Okra harvest for today, from 15 plants.

Okra blossom

Pestilence

Okra and watermelon is thriving here in Arkansas.  Tomato harvest was poor.  Found magical mushrooms (I guess) and purslane.

In this video, I show some FREE food.  Our leaders can’t tax this.  “Can’t touch this!”  God won’t let them.  Jesus tried to teach us to live without money, so if you garden and like the food provided without money, using what God gave you, then you should also like Jesus.  Don’t like the problems that money brings?  Jesus doesn’t either!

I also show you some new pestilence I found on my property, a sign of the times.

Also shown:

The air conditioner can help water your plants.

VIDEO

Manna?

What is manna?  It’s how God fed the slaves that fled from Egypt, with the leadership of Moses, when they escaped to the desert.  The bible describes how manna was eaten.

The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.

And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

Numbers 11:8~9

If I ran out of food, it sure would be uplifting to see food magically appear on the ground.

A small watermelon patch is making fruit.

Also…Did I really find wild grapes growing on my property?  And… Free cat treats!

Wild grapes? Free... really?!

Could you help me identify the above picture?  Looks like grapes, but I haven’t ever grown grapes before so I don’t know how they got here.

VIDEO

Low tomato yield this year.  Many animals taking the ripe tomatoes.  One suggestion I received was to put up a scarecrow.

Growing lots of grass, though.

Miffy gets more excited about grass than cat food!

Our cat is loving the bumper crop of free cat treats.  Grass is good for cats.  I read that cats get vitamin B17 from grass.

Cut a branch from my fig tree and stuck it in the ground. A “stick in the mud” turns out to be a good thing. I now have a new fig tree!
There is some good news: Watermelons are looking great!

VIDEO

I was amazed to see through my camera what looks like the sun hanging on a cross. Strong symbolism.

Taking the seed from store-bought cherries and planting them. Harvesting tomatoes by hand.

Found a helpful wasp that might have taken a caterpillar off the tomato vine.

Our cat loves to eat treats.

VIDEO

Above, you can see a caterpillar that got taken down by a wasp.

Have you ever thought about planting apple seeds from a store-bought apple?  I did it this spring and now have a baby tree.  Check it out.

Rain came and helped the garden perk up. I also show you my garlic harvest, baby okra plants, a mature sunflower, and tomatoes growing on the vine. I also have some volunteer mystery plants growing in the compost pile.

VIDEO:  Heirloom Apple; Garlic Harvest; Fig Experiment; Free Plants in Compost Pile

Banana seedling or weed?

I planted some banana seeds and have a couple plants coming up. However, they do not look like I expected, so I’m wondering if I have unknown weeds or real banana plants. Could you tell me what I have?

Banana seedling? Or is this a wild plant?

I planted banana seed in these black pots. What is growing in them now?

I transplanted the unknown plant to the ground near some mint. Hope it's a banana plant!

Any ideas?  Please let me know.  Thanks.

Costoluto Genovese heirloom tomato

VIDEO

Tomato vine sprawling on ground with no cage to support it. Cultivar shown: Costoluto Genovese.

Should you cage your tomato plants?  There are advantages and disadvantages to tomato cages so it’s a personal decision you must make.

VIDEO

Advantages to Cages

Fruit stays off ground so it is less likely to rot.

Less bending required to get at the good stuff (the fruit).

Garden bed is more organized.  Foot path stays clear.  Easier to navigate around plants.

Disadvantages to Cages

Birds can sit on the cage and poop on the tomato leaves and fruit.

Birds can sit on the cage and peck holes into your fruit.

Vine is not allowed to set new roots in another location.

Depending on cage construction, metal can scratch your hands as you reach in to get fruit.

Conclusion

Personally, I do both.  This year I have (45) tomato plants and have cages around half the plants and the rest are uncaged and sprawling.  I don’t really think it matters which you do.  It’s a personal choice and depends on the layout of your specific garden.

Water from the AC gving a drink to a tomato plant and baby carrot.

Clean water for the garden… from the air conditioner.  Gravity does the work moving the water from the AC to the garden.

VIDEO

The water hose is old and damaged from a lawnmower cutting it with its blades.  I cut the mangled end off the hose and now the garden hose is put to use transporting water from the air conditioner down to the garden beds.

