Cherrokee Purple Tomatoes - Update and summary

At this point in time I have harvested about 5 lbs of tomatoes or roughly 20 tomatoes.

Their flavor is everything that has been reported; amazing! You don't need to add anything to them to make them taste better, in fact it is my opinion that it ruins perfection.

I have just trimmed back the two plants that have produced all of the tomatoes I have harvested to this date. I did this because they didn't have any set fruit on the putter branches and so the plants stay a manageble size.

Next year I am planning to raise them using a string mesh that the plant can be "woven into" and with much more room for each plant, these guys like to grow big! So big that only two plants should really be where I planted three, so using double the normal spacing would be ideal, I hope. Either that or have some REALLY tall plant stakes.

Part of the big plant problem is more than likely the usual culprit of too much nitrogen, but it is easier to plan for huge plants.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wishing all of my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I am thankful for your continued reading and hope your holiday season is all you want it to be.

I am also thankful for my family, friends, jobs, dog, using finally paid off my motorcycle loan, my good health and everything else I am fortunate to be blessed with.

My heart and prayers go out to our service personnel who cannot be home with family, all those in need and any who are hurting. May you all find comfort.

May everyone find that the best of 2013 is the worst of 2014.

Cherrokee Purple Tomato

The first pickings from my three plants are in!

The western most plant is "leggy" or more vine than anything and has finally set fruit.

The middle plant, which is where the 8 tomatoes weighting in at 37.8oz total came from has been struck with something. But I have noticed this variety of tomato has a better sense of self preservation in that the branches affected pretty much come off on their own and I would be willing to bet that if it wasn't caged they would have come off before much of the plant was affected.

the eastern most plant seems bent on growing the biggest tomatoes out of the three. It set fruit shortly after the middle plant but has yet to let them ripen, instead its fruit is just getting bigger and bigger. To the point that the fruit are about the size of commercial grown beef steaks.

Lima One

Got to pick my first and last batch of lima beans off the front planting.

After shucking I have 2.5 cups of beans.

I will be drying them for eating later.

Greens!

Picked some more greens yesterday.

16 oz of beet
24 oz of turnip

And I am going to have to pick and can more turnip greens soon ....

Apple Chutney

I like spicy vinegar flavors with my greens, so after reading the Ball Blue Books recipe i decided that Apple Chutney sounded like an excellent chance to practice my canning and create something for the greens.

2lbs small apples
3 cups brown sugar
4 cups apple cider vinegar
1 whole yellow onion
All spice
Garlic
Red pepper flakes

I'll look up the recipe later and republish ...

either way I have been enjoying it on the greens as expected.

Mustard Greens

So this Sunday 11-10-13 I picked my first round of mustard greens.

The picking filled a plastic shopping bag and weighted in at 1.5lbs.

on a side note the tomatoes are growing and I can't wait!

Turnip Greens! Pictures too

I ordered an All American Pressure Cooker/Canner and it came in today!

Just in time to pick some turnip greens! One of the best things about growing Turnip Bulbs is that you can also harvest the Greens a few times before you have to pick the bulbs...

That bag weighted in at 45.5 Oz; including the bag. I haven't gotten to weight the bag out to subtract it from the weight of the greens.

All Said I now have 5 - 24 OZ jars processing; sorry no picture of these.

Each jar was processed using the manufactures and Ball Blue book.

Tomatoes!

One of the Cherokee Purple Tomatoe plants has set fruit finally!

I was having problems with blossom drop. Which thanks to my dad I found out could have been caused by one or all three things; temperature stress, calcium deficiency, or water.

I applied 1/4 cup milk to each plant and wala I have tomatoes that have set!

Black Eye Peas

I pulled the black eye peas out yesterday. The plants were starting to turn a uniform brown and there were next to no pods waiting to mature.

It makes me sad, but at the same time giddy cause now I have to pick what I want to plant in its place. I am thinking that a short quick crop might be my best idea that way come spring I can put a Mellon or something in there, but I just don't know.

decisions, decisions, decisions... Or is that delusions ...

