Ann's Air Gardens

Yummy Tomatoes and a Brave Dove

These tomatoes overwintered from seeds I sprouted in the Spring of 2020, and the cayenne pepper plant was $1.49 at the 99 Cents Only Store.   Economical eats, but a lot of work keeping them alive in the hot desert sun.  

 It is said to be fortuitous when mourning doves nest near you.  This one is at eye level and just inches away from my beefstake tomatoes. She takes the night shift and stays until the light of day, but then her husband comes to sit on the eggs during the hottest hours of sun.  He is bigger than her, with a longer beak, and although the markings are similar hers are more gray and his are a rosy pink.  He sits unblinking when I go by with my watering can, but she is more expressive.  They don't seem to mind at all when I rush past them.  It is almost as if they know I am a friend and am just there to bring them a bowl of fresh water and to tend the plants.

Xxx

Chicory

This is Cichorium intybus, aka Common Chicory.  I have grown it before and enjoyed eating the leaves and flowers.

The roots are nutritious as well, but I haven't eaten them nor taken root cuttings yet.

Here is a close up of the bitter, but tasty leaves, which can be substituted for dandelion greens. 

Aside from this plant's amazing nutritional profile, it is a pretty thing with delightful flowers that I particularly enjoy eating as a garnish over my breakfast tilapia. 

 

   

Please note that although chicory leaves can be harvested at any time, the flowers are only open in the morning.  They also change color going from their usual brilliant blue to almost white due to factors I haven't quite figured out.

 

They do bolt in extreme heat. When the plant is flowering, the leaves, while still edible are noticeably more bitter.  It is said that blanching sweetens them, but I have yet to try that.

See also:  Sugar Loaf, Radicchio, and Endive.

To view my Chicory Omelette please visit Ann's Air Gardens

 

This and That

These microgreens are red and green Daikon Radish from Backyard Vitality. They are expensive, but I like their cedar boxes with stainless steel trays.

 

Here they are looking good, but this week's heat wave got them. I probably should have put the trays in the refrigerator.

My outdoor air radishes went limp when the temperature reached 110°F, but they were OK in the morning.

 

It won't get much cooler all this week, so I picked some of these for soup. 

Versatile Shiso

I am nuts about Shiso, but only recently started making tea from the leaves.  This happened as a result of a fortuitous experiment with a less than perfect mango.  I blended it with green Shiso leaves, ice, milk, and a wee bit of maple syrup.   It tasted really good and I was ready to make another one.

But first I got online to see if anyone else had tried anything like that, and was amazed at the enthusiasm with which quite a few bloggers described their experiences with Shiso tea.  

The only Shiso tea I have made so far was from fresh leaves of what the seed catalogs call Britton Shiso, also known as "tia to" (or beefsteak plant?) and it was instant love.  It turned out to be the only kind of tea I have ever made or tasted that I like all by itself, without sweeteners of any kind.  This is the variety that has leaves that are green on top and purple on the bottom.  I can hardly wait to try the red Shiso tea and was delighted to see Lowe's advertise red perilla on their app, but there is some question as to whether what they are selling is correctly named, and I haven't found it in the local stores yet.   What folks in the Midwestern USA called beefsteak plant was Coleus and decidedly not edible.  

Perilla frutescens seeds I bought to sprout myself gave mixed results.  First off, the seeds for the red variety did not sprout in my trial, not even one of them, and second, although the green seedlings sprouted and grew beautifully, I didn't think they tasted quite as good as the ones from Bonnie Plants at Lowe's.  My plants were impressive, however.  I took cuttings from one of my seedlings and grew a small plant to give to a friend.  After being away for a few months I came back and she showed me that plant growing in her garden and it was taller that she was!

