Four-inch transplant in ground 4/30, photo 6/17
Hale's Best Cantaloupe to the right, Charleston Grey on the left and Otis in the middle.
Melons are always fun in the middle of the summer, so we decided to do some Hale’s Best Cantaloupe and Charleston Grey Watermelon. We’re growing these vertically on a trellis – as I previously blogged about. Hannah discovered our first fruit tonight and boy-o-boy is it exciting.
Planted early June, photo 6/17/09
I grew a few of these incredibly HOT peppers last year, beginning in August. Even with that late start the plants produced wonderful fruit and I had more capsaicin in my kitchen than most folks encounter their entire lives. I put this baby in the ground June 5th using a compost rich, well-draining, soil…I’m expecting good things.
June 5, 2009
At the moment the plant is about 18″ and already has some peppers coming in. You can see the little green pepper, which should start turning red at about 80 days, in the middle of this photo.
Here’s a photo of a few of the Caribbean Red Habaneros I harvested from the garden last fall. These were picked on December 10th, 2008 and made my tongue burn.
Harvested 12/10/08
4" transplant in ground 3/17
The only points to this post are; 1)I had to make my geniusly cheesy title a reality after watching this huge tomato grow to an enourmous size behind the trellis, and 2)I gots me a big tomato coming soon. Stay tuned…
Planted from seed 4/7
These Japanese “yard long” beans thrive in heat, explaining their tremendous growth on the vine over the past few consecutive 100+ degree days. This one measures over 17″ and isn’t done growing yet. I haven’t harvested any of these guys, but they are supposed to be good in stir-frys and such. I’ll let you know.
Due to an enormous amount of reader mail I’ve decided to post my super infamous recipe for slow-smoked baby back ribs. Apologies to vegetarians up front. This recipe was developed and tweaked over the past four years by yours truly, failing and succeeding over and over again with a half-hundred racks of baby backs and more hot peppers than you can shake a twig at. The following is my casually archived, yet beloved, recipe. Enjoy!
Con Queso’s slow-smoked ribs
Everything you need except for smoke and fire.
1 rack of prime/natural choice baby-back ribs
1 large pepper, chopped (poblano or banana supreme work great)
2 serrano peppers, chopped (optional)
Tablespoon of fresh chili powder
Tablespoon of salt
1/2 tablespoon of pepper
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Tablespoon of toasted cumin seeds
Tablespoon of toasted coriander seeds
Quart of apple cider/juice, or distilled apple cider vinegar
Aluminum foil
All natural charcoal chunks (don’t use briquets)
Two handfuls of apple, pecan or oak chips, soaked in water or cider overnight
One gallon freezer bag
Grill thermometer
The night before:
Remove thin skin membrane from underside of ribs. This is tough to do, but worth it. Use a paper-towel to get a grip on the membrane and work a sharp knife underneath.
Removing the membrane
Cut rack in half (for easier handling on the grill), set aside.
Cut the rack in half for easier handling and whatnot
Toast cumin and coriander seeds in skillet on oven.
Toasting the cumin and coriander
Combine this with salt, chili powder, pepper and grind (I have a dedicated coffee grinder for this. If you use yr regular coffee grinder it will forever taste funky). Use this as a dry rub, applying roughly 3/4s of it on the tops of the ribs, the rest on the underside. My grinder is broken at the moment, so I’m using a traditional Molcajete – which might be better anyway.
adding cumin/coriander to the rest of the dry spices
finished dry rub
After working the dry rub into the ribs, combine poblano and Serrano peppers in small bowl with garlic. Rub this mixture evenly on ribs, doing your best to get it all adhered.
ribs with dry rub
Put ribs in plastic Ziploc freezer bag to sit overnight. Sometimes I add a couple tablespoons of apple cider in with the ribs to help moisten them up (and for good luck).
Prepare the grill. You will be grilling indirectly, with the coals on one side and the meat on the other. Grill temperature is ideal at 225, but it is imperative to keep between 200 and 250.
Preparing the grill, yo.
Fired Up!
Once grill is at right temperature (250 degrees) add ribs with the meaty side up and the bones on the grill. Add some of your soaked apple/pecan/oak chunks for smoke. Let those babies rock for about two and a half hours, rotating the meat once or twice during this process. You can also drizzle/mop the ribs a few times with yr apple cider.
Indirect heat
After 2 1/2 hours into cooking I wrap the ribs with foil. Sometimes I buy aluminum cake pans from dollar general and cover with foil, I find this method most effective. You’ll want to add about a cup of cider to the ribs/foil bowl – and then maintain that amount of moisture for the rest of the cooking process. Keep yr eye on the ribs and add cider as necessary…don’t let ‘em dry out! The more solid the bottom of yr foil container is, the less it will leak.
The ribs turn out best when you let them cook for 8-14 hours on the grill. I usually go 10. If you get tired of maintaining a 225-degree grill fire after 4 hours, you may finish them off in the oven. I usually do this, but it is important they get at least 4 hours of real smoke on the grill. The last couple times I’ve done this, I’ve done slow and low on the grill for 3-4 hours, then put them in the oven at 225 for another 12-16 hours. Make sure the cake pans never go dry – keep ’em about an 1/8 inch deep with apple cider or apple juice. I’ve never had better ribs. Geeez!
Also important: after removing ribs from grill/oven, let them rest for a good 10 or 12 minutes before you touch them. This will allow the displaced moisture to find its way back into the meat. Good luck!
Slow and Low
Planted 3/19, picked 6/11
I was expecting these to turn red, but couldn’t wait any longer. I’m going to give them a taste and see if I dig it at this stage of the pepper’s life. Regardless, my Cayenne plant looks like it is going to produce a crapload this summer – good times. Good times.
By the way, altough I saw all the caterpillars on the fennel plant this morning, as of 2:30PM they have completely disappeared. I’m hoping they took off and are forming coccoons somewhere but I fear the birds got ’em.
Planted on March 16th, photo on June 10th
Sure these babies are surrounded by some brown/dead leaves (caused by spider mites in April), but…holy tomatoes! I’m getting excited about eating these things with some pasta and wine. Yum-dum-a-doodles!
Since melons “travel” quite a ways when they grow, I decided to give them a trellis and grow them vertically. Once the fruit start gaining some weight, I plan on fixing them to the trellis with something like pantyhose that will expand with the melon and keep it from falling off the vine under it’s own weight. After doing a bit of research in homesteading books and whatnot, I chose to construct a sawhorse style trellis. It’s strong and was easy to build. Here is what I did…
These metal sawhorse hinges/joints can be bought at yr local big box store for about $7
First, I must apologize for my hair. Please do not pay attention to my physical appearance in this blog or you will lose focus.
Second, I bought a metal sawhorse hinge and a few 8′ pieces of 2x4s from a crappy big box store. I cut four 3′ ‘legs’ and one 5′ section for the top.
Wire was rolled out 56 inches long and secured to each side of the sawhorse.
Next I took some leftover fencing I had laying around and attached it to the legs of the sawhorse. I made the sawhorse 56″ as to overlap my 4′ box by 4″ on each side. This allowed me to place the trellis over the garden box without the legs sitting in the soil.
Finished trellis on top of Hale's Best Cantaloupe (left) and Charleston Grey Watermelon (right)
The final step was attaching the center/top 2×4 to the two sawhorse hinges and placing the finished trellis over the garden box.
One week after adding the trellis, the melons are attaching themselves with their cool tendrils
I took the above photo today, one week after building the trellis. Check out all the blossoms! I saw many bees doing their dirty pollinating on these suckers this morning…melons coming soon!
Red Malabar Spinach from Kitazawa Seed Co.
I was initially pretty excited about this Red Malabar Spinach, which is one of the few “greens” that can take the summer heat in Central Texas. I changed my mind, however, after hearing numerous reports of the spinach being “mucous-like” in texture and not very tasty either. I’ve heard that this plant is best used in fish-based soups, as found in Asian cuisine. At any rate, instead of cutting the spinach down – I replanted it in the corner of our yard for ornamental purposes…it is a vining plant that can reach 14 feet tall. Today is the first day I’ve noticed the spinach clinging to the bamboo stake.
The seeds for this plant came from Kitazawa, who certainly have the best packaging of any seed company in my humble opinion.
Planted and Enchanted 