#Armenian Cucumber

[thestudentfarmer]

9-5-2024 Garden and homesteading update,

Hello, hello!

Life's been keeping me a bit busy recently but I do have a bit of an update for the garden~

Finally Got manure in to fill in a few beds and top off rows. (Which I've started and got going to prep for winter)

Pulled everything but the carrots, cucumber, peppers and 1 tomato (tho the tomatoes on a wire line. I'm still thinking bout pulling it)

I found a few of the armenian cucumbers that might have viable seed, ive got to pull them apart and clean them tonight to dry and give a viability test. I'll leave the cucumbers growing for now. The pollinators and hummingbirds have been using them for shade and fuel. Plus I like the flush of lush foilage and ground cover. It's been extra hot this summer so we haven't seen as much produce as I usually crow about from them. When the weather starts going back to regulalry below 95*f I'm hoping to see more fruiting.

Started up a new bed in the garden. Its a raised bed, two boards tall. This one will be layered on the bottom as usual with cardboard thickly to repell and deter the grass a little bit. Instea dof paper shreds, i cracked up the sunflower stalks I've been saving up to fit the bed size and filled it a good bit with the smaller ones. Topping it off with the manur/compost. I also threw some of the dead cucumber vines with the sunflower stalks to sort of fill it. Not tight packed, just loosely. Just wanna see of it'll work similar to hugelkultur. (Link at end to Wikipedia page).

The sweet potato vines are starting to take off. Thankfully this means I'll have some greens to split between family and the chickens soon. Maybe even some spuds at the end of the season 🤞

The thyme plant kicked the can, the asparagus is ferning out, but not stalking. The basil is seeding pretty good. So with luck some wild seeded basil starts soon.

The sunchokes have stunted a bit, this week I'm gonna see about putting a shade up to see if that'll help them out.

The hollyhocks in the hen alley have been sort of taken over by grasshoppers. So not too much growth among them. Think I'll need to spend a few nights catching them, freezing them and giving them to the chickens for a little extra snack time delight. (Plus getting them out of the garden) I think at that time I'll also lay out some new cardboard as the ground cover has disintegrated pretty well. Looking good beneath on the soil.

Started filling in the area I wanted to put melons in, may instead end up using that area to grow winter veggies, like cauliflower, cabbage or broccoli.

Still need to mix the seed starting soil, cut up some cardboard tubes (gonna try to use them for some seed starting) and get those winter crops started up.

Getting ready to dig out my floral patch to plant elsewhere. (I've been waiting for cooler weather.)

And start up the new direct seed rotation plan (carrots, lettuce, radish, nasturtium and other)

And a few other minor tasks related to the garden and some major ones later too that I'm not gonna get ahead of myself yet on grandoise plans 😂

That's the garden update for now :)

🌱💚Happy Gardening and homesteading💚🌱

Links for additional infos:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur

[morethansalad]

Tahn / Traditional Armenian Yogurt Drink (Vegan)

[scribefindegil]

this is a real rough year for the garden bc my curse is so bad and Nate's heat intolerance makes it hard for him to help but if I can at least get cukes & legumes to grow happily I will be content

[milfdollyparton]

[crzygthumbs]

Armenian Cucumber Wine

Who knew these make great wine? I started making my own wine last year. I was gifted a link to a gentleman who makes his own wine from store bought juice, granular sugar and bread yeast. I don’t like sweet wines and I really didn’t like how his recipe turned out. It’s good to add to other things, just not to drink straight. Link to super easy homemade wine for shrubs. (No equipment necessary) I…

[fthrdvs]

Armenian Cucumber Wine

Who knew these make great wine? I started making my own wine last year. I was gifted a link to a gentleman who makes his own wine from store bought juice, granular sugar and bread yeast. I don’t like sweet wines and I really didn’t like how his recipe turned out. It’s good to add to other things, just not to drink straight. Link to super easy homemade wine for shrubs. (No equipment necessary) I…

[bramblebutch]

[chappythegardener]

