Chive Blossom Infused Vinegar

It has been ages since I blogged.  Still gardening, just not blogging.  You know the story.  But I had to break my silence for this discover.  I saw somewhere (and I am sure I pinned it on pinterest) chive blossom vinegar.  Yes, yes, yes.
I have two chive clusters growing this year.  What happens is that my chives all start flowering, I dead head the flowers when they are dry and just bury them back in the soil.  So, as you can imagine, my chive clusters keep getting bigger.  Sometimes I remember to eat the flowers on salads and once I sprinkled the petals on some risotto (highly recommended and really impresses the guests). I really like eating the flowers, but I just forget about them.  It feels like this season the little purple flowers have been prolific.  Constant flowers.  I was thrilled to find this recipe for infused vinegar.

Vinegar recipe:
Snip Chive Flowers (just the good ones) and cover them with white distilled vinegar.  Let sit for 2-3 weeks.  Strain and filter.  Filtering is just super straining to get a clear vinegar.  Basically use a coffee filter.  Also, you can shake the jars from time to time if you feel the urge.

What I did:
This morning I snipped off approximately 6 chive blossoms.  I rinsed them to get rid of any inhabitants and set them on a towel to dry a bit.  Then I washed a canning jar and the lid.  Ready to go.

Because I was feeling particularly excited, I snipped of a largish onion blossom as well.  I had bought some purple bulbed green onions last spring from none other than Walmart.  They grew very nicely and I enjoyed the constant availability of fresh green onion.  I didn't eat them all and I now find myself with a dozen or so way too overgrown/massive green onion stalks.  Several stalks formed large white flowers.  I'm nothing but curious, so I have just been watching them grow.  I am hoping that they will go to seed and give me some volunteer onions for the fall season.   (I love volunteer plants.  I've got a volunteer lettuce and parsley plant growing right now from former plants that have since gone to seed and been removed).  But in my excitement for chive blossom vinegar, I thought why not have purple green onion blossom vinegar as well.  So I plucked off one of the large cream colored flower heads and dumped it in a second jam jar.

I filled both jars with vinegar.  After only a few hours the chive vinegar is turning pink and smells like onion.  Now to wait.

My plan is to continue to add chive flowers to the vinegar they become ripe, or perhaps start a second jar.  It isn't too early to start infusing stuff for the holidays.  I may try the next batch using white wine vinegar instead of distilled vinegar.  And who knows, I am feeling inspired to toss a few blossoms into my jug of refrigerator pickles.  YUM!

Ultra Dwarf Nectarine Harvest

I promised that I would tell you whatever happened with my nectarine.  Well, here it is. I got about 10 mini nectarines. They were DELICIOUS.  They were ready and falling off the dwarf tree about two weeks ago.  It was such a surprise how tasty the were.  I am so very pleased with this little guy.  I cannot wait to see what he will do after I prune him back in the fall.  I can already see little nodes developing on all the branches (actually, I am not sure at all what that means-- maybe I should do some research soon on when exactly and how I am supposed to prune this guy).  I wish this photo could really show off how small the nectarines really are.  The dimensions look funny. But that glass bowl they are sitting in is pretty tiny.  Not even really the size of a regular cereal bowl.  I'd estimate that the fruits were a bit larger than a golf ball.

