Onions and herbs. A tasty addition to any meal.

We have onions! This is the first time I have planted and harvested onions. They took a really long time to grow but were worth the wait.

skinny (1/8 inch diameter) onions - Sept 2012

March 30 - big plump (2 inch diameter) onions

I harvested over two dozen yellow onions and a dozen red onions. Once cleaned, the onions will be sliced, diced, and cooked to perfection. They will taste good in stirfry, soups, omelets, casseroles, salads, and many other dishes.

Sage is overflowing in the garden bed

The MVG herbs are blooming in the cool sunny spring weather. The smell of sage, rosemary, and oregano has filled the air and will soon season our veggies with yummy goodness.

Oregano

Rosemary

Thyme

Last spring, I added a thyme plant to the herb garden. The little plant survived the cold winter weather and is starting to spread its long slender limbs. I am hoping the plant will be ready to harvest before the end of summer. I cannot wait to make and taste Summer Thyme Bread, Baked Mushrooms with Thyme and White Wine, and Lemon Thyme Cookies. Wish me luck!

Goodbye winter crops. Hello compost.

Morrison Victory Garden - bare and in transition

Today was warm and sunny. I took full advantage of the 70 degree weather and began uprooting the winter crops and covering the garden in compost. Spring is coming soon and the MVG needs to be in prime condition for the plants and seeds.

brussel sprouts are ready for a steam bath

I harvested the last head of cabbage, an extra large cauliflower, a basket full of brussel sprouts, 10 pok choi, a handful of radish, and large pile of mustard greens.

final winter harvest

onions are slow but growing

The only items left in the MVG are onions, kale, and bitter melon vines. The onions will be ready in a few months and the kale is still growing well in both cold and warm weather. I plan to uproot all onions and kale once the summer crops are ready to plant. I am keeping the bitter melon vines up just in case there are any Mantodea egg sacks attached to the vines. I will keep the brown vines up until late April. I hope this gives any nymphs time to hatch, dry out, and feed.

largest cauliflower of the season (9" diameter)

I spread our homemade compost across the entire row crop area. We are expecting showers and rain in the next few weeks. I plan to mix in the compost with the rototiller once the rain has subsided.

adding homemade compost

RIC - I chopped up all uprooted vegetables and have placed them into the compost bins. Until next year winter veggies, you have made the MVG lush with color all winter long.

Rest In Compost winter greens

Winter harvest has begun!

Red acre cabbage says, "Happy New Year!"

Gold mark cabbage head

The holidays have come and gone but the victory garden is still here. December brought lots of cold rain which helped many plants grown to maturity. I harvested all of the red acre and gold mark cabbage except one. My mom cannot wait to stirfry the cabbage and make soup with the large orbs.

Dinosaur kale

Russian kale

The dinosaur and Russian kale are looking good. They will continue to grow as fast as we can cut and eat the long spiky green leaves.

Minowase radish

The mustard greens are loving the cold weather. The leaves are large and vibrant with red and green veins. The minowase radish are growing faster than I expected. Over half of the crop will be picked within the week and used in soups and salads.

Mustard greens

I am really excited to see brussel sprouts growing in the garden this year. The sprouts need more time to grow. I expect they will be ready sometime in late January or early February.

brussel sprouts

Pok choi is looking good!

The broccoli is slowly peaking out from behind the large green leaves. I am not a fan of the broccoli arcadia variety so I decided to try out a new variety. I think the broccoli romanesco variety adds an intriguing visual appeal to the garden and any dish. I just hope the taste is different when compared to broccoli arcadia.

Broccoli romanesco

Rest in compost: We had our first frost on December 21st. The frost killed off the bitter melon, eggplants, and pepper plants. I have pull up the plants and will chop and place them in the compost within the week.

