Category: Gardening

Meyer Lemon Tree

When is the best time to plant a tree? 10 years ago. When is the second best time to plant a tree?  Right now.

We consume a lot of lemons – at least 2 a day! So naturally, one of the first plantings we had was a Lemon Frost lemon tree. It was a beautiful fruiting tree, we were able to harvest a couple of delicious lemons off it before it snapped off about 6 inches above the ground. It was a sad day, but I learned that the Frost citrus family of trees is sprouted from seed, not grafted, so provided the tree heals and regrows, we should have some more fruit from it in a couple of years. I also saved the seeds from the lemons that we used, and will be attempting to sprout them, too. In 10 years, I’m sure I’ll be glad I did it.

But in the mean time, in order to help defray the cost of our lemon consumption, I got another tree in the ground this Spring. I looked for another Frost, but they are hard to come by (thank God I saved my seeds!). The Meyer Lemon, however, is gaining popularity, and is sold in abundance. I like these sweeter lemons, but I was unfamiliar with the beauty of the tree. The tiny purple clusters remind me of the flowering Mountain Laurel, but slowly, each tiny purple bulb is blooming, and the flowers are intoxicatingly fragrant. The tree is attracting butterflies and bees, and all other manner of pollinators. Yay! I may have to pick up another 2 or 3 and get a grove going.

One Man’s Craiglist…

The old saying goes something like this: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Every now and then, you find a like-minded, generous soul on Craigslist, and you feel like you’ve stumbled into a treasure trove…at rock bottom prices.

This week was such a week for us. First, we found a very-well used, but very well mechanically maintained, early 1990’s model 8-hp Echo Chipper Shredder SH-8000…for $250. I don’t know much about chipper shredders, but I do know that’s a fantastic deal.

Later that day, we came across a guy who was selling some used T-posts. When we arrived to pick them up, he was impressed with Eryk, Iain, and Macy’s work ethic, helping us load the T-posts. He asked where we lived, and we told him our story. When he heard what we were doing, he offered several other useful items at a very good price.

As we were leaving, he showed us a bunch of used 3/4″ Schedule 40 PVC that he used for sprinkler systems around his garden. We hadn’t thought about all the possible uses for it, so we passed on it. Then, on the way home, we called back and said we’d take it. When Melissa and the kids went back a couple of days later, they once again loaded us up with sawhorses, planter boxes, fencing, hardware cloth, and several odds-and-ends.

Well used, but still very useful!

These pots and makeshift stakes will come in handy for starting the spring garden.

Herb Spiral

We have been working to try to build an herb spiral for several weeks, but it took us quite a while for us to actually get it finished. The concept inspired me, herbs where you are more likely to use them than if they are situated in a garden that requires shoes to get to. (Because let’s face it, sometimes I’d rather just leave the basil out than have to stop cooking and put my shoes on to retrieve it. Nothing beats the flavor of fresh herbs, except sometimes my laziness.) The elevation of the spiral makes harvesting easier, and utilizes a smaller footprint in the garden for more plants. For us, another bonus is that it is off the level of the land, which makes it more dog proof. Charlie loves to dig to find cool dirt to lay in in the summer time. I can’t tell you how many times he dug up my mint after I watered last year, and then lay on top of the poor upturned plants. I tried everything to keep him out of the gardens, but no luck. So I am anxious to see if he leaves this alone. So far, so good!

We seeded the spiral with basil, dill, and cilantro. We’ll post some pictures once it gets going so you can see the end results. If it works well, I may put several of them around the front porch, where we aren’t growing a lot of grass.

Shallots

Any plant that doesn’t need my help to stay alive is welcome in my garden! These shallots were given to me by a good friend shortly after we moved in last year, we put them in the ground, then had a pretty good drought. I was sure they, along with everything else we had planted, were gone. But lo and behold, after several months of neglect, when I went to revive my fence line bed, there they were!

We love harvesting the greens to add to soups, soft cheeses, butter, or eggs. Shallots are typically planted in the fall, they come to maturity early summer for harvest. They are a member of the onion family, and can be used interchangeably with onions in your recipes, and the greens used where you would use green onion or chives.

I hope to have them growing in perpetuity, as shallots reproduce a lot like garlic, with a mother bulb that divides into multiple bulbs, but the offspring bulbs are not encased in the papery husk that garlic has. I’ll be saving part of the harvest to plant next year.

Blackberries!

One of our favorite summer activities, even as cityfolk, was taking a trip to a pick-your-own farm for fresh blackberries, strawberries, peaches, and other colorful and flavorful produce. We tried planting fruit trees in the yard, but the greenbelt in the neighborhood brought out the deer every night, and they’d strip the plants of any leaves and buds. We never got to reap the benefits of our poor besieged plants, and unfortunately, being in the city limits, we couldn’t shoot the deer. Pity, because then I could have had peaches, AND venison ?!

