Sochi Green tea

Another plant I've totally neglected this year. Poor thing. I have high hopes that if I start to take care of it this year it will produce much better in the next.

Unfortunately the goats seem to like green tea and will pull me toward it and munch off the stems. Goats like tea. Hmm.

Sochi tea. Planted spring 2010. 

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See what else is growing in my garden.

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Blanching cardoon for harvest

I've never grown or eaten cardoon before. I noticed the other day that these plants are awfully large, so looked up the harvesting information. I had it in my head that I probably shouldn't harvest them this year... kinda like asparagus or rhubarb. But everything I've read seems to indicate that it is fine to harvest in the first year.

cardoon planted mid-summer

Blanched cardoon. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks!

These two articles are particularly interesting:
http://www.frenchgardening.com/aupotager.html?pid=11916664991580
http://subsistencepatternfoodgarden.blogspot.com/2009/10/forgotten-cardoon.html

Guy found some blackberries today. It makes him very happy.

See what else is growing in my garden.

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Bombarding slugs with traps... days 12 & 13

Today I found roughly 15 slugs in all of my traps and yesterday I found 8.



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One Green World nursery tour... part 2

Also see: One Green World nursery tour... part 1

This apple tree is showing signs of drought due to a gopher eating the roots. She showed us the gopher holes. I asked her how she could tell the difference between gophers and moles. She said that moles have the lines they dig up leading to their mole hills but the gopher lines aren't as evident. A gopher hill looks horseshoe-ish versus a little hill. Gophers will actually eat the root rather but the moles just make ugly lines and hills. She said that they've learned how to gas the gophers with sulpher which you can find out about through extension services.

Apple tree showing drought from gophers eating the roots.

Ushaped gopher mound. 

Gopher hole

The pawpaw is another underutilized fruit. It's biggest problem in this climate is slugs (imagine that). They need huge amounts of fertilizer, particularly nitrogen which is best done in the spring. They form a big taproot. They hate weeds... in fact they used some dutch white clover but it was far too agressive and became weedy. The pawpaw fruit will ripen on the counter if you pick it too early. The trees will probably start producing in their 3rd year if the tree was grafted. You can freeze the pulp and make it into a gelato, which I tasted and OMG that was good.

Pawpaw tree... some leaves show slug damage. 

More slug damage on a pawpaw leaf. 

The aronia berry is not for fresh eating. Trust me, I tried it. Yuck. But the berries are very high in anthocyanins, so it would be good for medicinal qualities. Also a very strong dye. It is a North American native.

Bird nesting is very effective for control of birds.

The Russian Olive grows in Eastern Oregon and is considered invasive.

Jujube

Autumn Olive... I think this is the right photo. At any rate, she said that the tree fixes its own nitrogen, has tasty berries that are high in licopene. Tasted like whisky to me. Must've been fermenting.

Seaberry--I found these to be very sour. There is a German variety which is very acidic and a Russian variety that is a little oily. It makes great juice with sugar. She said that she had juiced some russian berries and left it for awhile and a large amount of cream seperated out. That may be an interesting culinary experiment for someone... seaberry sorbet/ice cream?

I can't seem to find the right photo for the seaberry.

The Medlar is a funny looking fruit. When ripe, you open it up and it is like eating a little cup of applesauce. They ripen like a pear, from the inside out.

The Medlar

Callaway Crabapple Check out this beauty. Well, the photo doesn't do it justice. Anyway, she said it hasn't caught on at all and they will probably phase it out. Too bad cause it really is pretty. The fruit is actually decent eating and the tree was loaded with bright red cherry looking fruit. I want.

Callaway crabapple

So pretty! The fruits were even brighter in person.

Some miscellaneous tasting notes:


The Kew crapapple wasn't terribly interesting. It tasted a bit like a red delicious apple with a bit more flavor.

I don't even know what the azarole is but I wrote "blah" in my notes.

Didn't care for this mountain ash fruit. Maybe heavily sugared it would've been better. 

These are the two grape varieties I tasted that I would consider putting in the garden. 

The hardy kiwi tasted like a mellower commercial kiwi without the fuzz. Good.

This is what stole the show. The pawpaw gelato was crazy good. I wonder if they added much heavy cream?




Curious to see what I've got growing in my garden? 




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One Green World nursery tour... part 1

I just got back from the most interesting nursery tour. One Green World hosted a nursery tour and tasting of some of its unusual fruits. Here are some photos and lots of notes that I took along the way.

A disclaimer on my tasting notes: many of the items that are being sold as being unusual edibles, many of which are processed into preserves or fruit. For me, I am far more interested in having fresh fruit as many months out of the year as I can. So I have to admit that I ended up turning my nose at quite a few fruits that would taste good sugared and made into preserves or juice, but I feel that I need to steer clear of the sugared products. And I don't want to have to work too much.