November starts with a mound of greens

The victory garden is still enjoying the cool fall rain and warm rays of sunshine. The frost has not hit yet. This means the bitter melon is loving the sun and grown into a large curtain of green leaves. We are harvesting as much bitter melon as possible. We hope that the sun will stick around so that the thumb-sized fruit can mature into bitterlicious lumpy green 6-inch or longer fruit. Once the frost hits, the entire plant will wilt and die within a week.

a green curtain of bitter melon leaves

The greens are doing very well. Our recent harvest produced a mound of southern giant and giant red mustard greens with a small bouquet of Russian and dinosaur kale on the side. The greens will be put to good use. My mother loves to stir-fry the greens with pork and steam a small batch to eat as a side dish. I personally like to stir-fry the greens with chili oil, garlic, mushrooms, eggplant, and any other veggies from the garden.

variety of eggplant and peppers

The warm fall weather has kept the eggplants producing purple and white fruit in all shapes and sizes. The pepper plants are still pushing out green bell peppers, jalapenos, and habaneros which add a certain zing to any stir-fry or soup dish. I hope to harvest a few more eggplants and peppers before retiring the plants to the compost piles.

habanero pepper... spicy goodness

While working in the garden, I was greeted by a mantodeas elder. The mantodeas are plentiful and I have seen over twenty mantodeas when peaking behind the bitter melon curtain. The biggest mantodeas are living in the herb garden. They are roughly 4-5 inches in size. I still remember when they were the size of my pinky finger nail. They must be keeping the herb garden and bitter melon bug free.

However, we still have a few causalities from time to time. We laid the swiss chard to rest in the compost last week. We had a terrible aphid infestation that would not go away. I saw many mantodeas elders fighting the good fight but the chard was too weak to survive. I have taken additional precaution and will be using an organic bug killer (Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew) to help keep the evil invaders away during the colder winter months. Once the frost hits, most of the mantodeas warriors will retreat, lay egg sacs, and die. Without the warriors to protect the garden many of the greens, cabbage, and brussel sprouts will not survive the winter. Rest in compost sweet and delicious swiss chard. You will be missed in our winter soups and stir-frys.

We see cauliflower!

Warming up to fall...

We started off the fall season with a mini heatwave. We saw an entire week of 75+ degree weather. Most of the plants loved the sun.

My family and I pick the eggplants, joi choy, and Russian kale daily. I like to steam the kale and choi too. They are a great combo and are excellent as a hot steamy side dish to any meal.

joi choi (4 bunches)

The warm weather helped one pepper plant push out a handful of large green peppers. These will be great in soups, stir-frys, or roasted on the grill.

bouquet of kale, mustard greens, and swiss chard

Most of the eggplants have been frozen for use during the winter months.  I love eggplant in soups.  It adds a creamy texture to the soup broth.  Yum!

The sugar snaps sprouts are climbing to the sky.  These plants are very easy to grow and grow extremely fast.  Check out the before and after shots below. Sugar Snaps are located in the back against the trellis.  You can also see the quick growth of the six gold mark cabbage and the two red cabbage.

before - September 11, 2012

current - October 11, 2012

RIC - Rest in Compost
A group of renegade squirrels dug up and dispersed the Napa cabbage and spinach seedlings last week.  I tried to salvage as many of the seedlings as possible. However, the seedlings shriveled up and died. The seedlings were then laid to rest in our compost.  I will replant the spinach and will replace the cabbage with radishes, carrots, and beets.

2012 MVG Fall Crops

MVG transitioning into fall

The fall season is here! Last year, I planted mustard greens and radish when the weather turned cold.  This season I decided to plant mustard greens, radish, and much much more.

The following has been planted in the Morrison Victory Garden. Items in green are being grown by seed.

1. Russian kale
2. Dinosaur kale
3. Winterbor kale
4. Snowball cauliflower
5. Broccoli romanesco
6. CA Stockton red onions
7. Yellow Spanish onions
8. Red acre cabbage
9. Gold mark cabbage
10. Jade cross brussel sprouts
11. Swiss chard
12. Sugar snaps
13. Spinach
14. Napa cabbage
15. Minowase Radish
16. Giant red mustard greens
17. Southern giant mustard greens
18. Joi choi
19. Red choi
20. variety of lettuce

I was disappointed in how many of my spring seedlings did not grow up to be big and strong.  I decided to visit my local nursery to find most of my fall vegetable plants.  There are a few seeds that I knew would do well in the garden and I sprinkled them in with the nursery bought plants. This is the biggest and largest variety of fall crops the victory garden has ever seen. I hope to be eating lots of greens and steamed veggies in time to celebrate Thanksgiving.

winterbor kale with lettuce

The eggplants and bitter melon are the only summer crop still producing delicious veggies.  This summer has produced a great deal of bitter melon.  In previous years, my family was lucky if we grew a dozen bitter melon.  Now, we have three gallon bags of frozen bitter melon to consume over the winter season.  This is not counting the many that were eaten during the summer.  My mother loves to stuff the bitter melon with meat and make soup.  I am sure my house will smell of boiling bitter melon and pork this holiday season.

jade cross brussel sprout

I have included a final count of our frozen and canned produce.  This season, I did more canning than freezing. Our 2012 harvest is smaller in size, when compared to our 2011 season, but we made up for it with variety.

