Did you start off making one dish only to find that another evolves from the remnants of your efforts? My connection with the restaurant industry has been brief, but I always remembered that you do not let something go to waste. This adventure begins with my daughter, Katya, and I harvesting the galangal. This is the spicier cousin of ginger. We had quite a bit of work digging out them out, preparing the bed for the next year, and replanting some tubers for the next year’s harvest. We were left with about ten pounds of roots. I love using pickled ginger as a condiment, so I thought that the galangal may work well too. In the preparation for the pickling, I ended up making a soup stock and a version of my favorite bread spread, peasant’s caviar.
    After cleaning the tubers, I began the preparation to make pickled galangal. The process is the same for ginger. The galangal tuber does have thicker side roots that need to be snipped off. Peeling the skin is the same as peeling ginger. Use a spoon to scrape the skin off. Since I am working with several pounds at once, I place the cleaned pieces into a water bath. Once all has been cleaned, I thinly slice the galangal, placing these slices into fresh water. I have placed ginger slices directly into the prepared vinegar solution, but I thought of using an older recipe that I had. I do not taste much difference in the final product though. In the direct method, I let the ginger sit in the vinegar for a week before using he slices. In the second method (the one I decided to try today), the ginger (galangal) soaks in water over night. The next morning I clean the scum that forms on the top of the water. This is the white foam on top of the water. I pour the water through a strainer into a pot. This is the beginning of the stock. The galangal goes into a glass jar. The usual practice is to take rice vinegar,red miso, and honey for the pickling. You want the vinegar to have a sweet taste. These are boiled together, and poured over the ginger. Let this cool before placing the jar into the refrigerator. Do you have to use honey? I find that sugar gives me the same taste, but I like using a local. Do you have to use rice vinegar? Probably not. Vinegars do have their own flavors, and this will be imparted to the pickle, but I have always used the rice vinegar. I found quite a bit of red wine vinegar in the pantry, so I did use it this time. Why the red miso? I do not always use the red miso or any miso. The red color comes from tuber reacting with the vinegar. The red miso adds a certain flavor element. I have used a light brown miso. I have gone without miso. For this preparation, I added a little sea salt. I have used herbs or spices from the garden, but I enjoy the cleaner taste of little added. After a day, the ginger or galangal has a nice flavor. You may be thinking sushi for its use, but I like using this condiment on any meal where I would use other condiments.
    Making vegetarian stocks is a simple process. I do like making chicken stock, and every so often I may may beef stock. Stocks are great for soups and sauces, or you could braise items in stock, so having stock on hand is a great way to speed the meal preparation along. Wen in my pantry, I found a package of dried mushrooms. Mushrooms make a great darker soup stock. I went back into the garden to harvest some parsley and onions. I had about a cup of dried mushrooms, a cup of chopped parsley, and a quarter of a cup of chopped green onions. I let the ingredients simmer in the galangal water for forty minutes.  I wanted a lightly flavored stock that could be used for a number of dishes. More onions would help make a better stock for soups. I could have harvested some celery or carrots too. This stock was good for a vegetable stew that I was making that evening. I did add a little salt to the stock at the end. I completed the stock preparation by straining the stock into a storage container.
    Finally, I had the ingredients for a type of peasant’s caviar. I do not see people making these spreads much anymore. Eggplant is the common main ingredient used for this dish. I think if people like baba ganoush that they may like peasant’s caviar; however, maybe people stay away from the spread because of the eggplant. I have had other versions of this caviar, and I think the mushroom based version is great. I took the ingredients from the strained stock into a blender. The mushrooms came out to be two cups when reconstituted. I used a quarter cup of olive oil and two teaspoons of a dark soy sauce. This was blended together. I added a little salt and pepper to taste. I have added a little garlic to this blend as well in the past. There are different types of caviar that are quite inexpensive, and vegetable spreads may not sound to appealing, so maybe that is why peasant’s caviar fell out of favor, but I love this spread. If you do want to try the eggplant version, roast the eggplant first. I always add the garlic to the eggplant version, where this flavor is optional for me when using mushrooms. I may add a bit more onion. Sauteed onion goes well in this spread. As for herbs and spices, parsley is the standard for me, but I could have used any herb or spice. Tarragon would be good, as would thyme. I guess that I will use those next week.
   I still have more galangal. Maybe I should candy some? Maybe grate it into a paste to store in the freezer. We will see. I hope that you try the peasant’s caviar. I find that some people have problems with mushrooms in a meal, but they enjoy this spread. As you can see, harvesting one item can cause you to have more work in the kitchen, but that is not a bad thing.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

