Mk Neal

Ok, I am going to give this a try next season. My blackcap raspberries are out of control.

I got a couple of chefmate stainless steel pans with copper bottom for $1 each at second hand store. Practically nonstick if used properly, lightweight, and oven friendly. I actually like them better than my cast iron for most uses, which I did not expect.

Only downside is that while the copper bottom is great for gas stove, it makes them unusable on induction cooktop.

Outdoor be “army worm” caterpillars, or rabbits if they are in reach of rabbits.

Russian way of cooking overgrown zucchini: slice about centimeter thick, dredge in flour that has a lot of garlic added, pan fry in oil. Serve with sour cream.

Mark Reed wrote:

I like rice a lot, especially wild rice and although I doubt I could ever grow it in serious quantity, I'd like to give it a try in my little garden pond but not sure where to find seeds.

There is actually a variety of wild rice that is native to the river ways of Indiana, but had almost died out. Some of the Myaamia folks in Ft Wayne area had found some a few years back and were working to reintroduce it in that area. I heard about this from Dani Tippmann at a Miami Heritage Days event in Ft Wayne some years ago.

It’s not a garden plant, though. Needs to grow in flowing water and needs seasonal fluctuations in depth, is what I heard.

I let my radishes self-seed in the garden based. This time of year, they come up thickly and I pull up handfuls of young radish plants before the roots start to swell and cook them whole. Great in soup or steam sautéed as a side.

I had plans when we first bought our house. There was even a “pantry” of sorts in the basement that could have been modified rather simply. However, after a few years I realized that our yard is not large or sunny enough to produce enough root crops to make such a cellar worth the effort. If I had an acre, or half acre even, I think I would want one.

Love this thread, you are doing great things!

Lovage may be my favorite garden plant. It’s the one herb that reliably comes back strong year after year with no work or fuss. I use it in everything, anywhere parsley or cilantro might be called for. Lovage tabouleh. Lovage guacamole.

I also layer lovage leaves in salt to make a flavored salt that is great for all savory uses. The lovage seeds are a good seasoning also, similar to dill or cumin.

Anne Miller wrote:I like the suggestion for lovage.  I planted it though it got pulled up by someone thinking it was a weed.

I wonder, does lovage smell like celery?  It is a substitute.

Lovage does smell like celery, but it has much larger, tougher leaves than that, and the young leaves are wrinkled and glossy.

Ac Baker wrote:Interesting.

So, in my climate, sunchokes overwinter well in the ground.

Then we get to decide the harvest date based upon the properties we want in our crop.

I've not been able to find inulin measurements based upon harvesting at the start of the new season of budding/sprouting growth.

But the consensus seems to be that, for a given variety and year, the inulin content will rise once the leaves are established, peaking around the first hard frost when the leaves are killed off.  This is likely to be up to 85% of dry weight.

Then the inulin content will start to fall significantly when the budding process begins in late winter or early spring, as enzymes convert the inulin to simple sugars e.g. fructose, for new plant growth, reaching a minimum just as the new leaves start to usefully photosynthesize. This could be as low as 60% of dry weight.

But I can't find a temperate climate study that tests these two figures, as yet.

I don't have the means to measure inulin, however this year I harvested my first sunchokes last week, just after the ground thawed. At that point they were large, crisp, and sweet and best of all, no gas!

I had planted some rather scrawny fall tubers I got from friends two years back, but was loathe to eat much of them because the few times I had eaten sunchokes previously I had horrible bloating. Reading this thread got me thinking that the roots I bought at market might have been harvested at wrong point or stored at wrong temperature.

Spring thaw harvest really seems like the better way to go! Plus, a crop to fill the late winter/early spring famine season.