Planet Veggie Garden

Herbs are a great addition to any garden large or small. Oregano is a must have…if not just for it’s culinary use but it’s use as a natural remedy.

Oregano finds it’s roots in the Mediterranean and in parts of Asia. Today, we find it growing in all parts of the world and widely used in Italian, Greek and Mexican cuisines. Coincidentally, these are the 3 main varieties grown AND the 3 types with the most antioxidant activity.

Oregano has a long history of medicinal use dating back to Hippocrates who used oregano as an antiseptic as well as for digestive and respiratory disorders. Modern science (with research from the USDA) has backed up the health benefits of oregano showing oregano to be a super concentrated source of powerful phytochemicals and antioxidants including thymol and carvacrol. These compounds and many others are responsible for oregano’s many healing properties*:

• anti-microbial: used as an antiseptic; particularly effective against certain bacteria responsible for food borne illnesses
• anti-parasitic: found by Mexican researchers to be effective against giardia
• anti-fungal: used often by herbalist to fight yeast infections such as candida
• anti-spasmotic
• calmative / sedative

Generally, when used for it’s medicinal properties, oregano is taken as a concentrated oil in gel capsules by mouth or when used as an antiseptic - the oil is used topically.

Many of these “anti” properties lends itself to using oregano as a food preservative (use in dry rubs) or to extend the shelf-life of foods.

Tomorrow, tips on growing this must have herb.

*Be advised that any nutrition information suggested is not intended as a treatment for any disease. The intent of any nutritional recommendation is to support the physiological and biochemical processes of the human body, and not to diagnose, treat, cure, prevent any disease or condition. Always work with a qualified medical professional before making changes to your diet, prescription medication, lifestyle or exercise activities.

Many of us think sweet potatoes and yams are one and the same. While there is some rationale for the confusion they are indeed two different species.

Yams - like potatoes - are a tuber.

Sweet potatoes are roots and part of the Morning Glory family that grow on trailing vines and root at the nodes.

Yams have less sugar and more starch than sweet potatoes. They’re native to Africa and Asia. And… Louisiana decided to call the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes they grow yams to distinguish them from white-fleshed variety grown elsewhere.

Sweet potatoes are native to the more tropical areas of South America. They were favored by the French and Spanish who brought them Louisiana.

Sweet potatoes are grown from “slips” or sprouts. Plant them about an inch apart and two inches deep. Maturation time is 90-120 days. They need warmth - preferring soil temperature between 70 and 80 degrees F.

  Potato plants

We’ve had rain 5 days going - a very good thing in this state (California) after a few drought years.

The garden is benefiting and especially the potatoes. I didn’t plant many but some green has bursted through.

This is the International year of the potato, so anointed by the United Nations.

The humble potato is a rather amazing food:

• Originally grown near the border of Peru and Bolivia 8,000 years ago
• Brought from Latin America to Europe in the 1500’s by Spaniards
• Grown all over the world in many different climates
• China is the largest grower, followed by India, the Russian Federation and the United States
• The worlds #4 food crop and #1 non-grain food
• Unlike the better known grains (wheat, corn/maise, rice) it’s NOT a globally traded commodity. Potatoes are not widely exported.

Potatoes don’t actually need dirt. Strange at that seems. You can grow them in virtually any pile of mulching type materials. Of course you can also grow them in dirt. Additionally, potatoes grow similarly to a (upside down) tree… vertical and horizontal. So you can continue to put material on top of the stem and leaves as they grow… leaving about 6″ visible.

I planted my potatoes in a small no dig bed and a recycle bin we weren’t using. I throw straw on top them as they sprout up. If I had planted them in dirt, I would mound the dirt up around them.

You’ll know the potatoes are ready when the above ground green plant turns brown.

Potatoes prefer cooler - but not cold - weather. Plan to harvest yours before frost. Germination takes 1-3 weeks. Depending on the variety, they take 3-4 months to mature. You can grow a spring and a fall crop.

potato eyes

A potato seed is an “eye” from a potato. The eye sprouts to form the tubor. You can buy “potato starts” or take a potato and cut it into pieces, each piece having 1-3 eyes. Plant each one about 6″ deep.

Keep them well moist until they sprout, then back off some on the water.