Do you look back at what worked and what failed for you? I review my year, maybe because I am going paperwork and creating end of year reports. I have not really done this with my garden though. I remember what worked, what did not, and I have ideas for the future. I am considering the drought and its effects on my garden this last summer, so I want to think about how I should proceed in a better way. I am viewing my failures, since we can learn so much more from them than a success.
    My biggest failure was the design for the spinnable compost bin. My design worked well with a small amount of kitchen waste, but when I loaded the bin with yard waste, the bin collapsed. I came up with a plan to repair the bin, but I went in a different direction. The problem is space. I had a good deal of wood, so I made this compost/recycling/work center behind my shed. The spinnable bin worked well for kitchen waste, but I wanted a larger compost production method, which for me meant the standing bin. The space where the spinnable bin was located could be used for planting.
    Giving more of my yard over to garden beds was a good decision for me. I have mentioned the trend away from lawns, and we each have to discover what is best for our lifestyles. I know that some people lament the loss of the American lawn, but I did not want to be a grass farmer. I am going to slightly extend the current layouts of garden bed to lawn, yet I feel that I have achieved a good balance. The children have play areas, and many of the plants did better than the grass.
    Another failure of sorts was planning out plantings. For the most part this did work out; however, I should consider plants that do well in droughts, or when I plant. I began focusing more on sowing seeds, which is more economical. Established plants going into the garden have done better, so next year I want to do better with starting seeds in flats, then moving them into the garden.

    I also had mixed results with my vertical garden. Again, the problem is starting plants from seeds. During the hot summer months, the seeds sprouted, but the plants had a hard time. Even though our autumn was warm with little rain and water restrictions still in place, the nasturtium started from seed enjoyed my vertical garden. I want to try more vertical gardens next year.
    Did I actually save money by growing my own vegetables? I think that I broke even. The drought caused me to water more, which was an expense, and as I said, I wasted money on plantings that failed due to a lack of watering. I did obtain most of my vegetables from my own garden. My method of gardening has allowed plants to return from seeds. Each winter I find cilantro popping up. Each spring brings spinach. My winter vegetables are producing food again. To be more successful, I have to plan out ways to save on water while producing vegetables.
    Reviewing my problem areas gives me ideas for the coming year. I really should sit down in January to create a plan. Part of this plan has to include preserving produce. I prefer to eat seasonally, but traditionally in Texas, the later months of summer are not good for vegetable production, and preserving vegetables was how families fed themselves.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

