Category: Garden

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Wine Cap

I got another mushroom spore block last Christmas. The family biologists seem to enjoy them, and have looped me in. And I diligently grow them. Because they are kind of neat.

The first batch I grew were yellow oyster mushrooms, which had a pleasant mushroom-y taste. Then Dad brought me down some foraged Chicken of the Woods, which I recently wrote about, and tasted quite pleasant with indeed a chicken-type flavor and texture.

Chickens Don’t Live in the Woods

But the wine caps, for which I created a dedicated “garden” in a half bourbon barrel with straw, failed to fruit despite clear signs of ongoing inoculation. Finally, after nearly 6 months, they appeared.

So to try them, I applied a light sauté as to not muddle the flavors.

And they were terrible. Sweet and astringent. Yuck. Not recommended. I think I’ll send the rest up with Dad for him to try. What a disappointment for such a long wait. Oh well.

–Simon

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Pumpkins (Part 4)

It’s been a while since I had a good pumpkin harvest, and while my yield contains pretty small specimens, ravaged by squash bugs, it’s still better that most years past.

It’s a pretty pile of fall colors, perfect to usher in the season.

–Simon

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Gazpacho

This was really tasty. I had had cold soups before, but found them unsettling and unsatisfying. Soups shouldn’t be cold.

But I had cucumbers and tomatoes on hand. Why not give it a go? After all, I have Alton Brown now at my digital culinary disposal. Seemed like a good starting point. Here’s his recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/gazpacho-recipe-1937573

With some slight modifications: powdered cumin, because Liz doesn’t much care for it. And serrano peppers instead of bell, because that’s what I had. But otherwise, it’s pretty true to the recipe.

Also the portions were a tad modest, so I’d increase it in the future. But I supplemented it with garlic bread and that did the trick. Will definitely try again when I have an overabundance of summer veggies.

–Simon

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Prize Tomato 2025

Every year there’s one, usually either a beefsteak or a brandywine. An early fruit, if unmolested by wildlife, will eventually become the largest of the season. Here are the winners from past years (it would not appear that I documented them all):

2017: Undefined

Tomatoes!

2019: 24.8oz

BFT

2021: 16.8oz

Garbage Pile 3

2023: 19.3oz

Prize Tomato 2023

2024: 14.2oz

Tomatoes 2024

2019 still holds the record.

And pushing its way into 3rd place, muscling out 2021, is 2025! Yay!

2025: 17.2oz

Not epic, but categorically glorious.

–Simon

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Look at My Hard-y Banana

Musa basjoo, to be specific.

These things are cool, and they’ve been appearing with more frequency in the area. Maybe some sneaky horticulturists are embarking on a suburban gardening campaign to introduce more exotic species, or maybe climate change is simply expanding the range of some previously incompatible species to the USDA zone. Whatever the reasoning, I decided to give this guy a go last year.

Supposedly they can survive as perennials down to zone 5, so here in zone 6a/b it would normally be a tad too chilly. But, I used strategery in my micro-climate. I planted it in the hottest part of the yard: against the concrete driveway and asphalt road, above the heated oil pipeline. The ground never freezes very deep there. It was an experiment I kept from my sister, knowing that she’d tell me I was gardening wrong and it wouldn’t survive.

But lo! Here it is on year two! And with the constant rain, it’s very happy with the temporal climate facsimile of its native habitat.

Supposedly they bloom, but I don’t know if the season is long enough here. Still, it’s cool.

–Simon