August 19, 2008
Here are some links to teachings about biblical womanhood.
Woman as Wives Pastor Mark Driscoll
If there are any ladies out there or if you know any ladies who could benefit from hearing this…please pass it on.
[ No Comments ] Posted on 08.19.08 under Garden of Biblical Womanhood
First Okra!
August 18, 2008
I picked my first 4 inch long Burgandy Okra this morning.
These okra plants are SO incredibly hardy in this desert heat and I have not given them one bit of shade. I could have let it grow a little longer because it was very tender and I’ve heard that when they get longer than 3 inches they get tough.
Here’s a picture of it a few days ago…before I picked it.
And here’s the flower that blooms and falls off right before the okra start growing…
If you haven’t tried growing okra before, I would suggest to give it a try next year! It is such an easy and beautiful plant to grow in the extreme heat of the Arizona desert summers.
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 08.18.08 under From My Garden
Harvest Crusade
August 15, 2008
I know this isn’t a garden topic, but since this is my site and I think this is an AWESOME event, I thought I’d post it here since you can watch it live wherever you are in the country tonight, tomorrow and Sunday…and then they will have it saved and you can download it WHENEVER after the event is over.
I got saved in Anaheim, California at this event 8 years ago…so did my dad.
CHECK IT OUT!!! It might change your life…it did mine!
[ 3 Comments ] Posted on 08.15.08 under Home Life
Farmer Darrell’s August Gardening Tip
August 05, 2008
Using vinegar for an inexpensive and organic weed control
It’s HOT here in the desert right now, and about the only thing that will grow well in your garden are weeds. As this is unacceptable to most of us, the least amount of weeds in your garden the better off you are. Here is an inexpensive way to control weeds.
Most products on the market are not organic and contain harmful chemical residue. Vinegar is acetic in nature and will kill most simple weeds. For most applications you should use a 5% concentration meaning 95% water and 5% vinegar. You can use a stronger mixture of 15, 20, and 25% concentrations. All vinegar causes weeds to turn brown within 24 hours.
I tried vinegar on my weeds and the results were as follows.
*Weaker concentrations (5-10%) worked well on young, more tender weeds.
*Stronger concentrations (15-20%) were more effective on mature weeds.
Vinegar is not labeled for use as a pesticide, so county extension agents aren’t able to recommend its use, but homeowners can experiment. Household vinegar works well on young weeds. Repeated applications improve its effectiveness.
Now is the right time to make sure your weeds don’t grow and spread in your garden before fall. The old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” goes for your garden as well. The best method of application is to dilute the vinegar with water and use a spray bottle and apply directly to the weed. White vinegar seems to work better than cider vinegar.
*Spray it directly on the foliage and try for total saturation without too much run off.
*Don’t apply if rain is expected, since water breaks down the acetic acid.
*Avoid spraying an herbicide on windy days to prevent it from drifting onto plants you don’t want to kill.
So remember to avoid using poisonous, harmful sprays and try herbicides instead. There is an alternative to keeping your garden organic and healthful. Most vinegars are distilled from apples and grapes which originate from plant sources. Try it and you might find more uses than I did. Vinegar is considered organic.
Have a great August. Fall is right around the corner!
Till next month, Farmer Darrell signing off.
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 08.05.08 under Farmer Darrell's Tips
Bad Melon
July 30, 2008
So, my hunch that these melon seeds were planted by my kids from a cantaloupe that we bought from the store was correct. It tasted like a cucumber and it wasn’t orange. Those hybrid cantaloupes don’t produce what you think they are going to produce.
Now try explaining that to a 3 year old!
What I’m going to do with 5 more of these, I’m not quite sure…dip them in ranch dressing?
[ 7 Comments ] Posted on 07.30.08 under From My Garden
Big Cantaloupe
July 28, 2008
Yep, I picked it. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. My kids are getting antsy now because it’s sitting on the counter and they are waiting for the second I tell them that they can eat it. I think I’ll wait for 3 days or so to cut into it just to be safe so that it’s soft enough. Do y’all grow melons successfully here in the Valley? What are y’alls secrets to growing them? This was a fluke thing for these melons to come up the way they did because I have tried growing them for 3 years now with very little success.
