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Ooooh. I thought you were referring to our earlier discussion of a certain song, not to be mentioned. Shakespeare is much better. Thank you.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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It's a show about Navy investigators. It has a goth criminologist hacker girl.
And I know! Seeing as they're less than a mile from our apartment, we may have to try them out this week, just to hold me over until you all come out. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Okay, so*, with licorice, it's mainly the root that's used. That could complicate matters as I have no idea how to get just what I want without killing the whole thing. Will have to investigate further.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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What I know about anise and licorice can be summed up thus: I find them equally dreadful. More for you, I guess. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I like them both as tea. Other than that? But I want to experiment. Now that I'm a kept woman, I have the time to do stuff like that.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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We don't have either gamey birds or venison here, so while I appreciate the thought, if you know of other ways to use it... I'll also end up - eventually - searching for recipes involving pretty much everything I'll be growing.
And ketchupqueen brought up another point on another forum. I have to watch out for heat - can the herbs handle the heat or not? More research for me to do. I think this supports the notion of having them in pots because, if they don't do well outside, I can bring them into the relative cool.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ya know, I've never ever seen a cat mess with a chile plant. However, birds love the stuff: they don't have the pain receptors which interact with capsaicin, and also make perfect vectors for distibuting seeds widely. Thus the chile breeds itself to repellant to mammals and pest/herbivorous insects at a capsaicin concentration of 1to100parts per million while remaining tempting to birds at a concentration of 20,000parts per million, and non-harmful to beneficial pollinating and predatory insects.
So I suspect the site owner is being disinformative, more interested in protecting birds from cats than in protecting the chiles.
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I just read about putting moth balls around the garden. It apparently doesn't have to be repeated because the smell will train the cat to stay away. Will this harm any plants?
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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"ow I'm thinking tomorrow's supper may be a curry. A chicken one, though. *goes off to inspect freezer*"
I am in in Greek hell. My father in law gave me two grocery bags, filled to the top with Tupperware. filled to the top with curries he made for me.
I checked on my WW points tracker. One cup of beef curry is 10 points! Ack! And that is like having one potato chip.
Any curry loving Hatrackers in the area are welcome to come over and have some.
Oh, and Qud, do you have French tarragon on your list? It imparts an anise-like flavor to fish and chicken. I make mayonnaise with it, and it is delicious as a dip for grilled meats.
Also, I remember one of my favorite stories from Bocaccio, "The Pot of Basil." The basil grew in a pot continuosly, and should grow that way as long as you keep snipping the flowers. (I wouldn't add the head for fertilizer like in the story, though.)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I know that curries can be made to fit, but when an Indian man makes forty frozen pounds of it for you, you can't just say, "Um, thanks, but this is a little too high in calories, can you make me some new batches? Thanks."
I am not sure if French tarragon is Artemesia dracunculus, but it sounds like something I can use on the current Pun Smackdown!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Gee, I was just about to type something stupid. Like gee I wish I had a father in law who'd cook Indian for me. Then I thought about it, and realized that I have a mother in law who can cook great Sri Lankan curries. She just won't cook 'em for us. Ah well.
Also, I updated my wish list on the first page. I want yams. Among many other things.
I also found out about a fortnightly sale on garden plants and such at Victoria Park. I just don't know which day of the week, time, and where the park is. Time for me to start asking more questions...
Anyone here know of a good forum where I can ask questions relating to planting & growing all this stuff in a tropical climate? Although, officially, it's called tropical monsoon...
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Quid, when he makes it, he tells me, "In India, they think my food is sh**." He grew up having women cook for him, but when he moved here if he wanted curry, he had to make it himself. A good half of the chiles I grow go to him.
When his sisters came to visit, they made a biryani, and I thought I was in heaven. (as opposed to Greek hell)
I am sure a search would find you a garden site for yur climate, because it really is completely different from New England.
Edited out the swear! Sorry!
[ May 17, 2005, 09:38 AM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Just because I think y'all care (or should), I went with Country Captain (which I know is not really an authentic curry, but it's yummy anyway). Mixed it all up in the crockpot insert last night, and will put to cook just before we leave for school.
*looking forward for the way the house will smell when we get home*
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Elizabeth, I checked out that link and did a search on Sri Lanka, and all I found was this. It's a page about their vacation to Sri Lanka, but not about gardening in Sri Lanka, or, at least, as far as I could find. Thanks anyway.
I love biryani! I even have biryani paste in the cupboard as a cheat that I haven't used yet. Maybe I need to use this soon...
The closest I've found to a forum that looks useful is www.gardenweb.com with a tropical section. It's mostly occupied by people living in non-tropics trying to grow tropical plants. I've searched and found nothing that looks more useful than that. Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow. My Google-fu is failing!
I need a crockpot. Grrr!
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You didn't see a list of plants to grow? Try here.
Oh, hmm. Seems they live in Australia? I am so confused. Still, many of those plants might work for you.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Stuff that should do well in the heat = okra, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillos, sweet potatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, bitter melons, basil, green beans.
Malabar spinach is a good hot weather salad green. It's got a bit of a mucilagenous texture to it though.
Radishes tend to be hot/bitter and pithy in hot weather. I don't know how cool the winters are there, but if you try radishes, that'd probably be the best time for them.
Vietnamese coriander (aka culantro?) is a good idea -- if it's the one I'm thinking of, that's a perennial that doesn't bolt during the summer heat. (Never actually tried it myself. Well, I did try starting it from seed, but never got it to germinate.)