Transplants

I am trying to get all my cherry bushes in the ground this week.

Today I got 4 cherrys and 1 gardenia transplanted. I stopped cause the last cherry had a huge ant bed in it. So big that my hand was covered quicker than I could process what was on my hand.

I'll be ok, thankfully I am not allergic to ants. But I have a feeling my hand will look like I have chicken pox tomorrow.

Both feet received bites as well, but having ones hand covered in ants is a rather remarkable experience, having them all pissed cause you moved their home ... Well that's memorable.

Night ya'll

Tomato ... vines?!

Sorry it has been a while since my last update and I don't have pictures for you time time. I have picked up a second job in order to attempt to decrease my debt load (mortgage and bike loan). Been working six days a week for a while now....

I have been watching my tomatoes (and everything else) grow. It seems that they all love this 80 degree day and upper 60 at night!

picture this though ....

The Cherokee purple tomato plant closest to the gardenia has grown an inch out of the top of the cage and doesn't look to be stopping any time soon. Its neighbor is a close second too!! Looks like I am going have to use some Shepard hooks that my folks have given me to start holding them up. Both plants are sporting blooms and my mouth is watering thinking about the tastiness in store when the fruit finally comes in.

PCG Opinions

I have been thinking long and hard about a second blog.

I have opinions I wish to share, yet Palm City Girl I had started as primarily about my gardening and/or adventures; not as an opinion sharing platform.

I have a few time shared my opinions on PCG and it was not well received so the posts were taken down.

Yet I still want to share my little opinions, so PCGopinions.blogspot.com has been created.

PCGopinions was born to bare my opinions, without disturbing those who wish to only read about my gardening or adventures.

Those of you who decide to follow me there keep in mind these are my opinions, formed from my life experiences or from my research. If they offend you, stop reading, but if you want to discuss the whys, hows, etc. I am game for that.

Bayou Renaissance Man: "The Roots of the Government Shutdown"

Everyone needs to read the article linked in this post.

Bayou Renaissance Man: "The Roots of the Government Shutdown"

Bayou Renaissance Man: Karl Denninger hits one out of the park

Bayou Renaissance Man: Karl Denninger hits one out of the park

Standing Outside Looking In: Hey, That's My Bronco

Standing Outside Looking In: Hey, That's My Bronco

Bayou Renaissance Man: A useful analysis of the US health care system

Bayou Renaissance Man: A useful analysis of the US health care system

Garden update - with pictures

So it has been a while since i have updated everyone on the garden .... i have been busy...

Starting from the top right corner, turnip green, cabage turnip green is the theme for that row
The next row down is brussel sprout, marigold, brussel sprout
The final row is mustard, green cabbage, mustard green

As you can see this section has grown up ...

The Cherokee Purple Tomatoes are flowering

The peppers are growing, they are the two plants in between the tomatoes and in line with them

Far end of the line is lima beans and they have started to flower
closer in are Green Beans or Garden Beans and they are starting to flower
along the wall are collards, they seem to be struggling.

The Black Eye Peas are still going, amazingly still pushing out new shoots with flowers too. I will keep them until the stop.

AAAHHH the Bucket Brigade ....

I have put some flowering plants around the patio, cats nip, purple cone flower, chrysanthemums, ...

On the right hand side of this planter i have beets planted, if you can zoom you will see them starting to push out.
On the Left hand side is all carrots.

This whole box is Turnips, the white globe type.

Fall is in the air

When I walked the dog this morning I had to grab some long sleeves.

This is a good sign for a lot of my plants as they perfere cool weather.

Hacked

There is only really one thing I can think of that would cause my settings to change; I was hacked.

I have noticed that a message "cannot download file because it is not compatible with your windows phone" has been popping up when I visit different blogs as well.

Yea!

Black eye peas summary

It seems that production is starting to wane a bit, so I figure its time to review my experience.

07-15-13 Black Eye pea seeds procured from a grocery store bag were planted. The seeds were planted 3 per hole, each hole 4 inches apart, 1/2 inch deep in a 9 foot planting row.

