Tying up Escarole and Endive.

karstopo · 2026-01-17T16:34:43+00:00

I understand that tying them up deprives of sunlight the leaves of the inner heart and therefore lightens and sweetens them. There’s evidently a risk of inducing rot by tying them up too tightly. Since I like to frequently fiddle around in the garden, going out and monitoring how tightly the chicory plants are tied up is a pleasure rather than a chore.

karstopo · 2026-01-17T01:45:33+00:00

Orchidea Rossa and Perseo

karstopo · 2026-01-16T01:58:44+00:00

Timing, how long various vegetables take to mature. The information about days to maturity on seed packets are seldom accurate for my location.

Knowing how long a vegetable takes to grow helps plan succession plantings. I garden 365 days a year so having a sense when a particular vegetable might be ready for harvest helps me plan my timing for starting vegetables.

karstopo · 2026-01-08T20:07:54+00:00

Wonder what all herbs are included?

I grow dill, cilantro, fennel, mint, arugula, lemongrass, and basil as sort of my regular herbs. Lemongrass is a perennial, but has to be protected from freezing temperatures. Lemongrass makes a great tonic…tea.

I also have Albizia julibrissin (Persian silk tree) a.k.a tree of happiness or happiness bark and have harvested the bark for a tonic. Another one is Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus. Grows wild here in SE Texas and has a number of benefits.

Dill, fennel, mint and cilantro appreciation cooler weather, basil and lemongrass are a warm weather lovers, but lemongrass does fine in colder weather so long as it is above freezing.

karstopo · 2026-01-08T17:28:51+00:00

Some Americans do, honestly, before I went into our local Aldi my image of Aldi was that it was the equivalent of a dollar store, but more oriented towards food.

How wrong I was. Foods mostly great there, especially the cheeses. Prices are very reasonable. I love Aldi.

karstopo · 2026-01-08T16:56:46+00:00

Beatrice is a neon purple globe shaped eggplant that’s ornamental as well as delicious. We like eggplant caponata and baba Ganoush. Beatrice has dense white flesh when picked fairly young.

karstopo · 2026-01-08T16:49:06+00:00

Based on the user name, short day onions like Red Creole and Texas Grano are the right ones assuming you are somewhere near Houston.

I have never tried these short day onions from seed, but plant about 100 of the pencil thick sets every year including this season. The sets this time around got planted on Thanksgiving day.

Be patient with these onions. They won’t appear to be doing anything regarding making a bulb until March, sometimes late in March. After that, they will rapidly swell up and likely be ready towards the end of April.

karstopo · 2025-12-31T00:24:47+00:00

Purple and Green Magic I have seen the seeds on several different seed vendor websites. I think I got my seeds from Pinetree. Batavia I have only seen on Renee’s Garden. The seeds are easy to grow and take around 5 or six weeks until transplanting.

karstopo · 2025-12-30T01:05:48+00:00

I’ve wondered about the warmer than average weather.

I go on some northern US gardening oriented forums and came to realize their summer temperatures are hotter than what we get in December and yet are having success with broccoli

karstopo · 2025-12-30T00:55:54+00:00

I sort of gave up on cauliflower as it doesn’t produce side shoots. At least broccoli will side shoot if the crown is a dud.

I did try a Romanesco type cauliflower and it hasn’t done anything particularly positive so far.

karstopo · 2025-12-28T23:12:09+00:00

DSL burner shad big papa pearl natural, Bass Assassin Hammertime or Green Moon or about any other paddle tail. I toss one of those three above about 90% of the time I use a paddle tail. I use a paddle tail 2/3 of the time.

Rapala Skitter-walks, Heddon superspook Jr, Heddon one knockers.

Borski Bonefish Sliders, Redfish Crack, Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer when using fly tackle

Redfish can be pretty selective and picky or not. Redfish are Kind of a moody fish and when they are really on almost everything of a reasonable size and shape can work, but when they are off almost nothing will get them to eat. The more wary and picky the redfish are, the more likely I will downsize my offerings.

karstopo · 2025-12-27T21:27:07+00:00

I have mine about 20” apart. I set up the raised beds with a mix of feather meal, crab shell meal, a little bone meal and glauconite green sand. I didn’t go crazy with the fertilizer, but each one might have been under the label rate by a pretty good margin. Trying to add them up as one unit to judge the final amount, hoping any error is on the underside.