2012 MVG Summer Stock
Frozen
3 - gallon bag bitter melon
5 - quart bag bean mix (burgundy, scarlet emperor, and blue lake)
5 - quart bag corn kernels
2 - quart bag strawberries
3 - quart bag plums

Canned
4 - quart salsa
15 - quart garlic pepper veggies
10 - quart bread and butter veggies
4 - pint bread and butter veggies
8 - quart plums (heavy & light syrup)
2 - pint plums (heavy & light syrup)
3 - quart pickled garden veggies
4 - quart dill veggies
2 - pint dill veggies

hot pepper plants are back in pots

Victory Garden Spotting!
The Mantodea warriors are still fighting the good fight.  I have recently spotted three full grown warriors while watering the garden.

Can you find him in the oregano? He is looking at you.

The warm fall weather and newly planted crops have drawn the adult mantodeas out of hiding.  Look at how much they have grown.  Remember how small the nymph Mantodeas were?

Mantodeas are very friendly

Eggplants and tomatoes are finally here!

Variety of eggplant

The eggplant harvest is upon us.  So far I have used the eggplant in breakfast dishes such as scrabbled eggs and omelets. I like to shred the eggplant and sprinkle it on the eggs like shredded cheese.  Most likely, I will use the remaining eggplant when BBQing or making soup and stir-frys.

garlic pepper veggies

Canning is still in full swing.  I have recently canned 10 quarts of garlic pepper veggies. I followed a canning recipe for dill pickles but made the following changes:

• Instead of dill, I use 3-5 cloves of garlic and 5-10 hot peppers.  I prefer to use Thai Dragon Chili Peppers but you can use any amount or type of pepper.  Just make sure you can handle the heat.
• I use a variety of veggies in place of only using cucumbers. This season I used cubed or sliced cucumbers, squash, and zucchini.

Our Juliet turned out to be a grape.

We also have ripe and juicy tomatoes peaking out from behind the long green tomato vines.  We have a variety of Romano, Early Girl, Grape, and Big Mama tomatoes to cook and eat.  I thought I had lost all of my Romano seedlings in the spring but to my surprise one plant survived.  Additionally, what was thought to be Juliet tomato seeds were actually grape tomato seeds.  The big difference between Juliet and Grape tomatoes is the way the fruit hangs from the plant.  Juliet tomatoes grow all over and are picked one at a time.  Grape tomatoes hang in a group, like the purple and green grapes you buy at the store.  I began to notice the clusters of tomatoes after a few harvests. They taste like small tomatoes so we are not bummed that the seeds produced a different type of tomato.  Actually, this is my first time growing yellow tomatoes... YEAH!

I did not expect much from the tomato plants because of the cool temperatures in June and July. We have harvested 20 tomatoes so far and will have at least 60 more to harvest.  But we need more heat and fall is upon us. We still have a few gallons of frozen tomatoes to cook from our 2011 season.  The frozen tomatoes should hold us over for winter but I will definitely be planting more tomatoes next spring.

The victory garden is winding down.  The yellow squash, all of the beans, melons, and zucchini have been pulled.  The vines, roots, and leaves will be chopped up and composted for next season.  The two large melons that were harvested a few weeks ago were sweet, juicy, and filled with flavor.  I will also be planting more melon next spring.

cubed Crenshaw melon

As the seasons change so does the victory garden.  Over the past month, I have begun to uproot the summer crop and prepare the soil for our fall and winter seasons. My family and I have our sights set on cabbage, kale, onions, brussel sprouts and a whole-lotta greens this upcoming season.  Stay tune for this will be the first time the Victory Garden stays open for growth during the fall and winter seasons. Keep your roots crossed!