Tag Archives: vegetable gardening

Get To Know Us

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

We are the Dallas County Master Gardeners at the Earth Kind® WaterWise Demonstration Garden on Joe Field Road. We hope you will get to know us and plan a visit to our gardens. 

We love compost and work hard at it.  Cindy, Sue, and Roger are adding green material to our compost bins. Believe me, our compost smells good. Roger is wearing the mask to reduce exposure to allergens.  Come take a whiff-we promise!

Master Gardeners Working with Compost

Adding green material to the compost bins at the Demonstration Garden

Planting those onions mentioned in the “Farm to Table” menu.

Planting Onions-January 2012

Onion Planting in January 2012

Jim adding drip irrigation to one of our raised beds.  If he can’t do it, nobody can!

Adding drip irrigation to a raised vegetable bed

“Cares melt when you kneel in your garden!”

Dallas County Master Gardeners at work, weeding in the Demonstration Garden

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Tomato Tips

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

TOMATO TIPS

Celebrity Tomato Recentyl Planted in the Fall Vegtable Garden

We plant  tomatoes in the vegetable area of the Earth-Kind® Demonstration Garden.

Here are some tomato musts:

  • Be sure that your site has full sun, at least 6-8 hours a day. 
  • Plant a variety that grows well in the Dallas area, like Celebrity, Roma, or Sweet 100.  Heirlooms are also delicious, but trickier to grow. 
  • Use a rich soil full of aged compost. At the Demonstration Garden we use the Earth Kind® Bed Preparation.  Mulch to keep down weeds and retain moisture. 
  • Spray weekly with fish emulsion to repel spider mites and fertilize your plants.
  • Plant your spring tomatoes in early March, being prepared to cover young plants if a freeze threatens.  Fall tomatoes can be planted in early July.
  • Provide a structure to hold the tomato plant, such as a large cage or wire.  Tomato stems are brittle and will break without support.
  • Give regular water with drip irrigation or a soaker hose.

We don’t fertilize at the Demonstration Garden; if you want to feed your plants, use a slow release organic fertilizer.

If you have more tomatoes than you can give away, core them and freeze them whole in freezer storage bags for later use in sauces.  Freezing preserves tomato flavor better than canning.

Elizabeth

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Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

Stir 4 minced garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons of olive oil together in a cold large skillet.  Cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant.  Stir in 2 pounds of cored and peeled tomatoes, cut in ¾-inch chunks and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and chunky, about 15-20 minutes.  Reduce heat if sauce starts to stick to bottom of pan.  Remove from heat.  Stir in ¼ cup chopped fresh basil with salt and pepper to taste.

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Tomato Talk

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

TOMATO TALK

Dallas Tomatoes ripening on the counter

Thirty tomatoes ripen on the kitchen counter.  Little red bottoms in the air, stem side down, they were picked when blushing, but not ready to slice.  Now they deepen into that lovely rosy red of June gardens.  A strainer full of cherry tomatoes drains in the sink.

A part of me wishes the tomato plants in my garden were as lovely as their offspring.  Now, with our high temperatures, their yellowing leaves are hosts to masses of spider mites, a miniscule pest. Yes, we did spray the plants with fish emulsion—which is just what it sounds like—that is supposed to repel the insects.  But we lost that battle.

And there’s the space issue. Or lack thereof. The unruly Sweet 100 Cherry tomato bush is about 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and completely covers the well-behaved Celebrity tomato.

Celebrity Tomato

In the seed stage, tomatoes line up to be Determinate or Indeterminate.  Determinate tomatoes agree to only grow to a certain height, have lots of large offspring, and bring them to graduation ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the embarrassing relatives of the straight and narrow determinates.  They have their own time table and in mid- June look like they haven’t had a shave or decent haircut in months.

Indeterminates grow as tall and as wide as water and fertilizer will take them, have zillions of cherry tomatoes, and ripen WHENEVER THEY WANT TO.

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato

If that’s confusing—a little botany goes a long way—look at it this way:

A determinate Celebrity tomato would vote for Mitt.

An indeterminate Sweet 100 Cherry tomato would support Barack.

Elizabeth

 

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A “Farm to Table” Menu

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Looking Back at the May Master Gardener Meeting

Planning to feed over 125 Master Gardeners a satisfying lunch fresh from our garden can be quite a daunting task.  Preparations must start early.  This year was no exception. 

In late January Jim set out over sixty 1015 onion slips.  By mid March it was time to plant green bean seeds.  We weren’t sure of the variety because the seeds were given to us.  However, they ended up producing one of those “bumper” crops.  Then in April some radish seeds were added to one of our raised beds.