Potatoes have always been relatively inexpensive so folks tend to not grow them… the “cheaper to buy than grow” argument. However, potatoes are a fairly heavily sprayed crop and organic potatoes aren’t so inexpensive. As well, regular potatoes have seen a hefty price increase this year. Go for fresh, go for organic, grow your own.

I realized many years ago that I love to cook because I love to eat. I just realized that one of the reasons I love to garden is that I love to eat.

If you love broccoli - there is nothing better than home grown. It is so sweet and tender all it needs is a quick saute with a nice pat of butter and a sprinkle of sea salt. Yum!

For a spring crop, start seeds indoors sometime in February so you can transplant them into the ground the end of April or early May. For a fall crop, you can put seeds directly in the ground early to mid summer. Plant seeds about 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep. The best soil is at a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, well draining with a good amount of composted manure. Broccoli does best in full sun but can tolerate a bit of shade - it doesn’t do well in heat. Plant from 16″ to 2 feet apart for best production. Broccoli is in the cabbage / brassica / cole crop family so rotate planting spots at least every 2 years.

Broccoli is a slow grower and thrives with day temperatures in the 70’s and night temperatures in the 60’s. Frost will damage the plants - luckily for us we rarely get frost and we have our handy row covers. Make sure the plants are watered well and stay moist. Mid season, gently dig in some manure around each broccoli plant. With broccoli you will get a main central head which when harvested will make the plant begin to produce side shoots. Many broccoli aficionados prefer these tender side shoots over the central head.

Harvest the broccoli when the flower buds are still green and tight. If you wait too long the flowers will open and you will be very unhappy. Cut about 6-7″ below the head at an angle to prevent moisture from accumulating and causing stem rot. Side shoots will appear and you can cut those at the point they grow out of the main stem.

Don’t forget the leaves! Broccoli leaves can be harvested and prepared the same as kale, collards or other like greens.

The main pests that we see are aphids which can be easily taken care of with a dilute soap spray. The other which we got to experience first had are cabbage worms - big green and voracious. I knew they were coming as a few weeks before I discovered big chomps off the broccoli leaves - the garden was fluttering with white butterflies - ha! Moths really. Part of my morning routine for a few weeks was to go out to the garden and search & pluck out these green oozing worms.

Oh yes, one more pest that we seem to have at the moment - flea beetles. This I know as many of the leaves of our broccoli and kale have neat small holes rather than big chomps. More about these critters and how to take care of them in a future post.

Broccoli seems to be a pretty easy vegetable to grow and we’ll report on our progress.

If you love broccoli, give it a whirl…
Broccoli…plant it, grow it, eat it!

I’ve always loved broccoli. In fact, as a kid when my Mom prepared broccoli for dinner, we kids would fight over it. I guess it had an impact on me as to this day I always make enough broccoli (for the two of us) to feed…12

But hey, Broccoli is oh so good for you!

• Loads of vitamin C and with a light steam you will retain a good amount of this heat sensitive vitamin
• vitamin K and beta carotene galore
• A good number of B’s including folic acid, B6, B2, B5, thiamin and niacin
• a gold mine of minerals: manganese, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc

but wait there’s more…
broccoli is full of amazing phytonutrients that in lab studies block compounds that promote tumor growth, help detoxify the body of carcinogens, slow tumor growth and stimulate cell death in cancer cells. I say, “broc on!”

I tried to grow some last year but I now know that rats had chomped them down to the ground. Luck for us,  our friend and fellow gardener gave us some homegrown broccoli. Wow! I was in heaven - it was the sweetest most tender broccoli I ever had. This year I had to try again…
Round one of the seedlings started this summer suffered the same fate as last year. But this time, we knew what was eating our broccoli, so…

After getting rid of the rats, We got more seedlings started and they are slowly but surely growing under our row covers. To be honest I’m not sure how many broccoli plants I have out there since some did get munched on by a second swarm of ratlings but now we think those are gone (hopefully for good.)

Tomorrow, tips on growing your own sweet tender broccoli.

What produces more yield - organic farming or industrialized farming?…
5 acre farms or 5,000 acre farms?

I’d venture to say most folks believe industrialized and large farms are capable of higher yields through greater technology and efficiency.

I’ve read a number of sources that argue organic farming can now produce yields equal to “chemical” farming. This in part because chemical farming has stripped the soil so much it’s having a harder time keeping production up. And in part because organic farming has improved.

