Backyard Gardening

A place to discuss health and fitness, including healthy diets, etc.
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tidathep
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by tidathep »

Sawaddee Ka..Reddust,

Your grandson is so cute! I love your veg-garden, Thai people love to eat daikon/sweet basil very much. And I think this Thai sweet sause is the best...if you buy at a Chinese store/Walmart, big bottle just $2.89...good with tofu/chicken/ribs/fish etc.

Image

Texas soil is bad bad...I have to buy potting soils for planting everything in my garden...with Miracle Grow to fertilize every 2 weeks!

tidathep :smile:
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

tidathep wrote:Sawaddee Ka..Reddust,

Your grandson is so cute! I love your veg-garden, Thai people love to eat daikon/sweet basil very much. And I think this Thai sweet sause is the best...if you buy at a Chinese store/Walmart, big bottle just $2.89...good with tofu/chicken/ribs/fish etc.

Image

Texas soil is bad bad...I have to buy potting soils for planting everything in my garden...with Miracle Grow to fertilize every 2 weeks!

tidathep :smile:
My husband thanks you kindly Tidethep. My culture we had very little sauces, I am just learning how to make different varieties and my husband loves them. He will be very happy to try out your suggestion and we both love Thai Food! Guess what I learned to make this summer…..Kimchi, kimchee or gimchi! My husband loathes the smell. My first Dharma teacher is Korean Zen, a very kind monk, the lay folk used to bring kimchi and make food for the monks and nuns every Sunday and I would eat with them. I thought something died and rotted when I first smelled kimchi.

I love kimchi recipes, I've tried several even though they smell like something died, they taste like heaven. From what I've read fermented food is very good for digestion. I have fibromylagia which my digestion system suffered greatly until I started eating organic whole foods and I think fermented food really helped.

My Grandson looks just like my Father and my Son although my fathers hair turned black as he aged. :anjali:
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

Greens.jpg
We had a hard frost last night but my winter garden greens are frost resistant. Todays harvest!
Basil.jpg
This summer was my first successful crop of basil, Giant leaf Italian, cinnamon, and lemon. I made pesto and canned it. We will be able to have basil pesto all winter long, like saving a little sunshine in a jar.
Grandson5.jpg
My grandson learned to pick beans and peas gently without tearing up the plants. He only tore up 2 bean plants learning this lesson. Such a smart boy. This spring he will come to stay with us and help me with the chicks hatchings and planting the spring garden.
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
shaunc
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Re: Home grown

Post by shaunc »

My gamble with the weather finally paid off, 24 hours after my prediction. Most of the dynamic lifter would have made it's way into the soil & the roots should be sucking it up soon. This morning I noticed the first 2 flowers on my zucchini & some of the silver beet was big enough to pick. I gave a leaf to the budgies & a couple of leaves to the chooks. I don't know why but I'm a bit superstitious like that, I always like first pick to go to the animals. I know it's all garbage, but it makes me feel better. Good-luck with whatever you're doing in your yard.
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reddust
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Re: Home grown

Post by reddust »

shaunc wrote: I don't know why but I'm a bit superstitious like that, I always like first pick to go to the animals. I know it's all garbage, but it makes me feel better. Good-luck with whatever you're doing in your yard.
Most of my squash and 1/2 my greens go to our chickens too, I love how you say chooks. :namaste:
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Home grown

Post by Kim O'Hara »

shaunc wrote:I gave a leaf to the budgies & a couple of leaves to the chooks. I don't know why but I'm a bit superstitious like that, I always like first pick to go to the animals. I know it's all garbage, but it makes me feel better.
It's not "all garbage" at all if you think about it first and then think about it again when you do it, because it is a valid way of recognising and remembering that we're all in it together - silverbeet, chickens, people and (even :tongue: ) slugs. "It makes me feel better" is probably a vague idea of something like this thought.
If you don't think about it, you're right - it's empty ritual in just the same way that doing prostrations while thinking abut your laundry list is empty ritual.

