Unknown: And we are back in the studio joined today by one of our favorite panelists, Chuck Voigt, vote, Voigt.

I always vote.

Well, I'm gonna remember that.

Voigt, Voigt, Voigt.

Okay, so you remember Chuck right?

We went to his house, his farm over the summer.

And he showed us everything he was growing.

Now today, he brought in a few of those things that he harvested some of the stuff is actually really incredible.

So he's gonna walk us through all of it.

Maybe we're gonna taste a cup.

Well, I will not you, but we're not there yet.

Tech wise, tasty, tasty vision.

Yeah.

So tell us what you brought and kind of link it to what we saw earlier in the year.

Okay.

Well, in the show, you dubbed me the route guy, the route guy that's right there.

So these are all routes, not a tuber insight.

So, when we were when we were out there, we were shooting and I was pointing at what looked kind of like bare ground with your little tiny little green seedlings.

Yes, just this little cottle edens some of these things.

And so we had rutabagas and turnips and, and winter radishes, which I sort of fell in love with last year.

And then we talked about sweet potatoes, but we'll we'll say that for a little later.

But okay, the the thing that that I told you at the time was that I thought I probably got the rutabagas and the gill feather turnips in a little late.

Well, they did okay.

And this was August, right first week of August, which was August 10.

Today, we the day we shot okay.

And I probably should have gotten them in mid July.

Okay.

And I said that at the time.

And in retrospect, that's probably true because I got some nice big ones but a lot of medium and smaller one.

This is the gill feather turnip.

It's a It's a cross between a turnip and a rutabaga.

So it might fool you if you're growing just this in the garden because the foliage and everything looks more like a rutabaga because it has smooth foliage where the regular turnips we have have that scratchy yes, that that scratchy sort of thing, but a real mild sweet flavor.

Because we we plant them in summer and grow them and the cool fall.

You know, just sweet, juicy bite to it on just a smooth, just super smooth if you like turnips, it these are almost like a kohlrabi.

Oh, okay, which is kind of the Yes, I like my favorite in the and I like those raw or sauteed maybe a little salt, right, I had these raw and they're very good, you can slice them up and do the coup de Tae thing, yes.

Or any number of other things and you can cook them, you could probably slice them and put some sort of a sauce, I'm in bacon or, or whatever.

And then the rutabagas the way we like to do those now is to slice them up into like french fry shapes.

Put them on a pan with a little little oil, maybe a little salt, pepper, and then you know, choose the herb that you want them to taste like.

But then browse them and turn them at least once you do it fairly high temperature maybe 400.

And so that carmelization for me, sweetens them up and kind of cuts that there's a there's a hint of bitterness that can be in a rutabaga, and it really cuts that and makes it much more palatable for me gotcha.

Gotcha.

But but go after you after you harvest these How long will this be able to keep?

I have some store this I think we just threw out some from last year that when the crisper oh my god winter, a year, up to a year wow, you know, barring something going horribly wrong but but in good conditions.

I mean, you can't just chuck them in the certainly certainly though.

They'll get you through till spring.

Okay, that's, that's why having these these roots in the root cellar when you were like, in Gunsmoke smoke or whatever has kept kept me from getting scurvy because they would keep through the whole the whole of the winter so Okay, good.

Now with the with the winter radishes have the opposite.

To tell you because I think I probably got those in a little earlier than a little earlier.

Okay, because I planted them the same time we planted these just because it was ready.

And it was, you know, what is what am I going to have this ready.

But in fact, I think I would probably delay these from the first of August to maybe the middle of August.

Okay.

Now what now?

How did you arrive at that so you with these, you know, it was the size?

How did you arrive at these maybe being planted a little too early?

Well, it's The Black sweet Spanish told me the black, round Spanish, round black Spanish, I'll get it right.

This one did really well.

But early on, about a third of them shot up to seed, which, which tells me that the daylength was still a little too too long.

And they got the cue to flower.

Gotcha.

None of the other four kinds did.

