Herbs Doing Well

 I've harvested vast quantities of herbs over the past couple of days. From outside in the Greenstalk, I've had cilantro, parsley, and dill. I also have marjoram and fennel, but I'm not sure what to do with them.

Herbs in the top tier of middle tower (pre-harvest).
Eggplants in bottom 3 tiers of blue, peppers in bottom 3 of green

It's all experiments, both growing and harvests. I made a dish that used a cup of cilantro, and then the rest of it I chopped in the mini-food processor with a small amount of olive oil to bind it, and froze into just two ice cubes. I'm always startled how much the volume goes down. The dill, I stripped off the stems with my fingers and then stuffed it all into a small 4 ounce plastic container and froze it as is. I'm pretty sure I'll end up having to use all of it at once.

From left: mint, basil, thyme, Thai basil, parsley
I started these in December, and really chopped them back today
Hydroponic, no dirt, and no bugs!
I found this shady windowsill benefits from supplemental lights

The Thai basil (really great flavor!) I treated like the cilantro, except I used a neutral oil instead of olive oil. Again, two ice cubes. The mint, I mostly discarded after using some in a drink last night. It's ok flavor, but I don't use mint a lot and it grows fast a vigorously. The window-sill basil I decided to handle differently, since I already have basil/olive oil cubes from last year. I'm trying to dry it in my air fryer (which has a "dehydrate" setting). Then I'll crumble it into a jar. It's not done drying yet, but again, the volume decrease is amazing!

Countertop Gardening

Lettuces. Could be eaten at this size, but
I'm greedy and keep them going.

 I'm still using my indoor hydroponic gardens, though all but the basement tomatoes were shut down for the summer. I started lettuces and bok choi the second week of October. I was able to start eating in about five weeks. I started my second batch of lettuce then - the third week of November. 

Baby bok choi

I finished the bok choi (baby sized) the first week of December - so about 9 weeks total. The first batch of lettuces, which I'd been using for salads and sandwiches straight through from when I started the harvest, was pretty much done by then. I left them, and got a few more leaves before finally trashing them this week - so 10 weeks total.

Isn't this gorgeous?

I started swiss chard about a week after the first batch of lettuce, mid-October. Tonight I based a meal around harvested chard - the third time I've done that. It'll keep going, I think, for quite some time. I base my harvests on when it grows too tall for the container, and the stems are still relatively small and easy to cook and eat. I could move the chard to jars to get bigger, but I'm going for at least one more batch in the machine. I think they are really attractive! They brighten the place up considerably.

Post harvest, I swear they grew an inch in a couple of hours!
I think these will keep going for quite some time.

I've started a batch of herbs, just last week. Not all have even sprouted yet.

Eggplant Porn; or, I Ate My Babies!

 In early March I planted two varieties of small eggplants in my automated hydroponic unit. I had good germination success, and thinned the unit down to one plant of each variety: Patio Baby and Fairytale. The thinnings went into various containers - two into passive hydroponics, and three into dirt pots. I now have massive plants, medium plants, and small plants (with the Fairytale plants being smaller, but growing conditions also account for differences). All are blooming, and the Patio Baby in the automated hydroponics actually produced a harvest! I ate them last night, a cute tasty side dish to my meal.

My automated unit with two plants today

Blooms! Time to start pollinating!

Pollination works!

This is my passive hydroponic (Kratky) plant.
I picked the large jar from my neighbor's recycling bin.

I moved this plant outdoors because it had aphids.
I washed it, and I'm treating it with neem oil.
I added the trellis - it wasn't used to the wind!
But it has a baby fruit, and many blooms!
More fertilizer needed!

First harvest

Air fried with olive oil. YUM!