If your area is truly tropical, you can have a lot of fun growing things you can never grow in Canada or the US -- I think you mentioned yams, but you can also try stuff like oca, yacon, chayote, jicama, and a lot of other stuff that I've dreamed about trying someday. Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Is Sri Lanka like Hawaii and other environments, where you have to be really careful what you plant, so it does not take over fragile ecosystems?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I hate sweet potatoes. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate 'em. Yams I love. Yams I can't get here. I wanna grow yams.
I think I've had the Malabar spinach here, and Fahim and I both hate it. I love North American spinach, though. I'm thinking of trying to grow Swiss chard, after I find out about it. That stuff, I like.
Vietnamese coriander is not the same as cilantro. They're not even related. As far as I can tell, it's not really known outside of southeast Asia. But considering how much I love Thai food, I'd like to give it a try.
Radishes - thanks for the warning about bitter and pithy. We don't have winter. We have monsoon, monsoon, and not monsoon. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same termperature all the year round - about 27C at night, about 32C during the day. Our climate is officially tropical monsoon.
I'm going to research some of those other things you mentioned. Okra, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, melons, cukes, and beans are easily available here, so those I'm not going to grow - or, at least, not now.
Elizabeth - I have no idea. I suppose I should find out, eh? Mint, for example, I was planning on growing only in pots anyway. I know they take over any ground they get their shoots on. If there are any other plants on my list that'll take over, please let me know so I can make sure to keep them in a pot.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Just a note on growing potatoes - we were given a tip several years ago that worked great. When you plant the potatoes, cover the plants with hay or straw. The new potatoes will grow into the straw so you need not dig in order to gather the potatoes; they can merely be cut / pulled off and the plant keeps producing. Plus, the potatoes are relatively clean - cleaner than when they have to be dug up, at any rate.
Posts: 142 | Registered: Jan 2005
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The straw method for potatoes does make them easier to harvest. Sometimes you'll get some mouse damage, though. And yields are about half as much as when you hill them with dirt.
quid -- is culantro (NOT cilantro) the same thing as Vietnamese coriander? Johnny's Seeds in Maine carries culantro, which is the cilantro alternative that I tried to start but couldn't get to germinate: link 1link 2Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Oh, whoops! I thought it was a spelling mistake. I'll have to find out. But tomorrow. I'm going to bed in a few minutes. Have to say, that looks interesting...
Arevoj & plaid, does that potato trick also work for yams? For that matter, anything I should know about growing yams? Never tried 'em before.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yams -- no idea. Every gardening and farming book I've ever read about yams that's mentioned them has said not to even bother trying to grow them in the U.S., that the seasons just aren't long enough here... so I'm very jealous that you can grow yams there.
I doubt that you can grow regular "North American" spinach there. It usually won't even germinate in hot soils, and even if it did, the plants would be tough and bitter and short-lived.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Chard should work, though it does tend to have a stronger flavor when it's hot. Collard greens are another good hot weather green -- a lot of folks prefer their flavor to that of chard.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I've never grown yams - I'll be no help there; sorry.
I have heard tell of what plaid references about mice and yields. Our garden was small, about 12x20, in the city, and the potatoes did not make up the majority of what was planted. I did not end up with a mouse problem - luck? - and the yield was sufficient for what we were eating.
Posts: 142 | Registered: Jan 2005
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12x20 is small? My space is absolutely puny by comparison. I think I have about 6x6, and a lot of that is already taken up by plants of what variety, I have no idea, and I don't know how much of them I can or will dig up & remove.
I would like very much to be able to plant banana, mango, papaya, and strawberry guava if I can. I've been thinking about it, and while I won't really know until after I see it again and do some more research, I'm hoping I can plant them at the back of the house between the house and the wall (every house here has a 6' high wall surrounding the property - a result of the civil war & all the bombings and shootings). I think there's only 3' between, but maybe four, and I have no idea if that's enough. I also don't know if there would be enough sun there. Or perhaps the side, with a similar amount of room. The front, where the garden isn't, is either garage or gravelled parking, IIRC. Not that we need the extra gravelled parking (Fahim's got a motorbike, we ain't got no car), so perhaps I can convert some of that over to fruit trees. And we're signing a contract for one year, but we'll probably be there for much longer. We both hate moving. And I can always dig the fruit trees up if we move, right? Right?
Yeah, Fahim hates spinach, so I won't be growing that. Chard I'd like to, and the suggestion of collard greens are a possibility - thanks! I'll have to research them. I've never had collard greens before. But I'd like us to have more greens in our diet, and what we can get here ain't great, and honestly, the variety isn't varied. I'm bored with what we can get here. Bored bored bored bored bored. I think I just realized that that may be a major part of what's fueling this gardening operation.
I've also had a suggestion for mustard greens. If any of you have any other suggestions, I'm open to hearing.
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Plaid, Vietname cilantro (Polygonum odoratum) is not the same as Culantro (Eryngium foetidum). But after reading about Culantro, I think I want some of that, too, so thanks for mentioning it!
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I saw culantor for the first time today! It is quite something, kind of like artichoke.
There was also a Vietnamese cilantro.
Funny how Mexican food uses Asian cilantro(or American Mexican recipes anyway). The things you learn on Hatrack, I tell ya.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Shakespeare is much better. Thank you.
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But I want to experiment. 
