With the wild winds of Kansas and lots and lots of water!

Who says you can't grow Beets here?!

Ah, Saturday... Since I've undertaken this rather intensive approach to food growing, Saturday mornings are my time to give the garden my full attention. After the workaday week, I relish the thought of connecting with earth, sunlight, warmth, nature, and plants growing in my yard.

After picking most of the green leaf lettuce before it bolted, I looked around at how the other plants were progressing. The lettuce was abundant. In fact all the greens after being picked and washed yielded 6 quart-sized bags of produce. It was a most interesting week of discovery...

To thin out some of the beets allowing the remaining ones more space in which to grow, I discovered that the existing beets were doing just fine—developing beet heads that were maturing robustly. I read an article from our local nursery earlier that said you can't grow beets in Kansas, so I figured I'd just be harvesting the beet greens... it turns out that I can grow beets in Kansas, so I don't know where that untruth came from, but the one's in my yard are growing just fine... thank you very much! Don't they look delicious?

The plants are all growing well. Dan has been watering and fertilizing and applying compost as needed. This past week had been particularly hot registering in the 100s about three days this week. He watered at least four days this week, with soaker hoses, for several hours each time. I've learned that when plant leaves are beginning to yellow it often means that they are not getting enough water. Give them some water and they'll green right up!

This is my first year growing Jalepenos... so it's exciting to me to see them starting to develop fruit...

Check out these babies. There are four jalepeno plants, so I'm looking forward to many flavorful dishes to enjoy them in.

The potato plants in the potato towers were growing and growing and growing away... Dan decided to use straw this week in the layering of the towers, still leaving some of the plant tops exposed to continue the growth process. Additionally, he added another layer of chicken wire around the plants so they can grow to their capacity. The plants seem healthy and strong. I can't wait to see the new potatoes underneath that have developed.

A couple of weeks ago after noticing the caulflower heads that are developing, I was informed that by tieing them up to cover the head helps keep the head white rather than having it turn yellow. This being my first year with cauliflower too, I tied them off by using the existing bountiful leaves of the plant... pretty neat, hun?

I have two or three plants tied off that way and had tied the biggest one off a couple of weeks back. Wanting to check on its growth progress I peaked inside to find the cauliflower was nearly ready to go to flower! Oops! I might have waiting too long. Inside, quickly, for a knife to cut off the head. I'm not exactly sure how this process works with cauliflower. I'll have to do some more research so I can learn when the optimum time is for tieing off and harvesting.

Anyway, here's today's bounty... The head is huge, somewhat yellowed meaning it had too much exposure to sun and see how some of the flowerettes are stretching out as if wanting to go into flower mode? After washing it off, I decided to eat some of it raw dipped in ranch dressing for my lunch. Cruciferous vegetables, such as this one,  are very good for preventing cancer and are good for one's intestinal tract. Please share your insights if you have experiences to offer...

Next up, seed harvesting...

Since I had purchased heirloom seeds, I'm eager to learn about seed harvesting and saving and using them in subsequent years. Plus, with the overflow, I should be able to have heirloom seeds available for sale soon. Here are some pics of the arugula plant gone to seed, the spinach plants going to seed, and the lovely red veined swiss chard going to seed...

Arugula plant going to seed. I kept wondering when will the seeds be ready for harvesting. After doing some research I believe when the pods are puffy with seeds it's ok to pick them—even if the seed pods are green because, often, once they turn from yellow to brown they open and the wind disperses the seeds as nature is prone to do—willy nilly and abundantly.

Again, I'm not sure yet when I should pick the spinach seed... when they are green still is it OK? Or do I have to wait until they turn brown or black? More research is in order....

Look at the lovely Swiss Chard plant with its fabulous red inner stalk. I've really been on a steep learning curve regarding gardening this year because I'm trying to learn how to take the plants full cycle to become self-sufficient and not have to rely on outside sources for purchasing the seeds or plants each year to get started.

Lastly, I clipped a heaping bowl full of the arugula seed twigs that were heavily laden with the seed pods. I was going to get the seeds from each of the pods, but soon figured out that that was a momentous taska and that I needed to break it down even further. First, to remove the pods from the stalks was a big enough job, then later I can separate the seeds from the pods. I'll have to get envelopes in which to store the seeds for later use. Additionally, this is one plant that I'm not sure if it's been tampered with. I purchased the seeds initially from our 'good' nursery in town in bulk—but I don't know if the seeds were hybridized or altered in any way. I'll have to do a test planting to see if they germinate and grow consistent produce before doing anything further with this batch of seeds. One thing is for sure, I started with maybe 50 arugula seeds and I only snipped a small sample from the existing plants. I have a heaping bowl of seed pods and in each pod there may be twenty or more seeds... doing the math... doesn't that come out to a 50 : A billion ratio?! 

Wow! It's amazing what one learns when going down this path of self-sufficiency and frugal, healthy living! One thing I learned for sure... nature is amazingly abundant. All this scarcity talk that one hears about in the media is a myth... Take a lesson from nature. All life should be so abundant. It shows us about the life of the spirit. Our so-called culture... oh... not so much...

Be well and bon appetit!