A Walk Around The Homestead 11/1/2016

I had a happy surprise today in the garden, so I thought it was time to show you how things are growing out there.  We are getting towards the end of rainy season, which means that we're still plenty wet.  I love not having to water my containers, as it's unusual if we don't get at least a little shower once a day.  Then the sun comes out and dries everything out.  In the dry(er) season (Dec - May), we may go two or three days without rain, which means I have to keep up with watering the plants I have in containers because the sun is so hot that even though we'll still get a couple of inches of rain per week, it's just not enough.

I bought this Barbado cherry when we first got on island a little over a year ago.  It has blossomed several times, but not set fruit... so I was happy to see some growing.  Once it gets going, it should produce nearly year-round.

This was my truly happy surprise this morning:  The Strawberry Guava that I bought at the same time as the Barbados Cherry is blossoming!  I have been waiting and waiting for signs of fruit, and it makes me giddy to see the beautiful flowers.

I have tried several times to root cuttings from a friend's Mulberry Tree.  Happy to report that the last attempt appears to have worked (it truly was the last attempt, too, as she moved off island and the military housing neighborhood she was in is now completely closed!)

And we all know how I feel about my figs.  They are looking beautiful!

This is my green-stem Malabar Spinach plant.  It's so long!  I just keep weaving it between my railing posts and it seems to be loving life.  We love the leaves in smoothies.

This tomato was one of the volunteers I found that sprouted up shortly before I got back on island in August.  It really started to take off once I repotted it.

These are some sunflowers I planted from old seeds.  I didn't expect any of them to sprout.  I'll need to transplant them soon so they have more room!

Lots of bees out doing their orientation flights this morning!

The dragon fruit has really grown by leaps and bounds.  This is a native yellow variety, and I've been told I won't need to hand-pollinate it.  I just hope it flowers soon!

This is luffa that also sprouted from old seeds.  I decided to put it next to the chain-link fence so it can spread its wings.  We'll see how it does, as I've never grown it before (successfully, anyway!)

I've got several Poona Kheera cukes that sprouted, so this one is on the same chain link with the luffa. I grew some in the dry season without much luck, so I'm hoping these will do better.

I just cut back this lemongrass last month and it's already grown even more.  This all started from a $1.69 bunch of stalks I bought at the commissary and rooted.

And this prehistoric looking monster of a plant is called Naranjilla, which means 'nectar of the gods'.  It has the nastiest thorns ever (which the Baker Creek catalog failed to mention) so I moved it from a pot on the deck into the pathetic raised bed.  We'll see how that goes.

And this lettuce is an experiment that seems to be doing well.  It is Jericho Lettuce, which supposedly is more heat tolerant than most.  I've had it in a protected place away from direct sunlight and it seems to be doing well.

I would like to start some pepper seeds and see if I can't grow some jalapenos, but other than that, I don't have any major plans for the garden.  It is definitely still an experiment in this humid 'paradise'.

Ms. Barwick's Applejacks (Courtesy of Vivian Howard)

Last week the mailman delivered my copy of "Deep Run Roots", Vivian Howard's new cookbook.  I have been waiting for its release for a LONG time.  Before we left Virginia and moved to Guam, I was fortunate enough to be able to eat at both of Vivian's restaurants (you like how we're on a first-name basis?).  I have watched every single episode of her show, "A Chef's Life", which airs on PBS. To put it mildly, I'm a fan.

Anyway, my friends Nancy and Courtney are also fans, so we decided that we would cook through the book together, even though they are 8,000 miles away in Virginia (with access to lots of fresh-picked-right-off-the-farm fruits and veggies) and I am here in Guam (with access to flown-in-from-thousands-of-miles-away fruits and veggies.  Unfortunately, there aren't any chapters in the book featuring mango or avocado or Asian beans or anything else that grows on this island.)

Given the time of year, we chose to begin with the Apple chapter.  Having been intrigued by Applejacks ever since  the apple episode in the second season of "A Chef's Life", that's where I chose to begin.  The back-story on these is that Vivian grew up going to the B&S Cafe, where they would sell these hand-held apple pies on the weekend for about a buck.  Sweet Ms. Barwick, who used to run the Cafe, is now Vivian's neighbor and in the afore-mentioned episode, she taught Vivian how to make the Applejacks.