But it just gonna take that cue from our shortening days and cooler temperature, right.

So anyway, I think some of these probably got a little bigger than they would have needed to because these are the biggest ones that I had by far of these.

Tell us a little bit about the varieties.

Okay, this is the round black Spanish.

This is really quite a very tough tufts black skin on it.

But but smooth ish, right?

Yeah, but certainly a good keeper.

Because of that, the skin kind of seals in whatever's going on.

This is small purple, Daikon small.

Which did quite well that has kind of a starburst purple inside, which is fun.

And we've got a little one here that we'll cut to see that this is China rose.

Which I think also was white inside but has that kind of a nice rosy red outer portion.

And this is our favorite, the watermelon radish, which yes, I've had this one before.

We've done it on the show and I've sent you a video that we did another time and it's a wild moment we cut those open so the other thing I found out that I think also might have to do with them being in the ground too long was this is about maybe a quarter of the watermelon radishes split like this and some of them were much much more pronounced than this.

I think they got big enough that we hit a dry spot and then when we got got better rains late in the season, they just expanded too fast and cracked.

Like how are tomatoes do on the vine when they get a lot of tomato skins harden up when it's when it's really dry and then you get that influx of moisture and pop they go hey go yes that's still edible right there's no foul there.

I think he just yeah, he just cut away that.

Isn't it neat?

How they can tell us stories?

You know, while they were growing things that happened in the weather things that happened environmentally somebody happened by and took a little little nibble there nibble there that might be the not the foxes the foxes would definitely not do that.

Well what they they're your foxes vegetarian.

Not necessarily but that the kids will play with almost any they get into trouble with me because they I had I had my sweet potatoes growing the plants on a high shelf.

They found a way to get up there.

Oh dug some of them out and I might have said a bad word or two you know did that because because there's one I still don't know if I had it this year I didn't have it this year and somebody maybe because they dug it out and we found we found a potato here and a potato and I put them back together but it wasn't one it's it's real distinctive and how it grows.

So let's do this and see if we get a wow moment.

Let's see what we got here.

This is it's cracked we will go ahead what we get oh nice crunch I can see some color.

There it is.

That is so gorgeous.

Even if you don't like it.

You just gotta like the look of it right?

And and what I found with these winter radishes is again because it's in the cool moist fall.

Now do you normally when you do you cook with these?

Or do you eat these raw in a salad?

I certainly think you could.

Because I mean they're they're not that different from a turnip or rutabaga or CO Rabiei for that matter pretty I love the inside of there so yes, as you guys remember I talked about battling rabbits all summer and at Chuck's place he had to I wouldn't say battle coexist with a family of foxes.

Right the mother was there with with three kids.

And they're just the most playful things that kind of adorable, but when they're when they're just destroying not so anytime I would work up fresh soil, they'd be running up and down like it was their track meet.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, like you did it just for them.

Yeah, well, yeah.

Thanks.

Why didn't you do that sooner?

And you'd speak harshly to them.

And they just kind of do that that head to head that head drug thing?

Yeah.

And they're so cute.

I'm sure they were so it.

Yes, unfortunately they are But the upside Was that was that I didn't see a rabbit all season and even the squirrel population is is is much less opposite issue because we had a big wall that year.

And the wallets are just lying there on the ground.

They're not they're not going up into trees by enlarge, which is another story I kind of got carried away.

I can have black well let's and we'll see if I get through cracking during those time you come in, okay, well, we'll do a cracking I'll bring my little anvil and Okay, and we'll be correct.

Let's let's see this thing because this is the purpose.

This is actually a small purple bag.

Actual daikon.

I said Daikon, right?

It's like the you know, the Asian radish is usually big and white and about a long diameter.

And and the Asian restaurants do wonderful things.

It's gonna be a surprise inside.

Well, hopefully it's not not as much of a surprise but you do get some color there it is printing and so if you were doing your crew to date planner with with these you could you could you could get pretty creative and enhance some slices of this.