WARNING:  Shiso is one of the many plants about which there is conflicting, incorrect, and misleading information online, particularly as to its suitability for use as food.  Take care not to mistake culinary Shiso/Perilla with similar plants that are toxic, hallucinatory, or simply unpalatable.  Be careful when buying live plants and/or seeds.  Coleus and perilla can be barely distinguishable, but are not the same.  Coleus may or may not be toxic to humans.  
 

Aero Radishes, RFLOL

This is a 12" baby radish pod that I picked to eat with dinner:

 

Comical, but I am growing more "air" plants outside of my AeroGarden planters than in them.  One of the most fascinating ones is Rauphonus cordatus or Red Rattail Radish, which I have in dirt.  But this wonder plant, also known as aerial radish, is not a root vegetable.  The pods are edible.  

Due to availability issues I got a rather late start on these last summer, but they are amazing, and still bearing edible pods after surviving the winter in my carport. Apparently, they are supposed to be staked, but I let mine hang down over the edge of an elevated planter.

This is one of my favorite vegetables, because it is easy to grow from seed, interesting, and attractive in its own way, with nutritionally dense leaves and pods.

I like them raw when they are between stylus and pencil thin and long, or cooked when they are short and fat.  I am getting both kinds on each of my 3 plants.  This summer I will plant a lot more and also buy seeds for the Munchen Bier (Raphanus sativus), which should taste good with my kombucha.  Munchen Bier is interesting because it produces edible fruit at both ends.  I don't know if the leaves are as delicious as the cordatus, not having researched this, but suspect that the tubers, like Daikon Radish, are also rich in inulin. 

 

I saved a few pods for seeds, and opened one of them too early, but after waiting a few more months (!) I tried again and was rewarded with these nice little sprouts which I will plant today. 

Reasons I like to sprout this sort of seed in vials of water include:

1)  It is a photo op and I like to watch the roots grow. 

2).  It gives me a window of time within which I can decide how and where to plant them (dirt, potting soil, hydro, some of each?) 

3)  They stay ahead of the fungus gnats.

Winter Flowering Edible Chrysanthemum

Winter Eats!

Since this is the first time I have tried to overwinter one of these edible mums, I left the first bud on until it flowered....just long enough to take a picture.

Then I cut all the soon to flower stems off and brought them into the house to see if they will root in a glass of water.  Although the rule in rooting is to remove the flowers which sap strength needed to go into roots, in this case I will see if a few more buds open for a bouquet.

This was a tiny edible chrysanthemum plant cowering under the red okra in the big pot round back all summer, but come December when I cut the okra, the mum took off.  To prevent it from bolting I did the cut and come again bit, putting top shoots in my soup for several months until I missed a bud and now it is February and it has this flower.

Next year I should plan to have a whole hedge of these as both greens and flowers are tasty and nutritious.

The dead stalks behind this plant are from now defunct okra and jute.

Plans for next year include continually cutting the flowers off the just to prevent pod formation and allow branching out.  

I very much like the Egyptian Spinach leaves, especially as microgreens, but have to keep them away from the cabbage plants or they may be attacked by tiny (hard to find until it is too late) cabbage worms.

Last summer I thought the little white butterflies flitting about my bok choy and other cabbage kin were cute so I left them alone, but now I know better.  Apparently just a couple of them can lay hundreds of eggs! 

As for the brown moths that produce the giant tomato worms, there too, forewarned is forearmed.  I finally bought huge tweezers from an aquarium supply store and use them to pull the tomato worms off my tomatoes.  Those worms seemed to like the Genovese tomato vines best.

I have not yet to find an insect pest associated with the edible mums. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stems in this bouquet may or may not root, except for the nasturtium, which is just for show. 

 

 

 

 

My chrysanthemum grow log is here. 

 

Calabash Soup

 

Here is something I have never seen in a supermarket. The squash in this soup,  a gourd really, is cucuzza.  I didn't know that the seeds I bought on Etsy called Serpente di Sicilia needed to be scarified and soaked in warm water to sprout.   So when they had not sprouted in my vial after a month, I threw the seeds into a box of potting mix.  Just one plant came up as a volunteer alongside okra in August, but I wasn't sure what it was until it flowered in September.