The forest floor is a lush place, which is achieved through composting, the natural way. The trees drop their leaves. Rain waters the leaves. Animals step on them to help in the breaking down process. Insects and earthworms take from the leaves to further the decomposition. For the next growing season, the tree has a ready source of nutrients. We sweep our leaves away to keep the maintained look of our homes. Well, most of us do. I use leaves as a mulch in a few of my garden beds that are not in the obvious line of sight of my visitors, yet with so many leaves, I had to find other locations, which was not always with my wife’s approval. I had an idea last fall where I could use the leaves as a mulch path along the side of the house. I was not sure how this would work; however I am reaping the rewards of this compost for my late fall garden.
    The experiment was simple:  lay the leaves that I collected onto a path as a mulch. My wife was dubious. The leaves by themselves were not too attractive, and there was quite a pile. To improve the appearance, I applied a layer of wood chip mulch. My wife approved of this look. The path was a bit springy/soft for the first few weeks. This is a well traveled path, and it is located through garden beds where I frequently work. During the course of the year, I did not add to the path. I had to weed a few times. By summer, this was a well worn path.
    The result of this easy compost was revealed over the past few weeks. I needed mulch/compost for a new garden bed, so I began to dig up the path. Leaves were beginning to fall from the trees, so I knew that I would have a replacement path covering. I found a rich compost mixture below. This was compacted material though. I broke the mixture apart, and now it is in the garden beds. The wood chips are still present, but I find that I will find large wood chips i compost bags that I buy from garden centers. I could sift the compost for a finer material, but I felt that this would be great as a top layer in a garden bed.
    I have a shredder for chopping up the leaves and other prunings; however, I have been not been using this device. I could use this to make the wood chip mulch for the path, but I admit to buying cedar mulch for my path. Cedar repels unwanted pests, which is desired near these beds. The path is a little more than three feet wide and about twenty-five feet long. I am taking a little material out at a time, to be replaced with leaves as they fall. I am relying on my other composting systems for a finer grade of compost. No one realized that they were walking on the compost, and I water this ground when working on the beds. I did not add manure, but otherwise this method mimicked the natural composting method.
    I was happy with the result of this experiment, and I want to see how I will fare next year. The benefit for me this year has been that I have a good deal of material for new garden beds, which I have been casually doing these last few months. I see neighbors who have ripped out their lawns in favor of simple beds. My vegetables have been quite attractive, and many a passer-by has not been able to separate vegetable from ornamental. I am sure to report on this experiment next year.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I love gardens with some character. I have performed a few new construction home inspections recently, and I am always impressed at how quickly the bare yard is transformed into a garden. My only problem is that these scenes have been standardized, and I realize that I should not expect something else. In between inspecting two new homes, I concentrated on my meditation garden. This is the space that my wife and girls want based upon a little garden by a church. I moved the current landscape out of the way to begin making the path in a shape of a cross. The children and I began working on making decorations for a tree in the front yard that we want to look like a Christmas tree. With all of this going back and forth through the gardens, I noticed that the ginger was receding. The few Houston cold snaps had convinced my ginger to go dormant, which means that harvesting was in order.


    I wonder if others have a hard time with ginger in their gardens? I was told that all ginger was edible, but you would find that they do not have a great flavor. I had an easy time with the more ornamental gingers, so I thought growing the edible variety would not be too hard. I purchased a hand of ginger from a grocery store. I planted pieces in various places around the garden. I had some grow, yet I was not achieving a great result. I planted the cousin of ginger, galangal, which spread rapidly. I discovered that I had to find a place that was partial shade. The soil had to be loose. I had to keep the garden bed fairly well watered. This is my second year harvesting, and each year the crop becomes a bit larger. I am not obtaining the big, luscious hands of ginger that you will see in the stores. I think that I have to improve my soil quality, and I may need to water a bit more than I did.
   The ginger has not produced the showy leaves of other plants in that family. I had stems come up about two feet each year. Some of the ornamental gingers has leaves of three to four feet in height. The galangal reached seven feet. When you stop seeing new growth, and the stems begin to wither, the ginger is preparing for the colder months. The plant is storing its energy into the rhizomes. This is the time to harvest. Being Houston, I find that the weather does not encourage the plant to fully go dormant. I dig the bed out, sifting through the soil for the ginger. I have a few small shoots still growing, so I set those aside. I mix compost into the soil, making sure that there are no clumps. What I have not tried, but might help, is to mix some sand into the bed for the ginger. This would help keep the soil loose, allowing the ginger to easily expand.
    Once the bed has been prepared, you can prepare for next year’s harvest. I take my cuttings, the shoots which were still growing, and replant them with a good drink of water. I follow this step with a good layer of mulch. I found that adding some compost to the soil in the summer seems to help the plants. I was thinking that I should add some organic fertilizer that helps root growth, like potash. I might try that this year. To make this garden bed more productive, I let my New Zealand spinach grow in that bed. That plant found its own way to that bed, and they grow well with the ginger. I have been so happy with my harvest, that I added ginger to each of my meals. The galangal will have to do as my main flavoring element when looking for this pungency later. For now, the ginger will reign.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

