rottysgarden

[rottysgarden]

Finally transplanted most of my plants outside front! Tomorrow ill plants the last of em. Daylight ran out. Ive gotten so much better at memorizing things such as which plant is which and knowing where theyre planted.

In my closet I have a bunch of basil plants and I want to start focusing more on indoor container gardening. First I want to try 2 cucumbers indoors.

[rottysgarden]

Haha remember when i said i was gonna be normal this growing season..

[rottysgarden]

May 19th 2025

Seeds sown:

San Marzano Tomato - 4 - pink

Black Beauty Zucchini - 4 - black

Crookneck Squash - 4 - yellow

Summer squash Elite Zucchini - 4 - green

Waltham Butternut Squash - 4 - orange

Hales Best Jumpo Cantaloupe - 4 - black

Yellow Bell Pepper - 4 - yellow/white

Dark Opal Basil - 2

Aurelia Basil - 2

Jack o Lantern Pumpkin - 2

Jack be Little Pumpkin - 2

Chiltepin- 1

I fertilized with work casting by putting a spoonful atop the soil for seedlings with 2 real leaves

A week after I fertilized with liquid big bloom

[rottysgarden]

I planted the rest of my seeds on 5/19/25

I haven't sat down to document them but I have my system in place for identifying them. I love my color coding system~

I'm gonna tear out the tomato plants. They're covered in blight. I'm gonna harvest a lot of spinach too. Another thing is I gotta fill my round birdie with compost AND go buy some wood for another raised bed. I've been wanting to make a pot mix for my grow bags. Not sure what I want to plant there. Probably mint.

My to do list is kinda long rn. I also have to fix my fence.

[rottysgarden]

Have an overabundance of tomatoes cuz a) neighbor gave us like 20 and b) i get some from my garden everyday

But I made a potato tomato casserole and you this shit is bomb. That's all I wanted to report

[rottysgarden]

Bakes a loaf of sandwich bread. Guess I'm never buying bread again! It's turned out awesome. And next time will be even better since I learned from my mistakes!!

Add more water and tad more yeast to even out the heavy flour!

[rottysgarden]

I got food poisoning from a couple gulps of raw milk. And I've pasteurized it now but I'm still scared of drinking it. So what I'm gonna do is bake with all of it. I'll make those Japanese milk breads or whatever

[rottysgarden]

Flavored my kombucha with grapes and watermelon! The watermelon made it kinda zesty and the grapes are real sweet. Combined its really good!!

[rottysgarden]

Yeah.. im gonna invest in a cream separator. The cream would settle at the top and I'd remove it with a syringe, but a lot of milk would still come with it. I've spent like 3 days separating it over and over again bleh

[rottysgarden]

+ Separating butter from milk +

A better way than I've previously written. Do not boil the milk!! You denature the protein and enzymes!!

To pasteurize, heat at 145f for 30 minutes

After heat treatment, let milk cool and empty into 64oz jar. then put in refrigerator. Once chilled, take out and let warm up to room temp. Cream will separate to the top of jar, remove with turkey baster. Or get a container with a stout at the bottom to drain milk and leave behind Cream.

[rottysgarden]

On the other hand i also mowed my lawn and planted my moringa tree in the backyard so +2

5/11/25 to do list

Collect fig leaves, wash & dry DONE

Refresh pickling brine DONE

Start kombucha 2nd fermentation w/ ginger and lemon

Make butter

Collect bugamnilia flowers, wash & dry

3

[rottysgarden]

Just planted my moringa tree out back! So excited to see this baby grow grow grow!

[rottysgarden]

× Making cream/malai/nata from raw milk ×

Im wanting to make ghee. But first we must collect cream from milk! I buy my local raw milk from sprouts, it's from a farm a couple hours out and it's the freshest I can get!

Boiling milk takes time, you have to heat slowly to get it to boil or it'll burn!

You can collect cream 2 ways. While keeping the milk at a low heat, you can collect the film that forms at the top into a glass jar. Do this over and over again until there's none left.

Or you can slowly rise it to a boil, boil for a few minutes then let it cool completely before putting it in the fridge. I put it in the fridge in a wide pot so the cream is easy to collect.

You can use this cream for many things but I'm going to use it for butter :)

[rottysgarden]

5/11/25 to do list

Collect fig leaves, wash & dry DONE

Refresh pickling brine DONE

Start kombucha 2nd fermentation w/ ginger and lemon DONE

Make butter DONE

Collect bugamnilia flowers, wash & dry

3

[rottysgarden]

Not the first to come out of the season, and they just keep coming! I live in the low desert so it's important to bring them in once they have any color cuz the heat slows down ripening!

I made a bomb tomato soup yesterday. Today I'm thinking just regular sautéed and salted tomatoes sounds delicious!

[rottysgarden]

Tomato soup!

Caramelize a lot of tomato in a big pan

Caramelize onions, carrots, and celery 2:1:1 ratio

The tomato to other veggies ratio is 3:1

Add milk w/ coconut cream or whipping cream

Blend!

[rottysgarden]

This month I absolutely have to amend the soil with compost and top with fresh mulch. I will also buy possum traps for the cats.

The mulch wil keep soil temps down and keep the soil moist and live!! Rake back old mulch and amend with compost!! Remove grass!!