Raised Bed Gardening Infographic

Look at this great infographic on raised beds!  It includes information on ideal bed sizes and soil mixtures.  While I loved my double dug beds, and have plans to build a hugelkultur mound in the future, transitioning to raised beds for most of my garden has really streamlined the soil building process.  The black clay that my soil is made up of is extremely rich in minerals, but an absolute bear to work with.  It's notorious for compacting back down.  Every year saw me tilling it back up.  The benefits of the double digging didn't last beyond 2 seasons.  Making the switch to raised beds has made it a lot easier to create healthy, humus rich soil that doesn't need to be plowed up every year.

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Build The Benefits of Raised Beds
Infographic by CustomMade

Garden Goings On

Now that the black gumbo has firmed up bit, we're in the garden running damage control (picking cracked tomatoes and such).  We're also spraying neem oil, fertilizing with fish emulsion, harvesting what's ripe, and scouting for a good location for the rabbit hutch.

Seasonal - Watering Trees in Summer

Watering my trees. This is a baby fig tree. When the weather gets relentless in Texoma, you've got to get a little creative about water. A small hole drilled into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket ensures that each tree gets plenty of water. The hole is small for a slow release. I give my trees 10 gallons of water each week in this way.  The bricks are there so that husband and son don't mow them over (again).

Peach Picking - Jenkins Farm

We had a great time yesterday picking peaches at Jenkins Farm in Ravenna.  Due to our crazy winter, peach season is short this year, and farmer Claude Jenkins doesn't expect it to last much beyond this week.  Call first, and then hurry over there if you want peaches.  Blackberries will come later, and corn after that.  He has such a great operation over there.  Lots to take note of if you're a gardener or mini-farmer.

Herb Season

We are deep into herb season in Texoma! Here pictured is rosemary, orange mint, parsley, and cilantro. Cilantro and basil are probably going to seed on you.  Parsley older than one year is too. In my experience only parsley loses flavor when it seeds, and that's just the stalks that are actually flowering, so don't be shy to keep clipping and eating your fresh herbs!

Quick Word on Roses

Roses love Texas. These are a mini rose called Happy Chappy. They are prolific blossomers. I don't fertilize them much, though I do spread new mulch around every couple of years (as it breaks down).  I also give them a biweekly Epsom spray and dead prune them through the growing season.  If they need a harder cutting back, I usually wait until late winter.  Grasshoppers have eaten my roses to bits, so I'm experimenting with neem oil this year to see if that helps.

Stuffed Eggplant – A New Summertime Favorite

 Let me start off this post by saying that this is Jennifer’s recipe.  I can take no credit for it.  As a matter of fact, the eggplant as well as all of the other vegetables used in this recipe came from Jennifer’s garden.    She brought it all over to the house one day to try to teach me something new.  That being said, here’s what I learned:  Stuffed eggplant tastes great!

Here is the recipe we used:

2 small eggplants
1 cup rough cut bread crumbs or plain croutons

1 small onion

1 small zucchini or yellow squash

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small bell pepper

1/2 cup mushrooms of your choosing
1/2 cup browned sausage

1 cup of grated cheese (you can pick your favorite kind, we used mozzarella).

Optional:  4 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or whole

salt
black pepper
crushed red pepper (optional; to taste)
basil (to taste)
oregano (to taste)
extra virgin olive oil or butter (your choice)
Vegetarian option:  Skip the meat and up the mushroom portion to a cup.  You can also substitute the meat with a 1/2 cup of any vegetable that you wish.  Peas come to mind as a nice addition.

Cut the eggplants in half from stem to bottom (lengthwise) and scoop out the insides.  Leave about ¼” of eggplant left inside the skin all the way around.  Dice up the eggplant innards, spread in a colander bowl, and sprinkle lightly but evenly with sea salt.  Leave them to sit for a half hour.  Preheat the oven to 350°.  Dice up the onion, zucchini, pepper, and mushrooms. Mince the garlic or use a garlic press.  Combine them and sauté them with the diced eggplant in extra virgin olive oil or butter.  Season as you wish.  We used salt, pepper, a dash of basil, oregano, and some red pepper seeds.  When everything is tender, add the tomatoes and sausage if you choose to do so.  We added both for a little extra flavor and staying power.  The sausage we had on hand was a medium spiced variety, so it added just a little extra zip to the final meal.  When everything is mixed, stuff those hollowed out eggplants as high as you can get them with the meat and veggie combo.  (Try as we might, we just couldn’t get all of the good stuff back into there.  I saved it for a quick dish some other night).  Arrange filled eggplant halves in a baking dish and roast at 350° for about 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven, top with cheese, and return to the oven until cheese is melted and a bit browned, about 10 minutes.  Serve up and enjoy!

I know that I identified the tomatoes and the sausage as optional, but really anything in that list of vegetables (other than the eggplant, of course) is optional.  You can also add in your favorite veggie if it’s not in this list.   I do believe Jennifer said she uses whatever she has on hand.

So there you have it – if you have a plethora of eggplant and you just don’t know what to do with them, stuff them for a quick, delicious, and nutritious meal.