RECIPE: Watermelon & Mint Salad
This twist on Caprese salad is a refreshing summertime treat that's sure to please!
Most people would agree that watermelon is delicious in the summertime. You can easily grow watermelon in the EarthBox® container gardening system and even turn it into a vertical garden by letting it grow on the EarthBox® Staking System!
For a refreshing treat this summer, try this yummy twist on the classic Caprese salad.
RECIPE: Summertime Watermelon & Mint Salad
For all of our recipes, we will try to list suitable substitutions for vegetarian/vegan, and/or gluten-free diets if applicable.
What You'll Need:
- 1 whole watermelon, rind removed and cubed into medium-small pieces
- 2 cucumbers, diced
- 1 package feta cheese or mozzarella pearls (vegans can substitute with extra firm tofu crumbles)
- Fresh julienned mint leaves, to taste
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- Balsamic glaze (also known as balsamic reduction, it is sweeter than straight balsamic vinegar)
- Fine sea salt
Let's Get Cooking:
- In a large glass bowl, add watermelon and cucumber; sprinkle lightly with fine sea salt.
- Lightly and sparingly drizzle EVOO over top, followed by balsamic glaze.
- Lightly stir together to fully coat watermelon and cucumber.
- Crumble feta cheese over top of salad. If using mozzarella pearls, break apart pearls before adding to the salad.
- Roughly chop mint leaves and add over top. Garnish with a whole mint leaf and serve.
Serving suggestion: Cut watermelon in half and use a melon baller to scoop flesh instead of cubing. Save one half of the hollowed rind and cut off just enough of the rounded part to create a flat bottom to use as a serving bowl.
Enjoy!
If I plant a blueberry bush in the Root and Veg Earthbox, what is the method and schedule to replenish fertilizer? What about replacing the plastic cap as it inevitably wears out? How would one do this without disturbing the plant too much or making a huge hole in the next plastic cap to fit down over the bush?
I’d love to also know the same for planting blackberry bushes in the EarthBox Original?
You'd follow our instructions for the initial set up, except do not add dolomite to the blueberry bush. When you have to replace the cover, the only way for these plants is to create a big hole in the cover and then tape it back up after you have it in place. We'd recommend adding another pound of our 7-7-7 fertilizer (or another equivalent, slow-release fertilizer) every 3-4 months. That generally lasts 1 growing season, which for the majority of crops grown in the EarthBox is no more than 120 days. Blueberries and blackberries are one of the few perennials that can be successfully grown in the EarthBox.
Which size is best for blueberries the orginal size? Or the deep root n veggie size?
Can nursery recommended acidic soil/ Azelia soil be used in earthboxes for blueberries?
You can grow blueberries in either of those EarthBox sizes, though we recommend the Root & Veg since its depth is more conducive to the plant. You can forgo using dolomite with blueberries, but ensure the pH is somewhere between 4.5-5.5. We still recommend following our growing media recommendations listed here: https://earthbox.com/learning-center/recommended-growing-media
I have my SEASCAPE Day-neutral strawberry seeds in hand. These will be planted indoors, in a grow tent, under LED quantum panels in the EarthBox. I have never planted strawberries of any kind, so Im eager to get this party started. Will provide updates. Too bad we can't attach pics.
~Kbore
NEWS FLASH from Kbore about Seascape seeds: Hybrid strawberry seeds are NOT true to the variety, if they sprout at all. I may have seascape seeds in hand (rip-off) but they will not produce the same plant as the seed donor. To grow the true variety, you must have live/ dormant plant starts from that variety.
On the subject of plant starts, it's too hot to ship live plants in the middle of July (in Zone 6A where I live), so don't expect to buy strawberry seedlings mail-order: It's not going to happen.
Looks like mid-September-ish for me. As the late Tom Petty wrote: " Waiting is the hardest part".
~Kbore