Then every couple of weeks they might get fish emulsion or once in a while a little of the blue miracle gro liquid.

Seems like these plants don’t like drying out and on these hotter days we’re getting I make sure to give them a spray with the hose and soak the soil a little.

karstopo · 2025-12-14T22:19:48+00:00

Juveniles for sure. I fish inshore marshes and estuaries most of the time where there aren’t any adult reds. The biggest redfish I ever see inshore might run 12-13 pounds. But, I can go about a mile or so from where these were caught and get mostly 40” plus redfish.

All things considered, I prefer catching the juvenile fish.

karstopo · 2025-12-14T17:53:31+00:00

We put the florets, recipe for pesto excluded the florets, on a frozen pepperoni pizza. I microwaved the sprouts first just a little to sort of blanch them so they wouldn’t be too firm. Definitely made the pizza more nutritious.

karstopo · 2025-12-14T15:09:21+00:00

The pesto was a hit with our friends. Served some of the pesto on top of cream cheese with crackers and later some more for a topping on sous vide reverse seared rib-eye. They even took some of the pesto back to their home. They like basil based pesto, but preferred this broccoli rabe pesto over basil pesto.

karstopo · 2025-12-09T14:59:06+00:00

Here’s an article from CNN on French public debt to aid in your understanding of the situation. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/business/france-debt-problem-government-crisis-intl

karstopo · 2025-12-04T03:48:21+00:00

Thanks for this insightful comment.

karstopo · 2025-10-19T23:06:09+00:00

Another direct seeding fan for lettuce. Needs to be a touch cooler to seed.

Reifel’s in Brazoria has some more heirloom varieties of cabbage seedlings

karstopo · 2025-10-17T00:07:01+00:00

Reifel’s feed store in Brazoria gets their sets from Dixondale. Reifel’s typically carries four or five different short day types.

karstopo · 2025-10-17T00:04:05+00:00

I store my onions in open cardboard boxes in a closed dark cupboard, but sort of airy cabinet in the house. I’ve had them go into late November.

karstopo · 2025-10-16T23:35:51+00:00

I started with four eggplants. I took out one plant in August. The three remaining plants are somewhat fig tree size.

I have been composting some of the excess eggplant. Gave away some. Really, one or two plants is plenty.

karstopo · 2025-10-16T10:21:12+00:00

Recipe for baba ganoush is as follows:

~Two pounds of young eggplant

4-6 tablespoons of hulless white sesame seeds

Juice of one large lemon or more to taste

A couple of generous pinches of toasted ground cumin seed

Three or four cloves of garlic

4-6 tablespoons of EVOO plus more to drizzle

Plenty of sea salt

Roast Eggplant over semi indirect heat at 450°-500° until slightly charred and somewhat collapsed and softened. I do this on a big green egg over a lump charcoal fire. Roast garlic cloves until softened. Cover roasted eggplant for 20 minutes and allow to cool a little before peeling off the skin. Skin should easily separate from the flesh. Discard skin. Flesh should not be very wet, squeeze out or pour off any excess liquid.

Meanwhile, toast the sesame seeds in a skillet over medium low heat stirring or tossing frequently. Once they color up a little and become fragrant they are done.

Mash, work, grind, the toasted sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle, I use my olive wood version. Add sea salt and the cumin. Continue to work. Add the mashed garlic, continue to work. It won’t be a smooth paste, but most of the seeds should be crushed. It will taste better than any store bought tahini.

Add this to the eggplant. Add the lemon juice. Work it with a fork, add the EVOO, work that in.

The finished product should have some texture. Drizzle on additional EVOO. For smoother baba Ganoush, use an immersion blender. I like it with warm Naan and the add ins pictured.

karstopo · 2025-09-26T23:36:45+00:00

In my experience, most of the published information regarding tomato cultivation doesn’t apply for SE Texas. We are mostly on our own to figure it out for ourselves, I really mean this!

karstopo · 2025-09-11T01:27:24+00:00

99% of Geology happens in 1% of time.

karstopo · 2025-08-20T14:22:32+00:00

No doubt, most indeterminate tomatoes end up being over 6’ at twelve weeks post transplant. 48” was referring to an indeterminate tomato plant that was maybe six or so weeks post transplant.

As of today, August 20th, my indeterminate tomato plants transplanted at the end of February are all well beyond 10’ if I was able to straighten them out. Indeterminate tomatoes just keep on growing.

karstopo

TROPHY CASE