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Post by woodeye on Aug 6, 2022 9:42:14 GMT -6
Sounds like a good plan, hope it works out for you this year.
I tilled my garden spot a couple of nights ago, figured it 'might' be dry enough. Well, it turns out that I probably should have tilled it the day after it rained, because it was dustbowl days again already.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 8, 2022 13:13:08 GMT -6
I tilled the garden early this morning and got 5 pounds of red clover seed sown, along with a quarter pound of purple top turnip seeds. We have a good chance of rain over the next three days. We'll see what happens. Last year, I sowed my cover crop in late August as usual, but the seeds never got rained on until late October. They did sprout finally, but when we got that first hard freeze right about Halloween their roots were not yet established and they were all killed.
Hopefully, this year, I'll have better luck.
I found another arrowhead out there today. That makes the seventh arrowhead, plus a stone awl, a chert ax head or hoe head, several stone scrapers, and a round, baked clay game piece that I've found in my garden over the years. The arrowheads appear to be Gary Points, all dating 1,000 to 3,500 years old. It's kind of neat to think someone has been here that long, probably doing the same things I'm doing now. I suspect the stone ax head might actually be a stone hoe head, as it looks a little too lightweight to have been used for chopping wood.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 8, 2022 14:02:52 GMT -6
heavyhitterokraAre those turnips the ones used for greens? Meaning the bulb isn’t good for eating. I just ordered some seven top that is supposed to be good for greens.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 8, 2022 17:54:01 GMT -6
Glad to hear you’ve gotten some different cover crops in. I hope you get some good rain for the seeds.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 8, 2022 20:32:34 GMT -6
Hmoosek,
Oh man, I could founder myself on some good turnip greens. I boil a chicken and then use the broth for cooking down a mess of greens every Fall.
These are Purple Top White Globe Turnips. They make roots as big as softballs by Christmas day if they get good soil and good weather. I plant a quarter pound of them every Autumn and in a good year, I harvest about 500 to 800 pounds of turnips. I just take them to town sometime around Thanksgiving and give them away while Reasor's is trying to sell them for 99¢ per pound.
When I was a kid, my Grandma Fannie used to sow turnips and garlic bulbs along the roadsides, so travelers on foot would have something to eat. Of course, by the late 1960s when she was doing that, there were no 'travelers' left on the roadsides. I think that custom was probably left over from the war and Depression era. I still do that, but in a different way. It takes quite a few trips into town to give away 500 pounds of turnips. There was one guy in particular who made that job a little easier though; he and his wife used to have 7 kids still living at home. I'd call him up and he'd take 100 pounds of turnips every year.
Last year, not one turnip survived the harsh weather. We had several temperature swings of 50 degrees within a 72-hour time period and it was just too much for the seedlings to pull through. Hopefully, this year will not follow suit.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 8, 2022 20:46:40 GMT -6
How about the greens? Are the greens good? I had a good friend that was a Banker/Farmer and every year, he’d plant a field of turnip, mustard and collard greens for people in the community. I always thought it was a nice gesture.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 8, 2022 21:59:09 GMT -6
The greens are wonderful when the plant is young, they have a really nice flavor. However, as time goes on, they tend to get old, tough, and prickly. There is probably a better variety out there for just greens. My wife doesn't like turnip greens; she likes the bulbs. She cuts them up in salads or eats them raw with salt, or fries them like potatoes.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 9, 2022 3:31:44 GMT -6
How about the greens? Are the greens good? I had a good friend that was a Banker/Farmer and every year, he’d plant a field of turnip, mustard and collard greens for people in the community. I always thought it was a nice gesture. Yeah, I agree with that, was a nice gesture. Cool.
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Post by macmex on Aug 9, 2022 13:09:49 GMT -6
I grew up in NJ and my best friend, through my teens was a fellow in his 70s. He taught me a lot about how they did things when he was a kid. Back then, folks in NJ grew rutabagas the way people in Oklahoma tend to plant turnips. They used them to feed themselves and their stock, including chickens, through the winter. It took me some time to get to where I really enjoyed rutabagas. In my family, only my mother liked them. Now, my wife and kids all like them.
