Its Cold , Rays of Hope - Methi , Mint , Spinach

Last weekend , got the whole set of saplings inside my kitchen and started transplanting at the weirdest time , 11'ish . Wonder if most of my gardening activities are at night , hmm yeah got to agree not a very early person.Thou i'm bond to do my duties early morning .
So last weekend , my little one went to sleep early and had some time to work on my saplings .If you had seen my last post this a continuation , Cauliflowers, Radish, Spinach , Methi , Mint , Brinjal etc .
So as i said they had grown and it was time to transplant ,but the weather in Doha was really cold , and my whole family weren't keeping well and this kept me busy and i was not comfortable going out early morning or night to work in the open backyard with the Fog , mist what ever you call and then fall sick . This thought kept me off gardening some days but i wasn't happy and continue this way . 
So invited them to come in instead , got them into the kitchen , that's the one near the backyard .Started transplanting one by one , filling them up with the compost and potting soil ...

Spinach waiting to be transplanted

They usually say that spinach is well off and grows better with direct sowing to the destination , but the transplant works as well .

I see huge rays of hope in this cold windy weather , the transplants for the spinach , radish and cauliflower seems to work , ill post pics soon . The methi seems to work in the recycled igloo ice cream box, who doesn't like ice cream isn't it LOL.
The Mint that i sowed didn't work , it died , but the cutting from the grocery seems to work . I just inserted some of them in the recycled almaria milk bottles .
Placed them on the window sill, so guys with less space or space constraints , here you go the above could be grown . 

Mint & Methi ( sticks are curry leaves lets see if it works )

Spinach transplanted 

Cant stop showing off my Methi (Fenugreek) After so Many attempts , didn't care much  ,Shameless Methi came Up !

Some plants are shameless like us sometimes  :) , yeah trust me the coriander that i took more care didn't come up as well , was really angry and threw him down cursing him that i wasted so much time , after so many months , i should say he showed up , stood up for himself with pride , teasing me that i need to learn patience . 

Hmm touching him , the aroma wow , i can still smell ! Fresh ! lol Wasn't sure if hell grow up in the poor , less water , hence didn't click a pic , but then when i used it in my recipe it gave  immense pleasure , awsum taste . My learning for patience continues .

See this , worth sharing the ginger , Coriander from my backyard cut and waiting to go into my Upma recipe .






A view from the side , when its still growing :) see below...

Update : March 10 2014 : 

Methi seeds , its my first time seeing how these little ones grow. Its so surprising , just sow the seeds and then the nature give you double the amount of love , yeah green healthy leaves & seeds as well. They are so tender , Eat it directly . Tasty as well , no kasape if you know what i mean no bitterness yeah ! 

Bonus Seeds - Mixed Feeling.

Sowing Red Spinach, Black Beauty Brinjal, Okra, Radish and Methi .

Feeling hesitant and also excited , a mixed feeling while doing the Gardening today , but still something echoing at the back of my mind , do it confidently we shall survive.

Feeling hesitant because sowing so many seeds at the same time , will it all bounce back ? was the thout that i had , but at the same time excited , what if it bounced back ? and i had lots of greens around me , fresh veggies that i can pick , and i started dreaming with my eyes Wide open. All the effort at this time of the night , sure my plants will come into life and talk back . More pics to click more reasons to write and more peace of mind and that's how i ended up sowing today.

Above Pack if from the VFPCK

Seeds in Govt Given pack

Red spinach was an extra bonus , when i could save seeds , read my last post in case u wanna know how to , its very simple .

Plus i had some seeds from My FIL who got it via one of the urban farmers, his friend a retiree from the bank , who's got a lot of veggies growing on the terrace .

Nice to see that the Indian government has started initiatives for urban clusters(VFPCK) , not sure how it works ,  but Google said that they need to pay some subsidiary amount by filling some document and the govt helps by giving seeds and other Agri materials, Does Qatar have something like this in place ? if not it must , self sustainability and greens in the desert wow .

Black Beauty was in my sowing list since long , but since Tilak mama had given me a couple of the Brinjal Saplings , i postponed it . I had planted them in the ground , it taking its sweet time , The weather here might not help my seeds later in summer , hence sowed it .