And I like how you incorporate color into your your veggies.

This is fine, right?

And is the round black Spanish I know is white inside.

I'm pretty sure that the China rose is as well.

Now flavor wise, let's talk about the profile here.

A lot of difference.

subtle differences.

You know, I haven't done a side by side taste test.

It's the first time I've tried to grow five varieties, radishes, so I know I like the watermelon.

And I know I like one that looked a lot like this that I had on the show.

I bought it at a store here in town.

And they had a different name on it.

So I don't know if it was exactly the same thing, but it was a purple look like a purple daikon.

And both of those are very mild, very sweet.

Very juicy.

Awesome.

And not not overly radish.

Yes, here if you cuz that can that's got it's got a unique sort of earthy, I can't quite think of the word and then there can be an underlying heat to that.

Yes.

Then yeah, that, you know, might might be pleasant or might not because they're, you know, they're they're fairly distant cousins, a horse rat.

Mm hmm.

Okay, because that's that's the joke.

And in southwest Illinois, how do you make horseradish?

Well, you take one horse and several radishes.

That's, that's neither here nor there.

So now we get to your prized possessions.

Well, I won't say prize.

But you sent me a picture of you with this outrageous sweet potato.

And and there it is, what did you name it?

I don't believe I named it.

It's just, it's just kind of colossal.

When it was fresh out of the ground.

It was right at seven pounds.

Wow.

It has shrunk up just a bit because you'd like to get the hard Depta skins on sweet potatoes.

So you let them I didn't know that keep them warm for at least a couple of weeks.

Let them let them lose some water.

It tightens up the skins and then that then they keep much better.

Okay, I did not know that.

And it also also sort of changes the the flavor profile.

But this was an amazement to me because this seven pounder, this six pounder and these others.

Wow.

All growing on the same plant.

That plant was mighty strong.

And they were the old one.

Just go for it.

This it's like holding a newborn?

Yeah.

I have a picture of that as well.

I did that I didn't send you Wow.

Now this I mean, this isn't one of those situations like with zucchini.

If you let them get too big, it kind of compromises the flavor.

Will this matter?

I don't think so.

Because, you know, this one, and that one grew for this the same amount of time?

Oh my gosh, you know, and and and all of them grew very quickly, because from from June to October is not that long.

It's not.

And that's I suppose if you were in like a tropical climate where they're more or less perennial?

Yes, they could, they would probably toughen up over time and get Woody.

I've found that sometimes the smaller ones have more fiber in them than the larger ones.

And my response to that is maybe there's only X number of fiber in a sweet potato.

And if you if you if you expand that over a seven pounder, you know, there's only so much you notice it weigh less than if you're in a shareholder.

Wow.

Anyway, so you had good success this year, would you it was great the growing season for you because I've heard varied responses.

So what was what was 2021 for you growing?

It was mostly very good.

Because well, it was very good with the things that are kept weeded there that we talked about that at the time when we were there.

You just get to that point in the season.

And it was hot.

I tend to plant like I'm still 25 And then at some point, June July somewhere it dawns on me that maybe that wasn't wasn't a wonderful idea is gonna come with a lot of work.

But good.

I'm glad you had a great harvest.

I didn't I didn't this year and I think it was it was operator error, but I'm glad you had a great heart.

Yeah, and even even like some of the squash that got lost in the weeds.

I had kept the rose fairly weed free.

And so some of those surprised me a little bit and that I got there's one called Selma Sanders, sweet potato, which is a basically a white acorn wasn't totally impressed with the flavor of the thing.

Because they I actually think it needs brown sugar or something because it doesn't have the flavor of like a butter nut or a butter cup or some other really tasty squash.

But it put out a lot of squash which lost in the weeds was was a pretty good thing.

Yeah.

Oh, no, not a bad.

Yeah, I don't know.

Do you want to see the inside of a purple?

Let's do it.

This is this is imagine peeling this guy.

I would take all day.

Right?

Where can I do this to damage at the least?

Because I'm going to send this home with you.

