Let's go and look at my garden today, it was a hot day that is for sure.

Black jungle butterbeans are producing despite the high temperatures

I have to shelled some today:)

Yard long beans, you either love them or hate them,lol. (I like them)

The surprise and tasty vegetable, the easiest to grow and tender, bitter free leaves that taste like spinach (not slimy like other ones) Thank you Maxine.

Eggplants are producing well and I love them!

My favorite dish using everything that I grow in the garden

Green Glaze collards are the best! and I have a lot to share with friends

And my yellow tamarillo also know as a tree tomato is ripening, they are delicious!

Silvia

Silvia

I'm most interested in the winter squash you mentioned in your post. When it the best time to plant and what variety has worked for you. Thanks, Mary

Everything looks so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Veronica

Your garden looks wonderful as usual.

Here is a red kuri in October with a harvested big sweet potato, picture taken in October last year.

Hi Veronica - Oh! I forgot about the name is an edible amaranth called callaloo and widely used in the Caribbean, I ate it while in Jamaica for breakfast, steamed and with sides of vegetables and fish, it was very good. When I came back I decided to grow it, that is when Maxine shared some seeds with me, they were green so I thought they would not grow, lol. She said just sprinkle them and they will keep growing and I have to tell you they are delicious! I prepare washing them in salted water even mine had no bugs, then I stir fry some onions and let the chopped callaloo cook for about 10 minutes. This are the best greens for the summer, I will make soup with chorizo today since the family like them.

Here is another picture

Hi Kathy - You can probably grow callaloo all year round, I read that is very nutritious more so than spinach and when cooked, in my opinion taste better than spinach. We all need our greens for our health, especially if they grow easy for us and easy and fast to prepare. I am going to leave the space in the garden to keep growing. The pictures that I posted are after the big harvest for the dinner last night, and they are not even that long in the ground, the only thing I do for the collards and the callaloo is to wash the leaves with a light spray of water and I have no bugs there. Next time that I cook the leaves I will take a picture, I forgot that yesterday. Today is butterbeans for lunch or dinner. If you have extra tomatoes one of the best ways to keep them for later is just freezing them. That is what I did with some of mine and I am enjoying them for dishes now, like the eggplant dish that I did with the frozen tomatoes. Winter squash cooked and frozen is also very good for recipes, this morning we are having winter squash pancakes.

And thank you Ladies for all your nice comments.

Silvia

I have okra & Winter squash right now (I make fritters w/ the abundant male blossoms) & I'm harvesting ripe grapes, along w/ various herbs & chicories. Aconcagua peppers have been producing right along. I'm really pleased w/ this variety; it's tall & vigorous w/ large, sweet fruit & the Summer fruit flies seem to be leaving it alone.

Anxiously waiting on some ripening papayas - I grew 1 plant w/ no male for pollination, but fruit formed anyway - likely due to male trees in the neighborhood & helpful bees.

& FWIW, I neither hate nor love yard-long beans = J

That's really interesting about callaloo.

Not sure this is going to work but I started some Solar Fire plants early, usually it's still too hot here in September for fruit bloom set, we'll see.

These currants will probably set fruit in September but only time will tell.

These tomatoes will come out from under the lights next weekend and out on the east side of the house with morning sun and afternoon shade.

These sweet peppers get potted up today and go outside.

I'll be starting some broccoli seed today too...getting excited about the fall season now!

Tom

Thank you Carol - I am glad to know that you are enjoying the fruits of your labor, grapes are tasty! and that remind me that we were going to the Lakeridge winery in Clermont for the festival but we thought it is just too hot to be enjoying the music outdoors.-(
Also have 1 papaya planted the variety Known You that I got it from Echo and it is really fruiting in the pot, I like that it is dwarf

And yes the eggplants are like a small trees and very productive!, some of them harvested

Thank you Tom - Your tomatoes look so good and well protected, I think you will do fine where you have them and if not you have the back ups. I have a lot of back ups too just in case anything happens to the ones in the big pots.
I just saw the Sara's Galapagos,lol. Let me know how you like them so I can tell my brother who was a Captain in the Navy going to the Galapagos all the time. When he was here visiting he was remembering how Cheryl as a 10 year old little girl had him locked out of the cabin and she had ordered all the sweets she could have, lol.

