Pickles Of Wisdom

Pomegranate trees are a lovely addition to the garden. They produce beautiful flowers and delicious fruit, and the leaves turn yellow, making for a wondrous sight in the fall! The pomegranate’s smaller, elongated leaves can withstand higher heat than its broad-leafed counterparts. Most don’t require extra watering once established, making this an ideal fruit choice for the desert. There are some…

The Easiest Quick Pickled Jalapeños That Are Out Of This World

Trying lots of different jalapeños over the years has left me with some strong opinions. Some were too mushy or too hot. The key to the best ever jalapeños is (as with all pickles) to cut them yourself from fresh. The quicker you do it after harvesting, or buying, the crunchier and the better the flavor. Don’t worry though! If you want to use your jalapeños in other dishes, like baked into corn…

The Best Ever Quick Pickled Red Onions

Imagine those bright pink onions sitting in the bin at the ballpark waiting for a hot dog, or the ones waiting to get piled onto a street taco at the carnicería. Well, that’s what you’ll get with this quick-pickled red onion recipe. You can make these easily, and you don’t need pink food dye! That’s right, this pink is au natural, and I hope you love them as much as I do.

Important stuff…

Please check your email spam folders. An important message is waiting for you. Sorry it sent out twice, it was in my spam folder too.

Thank you!

Brendan

How To Grow Green Onions And Use Them Over And Over And Over

Indoors, outdoors, it doesn’t matter where. You can regrow your green onions and eat them too. So the question is, how many salads can you eat realistically? Throw a number out there and we’ll do some math.

A green onion is a little bulb with roots that grows this stalk of leaves that humans find delicious. So it’s as simple as this: cut the stem off an inch from the roots, and either stick it…

Let me clarify. For this to work, you can’t use the entire garlic bulb. You’ll be using the bigger outer cloves for food or vampire hunting. Then, the inner part with tiny unusable cloves, the one we usually discard into the compost, can be saved and regrown. This is a waste reduction technique, for when you can’t get your hands on new garlic bulbs every year, and need to push your food use to…

Why Planting Seeds Is Better Than Using Plant Starts

When winter and summer come to an end, we often see our local garden centers filling with seasonal plant starts: cucumber, tomatoes, squash, and beans among others for spring and summer; kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, onions, and the like for fall or winter. And there is no better time to think about the advantages of direct-sowing seeds versus buying plant starts. What downsides could there possibly…

Want it to live already!? Leave submerged in filtered water for 1-2 hours every two weeks, let dry very well, and leave in dappled

Tillandsia. The easy to grow, no-soil, water-loving AIR PLANT! We love them. And it’s high-time you learned how to grow one of them for yourself. My cousin gifted me one for Christmas a few years ago, and it has been an interesting journey learning what doesn’t kill these tillies. Some people call them that for short. I prefer the simpler air plant, because it sounds cool and makes me feel like…

How To Make Chili Flake - Get ready for your house to smell like dried peppers!

Alright, you must be the kind of person who likes food with some heat, otherwise you’d be researching how to make bundt cakes. Scrap the sugar and get yourself a sheet pan or any other pan that can go in the oven. We won’t be using high heat to dry here, so as long as it says “oven-safe” you’ll probably be OK using it. Even some foil made into a make-shift bowl or pan will work. Get ready for…

2018: Post Topics, News, And What I’m Growing Right Now

Happy 2018!! Sorry for not being around a whole lot more. I plan on being back in force at some point in the future. It will be slow in the meantime.. If I’m being honest, building my business has been taking most of my attention, and that will continue. Everything aside, how about a spring update? This year has been full of surprises already. Tucson has seen maybe a month of winter weather. Some…

Find your favorite variety and follow the instructions on the packet. You’re welcome! Go forth and multiply those plants. This joke brought to you by Pickles Of Wisdom. Please scroll down for a real explanation. Really though, radishes deserve more praise than they get. They’ll keep in your fridge for months after harvest. Pick in February and have them in a salad on Memorial Day (usually around…

It's a match! Memes for gardeners.

What veggie match-making did you do today?

How To Cook With Brine

While out camping, you might rely on a knife or utility tool to do a million jobs. Cutting firewood or a hole in fabric, sculpting when bored, various emergency uses, and on and on. When it comes to great cooking, the one thing that does a million jobs isn’t just the knife, it’s brine, and it isn’t just a curing tool either. Since it’s the weekend, I decided to give you what you need to know to…

Will this zucchini vine lean to the right (east), left (west), or straight towards you (south)?

Question: Will this zucchini vine lean to the right (east), left (west), or straight towards you (south)? Background: Plants easily adapt to changes in their environment. Maybe a tree falls nearby and there is more sun, shade, protection of some kind, in that direction. A plant will slowly move based on their preference in temperature, sunlight, climbing potential, et cetera. Until three days…

Can you eat a little dirt on your garden produce and get away with it? Maybe.

How many of you wash your self-grown produce thoroughly before eating it? I’ve eaten dirt knowingly. Not a lot of it, and I know it’s weird, but if you grow something organically, is it even bad for you? Answer: No, if you follow the rules. Anyway, I was asked this question so I figured I’d put something on the blog about it. If the produce you’re eating is from a large farm, for example from a…

Garden Tour (video): Tips for seed starting and ceramic olla irrigation

Comment at the very bottom if you have questions, but otherwise, enjoy the tour and Happy Spring! Posts to be: Follower question answered: Should I Wash My Garden-Fresh Vegetables How To Keep Desert Compost Piles Wet (Enough) What Is Brine And How Is It Used Come for the videos, stay to watch me get better at focusing the camera.…

What Can A Garden Teach Us?

Patience This is an obvious one, it’s the difference between a scrawny little carrot and a big one you can get at least two bites out of. Wait the recommended amount of days until your crop is ready, and you’ll get a big plump radish instead of a stringy root. Always grow your skill and brush off that unsatisfied feeling. Nothing – and nobody – has a “days to maturity” of a few hours. You Gotta…