It's not a quick process, I will tell you that much.  (ALL.MORNING.LONG.)  You can find the recipe HERE.

Yesterday, I cored and sliced some Fuji and Golden Delicious Apples and slid them into the dehydrator.  Vivian tells you in the book how to dry them without any fancy equipment, but since I already had the fancy equipment, I figured I might as well use it.

I decided today would be the day I attempted these babies since the husband and kids were out of the house for a good part of the morning.  Making the filling was easy... chop up the dried apples, mix with some Apple Cider and water, and cook it down.  Except that there is no easily-found Apple Cider on Guam right now, so I used some apple juice concentrate I had in the freezer.

 It took awhile to cook down, but you can see the apples underwent some transformation.

The dough was easy... just flour, lard, and water.  Except that there is no easy-to-find lard on Guam, so I had to use the Crisco in the cupboard.  In the cookbook Vivian recommends a tortilla press instead of rolling by hand, but mine is in storage so the rolling pin it was.  The dough was easy to work with, so it was time consuming but not frustrating.

 Add some filling, then close 'em up and await frying.  I did not follow directions, which said to place them on a floured sheet.  I should have.  I ended up having to do some 'gluing' with dough, since some of them stuck to the plate and weren't easy to remove.

I got eleven pies out of the deal.  The recipe should have made 12 but the first couple I made were too big.  My kitchen was a mess.

 In the Apple episode, Vivian said they switched to frying in lard they rendered themselves and that really improved the final outcome.  Alas, all I had was Crisco.  I do not typically fry ANYTHING so this was a first for me.

 After they were golden brown on both sides, I hit them with some Cinnamon Sugar.  The recipe recommended a Rosemary Sugar, but I'm not a fan of rosemary and I figured cinnamon couldn't hurt.

The kids loved them.  Hubby thought the filling was too sweet.  I thought there was too much lemon juice in them.  They were still good, it was just an awful lot of work for not a lot of pies.  In all honesty, I prefer my mother-in-law's recipe for Slab Apple Pie which can also be eaten in hand but doesn't require nearly as much work.  In the future, I may try the Applejack filling in the Slab Pie recipe and see how that combination works together... I suspect it will be amazing.

Neglected Plants

Ugh.

I've been off island for almost 2 months... and we're smack dab in the middle of rainy season.  I had no idea what would happen to my plants in my absence.  I knew the tomatoes had run their course before I left, but I didn't have time to pull them up.  I half expected to find a bunch of dead stems.

We got in late at night, so I was pretty thrilled when I woke up yesterday morning and saw that there was still life on the back deck!  The only plant that didn't make it, as far as I can tell, is the mulberry, which was on its way out when I left.

After I yanked the tomatoes and over-grown New Zealand Spinach, things started to look pretty decent.  See for yourself:

On the left is a Strawberry Guava plant and on the right is a Barbados Cherry (acerola).  At one point, the cherry was so over-taken with blackspot that I had to wash each individual leaf.  It bounced back nicely, and if you look close you might even see some of its pretty pink blossoms.  The Strawberry Guava usually takes 18 months to blossom, so I am hoping to see some anytime now.

The two bottom plants are figs, and the one on top is a Surinam Cherry.  I was happy to see that all 3 of my figs were still alive.  The Surinam is looking good, but they are slow to fruit.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will get some before we move in 2 years!

The plant on the left is actually a sweet potato!  The leaves are great to add to smoothies and it's a really easy plant to propagate.  They are slow to grow actual sweet potatoes, though, so I'm really only growing it for the leaves.  On the right is a Thai Basil that is doing splendidly.

The Sweet Basil reseeded itself everywhere!  I had some growing with each tomato plant, but they'd pretty much all bolted when I left.  I didn't expect to see any alive when I returned.  But, like I said, I had them in MANY pots!  I transplanted the babies into their own containers and will probably use them for hostess gifts and such.  The plant in the aqua container is a pineapple, which  I had bought right before I left island.  It's as easy as cutting the top off a pineapple and sticking it in/on soil.

