Purple beauties

Purple chillies.. I have heard about them. I have coveted them. Yet I never dreamt that we would grow them at our home. When I thought it was very rare to get the purple chilli seeds (referred as bolivian rainbow chilli) and that I have to really search for them in the online forums in order to secure some seeds, one of the Sunday market garden vendor was selling a sapling of this chilli. Talk about irony and coincidence. 

Store bought sapling

The sapling that was there in the market was very mature and already in the last stage of its life. But still we bought it (on my urgency purely).My idea was to save seeds some via this plant which had around ten or so fruits at that time and propagate them in our garden in the upcoming season. This plant arrived in our garden last year and gave me a good number of seeds (atleast a hundred). 

All fruits left for preserving seeds

For this season I sowed around 10 seeds and all of them germinated successfully. The plants were very healthy and gave us a decent number of chillies though we haven't used it in the kitchen so far. 

First fruit

The fruits are initially light green in color

Then they slowly turn to a dense purple color

And when ripe becomes blood red

Another bunch of fruits forming

Reserved for seed saving

In between purple and red, the fruits remain orange for a few days

I have heard that they are quite hot and we do not prefer that much heat in our cuisine. So for now they are serving only ornamental purposes in the garden but I have an inkling if the next season produce is more we might definitely see them getting used in the kitchen.

A look at the roses

I am very grateful that we found out about the magic brew called panchagavyam(PG) last year. PG is a natural fertilizer derived by fermenting five products of cow. We apply PG to the plants every month and they show instant results. Going organic has certainly helped us accept the tried and tested natural formula of our ancestors in growing plants.. Here is a look at the roses that bloomed in our garden with the help of PG and epsom salt.. 

 

This little rose bush certainly made history by producing 13 buds in one single branch :)

And here is our white rose blooms' on one single day

Promising days ahead..

Words fail me to express the joy I felt when I saw these buds... So I'll the leave the picture to speak for itself. 

It is going to be a helluva nice time in our garden :).

Harvesting greens

Harvesting greens is such a joy. Earlier we did so much tactical things to grow amaranths but all those efforts always ended in vain. We never had a good crop. Later we started practicing a more lethargic approach. Just sprinkling some seeds here and there and letting them grow if they want to. 

And to our surprise, this worked best for us.. We have harvested amaranths twice within a fortnight now with much more growing lush.Harvesting such good amaranths has been one of our dreams for so long and one years' effort in the garden has finally started to pay off.

Along with amranths, we also harvested some Purslane. This is called paruppukeerai in Tamil and it is considered more of a weed in our regions. It comes random here and there and not many people know that they are edible and that they have high nutritional value. They taste wonderful when made with dhal. This patch of purslane had come up on its own in one of our rose bush containers. Since it is very hard to come by in such clean and healthy state, we were happy to harvest them.

Some red ponnanganni keerai (Alternanthera) were also added to the harvest basket. They are also called as line keerai around here but I do not know the exact reason as to why they are referred so.We have a lush patch of red ponnanganni growing under the guava tree. Ponnanganni is a much sought after green as it cures kidney stones and helps in preventing them from happening. A regular intake of ponnanganni is good for your eyes and blood circulation too.One point to note is that the plant's growth is quite invasive. If left alone they will quickly take over your entire garden. 

Since we use only very little of this green in our kitchen, every two months or so we pick huge amounts and add it to the compost or in the waste bin. It hurts to do this way but it is a mandatory task to keep these greens in check always.

Finally here is a glimpse of the greens harvested in one day .. and the basket is atleast 7 inches deep. All smiles ...

Turmeric

When I and my father went for one of our usual plants purchase trip recently,I became very curious when I spotted an old lady vendor selling a few rhizomes. I initially thought it to be ginger but then she clarified that it is turmeric. I inquired why she is selling them now and that I have never seen them sold in market anytime before. Then she explained that August is the right time to sow turmeric rhizomes so that they become mature in six months and become available for Pongal celebrations in January. Ah.. I see the connection finally.

My father was skeptic and implored whether they grow well in the house garden. The lady mentioned it does but then again that is what any vendor's answer would be. Then we walked away. But my mind kept nagging and reminding that it would be really nice to have organic Pongal celebrations by adorning the pongal paanai with home grown turmeric plants. It took me sometime to convince my father.He was all game already but only cautious of any disappointed results after six months. Anyway we went back and got a rhizome for 10 rupees. We brought it home wrapped in a paper and left it in water for a day.

Then I prepared a small pit, filled it with nitrogen rich soil along with goat manure and my father auspiciously planted the rhizome.It took some time for the rhizome to sprout. It took almost three weeks and each day went by in anxiety and doubts. Finally when the first leaf came out, oh boy, what a beauty it is.

 

This is the fourth leaf and the plant is now a feet high. I just pray it puts a good growth and survive well.Personally, it is my first experience seeing a turmeric plant up close. I am floored by its beauty and how good the entire area looks with the arrival of this plant. It is no small thing when our ancestors said 'manjal brings prosperity to home'. Just having a look at the plant leaves us with a pleasant mood and happiness.

For those curious on how turmeric is used during Pongal celebrations, here is a picture from our archive. Tender turmeric rhizomes will be on sale during the Pongal festival, along with the upper leafy part and they are tied around the pongal paanai which will be then used to cook pongal.

Bitter guards again

I had earlier posted about our first bitter guard harvest. The three plants mentioned in that post gave us only few fruits and then got infested with mealy bugs. We left it to dry up so that we can clear up later and sow something else.. After gap of a few weeks, when I was inspecting the plants' remains found a small ripe fruit in an almost dried stage.Looked like it was the last fruit.I threw the ripe little fella into a nearby container and forgot all about it. I hadn't even mentioned it to anyone else in the family.. A month later this is what we found.

 From our observation so far,this plant turns out to be very strong and prolific. It has quite a thick vine and has given out many branches. Our compound wall is currently serving as its trellis. The leaves are unarguably bigger than its predecessors.

The plant started flowering and forming fruits about a month back but due to one of our planned vacations, it had to face some drought conditions and had to replenish again from the start once we returned. 

It did not take that much time though to re-grow.. within a couple of weeks we had our first harvest.This variety is called 'midhi-pahal' in our language. This variety features short fruits but has high nutritional power than the long ones.

This particular plant has re-iterated my recent belief in seed saving practices- to prefer to save seeds from the current harvests and slowly lose the habit of buying seeds from the market.