Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[txdon]

"My wife makes a great gumbo that only has veggies." -Jim

Jim does Cathy use bacon in her ALL veggie gumbo, or a substitute non-meat flavoring?

 

[Tdog]

Nope, not talking gumbo - - we have our own recipe for that, although we are not above experimenting with modificaitons. Jinman, yours is worth copying.
I was just talking okra & tomatoes. I've had some awful versions of that too, Bird, but my mother & her mother both made it pretty respectable. I'm just looking for other ways to have okra. My favorite is fried!
BTW my okra patch, two rows about 40' long has been pathetic this year. I usually am giving it away by this time of year. Oh well.

Jack

 

[Tdog]

Jinman - - that's a delicious looking recipe - - a little andouille sausage wouldn't hurt that gumbo either!

Jack

 

[Bird]

Jack, like I said, I don't care for the okra and tomato dish, but now I can eat a lot of that gumbo with all the other stuff along with the okra and tomato. My dad used to be rather fond of something mother fixed they called "breaded tomatoes" and I see on the Internet there are several recipes for breaded tomatoes, although I'm sure glad I don't have to eat any of it anymore.

 

[jinman]

"My wife makes a great gumbo that only has veggies." -Jim

Jim does Cathy use bacon in her ALL veggie gumbo, or a substitute non-meat flavoring?

Don: Kathy said the recipe she uses calls for using bacon for flavoring and she thinks she did use it. If I wanted to make a true vegetarian gumbo, I think I'd just try all the other ingredients and see how it tasted. There was certainly no stock with meat chunks added. Kathy hasn't made any lately because it is best in the fall or winter like chili. It really warms you up.

Jack[/]: Of course, that gumbo recipe was not mine. If you want a great recipe, my niece gave us one that is pretty darn good. My wife has it in an email and I can send it to you if you'd like to have it. I can't say that I've ever just had tomatoes and okra, but I've sure had a lot of plain boiled okra. It's not my favorite type of okra, but small pods are sure good when boiled. I dribble a little Tabasco on them. Everything is better with Tabasco.

BTW: I have never looked for it, but can you find file (pronounced: fee-lay) in stores? I asked my wife if she had ever heard of file gumbo. I had to sing a few bars of: crawfish pie...me oh my...file gumbo, before she even new what I was talking about.

Also, Don showed how his okra was doing great and both you and I are having some difficulty. I had problems last year with spots just dying off, but production on the live plants has been high this year even though I have the die-off again. It also effects my blackeye peas. The leaves just start to wilt and then they dry and fall off. The stalks become woody and dry and the roots rot. Whatever it is, it is sure thoroughly destructive.

We had so much rain there for awhile that I could not weed or till up the garden. Finally, I just gave up trying. The plants are pretty much fending for themselves. Even so, we still are getting buckets of tomatoes and squash. Our sweet potatoes aren't doing to bad either. In about a month, I'll know if they are making anything below the ground.

Here are pictures of my sad garden after a week of 100+ temperatures.

 

[Bird]

That's quite a jungle there, Jim. So you walk carefully watching for snakes before putting a foot down in it? Of course, it was productive enough earlier that it's probably about time to either let it go or mow it down.

 

[jinman]

That's quite a jungle there, Jim. So you walk carefully watching for snakes before putting a foot down in it? Of course, it was productive enough earlier that it's probably about time to either let it go or mow it down.

Bird, as Harvey can attest, it's not quite the jungle it appears to be. It is certainly grassy around the edges where the old plants have died off and the Johnson grass is clustered about. Yet, this morning we picked over 10 lb of tomatoes, several squash, and about 3 lb of okra. Tomorrow morning I expect to pick a half-bushel of peas. We aren't quite yet ready to mow it under. Next year I'm going back to wide-spaced rows. I can maintain those better.

...and now that you've said it, I'll probably see a bunch of snakes, but so far this year we have not even seen a lizard in the garden. Maybe the hawk that sits in a tree and squawks loudly every morning has something to do with that.

 

[Tdog]

Jinman - - I'm no expert on file' - - after all, I'm a renegade Texan, but have lived in the New Orleans area since the early 60's.

When my wife & I make gumbo, we don't use file' - - I think file' is a thickening agent & not usually used when you make okra gumbo, since okra does the trick. BTW - - as in many Creole dishes, when you make gumbo, first you make a roux - - make it a dark one for gumbo.

You are lucky to still be harvesting tomatoes, mine are mostly dried up. I do have a few planted for fall however. Two or three rows of contender snap beans too.