Ultra Dwarf Nectarine

About a year ago Sandra and I went to Lowes browsing the veggie seedlings.  There was a sale on dwarf and full size trees.  I snagged this ultra dwarf nectarine for 5 dollars.  Seriously, 5 dollars.  I have no clue whether a nectarine will thrive in a pot in San Diego, but I guess we will all find out.  I potted it in a lightweight pot from Walmart (cost 20 bucks) and it did nothing.  It just chilled with its leaves until the fall when it dropped all its leaves and just looked like a few sticks-- a few sad sticks.  Then about a month ago I noticed it was growing some nubby things.  Well, those nubby things, it turns out are flower buds.  I snapped a picture this morning of the first flowers and you can even see the little leaves that are about to explode.
I cannot wait to see the whole tree full of these delicate pink flowers. I will just die if I open my curtains in the morning and see hummingbirds poking around the flowers.  Then I would just die again if it actually gives me some nectarines! I have pretty low expectations since I haven't ever seen a stone fruit tree anywhere in my neighborhood.  Time will tell.
Oh, and just to be extra adorable, I planted four June-bearing strawberries at the base of the tree.  It would be ridiculous to see big red strawberries living next to ripening nectarines.  Don't worry, if that happens I will definitely post some pictures.

Mini Pomegranate

The dwarf pomegranate is a-thrivin'.  Though I was not expecting any fruit on the little guy for another year, this dwarf tree/bush bore three mini fruits this season.  It really couldn't be cuter.  Here is a picture of the fruit that was cracked open on the branch today.  The seeds are hardly the red jewel color I'd expect from a pomegranate and they were extremely tart and tiny.  Maybe it is because that plant is still so young.  But, the flowers keep coming on this plant.  I would really encourage anyone living in So Cal to find one of these dwarf plants for their house/apartment.   It is so easy to care for; the flowers are pretty and attract hummingbirds.  AND, as a benefit, the pomegranate fruit is so beautiful and so perfect. I am considering ordering another one of these plants because I don't think one is nearly enough ;) 

PS.  I bought mine at Gurneys.com if you are curious, but I think this time around, I'd just ask my local nursery for suggestions on where to buy it locally.

Armenian Cucumbers

I am only sort of into cucumbers.  If you slather them with some kind of bad-for-you dip, or use them to flavor water, then I really enjoy them.  But if you just hand me a bit of cucumber, I’d rather not.  Trust me you, I want to love cucumbers because they are light and refreshing and make you stay skinny but, they just don’t quite do it for me plain.

So, it make sense that I am growing a giant Armenian cucumber plant, right?  Not really.  Sandra bought one of those six packs last winter from some nursery and gave me two of the plants.  Now, I rarely, if ever, reject a plant.  So, I stuffed the two plants in with my strawberries.  One of the plants met an early death, but the other, well, that is a whole other story.  It is mega!

What’s that?  You’ve never heard of an Armenian cucumber.  Well, me either.  I am still trying to figure out why Sandra bought this plant in the first place.  I mean, both of us live in little apartments and have very limited growing spaces.  Most cucumbers need to be trellised, and that, my dear reader, is just too much work.

Now, the Armenian cucumber is actually not really a cucumber.  It’s in the melon family and just tastes and sort of looks like a cucumber—a mega cucumber.  These babies can be 3 feet long!  According to my sources, if you have ever seen “Pickled Wild Cucumber” in a middle eastern store, you were looking at Armenian Cucumber.  Anyone had this delicacy?

They are thin skinned and don’t need to be peeled.  Just wash, slice, and enjoy.  My plant has so far yielded one major cucumber.  I think it was over a foot when I picked it.  I had to give half to my mom because no way was this girl going to eat over a foot of cucumber.

Pollination Troubles-

I am a tad concerned that I have only had one mature fruit.  There are loads and loads of flowers and the darn plant keeps getting bigger and bigger.  It has attached itself to several of my tomato plants and is growing down and over my fencing.  It doesn’t have to be trellised (if you trellis the plant, it will give you really straight fruits, if you let it go wild, the fruit will curve) but my plant is in such a place that it can cascade down several feet.  So, I’ve been trying to pollinate the plant by pulling off the male flowers and rubbing them into the female flowers.  Weird, I know.  Especially since there is a serious ant farm living in the planter with the strawberries and cucumber.  I figured with all these ants walking up and down the stalks, the flowers would surely be pollinated.  Not so much.  

