Harvest on Wednesday, Then Dinner

86 F degrees today. So I picked the last of my "White Cloud" Cauliflower before it bolted.

From the Cauliflower moving in a clockwise direction, we have Basil, Radish, Pole Beans, sprigs of German Thyme, Broccoli, a purple Carnival Pepper with an Early Girl Tomato and a Hot Banana Pepper

What's for dinner? Individual cheesy meatloaves, with red potato wedges and steamed garden veggies. This is not a weight-watchers recipe, but gratifyingly meaty, tasty and cheesy.

2lb ground beef or poultry
2 cups of shredded cheese - 1 cup mixed in with meat, 1 cup set aside
1/4 cup dried romano/parmesan cheese
snips of the german thyme and a few snipped leaves of basil
1 beaten egg
1 cup of breadcrumbs
lots of black pepper
2 - 4 tablespoons of water, enough to make the meat "dough" supple

Handling the meat as little as possible, incorporate all the ingredients into the meat, cover and let sit in the fridge for an hour.

Shape the meat into patty "boats" - the patty has to have a slight indentation - see bottom right, in order to hold the remainder 1 cup of cheese (divided between 4). I used mozzarella. Now dab water around the perimeter and put a thin "lid" on the "boat".

Cover any cracks in the meat wall by using water to get as tight a seal as possible, otherwise the cheese leaks out.

Put in a 350 F oven - middle rack - for an hour.
Steam your potato wedges, and when softened remove to separate dish and mash.

Use about 1/2 cup of that water to steam a few sprigs of thyme, now add the cauliflower, broccoli, sliced radish, sliced tomato, Carnival pepper and the pole beans. I didn't use the hot banana pepper. Add any other veggies you have on hand - mushrooms, sliced squash etc. - and use 2 teaspoons of olive oil to mix.
Steam about 15 minutes, with the lid on.

I added some blueberries to the last few minutes of the steamed vegetables. Pick the thyme stems out before serving.

The cheese inside the meatloaves still leaked out a bit, so I just topped it on top of the meatloaf.

Very delicious!

October Yields - A Veggie Preview

Hello South Florida!! Finally cooler days! Two weeks ago it was 88-90 F during the day, and now we are looking happily at anywhere from 73-81 F - Makes all the difference to getting out there and getting grubby  - but not too sweaty - in the garden. It's worth mentioning that in my gardening journal last year I was noting by October 3rd, low 80sF during the day at low 70sF at night.

The Bell Peppers are thriving with lots of buds and maturing peppers. I have both in large pots, and they've had several good waterings with very diluted epsom salts and a few big dollops of fish emulsion. Peppers were bought as transplants a month or so ago from a nursery and they are already producing, so I'm very happy about that. 

Whitefly infestation was prevalent for a while, but I prevailed with daily brushing the affected leaves with Diatomaceous earth powder.

We now have three raised vegetable beds installed. The first has Broccoli (front of box), Blue Lake Pole Beans (middle netting trellis) and Eggplants (back of box supported with tomato cages). There are some Marigolds (tagetes) in there, the flowers of which I feed to my conures. All thriving with all the rainfall we've been getting. The Broccoli I am anticipating harvesting for Thanksgiving Dinner.

I have yet to decide what to put in the empty box since it's still cooking. I lined the bottom with a thick covering of cardboard boxes and newspapers, then topped it off with garden soil, bonemeal, home-made compost etc. I sprinkled about 2lbs of regular white sugar in with that mix, because apparently sugar kills nematodes. The third box is on the right out of view finder range. It's loaded with different varieties of tomatoes. Cherokee, Brandywine, Heatwave and Lemon Boy. (Heatwave not doing well).

Ichiban Eggplant with Blue Lake Pole Beans

Blue Lake Pole Beans

We're harvesting the runners and eggplants. My bean yield isn't tremendous, but then only my husband and I eat them. I top and tail the beans, cut them in half and lightly boil them, they have a nice flavor with a little crunch to them. I yield about 4-5 a day.

Here's something to watch out for. I noticed that the flower production on the Eggplant had stopped, and whole lotta chewing was going on. The chewing may be flea beetles, or lubber grasshoppers and the bud drop due to lack of water. A closer examination of the leaves showed they had been folded over. Opening the leaf revealed what I think is a baby hornworm. I picked the folded leaves off and put them in the bird feeder. Other gardeners suggest using reflective mulch under eggplants to deter flea beetles. I used some old CD's instead, and I bet you could use aluminum foil too.