09-07-13 started picking and to this day have picked a total of 4 cups. There are still pods to be picked.

The plants themselves grew into aproximately 4 foot long vines.

Initially there was a problem with a black aphid like bug. The plants were treated with soap water, pyrthum, and finally had success in riding the infestation by using sevin dust combined with manual removal.

I will more than likely plant black eye peas again. Next time a trellis will be ready if an unknown seed is used.

Bucket Brigade

So yesterday I was finally able to organize what I call my bucket brigade; what everyone else might call containers for gardening.

Bucket Brigade

 
 
 
 
 
 
The Tomato Plants are also doing quite well...

 

 

Garden Update -Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, and greens

I have been a bit busy the last few days in the Garden.

Wednesday I picked another 2/3 cup of black eye peas. All the rain has them going to town, so to say.

Thursday was an excellent planting day according to Tom MacCubbin and the farmers almanac. Generally this means bumper crops from what ever was planted. I got to plant seeds for cabbage, brussel sprouts, turnip greens, mustard greens and white globe turnips.

Two of the Cherokee Purple Tomato plants are about a foot tall now, one is struggling along. Within a foot I also have two Swiss chard plantings that are struggling, but the onions and leeks are doing fine. I am gonna break out the pH tester and see if it sheds any light.

The lima and green beans are doing well disspite the pounding from the amount of water coming off my roof. The collards are in the same bed and are proving to be hardy too, I have lost 2 possibly 3 plantings, but the others have 3 plants coming up.

And it RAINED

a few days back my area received a little over 3 inches of rain.

so after the storm I had to go out and uncover my young plants. They had been covered by the mulch.

I did pick another cup of peas today and put mustard green and letuce seeds in the ground.

my folks brought over some cherry bush plants, a fig and a sea grape.
the fig and sea grape have a permanent home already, but I am working on finding homes for the cherry bushes.
hopefully I will get it done soon as I am itching to open up some more growing room in the backyard.

Friday blues or left over shock?

People round here are strange today.
Had one try to turn off a tv with a car key fob. Had another call me back concerned that my call had been sent to the wrong office. Then there is my cloud head, if I had been on a vodka bender last night it would make perfect sense.

Everyone seems to be in a daze today. Similar to the one, but lacking the anger and grief, after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

and in other news
I got 3 inches of rain yesterday while I was at work. It musta been a booger bear of a storm cause I had to unbury my young plants when I got home.

I Remember

I remember when those towers fell ...

I watched the second one get hit by a plane on live tv and then asked my folks what movie they were watching.

I remember the worry when it was announced that there were still planes in the air and not knowing where they were going...

Butternut Squash soup

1 small leek
1/2 medium red onion
1/2 cup 1 inch long cut green onion
1 small butternut squash
2 small potatoes
1 small can of evaporated milk
Enough broth to cover all

saute the leeks and onion in butter until clear
add squash, potatoes and broth.
season with your prefered seasoning for butternut squash.
simmer until everything is cooked.
blend until smooth
add evaporated milk
serve

made about 6 cups for me

First Pickings

Today i was able to pick my first harvest of the year! Black Eye Peas.

After shucking them I had 1.5 cups of peas

More updates:
The Black Eye Peas plants:

The taller plants int he front are Lima Beans next to them are Green Beans, behind them and hard to see are Vates Collards

The Cherokee purple tomato's are doing good, leeks are lined behind them, with some hard to see swiss chard coming up in the left corner in front of the tomatoes.

Pictures!!!

I have Pictures!!!

After much thought, trial and error, now I can put pictures up for everyone.

I had to figure out how to get, blogspot.com, google + and my phone to communicate the way I wanted them to, meaning not uploading every blessed picture I take to the web and most definately not making every one of them Public! The only stumbling block left is why picasa is having problems receiving the pictures.

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day too all. Hopefully everyone is doing well and are having a good party.