Now that we have some room to stretch our legs, we started planting some fruit trees. Among our first plantings was a bunch of blackberry vines along the fence. Nothing producing yet, as a matter of fact, they are quite dormant, as are most of our early plantings. We should have some great blackberry recipes coming this summer. And just let those deer try to get to them first…

Mulching the Garden 

We are fortunate to live in a county that will bring it’s residents free truckloads of mulch, which we plan to use in abundance in our gardening. Recently, we got 2 dump truck loads, which we spread thick on land we had lined with cardboard to keep the weeds from coming up. We plan to let the mulch cure a little before we plant in it this Spring.

Mulching the garden will help our plants stay hydrated during the draught like summers that we get here in Texas.  It will also provide a habitat for the beneficial insects that we want in our soil. Naked dirt is the most unhealthy dirt, so we’ve provided a nice Winter ensemble to clothe our garden plot. Fallen leaves are currently blanketing the mulch, adding to the ground cover. As our crops die, we will chop them and drop them in place to continue the mulch cycle in following seasons and years. As the organic matter breaks down, compliments of those beneficial bugs and microbes, it provides nutrients for our future seasons, as well. While our mulch is sitting, the chickens are scratching though it, eating weed seeds and insects, and providing fertilizer. Come spring time, it will be ready to start our food forrest. We’re very excited!

Onions Gone Wild

While out harvesting the last of this season’s chili pequins, we got curious about the long green shoots from the ground. Having previously unearthed some tiny onions after moving the earth in preparation for the car port, we decided to investigate. Digging with our hands proved useless, we broke the greens before we were able to break the ground up enough to reach the bulbs. But once we employed the use of a spade, we were quickly able to unearth these tiny beauties. French Onion Soup for dinner!

They were very tiny, we decided to let them grow a little more before harvesting again, but whether or not they will get any bigger is yet to be seen. They are everywhere in the backyard, so even if we don’t get bigger onions, we still have a good smattering of them to keep us supplied with onions until we get some going in our garden.

If you think you’ve found wild onions, it’s good to do a little research before you consume them. There is a mildly toxic plant that resembles the edible onions, and may upset your stomach if too much is eaten, so it’s always best to do your homework!

Growing Garlic

One of the staples in the Hunt kitchen is garlic.When a recipe calls for a clove of garlic, I frequently shake my head in disbelief and think, “Who does that?” as I drop in 4 cloves… I can’t be the only one who does this, right?

That being said, aside from its’ notable role as a vampire repellant, it is also highly useful for keeping the nasty bugs in your garden at bay as a natural insect repellant. And it’s good for us, being used for many years for it’s antibacterial and antiviral properties; some studies even indicate that it can aid high blood pressure, digestion, and maybe even has certain cancer fighting properties.  Even if none of that were true, I still want my kitchen stocked with it, because I love Tracy’s Cream of Roasted Garlic soup. Yum!

Aside from all of the culinary uses that garlic sees in the Hunt kitchen, we personally use it medicinally in a homeopathic means, and in our garden. This year, when noticing that our sweet potato and squash vines were being eaten, I filled my Vitamix halfway up with garlic cloves and pureed it on the smoothie setting. I strained the juice into a spray bottle and spritzed the leaves of the plants being eaten. No more bug bites! I dried the remaining pulp in the smoker, and we had smoked garlic powder to add to our spice cabinet, it was fantastic! Also, when Iain was very small, he was plagued with ever worsening ear infections. After researching and learning about the cyclical nature of antibiotics and ear infections, I decided to quit giving him antibiotics and treat his next ear infection with garlic infused oil. It worked, and after helping him restore his gut flora, he has been my healthiest child, so we have continued to treat the rare ear infection with garlic oil!

Growing garlic is easy here in South Texas. You just separate the bulb and plant the cloves an inch to two inches deep. You’re supposed to plant it before the first frost, I’m laughing as I type that, but we actually did get two nights of bonafide freezing weather here in December. And my little sprouts braved the frigid temperatures with ease!  The greens were just starting to droop a little, but we got some drizzly weather, and they sprung right back up with the little bit of run off from the garage roof.

We will follow up with pictures from the harvest, but we are actually enjoying the benefits of home grown garlic right now: did you know that they entire plant is edible? Most people only eat the bulbs, but the greens are also quite delicious, as well as the scapes (which are the flowering stalks of the mature plant). We don’t have any scapes on our young plants yet, but we have cut several young green shoots to add to our eggs, mix in with soft cheeses, and toss in with our sautéed veggies.

Chili Sauce

This is our first batch of pepper sauce from the Chile Pequin’s that grow wild on our property. We dried them in the smoker, and they picked up some of that smokey goodness that’s always lingering in there. Next, we packed them with some onion chunks and garlic cloves in pint jars, then filled them with vinegar. Finally, to speed up the infusion, we added some “starter” to the jars.

That “starter” – holy cow – it was HOT. Basically, we took 1/4 cup of dried Chile Pequins with 1 cup vinegar and threw them in the Vitamix on the smoothie setting. It came out looking (and almost tasting) like Cholula…but highly concentrated. Nearly burned a hole in my lungs when I popped the top off the Vitamix and took a whiff. A little dab’ll do ya….

These jars will get a dip in the canner, then sit for a few weeks to infuse. Should be mighty tasty when they’re done.