With the great Okra harvest we’ve been pulling in it’s time to put some up for a rainy, cold day …since the frost will kill it dead, so we pickled a whole mess of it.

I used one of the many recipes you can find on the web, the brine is pretty standard across the board, its the spices and other flavors that make each batch your own. So here is what we did!

First thing, sterilize the jars and lids, I have a large stock pot full of water, I put the jars and lids in the water and bring to a boil, leave em for 10 minutes and pull em out with the jar lifter, set them aside to cool.

Next gather brine supplies, recipe follows!

Pickled Okra

1 quart vinegar – white,cider,rice  your choice

1 cup water

1/2 cup pickling salt

I also add about 3 tablespoons of sugar, to balance the salt.

That’s the basic brine, the you can add Garlic cloves, red peppers , black peppercorns, mustard seeds or what ever you like!

Vinegar and Spices

Put that in a non reactive pan on the stove and bring to and bring to a boil.

In the mean time, clean and trim your okra, I make a slit in the side of each pod so the brine gets in and you get a better idea of the brine level in the jars.

Cleaned Okra

After cleaning, pack your sterilized jars with the cleaned and trimmed okra, we also put and extra clove of garlic, a medium jalapeno pepper, and a 1/4 teaspoon of mustard seed in each jar.  You have to pack the okra in there real tight or they will float around after they are sealed, that way the stay submerged in the brine.

Garlic And Peppers

About to Pack The Jars.

Packed Jars

Once the jars are packed , and the brine has reached a boil, carefully ladle the brine into the jars of packed okra , use the canning funnel its so easy!  Let the brine settle and the top off your jars with the proper headspace, about 1/2 inch, clean the top of the jar off with a damp cloth and put the lid and ring on the jar.

Brined With Lids, Ready For The Hot Water Bath

Now for the hot water bath, using the jar lifter, carefully set the okra filled jars into the boiling water and make sure there is at least 2 inches of water over the top of the lids. keep in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Hot Water Bath

I topped off the water after the jars went in to bring the water level up, it doesn’t show in the picture.

After the ten minutes remove the jars carefully, don’t forget it is boiling water lol!, and set them on a dishrag to cool, if they sealed right you will hear a pop as the jars cool and the lids seal.

Jars Of Pickled Okra Cooling.

Now you could eat these after a day or so, but it’s better to let them sit for at least a week, two is better. that way all the flavors get a chance to mix it up!

The peas have really come on strong, we went out the other evening and with about 40 minuted of picking, we had a large utility bucket full, it’s about a bushel or so! Check it!

Bucket Full Of Purple Hulls.

And it don’t look they are stopping anytime soon!  We have Vacuum Sealed quite a few bags already. If you don’t have a food saver sealer or similar product, shell out the cash, its well worth it.

Anyway , like I said we have picked and shelled peas until were purple in the fingers..lol  couldn’t resist!

Cucumber Trellis

I set up two of these this year, one for the slicing cucumbers, and one for the pickling cukes!

The slicers have got a jump start on the others since the chickens got in the garden and scratched the picklers to death, they had to be replanted …dang chickens!

Cucumber Trellis

As you can see the slicers are on the left in this photo, and they have really shot up the trellis, which I made out of  4″x4″ goat wire and an old gate.

Pickling Cucumbers

This one is last years model, it is one 16 ft piece of cattle panel, bent into a gentle arc, works great, if you can keep the chickens off the seedling.

The Cukes are starting to get to a good size and I have picked a few already, they should start cranking out soon.

Well as I write this a well needed rain shower has started up, with lightning, so I’ll Send this on up to the interwebs for your viewing pleasure.

Good Growing to you!

We finally got a little rain last week, much needed rain I might add, and things are looking good!

The Daikon Radishes grow fast fast fast , they take about 28 to 30 days to start forming root and then they are off, i pulled these a little early to just get an idea of the flavor of these white gems!

Daikon Radish

They are crisp and delicious, But they do get big, so a few go along way!  I’m gonna grow alot of these to put in some Kimchi!
Banana Peppers!!

These are doing good too, they are about 16 inches tall at this point and looking good, most all the plants have blooms and peppers in some stage, gonna pickle a bunch of theses too , when we get a good handful.

Banana Peppers

Other Stuff!

The yellow squash and zucchini are getting big, plenty of blooms on each, and the purple hulls are starting to flower, so it wont be long now!

Sorry for the short update but its been quite busy around here the last few weeks, more coming soon!

