Tereza Okava

I cook it and pickle it for us people, and feed it raw to my bunnies (they love it, never had a problem. they don't eat the seeds, which maybe are the problem?)
there are a few older threads with ideas
https://permies.com/t/223800/Solutions-perilla-mint
https://permies.com/t/211850/Seeking-Tips-Reducing-Presence-Perilla
https://permies.com/t/286839/Series-Lesson-Shiso-Perilla#3203069

I personally look at recipes from Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisine, where it's called kkaennip (https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-pickled-perilla-leaves-kkaennip-jangajji/ ), or shiso in Japanese.
(this is photo heavy but you may find it interesting https://chillcrispbyxueci.substack.com/p/cucumber-salad-with-perilla-shiso )

Unfortunately this year is a hard one, I think I'd be trying to start things in the house, if possible, it has to let up at some point and then you can put them in the ground. I have a friend up in northern Wales (a bit south of Mold) and the pictures she's sent me are jaw-dropping (and i was there a few years ago in 'the hottest august ever recorded'.... at this point everything is a record).

Stay cool and good luck!

Hey Natalie, that's a good-sized plot you have there! How exciting!! I like your design, the only thing I would add is to think about how shade/sun will work as the sun moves across the sky (planting taller things so they don't shade out the littler ones, etc). Other than that, looks great and I look forward to seeing how it all grows up for you!! If you're in 9a, you should be able to start some things right away, are you getting any rain?

Welcome back to Permies!!!

Roxy Van wrote:
-Birds eye chili, bitter melon & garlic relish

Could you tell me a bit more about this? People know I love bitter melon and I often find myself with a bunch on hand, I'm always looking for new things to do with it.

Carla Burke wrote:By dumplings, I was thinking along the lines of the bumpy, flat, wide type that my very southern grandmas used to make, for chicken&dumplins. They're excellent in other soups & stress, too - but my grandma's both put them in with chicken. If dumplings the way my Nana (wonderful step-grandma) made them, those would need the baking soda, to get their fluffy, puffy light spherical shape.

At risk of getting off topic-- as someone who never saw a dumpling of this type til I was maybe 30,  which kind (round and fluffy or flat and wide) go better in which kind of setting, in your opinion? I grew up with matzo balls, but the preferred texture in my house was chewy, not fluffy, think "dodgeball". the flat and wide dumplings intrigue me!

Nancy Reading wrote:

Tereza Okava wrote:noodles (hold the baking soda) would be my first choice. Flour and water plus time gives some fabulous stretchy noodle options.

Oh, would pasta be an option too? Does that have to be special flour?

I make hand pulled noodles and udon with plain old bread flour (we don't have a lot of flour options here, it's white or whole).
https://omnivorescookbook.com/hand-pulled-noodles/
(if you can add salt, this recipe is flour, salt, water and oil to coat the pasta while it rests)

https://www.justonecookbook.com/udon-noodles/
(flour, water, salt)

for most Asian noodle recipes, the technique makes the difference-- kneading time, resting time, and occasionally water temp have huge impacts.

And if you can add an egg or two, you can make spatzle.

noodles (hold the baking soda) would be my first choice. Flour and water plus time gives some fabulous stretchy noodle options.

dumplings for soup would be another good one.

This year I am doing exactly what Phil suggests- growing my tomatoes under cover. I made a real sketchy greenhouse- a roof surrounded by plastic sheeting I can remove when the weather is dry. I probably should leave it all the time, but I don't.
And I have entirely stopped even trying tomatoes in summer due to pest pressure- where I live they can only grow inside enclosed greenhouses, between the insects and the fungus. A few years ago I tried growing cherry tomatoes in winter and it went okay, so that's my new normal -- they take forever, but it's better than losing them all to the insects.

(and even well covered and watering only the soil-- my tomatoes still have powdery mildew. I go through every week and snip off the worst leaves.)

(in zone 9b in South America, possibly the wettest and cloudiest place on the southern half of the continent. See a little spot of blue on on the weather map, where it's raining while the rest of the place has sun? That's where I live)

Jay Angler wrote:
I have been told that with a cherry tree that wouldn't fruit, the owner tied a very tight band around the trunk just before the branches shortly before the expected flowering time. This "threat" to the tree, convinced it that it should produce offspring (which is really what flowering and fruit is all about from the tree's perspective) right away, before it might die.

We're getting off into the weeds here, but I know I've heard someone (maybe here) talk about whipping/thrashing plum trees. That may be my next act of plant abuse....

I had the exact same thing happen with my two Suriname cherries. One dropped all its leaves (as they do for winter) and the other didn't. They were planted next to each other on the very same day and receive the same care (youngish trees, 7-ish years old). Both are now throwing buds. Go figure.

I don't know about you but where I am, "weird" is an understatement for how the weather has been. We had a hot snap and now everything is leafed out and flowering. Then a bomb cyclone came out of the South Atlantic full of polar air, I'm hoping the fruit flowers survive. The snow peas, on the other hand, are having the time of their lives and I'm getting a bumper crop, daikon radish too. Meanwhile, the climbing striped fava beans, which are usually a reliable winter crop here, have tiny 'i'm so stressed' leaves and almost no flowers are setting beans. A weird year.