Oh, I love my job.

This one this one this is cooked.

Oh pretty.

It's like Indian ink inside.

And it doesn't change when it's cooked.

Right?

Like some of the green beans or some of the other vegetables that turn it.

It changes it gets darker.

Oh, we're gonna if it's if you're into phytonutrients this is just anthocyanin packed.

I'm gonna have to Google that, sir.

Because butter.

Your basic ones are like lots of carotene.

Okay, yellow, orange, those kinds of things.

And so that one is just Eric cool arval that this one is Molokai purple.

And that one was one.

It's just called purple.

I had that one first and then got this one later.

Awesome.

In the past, we've been we've been happier with the eating quality of the Molokai.

But the productivity productivity of this one was amazing.

Plus this one set out some of those annoying things that go forever.

Yes.

And you're constantly cutting it and seeing that blue against the soil.

And yeah, I was digging them the last two days the day before thing day before Halloween and Halloween day.

And I had 100 foot row and wanted to get it out in those two days because it was gonna freeze at night.

Yes.

And it was really annoying to be slowed down having to chase those.

But it same time I'm, I'm a miser.

So I don't want to you have to get to the end of them.

Right?

You must at least try.

Yes, at least try.

And so I'm not I'm not sure because next year, my garden is going to be much smaller.

That's what everybody says every single fall.

I went out I bought cattle panels to grow more vertical stuff.

And I've got in my mind, about a third of what I had planted this year.

Okay.

And that's I went to fit what I grow into that.

Well, we'll be there probably won't be there to see how this goes.

Because everyone says they're gonna downsize.

But well, in a goal being to have it so that I can I can read the whole thing.

Yes.

In a comfortable day, as opposed to having to decide between do I save?

Do I save the vine crops?

Do I save the sweet potatoes?

What do I do?

And then you know, the fall garden will depend on you know, what comes out and where there's room and hopefully it's it's less stress and strain, and more planning and more of those kinds of things.

But well, thank you, Chuck for bringing all this stuff.

And thanks for letting me taste and take home.

We're gonna have definitely gonna have fun with this tonight for dinner.

So thanks for stopping in, for sure.

It's always a pleasure, you bet.

And now we're joined in the studio by Chris Enroth.

Well, he's joining us by Skype, but he is here today to talk to us a little bit about a couple of things that are actually exact opposites but cool topics nonetheless.

So, Chris, welcome back to the show.

And tell us a little bit about you and where we can find you.

Tinisha thank you so much for having me here today.

As you said, my name is Chris.

I'm a Horticulture Educator with University of Illinois Extension.

If people want to find me, you can search the interwebs for good growing, which is kind of the extension name that I write a blog and host a podcast with some colleagues.

We even have some webinars out there.

So just Google or Bing or whatever your search engine of choice Good growing Chris EnRoth, you'll find me and you'll find him there.

Okay, so Chris, we had a viewer write in.

Robert Vaiden wrote in, and this is a topic that we've been hearing a lot about lately.

He says I would like to see more on restoring natural landscapes using original native wildflowers, not cultivars.

And he goes on to say that not all cultivars are bad, but some are certainly questionable whether or not they are beneficial to the area.

And then he sent us a picture of his lawn that was used to be weed grass, European wheat grass or Blue Grass.

He says it's now predominantly native plants.

And now the remaining blue grass lawn is now more sedge and wildflowers and violets and waterleaf.

So, this was his transition back to the more native looking lawns or yard.

So if people are interested in doing this, maybe not their entire lawn, maybe a section of it.

How do you get started with going from that manicured?

Look, how do you get to something like this, Chris?

Well, tinisha I think you hit the nail right on the head right there when you say maybe not the whole yard, but a small section of the yard.

I always recommend to folks if they want to transition out of say lawn and the traditional foundation planning, start small, pick a spot in the yard.

And because gardening is a massive experiment, you're going to have you're going to fail, things are going to happen.

That's just the way it works.