I read an excerpt from a book due out in the Spring of 2009: A Nation of Farmers, by Aaron Newton and Sharon Astyk.

It poses the question:
Can We Feed the World? More Importantly Will We Choose To?

A very interesting read with excellent historical perspective. I highly recommend reading it.

  Box of leaf lettuce

Don’t have much space but love really fresh salad…
here’s one of our boxes of lettuce.

Very simple. We got a banana box from a local grocer (actually, we’ve gotten many banana boxes). Typically it comes with a plastic liner bag with aeration holes. We double the box by putting the bottom half into the top half. Fill about 75% with good soil and you’re ready to go.

In this box I grew a couple varieties of leaf lettuce from seed - Red Sails and Rouge D’hiver from seed. Lettuce seeds shouldn’t be planted deep… only 1/8 inch.

Here’s how I planted this box:
- keep a little dry soil aside.
- water the soil in the box completely through.
- pinch some seeds between your index finger and thumb and sprinkle them into the box.
- then take the dry soil held aside and sprinkle it over the seeds.

Keep well moistened until they sprout, then back off the water some. Germination is generally 1-2 weeks.

You’ll notice this is densely planted. As it grows, thin by harvesting the leaves rather than entire plants. You can also space them out more if you have more room.

Leaf lettuce matures more quickly - around 45 days. Head lettuce - 60-75 days.

Lettuce prefers the cooler and moister weather of spring and fall. During the summer we plant it in shady areas. For now we’ve staggered out 4 boxes of lettuce to keep up eating very frash salad until at least the end of the year.

Yesterday, on a walk through our neighborhood, we spotted a persimmon tree full of bright orange orbs. In a few weeks, all the leaves will fall off and all you will see is the bright orange fruit hanging on bare branches. 

The sight of Persimmon trees bring back fond memories of Fall from my childhood.  Growing up in a Chinese family, persimmons were as common to our Fall table as apples.  It was always a big treat to see Mom bring out a plate full for the rare occasions we had dessert. We enjoyed both the Hachiya and the Fuyus, the two most common varieties you will find. Though now there are dozens of varieties that can be found in specialty grocers and your local farmer’s market.

Persimmons were originally from China and, as with many fruits from around the world, was eventually  introduced to California where it thrives today.

In the old country, the fresh fruit was used to treat constipation and hemorrhoids as well as stop bleeding.  Those that over indulge should not be surprised then if the runs come to visit.
However, the cooked fruit was used to treat dysentery and diarrhea…so there is your antidote should you eat a few too many raw fruits…

The trick to persimmons is knowing when to bite into one.  There are two types of persimmons but all start out green and turn a very deep orange when ripe.  The difference in the two types is that one is classified as astringent and the other…non-astringent.
Fuyu’s, which are flat and shaped like a tomato, are non-astringent and eaten when firm like an apple. 
Hachiyas, which are elongated with a pointy end, must be soft before you can eat them. It’s the high tannin content in unripe fruit that causes extreme astringency making them totally inedible - the tannins do however breakdown during the ripening process.

When ready to eat, a ripe Hachiya should feel like a water balloon.  Any firmness under the delicate skin will only pucker up your mouth and make you feel as if you stuffed your mouth full of cotton balls. Patti found this out the hard way a number of years ago when I brought home a big bag full from my Mom with a plan to bake a few persimmon pudding cakes. She had only eaten the sweet crispy fuyu’s in the past and didn’t know these were not edible til soft. Before I could stop her from eating a crisp firm slice of the Hachiya…wow, what a look on her face…

You can speed up the ripening process by storing them in a warm place with some apples. Some recommend tossing them in the freezer - now, while they are very soft upon thawing, I’m skeptical that all the tannins have sufficiently been broken down.

Once ripened, the pudding like pulp can be easily scooped out by a spoon and eaten as is or used in cakes, muffins and puddings. This time of year, many families have their secret holiday recipes.  One of my favorites is Persimmon Pudding. There are many versions out there that are steamed but I have always enjoyed a baked version from the Stars Dessert Cookbook -which I have misplaced, but here is a very similar recipe.

In China, Japan and Korea; Hachiya’s are preserved by drying. The dried fruit darkens to a deep caramel brown and has such high sugar concentration the sugars crystallize into a powdery white coating - the taste is reminiscent of dates.

