Category: Garden Log

Weekend Vegetable Harvest

Tomatoes from my Garden

Home Garden Harvest for this Week:
28 tomatoes (Brandywine, Celebrity, Cherokee Purple)
16 okra (bendi)
8 brinjals (purple variety)
7 cucumbers (pickle variety)
4 yellow squash
2 zucchini
1 turai (beerakaaya)
Bunch of ripe, red chillies

Vegetables from my Garden

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Payala Kura Pappu (Purslane Dal)

Purslane (Payala Kura)
Payala Kura (Purslane) from my Garden

Last March, I planted some seeds expecting edible amaranth plants. But then came in abundance, pleasant looking plants with plump leaves and tiny yellow flowers. The leaves in size and shape resembled methi but they are much thicker. I couldn’t identify them for sure, so I called my amma(mom) and described the plant in detail. Amma said, “Indira, you have payala kura. It’s an old-time leafy vegetable, tasty and good for skin and eye health. Remember, payala kura pappu (dal), kura(curry) and chutney I make. You used to like it.”

Last time I had payala kura was at Nandyala, at my mom’s home, almost 15 years ago. So finding it here is definitely a delightful surprise. There is some very good information about this native to India plant, and could be found on Google search. Just type payala kura (Telugu) or Purslane (English). I also realized I had these greens growing all along in between the flower bushes. Here it was, a tiny plant, promising a wealth of health, but treated like a no-value weed. I wonder why sometimes we tend to overlook the best that is readily available and right in front of us.

Following my mom’s suggestion, I made traditional, Telugu vaari payala kura pappu today. Thanks to the sweet-sour taste of payala leaves, the dal came out wonderful, and it tasted better than spinach dal, almost as good as gongura dal.

Payala Pappu (Purslane Dal)
(for 2 or 4, for 2 to 1 meal)

¾ cup, Toor dal
2 cups, tightly packed – Fresh Payala (purslane) leaves and tender stems
1 onion or shallot – coarsely chopped, about a half cup
6 to 8, green chilli, Indian or Thai variety, chopped,
1 tablespoon, tamarind
¼ teaspoon, turmeric

Take toor dal in a pressure-cooker. Rinse well. Add the payala leaves, onion, chilli, tamarind and turmeric. Add about 2 cups of water. Mix. Pressure cook the ingredients to soft. Once all the valve pressure is released, remove the lid. Add half teaspoon of salt. With a wood masher or whisk, gently mix and mash the dal to smooth. You have made the purslane dal. Now the only thing left is, the final touch, the hing (asafetida, inguva) tadka.

For hing tadka: Heat a tablespoon of peanut oil in a vessel. When oil is hot, add a sprig of fresh curry leave, a pinch each- cumin, mustard seeds and hing. Constantly mixing, toast the ingredients to fragrance. Add the dal to this hing tadka. Mix well.

Serve the purslane dal with rice or roti with some curry or papad on the side for a traditional Telugu meal.

Payala Kura Pappu with Kerala Matta Rice
Payala Pappu with Kerala Matta Rice ~ for Meal Today

Notes:
Payala Kura in Encyclopedia of Indian Medicine

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Weekend Vegetable Harvest for May 4th Week

Vegetable Harvest for May 4th week
Home Garden Harvest for May 4th Week

As the summer approaches, I see brinjals getting bigger and tomatoes slowly changing color from green to red shades. Tiny pequin peppers are also coming up a lot. They would make great tadka mirchi. My plan is to soak them in dahi(Indian yogurt) and sun-dry to prepare dahi mirchi.

Here is the vegetable count for this week.

7 yellow zucchini
1 green zucchini (I thought I planted only yellow)
9 cucumbers (pickle variety)
6 brinjals (purple variety)
15 okra (bendi)
8 cherry tomatoes and 1 big, ripe tomato (Cherokee Purple)
28 green chillies (bajji variety)
4 anaheim peppers
Bunch of chilli pequins (tiny tadka/talimpu mirchi)
Bunch of green beans

Do you know cucumber pickle recipes without vinegar? Any new ideas and recipes for the above vegetables? I would love to hear from you.

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Garden Blooms ~ Gardenia

Gardenias from My Garden
Fragrant Gardenias from My Garden

Lakshmi chinnamma, who lives in Hyderabad, India loves gardening as much as I do. She is an avid plant collector. I remember her growing sandalwood, parijaatham to name a few. She just started browsing my website and I know she would enjoy seeing beautiful gardenias from my garden. If I could only share their potent jasmine like fragrance as well…

Gardenia in Bloom
Beautiful Gardenia ~ for Dear Lakshmi Chinnamma

Chinnaamma (Telugu) = Mother’s Younger Sister

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Weekend Harvest

Vegetable Harvest for May 2nd Week
Vegetable Harvest for This Week from the Garden
5 cucumbers, 3 yellow zucchinis, 3 green bell peppers and 18 okra

Mango Stand at Houston
Roadside Fruit Stand, Houston

Houston sprawl could make one hurl, but soothing the stomach and the sight are occasional roadside fruit stalls on inner farm roads. While coming back from a friend’s home, we saw this stall and had a sample of sweet mango from a charming boy. Came home with a box of golden yellow mangoes. I don’t know what it is, may be the boy’s charm rubbed on mangoes, they are heavenly delicious. The real miracle is they have that intoxicating ripe mango scent.