While I was trawling the web for insect identification I came across this great website.
Click here:
A Great Website with tips for Growing Eggplant

Disappointingly the Early Girl tomato I was so enthralled with, only produced one little wormy tomato and then the whole plant wilted and died. An examination of the roots showed no nematode damage. Maybe it was still too hot out. I'll give this variety of tomato one more shot, before I write it off -- after all -- ripe tomatoes in November would be nice to have.

Cuke flowers

The Burpless Cuke on the left (big leaves) shares a pot with Cherry Belle Radishes. The Cuke is now about 3 feet high and already producing fruit. Someone recommended putting onions skin in the pot to deter Cuke borers. I have done this and can report that - so far, so good.

Don't skimp on the water with Cukes, they go downhill very quickly if the soil isn't kept moist. I should be able to harvest the Cherry Belle radishes soon.

In the meantime I'll just enjoy the Monarch butterflies that, along with the Giant Swallowtails, have returned en-masse, looking no doubt for the butterfly garden I have so carelessly neglected over our hot, humid and weedy summer.

Firsts of The Season - A September Recap

Our daytime temperatures are in the middle 80F and it's cooling off at night at a balmy 75F so consequently the growth in the veggie garden has really accelerated. The abundant, daily rainfall is kind of helpful too.
As a 'recap' to my previous post,

To View Go here: Firsts of The Season - A September Preview

today.... I am showing a progress report on what is shaping up to be a bumper crop this year aka 'a whole of digging going on.'

First up Tomatoes:
Sweet 'n' Neat Hybrid Tomato (Determinate) has lots of little blossoms and vigorous, healthy growth. This little tomato can be grown on a patio in a 10" pot, but I transplanted mine in in a 3 gallon pot for optimum root development.

Sweet n Neat

Early Girl 50 Days

The Early Girl - 50 days - Hybrid (Indeterminate), has grown another 6" since my "September Preview" post and, true to its name, has little tomatoes developing, which I anticipate harvesting maybe last week of October.

Tip Time: I want to pass along two tips that I think have contributed to the rapid and vigorous growth of the above two plants. I dig in used coffee grounds around the plant and have watered the whole plant (leaves and all) with a diluted solution of Epsom salts. Bonemeal incorporated into the soil at planting will result in good yields.

Heatwave II and Brandywine

Cherokee

I planted Cherokee, Heatwave II and Brandywine tomato seeds on 9-13 and they are already up, although are a teeny bit spindly, so I will have to remember to brush my hand over the seedlings to strengthen them. I have also taken to sprinkling a little cinnamon powder over the tiny seedling to prevent damping off. Evidently Chamomile tea is also a preventative for this fungal soil disease. More information regarding this can be found by clicking here: Damping Off Problems

I didn't have a great deal of luck with the Cherokee last year, but I'm game for another try. I will not be growing either Roma or Solar Fire this year. Heatwave II and Brandywine are new and exciting additions to our garden. We also have my favorite Lemon Boy coming along nicely.

Eggplant: A pretty flower of two weeks ago has developed into fruit.

Ichiban Eggplant

This hybrid variety is a prolific producer. The skin is quite thin and the flesh is sweet and delicious.

I'm not sure why the lizard decided to pose on it.

You can buy transplants now at any big box outlet and plant them for a reliable crop within 2 - 3 weeks.

Burpless Cuke with Radish Seedlings

On the left we have Burpless Cuke with seedlings of Radish - Cherry Belle -surrounding it. The Radishes have a two-fold promise, they should be ready in 22 days and are reported to keep the dreaded cuke beetle off...

Calabaza

The Calabaza I mentioned in my previous post was a mere 5" back then and draped all over the bottlebrush. Now we need two hands to hold it and it's evident by the 12" ruler how fast these grow. I did removed the vines since the dinner plate size leaves were filtering the sunlight much needed for the tomatoes.

After

Our raised veggie bed installed last month now has transplants of Broccoli and Blue Lake Beans. The Ichiban Eggplant also shares the space. I have Nasturtiums planted in there because they look lovely in the vegetable garden.

Here's a photo of the raised veggie bed - before and after.

Before

For planting times of some popular Florida vegetables visit my post: Ready Pot Grow....

In Zone 10, you can get going now seedlings of all Peppers, Broccoli, Radish, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Corn, and Eggplants. 

Probably better to wait on sowing cooler vegetables like Spinach, Lettuces, Peas, Celery and Arugula until last week in October.