OT: Gardening ** Was: Aromatic Bread

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

 

*Alex Windancer* windancr wrote:

 

Congratulations on the garden and preserving the bounty.

>

 

Thanks much .. we enjoy it and its something I have wanted to do for 20

years or so .. grew up like that but got away from it during the rat race.

;-)

 

 

> I make bread using rosemary, oregano, garlic (be careful, it

> can kill the yeast) and call it spaghetti bread. Use it with

> spaghetti for dinner.

>

 

Sounds great .. we have tried garlic bread and DID have that problem. ;-)

 

Oregano bread sounds interesting .. we love Oregano and have made a lot of

Tomato-Basil and Tomato-Oregano Sauce .. plus Tanya has made Tomato Catchup

that is much finer than the store bought stuff. Lavender-Rosemary bread is

one we're gonna try soon .. there are lots of recipes out on that. Our

Lavender and Rosemary plants are doing great .. can't even kill them if we

don't give'em water. ;-)

 

 

> Usual bread has raisins in it. Maybe with a handful of oatmeal,

> some grated pecans or walnuts, and sometimes a handful

> of MandM's. also throw in a handful of cornmeal sometimes.

> I use a bread maker.

>

 

Been considering getting a Bread Machine .. I'm sure it would be a lot

easier. We bought everything but that and an Apple Peeler .. when we

wanted an Apple Peeler nobody here had them because it was mid season for

Apples. ;-) One of our best investments was a hand crank Tomato Mill ..

it spits out seeds and skins on one side and juice and pulp from the front

... saves a lotta hours of work and the prices run from like $35 to $50

depending on how fancy they are.

 

 

> How big was your garden?

>

 

The vegetable garden is a tad short of 6/10ths acre .. got some herbs in

there to draw friendlies but most of the herbs are in a separate raised rock

garden .. then the Fruit orchard covers maybe a half acre or so.

Blackberry, Blueberry and Grapes we planted as border plants on the side

property line. I use a rear tine tiller .. them that don't want to till

can do as they please but I'll get more food per square meter than they

will. I do use old newspaper and cardboard and dried grass for walkways

between rows AFTER the plants are too large to allow tilling .. but hand

culling grass and such is not something I am into.

 

Our compost pile is so large now that I'm gonna have to rent a Bobcat to

haul it to the garden come Spring .. there's at least 5 tons of good stuff

in that pile .. too much to load via shovel then unload from a 10 cubic foot

wagon .. we did that with 10 tons of top soil to level some ground after I

took out trees that were the wrong kinds and in the wrong places then ground

out the stumps .. we'll never do that again. ;-)

 

There are purists in the Organic gardening field just as there are in the

all natural cosmetics field .. in my opinion, those who are adamant about No

Till gardening and those who avoid synthetic preservatives in cosmetics

might feel good about what they are doing but they don't reap the full

benefits of their labor. Watch that one draw fire. ;-)

 

 

> This year I finally got some rosemary plants to grow.

> Never was able to before.

>

 

High and dry ground is needed for Rosemary .. well drained .. too much water

is worse than not enough.

 

 

> Planting garlic this next month and am happy to be living

> where I can actually go outside and garden. Growing my

> own herbs is my goal.

>

 

Good for you and wishing you luck I am. Overall our first large garden did

far better than we had hoped but with any venture there is gonna be some

failures .. I consider ours this year to be Spinach, Garlic and Radishes.

I planted Spinach and Radishes too late and the sun and heat got to the

Spinach .. it shriveled and went to seed .. the Radishes produced for

maybe 2 weeks then they went to seed. I have more Spinach and Radishes in

the ground now as a Fall crop and they are doing well. On these crops .. I

recommend you not pay attention to the safe days regarding frost .. plant

some early and hope for the best .. worst case is you'll lose a half package

of seed.

 

On Garlic .. we bought commercial Organic and 75% of it didn't come up ..

come November we will plant again from bulbs we will get from a neighbor who

has raised his own for many years. Garlic is a very expensive herb .. good

it is to harvest your own and it will keep a long time. Our Roka (Aragula)

did well but it went to seed in late August and now its sprouting up all

over the place .. you gotta plant it thick and then cull it whole plant at a

time .. that which is left, pick the young leaves off even if you don't

need to eat it .. that will slow down the seeding.

 

Keep this in mind .. plants want to procreate and its hard to stop them from

doing this. An example is Okra .. during the summer we got a fair amount

and it keeps growing upward on the plant. But picking Okra in summer is

like picking Cucumbers in summer .. they are merely seeds and they not ripe

yet and the plant knows they couldn't sprout in that weather .. come cooler

weather the Cucumber tries to mature and we get fewer to eat .. and the Okra

starts to produce again from the lower parts of the plant . . it knows that

it has to make its babies cause the weather is gonna get bad after a

while. All the time we've been stealing those babies so its making up for

that loss. If we leave it alone it'll make big pods and they will burst

and it will make babies .. but if we want to keep eating it then we need to

whip the crap out of it cause most of those babies that are growing toward

the bottom of the plant are being shaded by large leaves .. gotta knock a

good many of those leaves off so it will come on faster and we have more

babies to steal. ;-)

 

Our Marjoram, Sage, Oregano and Basil has grown large and is still getting

bigger each week. All of them are trying to make babies now. Basil, like

Aragula .. needs to be picked often and you'll find that the flavor is less

aromatic after it seeds.

 

 

> I want a medicinal garden patch. Rosemary, oregano, garlic,

> onions, chamoile, mints, lemon balm.

> Any recommendations?

>

 

A few .. spread some of the Garlic and Onions .. also some Chives .. out

amongst the vegetables .. they repel ants, aphids, beetles and other bad

guys. Avoid putting Garlic or Fennel around Peas, Beans, Strawberries or

any Cole crop .. like Cabbage, Collards, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, etc.,

cause they don't like Garlic .. same goes for Rosemary around Potatoes and

Mint around Parsley .. plants communicate their likes and dislikes and when

one is not happy it will survive but under perform. If we disregard and

plant things that don't like each other in the same area, one of them is

gonna get hurt .. the other one will survive but not do as well as if it

didn't have to do battle.

 

You want Green Onions .. plant them deep .. want Table Onions .. scratch the

soil and avoid planting deep.

 

German Chamomile does OK in full sun or partial shade .. I have some in both

and that in partial shade did better.

 

Lemon Balm is a very prolific plant .. hard to kill it when it decides to

take over an area. Most all herbs handle cold weather well so you can

plant them in very early Spring .. and Lemon Balm you can plant in the

Fall. I'll say again that its better to plant too early than it is too

late .. losing a bit of seed is better than losing the plants.

 

I on line to Science Daily and they have lots of articles on plant

research .. it might blow some folks minds to learn what all plants are

capable of .. I'll just say that the adaptive abilities of humans and most

four legged and such haven't yet caught up on the evolutionary scale with

plants. Also, the defense mechanisms of warm blooded critters aren't as

developed as those of plants .. green things can be downright evil .. they

are very territorial and non compromising .. no morals or motherly instincts

to be concerned with. As for those folks who claim their EO are extracted

from aromatic plants that were harvested with Tender Loving Care by Vestal

Virgins in Long Flowing Robes .. they are either unknowing or they are using

BS marketing or they don't have an oil stash larger than a few ounces

because its just not done that way in the real world. We can romanticize

plants if it makes us feel good but when we learn how smart and adaptive

they are we will hold them in awe and realize that its not about romanticism

... its about survival of the fittest.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>