Grandma Harper's Sweet Pickles

Ozarks Gardening
Copyright 2013 Jim Long

Grandma Harper's Sweet Pickles

This has been a good cucumber-growing year. I make these pickles every 2 or 3 years, a necessary ingredient in tuna salad, potato salad and deviled eggs. It’s a recipe that’s been in my family at least 4 generations.

8-12 medium-sized cucumbers (about 8 inches long)
Wash cucumbers but don’t cut off the blossom end; if you do it will make the pickles softer.

Don't remove the blossom end, tests prove leaving it on increases crispness.

Place washed cucumbers in a stone jar (or stainless or enamel pan) large enough to hold the cucumbers submerged in water. Bring enough water to cover the cukes, to a boil, and pour that over the cucumbers, covering completely. Put a plate on the cucumbers to weight it down to hold the cucumbers under the water.

Cucumbers, ready for plate to hold them down.

The following day, pour off the water, bring fresh water to boil and cover the cucumbers again, also weighing down to hold them under the water. Repeat this process of drain, rinse and pour boiling water, for 4 successive mornings).

Cut-up cukes, ready for vinegar mixture.

On the 5th day, drain off the water and rinse the cucumbers. Rinse out the container, too. Cut the cucumbers into slices or chunks and put those back into the container. Over that pour the following:

8 cups sugar
4 cups apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons pickling salt (not table salt)
2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices, available at the grocery store

Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this boiling mixture over the cut-up cucumbers in the container, replace the plate to hold the pickles down in the mixture. Leave this for 2 to 4 days before you can them. Process in a boiling water bath. (Consult the Ball Blue Book for processing times based on size of jars you’re using).

Visit my garden blog, as well, for more stories and recipes: http://jimlongsgarden.blogspot.com

The finished sweet pickles, ready for the pantry. They'll keep 3-4 years easily.

Deadheading Summer Garden Plants

Ozarks Gardening
Copyright Jim Long, 2013

One of the jobs I’ve given my garden interns this season is deadheading. Our first intern from Pennsylvania, arrived in early April and stayed through mid-June. Our second intern came from Minnesota and worked for a shorter period. Both, however, had never heard the term, deadheading, nor understood its purpose. I’m pleased to say they went away fully grasping its importance in the garden.

Perennial herbs such as sage, lavender, hyssop, thyme and a few others that come into blooming in the spring need some deadheading. They look picture-perfect for several weeks before the flowers wither and the plants begin to look leggy. Unless you do some pruning of the flower stalks after they bloom - called deadheading, the plants will likely die out in spots. This is particularly true of creeping thyme and sage (lavender, too, if you want it to bloom a second time). Prune off the flower stalks to encourage new growth.

Roses, too, benefit greatly from being deadheaded. Even the perpetual bloomers will try to set seed and when a plant does that, its chemistry changes and the plant resources go mostly toward growing seed. Simply pruning back the limb tips where the roses have withered will encourage more blooming.

If you don’t deadhead or prune back the blooming tips of basil plants, the leaves will turn bitter and stop producing. Left un-pruned, basil will quickly go to flowering, produce seed and the plant will die. For the best flavor and healthy growth, all basil plants should be pruned with scissors about every ten days. You can prune back up to a third of the plant without doing any damage, and what you will receive in return for your efforts is tender, tasty new basil leaves for cooking and pesto.

Even annual plants like broccoli need the process of pruning. That head of broccoli we like to eat, is actually the beginning of the flowering process. If you left broccoli alone and didn’t cut out the broccoli heads, it would start blooming.

Those of us who’ve received no rainfall for several weeks need to start mulching our vegetable beds in earnest. A thick layer of straw, 6-8 inches deep, helps hold in the moisture. Watering every 4-5 days instead of daily is recommended for all garden plants. Watering at the base of plants like tomatoes, peppers and beans is best. One of the ways to encourage mildew and fungus problems is by spraying the leaves of plants instead of watering their roots, so we all want to avoid that.

It’s the season of ripe tomatoes, sweet, tasty roasting ears and lots of green beans. Happy gardening!

Long Creek Herb Farm Pizza

Ozarks Gardening
Copyright 2013, Jim Long

USA Today story.

We’ve been honored with a pizza named for us! Three years ago USA Today asked readers to choose the best pizzas in America. One pizza place in each state was chosen as the winner. Reeds Spring Pizza won the best Pizza in Missouri, and was given the honor of one of the top-50 best pizza places across America. This year, once again, Reeds Spring Pizza came out number one in Missouri. That’s high praise from customers.

Flavie Mirat with a Long Creek Herb Farm pizza out of the oven.

So it’s easy to see why we felt especially honored when Reeds Spring Pizza announced this week they were adding a special Long Creek Herb Farm pizza to their already impressive menu. (They have been using two of my salad dressing recipes from my book, The Best Dressed Salad, for several years).

