Pickled Me Some Veggies!

So, I wanted to try my hand at some pickled vegetables.  I'm not much into canning frankly because it's work!  But, I happened onto some recipes, some time back, showing how to prepare pickles for the refrigerator.  They don't keep as long supposedly because they're not traditionally "canned", but they do keep for months and that is long enough for me considering how quickly they can be done.

So, the stars aligned as I gathered a bunch of peppers I didn't want to waste.  More of my mind opened to this new-fangled fridge pickling and I wondered if I could pickle me some peppers as Pepperoncini peppers are done.  I really enjoy these peppers and although I didn't have that specific pepper, I figured the ones I do have should do nicely, right?  I'm going to go for it.  I'm not wasting my fruits because I simply can't eat them.  I'll pickle them suckers!  And, while I'm pickling, I'm going to try a couple recipes and other vegetables too.

For a bread & butter recipe, I picked green San Marzano Redorta tomatoes, Texas Legend onion, Red Ace Beets, and squash from my breeding.  For the dill recipe, I pickled Mariachi & Flaming Flare peppers.  I have never done this before so follow this turkey at your own risk!  I'll reveal the taste after a week or so.  Here's the video.  Had lots of fun doing it all.

Beets & Carrots Grown Hydroponically

I've just completed two more harvests on beets and carrots.  They are really fun to grow and do well in hydroponics.  At least in my hydroponic containers!  I absolutely love harvesting veggies.  It is quite literally the fruit of my labors!  I hope you enjoy the two videos here.

Post Vacation Garden Update

Hey everyone!  Well, was gone to San Antonio for 2 weeks as you know from my previous entries.  Had a bit of heartbreak with the greenhouse, but I hope to recover a bunch from it.  We will see.  Hey, it's still May so plenty of gardening to do.  Video one below shows the state of the greenhouse.  You should know I'm diligently cleaning it up and re-booting.  I'm feeling better about it all.  The second video is the no-weed garden.  It did rather well actually so I'm pleased with that.  I'll do some updates as I go through this process.

Remember the Alamo!

Remember the Alamo & the other 4 too.  In this video, I count down the 5 San Antonio mission visits in the order we enjoyed them the most.  There are really only 5 total.  I sure appreciate history at times especially if it's not trumped up for tourism money.  That is the case with 4 of the 5 missions we saw.  How you see it depends on how you value things I guess.  They could be simply a perimeter of rocks piled on top of each other OR, as I choose to see it, a glimpse into the not-so-long ago life of those who came before us and their struggles.  I hope you enjoy the video and get a chance to see these treasures for yourself!  Remember the Alamo!

My Tomato Cross & How to Save Seed

This is my tomato cross folks! Mama (tomato/flower) was a Campari store-bought grow-out making Mama an F2. I crossed Mama with with a Hege German Pink, my favorite OP and the Daddy or pollen donor.

F2, for those that don't know means: I saved seed from a store-bought Campari tomato. Campari is a F1 or Hybrid from the stores. The next year, I grew out several plants and saved the seed from the one I liked the best. That made it an F2. F1s are more consistent. F2s are the least consistent. F3 is more consistent than F2. F4 much more than F3 and so on. At F8 (or so), the hybrid seed, saved from generations, is stable or consistent from then on.

Campari F2 x Hege German Pink
Mama Daddy

So, my F2 Campari isn't stable yet and I crossed it with a Hege German Daddy. Ok, so, the tomato you see will be an F1 again (of sorts). Lots of genes as the oirginal F2 mama had not stabilized yet. I've got a seed-saving video coming that shows me saving the seed of this cross. I will grow out many of those plants. Save the seed, F2, pick, grow out those seed, pick F3...

That's all there is to it. Clear as mud?

Ok, back to basics.  In this video, I  explain how I save seed.  The only difference is I used a clear cup for you guys.  It CANNOT be easier.  10 total minutes.  I get almost 100% germination every single time.  You have my word, this works folks!  Hey, you could make it harder if you want.

Devil's Backbone and Middleton's Brewery

We were told to see the Devil's Backbone by a friend and that was about it.  So, we started out looking for "something".  Turns out, it's a geological formation.  Not a biggie.  Snapped a shot or two and some vid.  We stopped at a quaint little Tavern and had a beer and some convo.  The barkeep recommended Middletons, and the day was still young, so off we went.  This little brewery was very cool.  Great beer, great 3-man group, and great convo with the local folks many of whom had their dogs with them!  One thing outside, is a small trailer who makes sliders.  We were told they were excellent, but didn't try them.  I think we'll go back before leaving!  Here's the video showing a little of our experience!

San Antonio River Walk

The river walk is something you do when you're in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.  It was a focus of our vacation along with the missions.  The video captures pretty much the entire trip, but it doesn't reveal how amazing it really is being there.  I'm not sure video does that anywhere does it?  At first, we took the boat ride.  Gina wanted to see the stretch of river walk on a leisurely ride to focus where we might want to walk.  It was a good idea for sure.  The boat ride was informative albeit touristy.  Really, after our travels, all the hot spots are touristy like this.  After the ride, we got out and walked it and had some lunch on the river.  Lunch is a touch pricey, especially alcohol, but it wasn't too bad.  Lots of activity even on a weekday.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Pepper Reviews

I'm currently at Canyon Lake near San Antonio, Texas.  Before we left, I had two peppers that were ready for a taste test.  Hey, I wanted something gardening to do while I was on vacation so I made the two videos you see below.  I selected the peppers because they were mildly spicy and because they were "All America Selections" winners.  I figure if you're going to try something new, why not try a taste-tested winner.  The two peppers I chose were the Mariachi pepper and the Flaming Flare pepper.  Of the two, I feel like I enjoyed the Mariachi pepper a little better.  Now, I still have to wait for them to fully ripen to red and try them again before I seal the deal on that.  I do love me some peppers, mild peppers mostly.  I planted a mild Jalapeno and a Cayenne as well along with bell peppers.  The Cayenne is to make pepper flakes for seasoning things.  The others are more for fresh, grilled, or otherwise cooked eating.  I sure hope you enjoy the vids.

Pruning Grapes

Always wanted my own fruits growing on my property and I've striven to get that done on the place.  I've planted fruit trees, strawberries in the greenhouse, blueberry bushes, blackberry/raspberry vines, and grapes.  I planted two grape vines about 10 years ago next to the shed.  They were never pruned.  I cut them way back a few times.  The bottom line is I didn't understand how to prune them nor did I care much for it...at first.  Now, I'm learning more and more about the "fruits" of my labor.  Now, it's time to get grapes under control.  I've got the time and I'm optimistic.  I read up on it and watched a bunch of videos too.  How stinkin' hard can it be?  :O)  I created this video beginning the grape journey to getting a crop of properly grown grapes.  Please take a look at the video and tell me what you think!
Brent

Container Cabbage

I made another video in the "1 Minute Harvest" series.  This one focuses on taking 1 head of 4 from a container that is plugged into my greenhouse growing platforms.  Since making this video, we have eaten the cabbage and we ate it just as the recipe shows in the video.  Simple and fantastic tasting.  Guess where we ate it?  Canyon Lake.  The lake is very scenic and located near San Antonio Texas.  We grabbed some of the veggies before we headed out.  So, some things I've learned about cabbage.  This one is fairly good size for having 4 cabbages in a 1 square foot area.  They actually spilled out past that as you can see in the video.  Still, I'd like to see full potential and a little bigger, more robust cabbage so I have a plan to get them their spacing and it involves a modification to the platforms.  More to come on that, but enjoy this video and please let me know what you think and share your ideas and thoughts as well.
Brent