Soil Sista Saturday Episode 2 | Fall Garden Planting | Homegrown Cabbage Coleslaw and Eggplant Lasagna

Roasted Eggplant Lasagna

Homegrown Cabbage Cole Slaw

Isn’t this cabbage as lovely as a rose!

This is Jackie Marie Beyer, your host here to help inspire you on your journey to create, grow and enjoy a green organic oasis. So let’s get growing! Welcome to the GREEN Organic Garden. It is Saturday, July 31st, 2021. And I am here for episode two of Soil Sista Saturday, with the golden listener of 2020 Aileen Catrone and welcome back. So what’s growing in New Jersey this week. How’s it going?

47sAileen Catrone Well, I started fall planting, so squash, zucchini, and I’m going to start my broccoli indoors. How do you think that goes? We think of a work I have to work.

1m 6sJackieMarie I think you’re starting squash new?

1m 10sAileen Catrone Yes. Yes. Starting it, like just putting the seeds in the ground. They’ve already come up. It’s amazing. Cause I think you have so many days, like 70 days or something before your first frost and you can harvest them. So let’s see how it works out.

1m 28sJackieMarie Oh, well, when did your first car? We had somebody posts the other day in the Western modern Taylor gardening group that she lost all her zinnias cause it was down at 28, less than 50 miles for me. And we have had a killer frost on August 8th before hopefully, or, but yes, we we’re lucky if we can go to September. Yeah.

1m 51sAileen Catrone Since October 30th, like Halloween, October 15th, October 30th and the way the weather’s working, it might, it might just go into November who knows? I mean it’s hot out there. It’s unusually warm. Yeah. So the broccoli I’m going to start inside for a fall. Like, you know, you know how I was doing it in the spring, but those cabbage Watts decimated everything out there that was broccoli oriented, any kind of broccoli, Rob Kali fly, anything. It was just gone.

2m 32sAileen Catrone So I w again, Gary Pilarchik that you had on, he had said something about trying to start a fall garden indoors, you know, get some things ready for the fall and plant them out in your garden for the fall. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do transplants of cauliflower and broccoli. And I think I would try brussel sprouts too. So there’s no, there’s no threat of that dreaded cabbage moth. And I haven’t seen any for the past week or two. So that’s interesting. Might be just a spring thing. And then I don’t know what your insight is on that?

3m 9sJackieMarie I don’t know. I’m so curious. And I had somebody else who was in New Jersey asked me what to plan for the fall. So this is awesome. So in Montana, so these are the challenges I have last year. I tried to do the fall broccoli thing. And the problem I had was it was so hot outside that it just, it just never took off and they never got bigger than six inches. And then I can remember they froze or whatever. They didn’t make it.

I planted lettuce yesterday. So that’s what I’m trying to plant for the fall. Last year, I planted my letter September 1st and it just didn’t take off enough before when, like, I was able to pick like a couple of leaves at Thanksgiving, but like, there just wasn’t enough.

Arugula outside my kitchen getting ready to bolt already August 1, 2021

3m 54sJackieMarie So this year I’m hoping August 1st, you know, July 30th, August 1st, right in there, I me be better. And I planted a fall bed of arugala like a month ago, but it’s already getting ready to bolt. It’s just not gonna make it through August. I don’t think so. I’m going to have to plant a root up again, but I’ve been eating like crazy. It’s doing good now. So broccoli and cabbage, I’m curious to see what happens. So we’ll see, that’s what they say and I’m indoors and then put them out. They definitely liked the cold weather. My broccoli on my broccoli starts that I started at like 25 broccoli starts and they were doing so good. And the plants are so huge. And I go down there one day and the squirrel or chipmunk or whatever the heck it is, eat all of my broccoli!

4m 40sJackieMarie So I am like almost same problem as you, like something got it the past. And then I did the dumbest thing I been like covering my kale. So the bugs don’t. So the moths don’t, you know, lay their bugs, in my kale. And I’ve been doing really good about it and covering it every night, almost, I’ve missed like three nights, but I haven’t gotten bugs in there, but you know what happened the other day, I went down in the morning and uncovered it in the morning. One day I just happened to go down, was working down there early and I left it uncovered all day and the darn chipmunk went and ate most of my kale! How dumb Can you be like, I’m like, oh my goodness. I went down the water and was like, ahhhh!

5m 23sAileen Catrone Try to do the broccoli and the cabbage now for the fall or no?

5m 28sJackieMarie No, he just, oh, he’s having the toughest time. But I did pick, so that’s my cooking this week. I made cole slaw yesterday. I did, he did pick me up and I just think cabbages look like roses. There’s show beautiful. Like these gigantic huge roses. They’re so pretty the chipmunks or gophers or whatever the heck he’s got down there that are destroying his garden, completely ate all the purple ones and made purple ones in my beds too, over by the house. But they did not eat the green ones. So I got two green cabbages this weekend and I made homemade cole slaw.