Long Creek Herb Farm Pizza

What’s on “our” special pizza? First, their own recipe thin crust pizza dough, covered with lemon-rosemary olive oil, then spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, parmesan cheese, pecans, bacon and topped with kalamata olives and baked. When the pizza comes out of the oven, it’s topped with fresh, edible flowers! People drive from several states to eat at Reeds Spring Pizza and if you happen to be there, ask for the Long Creek Herb Farm Pizza.

We’ve picked our first ripe tomatoes this week, along with the first blackberries and raspberries. I’ve been keeping the tomato plants sprayed with Neem oil every 10 days and the aphids and wilt signs haven’t showed up yet. Prevention is always the best cure and I’m hopeful this will be a bountiful tomato year.

If you don’t have access to Neem oil (available at many Ace Hardware stores), and you want to avoid using chemicals in your garden, you might consider using Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew. It’s certified organic and does an excellent job of combating garden pests. It works on potato bugs, loopers, leaf miners, spider mites, borers, bagworms, beetles and several more. Spray it late in the day so as to not kill your beneficial lady bugs and bees.

Happy gardening!

Spittlebugs on Garden Plants

Spittlebug bubbles on lavender stem.

Who Spit on My Plants?

It’s the season for spittlebugs (Cercopidae family). You may see what looks like spit on plant stems but don’t blame it on the neighbor kids or the guy next door. The spittle, or foam, is made by a tiny insect that's so small you will likely never see one. The bug likes lavender, strawberries, salvia, rosemary and a variety of other plants. The spittle is a protective covering for the nymph of this insect. It attaches itself to a plant stem, then secretes a liquid that turns into bubble-like foam, around itself. This foam hides the spittlebug from predators, insulates them from temperature fluctuations and keeps them moist.

Spittlebug eggs are laid in late summer and overwinter on plant debris. The eggs hatch in spring and the young nymphs then crawl up plants and attach themselves, then make their protective covering of “spit.” These insects do little harm to plants. They feed somewhat on the plant’s sap, but unless you have large amounts of these little clumps of spittle, there’s no need to use any kind of poison on them. The easiest control is to use the spray from a garden hose and wash them off the plant with plain water onto the ground, where predators can easily eat them.

The "spit" is a protective coating around the tiny nymph inside.

So don't despair when you see the cluster of bubbles on your lavender or other plants. The spittle is made by a tiny insect to protect itself from birds and other insects. Spray it away with a garden hose and forgive it for looking like spit. Who knows what our house looks like to it?

Happy gardening!

Organic Fungus Controls in the Garden

Powdery mildew can affect bee-balm (Monarda) as well as roses, squash and other plants.

Copyright Jim Long 2013; Ozarks Gardening

Cool, damp weather encourages a new set of problems in the garden. We’ve had rains, chilly nights, humid and cloudy days, all things which create conditions for fungus and mildew to grow. If let untreated, either of those can slow down or kill garden plants. There are some simple solutions and remedies that cost little and are effective. 

Powdery mildew is a condition you may find on squash, cucumber, melon and rose leaves. As the name implies, the leaves take on a white or gray, dusty coating. Powdery mildew starts as a small, round white spot on the leaves. In just a few days, the spot has grown to cover the entire leaf. Here’s a simple treatment that shows good results.

Mix up 1 part plain whole milk from the refrigerator with 9 parts water. Pour into a garden sprayer and spray the affected plants in early morning. Repeat the spraying twice a week until the mildew disappears. There’s lots of research showing plain milk is as effective as chemical fungicides, and it’s a whole lot cheaper and more safe. It’s also good to avoid excess fertilizer in cool, damp weather as that can encourage mildew problems, as well. 

Pepper plant suffering from root rot.

Root rot is another common problem when the weather is damp and cool. Plants appear to wilt and die for no apparent reason. Watering the plant makes the problem worse as the fungi, including Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Pytophthora and Fusarium, can be spread to other plants by water run-off. Here’s a simple treatment that costs almost nothing.

Cornmeal, worked into the soil before planting encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria that combats various fungi from growing (which is why I always recommend using agricultural cornmeal in your tomato beds in February and March). But simply sprinkling a half cup of agricultural cornmeal (or even plain, cheap cornmeal from the grocery store) around each plant is helpful. Work it into the soil around each plant to prevent root rot. For plants that are already affected, use the same method, but if the plant doesn’t show some response in about 10 days, pull up the plant and destroy it to prevent the fungus from spreading to other plants.

I haven’t tried this one, but if you have, let me know of your results: Farmers in India are using Coca Cola as a spray pesticide on crops instead of commercial pesticides, with good results. Either the sugar or the caffein (or both) seem to deter insect problems. I couldn’t find the ratio of Coke to water, but if you have tried this successfully, please let me know. 

You can find more of my stories and gardening information on my garden adventures blog, jimlongsgarden.blogspot.com. You can order my books and products from my website by clicking on this link: http://www.longcreekherbs.com. Happy Gardening!

One of my newest books is the Make Your Own Hot Sauce. Check it out on my website.

Safe Organic Garden Pest Control Formulas

Anytime I can find a safe control for pests in the garden or yard, I use them. Rather than using a chemical that kills everything, I choose methods that only target a specific pest. Here are some simple pest controls I use.

