Hummingbirds!

I've been lazy this summer not putting out the hummingbird feeder sooner. We just don't get hummingbirds here in Austin as much as they do in Southern California. And with the heat, the sparrows come and drink the 'moat' water and let the ants take over. That or the squirrels discover they like hummingbird food! (still looking for a shot of that from last year)
But I finally boiled my sugar water (1 part white table sugar, 4 parts water) and put some feed out. I hadn't seen any hummingbirds this summer so I wasn't sure if they'd find the feeder in my backyard. But a couple mornings later, my feeder was visited by a male ruby-throated hummingbird. The color on the throat was iridescent and striking. I ran to get my camera, but he was gone before I returned.

Fortunately, soon after came a couple of female hummingbirds that I did manage to catch on proverbial film. Here's a shot from the morning hours:

Here's a shot from the evening hours:

First Bug to Identify

I think this is a young assassin bug. At least I hope it is. I need more beneficial bugs in my garden!

How Does My Garden Grow, You Ask?

So we've got one of the hottest Austin summers on record happening here, and as I type this, the dark storm clouds seem to be happy just providing shade and not actually providing water. I feel like I'm living a Sting song.

But nonetheless, I continue to attempt to cultivate my small garden patch. Dan helped me create the vertical supports so that I could train my mini-pumpkin and winter squash vines to grow up. The pumpkin is on the left and the winter squash is on the right in this picture:

Despite it's smaller size, the winter squash is beginning to bloom. I think these flowers will eventually become squash, but I have no idea how long until that happens.

For the record, I did grow the squash from seed, but all the other plants in the garden were bought as fledglings. I tried starting an eggplant from seed this month, but it's been over 2 weeks and nothing has sprouted so I might have to cheat and check out the nursery offerings this weekend.

Oh yeah. And all the cups and trowels and junk in my garden is my white-trash way of trying to keep the neighborhood cats from using my garden as a litter box. Yuck!

Best Okra Recipe Yet!

Remember how I wondered what I was going to do with okra? Well by fortune, one of my coworkers had a recipe she really liked. I've tried it twice so far and loved it both times. Okra not noticeably slimy.

Don't skimp on the ginger-mango relish! Without it, the recipe would be a bit too 'earthy' for my taste.

Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1-2 fresh red chiles, seeded and chopped
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 green cardamom pods, remove and grind the seeds
• pinch of ground turmeric
• 14-ounce can chopped tomatoes
• 1 pound mushrooms, quartered if large
• 8 ounces okra, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

For the mango relish:

• 1 large ripe mango about 1.25 pounds
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons grade fresh ginger root
• 1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely chopped
• pinch of salt and sugar

1. To make the mango relish, peel the mango and cut off the flesh from the pit.
2. In a bowl, mash the mango flesh with a fork, or process in a food processor or blender. Mix in the rest of the relish ingredients. Set aside.
3. Place the garlic, ginger, chiles and 3 tablespoons of the water in a blender or food processor and process until smooth
4. Heat the sunflower oil in a large saucepan. Add the whole coriander and cumin seeds and allow them to sizzle for a few seconds. Add the ground cumin, ground cardamom seeds, and turmeric and cook about a minute
5. Add the garlic paste, tomatoes and remaining water. Stir to mix well, then add the mushrooms and okra. Stir again, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the cover, turn up the heat slightly and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the okra is tender but not too soft.
7. Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve with the mango relish and rice (like plain basmati)
   

Joining a CSA

I went ahead and joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group here in Austin last month. I'll receive a box of produce every two weeks.

My first goal is to not let any of it go bad. Have no idea what I'm going to do with okra. I guess I'll think of the box like the secret ingredients in a really dull episode of Iron Chef.

One Summer I Started a Garden

So after reading In Defense of Food, I started talking to Mom about cooking and the idea of trying to grow my own vegetables even though I don't have the green thumb to tackled a 'real' garden. Then she mentioned that her mom's (?) generation had planted Victory Gardens during the war. And after I started searching on victory gardens, I thought. "Most gardens are too big. I should write a book on how to garden in smaller batches. I could name the book square-foot gardening." I went to Amazon.com and sure enough, there was already a book called square-foot gardening and also tons of blogs from people giving it a go.

So despite the fact that we've had 100 degree heat here in Austin, I decided to start my own small patch and start getting the mistakes out of the way so I could learn something about growing food. Here's what I've got so far:Luckily we have a great organic gardening center where I can bag my own garden soil for $3/25lb bag. I just filled the 3x3 foot box with that and a little compost. I also bought 2 pumpkin plants, basil, oregano, rosemary, and garlic chive plants to get a jump start. But for fun, I also bought winter squash seeds. I planted one seed in the corner last week and it already has 4 leaves. Yeah!

I'm still worried about bugs, birds, and the fact that it's just darn hot, but I'm looking at the whole endeavor as an experiment. So I can't fail as long as I log everything and figure out what went wrong, right? : >

ps July 2008 is when I set out to start learning by doing. What a time of year to be inspired to be outdoors!