Each morning I pass my antique roses on the way to the car. Katya wants some cut flowers to give to her teachers. Sakura wants to stop to enjoy the fragrance. I am reminded that there are many plants which give us a bounty of colors in late fall through winter. I planted geraniums yesterday. Violets were planted the day before yesterday. A few chrysanthemums still are putting on their show. I have bought pansies as well. I have been sitting in the garden, watching the children play. However, I noticed tat a few neighbors who began to improve their gardens with the cooler weather have now stopped, due to the freezes. This is a great time to garden in Houston, and we have a chance for winter vegetables.

    My eggplants have been abundant. This vegetable is not a winter vegetable, but this does produces well in our fall. Pepper plants have been producing as well. I have a few pepper platens in a large cold frame to see how they will do. The eggplants are not so protected, and I have found them surviving. They do need to be in the right spot. The plants which went into the ground in fall where the winter squash, and these have begun to produce. I have not previously grown them, so I am wondering how they will fare in January. All in all, this has been a good season, but I am looking forward to more traditional winter vegetables.
    The chard, kale, and collards have improved flavor this time of year. A few collard and chard plants came under attack from snails, so I went hunting early in the morning with a flashlight. I am starting to make roulades with the collard greens. The most fascinating news for me has to do with my experiment with leaving certain vegetables in the ground from last year. A few gardening friends remove these plant, and either buy or grow new plants from seed. I had cut off the kohlrabi last year at its base when harvesting. I am now about to harvest my first crop of kohlrabi, which is much sooner than I have in past years. I did the same with cabbage plants. The cabbages are growing; I did pull off the side shoots from these plants to allow one main head grow. I pulled side shoots from the kohlrabi, and I managed to have these root well. I expect to have a second crop of kohlrabi sooner than last year. I left the broccoli in the ground from last year. These plants looked nice during the year, and I have harvested some broccoli. My daughters were happy, since this is their favorite vegetable. I noticed that my asparagus seems to be filling out. Life is good.
    This technique of saving the vegetables from last year has been a success for me. I did not see many of these vegetables in many stores as plants, so I am glad that I will have a good crop. My beet plants are coming along, and I want to have them in the ground soon. If you want to garden in Houston, this may be a good time of year to start.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

He looks across to his neighbors yard, and asks me if that tree is dead. This was a smaller tree about twenty feet tall. Leaves were a tan/brown. All the leaves were that color, and they were all on the tree. Yes, it was dead. That guy does not take care of his yard, was the response. True, but I have noticed this with more homes. I was at a short sale home doing an inspection, noticing that many bushes were dead. A dead bush or a smaller dead tree may not be a threat to the home, but they are a cost. New owners will have to replant or at least take these dead specimens from the yard. Where I begin to worry is the much larger trees.


