Carrot Wannabe!!

Without the knowlege  on how to harvest sweet potatoes I decided to see how big mine are right now!  However, when I pulled this one out of the ground I got a little confused!!! 

Curvy Carrot Potato??

Hmmmm....I think it'll make for a decent side dish for one, along with the eggplant I harvested tonight!

From Plant to Plate ~ A Yummy Eggplant Recipe

When selecting which plants to grow in my garden I was limited due to the season.  I prefer to eat broccoli and green beans, but it was too hot for them.  I knew that I'd have to try things I don't usually buy.  Yes, I eat squash and eggplant, but when it's prepared by someone else.  With that said, I had never eaten an eggplant that wasn't fried and smothered in cheese and sauce.  However, now that my garden was in plentiful supply off eggplant, I needed a good recipe!  

I asked lots of people and looked online, but was regularly referred back to good 'ol Eggplant Parmesan.  I didn't want to make a meal of it, I just wanted a good side dish.  Then, my friend said to cut an eggplant in half, put olive oil on it and then bake it.  So, I did.  Sad to say, but.... I didn't like it.  I couldn't throw the vegetable away so I decided to cover it and place what was left in the fridge.  

A couple days went by and my vegetarian cousin came over.  She reheated the cooked eggplant and tasted it.  She liked it, but put a little seasoning on it.  I tasted her recreation and liked it.  :)

So, since then I've modified the basic recipe and created something very tasty and easy to make.  I've enjoyed making and eating this dish multiple times over the past couple of days. Enjoy!

   

Baked Eggplant
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the Eggplant in half lengthwise.
Place in any oven safe container cut side up.

Completely cover the cut side of the eggplant with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  The eggplant will start to soak up the oil, as seen by the bottom eggplant in the photo below.

Sprinkle the following seasonings onto the eggplant:  Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Garlic Powder and Basil.

Begin baking for 30 minutes.

About every ten minutes add a good amount of olive oil to the cut side of the eggplant.

After 30 minutes or so, depending on your oven, check to see if the eggplant is soft.  Then remove from the oven.

Once the eggplant is tender enough for you, plate it and enjoy!

I like to add a little bit of grated parmesan and ramano cheese.

For those of you who are new to eggplant like I was, you can eat the skin and all! :)



I Wave My White Flag!

I have to consider my squash a loss! 

Once again Dad was right!! Yup, he was!

Although my Crookneck Squash finally seemed to be thriving with at least ten fruits on the bush, they are duds!  The fruit grows and then gets soggy and bumpy like it was overwatered.  After much research on the internet and a phone call to my favorite Home Depot Garden Dept Employee, Betty, it's just too hot! 

Squash thrives in the warmth when the nights drop anywhere from 72-60 degrees.

Just to note, I did plant them at the right time.  However, with the probems like the White Powdery Mildew and all the aphids there was no way I'd succeed from the beginning.

Our hot Florida days and nights have cause me to Surrender!!

:(  Better Luck Next Year

Cuc-Yum-ber

Enjoying the fruits of our labor! Boy was it yummy :)

SO MUCH SQUASH!!!!

So, Chris comes to me tonight and asks if I've seen how many squash I have growing.  I just took pictures this morning and posted them, and I don't see what I saw just a couple of hours ago in those pictures!  I have 8 little yellow squash growing!  Even though I have all the bugs, it's still producing like crazy.  I just can't believe how fast it's happening.

Gardening Struggles

I researched online and it seems like my squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, and watermelon are all coated with Two Spotted Spider Mites!  I started to use Red Pepper Flakes two days ago on my squash, but now it’s spread to the other plants I’ve just mentioned. I don’t know if it’s been long enough for the red pepper to be absorbed in the leaves, but with the massive infestation, I think that it might be time to try Thuricide.  Any other suggestions?


Back of Squash Leaves

Cantaloupe Leaves
see how they are wilting?

Garden Success

Bell Peppers

! 

Cucumber plant

My Beautiful Egg Plant

1st Tomatoes

Squash

Overview of the two gardens.  Please ignore all the “weeds”… grass growing through!  We pull them and they grow back almost immediately!

Next to the marigold plant there is a small mound.  We thought we’d wing it and see if some pumpkin seeds will sprout.  We just planted them,wish us luck! 

My Newest Gardening Adventure

Growing up my father always had a garden!  It was the size of my bedroom and the plants were always blooming.  With this said, it was simply natural that one day I’d have a garden too. 
I started one back in 2007.  It was relatively small, two long skinny beds about 32 square feet.  The garden was a success, we were enjoying broccoli, beans and tons of tomatoes.  But then one day I went to check on my garden and found the neighbor’s sprinklers were spraying them with reclaimed water.  Now, many people I talk to insist that it’s not harmful to eat a veggie that’s been watered with this treated water.  But, I’d rather not take a chance with all the chemicals it took to clean what was in the water originally.  So, needless to say, my husband and I demolished that garden.
It wasn’t until the spring of this year that my friend got me motivated again!!!  :)  I started my garden in a small area under my kitchen window in the back yard. Here I knew the reclaimed water wasn’t near my vegetables.  I planted green beans, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers.  For a little while they all looked beautiful.  I had plants growing, but a few weeks went by and it seemed like the plants weren’t getting any bigger.  They weren’t getting enough sun! 
At first my husband wasn’t sure about creating a new large garden, but he gave me the benefit of the doubt and jumped into the gardening game with me!!  First he disconnected the sprinkler system from my garden area, put up a fence to keep the dogs out, built two gardens, picked up free dirt from the city, and helped me with the soil, peat and manure mixture.  Without him… well, let’s not even imagine!!!  :)
Here are garden photo’s from May 10th!  It’s the start of a beautiful thing! :)
Eggplant, 2 Cucumber plants, 3 Tomatoes, 2 Bell Peppers, 5 Sweet Potatoes
Crookneck Squash, Zucchini, Watermelon, Cantaloupe