Update on the Garden:

• The three Cherokee purple tomatos are going strong at about 4 inches high.
• One of the callifornia wonder bell peppers is going good and strong.
• all 4 plantings of Swiss chard are poking out of the ground at about an inch in height.
• the green beans have made a height of about 4 inches.
• the Lima beans are at about 8 inches or more in height.
• the collards are starting to poke out of the ground.
• the black eye peas have set fruit and the plague of aphids seem to be in retreat.

Aphids !!! ahhhh!!!

so a while ago I noticed a massive aphid infestation. Note to self: don't grow things and not check them regularly.

I had tried soap water and did not solve the problem.

I then tried pyrethrum the kill rate was looking promising.

Then the seed pods showed up and time was up, so the seven dust was brought out.

Today I checked on the plants and manually removed all the aphid I could find. Most of what I removed was dead. I have retreated all stems leaves and the ground, hopefully this will give the fruit a chance to mature properly.

Another casualty of this is two of my three beefsteak tomato seedlings. I will replant, but only after a confirmed win in this battle.

The next battle will be with the yellowing, more than likely from mild. So copper sulfate will be added to the treatment mix now. We'll see where it goes from here.

Garden updates

I planted black eye pea seeds from a bag found in a local grocery store on 7-15-13. Today I have little pea pods! Soon I am hoping to make my first picking of fresh food for this growing season.

A moringa branch that broke off one of my trees has started pushing new leaves. I am taking this to mean that it has roots and will turn into a third tree for me.

transplant day

Due to the size of the plants in my starter I had to put them in the ground. For those who may not know; your plants get too big when they touch the top of the starter/green house box.

so the following have been turned loose to the wilds.
4 vates collards
4 red onions
3 cherrokee purple tomato
3 green peppers
2 marigold
1 lemon balm

Sewing

Ahh sewing the quintessential female occupation where one takes formless material and makes something useful .... Drives me bonkers!!! So naturally because it seems to want to defeat me I must not let it win!!! Ha ha!

In all honesty the reason I want to learn to sew is much more than me against the mighty machine and formless cloth monsters. Learning to sew means that I can make clothing that I like and that fits right, well in my opinion.

I must at this point give what I am told a shout out to my Mommy. If it was not for her I doubt I would have mastered the strait seam or as I did today the bias tape snake monster. I know that with out my Momma's quiet assurances and gentle guidance my patience would have snapped and I would have given up. I love my Mommy! Everyone should have one like her!

Through some trial and error and costly mistakes I have stumbled onto an interesting source of cheap practice material ... Old sheets! Sheets are generally made of woven cotton and the style of clothing I like lends its self to that material. Its a two birds one stone. I am making clothing that can be worn while doing things that would stain or other wise damage them and get much needed practice sewing.

and now having read this post I realize how disorganized my thought process is, but I am not changing it one bit.

Good day, hope ya'll got a lol bit of a chuckle and god bless you.

Moringa Oleifera

Is a species of edible tree that is not native to Florida. I purchased my seeds from a grower out of California and so far I am quite happy with them.
Moringa are fast growers, mine were started from seed and have reached a height of approximately 15ft in a year. The moringa is a soft wood though, so if there are high winds that cause more than a 15 degree tilt in the tree for more than about 2 days the tree will kill off branches until the stress is relieved or you can go strip the branches for your own consumption. My trees are spaced about 22ft apart and seem to prefer an east to west growth. In other words, they are growing to resemble a fan opened so that a northern or southern wind would catch the majority of it.
Now for the good part; eating! The immature leaves taste similar to uncooked mustard greens; they have a naturally spicy flavor. The mature leaves taste similar to spinach. I tend to eat them raw or in a smoothie, but they cook just like any green. The branches can also be eaten, I have found the texture not to my liking, so my next research project will more than likely be paper making. The flowers, seeds and seed pods are suppose to be edible as well, but mine did not produce much of these this year, so I have not experimented with them yet.
To store morniga over long periods I have found drying to work the best for me, but be sure to have some means to keep the moisture in the container very low as mold likes to grow on the dried bits. After the moringa a dried I grind mine by stuffing it into a blender. For measuring sake one cup of fresh leaves will finder about 1 tablespoon of power.