Pam's Tip on Papayas

Pam's recent comment on the post about our first attempts growing papayas was too good to leave alone. Here's some of her advice, which has helped us re-think how much we'll be fertilizing our papaya plants, and other considerations we'll be mulling over. Thanks, Pam, for giving us the benefit of your experience! Here's a reprint of the comment:

Pam Croom said...

"Sigh...I miss my papayas!
I used to live in FL, but we weren't far enough south to leave them in the ground.
I'm not sure you know that they aren't long term trees like apples.
Your first crop is the best and it generally takes two seasons.
Nailing them may have scared them into early flowering, but the plants might not be big enough to support fruiting. You may not get any fruit if you planted them this season.
I had mine planted for year two along the sidewalk in my flower bed and people would come off the street to ask what they were. They are such cool plants!
And at about 8-10 feet they cooled the front of the house!

Another problem you might be running into is soil amendments. Go easy on that! I was told by a papaya grower to not fertilize too much. The tropics are very productive, but the soil is nutrient poor. The carbon cycle in the tropics is very tight (all the fertility is tied up in the living canopy), so when you provide lots of nutrients the plants suck them up and try to grow faster than their neighbors so they don't get shaded out. All the growth goes into leaves and stems not fruit. My bougainvillea in FL had the same problem-the plant was huge and beautiful, but it would never flower because I was treating it too good.

I read all that stuff about needing male and female plants too. They both produce fruit-the issue is that you need both sexes for sexually reproduced fertile seeds. I just want fruit!

Your own papaya's might surprise you in taste! I'm not a fan of store bought papaya like tomatoes, but a papaya picked at its ripest turned out to be a real treat. I'd dehydrate chunks-it was just like candy.

A papaya grower in CA told me he thinks the issue in growing papayas in the states is not air temp (at least for short periods), but root temperature. He thought the roots need to be maintained above 50 degrees. There is a mountain papaya (not as sweet) that I've toyed with the idea of trying here in AL and put heating tape around the roots. You've inspired me-may be I'll try it next summer!"


Thanks, Pam! :)

Shabbat Shalom

I customarily turn off the computer each shabbat. I'm overdue on responding to all the wonderful and thoughtful comments on some of my past posts...I'll do that this weekend. Just wanted to say I'm not neglecting it, and I haven't forgotten. I really love being among such a great online community and don't take it for granted!

I'm racing to beat sundown tonight, so have to cut this short. I'm so grateful for so many things...so many that I don't even have time to list them all right now. I hope you enjoy a restful evening and tomorrow and that your week was a good one...and if not, that it's nearly over and that next week will be better!

Till later...

Shabbat shalom! :)

Bread Head

I can't quit baking...I have some OCD thing going on with it just now. Maybe it's the tightening our belts thing, dunno, but I tried a new recipe for basic bread...still trying basic bread recipes to see which ones are our faves.

This time it was Suzanne McMinn's Grandmother Bread, a family bread recipe handed down through her generations...and so easy, too!

I'm not sure what I did, but after mixing up the basic ingredients I got to the kneading stage, and it was like I was new at making bread again. The dough stuck to my hands, kept getting slaggy, I added what seemed like way too much flour to get it under control and then worried if I'd added too much and if it would dry it out or make it heavy. The kneading was Bread Vs Baker, but I eventually won, though it never quite got to that "soft as a baby's behind" stage...not satiny, but still nice. I think my kitchen was too damp and humid just then because I had a lot of things going on the stovetop only inches away.

And so goes my learning curve! But lemme tell you, the bread is a genius and was good despite my amateurish attempts. I had to take a pic, but couldn't quite wait till it cooled...it was good hot with butter.

If you like a good basic loaf that's good for about anything, this one would work...sandwich bread, sweet rolls, any number of things. We'll use it for different things this week (it made two large loaves), and it seems to hold up really well. Thanks, Suzanne, for posting your family's heritage recipe!

Additional Note to Pine Needle Tea Post

This is a follow up to the prior post on pine needle tea...great response from friends out there!

I'll clarify a couple things...I'm not sure what sort of pine this was, but I'm positive it was a pine. Be SURE it is, and not some other evergreen...some are poisonous, others not, but pines are fine.

I wanted to say that when I drank mine, I'd steeped it (the pine needles with boiling water poured over) for 10 minutes before drinking. Sources I read said to let it steep for 20 minutes minimum, or you can even leave it overnight. I wonder how this affects the taste? DO strain off the needles before drinking...I really want to know how that tastes, if anyone out here tries it! :)

Further reading suggested to pick the tender newer growth towards the ends of the boughs, if that's any help to any who're going to try it. Also remember not to use anything that's been sprayed...

Can't wait to see what others think. Maybe I have weird taste in liquids, but it was so pleasant, I just had to have more!

Also, remember...don't drink if there's any possibility you're pregnant, might be pregnant, or are trying to conceive...it contributes to miscarriages, supposedly. I know I posted that in the prior post, but just wanted to repeat :)

OK, now I'll stop being paranoid...just had to come clarify a tad.

I'll be making this for Jack this week, and if it needs a little jazzing up, I'll squeeze a fresh lemon or lime and maybe add a touch of sweetner (even though I liked it best As Is), because even though I'm not going to be drinking it regularly (yet...we're always up for getting pregnant though I'm infertile as yet), Jack could really use the power boost to his immune system and the vitamin C...what a great way to get it!

Foraging: Pine Needle Tea

You DO want to try this, but not till it's strained. Those little guys are sharp!

We were out walking yesterday, and there was a 3 foot pine seedling within easy access in the undeveloped wilder area. I clipped the end of one of its branches, since it was in an area that is never sprayed (and looked like it was in an area that might be mowed down before too long).

