2010 Spring and Garden Report

I am thrilled to report that all my potatoes are now planted!

Pontiac Reds, because they are pretty, taste good, and are good keepers. Pontiac Reds have, of course, a red skin, and white flesh. I planted some when I got them as soon as the ground could be worked in January, and those are up now, noticeably growing daily.

Yukon Golds, because there's still a sense of novelty about them, we like the way they look, and they taste good.  Yukon Gold Potatoes have a tan to blond skin and yellow flesh. They look like they've already been buttered!  We should have plenty of 'taters this year!




Got several varieties of sweet onions - "candy", "Super Sweet," and "1015" onions. I also still have some red onions that I need to plant.

We picked up a couple kinds of tomatoes and some jalapenos and some leeks, which are in the ground. Got those planted a couple days before we had a little burst of hail storm. Had enough hail that it drifted several inches deep of little pea to marble sizes on the south side of the house. Once the garden path dried enough that I could walk out there again, I notice many little craters, which are impact marks from the hail! I was really worried about the plants I had just set out, but they all look okay.

Got a couple each of Blueberry and Blackberry bushes, still in their buckets. Still deciding where to put them, since they stay put once planted. In reading about what a Blueberry likes, I think Blueberries and we can have a very happy mutual relationship here. They are said to appreciate acidic soil, and to be mulched with shredded pine needles and oak leaves, both of which we have in abundance. I would be thrilled to displace the poison ivy with Blueberries!

Some of the new little strawberry plants are breaking ground.

I wish I was set up to make jelly, because the dandelions are blooming RIGHT NOW, but perhaps next spring.

The "sweet bushes" are in bloom, too, and man, oh, man does it smell good out here right now! We call them "Sweet Bushes" because they have something of a shrub habit, like a bush, and when they flower in spring,the aroma is nearly intoxicating, very sweet. They are also known as Silverberries and seem to be related to olives.

We have some little volunteer trees in the woods back of the house that I suspect may be peach trees. Of course they've never been tended, and are located in an area that has been in full shade during the height of summer, so they haven't fruited well, but I know where they are, now (thanks to the flowers). I'll look after them and tend them, see if I can't help them do something amazing.

We finally got to the point that we were able to move the tool trailer out from in front of the house. We'll be able to mow there, now, get the grass growing there again. and it just looks better already with that space clear.  Much discussion as to where to put it - not beside the barn, where local trailer thieves can easily see it, nor behind the barn, where it is difficult to place. I just couldn't bring myself to spring for storage fees again - they give you a decent deal on the first three months, but after that, it's through the roof! So we ended up taking it out to my folks' place, where it can be safely out of the way. (Big Sigh of Relief.)

That's all for now - Happy Spring!

Garden Update and Field Pea Lore

I am sorry to say that I have slacked way off blog entries since I got Facebook, so to try to make up for it a little bit, I'm posting this entry with an updated photo of my garden, which is fairly exploding out of the ground.

We have already enjoyed a jalapeno pepper bigger than my whole thumb, a Roma tomato bigger than any I've ever seen in a grocery store (and way tastier), a few little golf-ball sized onions (because I just couldn't wait), several yellow squash, which are surprisingly sweet, and two hefty servings of green beans, yum! But wait, there's more - today I saw a bright yellow spot in one of the rows and wondered how a dandelion grew there so quickly, but it was my first Marigold blossom of the season. Good Morning Merry Sunshine!

In this photo, on the left is the tomato row; in the middle, there, is a row of Georgia Sweet onions, and that row on the right, toward the front are the yellow squash, and behind them you can see some neat trellises I made for cucumbers, cantaloupe (also known as muskmelon), and watermelon. On the crossways rows in the foreground, the little sprouts you see marching across the image from right to left are pink-eye purple-hulls, a variety of what are commonly called field peas. The Pink-eye purple-hulls are close cousins to black-eyed peas, which you may have heard of.

Black eyed peas are significantly involved in a particular southern tradition of eating black eyed peas on January first for good luck and prosperity in the coming year. Grandma Susie introduced this tradition to me many years ago. You can have 'em any way you wish - with or without greens, cornbread, any variety of pork - the black-eyed peas themselves are the thing.