I picked one of these up at our local feed store the other day and I thought I would share the experience with ya’ll.

Assembly

It was pretty easy to put this together, it involved about 4 bolts with nuts,  a pin and a few wing nuts, I had it together in about ten minutes, and that included finding the tools.

Tools And Seed Plates

Here you can see the tools needed to put the seeder together, 1/2 inch and 7/16 inch wrench and a cresent wrench, thats it, very simple !  The seed plates in the picture are different sizes to plant the different seeds, there are 6 altogether , you can also purchase other sized seed plate to handle any possible seed you could want.

Still In The Box

Here is the box, to give you an idea of the size, 4 cubic ft bag of humus for reference!

Assembling The Seeder

The seeder comes partly assembled in the box, all you have to put on is the rear wheel, the handle and the row spacer, in the photo above I have the wheel on and I’m about to add the handle, you can see that in the left side of the photo.

The handle goes on with 4 nuts and bolts , its that easy , the row marker goes on with a pin and cotter key so it can move freely, very simple design.  Like I said it took maybe ten minutes total.

Complete Earthway Seeder

There is also a black plastic clip that the row marker folds up and tucks out of the way in, it just clips on the the handle , it doesn’t hold the marker very well at all, you may have to rig something if you want it to stay there when your done seeding.

Well there you have it , in ten minutes a time and back saving device for the serious gardener, next time a review of the seeder in action, and yes it does have some pros and cons, but i’ll let you know about ‘em soon, so stay tuned!

Spring Is Here

Well the last few weeks have been real busy around here, we have had some of the best weather you could ask for!  As you can see  spring has come in Southeast Texas, just look at all the green out there, just a few weeks ago it was dry, brown and really crispy.

During the last weeks we have moved the cows to another pasture, set up some fence and are in the process of building a loading pen.  We also have tilled up a large chunk of the front pasture to plant some purple hull peas, but i’ll keep ya posted on that one!

Veggies

Some of the veggies we had planted in the fall didn’t really do much thanks to our record snow fall over the winter, but now with the balmy temps around here, everything is puttin on the growth!

Swiss Chard

Carrots

The chard and carrots are really moving now, but my favorite , the asparagus is really rolling!!

Asparagus Bed

Asparagus Up Close

If you sit still and watch you can almost see the asparagus grow, they move quick!

More About the Peas!

I tilled up a pretty good plot that we are going to try some purple hull peas in this yea, and if they don’t work out , at least i’ll have a whole lot of green manure to use next year!  So I will keep ya’ll updated on that>

So until next time, grow some food will ya!!??

After several years of hand working gardens, tending milk cows and goats, raising a few pigs we finally decided to get a tractor.  After several weeks of shopping we finally came across Calvin at Allied Power Mart , he made us a deal and we took it.

We got a used rental tractor, Kubota L5740 with 178 hours,Front end loader,  a round bale spear, and a 60 inch tiller for a real good deal, they even delivered it to us, They are a real class act there at allied… and no this isn’t a paid endorsement.

Delivery Day

We didn’t wait long to try it out, we hooked up the tiller and started in on a 40 x40 foot plot that has sort of grown over, lemme tell you , it cut thru the overgrown weeds like butter, what would have take a whole day with a walk behind tiller took about 15 minutes, and that was with my brother-in-law and me taking turns on it and marveling at our achievements, Here take a look!

Tilling the garden plot

Like i said it chopped thru weeds and soil and left a smooth patch of dirt, you could hardly see any vegetable matter left.

60 inch tiller

You can see on the right side what the patch looked like prior to the tilling, and the results on the left side after just one pass, its smooth.

Before the tilling

Here is a better shot, you can still see the rows in the bottom right, that’s from previous cropping, it flattened those out too.

After 2 passes, here it is

As you can see it does a very thorough job smoothing out this plot, i’ll be planting as soon as the last frost date comes up in a few weeks!

Well thanks for checking by again, I’ll keep you updated on the planting soon!

We have had some pretty cool temps around here for the last month, also alot of rain too. Everything is one big, cold, mud puddle so doing anything around the garden has been difficult.  Today it warmed up to around 50 and the sun was out so I decided to dig up the Horseradish , which is better after a frost, we have had at least six in the last 2 weeks. I will grate this up later when I get a chance , I just wanted to get it out of the ground today since it was so nice outside. So without further delay here are the pixs!

Horseradish Ready for Harvest

Here is the plant about to be dug out, it looks pretty big from the top.