Have a great fall season!

Silvia

Just picked callaloo leaves only, I think the stems can be used also but in this dish I am only using the leaves which are very soft and thin.

Silvia

Lou

The soup that I used butterbeans,some frozen tomatoes from the garden and the callaloo. I like it and I am sure it is very nutritious.

Silvia

I'm ready to try the callaloo, I can probably grow it year around here, can you send me some seeds? Is it like amaranth? Kazillions of small black seeds from a fuzzy flower pod?

Tom

Sylvia, I've been wanting to ask you about fertilizing. How much, and what kind? I've been here 4 years now, but I still don't know where that line between too much and too little is. I've been using a dry organic fertilizer that I mix into my pots. Maybe about a half handful per 1 gal pot. I also seem to have a tendency to overwater, so I start out with the smaller pots. I grow most of my veggies in pots...

Jenny

I just walked around the garden after the rain and I notice that few tomatoes are setting fruit, the cherries, estiva and some hearts like Monokah Hat.

tomatoes are getting tall

Monokah Hat

Estiva

Some black variety

And of course I can send you some seeds, callaloo is an amaranth so I believe that you are familiar with the growth habits and production, lol. In my experience I found that is too productive and I can not give away to anybody because they are not familiar with it.
On the other hand I highly recommend the green glaze collards that I can send you some seed if you want it. A lot of people love them! Last weekend I gave it to my neighbors that are native Floridians and they asked the same questions are this collards? they are so pretty! I gave them a big garbage bag full of them and that night they brought me some cooked to taste how they prepare it, they were delicious. Yesterday I gave them some collard seedlings that I had. I also planted some for the fall season.
I had the same experience when I planted the heat tolerant varieties in Arizona, they did the same like the regular varieties so I stopped planting them.
Tom, if you decide to try heart tomatoes, I can send you some of the Monokah variety, they always produce a good and early crop. Sometimes varieties that do well in short seasons climates like in Canada do well for me.
About the callaloo if you want to grow it, don't blame me because it is too productive and you can not keep with the harvest,lol

Hi Amber, I hope that all your crops are doing well and that fall comes soon.:)

Silvia

When you grow in pots is a different type of growing like in a raised bed or soil. It also depends on what mix you are using to apply fertilizers, also depending on what crop you are growing. Regular bagged mixes have some fertilizers added that you can also supplement for heavy feeders such as tomatoes. I use Al' mix that you probably heard about it, if not it is in the container forum. I also add liquid fertilizers again depending on the veggie and what stage of development is for example for tomatoes I only apply in the beginning a nitrogen based fert, when flowers or fruit a low nitrogen one. I have few products that I use very diluted so they last a long time.
About the over watering, I wait till the pots I can see they change color in the mix, or lightweight and just before they wilt is time to water.
I only heard of the diva cucumbers , I did not know there is a diva pepper, I am glad that they are working out for you, where in zone 9b are you located?

Silvia

I tried to grow Russian Black Prince in the spring. I got a whopping 2 pieces of fruit.

Cammunizm, next time when we have a garden party, maybe you can come to meet other gardeners. Today I am going to visit the hydroponics store to see what is new and after that Vietnamese food, one of my favorites! but not the durian drink,lol.

Silvia

Jenny

Send me some seeds girl, I'll see if I can tame it some in containers ;-)

Tom

Are your Marconi's mature or are they seedlings? I'm trying them for the first time and started some seeds a couple months ago. Had some problems with germination but they are finally growing...just not quite ready for the garden yet. If yours are mature are you happy with their production?

Julie

I live in Astatula. Where in Tavares do you live? That is cool someone from near me is on here.

