Heartbreak and A Dilemma

All my Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower seedlings have died. There were four or five of them each. I will blame it on the funky weather. They were thriving and growing inside. The weather was fantastic with temperatures reaching 50's and 60's; so, I planted them outside and the temperature dropped to 26 degree F. GRRRRRRRRREAT!!! I became so depressed, as you can see, that I even stopped blogging. But every cloud has a silver lining. In midst of all these tragedies, I found that silver lining inside my green-house which at once lifted me out of my misery. Swiss-Chard, Broccoli, Garlic, Beet, Spinach, Celery, Fenugreek, Mustard, Lettuce and Radish are thriving, almost becoming a mini-jungle. And, there lies my dilemma. They are growing so beautifully with full of life and vigor and glossy green leaves that I don't have the heart to eat them. What to do?

Red globular radish on the left; icicle (the big white carrot-looking type) radish on the right. Can you see a red globe of radish poking her head from the ground?

Spinach, Celery and Beet from left to right respectively. I read everywhere that certain plants cannot be transplanted; spinach, radish and beet apparently are those types of plants. But I have had no problems, so far, in transplanting them. I grew them in small plastic growing-pots and then transplanted them.

A bed of Swiss-Chard with some lettuce thrown in the middle on the left; a small bed of garlic on the right. The garlic bed has lots of weeds as you can see. I do not know what they are. They look very pretty and dainty. I let them grow. I have read that these types of ground-hugging weeds can be beneficial; they are acting as live mulch; their roots are protecting the soil and soil structure; also their roots can harbor good microbes and the plants can also add important chemical elements to the ground.

Now, I have to tell you a story, a story that teaches us to give everything a second chance and never give up. I bought two broccoli plants last spring (2011). As they started putting up broccoli head, someone came and ate them. That "someone" not only ate the tiny broccoli heads but also the plants, stems and leaves included. Nothing of the two plants were left except a shriveled leaf-less, brownish mid-stem. You can see that brownish (or off-white) stem in the third picture. I left them those stems in the ground as I do not follow the Bible of most gardeners - picking everything up and cleaning, tidying up the ground. One of those stems rot and died; the other one slowly has become the plant that you are seeing in the picture. It has not only become lush and green but it is even producing lots of heads. A picture of a head is as above, but many more developing on the sides. It is a wonder how that almost dead stem has become this plant. Gardening is not only filling me with awe but it is teaching me all sorts of valuable lessons: patience, without it one simply cannot do gardening - sow a seed and wait for two months for it to emerge out of the ground; discipline to note everything, write down all details and visit the garden every day; dedication - water and feed the plants, take care of the seedlings as you would take care of your babies and old parents; never give up - not only the broccoli plant but many plants, that I have, never gave up; they came back from the verge of death; give everything/everybody a second chance - those plants that were dying or looked like as if they were dying, I didn't pull them out of the ground; I left them there (not because I at that time decided to give them a second chance but as I mentioned before I don't clean up my garden) and they came back from death to amaze me, and I learned my lesson.

Fenugreek...fenugreek...everywhere...and I can't pull them and eat. The dilemma I was talking about. Fenugreek plants are extremely beneficial to health. It is one of the medicinal herb, that was used not only by the ancient Indian and Greek civilization, but it is being still used today by Pharmaceutical companies (to make medicine) and Ayurvedics. Fenugreek-seeds are used as spices; they are available in any Indian Grocery Stores here in the US; they are also available in many supermarkets. The seeds seem to retain potency to germinate even after 5-6 years. I had some old seeds; I scattered them around and they grew. They have an extremely fast germination and growing rate; they germinate overnight and start growing like wild fire. The baby-leaves can be eaten raw in salad; the matured plants can be sauteed lightly with some garlic; the leaves can be dried and used as herb/spice (kasuri-meethi, an important ingredient in many Indian cooking is created by drying the leaves). Can you locate the lettuce plants :-)?