Already in the ground and doing well after three years were four different varieties of blackberries:  Natchez, Rosborough, Womack and Brazos.  Also, our upright rosemary was so large it was about to overtake the raised bed planted three years prior. 

Blackberry Blooms at the Demonstration Garden

As May rolls around with the thought of providing a healthy and delicious lunch for our Master Gardener friends it’s time to get started with menu ideas.  Our speaker for the event was going to be a professional “bee keeper”.  How appropriate for our group since we all value and understand the importance of bees in the garden.  

Why not offer the group a “honey” based menu?  Here’s what we finally decided was doable with limited oven space but volunteers determined to meet the challenge. 

Menu  

Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce

Rustic Onion Tarts

Garden Salad Bowl with Fresh Green Beans and Radishes

Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Old Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler 

Blackberries Picked for our Cobbler

Here’s how we did it.  The onions were fully developed and ready by mid May so the harvesting and drying in bundles of eight began.  At the same time, our blackberry bushes were heavy with luscious ripe berries in beautiful shades of purple, black, and burgundy.  Picking them over the next few weeks was a treat. Our strategy was: eat one, pick a dozen.  And so eventually we dutifully harvested over 15 gallons and sent them to the freezer.  

Happily, our “garden to plate” plan produced the following: 

  • Enough 1015 onions for ten rustic tarts (each tart yielded 12 slices)
  • Plenty of “thyme” for flavoring the tarts
  • Blackberries to make six 13” x 9” cobblers (each cobbler fed 25)
  • 125 10” rosemary strips for the chicken skewers
  • Six gallons of green beans for the salad
  • One lonely radish (if you have to supplement somewhere, why not with radishes?)  Rosemary Skewers on the Grill

Thanks to Abbe’s husband, Neal, for bringing his grill to cook the chicken skewers on site.  What an enticing smell as MG’s were arriving!  It was a delightful morning for our event.  Lots of full and satisfied gardeners celebrated the joy of locally grown, fresh organic food.   

Waiting in line for homegrown cooking!

 Now it’s time to get our hands dirty again and put that fall crop in the ground.  After all, some new menu ideas are buzzing around in our heads! 

Linda

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Rosemary Chicken Skewers

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Rosemary Chicken Skewers

 

Rosemary Skewered Chicken Tenders 

20 rosemary branch skewers with foxtail end, approximately 10” (soak skewers in water for one hour)

Chicken tenders or breast cut 1” x 4”

Lemon-half moon cut ½” thick

½ cup lemon juice

1 Tbs. lemon zest

1 Tbs. garlic, minced

4 Tbs. basil, chopped

1 teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon chili flakes

4 Tbs. honey

½ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning 

1.  Weave chicken strips onto skewers.

2.  Combine ingredients and marinate skewers overnight.

3.  Season with salt and pepper just prior to grilling. 

Serves: 10 

Satay Dip 

1 Tbs. good olive oil

1 Tbs. dark sesame oil

2/3 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)

1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh ginger root

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 Tbs. good red wine vinegar

¼ cup light brown sugar, packed

2 Tbs. soy sauce

½ cup smooth peanut butter

¼ cup ketchup

2 Tbs. dry sherry

1 ½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

 

Cook the olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger root, and red pepper flakes in a small heavy-bottomed pot on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10 – 15 minutes.  Whisk in the vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry and lime juice; cook for 1 more minute.  Cool and use as a dip for grilled chicken skewers.

 

Yield:  1 ½ cups

 

 

 

 

 

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Onion Tart

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Back in January Jim planted 1015 onions in one of our raised beds.

After several months they grew to be some of the biggest, best looking onions ever seen.  We harvested them in late April and used them in May to let our fellow Dallas County Master Gardeners fall all over themselves the way we did when tasting an onion tart made from our harvest.  Oh my!

Rustic Vidalia Onion Tart

Rustic Vidalia Onion Tart

2 Tbs. butter

4 medium-size Vidalia onions, thinly sliced(we used our 1015 onions)

(about 6 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp. chopped fresh rosemary or thyme

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

½ (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts

Parchment paper

1 egg white, lightly beaten

¾ cup (3 oz.) shredded Gruyere cheese, divided

1.  Preheat oven to 425*.  Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add onion and next 3 ingredients.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until tender.

2.  Unroll piecrust onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat or roll into a 12-inch circle.  Place piecrust on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Brush with egg white.  Sprinkle ½ cup cheese in center of crust.  Spoon onion mixture over cheese, leaving a 2 ½-inch border.  Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup cheese over onion.  Fold piecrust border up and over onion, pleating as you go and leaving a 4-inch-wide opening in center.  Brush crust with egg white.

3.  Bake at 425* on bottom oven rack 17 – 19 minutes or until crust is golden.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 6 servings.

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