Last year, we decided to plant a fruit tree in our front yard. After much pondering, we decided to plant a persimmon…a Fuyu of course! It has grown so much since then and this year we have - count them - 2 very nice sized persimmons. I’ve been keeping my eye on them the last few weeks as they slowly ripened. With the heat wave we are having, we may be able to pick them this weekend.

If you decide to plant a persimmon tree, keep in mind they do best in full sun and do not like being located near eucalyptus trees.  Optimal soil conditions include: well draining loamy soil with a pH from 6.5 to 7.5. Persimmons have a long tap root so digging the planting hole extra deep would be helpful.  Persimmons are light feeders so don’t need much fertilizing - beware that too much nitrogen may cause the fruit to drop! As the tree grows, skillful pruning by someone who knows how to optimize fruit production is a must. Pests are few but do keep an eye out for ants which may infest the tree with mealy bugs and scale.

Fuyu’s are great eaten out of hand or sliced and added to fruit salads or green leaf salads. No doubt our 2 Fuyu’s will be savored and enjoyed how ever we decide to prepare them.

It’s Fall and that means all around the San Francisco Bay Area, figs are ripening on backyard trees everywhere.

While we don’t have a fig tree in our own yard, our generous neighbors have four huge fig trees (one green Calmyrna and three purple Black Mission) - they let us help ourselves every year. This is the time of year you may find us marching down the street with a 12 foot ladder.

A childhood favorite, figs were popular in my family whether in the form of fig newtons in our lunch boxes or fresh off Mom’s tree in our backyard. 

For the rest of human kind, figs have been enjoyed for over 5000 years.  Figs have been found in Egyptian tombs to provide a healthy snack in the after world.  The Greeks and Romans used figs fresh, roasted, dried and as a sweetener before sugar was discovered.   It was the Romans who were instrumental in introducing figs to other parts of Europe.  In turn, during the late 1700’s the Spanish missionaries introduced figs to California.  Today, you will find fig trees growing all over California.

Figs, a soft super sweet fruit with numerous edible blossoms and seeds encased in a thin edible skin, are a member of the Mulberry family and has two fruiting seasons.  A short one in the Spring and a longer more abundant one mid to late Summer lasting into Fall.  Some common varieties you will find are the green ‘kadota’ and ‘calmyrna’, the brown ‘brown turkey’, and the purple ‘black mission.’ The best way to enjoy a truly ripe fig is to grow your own; have generous neighbors, family or friends; or purchase at your neighborhood farmer’s market.

It is important to pick only ripe figs as figs do not ripen off the tree. Figs are ripe when they are plump and soft. I find the ones with fine lengthwise cracks in the skin are the best tasting - literally bursting with flavor. To harvest, gently cup the fig in your hand and grab the stem with your fingers. Then give a twist - the fig should come right off the tree.

We love figs fresh but with such an abundance of figs we use our American Harvest Food Drier to dry most of the harvest.

• First we wash the figs then cut off the stem and slice in half. 
• We lay in a single layer on the trays and dry at 115F to 120F. Note that raw foodist like to keep the temperature at or less than 115F to keep the temperature sensitive enzymes viable.
• Dry until the figs are…well, dry. This will usually take 24+ hours depending on the initial moisture content and the size of the fruit.
• Store in glass jars with tight lids or in well sealed plastic bags. To extend the shelf life further you can freeze.

Other ways we enjoy the figs are sliced in salads; marinated in balsamic vinegar, honey and mint and grilled or broiled; in muffins; in Lamb Stew; stuffed in chicken breast; or on crostini.

Nutritionally, figs beat out some well known foods…ounce for ounce figs have

• more fiber than prunes
• more potassium than bananas
• more calcium than milk

One thing I have noticed about gardeners is that no matter the season - generosity is always in abundance. What better way to get to know your neighbors than sharing the bounty of the garden…kind of like breaking bread only better for you.

The political season is coming to an apex with elections two weeks away.

There’s a proposition on the California ballot - Prop. 2 - that regulates how animals are treated… mostly how they’re confined.

It’s not getting much attention in these financially challenging times, but it did make Oprah. Oprah featured an expose by investigative reporter Lisa Ling on how we treat the animals we eat.

Naturally the “NO” supporters threaten such regulation will lead to much higher prices and family farms being put out of business.

Would you be willing to pay more for meat products if animals were humanely raised.