Thank god for forums!! Help!!

[JimmyPlant]

Can anyone please tell me what these 2 plants are??? I went from what i thought was planting Pepper seeds, for them to end up growing into Japanese Lettuce and these 2 other bizzare plants?? 1st timer and determined to gain knowledge......and not make the same mistake again, lol.

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[David Hare-Scott]

The first one I would say is rocket (aragula) and the second is another brassica, probably of the Asian family of brassicas often generically called 'Chinese cabbage'. With the one that you thought was peppers (another brassica) it looks like you bought some kind of mix of cutting greens.

So you may have to buy peppers but your salad will have some nice fresh greens which will have a varied flavour and texture. Start sampling!

If you study the seeds you have next time you will see that peppers and other solanums (tomato, egg plant) have flat disk-shaped seeds and brassicas are round like mustard seeds (which are indeed brassicas too). The size and colour will vary with cultivar.

David

[Steve Peek]

The first looks like upland cress and the second broadleaf mustard. Steve

[Gary Woods]

Other people have answered better than I...for what it's worth, this is actually a usenet newsgroup that gardenbanter hooks a web interface to and calls a forum. But, whatever works...

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

[Pat Kiewicz]

That's what it looks like to me, too.

These would all be good dropped into a light, clear broth or soup. seasoned with garlic and ginger root. I like to shred them, and add them to the hot broth, along with some chopped onion greens or chives, just before serving.

Or try them stir-fried very lightly with garlic and a dash of either balsamic vinegar or soy sauce.

The solanum seeds can vary quite a bit more in size than the brassicas.

[David Hare-Scott]

Yes indeed but be careful with the rocket, the flavour is quite peculiar and not everybody likes it. I do, SWMBO doesn't.

Be careful not to overcook them whether it is in soup or stir fry, the "cabbage" with thin leaves will cook in a minute or two in soup or 30 seconds in a hot frying pan.

Another simple way to do them is in the microwave, pour off the water they produce, then add a little sauce such as Chinese oyster sauce or soy sauce.

David

[DogDiesel]

Wait, I'm on the newsgroup , Where's this web interface. Called a forum.

Diesel

[Nad R]

a waste of effort. When people learn how to use a newsreader and have access to tens of thousands of forums with just one specialized news reader with a news group provider. They will learn much more than gardening or cooking than using those clunky things called "Web Browsers".

[Gary Woods]

Look at the original post, from gardenbanter.com. (I believe they have a number of other *banter groups/fora as well).

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

[Snag]

I'm accessing this NG via eternal-september's servers , but my main news server is Teranews free . After a $3.95 setup fee , it's free, and they do provide access to binaries - 50 Mb/day download limit , but I've only hit that maybe 2-3 times in something like 4 years .

[Derald]

FWIW, Gardenbanter has undergone several re-designs within just the past couple of months. The first iteration did not distinguiesh between local forums and "usenet" newsgroups; the second made the distinction quite clear; the present version seems to have done away with local forums and, although newsgroups are labeled as such, users must explicitly go to the FAQ to find out what's what.

[Derald]

+1!! I participate in a couple of web-based forums on the Gardenweb site (participation made possible by "Adblock" and "Betterprivacy") because they are local to me and the corresponding usernet newsgroups have no meaningful traffic. However, on the whole, the experience is not a good one because the software does not thread messages. Increasingly, ISPs are dropping their newsreading services and making it necessary for users to find a third party provider. Most of the free ones of those do not provide access to binary newsgroups.

[Derald]

Thanks for the nfo. Now, if you'd trash that useless outlook express in favor of a real newsreader ;-) The dash dash space sig delimiter that O/E so blithely ignores has a purpose. However, this thread has wandered far afield and significantly OT

[DogDiesel]

Its unfortunate , but people will never learn how to use newsreaders. I barely know how, and cant set up my outlook setting right without help, then they wont open.

And outlook dropped newsgroups last august without telling a soul. And it tok me over a month to figure out why mine wasnt working.

A forum resolves those issues.

[DogDiesel]

Right , im on free eternal september after Century tel dropped giganews. no binaries.

[Pat Kiewicz]

I use the free WinVN newsreader which I found the easiest to figure out. (Not rocket science, anyway.)

news.eternal-september.org as my Usenet news server.

(If anyone is interested.)

[minubilly]

I'm accessing this NG via eternal-september's servers , but my capital news server is Teranews chargeless . After a $3.95 bureaucracy fee , it's free, and they do provide admission to binaries - 50 Mb/day download absolute , but I've alone hit that maybe 2-3 times in something like 4 years .

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