Category: Edible

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Suspense

Did the tender plants (tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, potatoes, and runner beans) make it yesterday??? Tuesday night into Wednesday morning it got down to 29F in Norman, apparently a new record low (the previous being 30F in 1918. SEE WHO WEATHERED THE WEATHER!!

Tommy toe tomato did not make it. Note how the leaves are a darker, mushy/soft green and drooping. Goner.
Both of my new tomato varieties, supposed to be better for canning, died. One was the Amish paste (not pictured), which I have more of in pots. The other was Hungarian heart tomato (pictured). I have planted some more seeds and put them in the warm plant window to sprout. The culprit is pictured on the left… oatmeal container cardboard does not insulate enough. I thought it would be nicer since they’re tall and big, but apparently you need more, like the air trapped in corrugated cardboard. All the survivors were under towels, glass jars, plastic jars, plastic pots with newspapers, cardboard boxes, or even leaves-as-mulch (one Peruvian ground cherry in the backyard). A few branches got frosted but they can be trimmed off.
One branch of this potato died when the box top fell in (I had set another bag of potatoes on top). But the rest of the plants were fine. An example of corrugated cardboard doing its insulation job. I was surprised that an uncovered potato in a raised bed did not completely die of frost. Only a branch or two was dead.

Three casualties of a late frost, and all due to poor choices of insulation (which I now know to avoid), are really not bad. I’m pretty pleased.

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30s next few nights

I put towels, newspapers in pots, glass jars, and plastic jars over the tender plants (peppers, tomatillos, tomatos, ground cherries). The unplanted ones will go in the garage or house.
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Surprise friend

This excellent female Northern Flicker came by the herb bed and investigated all the nooks and crannies while I was eating breakfast this morning! I told her the front yard had a lot of earwigs if that interested her.
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Cilantro: 359 g

I’ve been meaning for several weeks to harvest, blanch, and freeze some cilantro.

After blanching, I balled it up to squeeze out water, though I left a few flat with stems too. Last year I only froze it, no blanching, and it was only good to mix in stuff. When it thawed out it was gross looking. Maybe this will help a little. Plus, now that I’ve cut all the plants back, hopefully that will delay bolting a little longer. Plants in the backyard are starting to flower so I’m just letting them go to seed.
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Backyard baby plant update

The purple lady bok choy grows quite nicely when earwigs are not swarming it.

It grows bigger, too!

The wildflower seeds are doing better than I had hoped!

The green milkweeds are starting to have adult leaves.
There are actually pale coneflowers (Echinacea pallida) growing!
A single adult leaf is emerging on the Liatris mucronata. I have a second one in a smaller pot too.
I mistook the leaf of this seedling for a clover and pulled it yesterday, but quickly realized my mistake. I put it back in the dirt and watered it and it seems okay so far?? I hope so as it’s the only columbine seedling I’ve found so far in the sprouting trays or on the ground where I put seeds in the fall. The package said best sown outdoors in the fall.
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Big tomatoes

There were four plants getting too big for their containers, so we put them in the raised beds.

I also planted seeds of rouge vif d’etampes squash, cushaw squash (supposed to be resistant to squash vine borer), country gentleman corn, bush zucchini, and marketmore 76 cucumbers.