Growing a stevia plant
While heading to my local home improvement I noticed an unusual plant in the herb display and moved closer to investigate. It turned out to be a Stevia plant which is more well known as the primary ingredient in a new artificial sweetener Truvia.
The stevia plant can grow to a height of about 30 inches and a width of 18 to 24 inches. They prefer rich, loamy soil and need frequent shallow watering to keep the roots moist but not wet. Given the requirements growing in containers is a great option (which is my current plan). Plant in a container about 10-12 inches in diameter and plant with your favorite potting mix.
The plant will normally not require side dressing of fertilizer but if your plant requires it, make sure to use a low nitrogen organic fertilizer since high nitrogen causes reduced leaf sweetness.
Once the plant matures in the fall, dry the leaves by leaving out in the sun for 12 hours or use a home dehydrator and the lowest possible temperature. The leaves then can be ground with a coffee or spice grinder and made into a fine powder which is called Green Stevia Powder. You can replace 3-4 teaspoons in place of one cup of sugar. It retains its sweetness for at least two years in storage in an airtight container.
If desired you can also make some Stevia concentrate liquid which will allow your Green Stevia Powder to stretch a little further. You can make your own by steeping 1 tablespoon of Green Stevia Powder with 4 cups (1 liter) of hot water for 5 minutes. This liquid Stevia concentrate will be good for 3 days in the refrigerator and one tablespoon of this liquid is equivalent to 1 cup of sugar.
Sure much less work to buy some of this at the store, but not nearly as much fun…
Tags: stevia
First pepper of the year
14.4 years ago peppers
It has been slow to warm up this year but finally getting some warm enough nights to bring my peppers outside for a little while. Though they were flowering in the grow box I was surprised to see a sweet yellow pepper already growing. This is definitely a record for me by at least a good month.
Tags: pepper
How to freeze strawberries
14.4 years ago freezing, strawberries
One thing I realized halfway through the winter was that I did not nearly save enough berries to make it through. With local strawberries showing up in my garden and in the farmers market this seemed like a perfect time to get an early start this year.
Freezing strawberries is much like freezing other berries strawberries are just as easy with just a few simple steps:
1. Quickly wash and gently dry strawberries with a towel
2. Cut of crowns (optional but much easier to do now than when frozen)
3. Place strawberries upside-down on wax paper on cookie sheet
4. Put strawberries in freezer for 24 hours
5. Dump frozen strawberries into freezer bag and use Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack*
With these simple steps you can have plenty of strawberries for making smoothies or strawberry shortcake this summer/winter. This process can scale from many flats of berries or just a handful extra from your garden. Eat what you want fresh, freeze the rest.
- * Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack: Close ZipLoc bag with only enough space to fit in a drinking straw. Suck out air with drinking straw and quickly close the bag.
Tags: preserving, strawberry plant
Winner of the "Garden Safe gift pack giveaway"
14.4 years ago Uncategorized
And the winner of the GardenSafe Gift Pack is…Ashley. Thank you for everyone who entered. I am still looking for more giveaways coming soon so you should have another chance to win shortly…
Garden Safe gift pack giveaway
14.5 years ago cheap, free, free gardening tool, giveaway
Last week I was contacted by Garden Safe
Not wanting to share the love with my readers they also agreed to offer a gift pack to giveaway. Not only does it include the products pictured below but also a garden tote bag with a weeding fork, sprayer, hand rake, trowel, transplanter, and clipper AND $20 gift card to Lowe’s. I don’t know the exact retail value of this gift package but my back of the envelope estimate is at least $100.
Rules:
1. Enter one comment to enter
2. Mention this contest on your blog, enter another comment for another chance to win
3. Entries in by 06/25/2010 12:00PM Pacific Time
4. Become a fan on Facebook , enter another comment for another chance to win
5. Winner will be randomly chosen from comments on Saturday, 06/25/2010
Tags: contest
Scallions, green onions, and spring onions
14.5 years ago green onions, onions
I guess while we are at lets not leave out shallots, salad onions, bunching onions, and green sticks. For the purists a scallion is technically slightly less mature than a green onions. No matter what you call them this is a very versatile version of the conventional mature bulb version of the vegetable and shouldn’t be overlooked in your garden.
What is great about green onions is the provide a milder onion taste when you want to avoid the overpowering taste mature onions can bring. This is why green onions are commonly used raw or cooked into many Asian dishes as well as soup, noodle, and seafood dishes. One of my favorite uses for green onions is in my garden salsa mango salsa, or black bean and corn salsa.
What is good to remember when you are growing green onions is obviously you will be pulling them before they create bulbs and mature so you can plant them very close together (i.e. the term bunching onions) This is great when you are like me with not a lot of room to grow vegetables so anytime I can do some intensive spacing the better.
So if you forgot to grow onions this year, don’t fret it is not too late to start your green onions, scallions, spring onions, shallots, salad onions, green sticks, or bunching onions. I know someone else has another name for these that I missed, if so please add it to the comments…
Tags: onion plants
