Hungarian Wax Pickles

Really enjoyed the pickled banana peppers from last year, so I'm growing Hungarian Wax peppers this year for the same purpose. Should be a bit spicier. So here's my first shot at a recipe. Just refrigerator pickles until I find a recipe I like.

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup white vinegar (no culinary reason, just didn't have enough apple cider vinegar)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 Tbs salt
• 1/2 Tbs sugar
• Small slices onion
• few cloves garlic

Lots going on in the garden, will update soon.

Another Year

So I still have some holdovers from last year, notably garlic, leeks, and onions. Then I planted peas at the end of March - sadly only a few have come up. I blame the varmints. I may plant another wave and see if it's more successful. And the short-lived but always spicy/oniony chive blossoms.

Started a number of peppers and tomatoes in the basement under fluorescent lights. The full list -

Tomatoes:

• Amish Paste
• Black Krim
• Red Cherry, Large Fruited
• Black Cherry
• Cherokee Purple
• Tigerella
• Sungold

Peppers:

• Anaheim
• Jalapeno
• Hungarian Wax
• Pepporcini
• Habanero
• Cayenne
• Serrano

The starter setup.

Gooseberries and Elderberries seem to have survived the winter well. One of the elderberry plants looks like last year's growth is dead, but there is new growth springing up that looks very happy.

Elderberry

Gooseberry

It's still well before the last frost date (mid May) but the weather has been warm, and I took a chance and transplanted some tomatoes and basil outside. If it gets killed by frost there are plenty of replacement seedlings waiting in line. The tomatoes are in buckets that were freecycled from work (they used to contain hard-boiled eggs). The basil is in old 2 liter soda bottles.

Left to right Sungold (2), Black Cherry (2), Red Cherry, Large-Fruited

Sweet Basil

Lots of cleanup work to do the next few weeks in the garden.

*yawn*

Well, looks like it's time to start some seedlings! Probably crack some envelopes this weekend and get going. Gentlemen, fire up your fluorescents! Still don't have most of my pepper seeds, need to look into that asap.

End of the Season

Enjoyed the last few peppers and squash. Frost a few days ago. All that's left out there is onions and leeks, we need to cover those with some ground up leaves to keep them cozy for the winter. Also need to plant the garlic this weekend. Few weeks ago went in to NYC to the Union Square Green Market and bought some garlic (rocambole, hard neck) from the author of It's a Long Road to a Tomato. He recommended that I plant it around Halloween, but it's been alternately wet and late when I got home this week, so it's looking like tomorrow will be the day.

Oh, quick note, our Gooseberry bushes are Houghton and Black Velvet.

Pepper Plans

Last year's pepper harvest was really nice. This year's was plagued by mismanagement on my part. So many of the seeds I took from peppers I bought at the store failed to germinate. And some of those that did produced rather peculiar crossbreeds - I think my jalapenoes and my Hungarian Wax peppers from last year cross pollinated. Oops. Interesting, but not particularly exciting crossbreeds.

For next year I was thinking about the following varieties:

Pepper plan

Will probably select 2-4 additional varieties while browsing the seed catalogs and grow a couple of each. Since my peppers grew very well in buckets this year, I'll grow most of them in buckets. So I need...~70 buckets. Right now I've amassed 20. Probably will grow the Anaheims directly in the ground in the back garden, so that bumps it down to ~50.

Oh, another thing that worked really well this year is grass clippings in the pots. A layer of grass clippings helps the plants retain water and prevented weeds.

Next Year

So a couple of plans for next year.

First pass

Over the tomatoes and corn I'll build a chicken wire cage to keep out the squirrels. Yeah, it's that bad.

I'm thinking big tomatoes in the fenced in garden, and a variety of cherry tomatoes in buckets, most likely on the front porch. I've been amassing a large quantity of 3 gallon buckets (they serve up loads of hard boiled eggs at work from the buckets). Going to use those for peppers. And then finally the tons of empty 2 liter bottles I have will be pots for basil. Maybe dill as well.

Retrospective

Starting to get a bit chilly. Hasn't been a frost yet, but soon I'm sure. Got me thinking about how things have gone over the past four years, and what I've learned in the process. And of course a bit of planning for next year.

2008

The first gardening season in our place. Didn't go too nuts, just built a couple raised beds out back and planted some tomatoes and zucchini.

Raised beds, 2008

What did well

• Rutgers tomatoes
• Zucchini

What I learned

• I needed more space
• Zucchini are awesome, and I don't tire of it easily

2009

It was as if the gardening gods decided to let me have a good year to get me hooked. I assumed things would only get better. Ha! I tilled up a bit more ground for planting and tried some new veggies. 

New plot, 2009

Beans, 2009

Tomatoes, 2009

What did well

• Green beans, but I didn't plant many

What did poorly

• Tomatoes, deer ate most of them
• Zucchini, well, maybe not poorly, but squash borers did a number on them
• Eggplant, ended up with less than 1 per plant

What I learned

• I need to keep the deer out!
• I need to do something about squash borers

This year inspired me to try growing tomatoes in the basement (and start this blog). That wasn't very successful either. But it was fun.

2010

The year the fence went up. Definitely the biggest change to the backyard. And it did keep out the deer. But I was introduced to a new enemy - the squirrels.

The fence, 2010

Peppers, 2010

Different tomato varieties, 2010

Butternut Squash, 2010

Anti-squirrel cage, 2010

What did well

• Butternut Squash
• Peppers
• Cucumbers
• Garlic

What did poorly

• Tomatoes, due to the squirrel invasion
• Zucchini, due to the borers
• Corn, due to various wildlife

What I learned

• Squirrels eat tomatoes, the only reliable defense is a chicken wire cage
• Same for corn
• Barley is too much of a hassle
• Upside down tomatoes only did so-so

2011

Didn't really feel like a spectacular year, although we did ok. 

Cherry tomatoes, 2011

Weird pepper crosses, 2011

Basil, 2011

What did well

• Basil
• Garlic, although the cloves were small
• Tomatoes did better than the last few years
• Few pumpkins out back, 10 small pumpkins from a random pumpkin plant that sprang up out front
• Ping Tung Long Eggplants, restoring my faith in eggplant!

What did poorly

• Zucchini, hardly got any
• Green beans, mostly due to my neglect
• Peppers were a big mess, most of the seeds I had didn't even sprout. Others were not what I expected

What I learned

• Buy pepper seeds from a catalog!
• Set up cage next year for tomatoes and corn
• Basil does great and doesn't need much space, plant in small pots next year
• Cherry tomatoes, particularly Sun Gold for the front porch next year
• I need to plant more dill for pickles
• Plant garlic a bit earlier