Excited to see the edemame pods! I planted after I pulled the garlic and wasn’t sure there’d be enough time but looks good! I have 2 varieties so hopefully the harvest will be staggered.
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You seem to have a green thumb for veggie garden
Are. you familiar with Kang Kong ( Filipino dialect)or Ong Chay ( Chinese or Vietnamese Korean dialects) ?
It is delicious. However, it is not available in Md Va bec it is considered invasive for the Chesapeake Bay.
Every once in a while, we can get it at the Fortune Cookie, the Vietnamese store in McLean Va but that is only on Friday or early Saturday and then, it disappears so quick as all the Asians flock to buy them at $6.00/lb. I am told it came from Boston. When I visit my brothers in Canada , or when I went to HK, that is one the dish we request first. Stir fried with lots of garlic and olive oil and a pinch of cracked red pepper, splash of oyster sauce and rice wine, it is absolutely delicious. If I get my hands on some, would stir fry them in the wok and use a tong to turn t over and over and add EVOo as needed to coat the vegetables.
I found out you do not have to leave by a lake or river to plant them but it is forbidden here in Md.
. When planting water spinach in a container, use a rich loamy soil mixed with compost. Select a container with at least 12 inches in depth and diameter. The plant can grow well in partial or full sun, but at least four hours of sunlight is ideal for it to grow more leaves. Maintain the soil moist by regular watering .Jun 21, 2019
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I would love that, and will email soon. That is quite a tomato mill! How many quarts will that make?
I have this one but don’t use it often.
Here’s a picture of my recent pepper harvest. The aji amarillo are plentiful and I use them a lot.
The aji amarillo peppers are from the two year old plan. The first from the five month old peppers are almost ripe and much longer.
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Yay for the peppers! You can make pretty much anything with that assortment! Are the two year old Aji Amarillo still producing?
That tomato mill processed 2+ gallons/8+ quarts of final product in under 4 minutes!
Hi ccj, You can see a young bed of water spinach, Kang Kong, Ong Choi, etc. in a post above, July 13. I grow it almost every year. Right now, the bed filled with more than I can use; so I give some to friends. Despite its status as a “weed”, it is extremely short-day photoperiodic; meaning it doesn’t flower until the very short days of autumn. By then, it can’t mature seeds. In the many years I’ve grown it, it has never set seed. In places like Florida or California, it could become a problem. I’m in central VA.
Where I grow it, it can’t escape; there is no water nearby and it’s growing on a dry slope. I start the plants in small pots, after filing a small hole in the seed coat and soaking for 24 hours (scarifying). The soil is kept wet. When the plants are big enough and frost has passed, they go outside.
I dug the soil out to form a trench about 3 feet wide x 7 feet long and around 8 inches deep. The trench was lined with greenhouse plastic; then, the soil thrown back in to fill the trench. This keeps the spot wet and easy to maintain. I liberally sprinkle a granular, organic fertilizer around the plants and they take off in the heat.
Email me (see above) if you’d like some seeds. Just do not allow it to flower and set seed if you are near water. Though, I seriously doubt it would set viable seed. If you’re ever in the Charlottesville area and want some greens and stems, free, contact me and I’ll give you a bunch! It grows great in hot weather, but becomes slow and much less productive when the climate cools.
The way to cook Water Spinach, Convolvulus, Morning Glory, the plant with endless names(!) is to separate the stems from the leaves and slice the stems into bite-sized pieces. Stir-fry the stems first, maybe 40-60 seconds, then toss in leaves and cook for another 40-60 seconds so the stems stay crunchy. The mild flavor lends itself to countless recipes.
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The Jyunpaku Bitter Melon/Bitter Gourd is maturing seed. I’m going to use BG to abbreviate, vs. the alternative. Here are harvest-ready BG next to the big orange one starting to crack at the blossom end:
Inside, there are seeds encased in a sweet, soft covering (aril):
Unlike older, more ornamental varieties I had years ago, these arils were sweet, but bland. The older type had arils which had a watermelon flavor. What is also interesting is the the orange shell of the BG also lost its bitterness and became very bland. So, if one is starving, it’ll fill your stomach, but otherwise…boring!
The young ones regularly get served stuffed with seasoned, ground pork, fried, then braised with spices and fermented black beans, a classic Chinese recipe which tames the bitterness a bit, and is delicious. Due to the heat wave. So many are coming in, I can’t use them. I also planted a white Chinese variety, for comparison. So, there are bags of BG which will get donated to the local Asian market, a free gift if they want them. I’ve been going to that market for decades; so, they recognize me.
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Thatsalottatomatoes!
It’s a bit battered, but yes. Still making fruit and flowers and it’s been hot night and day.
Check out the difference between the two and one year old peppers!
Here are the chinenses plants from this years seedlings.
The two or more year old scotch bonnet looks beat due to spider mites, but I don’t need a lot of super hots.
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Whoa; that size difference is major! Is the two year-old the larger one?
Man, I hate Spider Mites!
I better go blanch green beans, LOL!
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Two year old is smaller. I think it has seriously outgrown its pot.
Har har!
Those flies look like House Flies. Odd how they are congregating.
The Kentucky Blue pole beans are super productive, even in the heat, and very tasty green beans. Yesterday’s processing was filling up freeze drier trays with blanched beans.
I know what today’s processing project will be!
Last night’s BLT sandwiches didn’t make a dent in them.
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I love Ong Choy! We have a Malaysian restaurant here in the Boston area that does a wonderful spicy version with belacan, and it’s our go to dish when we want Malaysian. I’ve seen two varieties - one that’s just described as “green” ong choy in the markets - these have a smaller tube stem and a slightly dark greener color. There is then a variation described as “water ong choi” (a translation of the sign), and I believe it’s this variety that is usually grown in the water/rivers. They look quite similar except for being a taller plant overall, and the bigger, wider and paler green-color stem. The preference by many Chinese home cooks is the water ong choi variety. It’s usually more expensive, though I have to say that I don’t recall them being that different in taste.
My favorite way to eat (aside from kang kung belacan) is to stir fry with garlic and fermented bean curd.
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What a haul! What kind of paste tomatoes are those? Are they determinate?
Lovely harvest, everyone! Good job!
Due to a cold rainy cloudy summer, tomatoes are green. Both chili peppers do nothing, few leaves and no flowers. Only strawberries are doing something…
Raspberry plants got some white flies, I used some homemade garlic spray, don’t know if it’s of any use. Second spray in a week. At least it seems useful vs aphids.
Daily harvest.
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I bet those are the best strawberries ever!
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Beautiful harvest. What’s the climate needed to grow these peppers?
Awesome. Never seen that tomatoes before. Are they sweet? What’s the climate needed to grow that?
Thank you!
Those are chinenses, " Italian roasting"/cubanelles/ corno di toro peppers, which are annum, and aji amarillo, which I think are baccatum.
I don’t know what’s needed but I’m growing in a mostly California central valley climate. Technically Northern California SF Bay area but hotter and drier than most in the SF Bay.
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Indeed! It’s called Mara des bois, a crossed variety existed since 90’s, it has a flavour of wild strawberries, they are not too big, about acorn size. Very intense taste. I don’t see this strawberries often on sale. Saw the plants exist in US. The biggest problem with strawberries, the insects know exactly when to eat, to prevent that, I harvest them a day earlier.
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