I'd read that pine needles make a great tea, and that the needles as well as many other parts of the pine tree were used by native populations as food in different ways. The vitamin C content of the needles is said to be really high. In fact, if settlers had drunk it during times of want, it is said there would have been no scurvy. Linda Runyon mentions pine in her foraging handbook. Anyway, I was curious!

I washed and trimmed some of the needles, and poured boiling over them, as seen above. Then I learned an important lesson...NOT to try sipping the brew while the needles are still in it (yeah, go ahead, I know everyone else has better sense! lol) I was aiming just for a sip, not a gulp, but two of those needle bits got sipped right up with the liquid and I just about had to have an embarrassing trip to the ER, only I'd not swallowed very hard and was able to REACH DOWN MY THROAT WITH MY HAND and pull the piercing little shards out (I can see trying to explain that one, ha!) Anyway, always strain the liquid to get all the needles out first (duh) before drinking. I have enough left, and I'll follow the instructions better next time around and steep them in a PAN of boiling water for 20 minutes.

But here's the exciting part...it was DELICIOUS! I expected a turpentine or stringent taste, but it was actually GREAT tasting...very light, sweet, fragrant...I couldn't believe it! Jack said when he was in the Marines and they had to do survival exercises out in the middle of nowhere (forage, etc), he would boil pine needles and it was really satisfying. He said if we do that, you can add a touch of sugar to taste and it tastes like a very mild lemonade (didnt taste like that to me...tasted very sweet without any sugar...nice flavor!

Here are the two precautions:

1. Make sure you identify the tree properly. It HAS to be a pine. Don't take chances if you're not sure, because there are evergreens (don't remember which) that are poisonous. And also make sure it's not in an area that has been sprayed with any sort of poisons or has poison ivy/sumac/oak growing anywhere nearby.

2. Though I LOVED this (I'd drink it every day if I could), I can't drink it till I'm, ohhhh, older. Seems that there's some strong anecdotal evidence that pregnant and nursing mothers should probably steer clear of it, as well as anyone who might be pregnant at any point...the tea is said to cause miscarriages within a very short time (hmmm...) if drunk while pregnant. Since we'd welcome a baby at ANY time were I able to have one, I'd just as soon play it safe in that department. But you can bet I'll be drinking it when I'm older. A nice and pleasant surprise :)

Monsanto's 125,000 Suicide Farmers

It's being termed GM (genetically modified) Genocide, and the UK's Prince Charles has been advocating against it. Test case, India...where farmers are taking their own lives after the real impact of their growing GM crops has come to light...gruesomely.

Excerpt from full article, here:

(farmer named in article), like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead.

Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds.

But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiralling debts - and no income.

So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops.

The crisis, branded the 'GM Genocide' by campaigners, was highlighted recently when Prince Charles claimed that the issue of GM had become a 'global moral question' - and the time had come to end its unstoppable march.

S-t-r-e-t-c-hhhhh

Whew, had to get creative with what we had in the pantry this past two weeks...took a hit at the bank, unexpectedly.

Here are a few things we had, and how we stretched them. Recipes to follow in later post, possibly...

Flour, eggs, butter, a dab of cottage cheese, dab of sour cream, two yellow squashes, a few yellow onions, bit of fresh spinach, little bit of Parmesan, powdered milk, tuna, canned cranberry sauce, evaporated milk, dry pasta, canned pumpkin, leg/thigh chicken quarters, shredded cheese...

Made bread.
Noodles Romanoff. (this was a big hit!)
Squash/onion/spinach/cheese noodle bake.
Noodle florentine soup (used leftover veggies for stock, chopped onion, water from boiling noodles, leftover noodles from other dish, rest of fresh spinach).
Homemade mac n cheese.

Made milk-less, egg-less chocolate cake using cocoa.
Homemade pimento cheese on homemade bread.
Cheese melt open-faced sandwiches.
Chicken salad.
Chicken and dressing, with can of cranberry sauce I found at back of pantry.
Tuna salad.
Had very small amount of ground beef (less than 1 lb)...doled it out in small patties, one at a time, for hubby for b'fast with cheese melt toast. Found another scant pound at back of freezer and made meatballs to go with pasta. Stretched the meatballs with breadcrumbs and stuff. Stretched leftover meatballs further by crumbling them and making stroganoff (more noodles, y'know)

There is a constant pot of soup going on the back burner...all leftover veg, meat bits, and noodles go into it. I doctor it with onion and sometimes a dab of Better than Boullion. It rounds off the corners of our meals.

Leftover individual serving applesauces and mango/peach sauce (from when his mom was sick and had to have those) were served on hot pumpkin bread spread with remaining cream cheese and topped with the apple/mango/peach sauce.

I have some chicken stock left, if it's still good. If so, it'll become chicken and dumplings since I still have a few pieces leftover chicken.

Veggies were incorporated into all the above. The only veg I had this week was cabbage, one or two squash, onions, and a bit of romaine, so we had a lot of cabbage sauteed in a touch of olive oil, other veg added in or lightly steamed.


I think I'm noodled out...perhaps rice will figure in this week? :)

I can't say we've done badly, but way way too much starch. The only fresh fruit we had this week was a few remaining apples. We really made them last!

Beverages were fresh kombucha...YUMMM :) or cold water. Hot tea, for curling up and snuggling with hubby.

I think we're still going to be stretching it for a while to come. As long as I have time to peruse cookbooks and figure out substitutions, I'm doing alright in the kitchen. Takes a LOT more time for prep for some things, other things not so much. We're not hungry, and the kombucha is really giving me more energy.

Time to stay creative!

What meals have you stretched this week?