Thievery

Every time there is a promising cucumber that will be perfect for the picking in another day, it's gone before it has a chance.  This was the case last year with my eggplants.

There's a plot next to mine that's also growing cukes but don't have theirs climbing sticks - theirs are just on the ground, growing in weird shapes.  They seem to be left alone.  All of mine that are the best and visible get snipped away.  Frustrated, I wrote a post on my gardening club's message board asking if anyone else experienced vegetable theft.  I said I hate to think it but it's either that or those squirrels are damn good with scissors.

The one reply I got was short and dismissive.  The writer said I'd be surprised how razor sharp claws are and how critters dug up someone else's bulbs so cleanly that it looked like a human did it with a trowel.  Oh really?  I didn't know critters could weed too.  Let me explain.

The weed situation is out of control in my corner of the garden.  We weeded diligently in the beginning but my mother realized she should leave it alone because the tall weeds on the side of the cucumbers worked as camouflage and hid the good cucumbers growing.  For a while it was working, until one day she noticed someone had cleared all the weeds on that side of the garden and also helped themselves to the best of my cucumbers.  The dismissive lady's suggestion: "I don't know what to tell you except look into wire netting?"  Yeah right.

In other news, I'm wondering if I should move this blog to Posterous.  It seems easier to maintain and I hate the fact that I am no longer able to post photos easily as I once had through flickr.  Now if I want to post a photo I have to use Picasa and it sucks.  Why did flickr get rid of its jpg link?  I don't know what the technical term for it is but it no longer lets me post photos here directly from it.  Since I'm on a different computer and don't have the photos on my hard drive, I have to download it from flickr then upload to Picasa then download it here.  Ugh.  It's so inconvenient.  Posterous, here I come.  Maybe.  I have to look into it more.

Tiny Plot's Bounty in Action

What's the fun in gardening if I can't enjoy the fruits of my labor?  Flowers are pretty to look at but I'm more interested in eating the effort.  Since I don't have a balcony or a back yard in which I can grill delicious beef ribs, I broiled some of my mother's excellent galbi and used the perilla, mint, and lettuce from the tiny plot to eat ssam.  That's ssam as in farm, not ssam as in ham.

Ironic then, that today came about trying to be free from these people:




Meat still sizzling:

Mint just picked, piled high above baby lettuce:

Basil bounty, washed and just before being turned into pesto:

Excess mint means Moroccan mint tea.  Refreshing.

New Plot, New Plantings

This post is long overdue.  But before I go on about all the lovely things growing in my tiny plot, I just want to give a bit what-up to Jeff.  He really helped me out tons earlier this year by weeding my new plot and getting rid of all the broken glass, brick pieces, and rocks.  He grabbed a hoe (not that kind) from the communal gardening tools area and really got to work turning the soil over and mixing in the organic fertilizer and rich gardening soil.  The way he approached this task, with so much focus and determination, actually scared me a little.  Thank you Jeff.  I hope you'll let me make you a salad one day.

Remember when it looked like this?

It's not like I only just started planting.  Actually, the plot is flourishing quite nicely right now.  I kick myself for not having snapped pictures after planting the seedlings.  Since planting, today was actually the first time I stepped foot in the garden!  Why?  Because I started a new job in April and it's been taking up all my time.  Yes, I'd like to be a well-rounded person.  Yes, I'd like to use my time more efficiently so I can pursue personal passions.  Yes, I'd like to find ways to relax other than eating a big bowl of carbs while watching You Tube then falling asleep.

So I have to do another shout-out (is that what the kids are still saying these days?) to my mom who's been completely devoted to my tiny plot.  She's the one who scoured the neighborhood for discarded sticks so the cucumbers have something to climb.  She's been religiously watering the little ones, pruning, weeding.  Today she asked me for an unused makeup brush so she can help the bees and other insects along by pollinating Gregor Mendel-style.  My mother takes great pleasure in our co-op garden, but she especially loves the satisfaction of eating her hard work.

Case in point:

This was an improvised gimbap made with perilla and cinnamon basil (RIP cinnamon basil - more on that later) she used after we had ingredients left over from making Jade some vegan gimbap for her restaurant.  This has pickled daikon, sauteed carrots, egg, and perilla.  Delicious.

The new plot gets about 40% more sun than the last one.  That combined with the hard work Jeff and I put in turning the soil and adding good fertilizer really makes a difference.  See it now:

On the other side of the fence is the composting area.  I helped out making some of the bins last year, before the hand surgery.  I used a bit of the compost when my mother and I planted the seedlings.