Mustard greens. Mustard seeds are readily available in any Indian stores as they are an important spice in Indian cooking. Again, they are also available in many of the US Supermarkets. Another extremely easy plant to grow. Scatter the seeds (as if you are feeding pigeons); you do not have to cover them up or water them; they will germinate within couple of days. I have read somewhere that mustard plants are used to do environmental cleaning as these plants can absorb all the poisonous chemicals from the ground, like mercury, lead, arsenic, poisonous pesticide, insecticide, etc, and still survive. In that case, the whole plant, stem and leaf included, will be saturated with these chemicals. Thus, it is better to grow your own organic mustard-greens; also, it is better idea not to eat them grown in a field/pot and you do not know if the soil in the field/pot has had any chemical exposure.

And all these plants - broccoli, lettuce, celery, radish, etc, etc - are growing in a small tiny plot as seen in the picture below

Food from backyard

Yesterday (December 28, 2011), I posted pictures of all the greens that I picked up from our backyard. It consisted of radish, radish-green, beet-green, mustard-green, three types of lettuce, celery-leaves and celery-stalk, baby swiss-chard, baby-spinach. I can harvest all these because of the greenhouse, and that there has not been any snow/blizzard here yet - a big proof of climate change. So, using all those greens, I cooked up three different dishes.

The radish was chopped up in small places and immersed in white vinegar, salt and sugar. This is how radishes and carrots are often served, before the food, in many Chinese, Thai restaurants. The overgrown radish green were chopped up and sauted with garlic. All the other greens were made into a salad with pine-nuts, boiled cracked-wheat (also sometimes referred to as Bulgar in the US, though two are very different), lemon-juice and salt.

Greenhouse

My Dear Hubby has built this greenhouse from scratch for me. It is made with 1/2 inch PVC pipes. So far, it has been sturdy against strong wind. Hopefully, it will withstand big blizzards. Of course, this is not a professional greenhouse and thus we can't grow plants that require hot temperature like tomatoes, eggplants or pepper. Temperature do drop inside during the night. However, we are growing plants that can withstand even below 20 degree Fahrenheit and these plants are thriving beautifully inside this greenhouse. The plants that are inside are leafy-lettuce (all kinds), spinach, mustard-green, fenugreek-green, celery, garlic, radish, chinese cabbage, beet, peas, swiss chard and some argula.

First Row: the greenhouse from outiside (left), the door to get inside the greenhouse (center), an inside portion of the greenhouse (right).
Second Row: more greens growing in a pot inside the greenhouse (left), pea on a pea-plant (center), another side inside the greenhouse (right).

Radish and Leafy Greens

Radish (on the left) and celery, chinese cabbage and other leafy greens (right image), freshly picked from the garden. The radishes were grown using Burpee's Organic Radish Seed. The packet says that the radish will be ready within 22 days. It is true. The seeds are tiny. But, just scatter them around and within next day, seedlings emerge, and start growing fast. Strangely, the seedlings emerge and grow even if there is not enough light, and the outside is freezing (22 degree Fahrenheit). However, I left these radishes in the ground for more than 22 days as I had other things to eat. I have heard people saying old radishes taste bad, bitter, hot, are stringy and what not. But, I did not notice any such thing with these radishes though they were growing in the ground for more than two months. Very nice tasting radish.

We (Indians) also eat the green leaves of the radish plants. I usually saute all these green leaves using garlic, pepper flakes (or a big jalapeno) and sometimes mushroom. Absolutely yuuuuuummmmmmmyyyyyyyyy...Thats' what I did this morning and had it for breakfast :-). Whenever I pick green leaves (for cooking), I usually pick the leaves those are closer to the ground or those that have lots of holes, chewing mark, etc (art work of slugs, snails, aphids and other insects). I leave the healthy, fresh looking leaves for the plants. In that way, the plants survive and keep on providing me with food; I also get to eat fresh organic vegetables and leaves :-).