Mindy K.

And after that I went to the Vietnamese restaurant where I had with my food the best mint I ever had sort of red leaves with green, I got a piece of it and I hope it survives, when talking there he said that is used as a medicine and gave me the recipe to try, it is a combo of herbs steamed. Then we talk about gardening in Vietnam and in Florida, very interesting.

Jenny - I use the 5-1-1 mix for all the container veggies, and add very diluted liquid fertilizers as needed. I am also growing Marconi peppers they do well here.

Here is a mix of peppers, some are the marconi

Tom - I will mail you the seeds, if you grow them in the container, they will do well for you, just remember they self seed and are about 4 feet tall, they don't need staking but if you worry about the wind you can probably put a tomato cage for support.

Julie - marconi peppers do well, if you put them in pots you can protect them when is cold.

Silvia

Tom - I will mail you the seeds, if you grow them (callaloo) in the container, they will do well for you, just remember they self seed and are about 4 feet tall, they don't need staking but if you worry about the wind you can probably put a tomato cage for support.

Thanks Silvia, I can't wait to try them ;-)

If yours (Marconi peppers) are mature are you happy with their production?

Julie, The Giant Marconi Hybrid is the one that is most productive, but NOT this time of year yet, still too hot unless they are carry-overs from last year, and if so the peppers will be small unless they received supplemental nutrients. Start them now and carry them over to the spring, if not in an area where they get baked by the summer sun they will actually last through the summer such that you'll get TWO or THREE years out of them....

Tom

I also have some California bell peppers that carried over from last year. They weren't nearly as productive.

Mindy, I live near-ish Deer Island. I've driven through Astatula to the post office, it's a nice area.

Julie

...the Solar Fire and White Currants have been duds here so far, lots of blooms but no fruit set...night temps here still above 82-83. Only the Sara's Galapagos have set fruit so it's probably a variant that the Everglades comes from.

Amber

That's disappointing about Solar Fire Tom. I thought the whole point of Solar Fire was it claimed heat tolerance?

Hi Amber, somehow I missed your post. I'm done trying these things that are supposed to set fruit on blooms here when the temps are above 73F at night, they just don't work. Today I pulled the all the Solar Fire, White Currant and left only one Sara's Galapagos...I'll put my broccoli starts in those container soils since broccoli doesn't seem to be affected by nightshade plant soils :-)

Tom

Today it was a very busy day, had friends over at the house to celebrate the harvest from the garden.
We had a great time and the menu was perfect.
For appetizer we had brie in pastry with caramel and walnuts with sliced sand pears from the farm for dipping

Hickory smoked pork roast with spices and beer. Chimichurri sauce on the side.
Corn is in season so I made 2 corn dishes one a salad and other with beans using different herbs from the garden.
Sweet potato latkes with sour cream-lime dressing
Eggplant with frozen tomatoes from the garden

We made 2 desserts one was a meyer lemon tart

And the other a strawberry pavlova with mint

After showing them the garden we had a big splash! at least I did not have to water,lol.
Hope that you had a good and busy holiday too.

Silvia

I noticed you ladies chatting about Seminole pumpkin so I am writing with a question hoping that you may know the answer: I got some of the prized seeds and planted them at the beginning of last Summer. The plant exploded covering half of my yard gave lots of beautiful flowers and started on dozens on pumpkins. Every time those pumpkins were the size of an apricot/peach they would yellow and ultimately fall off. The plant itself looked very vigourous. I ended up working out of town for almost two month and when I came back, the vine was still going strong and found ONE pumpkin the size of an apricot:-)

Any ideas as to what may have been happening?

Can Seminole pumpkin be planted now or I have to wait again until Spring?

Thanks a million for any ideas.

Thank you.