And then from there, you can build that out based upon that plant palette that you choose.

Now in terms of cultivars versus non cultivars, again, very correct, and that some cultivars, you know, might not be that bad.

You know, actually the mount Cuba center, they did research and they showed that Purple coneflower actually a cultivated variety, known as fragrant Angel actually had more pollinator visits than the regular just straight species of Purple coneflower.

So, you know, saying all cultivars are good or bad.

You know, we can't really do that the research has to back up those statements.

So you can, I would say cultivars are the way to get certain folks on the native plant bandwagon, okay.

Now, you can't just stop mowing right there.

There's actual work that has to be done here, right?

Do you have to get that grass out of the lawn, and then reintroduce those native plants.

There's certainly a couple different methods that you can go about this, probably the easiest thing is to spray something like a broad spectrum herbicide like glyphosate, but kill any green vegetation there.

For my part in my yard, I actually practice more of like a deep mulching, I had a load of arborist woodchips delivered to my house and I said about installing my landscaping beds, mostly just dumping mulch down, spreading it out about six inches thick and probably thicker in some spots to smother the grass.

And to kind of hold that space.

Because I kind of operate on a little bit of a staggered timeline here of his budget allows I buy plants.

If I had the budget, oh, my yard would just be full of plants, I would do with them all.

Now on the complete other end of the spectrum, you were going to talk to us a little bit about some maintenance things because we're kind of in the downtime of the year for us folks who like to be outside mower maintenance, keeping those blades sharp, keeping things ready to go for next year.

What did you want to demonstrate?

Or what's the tip there for that today?

Well, I hope we are all done mowing our lawns for 2021.

Fingers crossed.

I mean, it's really cool that as we are recording this and talking right now.

So I hopefully we are all done.

So I wanted to show you.

This is a mower blade that I've taken off of my push mower and my push mower, it's an older mower, it's something that I'm comfortable taking apart and putting back together.

And so this is something that is going to go person to person, maybe not everyone's comfortable taking things apart like this, you can just as easily schedule a service appointment with your local small engine repair shop dealer, and they'll take care of this for you.

But I want to talk about sharpening our mower blades.

It's something that a lot of people don't do as often as they really should.

Ideally, I'd say we want to have go into the mowing season with sharp blades and then maybe in the middle of the season, we should sharpen our blades then.

But this is something that we can do at home.

So here's my mower blade.

And actually there is a kit that you can pick up from say a local hardware store.

And that kit comes with a couple things.

First is this grinding stone right here and this would go into a drill that you put in your drill and then the stone you would then simply grind off any uneven edges of your blade that's right here.

And then you can clean off any any little nicks or cuts with with the stone.

But something I think people forget to do is this is a blade balance.

Now this might help to improve the health of your yard.

But the big reason to balance your blade is that it helps your equipment.

And so this actually is a little cone itself.

on and it shows that hey, how balanced is my blade, it's not very balanced.

And so that means the equipment is going to have some wobble to it, which is hard on our mowers.

And so there's material that I can take off one side to help balance this blade a little bit.

And you know, I can use my grinding stone, you can use files when you do this, this little blade sharpener kit from a local hardware store.

I think it was about $4 when I bought it a few years ago, so can't beat that.

I have seen the the blade that folks have used.

I have not seen the kit that you just brought on.

So that's that's new for me.

Interesting.

Yes.

And I just these files here.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

Yep, those work just as well.

Sometimes I prefer using the file, as opposed to the grinding stone.

So that is for people who just need to, well, you need to get out and sharpen your blades anyway.

But if you're just feeling that tug of, you know, wanting to be something, doing something close to gardening, I guess this is one of those things when it's 25 degrees outside that we can do to make us feel like it's it's almost time even though it's really not.

So, Chris, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for coming on and sharing.

Really appreciate it and we will see you next time.

Thank you very much Tinisha.

And that is today's show.

If you have any questions, please drop us a line on Facebook, or you can email us at your garden@gmail.com and we'll see you next week.

Good night.