:meditate:
Kim
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Ayu
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Re: Home grown

Post by Ayu »

There is no garbage existing in nature. All materials fulfil a function. In the Dakota language they have no word for "waste".
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Home grown

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Ayu wrote:There is no garbage existing in nature. All materials fulfil a function. In the Dakota language they have no word for "waste".
That's true, but I don't think it is a response to what Shaun wrote. When he said, "it is all garbage," I understood "it" to be his habit of giving first crop to the animals.
Not important ...

:shrug:
Kim
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Ayu
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Re: Home grown

Post by Ayu »

Oh, thank you. It's nonetheless important, because my English is poor sometimes.... :oops:
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

Canned Pumpkin.jpg
Canning pumpkins grown in my garden, half of my harvest goes to my chickens, I cook and mash up the squash for them when the weather gets intensely cold. The pumpkin helps them stay warm during the long nights. Baked the gutted pumpkin with skin in a flat pan (saved the seeds for eating and next years pumpkin patch) with bottom covered in water until tender, cut up and placed in a jar, pressure cooked @11lbs pressure for 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Nutrition
The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids converted to vitamin A in the body. In the conversion to vitamin A, beta carotene performs many important functions in overall health.

Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases as well as some degenerative aspects of aging.

Pumpkin Nutrition Facts
(1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)

Calories 49
Protein 2 grams
Carbohydrate 12 grams
Dietary Fiber 3 grams
Calcium 37 mg
Iron 1.4 mg
Magnesium 22 mg
Potassium 564 mg Zinc 1 mg
Selenium .50 mg
Vitamin C 12 mg
Niacin 1 mg
Folate 21 mcg
Vitamin A 2650 IU
Vitamin E 3 mg
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/nutrition.cfm
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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tidathep
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by tidathep »

Sawaddee Ka...Reddust,

Ooh...what a coincidence..I just baked pumpkin-cake this cold cold morning...and I'll fry catfish-fillets top with hot/sweet sauce..garnish with basil leaves....yummy?? My basils (the only herb-plant that I planted in my garden)...still alive at 41 degrees F.

Love your veggy-garden/grandkids,
tidathep :heart:
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

Tobacco.jpg
Sweet Yellow Burley Tobacco Plant with flower condom lol
tidathep wrote:Sawaddee Ka...Reddust,

Ooh...what a coincidence..I just baked pumpkin-cake this cold cold morning...and I'll fry catfish-fillets top with hot/sweet sauce..garnish with basil leaves....yummy?? My basils (the only herb-plant that I planted in my garden)...still alive at 41 degrees F.

Love your veggy-garden/grandkids,
tidathep :heart:
Thank you Tedathep, it's squash and pumpkin time! OMG, the fish and basil with sweet sauce, I'm drooling!…I'm getting ready for a house full of family this coming week. It's going to be insanely fun and full of work. My son, wife, and their children and my first cousins who are also adults are coming to stay. Lots of food and playing cards. I'm going to put them all to work helping dig up a new garden plot too :tongue:
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
shaunc
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Re: Home grown

Post by shaunc »

Today I got home from work at about lunch time & my wife had prepared an omelette. The eggs were from our backyard & so was the silver beet. She also used some capsicum & chilli, that I can't take the credit for. After lunch I spent some time feeding & watering the animals & the never ending task of chipping weeds. In less than a couple of hours I'd experienced the good & the bad of backyard gardening. It made me think of the 8 worldly concerns taught in Buddhism. I also wondered if life would be as enjoyable without them. As we used to say when I drove cabs, "you've got to have the bad shifts, so you know what a good shift's like.
If any moderators are reading this thread, could it please be moved to the backyard gardening thread in the diet, health & fitness section. I've been in touch with a moderator, but with my limited computer skills I'm finding it to be quite difficult.
Thanks Shaun.
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

produce1.jpg
Some of the bush beans I picked for canning this year. We ate a lot of fresh green beans and what was left over I canned for stews. Most of the vitamins are lost during canning. Canned green beans do retrain their fiber, carbohydrates, and protein. They make a nice filler in stews. What brings me comfort and happiness is I know exactly where these beans came from because I grew them and canned them myself. Not only am I healthier from the workout gardening gives me and eating organic, I feel really good about setting goals and seeing the project though from seed to in my belly!