Lastly the Methi is a must comment thinggi here , i must say its my 5th or 6th attempt , sowed it in the Igloo ice cream Box . I'm sure it will work out this time and i'm going to eat the Methi Paratha this time . Green LOL .

Catch ya later , that for now.

Seed Saving - Red Spinach - Magic

Here you go a short and a quick post on seed saving .

This is my first time , so i might not comment saying this is right or wrong , but to start off , i'm giving it a try and i am excited to say i could save some seeds .

Laymen's term for me , Seed saving is a practice of saving some seeds from plants so that we could use  it for the next cycle and to get the same kind of plant without any difference , no modification .

Care should be taken to store it properly , clean it etc .But i'm not going to save it for the next cycle till next winter , but i'm going to use it right away , since its red spinach and it always something that we consume on a weekly basis .

What i did was , got spinach from the grocery , planted the stem , left it with minimum watering and later let it flower and dry .
I Striped the seeds in upward motion and let them fall or this can be done by tapping gently as well. Chaff can be lightly winnowed .

What got me started was , when i wanted to grow the red spinach or cheerai , i couldn't get hold of the seeds here in Doha , that's the time this idea came up . Just planting a stem could have made it more easier , but how many stems will i plant ? and i wanted to see how it grew from scratch.

Here you go , this is how it looks - On the process.

Drop a comment , if you have any other methods :) Tata .

Update : Feb 12 2014 - Sowed the seeds on the ground to see if it will come up .

Cauliflower , Spinach - Thursday Inspiration

Been wanting to try my hands on the cauliflower and Broccoli , not sure if it will grow up in this climate , but then when the groceries can sell fresh local stuff, why not me ? This made me to give it a try . Next question , will i eat Broccoli ?  No and do i know any recipe with that for the time being ? No was the answer .Then why not try something that i eat , that how spinach came into the sowing process. 

All the ideas of Gobi Manchurian and Fresh Kerrai Molagootal started invading my thouts and this was a definite push to grow this .For the ones who are thinking whats Kerrai Molagutal , its a simple recipe of Spinach ,Toor Dhal and coconut . I can smell the taste while writing , i'm loving it . 

Nothing can beat these simple Indian recipes , thou we sometimes like to go for pizzas and burgers , but at last return back to our traditional cooking , which is healthy and tasty . Thou i know this fact , i love to pull up a friendly argument with my FIL who would have a cheesy look , when he sees the mozzarella cheese dragging in the pizza .I just love the look LOL 

i just sowed a couple of seeds and the rest remain for further sowing.

This is how they have sprouted up after 3 days .

Cauliflower - Needs thinning - Pot can hold 1-2 max. 

Spinach - Sowed before i wrote this past 10 days before

what i learnt from goggling is that Cauliflowers are low fat and contains high dietary fiber , which helps to fight against cancer cells etc . Boiling can reduce certain compounds and best way to eat would be steaming and stir fry . hmm this goes with almost all vegges .

page wont be enough if i mention about the spinach or any greens , to keep it simple , its one of the must eat's .

some of the tips from OTG - cover the flower when it grows with the leaves , so it doesn't get much sunlight and doesn't have purple stains on it , OK , let me get to that stage and ill update if it worked .Until then keep eating healthy !

update : After the Doha rains  the below pics taken , Spinach , Cauliflower,Radish  - Almost a month and a half . 

Cauliflower

Spinach

Radish

Updated Jan 26 2014 : 

Harvest Palak/Keerai - Very Cruncy and yummy , You should also give it a try , it doesn't take much effort - can be grown in semi shade .Made some tasty Palak Paneer out of it , unlike my prior wish to make moolagutal :) 

Updated Feb 24 2014 : Age : 2 months approx !

Have been checking on my plants past 2 days the population of pest have grown on the radish , Apids and Green worms - handpicking them and yeeks killing them , but then today i don't have the patience to do this and also my little one has grown up , so pulled it out , have a couple of them still left out to grow . O yeah no pesticides used on the radish so far ! completely organic Wohoo ! check them out - aren't they cute :)






A Quick Update on the Cauliflower March 09-2014  , The ones in prior pic is growing slow(scroll up) , since i have planted 3 , the one below is quite healthier , just one , special attention ! ahem ahem !