This weird looking plant is what remains of a Malabar Spinach plant.  As you can see, the original lost all of its leaves and is nothing but berries (the black things) which I will harvest for the seed inside.  But look at all the baby Malabars that popped up!  Eventually, I will repot them and share with fellow gardeners.  I also plan to grow them in a more shaded area this time, as that will encourage leafing.

Out in the yard, I was very surprised by my monstrous lemon grass.  Going to have to harvest that and dry it for teas and soaps.

Another surprise was the mango plants that popped up.  I'd harvested a bunch of them and composted the peels and seeds before I left.  It's too bad they grow so big and take so long to fruit... I'm going to have to pull them up.

Having been through a full calendar year in Guam, I have definitely learned some good lessons about growing in the tropics.  I'll be doing a lot differently this time around!

Growing on Guam

It's been way too long since I've posted.  In fairness, I will say that it took me awhile to get into a gardening groove here.  Topsoil is almost non-existent, so any gardening that I do is limited to containers (there was once a 4x4 bed out in the yard, so I'm working on building that soil to make it fertile).  I brought lots of containers with me, but soil availability is sketchy.  Home Depot usually has it at a price I refuse to pay, so I have to wait until the NEX Homestore has it in stock.  Which they usually don't.  Once the stars aligned, however, I bought a ton of it, along with several bags of steer manure/compost, and I was able to get started.  It was probably January once I'd gotten everything together and started seeds... a little later than I'd like but next year I'll learn my lesson.  Gardening during the rainy season (June - Dec) is not easy, especially in pots, so I wanted to take advantage of as much of the less-rainy season as I could.  Turns out, it's actually pretty dry here and I have to water all the time (being so close to the equator, the sun is HOT).

I'm happy to say that the cherry tomatoes are doing well.  I have a couple of plants... one has small fruits perfect for my youngest to pop in her mouth.  I got it at Home Depot only because I think it was mismarked, and really cheap for its size!  The other cherry tomato I grew from seed that I'd saved from a plant that volunteered in my VA compost pile.  It was the only tomato that grew for me that summer, so I was determined to save the seeds.  I was happy to see they were still viable and have produced a great plant loaded with fruits and blossoms, so I can continue to save seeds for next season.

Large tomatoes don't tend to grow well here (it's too hot/wet), but I did plant some Juliet seeds that have done really well.  I know I won't get enough of them for saucing, but I do hope to make some salsa.  Notice the spider.  They are everywhere here!

One of my surprises has been the Alma Paprika that I planted... I've had the seeds for awhile, as I tried to grow them in VA but didn't have any luck.  The compact plants are loaded with blossoms, so I am excited to harvest them and make my own paprika (and, of course, save some fresh seeds!).

I acquired several fig trees and one of them is growing like gangbusters.  Just the other day I looked out and realized that it was growing baby figs.  This makes my very happy!  I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens and I can harvest them!

My friend Joan in VA had given me a "Korean Mint" plant, and before we sold the house I made sure to collect seeds.  Also called "Korean Hyssop", it's a lot like Anise Hyssop but taller.  So far, it is doing well, and I love to rub the leaves for their black licorice smell.

After several attempts, it looks like I've finally gotten the hang of Malabar Spinach.  When it gets a little bigger, I'll start harvesting the leaves for our smoothies.

Also for smoothies is Dwarf Moringa.  This is a tropical plant I learned about on island and it's loaded with protein and vitamins.  I have several growing and am interested to see how large they will get in pots.  Even though they are dwarves, they would still grow to 30' if I put them in the ground!

This Jurassic-looking plant is a "Naranjilla".  When I ordered the seeds from Baker's Creek, I didn't know that they had such monstrous THORNS!  Supposedly, they will produce small fruits that look like oranges and I will make some jelly with them.

This 'little' guy was waiting out there for me this afternoon and I was stumped!

The ONLY way for him to get up on the deck was to climb all of these stairs!  How did he do it?

I am trying not to get too excited, but in the next couple of weeks it looks like there could be bees on the homestead.  You all know how happy that would make me, so keep your fingers crossed!