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Garden Log ~ May, 2010

Red Radish Flower Bouquet
Red Radish Flower Bouquet

Radish plants are in vigorous bloom. I harvested few radish branches that are full of flowers and placed them in cold water filled flower vase. Radish flowers are tiny but very pretty in light pink shade with sweet scent.

Purple Brinjal Plants
Purple Brinjal Plants

Tomato Plants
Tomato Plants, almost 4 foot in height and with Plenty of Green Tomatoes

Mirchi Plants
Mirchi Plants

Cucumber, Zucchini, Beans
Cucumber, Zucchini, Beans

Vegetable Harvest from My Garden
Vegetable Harvest for this Week

It’s always a pleasurable surprise when vegetables start arriving in quantity – One minute I have single cucumber and four pea pods, next week a surplus. This is what I harvested yesterday. 7 Cucumbers, 4 Yellow Zucchinis, 1 Brinjal, 1 Green Bell Pepper, a bunch of green chillies, green beans and green peas. First major harvest of this season and what a joy!

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Garden Blooms ~ Dahlia

Dahlia in Bloom
To Mothers and Daughters Who Make Mahanandi a Home ~ Happy Mother’s Day!

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Home as a Hobby ~ Cilantro Bouquet

Every kitchen garden needs a healthy combination of both herbs and vegetable plants, and nothing beautifies the homestead like flowers. Cilantro is a great annual herb with memorable fragrance, flavor, and flowers. This old-time herb sprouts from coriander seeds, grows compact, flowers prolifically, sets seed gladly and reseeds with ease, offering a perpetual, perennial-like performance in the kitchen garden. The whole cilantro plant, from fresh leaves, flowers, root to seeds have valuable roles in the kitchen and many culinary uses.

I noticed that cilantro loves warm and humid Houston weather. I let my cilantro bloom this spring and then fruit. When seeds are plump, I removed the plants and arranged them in a flower vase to air-dry. They made a beautiful arrangement and filled the home with wonderful coriander fragrance. It makes me happy to think that in about a week when they are dried, I could harvest home-grown coriander seeds.

Cilantro in Bloom
Cilantro in Bloom

Fresh Dania (Coriander Seeds)
Cilantro with Plump, Green Dhania (Green Coriander Seeds)

Cilantro with Seeds
Cilantro with Coriander Seeds

Cilantro Bouquet
Celebrating Mother Earth’s Generosity with Cilantro Bouquet

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Spring Harvest : New Potatoes for Potato Upma

Red potatoes I planted last winter are taking up quite a bit of precious space with their healthy blooms this spring. I read that flowering means potatoes can be harvested. I like the potatoes when they are in baby, immature stage, when the skin is still very delicate and they have not had as much time to convert their sugar into starch. I didn’t want the potatoes to fully develop into big mature ones with thick skin. So, to recover some planting space and to harvest some tender potatoes, yesterday I removed the potato plants and dug up the new potatoes. It was like an easy treasure hunt to unearth these baby ruby beauties. I got about 16 potatoes, from two plants. Not bad, considering that I didn’t do anything extra, like adding fertilizer, except watering the plants occasionally.

16 potatoes and 3 recipes – one recipe each for three days. That is the menu this week. First recipe on the list, a classic from childhood and my husband Vijay’s favorite, Potato Upma. Potatoes are cut, sautéed with other vegetables and then steamed with roasted rava in potato upma. For Vijay, upma is not upma unless it has some potatoes and tomatoes in it.

Freshly Harvested Red Potatoes
Spring Harvest: New (Immature), Red Potatoes

Potato Upma
(for two or four, for two to one meal)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon, peanut oil
From Masala dabba: 1/4 teaspoon each, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds
1 sprig, fresh curry leaves,
1 onion, finely chopped, about a cup
4 green chillies (Indian or Thai variety), finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped, about half cup
2 potatoes, finely cubed, about a cup
Roasted cashews or peanuts, about quarter cup
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 and 1/2 cups, Roasted Upma Rava (available at Indian grocery)
3 cups water

Method:
In a large skillet, heat peanut oil over medium heat. Add urad dal, cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Toast the ingredients to fragrance. Add the onion and chillies, stir-fry until the onion softens, about five minutes. Add tomatoes and potatoes. Cook, stirring often for another five minutes. Add water to the skillet. Stir in salt. Raise the heat to medium-high and cover the skillet. When water starts to boil and lifts up the lid, remove the cover and reduce the heat to low. Add roasted rava, stirring constantly with a sturdy ladle so that the rava mixes well with water without any lumps. Sprinkle cashews or peanuts and steamcook, stirring frequently until there is no liquid left on the surface and the rava looks like creamy pudding.