This tradition evolved, as Grandma Susie explained to me, from the point that black eyed peas and all their little cousins are humble food, inexpensive and easy to prepare and, as you can see, one can even grow them in the home garden. As a bonus to all that, they're also quite tasty. It follows that if one were to start the new year with such humble fare, things could only get better. Steve and I have become almost superstitious in our observance of this tradition - January first must not pass without our having some black-eyed peas, even if we have to get them out of a can from the grocery store!

I could grow black eyed peas, and probably will, but I so love the pink-eye purple-hulls. I was introduced to pink-eye purple-hulls by a woman named Mildred Wallace, mother of my dear friend Sue Mitchell. My children and I went to visit Sue at Mildred's house in Arkansas one summer back in the eighties. Mildred was a pip! She nearly always had a "chaw of terbacky" in her cheek. Mildred grew a thick stand of pink-eye purple-hulls every summer. She ate many of them fresh and home-canned the rest, had enough to keep herself well stocked and send home with her loved ones. They weren't quite ready to harvest when we were there that summer, so we had some of the last of the home-canned from the season before - delicious. I also learned from Mildred that summer how to make biscuits. Yeah, biscuits! Tender, flaky biscuits, the kind you love with breakfast. I'll tell you about Mildred's biscuits in another post because this one is about "eye beans."

Black eyed peas are a pristine creamy white with a distinct black eye. They cook up from dried relatively quickly and are tasty. You can embellish the flavor with various seasonings, maybe a joint of ham if you're so inclined, or just enjoy them pretty much the way they come. They are definitely black and white. Once I've actually grown some, I can tell you more about their habit, their pods, and so forth.

Pink-eye purple-hulls are exactly that. One of the fun things about shelling them is that the pods will stain your fingers purple. One of the not-so-fun things about shelling them is the same thing - they will stain your fingers, and it is persistent. Doesn't wash out easily. The beans or peas, whichever one might wish to call them, are a little more pale mauvish in color, with a deeper, sort of a dusty plum colored eye. As I mentioned before, they are tasty prepared from fresh, they home-can well, or cook up from dried relatively quickly, like their black-eyed cousins. My affection for this legume interferes with any objectivity I might have, so I can't really say between black eyes and pink eyes which one has the better flavor. They're just tasty.

Time marches on and both Sue and her mother Mildred have gone on to the Big Acreage in the Sky. I have no doubt whatsoever that Mildred is in charge of a thick stand of the Heavenly equivalent of Pink-eye Purple-hulls, and that Sue is pointing out to newly arrived angels, "Well, there's a real good example of a pair of wings, right there on your shoulders." I learned a lot from those two women, individually and collectively, miss them both, and think of them often. My old friend Pappy Hines would say "They're not dead as long as we're alive to remember them," and to that I offer Cheers to Sue, Mildred and Pappy.

Y'all go grow yourselves some pink-eye purple-hulls!

Gardening Notes

We pull our rows up in ridges so the plantings are raised. Not a raised bed, but raised rows. Here's a picture of this year's garden so far, with a picturesque backdrop of trees.

We have an assortment of tomatoes, peppers, a row each of Georgia sweet and Texas 1015 (sweet) onions, some cukes, a watermelon, a cantaloupe, some okra, green beans, beets and carrots in the raised rows in addition to the corn circles.

We also have some garlic (not shown in this photo). I'll relate The Legend of The Garlic (with picture!) in a separate post in the near future.

By the way, in case you're interested, the trees shown include Black Walnut, Pecan, Hackberry, Elm, Honey Locust, and an olive relative I call "Sweetbush" because of the way it smells when it blooms in the spring. Downright intoxicating, the Sweetbush.

Elsewhere on the acreage live Juniper, Cottonwood, Mulberry, Willow, Cypress, Sweetgum, Oak and Pine trees. Possibly also a Redbud, the Oklahoma State tree, which I planted over ten years ago, but have not yet found.