A short rambling. Garden is doing so-so this year. It has always been a challenge in our yard to get tomatoes to ripen on the vine, which is the BEST kind of tomato, even though I started my seeds indoors well in advance. We are growing brandy-wine.
The cauliflower and broccoli are plagued with the usual lime green cabbage moth caterpillars, who camouflage so well, it’s ridiculous. My husband has been on the front lines picking them off the leaves. So I decided to whip up a home-made pesticide after hearing a snip about using cinnamon. I found the classic garlic/soap/oil recipe and adapted it to incorporate ground ginger instead of the chili peppers recommended. I have plenty of ginger and believe it is cheaper than cinnamon anyway. I also did not boil/cook the garlic. I’m not aware of why that step is necessary, if at all, but hope that the raw garlic will be more of a deterrent since I find it to be more spicy.
So far so good. The baby broccoli and cauliflower heads are un-touched and the leaves look verdant from the coat of oil.
Recipe: about 2 cups water, 2 cloves garlic minced, 1 tsp+ ground ginger, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp liquid soap (like dish soap). Add the soap last. I had to blend the water with the ginger and garlic, before adding the remaining ingredients. I’m hopeful a recipe could be made strong enough with ginger, omitting the garlic.