This large pine is about fifteen from the home. If you notice, the pine tree has dark brown needles, and they are still on the tree. Pine trees loose needles all of the time, but these evergreens do not go all brown at once. When they do, you have a problem. Why do I see this tree as a threat to the home? This tree can become weak, and then it will come down in a windstorm.  Hurricanes are the obvious big windstorm in Houston, but we can have strong winds at other times too. In the worst case, the entire tree may come down. More often you will see branches coming down first. I would advise making the removal of this tree a priority.
   The dead pine tree is obvious. How can we tell if a deciduous tree is dead? One survival mechanism for trees during a drought is to go dormant. This dormancy may look like a dead tree, but there are differences. When a tree or bush is dead, the leaves go brown, and they stay on the tree. A tree going dormant has leaves going brown, but the leaves fall off, like in autumn.
    We are loosing a good portion of our tree canopy. They do help our homes, so I find it a shame that homeowners use the drought restrictions as an excuse not to water. The house with the pines has a dirt yard. The house has many problems which can be observed when walking past it. This lack of care has put the family in jeopardy, which is awful. Maybe you are trying to save money, but taking care of your home and property does save you money.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I have been confronted with the argument that if I am serious about vegetable production in my yard, then I should not grow anything that is not edible. I have been told to focus only on natives; imitate nature; improve on nature; and mix everything up when it comes to plantings. Reality sets in though when you are a gardener in an urban environment. Your neighbors may tolerate vegetables, but they may not tolerate your home looking like a farm. Someone noticed me planting chrysanthemums in my yard, and asked if they were edible? Not to my knowledge. They do have a nice light fragrance though. So why was I planting them? I like them, and my daughters enjoy flowers. What attracts me to garden mums is the display that they will put on each year. The plant is a perennial, so I leave them in the ground, instead of ripping them out like annuals after their prime. I like annuals, but I like the fact of not having to buy new plants each year as well.
    Can I justify valuable garden space to a non-vegetable? I like how my garden is evolving. The one, long bed on the other side of the driveway holds many vegetables, but to me it is almost looking like one of those English perennial hedges. I enjoy wandering into the bed to find something for dinner, but I am happy to be able to relish in the view of this bed. I may not make some urban farmers happy, but I think the permaculturist would be. Mixing the plant environment between edibles and non-edibles does fit in with a more natural plan, and one that I hope will reap some benefits: less pest damage. However, I began to consider are there other benefits to adding seasonal flowers into the garden? During the heat of summer, when many of my flowering plants were wilting, I did have a few vegetable plants attempt to produce. I did not harvest much. This may be in part due to the lack of bees. My youngest daughter and I were having lunch in a little garden seating area, watching the bees humming around the basil. We had been doing this for days, so we had observed how this frenzy of bees began with one bee. After a couple of days, we thought that we picked up on three distinct bees. On the fifth day, I am not sure how many bees were watching. The bees were not just focusing on the basil at this point. They were perturbed that we were sitting near the squash blossoms. They also hovered around the cucumber vine. 
    Vegetables near a mint that was in full bloom also saw more bee activity. The squash near my rose, which only seems to produce one flower a week, did not see much activity from the bees. I have to study this idea more, but I think the type of flower does play a role. My older garden mums are in their full prime of flowering, and I have not seen them attract to many bees. I have seen bees, but they prefer the flowers of herbs in my garden. Oh, I will find them en masse around the azaleas in spring, so I know herbs are not their only interest.  My field of pansies do not hold the interest of the bees. The thought gives me a reason to sit quietly in the garden for hours on end. I can start taking notes which plants will bring in the bees to help the vegetables produce. In the mean time, my daughters can pick the mums to scatter around the house as they always see fit.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I am growing more of my plants from seed this year. This makes sense for gardeners on a budget who want many plants. You may have seen those plastic trays that have the clear plastic cover. I have used them, but these mini-greenhouses break down on me. They are not too expensive, but I did not like buying something that I knew would be thrown away after a few years. This past year I ad success with using mulch bags. I previously mentioned this technique, but I am currently having a problem. Well, there are two problems: my two year old; and squirrels. A greenhouse was in order.