Pest Problems-

Damn those spider mites.  They are loving the Armenian cucumber, and strangely, the ants are loving the spider mites.  Have you ever heard of bug-eating ants?  I have been trying to organically control the spider mite population by spraying them with jets of water.  It actually seems to be working. 

Overall, I’d say this is a very satisfying plant to grow.  It just gets so big, there is something new to look at every day.  So if you are into cucumbers and giant plants, this one is for you.  AND it seems to enjoy growing in a container. 

I’ll try to post a picture the next time I pick one of them. 

Name that Cacti!

Botanical names are incredibly difficult to remember-seriously, difficult to remember.   I took a trip over to the good ole public library this morning because it really isn't acceptable to spend so much money on books you can read for free. Though the library was rather disorienting and left me with a sour stomach (HURRY UP RECOVERY), I managed to find both the botany section and gardening section (they are in totally different aisles and many of the books were very similar).  I have been dying to know the names of all my little cacti guys so, I checked out one of the many picture books of succulents (seriously the books were scattered between the botany and gardening and they were just a load of pretty pictures with captions).  Despite the many pictures, the book I chose only identified two of my plants: Echeveria derenbergii and Pleiospilos nelii.  Remember what I said about botanical names.  I'll save the Echeveria for another post.  This one is all about the Pleiospilos Nelii-- lets call it the Ple-Nel for short.

Not a Living Stone At All

I have been referring to this plant under the common name of Living Stone.  That is just plain wrong, or so I've learned.   The common name is Split Rock; Living Stone is the common name for the Lithops variety of succulents.  The two look very similar and are actually in the same family.  The Ple-Nel is fully above ground with pale green leaves (and by leaves, I mean two bulbous chunks of cactus) that have little raised dark speckles.  It flowers in the spring (unlike the lithops which flowers in winter) and can have more than one flower, as my plant does (again unlike the lithops which only ever have a single flower per leave pair).

You have to love the internet: I search for the Ple-Nel and loads of sites pop up--and they all contradict one another.  Some say it is really hard to grow this plant and people kill them left and right, while other praise the ease of growing the plant.  A few talk about the difficulty in getting it to flower and some just talk about flowering as if it is nothing to worry about.  Here is my take:

1.  Buy one (I think mine came from Lowes, but possibly home depot)

2.  I then mixed some little rocks with soil and sand (no precise measuring here, I just threw in what I had).

3.  Find a container.

4. Put the plant in the container with the soil mixture

5.  Stick it in the sun.

6. Ignore the plant for most of the year.

7.  When it rains, it gets watered.  Other than that, I water the cacti at my apartment once a blue moon (perhaps every two months)

Now, I live in So Cal, so it rarely rains.  Do I fertilize you ask-- heck no! Why? because I'm not fixing what isn't broken.  And that is the secret.

Preserving Acorn Squash Seeds

KD is sick. Time to make some good soup. I saw a great recipe in my Food and Wine magazine (Nov. 09 issue) for Creamy Carrot Soup with Scallions and Poppy Seeds and I also remember another magazine recipe for Carrot-Butternut Squash soup (can't recall which magazine, I get so many!). So, inspired by these recipes, I am going to make Carrot, Leek, Acorn Squash soup with Scallions and Poppy Seeds.

A few minutes ago, I cracked open the acorn squash (using the chefs knife and rubber mallet trick) and scooped out the seeds. Though I have roasted these seeds in the past-like 4 days ago- I am not a big fan. But, I just don't want to throw them away.

I whipped on the Internet to see if I could save the seeds for the garden next spring. Of course. Of course, the Internet is teeming with info about this.

Bottom line. Clean the seeds. Put them on a newspaper, cloth, paper towel (basically something absorbent). Let them dry. Then when they are dry. Put them on new absorbent material. Stick them in a cool dry place for about a week to really dry out. Then stick them in a bag or foil and save them until next spring. Done and done. Here is a nice little article, short and sweet about it.

I'll give it a try! Can't hurt, it will be an experiment.