January's Jewels

Just a quick hit to show you this week's harvest...

Still a lot left on the plants but this week we've got a couple of Cara Cara oranges that are just perfectly sweet and juicy, a couple of Meyer Lemons, tomatoes, guavas, and a bell pepper plus a pepperette.

The bell peppers are done with this week's picking but the hot chile peppers just keep going and going and going...

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Winter's Sweet Harvest

It's Christmas time and that means another harvest should be ready. Let me check, yep, we've got produce.

The big stars of the wintertime here are citrus, like that tangelo at the top of the post.  Juicy, sweet, yet tart, it provides a tasty dose of Vitamin C to help us with those wintertime bugs.

The Cara Cara navel orange is even tastier, not quite so tart.

While my summer harvest of tomatoes was a dud, winter is providing a nice batch. I made fried green tomato omelets with this one.

It looks like an apple but these are actually guavas. We've got hundreds of them.

And here's this weeks harvest...oranges, tangelos, Myer lemons, tomatoes, guavas, and a small bell pepper in with our hot chile plant.

Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

September Status

While I contemplate how I will rehabilitate my lawn this fall, I go to the back and ponder how that garden is doing.  This plumeria is growing into our space so after it's growing season is over, I will lop of a few of the most offending canes.

When done, it should look something like this one, next to the grapevine.

This year, I planted mostly to have just enough veggies for the three of us. It worked well with the zucchini and bell peppers. Not so well with the tomatoes. And, some, like our patch of chile plants, are producing like there's no tomorrow.

I can't keep up with them all and some are just falling off, lying on the ground. Well, I'd rather have too much than not enough.

Another plant that is producing a bumper crop is our guava tree. We should start picking it in a week or two.

Although our regular tomato plants are a failed crop, I am getting some nice cherry tomatoes from this hanging basket by the kitchen.

They're great with bleu cheese on a salad.

I'll end this post with a quick look at our next delicious bell pepper crop. These are so tasty, I can't wait to have some more.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Peppering up the Premises

Finally getting a chance to get back out to the garden, starting off with the beginning harvest of our bell peppers, pictured above. Got three ripe ones, ready to go, one for each of us. More on that below.

The plumeria always does good, this year they were exceptional. One problem...if you want to call it that...is that branches get too heavy and want to break off.  If you want, just stick it in the ground and it will become a new tree.

I go ahead and break this on off. I've already got enough plumeria, so this one goes in the trash.

More dragon fruit is ripening. I need to find a good recipe for this beautiful but somewhat bland fruit.

And what's that? Why it's a tomato! About time.

Back to the bell peppers...I cut them in half, spread a little cream cheese in them, put in some bacon bits, more cream cheese, top with shredded pizza blend cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, and jack), put in foil, and barbecue.

When done, I serve it with these delicious grilled chicken thighs.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Avoiding the Labor on Labor Day

We had triple digit temperatures and high humidity this weekend in L.A. so I was mostly trying not to get heatstroke.

Gardening chores were mostly of the mundane and easy variety like fertilizing and some light weeding. Since the front lawn is mostly a scorched brown, I was able to get away with weed whacking the few growing green spots on it, saving me from mowing for another couple of weeks. That will be this fall's number one project...aerating the lawn and overseeding with a heat and drought resistant mix.

I did have a chance to look around to see what I could harvest and anything else that needed attention. Pulling back the prickly canes of our dragonfruit showed a couple of beauties ripening against the wall (above). There's also a couple of greener fruit on the front of the plant.

I noticed something has been chewing on my newly sprouted zucchini plant, so I put a few more seeds in the soil and covered with a critter cage.

The spurge is always surging so I spent some time yanking it out too.

Bell peppers are almost ready to pick. These might be on the menu next weekend and I'm hoping to get a couple more harvests before they're done for the year too.

The sweet onions just won't stay good in the ground anymore, so I harvested the last of it too. The onions have been a very delicious addition to our summer menus.

Lastly, the garlic chives are blooming in our herb corner. Trying to decide whether I should let them propagate or cut off the flowers. They're delicious but the get fairly weedy.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Hot August Harvests

Harvest season is in full swing here at Cheapskate Farms. 

Today, I'm concentrating on our chile peppers. Those are our two Serrano plants at the top.

This is our unknown, but much hotter, variety next to the played-out cornfield.

With a pair of gardening gloves, it's a snap to pinch them off of the plants.

Here's today's harvest with the Serrano on the right, the unknown variety on the left, and a couple of clusters of grapes from our vine.

Coming up will be Bell peppers, just about my favorite thing to grow...

...the soon-to-be spectacular looking Dragon Fruit...

...and the onions are ready too.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Summer Previews at Cheapskate Farms

Our last post showed you what we picked this week, this post will show you what's coming soon.

The future is all about chiles. So is the present, as a matter of fact.  This one is a very hot one that I do not know the name of. We got the seeds from a batch of chiles my wife's uncle grew. I just know that it is delicious and the hottest chile in our garden.

These jalapenos will be ready soon too. We're growing them in a pot on the patio.

Way, way down on the heat scale...in fact, they have none...are the bell peppers who make up for the lack of heat with their great flavor. I love growing this and they make for a great, late harvest food.

While our heirloom tomatoes are still taking their sweet time setting fruit, this cherry tomato in a hanging basket will be ripe soon.

In other news, a branch of our plumeria broke off.

Here is a closer look. This is quite common, they are very brittle, but you can stick the broken stem in the ground and it will grow into a new plumeria tree.

 

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Meet The New Neighborhood Transplants

Our seeds have been sprouting and growing in their peat plugs for a month. Now, it's time to transplant as the warmer days of March have arrived.

Each transplant is pretty easy, it's just that I have to do it 72 times. The soil is prepped, just stick in a trowel and dig a little hole.

Insert the plant plug.

Make sure it's straight, like the onion above.

Cover with soil.

That's it, water it in and you're done.

Here's our new vegetable list for 2013...

Radishes
Tomatoes (two heirloom varieties)
Onions
Lettuce
Bell Peppers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Corn (two varieties)
Jalapeno
Basil

Stay tuned to see how they turn out!

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

On The Farm with The Cheapskate

It's time to start this year's vegetable garden. Each year, I learn from the last year's harvest. For instance, I learned that growing carrots wasn't worth the hassle when I can get a one pound bag of clean, peeled carrots from my local grocery store for $1.29, so this year, carrots will not be in the garden.

I did find that bell peppers do exceptionally well and are very tasty right off the vine, so we're doubling our planting this year.

First, my wife and I decide what will go in the garden this year. Tomatoes, as always, but this year we're trying some heirloom varieties we harvested from tomatoes we bought at the farmers market. Two varieties of corn, sweet onions - always a delight to grow and eat, radish - new to us- as is the lettuce we're planting, zucchini, summer squash, and basil.

My wife found this starter greenhouse last year (you can buy one at the link below - thanks in advance for helping the Cheapskate out) and it worked very well so we'll be using it again this year.

 
The Jiffy Greenhouse comes pre-packed with 72 peat pellets.

After watering the pellets, they expand like a sponge.  I drill a hole in each one with a pencil.

Put a seed or two in each hole, then tamp down with the pencil.

I make a Word file so I can keep track of what I planted in each row of the greenhouse.

Next, I take it outside and water in the seeds.

Put on the cover, set it next to the house to stay warm, and then just let it run its course. 

In about a month, we should have plenty of plants ready to transplant. Since each one is in it's own self-contained peat pellet, all I do is stick that pellet in the ground and it's done.  Takes about ten seconds per plant.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved