Victory Garden 2012

[jmoore]

Leap Years Day photos. (29 Feb.) Always surprised at the number of blooms this time of year.





Weird ghostly looking things. The color is not shifted!


More green flowers:


Some of my favorites:

And these too!:


And some of the old reliable onion patch:


All of these plants pretty much do their own thing. No help from me!

Information

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[Aragorn243]

I don't expect to see bluebells for another month or two. Strange winter though, I was reading in the paper that they moved the planting schedule further north this year. My garden isn't even plowed yet so no rush on that. I'm looking at an early May, maybe late April planting time.

[vintage hunter]

Yep, it's that time of year again. Thanks to the hot winter we had here and the fact that the soil temps never got much below 52 degrees we have early asparagas, about 4 weeks early. Have cut it 3 times already. Usually don't get any till late March at the earliest. The collards are about done for, starting to run up to seed but I managed to crop one more mess. Too hot and dry last fall for turnips and mustard, most of it died. One bit of good news is that we've picked up a bit over 4'' of rain since last thursday.

[jmoore]

The collards are about done for, starting to run up to seed but I managed to crop one more mess.

MMMMM, collards! Had to cut back, as they are a natural attractant for fatback. Or salt ham trimmings. ("Country ham" to some of us.)

My aunt always let the asparagus go too long, so it's one vegetable that I prefer out of a can. But that's a personal problem!

[smellie]

It was 80 above here the other day. Twenty years ago we would get a May heat wave, but this is only March! Nobody has memories of this.

Normally, we have 4 feet of snow and a howling NW wind. Instead, we had a thunderstorm with rain tonight.

After 2 successive Springs of record flooding, we have had a brown winter: very little snow, what came went fast. Oh well, bottom of the river should have nice, fine sand!

Climate now is getting much as it was when Bjarni came here first (985) but it still has a way to go. Patterns seem to be changing to give some of our regular crap weather to Europe. This could be a Good Thing; normally they do not believe that we regularly get 30 and 40 below because, as I have been told, it is "impossible" for anyone to live in that kind of climate. I have been doing it now for most of my years (only 67 so far), so they can have MY share of the 40 below for a while. Maybe they will believe it, then! They might even stop bitching because Canadians "use too much energy"; climate like ours, you have to use energy or freeze to death.

Come to think of it, they might even forgive us for producing all that nasty oil and coal and hydro power...... all of which they will expect us to give to them while they destroy our industries with dumping. Some of them are in for a rude awakening, I'm afraid.

JMOORE, your flowers are BEAUTIFUL! That's all I can say!

VINTAGE HUNTER: can you advise me, kindly, what are COLLARDS? This is something we hear about on the Tube and in books and films, but they don't grow here at all; I have never seen such. As to Asparagus, doesn't it grow in cans? I know that it is a perennial but, to us, that usually means "froze out very year". This weather is MOST unusual.

Should be a FINE year on the range.
.

[FTIII]

I'm not Vintage Hunter but to sort of answer your question Collard greens are used a lot like other greens. Cook with water salt to taste a dash of liquid smoke some salt pork and bingo "greens". Down here we dont use a lot of the Collards but we do use them. More turnip greens here. We also grow Kale to use in soup and as a mix of greens. Kale in particular should be well suited to your cooler northern climates but all should do well, they do very well here in my area.

[vintage hunter]

Collards are a member of the Cole crop family which includes Kale, Cabbage, Broccoli and Coliflower to name a few. Asparagus is an herb related to lilies. When in season it has to be harvested every 3-5 days when the spears are around 6-8'' tall. If left alone it will grow into a bush about 4-5 feet tall and be filled with small round seed pods that turn red when ripe. Theres a few farmers around here that grow it, it also grows wild along the roadsides. My cousin is a produce farmer and has approx. 2 acres of Asparagus and usually plants 4-5 acres of Collards yearly so I'm well supplied. My favorite seasoning for cooking collards are smoaked neck bones, simmer them a while till the water looks sorta white and add the collards. Some folks add a pinch of sugar to sweeten them up a little but the Georgia and Vates varieties have a higher natural sugar content so they don't normally require any extra to be added.

[jmoore]

VINTAGE HUNTER: can you advise me, kindly, what are COLLARDS?

As above, but more bitter than turnip greens. Salt or vinegar(usually with small hot pepper in the jar) is commonly added to "sweeten" them. Usually served with stone ground cornbread (and not the "sweet/"sugarated" variety!) Never heard of adding liquid smoke! Must be for rich folk.

[FTIII]

Jim,
After laughing so hard I almost wet myself I decided to reply. Over my life time I've been called more things than I can even remember but rich was never one of them. If you knew me I think you would see the humor in this as much as I do, so dont mis understand me laughing. It's just funny. Anyway the greens we make up have always had a bit of smokey flavor in them and that's why a dash of liquid smoke goes in our style of greens. I do like your idea of canning with a small hot pepper what kind? and will darn sure give that one a try. Some of the best growing veges we can grow here are the greens due to the cooler nights in this part of the country. I'm always looking for new things to try and your pepper in greens is a new one to me, sounds great.

[jmoore]

I do like your idea of canning with a small hot pepper what kind?

Whatever you can get in the bottle!

ETA:

I do like your idea of canning with a small hot pepper what kind? and will darn sure give that one a try. Some of the best growing veges we can grow here are the greens due to the cooler nights in this part of the country. I'm always looking for new things to try and your pepper in greens is a new one to me, sounds great.

Having re-read your post, the pepper vinegar isn't added during canning. It's added after cooking! Use whatever peppers you like, mild to wild. When the juice is gone out of the jar, add some vinegar again to whatever peppers are left. Let sit as long as possible and it ought to be as good or better the next time or three! A few jars in rotation works well. The flavor's good even after the peppers get a bit "less than fresh" looking.