Last Harvest

We have had our fill of zucchini and yellow squash, time to look towards the pumpkins and butternut. Temperatures are dropping and we decided to do a final harvest before frost is on the pumpkin. We let one cucumber grow to full size for next year's seed. Some tomatoes will remain to see just how late we can harvest. The ground cherry plants will stay to see if they winter over, it's the first year we have planted those.
We have been looking forward to the grape harvest; last year we processed about 200 pounds as raisins or a "beverage". Last week our friends said they needed about one more week to reach full ripeness. THEN, over the weekend the temperature dropped to 21 degrees and all of the grapes froze - just a lot of mush now. So, we now better understand the risk farmers take trying to provide food for our needs. Oh well, for us there's always next year.

Crabbing - Oregon Northern Coast

Our daughter went crabbing with some friends on the Oregon Northern Coast. They went out in a boat for several hours and each caught their limit. She was generous and shared with us.
First the crabs had to be cleaned and prepared for cooking. BIG DECISION - how to prepare them. We settled on stir fry with lots of garlic.

Sandra took about 8 cloves of garlic for each crab.

Chop the garlic finely, and stir-fry it in oil until it is golden brown.

Remove the garlic and add about a tablespoon of dried red pepper flakes and fry until fragrant.

Cut the crab into four pieces and dredge with flour.

Stir-fry the crab in the oil until it is done, adding some chicken bouillon powder and salt.

When the crab is done add chopped green onion and the fried garlic and heat until the onion is softened.

Serve with steamed bread.

DON’T discard any leftover garlic residue. It is great added to rice congee.

As you can see, there wasn't anything left. In fact it was so tasty that I bought a license and went out to catch our own crabs this past Friday.

We went to a jetty near Nehalem Bay on the Oregon coast. They rent the traps and I wanted to try it out before I invested in my own traps. The license which allows you to catch 12 crabs per day was $6.50 and the traps rented for $8.00/day including a rotting fish for bait. We went with another family and took the fixings for lunch and hot pot in case we were hungry and didn’t want to eat the crabs we caught “on-the-spot”. We even decided how we would divide our catch among our friends since 12 per family would be more than enough.
They even have a pot to boil your crabs if you want to eat them there at one of the many tables provided surrounding a communal fire pit.

They rent boats if you want to go out into the channel but we decided to crab from the floating dock.

Well, to make a long story short we “crabbed” all afternoon. Throw the trap out – wait 20-30 minutes – pull the trap in – inspect the catch. You are only allowed to keep male crabs measuring over 5-3/4 inches across the back of the shell.

I caught 33 crabs – and brought none home. All the large crabs were female and the males were too small to even measure. My friend and his daughter caught over 40 crabs – same results.

We thought about buying some crabs at the pier but had second thoughts. There will always be another chance; in fact my friend is out today at another location. MAYBE he will share his catch.

Ground Cherry - an elegant presentation

This is a ground cherry

We found some in a local Farmers' Market and I decided to try to grow some. I planted the seed in pots in the early spring and they soon sprouted.

They were ready to transplant into the garden in late March.
They grew like weeds, literally. I found that in some parts of the country they invade vacant property and take it over. They soon showed that characteristic in our garden.

As the fruit matures and ripens the papery covering turns brown and the fruit drops to the ground, hence the name "ground cherry".

The right plate is the ground cherry as picked up and the left is the ground cherry fruit after removing the outer husk.

The fruit has a distinctive taste, somewhat like a pineapple-flavored tomato with lots of small hard seeds. Sandra dipped some in white chocolate and it has a much different taste - even more delicious.

Recently I looked at ground cherry information on the web and found that it has been planted in Taiwan and is known as the lantern fruit. It is said to be detoxifying, an aid in controlling diabetes, an antitussive, and a diuretic. So, just eat a few at a time.

A few days ago we picked up some and gave to a friend to take home. She gave some to her children to eat. Later we asked her daughter how she liked it. She replied that it was bad, “Tasted like paper”. We found out that she had eaten the whole thing including the papery husk. When I asked her mother if she had told her to peel it first she replied, “That’s just common sense”.