If you are short on time, the most interesting of the unusual fruits to me were the pawpaws (which I already have), pineapple guava, astringent type persimmon, and the carraway crabapple.

First on our tour was the fig trees. The lady that was hosting the tour said that figs tend to grow very well in our climate (zone 8) but whether or not they ripen here is another question. She said that you want to make sure that the nursery that sells the tree has actually tasted fruit off the tree to verify that it is a variety that will produce fruit in this area. She said that Desert King is the absolute best variety for our region. Laturella is also a nice variety. Desert King is also frost resistant where most varieties are not.

More notes: She said that figs produce a summer crop and a fall crop. Most figs will produce both crops but you can buy varieties that will do only one or the other. Supermarket varieties suck if they haven't been ripened on the vine. The neck of the fig will droop when it is ripe. Kiwis bear fruit on wood that grew the previous year.

Desert King Fig.... roughly 8 years old. 

Laterella (sp?) fig. 

Next stop is the hazelnut, which is native to this area. Eastern hazelnut blight is a big problem, and the symptoms are shown in the photograph. There are varieties that are starting to come out that are blight immune. Cut out branches that are infected.

Hazelnut showing signs of hazelnut blight.

Large hazelnut tree.

The next specimen of interest is the Akebia vine. They are semi-evergreen. Not the choicest of edibles but has a very pretty bloom. She said that some are using akebias in place of peppers for stuffed peppers.

Semi-evergreen akebia vines. 

Closer pic of the akebia with kiwi growing through the middle. 

I definitely agree that akebias aren't the choicest of edibles. They tasted very blah to me and one tasted like mold.

Akebia tastings. 

Akebia fruit.

The next photo is of a Bayberry. All I remember her saying was that some use it in pilaf.

Bayberry

The next plant she talked about is a pineapple guava. She raved about this fruit, saying that the fruit is so good that she can't stop eating it. She says the flavor for her rates as high as a blueberry. Evidently there is a variety that is shipped from California to stores, and the Oregon ones taste much better. The pineapple guava ripes about the second week of December, but crops will suffer setbacks if there is a 25 degree or below spell. If that happens you can pick the fruit and it may ripen on the counter. She likes the variety Nikita. From a seedling, the plant will produce fruit in 3-7 years. Pollination can be an issue. Performs best in the sun but they do have plants that receive only half days of sun and they do produce fruit. Evergreen. They are from Southern Brazil. They have tart skin but the skin is edible. She prefers to peel the fruit. I think she sold me on this fruit.

Pineapple guava.

Pineapple guava. 

Beautyberry. Not edible but very pretty berries. Purple fruits stay on vine through mid feb. Can use in cut flower arrangements.

Beautyberry

This photo is a pallonia (sp?) tree. Value is mostly in the wood. Very warp resistant. 

Next in the orchard are the American Persimmons which are native to the east coast. The american persimmon is an astringent type persimmon, which means they have to be absolutely ripe before eating. Though they are an astringent variety, the astringency makes them more flavorful and sweet. They ripen in late October and won't last long. She says you can pulp and freeze the pulp. There is a book she talked about called "Dimple Green" (I think) that has useful persimmon recipes. You can take an unripe astringent persimmon and put it in a food dehydrator and it will lose its astringency. Leaves are sugar factories for fruit production. Once the leaves fall off, no more sugar will develop.

American persimmon roughly 25 years old.

 

An unripe American persimmon. 

The Asian Persimmon is a non-astringent type. It is deciduous and turns brilliant colors in the fall. The most popular fruit in the world is the persimmon, as there are so many persimmon trees in China. The persimmon is relatively disease resistant in this area unlike its native environment.

Asian persimmon. 

Unripe Asian Persimmon fruit

She's excited about this new growth on the persimmon. 

The Cornelian Cherry is a fruit you have to eat when completely ripe.

Tastings of the Cornelian Cherry. They are sooo sour. There were a few sauces made with them which weren't bad. 

This currant is showing signs of aphid damage, which looks like a fungal problem but isn't. Typically currants will ripen in July.

Currant

The Jujube or Chinese date will turn brown when ripe. The fresh texture is like an apple. Dried, it is truly very much like a date. There are some reported benefits of cholesterol reductions. Ripens mid-october and will keep for 1-2 months.

The Chinese Date or Jujube

The Chinese dogwood was bred for ornamental fruit. Pick when very red. They taste very blah to me. The "Julian" variety was the taste test winner.

Fruiting dogwood. 

Click here to see One Green World nursery tour... part 2.








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