From what you said it looks that they were not getting pollinated, usually this happens at the beginning of the season and then they produce. Did you amend the soil, where did you get the seeds? if the vines were strong they probably had enough water.
It is too late to plant for my zone but if you don't get any frost, you can probably plant them now, just remember they take 100 days to grow. When you plant them again use a lot of compost and some vegetable fertilizer, it is very easy to grow as long as you have the right seeds, sometimes even the seed companies make mistakes.

The vines also took over in my small garden

And here are some seminole pumpkins

And today I am eating my first ripe tomatoes Golden Grape

Silvia

I only had callaloo cooked, that is how is used on the Islands. In the recipes they always soak it in salted water before preparing. Since I don't know any one eating raw I have not tried the taste. When cooked it is milder and softer than spinach. Sometimes you can find callaloo in the West Caribbean market fresh or in a can. It is for sure the easiest thing to grow.

Silvia

Tom

Quote "The youngest leaves have a milder flavour and are good to use in salads, the mature leaves are better cooked like spinach. Anything you would use spinach for, just use amaranth leaves exactly the same way."

The best leaf amaranth I've found for salad thus far is the Tenderleaf from Evergreen.

~dianne

I am harvesting black jungle butterbeans this week

I like them because I can freeze what I don't eat

And I am getting winter squash

Sapodilla is getting ripe

Silvia

I'm in Central Florida - has anyone noticed their seedlings outdoors getting scorched by the sun? I'm having a really bad time this year with that...

Flmamabear - Which type of seedlings are getting scorched? did you harden them off before putting them in full sun? if you give more info maybe we can help.

Silvia

About callaloo/amaranth leaves: There are many varieties and I have eating raw the 4/5 that I planted. All nice in salad and the larger ones can be used as a wrap. I even got my mom to cook them as grape leaves rolls and they were delicious.

There are tons of recipes out there using amaranth leaves. One way to find them is to look up recipes using the Indian names. Apparently there are different names in different provinces: Thotakura is one that is used (Just search for Thotakura in google pictures and click on the picture that you like which will most of the time lead you to a recipe - Somehow the link will not work). Amaranth leaves is also very similar to a Middle Eastern green called Molokhiah aka Mulukhiyah aka... So any recipe for Molokhiah can be used with amaranth.

About amaranth seeds: I planted several varieties last year but the one that was most amazing came out of seeds I bought from the bulk bin at Who le Foods. I am pretty sure it was Golden Giant Amaranth and it was incredible. There were enough leaves to feed me, the neighbors, freeze, and an army of butterflies. At the end I was left with huge heads that must have each carried a pound or more of grains. Sadly they got hit by some fungus at the end of season and I was too exhausted with work and all to care so I left them die. And all I had was 6 stalks!

I heartily recommend planting callaloo to all. At least to feed the butterflies/ as a trap plant. If you plant it in a corner or a bed by itself most likely it will self seed endlessly. That is what my wild calallo does and I mostly use it for greens for my compost pile (decadent I know) and never have to feed it.

The two main ingredients are callaloo, which obviously grows in abundance here, and pigeon pea flour, which makes a fantastic Summer crop (My 5 seeds grew with zero care and made about 1/2 pound of beans).

Thank you for sharing your experience with amaranth leaves and the recipes.
That is funny because yesterday I went to the Indian spice store, the Indian restaurant that is in the same shopping center and finish the trip with Whole Foods.
As I understand the many different plants are used for many purposes be eating the leaves or the grains.
In a Tucson, Arizona store that sells Native crops I bought one time popped amaranth grains to be eaten as a snack.
The kind of amaranth that I grew before the stalks are coarser than the leaves, and the leaves are even when small kind of limp, that is why I did not use it raw. Big difference with spinach here where the leaves can be used raw because they maintain their shape. I like to use all my senses when eating, it has to meet standards of looks, taste and of course nutrition.
I always have a stock of a number grains, beans especially different lentils to be used in recipes. They are some of my favorite combinations for food, only need to add any fresh veggies from the garden.
You should try the recipe that you posted, probably in the past I had something similar and it was good.

Silvia

Silvia