Fortunately, there is information that indicates the outer covering can be used as a tea that has a detoxification effect. This incident reminded me of the time we gave our friends some jongdz; we had to remind them to remove the bamboo leaves before eating.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong serves a tart with ground cherry at their afternoon tea. I don't think it can compare in elegance or taste with the one prepared by Sandra.

Cucumber - plentiful harvest and CHEAP

We like cucumbers fresh in salads, with Chinese spices and pepper, preserved in soy sauce, and as bread and butter pickles. The first crop of six disappeared overnight, victims of birds hungry for the first signs of spring. The second planting survived after being protected about a week with upturned milk containers.

These cucumbers are long and slender with spines, similar to the cucumbers we found in Taiwan.

They made great tasting Szchuan cucumber pickles with garlic and hwa-jau.

They were also good preserved in soy sauce and made crispy bread and butter pickles.

After pricing them in the local Farmers' Market at $1.50 each I've decided to continue growing our own; in fact I'm preparing for next year by letting one go to seed. I didn't expect it to get this big though.

First Experience with Zucchini

My friend looked at me askance when I told her that I had planted four zucchini. I soon learned why she had that reaction. The first blooms produced bright glossy-green squash and we enjoyed them in salads and baked casseroles.
They continued to bloom AND bloom, we began to share the zucchini with friends and neighbors.

Sometimes we were full of zucchini and when the neighbors saw us coming they closed the curtains. As a result the zucchini stayed on the plant longer and longer and grew larger and larger.

In fact one hid under the leaves and went un-noticed well beyond the scheduled picking time.

Surprisingly the giant zucchini was tender and tasteful.

LESSON LEARNED: Two zucchini are enough for a family and friends

Garden, first harvesting of 2009

Well, I'm still learning about gardening in the Pacific Northwest. The late start of the growing season and our unusually cool spring weather resulted in a huge accumulation of seedlings in my workroom awaiting planting. I planted some zucchini very early and had to cover it several times when the temperature dropped below freezing at night. The slugs appreciated the early treat and attacked the two seedlings vigorously and I thought I had lost them so I moved two more outside. The first ones made a miraculous recovery and I now had four healthy plants growing. A couple of long-time resident friends came by one afternoon and looked at the garden; I could hear them whispering "Didn't anyone tell him never to plant more than one zucchini?" We are now harvesting zucchini in sufficient numbers to start giving them away to the neighbors, so beware if you hear the doorbell.

The first spring we were in the house we rejoiced when we saw a large tree in the backyard loaded down with cherries. We went out and picked some and quickly learned that they were a small red plum. They have served us well as ingredients for some plum wine.

This year Sandra is using some of the almost-ripe ones to prepare a Chinese snack using salt, sugar, and dried plum powder.

I harvested our first cabbage today, it wouldn't fit in Sandra's basket; weighed in at 9 pounds 14 ounces. That's a lot of cole slaw.

You can tell from the leaves that we don't use pesticides, we try to be as "organic" as possible and actively compost throughout the year. We started the soil prep this year by digging in 300 pounds of steer manure; any volunteers for next year's prep work?

The tomatoes are almost ready to start turning color, the Japanese pumpkins and yellow squash are bearing as are the English and Chinese cucumbers. Our attempt at growing Sz Gua (loufa) and Dong Gua (winter melon) appear to be successful as both are blooming and preparing to set fruit. We are excited about the first fruit appearing on the ground cherries too.

In the wings I have about 8 goji plants started that will take another 3-4 years to start bearing. I am trying to be patient with some Szchuan pepper seeds that are reported to take up to 18 months to germinate, AFTER 3 months in the freezer. Oh, well, I may have a hard time finding a place for them anyway.

Well Sandra, We're Not in Taipei Anymore

This sign is at the entry to the playground at Cooper Mountain Elementary School just across the street from our house in Aloha, OR. There is a "pick-up droppings" ordinance for dogs, don't know about horses!