International edible gardening

Boiling some shrimp and crabs. people here have these burners, they are quite inexpensive, and then the gas bottle also does the gas BBQ, cooking a batch of seafood in the house does smell extremely strong, and steams up and heats the kitchen - so are done outside if any quantity is being cooked.

This is the 6 pounds of shrimp bought off the shrimp boat for $20 - and 4 crabs I get. It is late evening as I start and the sun was set.

The shrimp cooked this way have lots of flavor - going lots harder with the salt and seasonings - and them leaving in the water is what I prefer but my wife wanted milder shrimp. two gallons water and about 1 cup Zaterans seafood boil and 1/2 cup salt. I would just use 2 cups Zaterans.



Where I said the bottle of boil seasoning does 6 gallons water I was babbling, thinking of a different thing. The bottle (4.5 lbs) says add to 15 gallons water and get boiling, then add 40 - 70 lbs of seafood. People here add sliced lemons, whole garlic cloves, unpeeled (good to eat) onions. But the potatoes and half ears of corn and sausage too.

A crawfish boil:



Every grocery storee here will sell you a 30 pound bag of live crawfish in season - and shrimp in large quantities for these parties.

 

Are they wild or farmed Colne? Our farmed sea food has lost it's edge and is bland now,
Jenny

 

The shrimp and crabs are completely wild, no farming of them here. Crawfish are farmed in a sense. They propagate them in rice fields which are flooded and then trap them. Wild ones are also caught.



These shrimp boats are working right off shore to miles out - our harbor has a big shrimp fleet. The oystermen tong (hand thing like two rakes that picot like scissors or post hole digger, or dredge just off shore - masses of boats working the reefs every cool month right off shore - we have a big oyster fleet - many shrimp boats dredge oysters in winter.

Tonging oysters, Hard work!



The crab men will work 200 to 500 traps, that is really hard work! Those are big pogies which are the ones in my bayou by the millions that move off to the Gulf and grow large, they are caught by the million tons for animal, fish farm, feeds - and bait.



edit - forgot to credit these pictures as being from the web.

 

We can only envy you that plentiful sea harvest Colne. For me, those "shrimps".... not the fish. We are seemingly fishing our waters to near extinction - according to media reports,
Jenny

 

So what do you donate to Gardeners Corner? I have not given any.

Am off to net a couple pogies and put one out but it is the wrong time to fish - but the chickens will get some and they go mad for them - and the brim in the pond will get a few.

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Well it is hours later and the above is still on the screen so - here is a tape of today fishing off the back of my yard. I lose a nice red fish trying to get it one-handed with the camera - it would most likely have gotten away anyway - and later get one just legal which is not shown, and a small croaker. The noise wile fighting the redfish is the bell I have on the end of my rod to let me know if one is biting, or hooked.

The chickens go mad for their pogies but I forgot to film them - how they love them.

And sorry for using the word pogie so much - but I keep wanting to demonstrate the incredible numbers of them - absolutely boggling amounts, and will be till October - some schools being 1/4 mile long, 8 foot wide, and so close together they are almost touching. Their name is properly Menhaden, but I use the local word for them.

 

So today - a fish broke the 15 pound line from my fishing rod on a crab trap I had out wile I was off feeding the chickens - I have caught fish up to 20 lbs in this 1 - 3 foot bayou - mostly when it is outgoing tide and about 18 inches deep. water is wall to wall pogies - catching lots of fish.

So: planting seeds, fall crops time, planting plants I always buy half dead for very little, chickens... one slated for eternity tomorrow, rest as expected, creatures munching stuff, pond flourishing, construction, whacking brush, building boat winch haul-out, fishing, crabbing, shrimp beginning to show up, flowers all over, bananas and ginger huge and gingers flowering, lots of grass cutting and found a dead mower on side of road (it had been put out for trash) which is where I get most of my mowers (I can fix anything mechanical), dogs amuck, doing plumbing, cooking fish Creole and Cajun, been to junk yard to measure radiators - I need to pull a used one, bought rain butt for $15, need to plumb it, veg still coming, some melons still, but rest eaten by us or animals.............Same as always.

Picture of inside my bus (I did an all oak interior, with a wood burning cook stove (a Jotule), I have to decide what to do with it - I need to pull a permit to build a house, which I am working on, so I can park it there.

 

.....And all that said, at some point you need to draw breath! You made a good job of the interior Colne.

 

Just trying to keep it brief Sheal. I know this all is TLDR anyway.