Jack

Jack

 

[Bird]

as in many Creole dishes, when you make gumbo, first you make a roux - - make it a dark one for gumbo

Now you're talking my language. In 1971, we got to be friends with some folks in Baton Rouge, and got her recipe for "Cajun Shrimp Stew". It's still one of my favorites and I do like to make my roux a very dark one. And we've never used file either although I remember him talking about file gumbo and catfish. Incidentally, when I make the Cajun Shrimp Stew, I usually make a big pot full of it and eat nothing else, morning, noon, and night for about 3 days.

 

[TBDonnelly]

This past Christmas we attended a gathering of about 40 cousins. Everyone brought a generic gift to put under the tree. Our gift was chosen by....who else but........one of the 'cousins' . The gift was a certificate, to be redeemed, for a 'bounty' of fresh vegetables from our 2007 garden.

The package was delivered today....

Don

 

[jinman]

The gift was a certificate, to be redeemed, for a 'bounty' of fresh vegetables from our 2007 garden.

The package was delivered today....

Don

That's one gift nobody would return. Very nice!

 

[TBDonnelly]

Had a family gathering to attend this afternoon. We just HAD to bring a few tomatoes along on a plate. After the pan fried Okra & Zucchini dinner a few weeks back, we decided to go the more 'heart smart' route this week. Here's what we put together.......

Don

 

[Egon]

Jim; the far north driveway garden will soon be producing. A few cucumbers have been picked. Beans and peas have also made it to the table. Tomatoes are just about ready other that the whole four picked a week ago. There are some peppers ready too.

Some grapes are almost ready too!

 

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

Real sorry to see your garden dying on you. Hopefully the weather will cool down enough for it to come back to life!!!!

Eddie

 

[jinman]

Jim,

Real sorry to see your garden dying on you. Hopefully the weather will cool down enough for it to come back to life!!!!

Eddie

Don't worry Eddie. We'll have plenty of okra to fry up in October. As bad as the tomatoes look, they are still producing. I noticed yesterday that new growth is showing up on the lower part of the vines. I think I might just prune them and they will come back nicely. Unfortunately, the okra will be gone if the disease keeps progressing. That's really okay because we have a freezer full of the stuff. Kathy and I have mixed emotions about the garden. We hate to see it die off, but we also like more spare time to do other things. A garden this size can be all-consuming of your spare time.

Egon: My grandmother used to have concord grapes growing on a shaded arbor in her back yard. Those were the sweetest and most flavorful grapes I ever put into my mouth. There is just nothing like the taste of a grape that is allowed to reach full ripeness before picking. Her homemade grape jelly and boysenberry jelly also makes my mouth water with memories.

 

[wushaw]

Jim; my okra is doing the same thing, it started with the plant in the center of the row...just drop it's leaves, it is slowly spreading out so I figure all will be dead in a few weeks at this rate. My tomatoes look like yours also but still producing at a slower rate though.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Fresh box of Veggie's went out this morning. Had to take a picture! We've received over 6 inches of rain for the month August. Our normal is about 3 inches.

Don

 

[Bird]

That sure is pretty, Don. And I wish I'd had 3 to 6 inches of rain this month. After that brief light shower of about .03" yesterday afternoon, I've received a grand total of about .15" this month. And my water bill went up another $70.

 

[jinman]

Fresh box of Veggie's went out this morning. Had to take a picture! We've received over 6 inches of rain for the month August. Our normal is about 3 inches.

Don

Very nice as usual, Don. Our garden is definitely winding down. Last weekend I mowed around the edges and cleaned up lots of spots with the weedeater, but the heat here has really been hard on most stuff. We still have a little okra, a few squash, and a few tomatoes. We pruned the dead stuff off the tomatoes and they are starting to come back. Cantaloupes are coming back too. There are probably more than a dozen softball sized cantaloupes on the vines. They won't get big, but they should be sweet when they finally get ripe.

The sweet potatoes are still lookin' great. By late-September we should be digging them.

I'll try to get some pictures to post over the weekend.

Bird: We haven't had any rain, but maybe we'll get lucky today or tomorrow. We are going on vacation the middle of September and be gone 1-1/2 weeks. If we don't get some rain, the yard and garden will probably burn up by the time we get back. Oh well...that's just normal weather in Texas this time of year.

 

[Bird]

Jim, we had our biggest rain of the month about 4 p.m. yesterday and got about .18" in 30 minutes or so. That brought us up to .33" for the month.