Some tepary beans mixed in those refried beans! The hot sauce is Chimayó pepper mostly. 01/25/2024. Homemade pasta with homemade pesto. 01/24/2024. I finally roasted the yaupon holly leaves instead of just having it dehydrated. It’s actually a nice tea now! I did 300 F for somewhere over 1.5 hrs on a cookie sheet. 01/22/2024.
So, in spite of rain all day and temperatures in the 30s F, I went out and cut all the plants. That’s the giant pile of cut basil on an overflowing Rubbermaid tub and assorted cut off pepper plants nearby. The rest of the day was getting basil leaves off the stems. The basil stems were so big I had to use the loppers to cut them at the base.3608 grams of basil leaves. This is 7.95 pounds. Yes, we did tare the tub weight. Yes, it is a lot of basil. No, I don’t even know what’s going to happen. LeafhopperTrue bug nymphJumping spiderPraying mantisWe had several little friends come in on the basil. All were released back into the shelter of adjacent plants outside.
Paula made refried beans with bolas maycoba beans from last year as well as some Rancho Gordo beans of some variety. The Chef made a pepper hot sauce from all the ripe Chimayó chile peppers in the garden plus everything pepper leftover in the freezer, including farm share jalapeños, two year old poblanos from the garden, and assorted mystery peppers.
Paula and The Chef collaborated on tonight’s dinner. Larb (or laab) is a meat salad. We used the lettuce leaves as little scoops/wraps and put rice with each scoop. Very tasty. From the garden, the larb contained Chimayó peppers and mint. It was delicious.
Before, a tall pepper seedling in a big yogurt container. After, with new potting soil up to near the leaves. We did this to all the peppers and ground cherries. This is my experiment to reduce transplanting stress by just letting them grow more roots in place since these can root from stems.
Shackleton and Tuqu are eager to assist in examination of seedlings. Three varieties of peppers have sprouted! This kind of help is why they (the plants, not the cats) are going immediately to the cat free guest room.The Chimayó seedling has extremely fuzzy roots! Maybe because there was humidity trapped by the yogurt container lids? I have removed the lids now so they can get air flow to prevent damping off.
Thursday evening, the Chef began preparing spices for meat in slow cooker. Two jalapeños, one chimayó (top).Mmm tacos. Everything except meat, tortillas, cheese, and spices are from garden. Beans are the last of last year’s California black-eyed peas. Potatoes are this year’s kennebec white.After dinner, Paula and I did some garden harvesting. New for the season are Alabama black-eyed butter beans.Also new for the season are slippery silks pole beans.While we picked, the ice cream maker machine worked hard.Vanilla with blackberries from home. Thanks Mom for sending some home with us!
The sterile wheatgrass cover crop is sprouting!You can see the slower germinating buffalograss seed hanging out.I have especially put a lot in the narrow places where the water runs off from the raised beds.The grass with the red zinnias.Both chimayó and jalapeño peppers. Neither super hot.Everything from the garden except for garlic!Yum! Salsa verde complete!Picked green beans for dinner while waiting for salsa to finish simmering down.The Chef takes over for canning, my department is just vegetables, thank goodness.