When we came to Oklahoma we noticed everyone had such high praise for a fall crop of turnips. After experiencing some of our broiling hot/desert type summers, we came to appreciate purple top turnips too. I like the roots best, when we cook them. Greens still don't come out very well for us. One time we had a friend from Kentucky visit in the fall. She cooked us up a mess of turnip greens that was "to die for." Just wish I could repeat it.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 11, 2022 21:41:05 GMT -6
I found some purple top turnip seed. In all places…would you believe the dollar store?
.25 a package
They had 2 left, I grabbed them both.
They had some other stuff, but I resisted the urge. I came close to buying some micro greens, but I’m out of places to plant stuff except for the ground and micro greens would be better inside.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 11, 2022 21:49:32 GMT -6
Chicken broth, a little salt, a dash of minced garlic, a shake of black pepper, and lots of butter is the secret to a good mess of turnip greens.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 11, 2022 22:22:48 GMT -6
Chicken broth, a little salt, a dash of minced garlic, a shake of black pepper, and lots of butter is the secret to a good mess of turnip greens. Agreed, I know I would like that. Back when my mom was living, she loved cooked spinach. I was never a fan of cooked spinach, but I have always loved turnip greens. Anyway, I struggled to eat cooked spinach for her sake, but the only way I could get through it was to add liquid smoke to my bowl of spinach. Since I started doing that with spinach, I now also put some liquid smoke on my turnip greens too. I know, I'm a weirdo...
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 11, 2022 23:01:08 GMT -6
Chicken broth, a little salt, a dash of minced garlic, a shake of black pepper, and lots of butter is the secret to a good mess of turnip greens. Yes sir and some fat back/salt pork
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 12, 2022 11:08:34 GMT -6
Hmoosek Quote, Yes sir, and some fat back/salt pork. Even better!
Woodeye, I agree, spinach from a can is some nasty stuff. My Mom used to fix that for dinner too. I'd have to douse mine with vinegar just to be able to stand to eat it. That stuff has been boiled to death in the canning process and has lost all its texture. When they're done with it, it's just a limp pile of army-drab-colored mush.
Fresh turnip greens are bright green and still have a slightly crisp texture after boiling. I can see liquid smoke lending them a good flavor, that's probably what the ham hocks/fat back/salt pork lends them.
When we were kids, my cousins and I used to pick poke greens to sell to the cannery in Muskogee, Oklahoma. We'd get 5¢ per pound for them, by the 16' foot cattle trailer full. On the way to the lime scales, my Aunt Sarah (who was driving the pickup truck pulling the trailer) would stop by the local car wash to 'freshen them up' before weighing in. I don't recall her stopping by the carwash before using the cattle trailer though. I kind of doubt she did, being how we lived over 30 miles from Muskogee.
When we returned from the Lime scale, they'd have a group of men with pitchforks to unload our haul onto the baking hot surface of the empty cannery parking lot. Once it was unloaded, they'd grade it. The grader would walk through the pile, kicking the stalks from side to side with the toe of his boot, looking for poison ivy, old diapers, and other odd things. It was just a quick inspection, he was mostly looking for huge stalks. (He'd dock you for any stalks bigger around than a nickel). Then, a forklift operator would scoop up the wilted piles of stems and leaves and carry them to a big steel hopper resembling a 30' foot roll back dumpster. The hopper had a big steel paddle in it that would turn the poke and wash it with water before it went into the plant. The hopper operator was a rough-looking man, probably in his sixties wearing an old, worn, ball cap and overalls. In his mouth was a big chaw of tobacco. After seeing him spit tobacco juice into that hopper, I said to myself, "No way I'll ever eat any of that canned poke!"
Now, I'm in my sixties and that old hopper operator is probably long gone. So far, I've never gone back on my word.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 12, 2022 15:40:58 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra That's funny! I'll never be able to sing Poke Salad Annie with the same fervor again...
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