plant out in the garden.  They will love having tall flower patches to sleep in come August.

Kitty enjoying the warm soil...

 

Breakfast Buffet of Branches

   As April ends, we're getting a preview of Summer temperatures.  The daytime temps for this week range from 20-26 degrees C with overnights well above zero (forecast: 6-10 degrees C).  This will be wonderful for drying out the garden plots and the yard in general so we can get started with weeding and prepping for planting cool weather crops in mid-May. 

   This weekend, our neighbour across the street worked on trimming back the trees in his yard.  He piled the branches against his fence, presumably so he could take them to the city compost this week.  When I looked out the front door this morning around 8:30 AM, I spotted two small moose (a mother and youngster?  Two youngsters?) having a munch on the branches.

 

 

   The larger of the two eventually sauntered north up the street, leaving this little one to rest and ponder his options.  About ten minutes later, he wandered off in the same direction as his companion.

 

   The tomato and other transplants are coming along.  I could use more growlights!  The transplants are a bit leggy, but otherwise okay.  The leeks are getting regular "haircuts" and I added some more milk jug greenhouses (cosmos, cabbage, parsley, summer savoury) to the line-up outside.  It will be nice to have everything hardened off and finally in the ground outside.  

 

 

A few more tomato transplants and the celery forest.

 

 

   The chives are already up and going strong, and the first asparagus spear has appeared.  R. drove out of town yesterday and snagged a few buckets of aged manure.  We'll begin adding that to the raised beds and garden plots soon. After several years of neglecting to build them up, they are really in need of compost, manure, and amendments.

Easter Monday Seedlings and the 2023 Tomato List

  It's a sunny, blustery Easter Monday, 7 degrees C outside at noon.  I'm about to make a big mug of hot chocolate and poke around the yard to see how much more snow melted since yesterday.

  Things are gradually getting underway for the gardening season.  I started Amsterdam celery and Giant Musselburgh leeks in late February, and waited until April 1st to start tomato (varieties listed below) and Diamond eggplant seeds. 

 

Celery and leek seedlings, and a bit of marjoram growing in a peat pellet. 

 

More celery!  (The germination rate was excellent, and I sowed generously.  Opps.)

 

 

   I'm growing strawflowers (Pastel Mix) for the first time this year.  The seeds just starting to germinate. Pacific Beauty Mix calendula are planted in the right-hand container (no sprouts yet!).

 

 

 

Chives on the south side of the house have emerged.

 

 

  

   On April 3rd and 4th, I started cabbage (Brunswick, Golden Acre, Kalibos, and Cour di Bue), kale (Lacinato, Rainbow Lacinato, Curly Blue, and Red Russian), and a few pansies (Springtime Cassis) in milk jug greenhouses.  Later this month, I'll add chard, cosmos, herbs, and possibly some lettuce to the collection of jugs.

 

 

 

TOMATOES 2023

 

These are the varieties chosen for 2023.  The Rose de Berne seeds were old (at least 10 years) and only three have germinated.  I might select another pink variety to replace them.  I received a few Franchi Red Pear in a trade recently.  So far, only three have germinated.  The rest seem to be coming along well.

 

Update: A Russian pink paste variety - Petrusha Ogorodnik - was started April 12.

*First time growing these varieties

Determinate

EM-Champion (DET, red/meaty, 3-4’ tall, can grow in large pots, early-midseason, Russian origin.)

Principe Borghese  (DET, red, heirloom, determinate, small, dry, few seeds, good for sundried tomatoes,~ 75 DTM)

Fisher’s Earliest Paste  (DET, red, (shape?), early, hardy, good flavour.  90+ years of selection by the Fisher family of Montana. RARE.)

*Mongolian Dwarf  (DWRF, large red oblate, 100-200g, only 20-25cm tall, early/fast growing.  Bush habit, spreads to ~2’ across. Russian (Siberian) origin.  Uncommon.)

Black Sea Man (DET, brown/black, heirloom, beefsteak, 8-12 oz, rich flavour, slicer, determinate, can be grown in large containers, Russian origin, early, ~ 75 DTM)

*Favourie de Bretagne  (DET, 3" tall, elongated, green/gold striped (Green When Ripe), sweet/fruity, created by Tom Wagner. 80DTM. RARE.)

*Uluru Ochre (DWARF, dark orange/green/ochre, med-large/6-12oz beefsteak, sweet smoky flavour, juicy, compact plants, heat-tolerant, named after the giant monolithic rock in central Australia (Uluru/Ayers Rock).  Early 65-70DTM.  A cross between “Orange Heirloom” and “Rosella Purple” by Patrina Nuske Small.)

*Fred’s Tie-Dye Dwarf (DWARF, 3’ tall, deep red w/green and gold metallic stripes, flesh similar in appearance and taste to purple/black tomatoes, beefsteak, average 8oz, minimal cracking.  Sweet, juicy.  Essentially “Berkeley Pink Tie Dye” on a dwarf plant.  75DTM.)

Clear Pink Early  (DET, round, pink fruit, compact, heavy yields, bushy growth, 3-6oz round, slicer, sweet, Russian heirloom)

*Petrusha Ogorodnik (DET, elongated, plump, dark pink paste, compact. Some sources say early-mid and others say mid-late season maturity.  Sweet flavour. Productive.  Good variety for cooler climates.  Russian origin. RARE/uncommon in North America.)

