Harvesting Red Cabbage and other Random Happenings

Clay was away this evening so I needed to fix a quick easy meal for myself. I ended up with a baked potato and sauteed cabbage. Last year my new favorite vegetable discovery was okra and this year my new favorite has to be red cabbage. I sauteed a small amount of chives (easy substitute for onion - we never use an entire onion when cooking and the chives are on hand in the garden) then added the cabbage and seasoned with salt and pepper. After it wilted a little bit I added some red vinegar and continued cooking for another 4 min. or so. It makes any dinner plate colorful and has a load of health benefits. I also love the stuff raw, especially in salads.

So as I was eating I started thinking about the yucky slimy, green eggs that I've spotted on our cabbage in the garden and just what might be happening inside their growing heads (lovely thought over dinner). I decided that they were getting big enough to harvest and if left alone too much damage could be done. I learned about harvesting from this site. I only harvested two of our four, the biggest one and the one that looked like purple Swiss cheese it was getting so many holes. I did find a few cabbage worms, but I don't think the damage was too extensive. We will have to eat one soon, because I cut it in half to see how far in the worms could get. I definitely want to try cabbage again next year but I will be more alert for worms - once again I blame it on the rain this year.

Now the random stuff. I'm probably the only one that will know there is a cool insect in this picture. Hopefully you can see it if you click on the picture. I spotted a Familiar Bluet Damselfly hanging out around our sunflower bed. I'm thinking it was a male, they are more colorful, and this guy was an incredible turquoise color with black stripes.

I also spent some time this evening watching the lightning bug show outside. I forget how amazing these insects are, check out this site! The site mentioned that firefly larvae like to eat earthworms, slugs, and snails - well they should be feasting in our garden then, they can have all the slugs they can get! It said the adults feed on plant nectar, I noticed today that they seem to like eating basil.

One insect I haven't noticed until this year that I found is the Golden Tortoise Beetle. It is related to the the ladybird (ladybug) beetle, but unfortunately it does eat plants.


Pretty shot of a Wild Geranium bloom!

I did go to the Farmer's Market today with my friend Rose to look at some Native Plants from the Enchanted Gardens stand. I ended up getting two plants:
Butterflyweed (Asclepias Tuberosa)
Sundrops (Oenethera Fruticosa)
I still need to find homes for them and hope they become well established.

One more thing I enjoyed reading about today: How to Grow Tea!