Many vegetables begin to lose vitamins when harvested. Nearly half the vitamins may be lost within a few days unless the fresh produce is cooled or preserved. Within one to two weeks, even refrigerated produce may lose half of its vitamins. The heating process during canning destroys from 1/3 to ½ of vitamins A and C, thiamin, and riboflavin. Once canned, additional losses of these sensitive vitamins are from 5 to 20 percent each year depending on storage conditions.
http://www.pickyourown.org/nutritionalv ... dfoods.php
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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reddust
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Re: Home grown

Post by reddust »

shaunc wrote:Today I got home from work at about lunch time & my wife had prepared an omelette. The eggs were from our backyard & so was the silver beet. She also used some capsicum & chilli, that I can't take the credit for. After lunch I spent some time feeding & watering the animals & the never ending task of chipping weeds. In less than a couple of hours I'd experienced the good & the bad of backyard gardening. It made me think of the 8 worldly concerns taught in Buddhism. I also wondered if life would be as enjoyable without them. As we used to say when I drove cabs, "you've got to have the bad shifts, so you know what a good shift's like.
If any moderators are reading this thread, could it please be moved to the backyard gardening thread in the diet, health & fitness section. I've been in touch with a moderator, but with my limited computer skills I'm finding it to be quite difficult.
Thanks Shaun.
We are going to have a blast!, we should also send a note :heart:
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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reddust
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Re: Home grown

Post by reddust »

I sent a request in :heart:
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
shaunc
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by shaunc »

Is canning any better than blanching. Blanching is basically picking & preparing your vegetable as though you were going to cook it, but you just 1/2 steam it & then just bag it & freeze it. I can't comment on vitamin loss as it's an area I've never really studied. But as you say, considering that I know where it all came from, I figure that it can't be any worse for you than commercially available frozen vegetables. We've been doing it for years & never got sick from eating it. Also is canning more expensive or more trouble than other methods of storing vegetables, like jarring, drying or blanching.
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

shaunc wrote:Is canning any better than blanching. Blanching is basically picking & preparing your vegetable as though you were going to cook it, but you just 1/2 steam it & then just bag it & freeze it. I can't comment on vitamin loss as it's an area I've never really studied. But as you say, considering that I know where it all came from, I figure that it can't be any worse for you than commercially available frozen vegetables. We've been doing it for years & never got sick from eating it. Also is canning more expensive or more trouble than other methods of storing vegetables, like jarring, drying or blanching.
I read blanching and freezing veggies retains more of the nutritional value. However, where I live my electricity goes out a lot during the winter. I can or dry just about everything. I also have a winter garden that can handle deep freezing weather we get up here in the Oregon Cascades for fresh greens.
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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reddust
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by reddust »

Glass jars are an investment. I want to buy those reusable jar lids but I don't have the funds yet. They are kind of spendy (http://www.reusablecanninglids.com). During the winter and most of the summer I don't go shopping, I can eat off what my backyard produces. I buy bulk grains and beans as well, several hundred pounds of both along with sugar, and oils. I found I can save a great deal of money buying bulk from my organic cooperative. I also can a lot of dried bean. I soak the beans over night and pressure cook them @ 15lbs for 45 minutes. That saves me a lot of time cooking, most of my food is already cooked.
Cannedgoods.jpg
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
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mandala
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Re: Backyard Gardening

Post by mandala »

Ahh, what a glorious garden!

Gardening has saved my sanity - there's really something to be said for getting your hands in the dirt and being connected to the food you eat.
I'm an avid seed-saver and grow only heirloom (old traditional) varieties of herbs, veggies & flowers. I dream of being able to have a little farm for seed production of old & rare varieties and living the self-sustainable lifestyle.. for now i grow a fair amount of my own produce, make all natural soaps/lip balm in my small rental in the city.

Love the pics of your canning!

:twothumbsup:
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