6m 8sJackieMarie And if anybody wants my cole slaw recipe is on the organicgardenerpodcast.com. That’s where I go to cook eight. You just type coleslaw in the search bar and it comes up and I make a closeout. Like one of my secrets is I mix mayonnaise and yogurt and it cuts the calories. And it just gives it this different flavor that I don’t know where he found that recipe. I want to say it was from my friend Dacia’s mom. But yeah, so

6m 37sAileen Catrone I love yogurt it’s got a tangy flavor, which is nice.

6m 41sJackieMarie Yeah. It, like it said in the recipe to use vanilla yogurt first, like, I don’t know the recipe I post in 2017, so I can’t remember why, but I used half vanilla and half plain yogurt yesterday and a little bit of mayonaise oh, so good. And I put Craisins and walnuts in it. It’s delicious. So that’s, what’s cooking in my garden. Those are my challenges. That’s what I’m growing. What are you cooking?

7m 10sAileen Catrone Okay. I forgot to mention the last time we spoke, we talked about what, what did we talk about for the, I can’t remember. Anyway,

7m 18sJackieMarie You were cooking tomatoes and eggplants. I forgot what you called. It’s funny. Cause I was just looking at the show notes and the transcription,

7m 30sAileen Catrone A Eggplant Tomato Parmesan.

7m 33sJackieMarie Well, that’s what you posted on, on wine, but Instagram or somewhere, but on the show you talked about a sauce, or what did you call it? You had some name for it. That’s why

7m 49sAileen Catrone Totally. When he made, oh, Robbie made Ratatouille. Yes. He made a Ratatouille so good. Yes. That’s what he made. Yes. With some tomatoes and the eggplants that I grew also, I forgot to mention about the zucchini – stuffed zucchini flowers. We made

8m 14sJackieMarie My mom made stuffed like a fried, zucchini flower. And I was telling her about your stuffed zucchini flowers. She was like, oh, what did they stuff them with?

8m 25sAileen Catrone Mozzerella and capers.

Just stuff the, you know, the male flowers, the zucchini flowers or squash flowers stepped in with the male capers and then just dredged them in a like egg batter and then deep fry them. Oh my God, they were so delicious. It’s that simple. The recipe. It’s so simple. Very simple. You can do a little bit to that regarding there. If you want, you know, with the mozzarella and the capers, it’s up to you, you could do pre-shoot. Some people do project and what’s it all. It’s all up to you. How you want to step you’re flour and deep fry

8m 59sJackieMarie Flour. Do you fry it like oil or anything? Or you just eat it graduate 9m 3sAileen Catrone In the, in the batter, the whole flower, that stuff you’re dragging. And you have to leave a bit of the stem on because that’s how you’re going to be able to pick it up. And the stems are delicious, deep fried also. So it’s the whole thing you eat. What’s

9m 18sJackieMarie What’s the batter you make. Is it like, then we’ll add

9m 22sAileen Catrone Egg batter. Egg and water. Very simple. 9m 27sJackieMarie Lauer and milk are so I don’t even know what she mean. Yeah. It was very

9m 34sAileen Catrone Simple. Very simple. So, I mean, you know what? I can post it on your channel or, you know, on the organic garden, the Facebook

9m 46sJackieMarie. Okay.

9m 49sAileen Catrone There. That recipe

9m 51sJackieMarie You called it a Pomodoro sauce. Oh,

9m 54sAileen Catrone He makes a Pomodoro sauce. Yeah. That’s just your tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a light Pomodoros. That’s very good. And it’s an olive oil, salt, pepper. It that just like it just coats, the macaroni, you know, or coats or rice. It’s very nice. That’s a Pomodoro. I, yes, that’s really good too. 10m 14sJackieMarie Maybe I should just, what was this week? This week?

10m 19sAileen Catrone We didn’t do it. And that was, I just wanted to tell you about the stuffed papers, but the eggplant Parmesan, we did this week. Eggplants, roasted tomatoes with mushrooms and summer cuts. So he layered the Eggplant. He grilled the grill, the eggplant, grilled, the tomatoes, let them cool down. Then he did the nuggets and mushrooms and layered it like lasagna and put it in the red sauce.

10m 49sJackieMarie That was the one that I showed the pictures from. Yes,

10m 52sAileen Catrone That’s what he made this week. Put the tomatoes and the eight plant. Yes.

10m 56sJackieMarie I’m just starting to harvest like a ton. Like I like where I’m getting to the point where you were like a couple of weeks ago where like every day I go down and get like today, I couldn’t even hold them all on my hands. I had to like pull out my shirt and like Mike brought a basket and that’s even after Mike went down and picked a basket last night, we have three different kinds of tomatoes. I have cherry tomatoes, Roma, tomatoes, and Oregon, spring tomatoes, and three that’s a bad day. I’m going to have my 30 plants are going to probably have almost as many as your 90. Well, maybe not, but I believe it. I had a tomato harvest.