Today concrete should be cured enough to put in the final struts on my boat hauler, am trying to sell a classic, immaculate, VW camper, Westphalia conversion, 1970's and checking if it is worth shipping to UK (price is better - anyone know someone who sells these?) (Be on the phone to anonymous British used classic car dealers I google.)

mission today - I bought 4 of those trays of spindly 6 pack seed starting pots for 90% off ($1.60 for the lot) and need to start the cauliflower, broccoli, collard, other veg, and various flowers, in them rather than in the ground as I usually do.

Tonight I should go down to the harbor after dark with some of my canned pogies (I canned pogies in quart jars for shrimp bait - 10 lbs pressure, 90 minutes) and see is I can bait in some shrimp.

 

I can't help you on the VW front Colne, we have a member who could have helped you but unfortunately he's not been on GC for quite a while now due to family issues.

 

I turned on my outside light last night to try some fishing, and there were tons of bait, solid really - but not much surface predator action. Earlier I had heard some big gar hitting the top, like hippopotamuses, they are loud; but the bottom feeders were out. In half an hour I caught 3 of those spiny, sharp edged fin, catfish, that are no good to eat and a 5 pound stingray. So gave up.

But earlier , before dark, got a just legal redfish so fish tonight - we do love it. I may put out a rod now - bad time of the day, 3 p.m., but can happen. I just check it as I pass by the house - and can hear the fish bells on the rods from a good way - or my wife calls me on the house phone I carry (It reaches a long way, anywhere on my property actually - I do not have a cell phone, just a house phone which works off the computer. You can hear it in this video.)

Also have to check the crab traps - I have 6 live crabs from yesterday so whatever I catch today will make a pot full - should have another 6 - 8.

 

My silly video recorder always begins at slight magnification by default - and I forget to de-zoom it before beginning. Here it is bright - bit like a tanning bed light is full on, so you cannot really see the little screen and basically hope you are pointed at what you wish to be showing. I like the brightness and heat, my wife always complains of it and wants the air-conditioning on (at 9 this morning it was 84F, 28C, typical, and will warm up quickly from there. Thunder storms in the afternoon as usual - but all around, not usually right here. They are so local you can see the massive, vertical, dark purple clouds with lightning inside, and sheets of rain streaking down below in the close distance. If you get up high, like on one of the big bridges that rise so big boats and barges can go under, you can see a storm out at sea, one to the West, one North... They are local, but sweep around - giving a good watering, some strong winds, then pass on and it is dry and hot again.) I rarely use a/c except at night to sleep, and then I use a tiny window unit in the bedroom that uses hardly any electricity to cool the room to 74F)

We watched a BBC series the last two nights, 'The Chamomile lawn', WWII and the effect on a large, extend, family. But Being BBC they had to put in the allotted amount of gratuitous nudity and strong profanity and what we could not help commenting on is 'look how white they are!' when ever an actor would appear bare.

And so here is the pond, shot close so it is fast, jerky, and hard to focus on - I must try to remember this when filming. Everything grows so fast. My mind kind of foggs over and I just happily babble away when filming - and then make bad mistakes in my narration. The one which sticks with me now is the pear was planted last year, I should have mentioned the Navaho blackberries were salvaged this year from someone's garden, the same one we got the asparagus from - so are really doing well!



I do wish people would show videos of their garden. I remember Web put a couple up of his allotment and poly tunnels I enjoyed - must go looking to see if he has added more.

 

Nice one Colne

Blimey, you've got everything there

 

When will you be having a banana harvest Colne?

 

Bananas are biannual here. First the fake trunk grows made out of leaf bases wrapping around each other - that trunk has no core and is the one you see in my videos, and the second season new leaves come out and a fruit stalk rises up the middle of the 'trunk' and grows a huge flower and then becomes the banana bunch.

These big banana trees are second year but were cut back to the ground and then grew back from the stump because it all froze from the long, hard freeze we had. I am too new at this to know what will happen this year. My guess is in September flower stalks will appear on some - but have no idea really - last year we had two banana bunches, one small one pretty big. Bananas do not ripen if picked too early so here you have to leave them hanging till the nights are getting very cold, late October, so they can keep ripening on the tree. They take a long time. the fruit was excellent - big blocky bananas, firm and mild flavor with a good sweetness although not as much as bought ones. But the garden ones will keep weeks in a cool room and are firm to eat - really good.

2;33 pm here and I have not even let the chickens out so they will be very thirsty but just got back from a wiring job and wanted to have a quick bit of lunch. So off to net a couple pogies and let them out.

 

How they do love their pogies! I gave them their daily throw and it is a scene - every one down to the tiniest chick is off with one to some neutral spot, tearing it to swallowable pieces. My s kinds of brassicas are sprouted - I am starting them in trays and I worry I am too early.