This system is like a slow-drip soaker hose.  I like that the water is pure, similar to what you would get from a distiller.   No Chlorine.  No Fluoride.  I believe this is pure water.

I think my garden plants thrive better without the Chlorine.  This makes sense when you stop and think.  Why does the city add Chlorine to the water?  They do it to kill life.  That might sound harsh, but if living microbes are in our drinking water, like bacteria or other pathogens, and then you drink the contaminated water, those little life forms will cause trouble inside your body, leading to diarrhea and even death.  So the Chlorine is put into the water to kill those little life forms.  Chlorine is also added to swimming pools for the same reason, to kill another form of life:  algae.  Since Chlorine is a poison, I believe it also hurts plants and might throw the ecology of the soil out of balance, kind of like when you take antibiotics.  We don’t want the soil to be sterile.  Life needs life.  Plants need certain microbes to live in the soil.  Chlorine would kill those microbes.  So this AC water condensation seems like a perfect match for the garden plants.

The AC provides a steady stream of condensation water.

Pure water from the AC gets around that problem, since there are no poisons in it.  The plants should do better without the Chlorine.  I’ve been using this water successfully in my garden for years.  The garden should benefit from the AC water.

What is the pH of AC water condensation?

I would assume the pH of this water is neutral (7.0) since it is pure water. If distilled water is set out in the open air, it will start absorbing CO2 and it will turn slightly acidic (6.0 ~ 6.5). That would be OK, because tomatoes prefer a soil that is slightly acidic.

In comparison, I think city water (with Chlorine) is usually basic, around 8.0, which tomato plants would not like. Rainwater is acidic at 5.6. AC water will have a pH between rainwater and city water.

Reference:  https://mynortherngarden.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/water-ph-and-your-plants/

Conclusion

The hotter it gets outside, the more the AC runs, and the more water the AC makes.  As the summer progresses, it gets hotter, and the plants will need more water.  This system helps, providing more water when it is needed most.

Squash blossoms picked fresh from the garden.

Today in the garden there were many yellow-orange squash blossoms, which prompted a few questions and I want to share my results with you.

Are squash flowers edible?  Are the blossoms safe to eat?

Yes, the blossoms from any summer squash or winter squash are edible.  I confirmed this today by eating blossoms from a yellow squash (the variety called Dixie Hybrid) and blossoms from zucchini (the variety called Black Beauty).  They tasted great, I feel good after eating them, and I will eat them again!

2 ounces of squash blossoms

I like to eat a variety of foods for optimum nutrition.  These flowers required no money since I grew them myself.  Free food!

Frying squash blossoms in a cast iron skillet.

How do you cook squash blossoms?  I’ll share a recipe that I used today with excellent results.

Clean Blossoms

Preparing the blossoms.

Cut the stem off the end of the flower.  If you have a male flower, the stamen should come loose.  The stamen is the part shown that looks like an orange mushroom.  Many websites say to discard the stamen, but I do not know why.  If you know, please tell me why this is discarded.

These are the scraps: stems and stamens, which go to the compost pile.

Batter and Fry

Batter

I used one egg, whisked.  Put some whole wheat flour in a plastic container.  Dipped each blossom, first into the egg, then into the flour, then placed on heated cast iron skillet with olive oil and sea salt.  Cooked about 40 seconds on each side.

Squash blossoms frying in olive oil.

How Do They Taste?

Great!  My wife tried one and said they taste like eggs.  I was surprised there wasn’t more flavor, but they were satisfying, like eggs.  It tasted like fried yellow squash to me.  I was pleasantly surprised by the thickness of the cooked blossom as it had more substance than I expected and filled me up.  This has to be due to the egg and wheat flour.  It was a small meal by itself.  I’m looking forward to eating these again.

Other Ideas

I would like to try more variations:

• Cook again with added garlic for more flavor.

• Use squash blossoms as a pizza topping.

• Add to scrambled eggs for added nutrition.

• Eat the blossoms raw.  Done.  They don’t have much flavor… almost tasteless, but they are definitely edible.

If I try these variations, I’ll try to add an update here on ElPerfecto.com.  Subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to see more.