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. 

The Scientific Gardener: Royal Burgundy Bush Beans

The Scientific Gardener: Royal Burgundy Bush Beans: For years I have been growing beans that do well in Tucson’s hot, often dry, climate. As often happens in Tucson, it is easy to grow veget...

Simple Blackberry Jam and Syrup

The Texoma Gardening blog has discussed making jams and jellies of various kinds in the past, but I’m going to visit the topic once again today.  We headed out to a pick-your-own blackberry farm this week (Jenkins Farm in Bonham) and came home with a load of beautiful, sweet berries.  We have put a sizable dent in our take just from eating them a handful at a time, but I decided to try my hand at blackberry jam and syrup last night.

With my old tried and true jam recipe at the ready, we went to work.  Unlike many fruits, we used the whole berry here.  The seeds got added to the mix along with everything else.  If you’re going for a smoother jelly, you may want to strain your pulp.  With the whole fruit method used here, we found that three cups of whole berries roughly equaled two cups of mashed up pulp.  Therefore, it took six cups of whole berries and four cups of sugar to get things going.  Because the berry mix was so thick, I lowered the cook time to try to prevent over thickening of the end product.  Here’s what we did:

Take 2 cups of blackberry pulp and add to a large pot.  Stir in two cups of sugar.  Bring to a strong boil and stir often for 8 minutes.  Add another two cups of pulp and another two cups of sugar.  Bring back to a boil and continue stirring. 

At the three minute mark, we filled two half pint jars to be used as syrup.

Continued cooking the remaining mixture for an addition five minutes (8 minutes total after the second two cups of berries and sugar were added).  Pour this into prepared jars for the jam.  Seal the lids and process the jars.  Many people give the filled jars a hot water bath at this point.  I’m not one of those, but that doesn’t mean you have to be like me!  (I find that all that sugar keeps things in fine shape regardless, but the hot water is probably a good idea).

The end result was very lovely syrup, which we tested this morning on our pancakes.  The syrup, along with some fresh blackberries, made for a delicious breakfast.  The jam ended up at a very nice consistency also, and I’m going to call our first foray into blackberry preserves a big success.