Packrats and mice in the riding lawnmower: buy a little bottle of mint oil - spearmint or peppermint, and soak a cotton ball. Place it somewhere around the motor and wiring where it will stay put. Rats and mice hate the smell of mint and will stay away. Replace the cotton ball and mint oil every 3-4 weeks. Mint cooking extract works, too, although the smell disappears faster than the mint oil.

Cabbage worms: once the worms start, you can control them with a safe, non-chemical spraying once a week of bacillus (available at garden centers, feed stores). To prevent the worms, make a simple paper barrier early in the year, as soon as you plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower or kale. To do that, cut a square of heavy paper or cardboard, about 4 inches by 4 inches square. Make a slit halfway across the square, then slip it around the base of the plant, flat with the ground. Cabbage worms start out as cabbage moths, which lay their eggs at the base of the plants, then they hatch into cabbage worms. By preventing the egg-laying, you are preventing a good many of the worms you would have later.

Soft-bodied insects, such as mites, aphids and mealybugs: Mix 1 tablespoon canola oil and 4 drops of Ivory soap (Ivory works best) into a quart of plain water. Pour into a spray bottle, shake well and spray the leaves of the affected plants both on top and underneath the leaves.

Mites: mix 2 tablespoons of hot pepper sauce with 5-6 drops Ivory dish soap into a quart of water. Let the mixture stand overnight, pour into a spray bottle, shake well then spray affected plants. Shake container often during application.

Slugs: Little lids of beer placed under the plants that are affected works well. Diatomaceous earth (a natural finely-ground shell) scattered around the plants works on slugs, snails and other soft-bodied insects. The tiny shell particles, called diatoms, work by puncturing the outsides of soft-bodied pests but are not harmful to pets or humans.

Fungal diseases: Mix 2 tablespoons baking soda into a quart of water. Pour into a sprayer bottle and spray affected areas. Repeat application every few days.

Hollyhocks: the bugs that riddle the leaves of hollyhocks can be stopped before they destroy the plant buy using this formula I first learned about from Sharon Lovejoy: combine 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 tablespoon canola oil, 1/2 teaspoon dish soap (Ivory works best), 1/2 cup white vinegar in 1 gallon of water. Shake well and pour into a sprayer. Spray the underneath sides of the leaves at the first signs of holes in the lowest leaves. Repeat, spraying underneath all of the leaves each week.

Caution: sprays which kill harmful insects may also kill beneficial insects. Use the homemade formulas selectively, only spraying plants that are infected. Always apply early in the morning or just before dark to avoid bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. Apply again after a rain.

Happy gardening!

Copyright May, 2013, Jim Long

What's to Know About Garden Soil?

In my early 20s I worked in a garden center. We sold Scott’s Miracle-Grow fertilizers, potting soils and pesticides. Back in those days, shortly after Rachael Carson’s ground-breaking book, Silent Spring was published, most of us still didn’t question what we put on our gardens or lawns.

We’ve all learned a lot in the years since 1962 when Silent Spring was published, about the relationship of the chemicals we use and the quality of our streams, lakes and water supplies, and of our health. Often when I speak to groups about growing herbs and vegetables, I am asked for my recommendations for fertilizing the garden.

First I explain herbs don’t need fertilizer. Unless you live on a big, flat rock, there’s plenty of fertility in your soil for growing any kind of herbs. Fertilize them and you’ll have less flavor. Then I explain I recommend not using Miracle-Grow or similar water-soluble fertilizers on garden crops. Why? Aside from requiring gas and coal to manufacture them, they contain salts and soaps (which help the chemicals dissolve). Those wind up running into streams and lakes where they stagnate the water and ruin areas for fish and other aqua-wildlife. Worse, many of those fertilizers also contain pesticides. You’d be right if you said they’re not listed on the label, and Scott’s in particular was fined several million dollars for not labeling their bird seed products correctly and killing thousands of songbirds recently.

Do you really want pesticides in your tomatoes and lettuce? If you use a water-soluble fertilizer and spray your garden plants, or if you simply pour it on with a sprinkler can, the plants will take up the fertilizer along with the pesticide. (Ever wonder why Miracle-Grow plants look so blue-green and have fewer insects than plants without it?) Once your plants take up the fertilizer-pesticide, it’s in the tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and other plants you eat. Over time, how much damage does eating pesticides do to your body? Is it worth the risk? I don’t think it is. That's just my opinion.

The same companies that make those fertilizers also make potting soils. Cheap potting soils that the big box stores sell. Those soils include the same ingredients - fertilizer with pesticides, along with soap (a wetting agent to keep the soil moist). One such “organic” fertilizer, Hyponex, is made from a combination of construction wastes such as ground-up lumber, sand and debris, and has such a bad reputation that Colorado State University released a warning about using it. (The Garden Forum website also lists discussions about this).

My advice for fertilizers and soil? Use what nature provides. Use compost and organic materials and keep pesticides and herbicides out of our streams and out of our food. Happy gardening!

Copyright©2013 Jim Long