I picked it when it was just starting to lose its fuzz and as 18" long with a diameter of 3" at the fat end, tapering off toward the stem.

I put a handful of garden greens in my soup in addition to the cucuzza, including its own leaves, scallion tops, and edible chrysanthemum leaves and buds.

 

 

The mums are hiding behind my melon.

 

 

Purple Petunia Flanked by Jute Cuttings

Until now I had been planting full sized petunias in my AeroGardens in the winter, but this spring my new planter came with petunia pods that feature a miniature variety.

The leaves in the foreground are Jute (aka Egyptian Spinach) which may be better known for making rope than for cooking.  It is, however, a delicious, nutritious and attractive plant that is easy to grow, especially in hot dry areas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These leaves, removed from the stem cuttings now ready to root, will go in the soup.

These are the parent plants, about one foot tall .

 

 

 

 

These are stem cuttings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are healthy roots growing in a vial of water.

Jute is Just Amazing

Jute may be a nutrient-packed superfood, but it is also a fun plant to grow, especially in the desert in summer.  As microgreens, the leaves are good-tasting and  tender, but unlike most other microgreens, once the seedling are established it is possible to clone new plants by rooting cuttings in water in less than 5 days. 

The jute I am growing now is Corchorus olitorius.  I bought the seed from an Etsy seller called PanAsiaHeirloom.  It was one of the smartest purchases I have ever made. 

One thing that makes jute a little different is that if you plant just one seed and let it grow without interference it will grow straight up. In my photo below, one very root-bound jute plant is about a foot tall.  I cut off about 4" from the top and stripped the unnecessary leaves off (and ate them!) to prepare the stem for rooting.  This caused the lower part of the plant to bush out.   

 

 

 

 

 

I root a lot of different kinds of plants indoors in water and have developed a system for helping them make a transition from water indoors to outdoor planters with potting mix. I root the cuttings in narrow glass vials under grow lights.  When the roots are healthy and big enough to plant I put them in contraptions that I call my quads.  I have water quads and dirt quads.  They are 4-part nested plastic cups. The inner cup has holes drilled in the bottom to ensure good drainage.  The next cup holds the liquid. The third cup has a label with each plant's history, and the outer cup is a mason jar which serves as a base to keep the plant from tipping over. 

For the dirt quads I put a coffee filter inside the pre-drilled cup before adding potting mix.  This helps it drain cleaner and also makes it easier to remove the plant when it is ready to go into a bigger pot outside. 

Some plant stay in the quads forever.  My first quad contained a spaghetti squash plant that bloomed and bore fruit indoors right in the 12 oz quad.  Of course, I did have to hand-pollenate it. 

 

 

 

Window Sill Soup

 

The best possible Christmas Eve treat this year was learning how to ake this soup.

 

I love egg drop soup, but even at nice Chinese restaurants I have found it iffy, whether or not the soup is up to my standards, and even if it is excellent there is usually not enough of it.  The few times I have tried to make it at home in the past, although it has been edible, were fails.

When I took a deep breath and try it again today, I scored a big win.  it was so good in fact that I ate the whole pot.

What was different?  For one thing my main ingredient was pea shoots from my indoor microgarden.   So easy!  I just threw a handful of sprouting peas in the E-Z Sprouter and rinsed them for a few days until they outgrew the Sprouter, then pushed the roots into a mound of potting soil in a cut open milk jug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are cut and come again, so here you see them after their "haircut."

As you can see there are plenty left and will be more tomorrow.

My nice sister-in-law told me about an Android app called RecetteTek, so I put my recipe for this stellar soup on there, but not sure yet how to share it.

I want to spread the word about pea shoots because they are one of the most prolific microgreens as well as being delicious, nutritious, and versatile.  I also love that they are portable!