Armenian Striped Cucumber seeds

Add a unique and flavorful addition to your garden with our Armenian Striped Cucumber seeds. These heirloom seeds will produce plants that yield an abundant harvest of elongated, ribbed cucumbers that have a sweet, crisp and juicy flesh. The Armenian Striped Cucumber is known for its unique and attractive stripes and its delicious taste, making it a popular choice for home gardeners and market growers. To germinate the seeds, start by filling seed trays or pots with seed compost and watering it thoroughly. Next, make small indentations in the compost, about 1/4 inch deep, and place one seed in each indentation. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of compost or vermiculite, and water gently. Place the tray or pots in a propagator or cover with a plastic bag and place it in a warm spot such as a windowsill or warm room. Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged. Once the seedlings are big enough to handle, transplant them into 3 inch pots and grow on in cooler conditions until large enough to plant outside or in a container. They will need full sun and well-drained soil. Space them about 14-18 inch apart in rows 14-18 inch apart, they can also be grown in a container or small pots. These Armenian Striped Cucumber plants require regular watering and fertilization. Keep an eye out for pests and diseases, with proper care, these plants will begin to bear cucumbers in about 60-70 days after transplanting, and will continue to produce cucumbers throughout the growing season. Order now and get Armenian Striped Cucumber heirloom seeds that will provide you with a unique, healthy, attractive and delicious harvest that is perfect for adding some visual interest to your meals and for pickling. Read the full article

[teyvatairconditioningco]

Fuck it, the Avisos boys as cucumbers

Beelzebub is a Marketmore 76, the quintessential cucumber. You acquire a whole bunch of them aaaaand they're gone (to mold).

Bael is a Boston pickling cucumber, very crisp, takes spices very well. Also has several flavors of psychological trauma.

Naberius is an Armenian yard-long cucumber. Knows the secrets of the universe, easily digestible (those two things are unrelated).

Stolas is a Richmond green apple cucumber. He's just a little guy. Just a little war criminal. Bit thin-skinned. Vibes of a Cancer (astrological).

And finally, Amon is a lemon cucumber. Kinda wanna throw him, kinda wanna shove him in my mouth whole. Would confuse the shit out of your grandmother. Probably tastes great if you can find one.

All of them when they see [you]

[metamorphesque]

What would be considered a typital lunch in Armenia?

I’d like to preface this by saying that I am probably the worst person to answer your question. First of all, I’m a vegetarian, which is already a big deviation from the traditional Armenian diet, and secondly, because of my complicated relationship with food. That being said, I’ll give you a very general answer and hope I won’t mislead you.

Traditionally, lunch (midday) meals in Armenia are light, with the main meal usually taking place around 5-7 p.m., after work.

A typical lunch may include

various wraps (like shawurma) with lavash (Armenian flatbread).

Jengyalov hats (Armenian bread with jengyal – greens) - a flatbread filled with about 25 types of greens. The recipe and the variety of greens used differ depending on the region.

Vegetable salads are common, often made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and herbs like parsley or cilantro. Here, we eat a lot of fresh herbs—when I say a lot, I mean handfuls of fresh greens (kanachi) at a time.

Another popular dish is lahmajo - a Middle Eastern flatbread topped with minced meat, usually beef or lamb, minced vegetables, and herbs.

Soups are also typical for lunch—simple broths with vegetables, spas (a yogurt-based soup with herbs and grains), or khash (a rich, slow-cooked beef or lamb soup, often eaten in winter with dried lavash and pickled vegetables).

Anyway, this is what comes to mind when I think of lunch.

For me personally (before my relationship with food became complicated), the perfect lunch was lavash with grilled sausage, chanakh cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers.

[obsessivevoidkitten]

These are all the things I want to grow and have the seeds for this year, though some things are missing from this list. I still need more soil, most of the produce goes to the senior center so if anyone wants to throw me 3 dollars for a bag of dirt it goes to a good cause, I also save seeds and distribute them to neighbors and some of the people at the senior center. This blog is my only income source as I am an unpaid live-in aide for an elderly woman. No pressure though. Also if anyone just wants to put gardening discussions in my inbox I am totally up for that!