11m 31sAileen Catrone I believe that they’re going crazy out there! Crazy! And I just gave some away to a friend, so that’s good. And you know, they’re, I’m very picky too on their produce, So I’m, you know, I’m going to call him later and see if he liked the way they tasted. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. Oh. And then while he was doing the bricks, the

11m 53sJackieMarie Brix, Mike was like, what’s Aileen doing this morning. I was like, yeah, one of those, but Felicia has, I haven’t got back. She has it. She’s going to give it to me. I just haven’t seen her since I asked her. Yeah, you

12m 6sAileen Catrone You did a show with Patty Armbruster and it was this refractor meter. So bricks is, I guess, the sugars, you know, how healthy your plant is that you’re, you know, growing you, you can, you can.

And how nutritious your food is.

For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems

12m 22sJackieMarie Would your eating, I think it has something to do with like the carbohydrates and the sugars in it, but it shows you, I actually talked to this guy from Colorado. Oh my gosh, I’m blanking on his name. He told me about it. But Nicole Masters who wrote For the Love of Soil has like a whole diagram in there that really explains it. And then, yeah. And then Patti went through it last week in the YouTube video.

12m 46sAileen Catrone Okay. So that’s and I got a tomato at seven. I’d let you know the average it’s said as a six, you know, it’s okay. It’s average, blah, blah, blah. But I got it at a seven I’m happy, 77. I’m good. I’d like to get a 12 but no go.

13m 5sJackieMarie And you grew that tomato! Thing that Patti was saying that I didn’t realize is that like the time of day that you pick it can make a difference, the time of day that you test can make a difference. So..

13m 15sAileen Catrone Yeah. All these factors, if it’s going to be a cloudy day, a hot humid day, you know, so this is just the day that I picked them. I left them in the kitchen for a little bit and I decided to pick one up and test it. So that was good.

13m 32sJackieMarie And then also Patti was saying, you should test the leaf itself too.,

13m 36sAileen Catrone That’s what I want to try next. I’ll try that next.

13m 39sJackieMarie And you mix it up in the garlic press. I remember the first time we were doing a carrot when we first got it in the mail and we’re like, how the heck do we squish the carrot? Like we were able to do the tomato, but we were having a really hard time with the carrot. And that was, I didn’t know, you put it like in the garlic press, but also I think it’s the leaves more than the actual vegetable or fruit itself.

Aileen Catrone For the harder ones.

I got to do some research on that. Yeah.

14m 7sAileen Catrone We’ll email Patti text her it would be so much easier to get that answered. Yeah.

14m 18sJackieMarie Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing all your amazing stuff and just like, I love seeing your posts on Facebook and in the Facebook group and just everything that you’re growing this year and sharing the audience this week. And I think you’re going to inspire people.

Trowel and Error: Over 700 Organic Remedies, Shortcuts, and Tips for the Gardener

And 14m 35sAileen Catrone So Jackie, I love the, your, your show recently that you’ve heard, I Sharon LoveJoy, all that was awesome. I learned a lot in, I ordered her book, Trowel and Error. I just can’t wait to get it.

Trowel and Error: Over 700 Organic Remedies, Shortcuts, and Tips for the Gardener

14m 48sJackieMarie She’s so amazing. Her, her and her husband were such a sweet couple and she’s been doing this for a long time.

14m 56sAileen Catrone Yeah. And the one tip that she said was something about having like a fruit tree or something in the middle of your garden bed and then plant out ~ like underneath it, that was pretty smart, you know, to kind of get like a food forest going, you know? So I was really, really intently listening. So I’m thrilled throughout all. So going to try that thing in the future

15m 22sJackieMarie Definitely, the more fruit tree, like I’ve been feeling like one of my big lessons I learned in the summer is like the more shade trees you have, the nicer, your lawn will stay greener under those trees, whether they’re fruit trees or pine trees or leaf trees or flower trees, just more trees. Like I’ve been really noticing a big difference in people’s lawns.

15m 45sAileen Catrone Oh, that’s good. That’s good. And to keep listening, keep having those amazing. Yes. Thank you. No problem till we meet again.

15m 58sJackieMarie Okay. Thank you. Bye bye. Do you know someone who would benefit from the organic Gardner podcast? If you like, what you hear? We’d love it. If you chaired the organic gardener podcast with a friend. 16m 10s0 Thanks again for listening. Nope.

About the author, Jackie Marie

I'm an artist and educator. I live at the "Organic Oasis" with my husband Mike where we practice earth friendly techniques in our garden nestled in the mountains of Montana.