Back away from the tomatoes!!

About 2 weeks ago I was at some friends' home, looking at his jungle of tomatoes.  When I recognized this pesky long legged insect on his tomatoes.  He continued to flick them off, but I realized I had seen the same ugly brown bugs on mine too.  So I began investigating to make sure they were "bad" before I began to attack them. 

Sure enough, they are "bad" (the reason I use quotes, is that some people sum up all insects/bugs in the garden as "bad".  When there are actually a ton of insects we need to help protect and grow our plants.  Many commercial products from big box stores will annihilate all insects harmful AND beneficial to the garden).  This little bugger's name is "Leaffooted Bug"  You can check out good information and pictures of them at different life stages here.

So I got on the phone and called my two favorite organic gardening centers:  Gaddy's here in Pflugerville is one of them.  I wrote them off when we first moved here as a little hardware store.  Turns out, they are a major carrier of organic products and good quality fruit and vegetable plants in my area.  However, this time they didn't answer the phone.  So I proceeded to call The Natural Gardener owned by John Dromgoole (a true Austin hippie).  They are great for all things organic.  John has a weekend gardening show that we used to listen to religiously, it's an incredible amount of gardening information.  The program runs on KLBJ on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Anywhoooooo, the Natural Gardener people gave me two methods for getting rid of these insects.  The woman on the phone started out by saying, "well you know there's always the old fashioned organic pest removal method."  To which I said, "Oh ya?  What's that?"  Turns out, you can just pull the big bugs off the tomatoes and dunk them in soapy water.  She recommended about a tablespoon of dish soap per 1/2 gallon.  She gave me permission to get out my big yellow dish gloves, cause, "those suckers will make anybody squeamish."  The other recommendation?  Diatomaceous Earth .  I haven't tried that yet, but if they get really out of hand, I might.

So I started a war in my tomato plants.  And at first, I was really hesitant to grab them.  They're big and they fly up in your face.  But after a few rounds with the gloves, I'm to the point that I know how to grab them by the back leg and dunk them in soapy water.  I didn't want to tell my daughter that I was "killing" them when she asked.  So I simply explained that I was "catching bad bugs".  Now when we head out in the evenings to pick, she sees me grab the bucket and exclaims, "more bad, bad bugs mommy."

They're actually easier to grab than I thought.  And now that I used this website I have found many in there "toddler" and "teenage" stages (website's words, not mine).  Be careful not to mistake them with the beneficial "Assassin" bug.  The main difference is these Leaffooted Bugs hang out in groups, where as the Assassin is a lonesome dove (how's that for witty commentary, Sameer?) Which hopefully means I've gotten them before they can lay more eggs.  Once I started my all out war with this Leaffooted Bug, my husband recognized them.  He is pretty sure they are the creatures that single handily killed 2 of our white Yuccas last year.  They were completely dead on the inside (these guys suck out the juice of various vegetation and leave their enzyme, which causes all kinds of problems.) 

I also planted some Zinnias and placed a pottery plate filled with water to attract some beneficial insects to the area, and hopefully chow on these Leaffooted Bugs in there nymph or larvae stages, if I don't get them. 

(The wine bottle?  A great gadget, the Julien's told us about from Sur la Table, called the Plant Nanny.  It's a Terra cotta watering spike that uses old wine bottles to hold the water.  Releases water as your garden is dry.)

Check out this 2008 video from Central Texas Gardener, featuring John Dromgoole talking about beneficial insects and how to attract them to your garden.



According to John, Mockingbirds are one of the best pest control birds around.  So, I make sure to thank them each time I see them pooping on our swing set.

Good luck on your gardening adventures!

Cooking with the Farmer's Market Finds

I love catching a snooze watching Food Network during the summer.  Here's a great recipe from Guy Fieri using a bunch of things I can get at this week's Farmer's Market in Central Texas. It's an Asian meal with some of my favorites- small pork medalions, crunchy rice, an asian gravy and I'd probably add a few stir fried peppers or squashes you can get right now.  It uses a 2 lb pork tenderloin (which I can get from my vendors like 6J Ranch) a delicious combo of onions, garlic, ginger, and white wine to make a fantastic looking gravy and an interesting process to make crunchy rice using cooked Jasmine rice, and then drying it, and lightly frying it.  YUMMMMMM!!  We might try this this week for dinner.  I'm posting it here, so I don't have to go hunting for it later in the week when it's magically vanished from the website.  It's generally the way we cook and eat with 75% of our meal coming from local farms and farmers.  The rice and vinegars would be the other 25% in this case.

