Germinating Peppers and Eggplants for Transplant in a Burpee Self Watering Planting System

The last days of January are here and western Kentucky has been having a very mild winter. Next week it is predicted to reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It is likely that we may have an early spring, and may be able to plant out warm weather crops by April.

Today I started 7 kinds of sweet peppers in a Burpee self watering planting system including Chinese Giant, Banana, Red Cheese, Aconcagua, Quadrato D'Asti Rosso, California Wonder, and Santa Fe Grande peppers. 5 varieties of eggplants were also planted of the Malaysian Dark Red, Early Long Purple, Melanzana, Green Raveena, and Bride varieties. The seeds were barely covered in soil because peppers and eggplants need sunlight to help germinate. Baker's Creek Seeds company even suggests surface sowing eggplant seeds. Bottom heat is also helpful in sprouting peppers and eggplant seeds which are notoriously difficult to germinate. Peat moss seems to inhibit the germination of pepper seeds. Even so, peppers can take four weeks to germinate.

Peppers grow wonderfully well with very little pest problems, although taller plants will need support since heavy rains and wind may break their brittle stems. High nighttime temperatures over 85 degrees can sterilize pollen but won't affect fruit that have already formed.

Eggplant tend to get damaged from tiny flea beetles which munch on the plant's leaves stunting its growth. Large healthy plants seem able to withstand the bugs. I am going to try interplanting with dill and basil as a bug deterrent and laying newspaper down at the base of the plants which is supposed to stop the flea beetle larvae from feeding on the roots and growing up into beetles.

Mashed Potatoes and Turnip with Greens Chiffonade

Winter root vegetables like turnips, beets, and kohrabi have a long history as Old World or European vegetables and yet they are rarely used here in America, as are dark leafy greens. These vegetables grow so easily in the late summer to fall months and keep so readily through the dark days of winter. Some winter greens like kale and collards are so winter hardy that light frosts will sweeten their leaves.

Mashed Potato and Turnips with Greens Chiffonade

A warm wintry dish with complex flavorful herby overtones. The mashed potatoes with butter and milk provide sweet base notes. Goes wonderfully with roasts or a nice cut of meat.

Makes: 6 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

4 potatoes, chopped into chunks

1 large turnip, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 collard leaf, chop stem into chunks and slice leaf thinly into chiffonade

2 kale leaves, chop stem into chunks and slice leaves thinly into chiffonade

2 mustard leaves, chop stem into chunks and slice leaves thinly into chiffonade

3 cloves of garlic, pressed through garlic press

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup to 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Boil chopped potatoes, turnip, and stems of greens in a pot of water, until potatoes and turnip are soft and easily fall apart.
2. Turn off stove and pour out water.
3. Add garlic, chiffonade greens, butter, mash mixture and add milk till desired texture. (I use a hand mixer to mash potatoes.)
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Good on its own or served with a nice cut of meat.

Bacon, Potato, Leek, Gruyere Cheese Gratin

Bacon, Potato, Leek, Gruyere Cheese Gratin.

This potato leek gratin is over the top. The Gruyere cheese lends a creamy smokey flavor and when coupled with thick cut bacon. Oh my.

Bacon, Potato, Leek, Gruyere Cheese Gratin

Makes: 4-6 servings

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 65 minutes

Ingredients

2 large stalks of leeks, cleaned and sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

1 cup heavy cream, split into 1/2 cups

4 slices thick cut bacon, cooked till crispy & torn into pieces

3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

Directions

1. Clean leeks by cutting the white stalk into 2 inch lengths, and then slicing open the rounds to open up the leaves so you can wash soil that may have worked between the leaves. Then slice leeks lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips.
2. Saute sliced leeks in olive oil till tender.
3. Mix cooked leeks, shredded Gruyere cheese, and 1/2 cup heavy cream.
4. Layer cooked leek mixture, sliced potatoes, and cooked bacon pieces in casserole dish.
5. Pour last half cup of heavy cream over the top.
6. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The heavy cream should bubble up and cook the upper layers of the potatoes. Be careful to not let the gratin bubble over the casserole dish.

This gratin was baked in a casserole dish made by me. If you are interested I have a ceramic pottery blog that tends to include poetry and the occasional book review: www.vostudioceramics.blogspot.com

Hard Freeze Coming to the Garden

Box of lettuce of Cimmaron, Grand Rapids and mixed parentage.

Icicle radish.

More gorgeous Icicle radishes.

Looks like Cherry Belle and Icicle have created a mutant radish, there's just a hint of blush on its shoulders.

There is a hard freeze predicted in the next few days so I went ahead and picked a giant box of the self-sowed lettuces and pulled up the rest of the radishes from the garden. The Icicle radishes had gotten huge with the longest at 12 inches and being that they were volunteer plants I was deeply pleased with their success. The green shoulders of the radishes were the parts growing above the soil. I remember reading a wonderful little gardening book of a man who had gardened in many regions of the United States. He had a photograph of radishes 3 foot long hanging off his fence in Alaska where daylight never ends in their long cool summers. He said the radishes would just grow and grow always sweetly tender and mild. I got the impression that the gardener turned writer was a straightforward military fellow who had a deep love for the earth and enjoyed experimenting with growing methods. I imagined that it was a nomadic military life that kept him moving while he continually tried to put down roots by planting things. A bit of fanciful thinking I am sure since he gave no reason in his book for the different places he gardened in.

I spent a couple of hours washing each lettuce leaf and drying them in the salad spinner before putting them up in a couple of lidded plastic tubs destined for the refrigerator. I keep the lid of the lettuce container cracked open. All this lettuce in the fridge begs to be paired with banh xeo a crispy Vietnamese crepe filled with meat and shrimp. Hot crispy fried food wrapped in lettuce with herbs and dipped in spicy sweet salty lime sauce also known as nuoc mam cham is a little bit of hot heaven. When I mentioned cooking banh xeo to my husband, his eyes got big and he said in a quiet voice how I should cook a large batch so we could freeze some for later. Heh heh. Good thinking.

Radish on Buttered Oat Bread

Cherry Belle, French Breakfast, and Icicle radishes.

Cherry Belle radish with a dash of salt on buttered oat bread.

Remember those beautiful giant radishes picked from the garden in early November. Well I've been eating the delectable beasts with the kind of enthusiasm that borders on avarice. Never before had I enjoyed such a radish.

Prior to this I might have glanced at them in the grocer with mild interest those little red balls offered up in the springtime when the weather too quickly turns warm. Perhaps I even purchased a small bunch, quickly regretting the impulse purchase with the first bite from this weird little vegetable whose flavor was an odd mixture of heat and bitterness harking to consuming raw horseradish. Uck, who would eat such a thing. But now. Now. I am a convert, it is as though a moment of clarity has come over me. Grown in the fall with long cool nights and the mildest of days the radish is soft and tender with a crispness reminiscent of the delicate nature of young cucumber which has a drier more fleeting quality then their over-watered and overgrown compatriots. Served on buttered oat bread with the lightest sprinkling of salt, makes this vegetable. A revelation.

I am a bit sad and remorseful that all I have are a few self-sown radishes still in the garden. I will be mourning their absence when they are gone. Wishing I had taken the initiative to plant a giant bed of these lovely plants.