Supernova sunchokes

Red pontiac potatoes, kennebec potatoes, lehigh potatoes, purple viking potatoes, red norland potatoes, also sweet potatoes

Brown sugar tomatoes, amish paste tomatoes, orange hat tomatoes, yellow stuffer tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, bosque blue bumblebee tomatoes, bonny best tomatoes, orange icicle tomatoes, sart roloise tomatoes, sweetheart cherry tomatoes, honeycomb tomatoes, barry's crazy cherry tomatoes, kentucky beefsteak tomatoes, and of course PRAIRIE FIRE TOMATOES

Corbaci peppers, ajvarski peppers, sugar rush peach peppers, albino bullnose peppers, binquinho peppers, lemon spice jalapeno peppers

Armenian yard long cucumbers, sumter cucumbers, bushcrop cucumbers, spacemaster 80 cucumbers, green apple cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, dragon's egg cucumbers, poona kheera cucumbers, pick a bushel cucumbers

Rosita eggplants, listda de gandia eggplants, shikou eggplants, casper eggplants

White soul alpine strawberries, seascape strawberries

Strawberry spinach, malabar spinach, thousand head kale, scarlet kale, blooming kale, orach, slobolt lettuce, merlot lettuce, bronze lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, bibb lettuce, aqua large leaf watercress, swiss chard five color silverbeet

Moonshine sweet corn, glass gem corn, fiesta corn, Incredible R/M sweet corn

Great northern beans, dwarf taylor horticulture beans, jade II beans

Red burgundy okra, jing orange okra

Autumn buckskin pumpkins, long island cheese pumpkins, flat white boer pumpkins, seminole pumpkins, rouge vif d' etampes pumpkins

Gumball mix radishes, china rose radishes, de 18 jours radishes, golden helios radishes, purple plum radishes, diana hybrid radishes, pink dawn radishes

Chocolate cherry sunflowers, autumn beauty sunflowers, evening sunflowers, russian mammoth sunflowers, florenza sunflowers, lemon queen sunflowers

Peach melba nasturtiums, whirlybird nasturtiums, orchid flame nasturtiums, tip top alaska salmon nasturtiums, tip top rose nasturtiums

Gill's golden pippin squash, honeynut squash, candy roaster squash, delicata squash, early prolific straightneck squash

Jolly jester marigolds, mexican mint marigolds, safari scarlet marigolds, orange flame marigolds, colossus bicolor red gold marigolds

Purple coneflowers, black eyed susans, moss roses, coleus pinto mix

Double tall mix strawflowers, copper red strawflowers, king size orange strawflowers

Pampas plume celosias, eternity mix celosias

Desert king watermelons, lemon drop watermelons, royal golden watermelons, tigger melons, kajari melons, golden crispy melons, golden jenny melons

Purple dragon carrots, melbec carrots, uzbek gold carrots, koral carrots

[thestudentfarmer]

So Ive been wanting to try making kimchi for while, because I hear it's good for gut health and I know its a tasty way to preserve food.

But since cabbages didn't work out as hoped for this year I'm going to try my hand at a cucumber kimchi since they've done well.

I haven't taken many pics but since it's warmed up we've been getting around 5-10 cukes about this size weekly and Sis picks and eats about 4 a week seperately.

We have seen a few with what look some water cracking issues, but it's over day 50 of 100+*f, so sort of expected.

Since switching to the trellis off ground, there is also far less being eaten by the rolypolies. Yay! But I am concerned about the carrots further up 😅

Anyways, I made some cucumber kimchi with some of the extra cucumbers about 2 weeks ago and have been tasting A bit each day after the suggested 2 day wait.

I can confidently say i added way to much onion into this first batch 😭

Otherwise. It's pretty tasty. I will be making again :) with far less onion though. 😂 i just didn't wanna waste half a regualr onion that wouldn't get used otherwise for a bit (I will be freezing the following ones for quick cooking later).

I added ribboned carrots too, since we had a few to use and various recipes add them.

Recipes I looked to for assistance and found helpful...

https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tongbaechu-kimchi

https://youtu.be/ApQUENQbgiY?feature=shared

https://www.ballmasonjars.com/kimchi.html

That's it for now :)

🌱🌱Happy Homesteading and preserving 🌱🌱

7 6 2024

[morethansalad]

Vospov Kofte / Armenian Lentil Meatballs (Vegan)

[milfdollyparton]

green beans in purse. where they belong

[letsgogardening]

FRONT GARDEN UPDATE 11/29/2023

Full side view

Row 1= a pumpkin, variety of sunflowers and Valor beans

The pumpkin has two fruits on it at the moment! I'm gonna post a few pics of what it looks like currently a little further down.

For the sunflowers we just mixed a bunch of different ones together so there's some Mammoth, Boss (black oil sunflower) and some stuff we had left over from the last sunflowers we grew!

Row 2 = nasturtiums further away and cabbage

A little view of row 2

Row 3= Armenian cucumbers and egg plants

The Armenians aren't spreading out too much but that's more our fault than the plants, it's not in a super sunny spot and it tends to do better when it's slightly sunnier spot in the winter.

Row#4= more valor beans closer with some remnants of cabbage, carrots and radish.

Close up of the pumpkins!

One of the eggplants is starting to show signs of getting flowers/fruit.

A valor bean on the plant

While they aren't really branching out one of them does have a lot of little cucumbers starting!

And some bees on some of the blossomed sunflowers!

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Celebrating July 4th in Strange Times, Pt 1

I'm still recovering from the literal assault of a week we all just went through. And it's only Wednesday. Time to UNHOOK AND COOK.

I'm not thinkin' too clearly, but like i've often said here on this hellsite (meh): when in doubt, BAKE. And COOK.

I had no idea just why, but my old friend/landlord back in Austin came to mind yesterday, and as a result, this felafel recipe. His grandmother was Lebanese. His grandfather was Italian. And then my old friend who is second-generation Armenian immigrant came to mind, as well.

This felafel recipe is "authentic", and pretty basic to people who know, but to this heavily-breaded and chicken-fried Texas boy, it was a revelation.

Final confirmation the boy knows his felafel came from Chef roomie yesterday that they were, indeed, beatiful and tasty, with the homemade tzatziki as dunkin' sauce.

So this occupied me yesterday, still over a dozen felafel balls left, and lots of tzatziki, and it hit me to celebrate in my own way by making an "All American" dinner that is a blend of food friends have all enjoyed in dinners past.

We'll have those heated, along with more dipping sauce, beside a batch of my oven-baked Italian meatballs, and oven-barbecued chicken thighs, with homemade barbecue sauce (goes great on the meatballs as well!), and my version of potato salad.

As far as dessert, I started today by making a batch of super-vanilla no-churn ice cream in the hottest part of the afternoon. Thought that might cause problems, but it's already setting, so that's good. I am also gonna make a coffee-chocolate sauce to go on top, along with a dollop of the red raspberry freezer jam I made last week.

OK: First things first,

Felafel Recipe

2 cups (dry measure) dried garbanzo beans

4 cups cold water

1 bunch parsley

5-6+ cloves garlic

1 large onion

2 tablespoons of cumin

1 heaping tablespoon of baking powder

3 tablespoons of flour

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

Put dried garbanzos and water in a medium-small bowl or 4-cup liquid measure pyrex cup. Cover and put in fridge at least over night. They will expand! Leave them for 24-36 hours, until they have at least doubled in volume.

After they have soaked, drain and put in food processor bowl, with regular blade. Put the rest of the ingredients in on top of the garbanzos. Chop the parsley in half first, spread the dried ingredients evenly.

Put the cover on and process, pulse at first, until you see the desired color and texture start to happen. Stop and scrape, then turn on and leave on until you get a grainy texture and STOP.

Transfer to another bowl, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to fry.

Tzatziki Recipe:

1 cup sour cream (or Greek Yogurt)

1 cucumber

Salt/Pepper

Use the large grates on a cheese grater, grate the cucumber into a small bowl. Sprinkle liberally with about a teaspoon of salt. Mash it around, until you see the green liquid start for form. Take and strain, mashing the rest of the water and salt out. Mix with the sour cream and chill.

Fry the felafel into small (1 to 1 1/2") balls, using a teaspoon to help you form the balls. Drop them one at a time into the "chicken-frying hot" fat of your choice. Fry until a dark-golden brown. Serve with the Tzatziki as a dip. The felafel balls freeze and re-heat well.

I'll post the rest of it as it happens tomorrow. I think i've posted the ice-cream recipe before, this time basic vanilla, thus the coffee-chocolate sauce and raspberry jam.