Speaking of the Food Network.  I saw a few minutes of Alton Brown making really yummy pickled everything!  It was so much easier than I had imagined and doesn't require all of that professional canning stuff.  Just two or three Mason Jars with lids and you're on your way to making the easiest and tastiest pickles you've had! 

(This is where I was going to insert a picture of my finished product, but my husband ate them all before I could. So you'll have to deal with the raw version)  We pretty much followed Alton's recipe, but would say to cut down on the sugar (for the Sweet pickles) by 1/3 and add an extra pinch or two of salt.

You can't find the dang recipe or video anywhere on FoodNetwork.com.  So here's the You Tube version for my reference (and anyone elses)

One extra note.  When pouring the mixture into the jars, I would pour it a little at a time into each of the jars.  On my first round, I poured half into the first jar, and half into my second jar.  The pickles in the second jar came out REALLY pickled.  And that pickling mixture (as Alton warns) will REALLY stain, so be careful with light countertops or clothing!!  Happy Cooking!

Farmer's Markets

So about 2 years ago, I read a book that changed my thinking about food.  The book?  Animal, Vegetable Miracle. By Barbara Kingsolver.  It chronicles the life of a family (hers) who attempted to live off only food within a hundred miles of their Appalichia home.  In the book, she gives tons of gardening tips, Farmer's Markets tips, and basic "eating local" tips.  I decided that each summer, I would do due diligence to live the same way.  The outcome, has been far from succesful (my daughter still craves bananas and hoots and hollers if we don't get them as we pass them at H.E.B.).  But the adventure has been fun!

So this summer, I have begun my adventure into Farmer's Markets and trying to eat all things locally again.  But this year, I realize I've changed the way I treat the Farmer's Market experience.  My first year, was a total disappointment.  I'd go with my list in hand, and be sorely dissapointed when I couldn't find sweet potatoes in June, or Tomatoes in May.  I didn't speak to the Farmers, and generally treated the entire experience as a quick business transaction. 

Today, while greeting my regular vendors at the market, I realized how much my mindset has changed.  My first stop at my Pflugerville Farmer's Market is my friendly faces at 6J Ranch, they asked how my Fourth of July was.  We traded husband jokes, and I got my dozen eggs for four dollars.  I pulled out my 6 saved egg cartons to exchange with them and headed on to my next vendor.  I'm not sure of her name, but she looked up and said, "Well I wondered when you'd be coming!"  We struck up a conversation about her early summer crops coming to an end and not having much to sell today.  I found some Thyme and a small melon to buy from her.  She warned me she might not be in next week, but she'd be back the week after.  And to please come back.  I assured her I would.  On to my husband's favorite Salsa lady, the best bread vendor this market's ever had, my peach guy and out to my "vegetable people".

As I've ventured in to this Eating Local Movement, I've realized that the experience can not be treated like a grocery store trip- where you come in with a list, you get in and out, you don't bother or speak to anyone except the occasional "excuse me" or the cashier chit chat.  Instead, the Farmer's Market is to be treated as a small adventure.  The Farmer's are the heart and soul of the Market, not the food.  Striking up conversations with them, is essential.  The know 40 different ways to cook the same vegetable.  They'll let you try fruits you'd never dare try before.  They'll tell you how to cook something that would go just perfect with those tomatoes in your bag.  They are the jewells of the experience. 

So as my first post, I guess I'll just say that I'm dedicating this blog to them.  The little and big farmers who plant their crops with love and ambition.  Who get up early to pick the day's peaches, or find themselves picking beans well after dusk.  The farmers who put care and time into raising animals responsibly, all so we- the consumers- can reap the benefits.  It's ridiculous being an American.  Our whole lives are inondated with consuming.  Sometimes I feel like my only purpose in life is to consume the newest, latest, fastest, coolest thing to make my life easier or better.  But as Michael Pollan pointed out in Food Inc, there is a lot of power behind each and every purchase we make.  And I for one, am going to try to make sure mine puts money directly in the hands of the people who are putting food on my dinner table each night.