I’ll post the photos of the inside of it as soon as we cut into it in a few days…
[ 3 Comments ] Posted on 07.28.08 under From My Garden
Thanks for the Peppers, Dad!
July 28, 2008
AKA Farmer Darrell…
I went out to Tempe to my Dad’s for Nathan’s (my 6 year old) birthday. He wanted to go swimming at grandpa’s for his birthday, so we did. While we were there, my dad unloaded a few pounds of peppers on me from his 40 pepper plants. I’ll always take any extra home grown veggies!!!
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 07.28.08 under From My Garden
Mystery Solved
July 23, 2008
So, you know that mystery melon I was talking about a couple of days ago? Well, I went out this morning and looked at it again and it has morphed into some sort of cantaloupe. The skin is no longer smooth and it has the rough webbing all around it. I swear I don’t remember planting any cantaloupes over there by the okra, but maybe my kids did when I wasn’t looking. Who knows. And then when I started watering the okra they must have decided that it was time to come up.
This is what it looked like this morning…
The other cantaloupes that were growing a few months ago did not do well and they didn’t look like these. Maybe they are the same, maybe they are different. My kids are always getting their seeds from the fruit they eat and then plant them over in my garden thinking they might come up, but most of the time they try planting apples, peaches, or dates. Who knows how many seeds are hiding in my garden waiting for an opportune time to show themselves…
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 07.23.08 under From My Garden
Squash Casserole
July 21, 2008
Here’s a squash recipe that sounds very interesting yet really good, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Squash Casserole
- 3 lb. yellow summer squash
- 2 carrots
- 2 onions
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 small jar diced pimiento (or I would use some garden peppers)
- 1 stick butter
- 18 oz. Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
Wash and slice all vegetables except onions. Put all in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven, salt to taste, and cover with water. Boil until tender. Add onions, drain, mash together, and cool. (I think I would probably just saute them up real soft and not boil them in water…ewww)
Mix soup, sour cream, and pimiento. Add to vegetables and mix well.
In a skillet, melt the butter and mix in the stuffing mix. Spray a 9×12 pan with cooking spray. Spread bottom with 1/2 of the stuffing mixture. Spread the vegetable mixture on the stuffing, then cover with the remaining stuffing mixture.Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes.
Let me know how it is if you try it before me!
[ No Comments ] Posted on 07.21.08 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
More tomatoes…
July 21, 2008
I reluctantly picked more tomatoes tonight, but I figured I better go pick ‘em since I hate to see them rot. But, geesh, what do you do with more tomatoes at this point. I guess make more sauce. That’s what they must have done in the “old days”. They didn’t grow them just for fun like I do, they saved them for later when they would need them.
It’s kind of hard for me to make sauce again because it’s like, what, maybe a dollar, or two if it’s organic, for a 28 oz. can of tomatoes or sauce down at Walmart. I’ve got to figure something a little more “gourmet” to do with all the extras. I actually did use a jar of my own homemade tomato sauce a few nights back and it didn’t kill any of us. It tasted the same as it did on the day I made it a few weeks ago. I was completely amazed at the fact that you can preserve produce yourself. Ok, that sounds strange to you older generations, but for the thirty something generation it is more of a lost art. Back in the day, I’d imagine that it probably wasn’t such a fun pleasure, but for a city girl like me the art of preserving this abundance of tomatoes is a novelty.
Nate helped me pick a bunch of tomatoes tonight, although we had to leave a few more bowlfuls unpicked. We were too afraid to go in very deep into the “jungle” for fear of the spiders that were coming out in the dusk hours. We’ll save that for tomorrow when there is more light and I can see what’s crawling on me. With all the dead leaves, there seem to be many more critters in the “jungle” to watch out for. Oh, we also discovered 2 more cantaloupe sized melons just like the one that I posted yesterday. How cool is that?
Here’s Jaedon modeling some Porter and Green Zebra tomatoes.
And here he is with some gorgeous little Listada de Gandia’s.
He wears them so well.
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 07.21.08 under From My Garden
