Wendy Crist: Garden Column- The moon is waning and will be new on the 24th

The moon is waning and will be new on the 24th. As a reminder, the waning phase of the moon is also known as the passive phase. It differs from the “active” phase in that garden chores are not plant directed, except for starting root crops. So, weeding, pruning and other garden maintenance chores are the order of the day during the “passive” or waning phase. 

In keeping with this, I started carrots last Sunday, for harvesting after a frost, which renders them ultra sweet. 

I don’t know about y’all but I’m inundated with garden chores, mostly watering during those hot days mid-July. I also noticed that growth was a bit inhibited by the heat. My winter squash stopped swelling, my tomato flowers aborted, some falling off and the length of my beans was stalled. 

I have many large tomatoes that just aren’t turning red. They seem to be stuck. I found one resource that said it can be due to high temperatures. He said that tomatoes grow best in temperatures between 6sixty-eight and seventy-seven degrees. That sounds a bit dubious to me but I decided to try shading my tomatoes to see if they will turn red. According to this source, the ripening agents, lycopene and carotene shut down in hot temperatures. I’ll let you know what shading my huge green tomatoes does. 

The beans and cucumbers are coming in. I’m expecting a big harvest of each. I’ll be setting up my pickling crocks this week. In the past I’ve made dilly beans, kosher dills and sauerkraut. The pickling method I use is lactobacillus fermentation. Submerging veggies in a brine solution creates an anaerobic environment. Lactobacillus bacteria is found everywhere, on the surface of veggies, on your hands, etc. 

There are many fermented foods in our world. We are accustomed to fermented beverages both beer and wine. Yogurt is a fermented food as is sourdough bread.  

In fermenting veggies the bacteria feeds on the sugars of the veggies, turning it into lactic acid which then serves the same purpose as vinegar. This process not only enhances the flavor and crispness but it also increases the nutritional value and shelf life. I’ve been able to keep veggies in the crock for up to two months. I eventually put them in jars to give away or place in the refrigerator. Adding a grape leaf of oak leaf to the brine maintains crispness. The tannin is responsible for this. 

I season my kosher dills and dilly beans with garlic cloves, dill sprigs and pickling spices. So, the brine is made with 1 cup of salt per gallon (keep in mind that kosher salt is coarser so its volume is less). Then I put the garlic, pickling spices, dill and tannin source (grape or oak leaf) in the crock. Rinse your veggies, rub of the spines on your cucumbers and add them to the crock as you harvest them. If you see white mold on the surface, don’t worry, just remove it. If the mold is gray or … start over. 

We harvested our garlic and got around 85 huge heads. After digging garlic up, rinse off the soil, leaving the outer skins intact. You can trim off the leaves if you grew hard neck garlic or leave them for braiding with soft neck garlic. Hard and soft neck refers to the quality of the stem above the head, hard or soft. 

After rinsing the heads, place them in a cool, dry area to cure. You can use it without curing. The flavor will be milder and the cloves juicier. Garlic flavor intensifies with curing. As long as the garlic is hung or racked in a cool, dry spot for two to four weeks, until it is completely dry, you’ll be able to store it for months in a cool, dry, well-ventilated garage, shed or room. 

I’ll talk more about long-term storage in a future column. In the meantime remember, time spent by a river or in the woods helps you feel lighter and helps the world look brighter. 

Wendy has lived, with her husband, in southern Siskiyou county for forty-four years. They began their Siskiyou county adventure in Mt Shasta, were the original creators of the Brown Trout Gallery in Dunsmuir (where they lived for twenty years). They’ve lived outside of McCloud, off-grid since 2014.

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