Horseradish Dug Up

Here I have chopped the tops off and dug it out, it was down pretty deep, there are alot of side shoots which will start new plants. I have to tell you that as I’m digging this out the smell is awesome, like really sweet horseradish sauce!

Horseradish Cleaned

Here I have hosed off most of the dirt and it looks good, there is one main root and a pretty good side root, I’ll grate this up later tonight and let you Know how it turns out!

And Have a good New Year BTW!!

I know I said in a previous post that we get the mild winters, well every now and then Mother Nature pulls a fast one. Friday afternoon, it started snowing here , not a blizzard mind you but snow.  This was the earliest recorded snowfall in our area since they started recording stuff like this. It was quite a shocker!!  The Friday evening the clouds and snow cleared off and the temps began to plummet, when I woke up Saturday it was 23 degrees , unheard of around here at this time of year, and oh the frost we saw!!

Frosty

Yep , I put it off until it was almost too late. i made a mad dash Friday afternoon to spread some hay around the garden in hopes that everything won’t be frozen solid, let’s hope it worked.

Frost in the back pasture

The shadow of the house and the frost that follows it.

This shot is of the shadow of the house and the frost like, the sun melts it so fast .

More frost out back

Yep, so forget all I said about mild winters here, let me rephrase that and say, Unpredictable Winters hahahahaha!

I’ll keep you posted on any plant damage in the future, too early to tell yet.

So until next time , stay warm!!!

When it’s 54 degrees outside and a slight drizzles is coming down, there ain’t much you can do outside in the garden, so let’s bring it inside for a while and look over a few of the seed catalogs that fill up the mail box over the year!

Johnny’s Select Seeds

Johnny’s has one of the best put together catalogs in the business , IMHO.  It’s full color and brimming with pix, and every description lays out the info you’ll need to make the most out of your crop.   The tools section has more goodies than you could find just about anywhere, hoes, seeders, what ever you need.  So when the December Gloom is in yo face, check this catalog out!

Seed Savers Exchange

If rare and heirloom varieties are you thing, Seed Savers is the place for you!  This catalog is not as polished as Johnny’s, but what it lacks in shine it makes up for in variety.  I didn’t even know there were that many different kinds of beans!!    The layout is easy to navigate  and it still has plenty of pix and info for the avid gardener, it also has an extensive book section in the back.  Overall a great catalog!

Henry Field’s

Henry Field’s catalog is another great one, It has a great selection of seeds but also has an extensive fruit and nut tree section.  This one has plenty of full color photos and information and a large tool and goody section as well.  It’s another good one to pull you through the cold times.

And for all the flower people out there each of the catalogs mentioned above have a large flower seed section as well, so there is something for everyone

I know there are plenty more , these are just a few that I have done business with, and no I’m not on the payroll of any of them.

So enjoy your shopping and I hope you can make it through until Spring!

Happy Gardening!

Hello again,

Well the South Texas heat has finally stopped the relentless assault on us and the rains have returned… we even had a few temps down in the 60′s , you can’t beat that!  So it’s been a busy few weeks around here, we have been horse sitting for a friend of my wife’s, we have moved cattle around to rotate pastures, and the garden work has picked back up.

After the Hornworm Incident last month, I had given up on the tomatoes, but there is one plant that still keeps chugging along.  So we shall see how that goes.  Mostly its been cleanup work, weeding , cutting back the dead stuff, you know how it goes.  We have also been filling up the compost piles, lots of goodies for that endeavor, old hay grass clippings and what not, so now we have two pretty big piles ready for next spring, if everything works as it should!

Now The Garden Plan!

Down here where we live we really don’t get winter. oh yea I hear ya , it gets cool, 40′ s maybe a freeze in January, but over all its more like a hard Fall season…I was stationed in Colorado in The Army, now it gets cold there!!  But that’s all the better for us , with the proper protection , you can garden dang near year round.   Most of your cool season crops just love the mild weather here from October until usually late December, even some root veggies and onions can stay in ground until spring, That is if the cold rainy days don’t get to crazy and it all rots.   So without further delay here’s what I’m planning for this fall season.

• Cabbage – some red and some green
• Carrots – can’t go wrong with carrots
• Onions and Garlic – Two more favorites around here
• Spinach and some Lettuce
• Broccoli – gonna try this again, I never have any luck with good broccoli

And whatever else I have a few extra seeds for , so stay tuned for the next installment now that things have cooled off a bit!