Serve Potato Upma warm with chutney, pickle, podi or sambar.

Potato Upma
Potato Upma with Pappula Podi and Carrots ~ for Meal Today

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Garden log: April, 2010

French Lace Rose Angel Face Rose
First Roses to Bloom ~ French Lace and Angel Face

I can’t believe that I am already into my second year of gardening. Last year was my first attempt at raised bed gardening. In retrospect, I have to say it went very well. It was a joy to see small seedlings budding into healthy plants and producing so generously many flowers, vegetables and fruits. We had great spring and summer season last year which contributed to the garden success, and it was more enjoyable because we had my mother and father in-law from Nandyala visiting us. They were enthusiastic, encouraging and very helpful towards my gardening hobby, and did a lot for the well being of plants. Thanks again Attayya and mamayya, if you are reading. I miss your kind presence and I wish you are here this year too.

2009 garden efforts produced a decent vegetable harvest. The plants that did exceptionally well were tomatoes, peppers, okra, brinjal, Indian broad beans, Indian karela, Turai and Red alasanda (asparagus beans). Gongura, Spinach, Chard, methi, mint and coriander also grew well. When it comes to fruit plants, they are still in establishing stage and the harvest was 3 pomegranates, 10 sweet figs and few strawberries and blackberries. We had some winter causalities due to unseasonably cold weather. Mango, guava, seethapalam (custard apple), curry leaf, jasmine varieties, nandivardanam, henna and banana plant did not survive the snowfall to my heartbreak. I can now understand the despair the farmers feel when the hard-earned money, effort and hopes of green future give up on them. I have gently laid plant losses to rest in the compost pile. My only comforting thought was to believe that those plants would live on through the feeding of the next generation by becoming the best compost possible.

I am glad spring is here, giving a new chance for life. Days are getting warm. Seeds are sprouting. It is so beautiful here, I am spending most of the time outdoors tending plant beds. Here are some plants I’ve planted for this year’s growing season.

Some good and old:
Alliums: Red onion and garlic
Beans: Green beans, Peas, Chikkudu(Indian Broadbeans), Okra
Fruits: Blackberries, Cantaloupe, Fig, Grapes, Jamaican Cherry, Mandarin Orange, Papaya, Pomegranate and strawberries (most of the fruit plants are planted last year)
Greens: Chard, Gongura, Fenugreek (methi), Kale, Lettuce, and Spinach
Herbs: Mint (spearmint), Marjoram and Rosemary
Squash: Turai, Lauki(Bottle Gourd), Silk squash, Cucumbers, Karela, Zucchini (yellow and Mexican squash)
Vegetables, Fruit: Corn, Eggplant (purple, long and round variety), Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers.
Vegetables, Root: Potatoes (red), radish (red), Ginger

Some new:
I am planning to grow tamarind, turmeric, mango-ginger and vaamu(ajwan) because ever inquisitive mind wants to know how they fare in Houston weather.

Here are some photos from the backyard:

Tomato Plants Brinjal Seedlings
Tomato Plants …………. Brinjal Plants


Red Radish and Cantaloupe … Mint, Rosemary, Marjoram and Strawberry Plants


Beans, Cucumber, Grape …. Curbside Mint Around the Front yard Plant, Free for Walkers

Kittaya with Lettuce
My Garden Buddy, Dear Kittaya Enjoying the Greens and the Garden Breeze

What are you planning to plant this spring? Any new gardening tips and ideas? I would love to hear from you.

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Weekend Houston ~ Joseph’s Nursery, Pearland, TX

Joseph’s Nursery in Pearland, TX is one of the decent nurseries I have ever been to so far in Houston. It is a gigantic nursery, filled with a huge range of basically everything that can be grown in soil. They have a wide variety of flower, fruit and decorative plants, and a good selection of both Asian and native vegetable plants. Nursery looks well-maintained, the people who work there are helpful and plants’ prices are also comparable to major chain garden centers. Plus, it is almost next to Sri Meenakshi Temple which makes it convenient to do bhagavan and vana darshan one after the other on the same day.

We went there last weekend for spring plant shopping. Brought home a desert rose, papaya and few vegetable plants. Here are some photos we have taken during our trip.

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Joseph’s Nursery, Pearland, TX

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Geraniums in Different Colors

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Flower Selection

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Desert Roses in Bloom

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Helpful Staff, Hard at Work

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
Vegetable Seedlings for Sale

Joseph's Nursery, Houston
My Precious Plant Khajana for Summer 10

For those of you interested to go, here is the address:
Joseph’s Nursery‎
3723 FM 1128 Rd, Pearland, TX 77584-7517
(281) 489-9786‎

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Mahanandi is 5

White Camellia for Mahanandi 5th Birthday
White Camellia for Mahanandi 5th Birthday

Mahanandi has always been a place of cherished memories, experiences and love. I am grateful for the enthusiasm and energy that surrounds Mahanandi from around the world. Thank you for being a part of this tranquil experience.

Happy 5th anniversary to my beloved Mahanandi!

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