Growing Brussel Sprouts

I have had a love/hate relationship with my growing of brussel sprouts.  This is my first time growing brussel sprouts.  I don't know optimal time for growing brussel sprouts.   I planted Botanical Interests Long Island Improved Brussel Sprouts back in September.  I didn't think they sprouted so I ended up buying transplants in October.  I now have 9 plants, 6 transplants, 3 direct seeded.  I'm sure I seeded more than 3 but that's what happened. 

Now knowing how long this growing season is, I realize I should have planted seeds in June or July in order to get a nice winter crop, which will be my room for improvement. 

A few stalks are nice and chubby and stumpy.  Some are long and lanky.  One fell over and is growing in an S shape.  All I know is, I've been waiting to eat brussel sprouts and I don't have enough even for a side dish.   None of my sprouts are compact.  Half of them are open and look like matured cabbage.  Probably too warm for them.  We did have a few 90 degree days this week.  

Sigh... I think I have to do more research.  

What's wrong my little herbs?

I grow my herbs in containers in shared areas of my apartment building.   Its in a narrow walkway.   The sunlight exposure isn't very good but they do well.  It gets about 3 hours of direct sun a day.  Not great, but it's all I have and its convenient for me to shoot down the stairs when I'm cooking. 

Nothing has changed in the last few years but what's wrong with them?  The leaves of my parsley and basil are a bit yellowed but they look amazing.  Whats wrong?   Not enough sun? Need fertilizer?   Nitrogen?  Old potting soil? Bad potting soil? Water?  Please help...

Trellis building

I built a trellis for my berry vines and it was the first thing I ever built.  I went to home depot and since then i have the do it yourself bug.  

Don't make fun, its my first handy work. The berry trellis was built to mimic the trellises used for grape vines.  Its a bit rough, but since then my berries seem to enjoy it and now its an abundance of green and flowers.  Funny how things take off with something so simple. 

I decided I can build anything so I built a cucumber/pea trellis.  I used a few what Home Depot calls hobby boards which are precut pieces of wood 1/2 inch thick, wood screws, jute twine, and a bracket that they use for kitchen cabinet attachment and built a simple cucumber and pea trellis.  For now, it will house cucumbers but later on this year it will be used to hold up my peas.

After putting it into the ground, I am a bit unsure if these thin pieces of wood will hold up the weight once my cucumbers start going,it creaks... so I may buy some square dowels to attach to the legs for reinforcement. Hopefully it will hold until I get around to it, of course when I do get around to it, I will probably be reactive rather than proactive.  

Save the Bees

Who doesn't love honey? Or flowers?

There was 20 something bees in my garden working away at my raspberry, ollalieberry, and boysenberry blossoms today.  They were buzzing and I tried to snap a picture but I was scared to get too close. Total chicken I know, but hey, I'm a city kid and I've never really been on a farm unless you count a you pick with just cherries or peaches when I was young.  Tomorrow, I will bring my dslr and zoom lens so I can take a picture with safe distance

According to Botanical Interests Save the Bees packet, there are over 4000 species of bees that live in the United States.  We all know the bee population has declined but they are so important for farmers and gardeners.  They pollinate our flowers so we have yummy fruits and veggies to eat.  I used to be against growing flowers, I just think they are a waste of space... But if they can make my garden more abundant and I can get some cut flowers for the house while I'm at it, it's a win win.

I decided to use a small section, about 12 square feet devoted to Botanical Interests Save the Bees mix.  It contains a variety of seeds and the packet picture looks gorgeous.  Oh how I love the artwork on Botanical Interests packs.  Included in this mix are herbs and flowers that are supposed to attract bees.  The herb part is great since I can technically use them if I need them.  My herbs are actually grown in containers at my apartment in the common areas for easy access when I need them.

Now we sit and wait... This is the first time I am growing flowers...

Flammenkuchen / Tarte Flambee

I was watching tv 2 weeks ago and tarte flambee was on the cooking show.  I first had this is Switzerland, then in France.  My seestah lives in Switzerland on the border of France and Germany.  Tarte flambee as the French call it is also called flammenkuchen (flah-men-kukken or so i think) in german.  Its from the Alsace region of France which used to be Germany.  This region is also known for sauerkraut.  

Anyways,  I decided to do my research and planned to try my hand at flammenkuchen. My seestah lives in german speaking Switzerland so it will be called flammenkuchen, the way it was introduced to me as.   Its basically a super thin flatbread or pizza with creme fraiche and cheese as the sauce. The sweetness of the creme fraiche is what makes this dish special.  I made mine simple just the way I had it in Europe, with my faux lardons (bacon) and caramelized onions, but I dont like my onions to caramelized so they were cooked down for 25 minutes. 

The dough took an hour to rise..  and what I didn't plan on was to take me 45 minutes to roll out the dough to super duper thin.  By then, I was hungry and cranky.   I get home at 630pm didn't eat dinner for over 2 hours! While this isn't a weeknight meal if you make the dough from scratch, its definitely worth the time and effort.  As you can see, my chives were cut like a crazy person to sprinkle on my finished product cuz I was sooo hungry!

All in all, it reminded me of my trips to Europe and my seestah and it was soooo good! I can't wait to make my next flammenkuchen!

Recipe I used was  loosely based on Anne Burrell's 

Note to self: work on dough rolling skills, I suck

Okee dokee artichokeey

I absolutely love artichokes.   I tried to grow them several times... 4 unsuccessful attempts.  One I had a vermin mishap.. think it was a gopher, the rest may have been my lack of gardening skills.   Maybe too much water, not enough sunlight as my community garden plot is half shaded... boo!  I have a border plot which is next to a tall fence with a humongous shrub and a tree that shades a good 300 square feet after 12-1pm.  I guess it can be a good thing in warm summer... but still, I can only utilize the east half of my plot for tomatoes, melons, corn, and things of the like.  This year I didnt plan properly and put two artichokes in where I had room at the time..  didn't think about how large it would get and now I took up prime sun real estate with this artichoke plant.  The other plant perished cuz it was placed in the shade I think.  But I do have some pretty spectacular artichokes growing.  The plant that survived is an italian heirloom called violetta artichoke.   The meatiest artichoke I ever tasted... the leaves are 60% full of meat rather than a green globe where u end up with barely any meat on the leaves... is it called artichoke meat? The choke of the violettas are larger and sweeter than a green globe as well.  Though not as sweet as an imperial star in my opinion, these violettas bring on some great eating. And so I shall end with... SUCCESS... finally!

Yay.. first tomato

I planted 3 transplants first week of February... Cherokee Purple, Paul Robeson, Black From Tula... all black / purple varieties.   This wasn't intentional,  they were honestly the open pollinated varieties I recognized that I didn't have seeds for or started seeds yet... I plan on saving seeds from these.