Indeterminate

Reinhard’s Chocolate Heart (INDET, brown oxheart, rare, rich flavour, 300-400g, cross between Cherokee Green x a pink oxheart. 80-85DTM. German origin.

Hungarian Heart  (INDET, pink, large oxheart (often 1lb or more), heirloom, paste/canner/fresh, crack-resistant, few seeds, origin: Hungary, ~ 85 DTM)

*Rose de Berne (INDET, rose-pink, round, 4-6oz, dependable, crack-resistant, blemish-free excellent flavour, good for slicing, cooking, or saucing.  Good yields. 75-80DTM. Swiss heirloom.)

*Sylvan Gaume (INDET, large red variable oxheart (some say a beefsteak), great flavour, 80DTM, Canadian heirloom, RARE.

*Franchi Red Pear  (INDET, red, large, pear-shape with vertical ribbing, 8-18oz, early for a large tomato, 75DTM, origin: Northern Italy)

*Moonglow  (INDET, deep orange globes, 6-8 oz, productive, excellent sweet flavour, solid flesh, few seeds, long shelf life/good keeper, 85DTM)

Little Moose

This little guy dropped by tonight for supper (the currant bush).  What a cutie!

 

 

Orchids, a Celery Forest, and Roasted Butterbush Squash

   Seed starting is still several weeks away for most things, but the itch to get started is alive and well.  In the meantime, a little blog update. 

   For the first time, all three of our orchids bloomed at the same time.  The white ones and small, peachy/pale green ones haven't bloomed in years.

   During the winter months, we grow pans of oat grass so the cats have greens to nibble on while they dream of sunnier, warmer days.  This kitty likes to be hand-fed individual blades of grass.  She slurps them down like oysters!

   Under the grow light: a new pan of cat grass on the go, a few small cacti I'm trying to root, a small rosemary plant, a succulent plant, a small container of onion seeds, and in the tall, glass container (a McKenzie herb starter kit), some marjoram seeds.

   Also under the grow light are Amsterdam celery seeds.  This is a "cutting" type of celery (larger leaves and slenderer stalks than regular celery.)  The seeds were new, so most germinated, resulting in a tiny forest of sprouts.  If I can manage to grow them to transplant-size and repot them, I will have plenty to share, from the looks of things...

   This afternoon, I looked through the squash we had stored last Fall.  I decided to roast some of the Burpee's Butterbush squash (the first ones I've tried - thankfully, most stored well and were still fine to cook and eat all these months later).  They are easy to prepare and are very tasty.  The flesh is bright orange and softer than a butternut squash.  I ate one for lunch, stored another in the fridge, and skinned/cubed the rest to freeze.  These will no doubt have a space in the garden again!

   

   A few weeks ago, I was able to pre-order some fingerling potato varieties from a local farmer.  They will be delivered in May.  It was nice to have this option, as the shipping costs to have seed potatoes mailed are quite high.  The varieties on order are Amarosa (mid-season, red skin and pink/red flesh) and Bellanita (early, yellow skin and flesh).  We grew a small number of Amarosa in 2019.  They were delicious and I've pined for them since.  

Baby Butternuts, Black Carrots, and a Steamed Pudding

   The small butternut squash (Burpee's Butterbush) were picked September 18th.  They could have used a longer time on the plants to ripen, but a string of heavy frosts made it a safer bet the pick them.  They spent a month in the sunny plant room, curing, and then were put in a cool cabinet to store.  We haven't eaten any of them yet, but we did use one of the Galeux D'Eysines to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.  Delicious!

 

   This year, in addition to the carrots I usually grow, I tried Pusa Asita black carrots.  I didn't expect them to do well, but they absolutely thrived in our hot, dry summer.  They are deep purple and bleed/stain like a beet when cut.  I braced myself for a very sweet taste and the same uncomfortable sugar rush that hits when eating beets.  To my surprise - and relief - they tasted just like regular home-grown carrots.  Whew!  I've snacked on them raw, as boiling or steaming them with other carrots results in everything being purple.  They would probably be wonderful roasted in the oven, too.

 

    This afternoon, R. used carrots and a potato from the garden to try his hand at a steamed carrot pudding.  This recipe is on the AllRecipes website and was submitted by Joyce Rehagen.  I'll include the recipe below.  R. added 1/4 cup of dried cranberries to the mix.  We skipped the buttery sauce and enjoyed the pudding plain.  These can also be made in large mason jars and given as gifts.  Neat!

   The best light in the house is in the plant room, thus...

 

Carrot Pudding

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup grated carrots
1 cup peeled and shredded potatoes
1 cup white sugar
1 cup raisins 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground allspice 

1 teaspoon ground cloves 

½ cup butter   

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup white sugar 
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine carrots, potatoes, sugar, raisins, flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, all spice, and ground cloves. Transfer mixture to a clean 1 pound coffee can. Secure wax paper over the top and place the filled can in a large pot with 2 to 3 inches of water. Cover the pot and bring the water to a simmer.

2. Steam the cake for 2 hours. Serve warm.

3. Buttery sauce: In a medium-size pot, combine butter or margarine, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Heat until the mixture is liquid. Spoon mixture over the warm carrot pudding to serve.