The seedlings.  That brings me to the darker side of this gardening club.  Another reason I kick myself for not having taking pictures is that there's been some theft.  Had there been thievery in other plots I'd venture to guess there's be quite a bit of email uproar.  But I haven't seen any.  How do I know it's human and not critter?  The neatness in which my lettuce were so delicately plucked from the earth.  But no matter.  I'm just glad no one stole the first cuke of the season, like the way my baby eggplants would constantly disappear last year.  Here it is:

I was so delighted!  I snipped it off and took it home, washed it, and ate it.  Not bitter at all and the skin was tender enough that I didn't have to peel it.

Here's some gorgeous purple basil I picked up at the Union Square farmers' market:

I'd like them to be doing as well as the Italian variety:

They are so tall and bountiful!  I see a lot of pesto in my future.  A word about my poor cinnamon basil.  I got them along with the other varieties of basil from the farmers' market.  I've never seen or tasted cinnamon basil before but they really do have the distinct fragrance of cinnamon.  Unfortunately, they look a lot like the weeds propagating in abundance along the edges of the plots.  Along came my overzealous mother out to destroy the weeds and, well, you get the idea.  No matter, I'll get more another time.

To make up for the lack of posts documenting my little ones' growth, here are a lot of pics I took this morning.

Jennie's mint.  They survived the bad location, the uprooting, and the winter.  These guys are tough.

Potato leaves.  When my mother and I started planting the seedlings, we found a small potato.  We decided to plant it to see what happens.  This is what happened.

The cucumbers doing very well.  My mother scoured the neighborhood for discarded by sturdy rods to give something for them to climb.

Tall basil and tall perilla.

Perilla in the sun.

Basil, perilla, lettuce.

Future pickles.

Switch

So after way too much back and forth than there needed to be I am switching to a different plot.  I didn't get my first choice - as it turned out to be a highly coveted spot and I was the second to request a switch and not the first as I had thought, it went to someone else.  But mine is the one next to it and upon further examination, I think it might actually be better.

The summer weeds are out of control so I have a lot of work ahead of me to clear my new plot:

It's hard to even make out where my plot ends and the next one begins from this picture.  It's completely covered with weeds and why no one announced the availability of the new area months ago when I saw it laid with topsoil and marked off I'll never know.  Annoyance aside, I'm just not sure how I'm going to get through all this with my wonky hand.  Here's the new plot from a different angle although I don't know how much of a better idea it gives of its size and location than the first one:

My tiny plot won't look like this for much longer:

View from the other side, photo a bit overexposed:

Several good things about the new plot:
1. More sun!  Not much more, maybe a couple of hours, but it's something!  Yay!
2. Tiny bit larger, I think.  The measurements were given by a committee member but I should go down there with a tape measure and see for myself.
3. Two points of access to the plot.  By that I mean, when the committee divided up the original garden, they didn't mark off where the footpaths were going to be and told people after they planted to make room.  Some did, some didn't, then they abandoned the plan altogether.  So for my square plot, I have only one point of access.  That means it's hard to reach my basil and some eggplants because I put them all the way in the back to get the most sun.  This time, the committee blocked off a footpath running down the middle so there are two points of access - from the main concrete path and the new footpath.
4. I've learned from my mistakes.  While it's really best to leave the plants alone for the rest of the season instead of digging them up, at least now I know how big they're going to grow next year and space them out better.
5. No more being neighbors with the person who keeps putting rocks on my side of the plot.

Why?  I don't see any rocks lining his/her side.  Whenever I see them, I just remove them.  They reappeared today.

Not really sure when I'm moving.  Of course, I'd like to postpone it until the end of summer.  The switchers don't have to uproot until their old plot is selected for a newcomer on the waiting list.  I haven't received any news about my plot being reassigned so everything stays put until then.

Something Old, Something New

The Old:
Oh dearie dear.  Poor communication and confusion have delayed the plot switch.  New plots were created in another area of the garden and some of the original members (including me) wanted to switch for a sunnier spot.  Getting this done has taken longer than necessary.  Now it's midsummer and unbearably hot with all sorts of tiny creatures biting me, and I have to weed my new plot then dig up all my not-so-little ones and replant them?  Are you kidding me?

The New:
Enough venting.  Today my mother came over and helped me pull out the lettuces and wrangle the out of control cukes that keep wanting to creep into a neighbor's plot.

Here's the last of the lettuce.  Not looking so good, but the final salad greens:

We picked two of the three eggplants that were growing.  They were sagging too close to the ground so my mom thought they'd be better picked and eaten:

The perilla were really abundant.  I hadn't picked any in weeks so there were plenty of large leaves.  My mother snipped while I held out the plastic bag for her to throw them in.  She counted 70.  Here they are after washing:

I took a few leaves and chiffonaded them to add to a nori omelet:

Recipe:
3 large eggs or 2 jumbo for a 10" nonstick pan
few tbsps dashi (homemade or powdered is fine, but it's optional)
dash mirin
dash soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
few drops sake optional
chopped perilla (or scallions, mushrooms, or whatever veggies you have on hand - it really doesn't matter as long as everything is chopped or sliced fine)
1 sheet nori
oil for the pan
Whisk together eggs, mirin, dashi, sake, soy sauce, salt and pepper.
Heat the oil (I use a blend of vegetable oil and a few drops sesame oil for flavor) and add the vegetables to sautee for a few minutes.  If it's just perilla, sautee for a few seconds.
Add the egg mixture and use a spatula to stir as you would an omelet.  When the bottom is cooked but the top is a little wet, lay the sheet or nori, rough side down.  Pat it down gently and when it looks like it's adhered somewhat, start loosening the bottom on one side of the pan and fold it over.  It should be about 2" wide.
Scroll to the bottom for my link to Oxo's pancake turner.  I have this and it's infinitely more useful than a normal spatula.  That's because it's super wide, and you really need something as wide as you can get to easily roll the omelet.  If you don't have it, use the widest spatula you have, or use two to help roll from both ends.
Loosen more of the bottom and keep rolling and loosening, rolling and loosening.  You should soon have something that resembles a log (think Buche Noel or jelly roll - mmmm... jelly roll.... num num num).  The seam side should be down, and shut off the heat.  Let the omelet sit in the pan for about 10 minutes so all the loose egg inside sets.  Transfer to a cutting board and let cool for another 5 minutes or so before slicing on a bias.

It takes practice, but even if it comes out ugly it's still delicious.  Perilla, when eaten raw, is quite pungent like basil.  But when it's cooked, its flavors become muted and lends a more subtle fragrance.  It's delicious in eggs.

Flowers, Seeds, and General Optimism

As I write this, Wimbledon is on, my new ac is on full blast, and I'm examining the upside down Y's marked with dirt on my sunburned feet.  There was an early morning brainstorm session on the next stage of the hand-built compost bins with the Sustainability Committee, then I skipped over to my tiny plot to water the parched darlings.  I'm guessing it was a total of 10 minutes my un-sunblocked feet was exposed to sun.  I wish I didn't burn so easily.  I'm not looking forward to the bumpy rash.  My poor toes.

But I discovered a few gems to share with you here!  I'd noticed teeny purple buds on my eggplants last week but here they are in full bloom:

Here's another one:

Pretty, aren't they?  I'm not sure if the variety my mom got me are the bulbous Italian kind or the long skinny Japanese kind.  I just hope they produce edible eggplants of some sort.

Before I go on, an apology for the high contrast photos.  It was very sunny out (aforementioned poor toes), and I took these with my iPhone.

Also exciting is that my cilantro have gone to seed.  I didn't know this until I googled to find out why my cilantro started to flower and didn't look like all the other gardeners' cilantro.  Apparently, I'd not harvested it properly.  Since I had no recipes I wanted to cook just yet that needed any, I decided to leave the flowers alone.  Many have now turned into coriander seeds:

I picked one to taste and it was deliciously pungent!  This might be a better shot of my thumbnail than the seed, but here it is split open:

This is what the cilantro looked like a few weeks ago, haphazardly growing with little white flowers on top:

The basil also flowered:

What were once cute little perilla seedlings now have strong thick stalks:

The lettuces look like they need some chopstick and twist-tie therapy.  I had no idea they'd get so weirdly tall.  Here they are flopped over, bowing to the mint:

And speaking of mint, they've gone crazy, as I'd expected:

Here's the whole thing as of this morning:

From the other side:

It looks like a crazy jumble of green now.  Remember when it looked like this?

Wayward Cucumbers

When I planted my tiny plot earlier this spring I tried to use as much foresight as possible regarding placement, considering height, sun needs, etc.  But being an inexperienced gardener I made mistakes and my tiny plot isn't perfect.  I had relocated my cukes next to the bendy wooden low trellis-y thing I'd bought to separate my plot from my neighbor's, thinking they could use that to climb.  Here it is behind the winebox plants:

Instead the cukes grew in the opposite direction, winding their young vines around their eggplant neighbors.  So I unwrapped them as gingerly as possible and attached them with twist ties to chopsticks I stuck into the soil.

I know this is ghetto and I know it can't last.  This would be optimal but as I have neither the space nor ingenuity, but mostly the space, I'm going to have to play the cucumber situation by ear. It all depends how much they grow, in what direction, etc.  But ideally I'd rather have my guys climb a tall fence.  That's why I've asked my gardening club about switching plots, since they're making more and it would be better if I had one by a fence so I am not shading someone else's plot.  

Chinese Bellflowers

My mother brought four Chinese Bellflowers to plant in my garden (one got decapitated).  I'm running out of space but these flowers are lovely.  The root is edible but it won't be ready for another five years or so, so I'm going to plant them next to the taller perillas so they enjoy some shade.

Resting on my kitchen windowsill before planting:

This one has four points:

This one has five points:

This one has six points: