January in the Mid-South garden

Hello, Mid-South gardeners.

I'm late posting this month because frankly, I haven't been able to find anything new to post. What do we do in January? I'm looking at seed catalogs, determining when I should start seeds for transplants, trying to get hubby started building new SFG boxes, and waiting on the January thaw to throw out some lettuce seed. Are any of you in the lower sections already planting?

Today it appears that many of you will be shoveling snow, so let's take today off. I'm inviting you all to (pretend) sit around my big kitchen table with a mug of hot chocolate or your favorite herbal tea, I'll make us a big pot of soup, and we'll spread out the seed catalogs and planting diagrams, and talk SFG plans.

Tell us what YOU are doing this month. (And pass the cornbread, please.)

As a borderline mid-south-lower south member, I have already started my cherry tom seeds, but the rest will wait another few days. I have sweet potatoes started (more out of laziness than anything - I had one sprout in the cupboard , thought, hmm, I like that variety, let's see how it does) and I'm probably a bit early on ideal time on those starts.

I have lettuce, parsnips, broccoli, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach and beets sprouted in the cold frames (well, parsnips are planted, sprouted, not so much). Still have some broccoli plants that I'm picking at, some broccoli raab that's well past prime but still usable (that laziness, again), some kale left, plenty of chard, mache (AKA corn salad - delicious, mild, tender, very cold-tolerant greens, by the way), some sorrel, and assorted herbs (and I'm sure some things I've forgotten). Oh, and fennel, anybody got a favorite fennel recipe? I keep planting things with intentions of finding a great recipe to try, then . . . . . did I mention the laziness?

Asparagus/strawberry bed is ready for planting as soon as I can get the plants and this current cold spell has passed.

Hmm, I think that's most of it. Planning the rest of the planting, of course, a little behind, (that darn laziness again! ).

Odd Duck wrote:Oh, and fennel, anybody got a favorite fennel recipe? I keep planting things with intentions of finding a great recipe to try, then . . . . .

This is one of my favorite fennel recipes. It's from Ina Garten and it's great comfort food. I think fennel always pairs well with potatoes. You can also make this dish using extra fennel without the potatoes.

Barefoot Contessa Potato-fennel Gratin

I also like to snip fennel fronds into salads or sprinkle them on fish while cooking.

I just slice the fennel bulb crosswise (like an onion) and put it on salads. LOVE it.

Thanks! Unfortunately, my hubby is type 2 diabetic, so I tend to steer away from too much white potatoe. That's part of the problem, I keep finding recipes where it's paired with potatoes. Sounds delicious, but my hubby is soooooo fond of potatoes he always eats too much and his sugar goes up. I guess I should have clarified a bit more! I've tried snippets of the tops in mixed green salads and love it. I convinced myself I was going to try some recipes, but I'm so lazy and just really hate going to the trouble of cooking something, then my picky hubby is like, meh. I wanted some expert opinions!

Any other non-potatoe thoughts? I should have used it in salad when I still had plenty of greens to mix it with.

Hmmm ... as far as what we're doing this month ...

• Straining my back every couple of days moving existing tomato containers in/out of the house, every time the weather swings from 78 to freezing, in a 24 hour time frame.

• Trying to water the tomato plants I brought inside, just enough to prevent the ripening fruit from cracking, but not enough to cause them to drain/stain the carpet.

• Validating the phrase "swears like a sailor", when the tomatoes crack/split anyway.

• Giving at least a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes a horrible death while trying to figure out how the heck you guys grow these things from seeds!!! Why didn't I just take a winter break, just like every other sane gardener .... uggg

Getting my first ripe fruit from my WFET's & questioning my sanity for growing these(so far "mature size" is about 3/8").

Finally having sucess in finally getting heirloom seeds to sprout/survive.... only to find out that a "helpful soul" in my household needed the space on my grow table, consolidated the individual varieties into one tray and carefully/lovingly moved the seedlings to one location, and the lid with the varieties marked on it, somewhere else (ultimately lost in the Christmas shuffle).
I now have eight beautiful heirloom transplants in 5" pots, ready to go to their final destination in my SFG next month ....... couldn't tell ya what they heck they are though

Odd Duck wrote:Thanks! Unfortunately, my hubby is type 2 diabetic, so I tend to steer away from too much white potatoe. That's part of the problem, I keep finding recipes where it's paired with potatoes. Sounds delicious, but my hubby is soooooo fond of potatoes he always eats too much and his sugar goes up. I guess I should have clarified a bit more! I've tried snippets of the tops in mixed green salads and love it. I convinced myself I was going to try some recipes, but I'm so lazy and just really hate going to the trouble of cooking something, then my picky hubby is like, meh. I wanted some expert opinions!

Any other non-potatoe thoughts? I should have used it in salad when I still had plenty of greens to mix it with.

Odd Duck: I have seen a number of recipes which substitute cauliflower (mashed? diced? grated? not sure) for mashed potato. I haven't tried it myself but apparently people are raving over it. Would this help???

Acara wrote:
Finally having sucess in finally getting heirloom seeds to sprout/survive.... only to find out that a "helpful soul" in my household needed the space on my grow table, consolidated the individual varieties into one tray and carefully/lovingly moved the seedlings to one location, and the lid with the varieties marked on it, somewhere else (ultimately lost in the Christmas shuffle).
I now have eight beautiful heirloom transplants in 5" pots, ready to go to their final destination in my SFG next month ....... couldn't tell ya what they heck they are though

I feel your pain. Once my DH sets up the lights for my seed starting station in the guest bedroom, he is banished from the guest bedroom, otherwise, the seed starting station begins to look like my sewing/junk room. Hope there are no guests for the next three months.

Megan wrote:
Odd Duck: I have seen a number of recipes which substitute cauliflower (mashed? diced? grated? not sure) for mashed potato. I haven't tried it myself but apparently people are raving over it. Would this help???

I've noticed that cauliflower mash is kind of all the rage, lately, too. I'm not sure if fennel and cauliflower would be good together and any starchy mash is still carbs. It might not trigger his white potato craving as much, though.

I've been looking into some of the inulin containing root veg to see how easy they are or aren't to grow, prep, cook, etc, as somewhat of a substitute for white potatoes. Inulin is a carb that is minimally digestible, so not absorbed much and low glycemic. Apparently the big risk is having all that undigested fiber in your system and Beano supposedly doesn't prevent anything for inulin induced . . . . uh . . . . um . . . air? But slowly building consumption can help minimize the adverse side effects.

Anyone have experience with growing or cooking Jerusalum artichoke (AKA sunchoke) or yacon? These are both supposed to be high in inulin and low in easily absorbed starches/carbs.

I've got four squares worth, still in the ground, that I grew this past summer. I've never eaten one. They're so butt ugly that I haven't been interested in harvesting them.

I'll dig a few up tomorrow to see what I've got!

Odd Duck wrote:

Megan wrote:
Odd Duck: I have seen a number of recipes which substitute cauliflower (mashed? diced? grated? not sure) for mashed potato. I haven't tried it myself but apparently people are raving over it. Would this help???

I've noticed that cauliflower mash is kind of all the rage, lately, too. I'm not sure if fennel and cauliflower would be good together and any starchy mash is still carbs. It might not trigger his white potato craving as much, though.

I've been looking into some of the inulin containing root veg to see how easy they are or aren't to grow, prep, cook, etc, as somewhat of a substitute for white potatoes. Inulin is a carb that is minimally digestible, so not absorbed much and low glycemic. Apparently the big risk is having all that undigested fiber in your system and Beano supposedly doesn't prevent anything for inulin induced . . . . uh . . . . um . . . air? But slowly building consumption can help minimize the adverse side effects.

Anyone have experience with growing or cooking Jerusalum artichoke (AKA sunchoke) or yacon? These are both supposed to be high in inulin and low in easily absorbed starches/carbs.

Cauliflower has a glycemic index of 15 (low).

1 Cup of cauliflower (raw) has about 5 g carbs and 2.6 g fibre, so for many, it is not enough fiber to cause intestinal distress and it is a low carb food. Mashed Cauliflower is not starchy.

Mashed cauliflower is prepared by steaming the cauliflower 4-6 min, then mashing it like potatoes with milk or cream and adding salt and pepper or other seasonings. Personally, I don't think it tastes too much like potatoes, but I do serve it once in a while. I prefer my cauliflower steamed or raw.

By comparison, 1 cup of white potato has 30 g carbs and 5 g fiber.

1 cup raw Fennel is also low in carbs about 6 g carbs and about 2 g fiber

I have not tried yakon or sunchokes.

I've never tried jeruselem artichokes as a vegetable, but my Aunt used to make the best pickles out of them. Don't know what recipes she used but they were sweet sorta like bread and butter pickles and could probably be made with one of the artificial sweetners. She also included some hot peppers in some of the jars. GOOOD! I could sit down and eat a pint jar all by myself.

Kay

Furbalsmom - thanks for the info, I didn't realize that cauliflower was so low in carbs. I'll have to give it a whirl. I've only done raw or steamed cauli and I've never been all that excited about eating loads of it. I'll give it a try in mash. I've been intrigued by the colored varieties - especially the yellow/orange that has loads of beta carotene. I bet that would make a beautiful mash! Plus the purple that has anthocyanin antioxidants.

All right, I just added colored cauliflower to my "get seeds" list.

I'm also planning a tub for sunchokes. I'll give 'em a whirl and if we like them, I'll do a whole bed.

I love how much info and feedback I can get from this forum (and how fast I can get it). Thanks, everyone!

for an excellent alternative to mashed potatoes, try celeriac/celery root/celeri rave.

It has an awesome flavor and the texture is just like mashed potatoes, but very low in carbs and very high in Vitamin C.

Well, I was finally able to grab all the seed catalogs I've been getting the past few weeks, together to finally start looking at them. And while looking at the ones I was able to look at before forcing myself to put them down so I could go to bed, I came to a decision that I was going to buy tomato plants this year from Burpee for my maters. They have a collection that has just about everyone that I've been wanting to try for a few years now.

I feel bad because I bought a whole bunch of mater seeds to try this year, but I'm just not in the mood for starting the seeds, hardening them off, going through the transplant shock, waiting for them to catch up to the few I buy as plants, blah blah blah. That being said though, I am going to start the pepper plants I want indoors since I have MUCH better luck with those.

I've pretty much already planned my garden two different ways for this year, last year, and bought most of the seeds that I'm going to need for most of it last year too. I still have 4 square left open on one plan, not quite sure what I'm going to plant in there yet since I'm really going more traditional with what I'm growing. Tomatoes, peppers, and beans. I might throw in some early things like radishes, lettuce, or carrots in those four squares, otherwise... I'll just have to see what the local places have that trip my trigger.

I wish that I could find a local place I could pay to grow all my seeds for me. I really have a hard time keeping up with it and keeping my adorable cat out of my stuff.

I've also tried the cauliflower mash and substitution, can't say that I'm a huge fan of it for 100% subs. A partial sub though is fine, you can tell the difference. My stepfather-in-law is a diabetic, and I wish I could pass on some recipes, but there's no chance in that as they don't know what healthy cooking is very well, lol.

I wonder if you could add some potato skins to a cauliflower mash, to make them taste more like potatoes. (I noticed that when Wendy's changed their fries to leaving the skins on, there seemed to be much more of a potato flavor, even in something so processed. Even more salty now than they were before, though; ugh!)

You could bake a skin-on potato, then scoop it out (save that for something else, or put in your compost), then *really* clean the insides off the remaining skin (i.e., not like you were making a regular potato skin appetizer dish). Dice up the skin, then add to your cauliflower mash. Might be worth a shot.

Megan wrote:I wonder if you could add some potato skins to a cauliflower mash, to make them taste more like potatoes. (I noticed that when Wendy's changed their fries to leaving the skins on, there seemed to be much more of a potato flavor, even in something so processed. Even more salty now than they were before, though; ugh!)

The salt has also changed. They now use a sea salt that is bigger flaked. Because of this their fry station is suppose to be cleaned every few hours because of the build up. Most stores don't do it because of their own reason we'll not state here. If they aren't cleaned the salt is horrible. I get the inside scoop because my Inlaw is the manager at one, I also get the best of the best when I go to her store too. It's nice to get a burger that looks like a commercial

kimbertangleknot wrote:

Megan wrote:I wonder if you could add some potato skins to a cauliflower mash, to make them taste more like potatoes. (I noticed that when Wendy's changed their fries to leaving the skins on, there seemed to be much more of a potato flavor, even in something so processed. Even more salty now than they were before, though; ugh!)

The salt has also changed. They now use a sea salt that is bigger flaked. Because of this their fry station is suppose to be cleaned every few hours because of the build up. Most stores don't do it because of their own reason we'll not state here. If they aren't cleaned the salt is horrible. I get the inside scoop because my Inlaw is the manager at one, I also get the best of the best when I go to her store too. It's nice to get a burger that looks like a commercial

Huh. Very interesting, thank you!! I knew the salt had "changed" but didn't realize the flake size was bigger. (When it first changed, I laughed to myself because ALL salt is from the sea, eventually... I thought they were just trying to put on airs and make you feel like you're getting something special!) This is very sad news to me, though, because I prefer Wendy's burgers to most other places. There are two Wendy's near my office. One of them gives horrible service, the other one is quite good except for the now very overly-salty fries.

Odd Duck wrote:Anyone have experience with growing or cooking Jerusalum artichoke (AKA sunchoke) or yacon? These are both supposed to be high in inulin and low in easily absorbed starches/carbs.

Jerusalem Artichoke-Planted 4/25


Growing tall like sunflowers


Harvested on 1/13


Four squares worth




A drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.


Baked at 400* for 45 minutes.

Lazy gardeners really appreciate Jerusalem artichokes because they are very disease-resistant and can outcompete most weeds.

Lazy gardener? that's me! Plant 'em and forget 'em. Harvest as needed after first frost. Cooked this way, they taste like a potato that is a little sweet. Someone gave us seed tubers to try this past year. They will become a staple in our garden.

One source of roots:
http://gurneys.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_14000

Wow, neat-o!

They even look like potatoes on the pan. I'd try em. Just ship em all the way here to NC please =)

Thanks, Boffer, just what I needed. Was that a named variety? And if I could be so nosy, did you have any issues with the . . . hmmm . . . more "airy" side effects that people talk about?

I don't know what variety they are; I received them in a plain brown paper bag from a friend.

YES! And I'm not prone to that issue either. I read that the solution is to eat them regularly.

a word of caution about the yummy sunchokes, they can be invasive. Ask me how I know

Okay, I'll take the bait. How do you know they are invasive, camprn?