Today's Harvest: RED POTATOES

Today I dug my second pot of red potatoes. The heat has been in the high 90's this weekend and the plant just died. I'm holding my head high though.....I have 3 more reds! Between to the two red potato plants, I have enough for a meal. Tomorrow my husband and I will roast some red potatoes as part of dinner.

Welcome to the World of Dehydrated Food

My husband thinks this is a VERY interesting topic. (He just mocked me as I wrote the subject line for this post..."That's about as exciting as saying 'Let's talk about colon cleanse.'" These were his exact words.)

This week I purchased my first food preservation tool...the dehydrator. I have read a little bit about how to choose the right dehydrator. My list of requirements were (1) it needed multiple temperature settings; (2) it needed the ability to expand by adding trays; and (3) it needed to be cheap. I settled on a model made by Nesco. It only has 4 trays, but it came with a ton of screens and fruit leather tray inserts.

I have already dried pineapple and sliced cherry tomatoes. Both have AMAZING flavor and take little space in the refrigerator. I have read that you can store dehydrated food for 1-2 years in the fridge, or 3 years in the freezer. I love dried fruit, but it so expensive. This is a perfect solution!

Tomorrow I'm making banana chips for the week and more sliced tomatoes.

Today's Harvest: TOMATOES

I will call this post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".

My husband and I are using this long Memorial Day weekend as a Spring cleaning opportunity, even though it feels like Summer.Since we have a tomato thief in the neighborhood (see my Squirrels are Evil post), I made a bee-line to my tomato plants this morning. Sure enough, a bright red half eaten tomato was laying under my plants. I should have taken a picture of it, but I was so mad I hurled it over my wall.

The good news is there were several other red ripe and almost ripe tomatoes on the plants. I picked several Juliet tomatoes and one small Roma.

Ok, now for the bad and ugly. My husband planted San Marzano tomatoes this year. He's a foodie and the San Marzanos are a popular gourmet Italian tomato I guess. There were a few ripening tomatoes on his plant that looked very nice...

...until you looked at the bottoms of them. This is our first experience of blossom end rot. It is such a shame because the rest of the fruit looks healthy and beautiful.

Apparently this can happen if you water your plants inconsistently. We have been watering them every other day for 25 minutes in the early morning. Maybe we need to do 15 minutes everyday? I'm just guessing at this point. All is not lost though, there are several tomatoes on the plant that still look great. We will adjust the watering schedule and see if we can salvage the next harvest.

HOME COOKING: Easy Homemade Potato Chips

This might fall into the the "Duh" category, but who thought healthy homemade potato chips were so easy and delicious?! I am blown away by how good these taste. And the possibilities are endless...cracked pepper, parmesean, ranch...mmmmmmm.

I purchased a hand-held mandolin this weekend. These are very handy little devices that make very quick work of cutting potatoes. And all of the slices are a consistent thickness, which helps with even cooking. I admit that I cringe a little with every slice. Memories from childhood flood my mind of my mother cutting her hand open while slicing veggies...makes me feel icky even typing this right now. Ugh, it was a bloody mess...but I digress. My point here is that it is a great tool and it literally took 2.5 minutes to slice 5 potatoes.

What you need for Salt & Pepper Chips:

• 1.5 medium potatoes per person, any variety
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil per 2 potatoes
• 1 large zip close storage bag
• Baking sheet lined with parchment paper
• Cracked Pepper
• Salt to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Slice (Carefully!) your potatoes
• Pour oil into storage bag
• Add potatoes to storage bag, close and shake to coat potato slices with oil
• Cover parchment paper with cracked pepper
• Place slices in one layer on parchment paper
• Crack pepper over the top of slices
• Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown
• Salt to taste
• Let cool and eat!

Today's Harvest: RED POTATOES

One of my potato plants was looking sick..

While the plant wasn't completely yellow, I couldn't wait to see what was underneath. It was dropping its lower leaves and the upper leaves were turning yellow. I have heard that when the plant turns yellow, you are supposed to dig the roots up. So, being the impatient gardener I am, I grabbed my plant at the base and pulled it out of the pot. To my surprise, I have 4 of the cutest little red potatoes you have ever seen! I am so proud of my babies and I plan on eating them tonight. I can't believe this experiment works.

I think I could have had 4 larger potatoes if I had waited for the whole plant to turn yellow. I will wait for mid to late June to dig my other potatoes up and see if I have more than this plant gave me. In the fall, I am going to plant a large area and see if I can continuously harvest through the winter.

How To: Build A Solar Oven - Part 1 (Supplies)

Solar Oven.

"YES. This is a great idea!", I thought. When I told my brother about it, he called me a "hippie". And, after seeing it in the backseat of my car, the guy at the grocery store asked if it was a "school project". I admit that it is not conventional or pretty — as you can see — BUT I live in the desert where temperatures pass 100 on a daily basis in the summer. This will be energy free, outdoor cooking that will not heat the house!