    Larger shed-like greenhouses are great, as are sun rooms, but do you have that space? My backyard is becoming crowded. I thought of building a small green house that would look like a piece of furniture or a large terrarium. I had long, thin trunks from a crepe myrtle. I had a thick glass that I salvaged from an old aquarium. I could build a cabinet. Problem was that the glass was too thick for me to cut well. I thought of using sections of the mulch bags. All of this would have worked, but the cabinet would not have looked that great, so I could see my wife complaining (my wife does not mind my projects, but she wants them to look as if we purchased them- this cabinet with mulch bags would not have fit that description). I did look into finding glass or clear plastic. Purchasing them was an option. I thought of using an old pastry rack that I have. These are used by bakers. They have slots for the trays, and they are covered by a clear plastic jacket, which seals. They are a bit large though.  However, I decided against converting it.
   A pop-up greenhouse was the answer. I was in Southwest Fertilizer when I saw a mini-greenhouse for sale that suited my needs. I think that I purchased the last one. The frame is made from plastic tubes. There are racks for each shelf, and the structure is covered by a plastic jacket much like the pastry rack. The top had a design that was more stylized, so my wife should be happy. This will also deal with my problems. My two year old has been pulling seedlings out to check on them. The squirrels have rummaged through my seedlings too. I have had more luck with sowing directly into the ground.  Personally, I would have preferred a homemade unit, but I understand my wife’s desire: you want the yard to look good for entertaining. Most of my projects using recycled/upcycled materials fit that need, but sometimes this does not always  meet design requirements.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

I was working all weekend, so my wife and children went to spend time with my wife’s sister. They went to her church on Sunday, where my daughter’s discovered a garden where they wanted to stay. Upon coming home, I was greeted by my older daughter with the request that I had to watch a video. “Do you like it?”, she asked. “Yes, I do.” “Well, you need to get the paint right.” “The paint?” “Oh yes, for the statue that you are going to make of Jesus’ mother.” I had been conscripted into re-creating this garden in our own home. Our already crowded yard may not hold another garden room (was my thought). However, I agreed as my girls discussed their plans on how to design this garden.
    Many gardeners will add spaces for contemplation. I noticed in one garden center that they had various objects of a more oriental flavor to meet this gardening need. For some people, these spaces can be little garden nooks. Others can fill the entire garden. I have to look as to how I can create room for this space, but I think that I have an idea. For the girls, the important part is having the stone mulch path in the form of a cross, a statue of the Virgin Mary, the roses, and a bench for sitting. A contemplation garden may be a great room to have. Everyone needs time to sit down to meditate on the day.
    Garden inspiration can be simple. You may find a landscape that fascinates you, so you can find a way to replicate the space in your own yard.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

My wife is not always happy when she sees me setting items aside to save. I have been saving the containers from plants that I purchased. They are not recyclable. My daughters have played with them, but I had another goal in mind. She really began to wonder why I was saving the bags for the mulch. I kept telling her that they would be useful. She thinks that I hoard items just for the sake of keeping them. Maybe I am trying to reuse to much; however, this time I had a plan that worked out well.

    My daughters are seed crazy. If I let them loose in Southwest Fertilizer, they will be purchasing far too many seeds. Yet as my vegetable production increases, I am finding that using seeds saves money. We decided to sow the seeds in flats, instead of broadcasting them in the garden beds. All of those saved containers were pulled out. I think that the girls had the most fun washing them. You want to wash the containers to prevent any cross contamination. We then filled them with a potting mix. We pulled out seeds for kale, broccoli, onions, rutabaga, parsnips, and parsley. We watered these, and then placed the flats into the mulch bags. These bags were clear plastic with printed material on one side. The printed side went on the bottom. These mulch bags did have holes, but this set up did work like the seed starter kits.
    After a few days, all of the seeds were sprouting. We placed these starter kits in a shady area under a tree. The girls went each day to check on their plants. We will be letting them grow a bot larger before we begin to thin them out. We will want them out of the bags before thinning. Why, my older daughter asks. Well, we want the seedlings to become stronger. We pick the best ones. Let them grow bigger in the container, before setting them into the garden. We should have a good growing season.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.