This is the one we made at a workshop in early April. Its is simple and cheap to make. The workshop leader told us that the temperature for this oven tops out at about 250 degrees. He made some killer navy beans for the class in his own solar oven. He said they were cooked 10 hours. So, this oven is more of a slow cooker, I suppose.

Here are the supplies you will need to create your own.

SUPPLY LIST:

• Two cardboard boxes-one large, one small. Dimensions don't really matter as long as the small one nests inside the large and there is some space around the small box to stuff paper for insulation. Make sure you can place a baking dish inside the small box easily.
• A roll of heavy duty aluminum foil
• Lots of newspaper
• A roll of 3" aluminum tape-the kind used to seal heating and cooling ducts
• Elmers white glue
• One 2 1/2 foot long wooden dowel-1/4 inch diameter
• Two long hinges-the best ones in our workshop were about 4" from the center of the hinge
• Bolts, washers and nuts for the hinges-bolts should be about 3/4"-1" long and fit through your hinges.
• A roll of 1" wide felt stripping
• One piece of non-tempered glass large enough to cover the small box with a 1"-2" overlap on all sides. This is the lid that traps the sun's heat.
• Four extra pieces of cardboard that are larger than the bigger box.
• Electric drill 

Now, go collect your stuff and check back in a couple days.
Instructions will follow shortly...

Squirrels are Evil...with a capital E

just a quick rant about a SQUIRREL....

My dear hubby went out to look at the beautiful tomatoes that are growing wild in the garden. On the back wall of our yard he spotted a wee-little thief with a juicy red Juliet tomato in its mouth. It was the first tomato to turn red this season and I was waiting a couple days to pick the bunch that surrounded it. We watched the beast frolic away from us in anticipation of its delicious dinner. I promise you that the little rodent practically skipped away it was so happy!

I feel defeated.

Anyone out there know how to prevent your garden from becoming a buffet for critters?

PS: The crazy squirrel photo is from THIS website where I found an article on "Getting rid of squirrels" by Pam Sissons.

Defeated......

Zucchini Are Growing!

In an effort to make up for my lack of posting for the last couple of weeks, I am a blogging fool today.

The zucchini I planted in February are getting very large. Some of the leaves are larger than my hand, which is a big surprise to me. The leaf stems are covered with prickly hairs that hurt when you push them aside to take a picture of the fruit, like I did today.

You can see the zucchini growing at the base of the flower. Its probably 2 1/2 inches long at this point and there are 3 others forming on this plant. I have three plants in the garden and all of them are starting fruit. I am so proud of the plants I started from seed. It gives me such a sense of accomplishment.

Will post more when I harvest...

Book Review: Garden Wisdom & Know-How

My dear hubby gave me an enormous soft cover book for my birthday this year. It is called Garden Wisdom & Know-How by The Editors of Rodale Gardening Books. It is like an encyclopedia for gardening! There are step-by-step instructions for everything from seed starting to building a removable window box. It boasts "7,354 Charts, Lists, Tips, Instructions, Diagrams and Illustrations." I have spent hours reading this book since I received it last week.

While, there isn't a ton of information on gardening in the desert. There is an extensive section on watering techniques, water conservation, and rain water harvesting. And I am SO inspired by the garden plans that are detailed — my favorite is the Dye Garden full of plants that are used for different color dyes.

Every time I pick this book up, I find something new I want to try or build. I love it! My only complaint would be the lack of information on gardening in arid climates and the black & white illustrations. I don't mind black & white for the most part, but it would be nice to see the color of plants, flowers, and insects.

Today's Harvest: LATE CARROTS

LOOK! A Carrot! :)

I planted this carrot in February. It is the smallest I have ever seen. I'm hoping that they will get a little bigger before the hot weather really gets going. Apparently, root veggies like carrots and radishes are cool weather crops that really hate the heat. I will plant them again in October and see how they grow. By the way, my husband and I shared this little carrot! Hahaha!

Look for a monthly planting guide for the desert coming soon! I am attempting to merge planting guides from local nurseries and will publish a seed planting guide for each month.

Garden Visitors

There are many little visitors to my little garden. I have caterpillars, worms, flies, aphids, grasshoppers, butterflies, pigeons, morning doves, bees.......the list goes on.

My favorite visitor is this tiny little Anna's Hummingbird that lives in the neighborhood. Almost on a daily basis, it teases my dogs by swooping low near their heads making this LOUD chirp-buzz-alarm sound. The routine lasts for 15 minutes sometimes and the dogs go wild. My husband and I are very entertained, of course.

This morning it landed near my yard and I was able to take a couple pictures! It has this beautiful magenta color on its neck, but you can't really see it in these pictures.

(Yes, that is barbed wire. Gotta love urban living!)

I have also had a pesky desert bird called a Cactus Wren visiting the garden. He is very brave and sits on the wall while I work. I didn't take this picture, but here is what it looks like.

(This photo is from this website. If you are interested in desert animals, it serves as a nice field guide for common species.)