Planting Peppers

It looks like we are finally going to get some warm weather, so I put in my peppers.

Pepper plants like warm weather and lots of sun.  I placed mine in the hottest bed in the garden, two feet apart.  It seems like they are so far apart, but these will grow into some big pepper plants.  This variety of red bell pepper plant, ‘Karma’, will grow to be two feet tall.

Pepper plants are slow growing, so I planted some beets and summer lettuce varieties between and in front of my peppers.  The beets should be well on their way and the lettuce completely finished before these peppers are getting big.

These tall plants will need staking, especially as they begin to develop heavy fruits.

Peppers will continue to produce all the way to first frost.  The more peppers picked, the more the pepper plant will produce (say it five times fast).

Last year, I roasted all my extra red peppers and froze them for winter recipes.  Before the last frost, I picked all the peppers off the plants, diced them, and froze them in one cup servings to be added to chili and other recipes.

These ‘Karma’ pepper plants will add color and antioxidants to our diet all summer long.  I also slipped in three jalepeno pepper plants to fuel my salsa making machine.  Last summer I put away loads of pint jars of salsa for the winter and we were happy that I did.

I have only one jar left for tonight’s enchiladas.

Dig, Baby, Dig!

Now that I have begun to work in my newest garden beds, I’ve come to appreciate some of the pros and cons of different soil preparation schools of thought.

Knowing that too much information would surely overwhelm me, I stuck with one source of gardening knowledge, my Sunset publication of “Edible Gardening”.

I read its treatise on the merits of double digging versus the time-honored tradition of rototilling.  Even though I was relieved to read that, in general, rototilling was frowned upon by Sunset, my back wasn’t looking forward to all that double digging.

Double digging is a bed preparation method that aerates the soil, improves drainage, and creates an optimum environment for strong root growth.  It is also labor intensive and rigorous.  However, I must admit, by the time I reached the end of my gardens, I began to appreciate double digging as a form of exercise that melted off the extra pounds of winter.  To learn more about double digging, read this quick set of instructions at http://www.wikihow.com/Double-Dig-a-Garden and watch this short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W85QmZgDxFk for a good demonstration.

Then last summer, I went to a class about gardening and learned about no till gardening.  The premise behind no till gardening is this: rototilling a garden leads to compacted soil and soil erosion while it disturbs beneficial soil structures.  See http://desertification.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/no-till-gardening-sustainable-alternative-to-the-rototiller-daves-garden/ for more information.

Because I was preparing new beds in an area formerly inhabited by aging trees and shrubs, I figured that the soil would be full of roots that would make double digging very difficult.  The no till option appealed to me because I wasn’t relishing the idea of double digging through all those roots to loosen the soil for beds.  Instead, my plan was to clear away all the vegetation, cut trees and shrubs own to the soil level, and build the gardens up from there.

I cleared away all the shade plants, weeds, and branches and raked the area level.  I marked walking paths and beds.  I put down a weed barrier on the paths and heavy piles of paper on the beds.

Then I piled on lots of organic material: grass clippings, compost, shredded leaves, manure, more compost, and I topped the beds with a thick layer of oat straw.

I piled the paths thick with wood chips from the dump and the whole garden looked so beautiful.

This spring, I pulled back the straw and planted my seeds: lettuce, peas, and chard.  The soil was rich and loose and full of happy worms.  All looked like paradise in my no till garden.  Then the hardy weeds can back.

I was happy to transplant the errant ferns into another garden.  But I could not tolerate the lily of the valley coming up in my lettuce patch.  As I’ve said before, it is very poisonous.

The moral of this long narrative is this:  I believe that I could have eliminated 99% of the weeds if I had double dug the bed first.  I could have sifted out all the plant parts I had missed when I initially cleared the bed in the double digging.  My gardens that are most successful (weed free and growing good food) are a combination of double digging and no till.  I like the idea of loosening up a good two feet of soil depth before establishing a bed, especially if I am planting root crops.  Once this is accomplished, I pile on the organic material to feed the soil from the top down.  I achieve both goals this way and create soil with enough loft to grow long carrots while disturbing very little of the soil’s natural integrity.

Putting in More Tomatoes

I put in more tomatoes with carrots and onions planted around them.

My upper tomato bed is always planted in tomatoes.  Tomatoes are one of the few vegetables that don’t mind being planted in the same place, year after year (see “Carrots Love Tomatoes” by Louise Riotte). 

When I converted this bed to vegetables, I double dug the entire bed and set the tomato cages where they are today, about three feet apart.  I am careful not to step on the ground in or around the cages.  Every year I top dress the area around the cages with leaf and grass clippings, compost, and straw to feed the soil for the tomatoes.

I used a small hand digger to dig deep holes for the tomatoes.  Again, I pinched off the lowest leaves and buried the plants deep so that they can develop a strong root system.  Because the ground sees no foot traffic and is regularly amended, the soil is loose and rich.

A foot from the base of the tomato, I loosened the soil with a pitchfork, sinking the fork into the ground as far as it will go.  I moved the fork forward and back, and from side to side to loosen the soil for carrots and onions.  I didn’t want to disturb the soil systems that I have been so carefully cultivating.

Around each tomato plant, I planted carrots and onions.  The onions will deter carrot flies and carrots do well near tomatoes.  I lightly watered all the plants then mulched the entire bed.

All the walking paths in my garden are mulched with woodchips from the city dump.  First, I put down a layer of newspaper (about 4-6 pages deep), then piled woodchips on top of it.

I save papers all spring to mulch my garden.  They act as a great weed barrier.  I avoid glossy ads.  They don’t degrade as easily as regular newsprint.

Then I piled 3 to 4 inches of woodchips on top of the newspapers.  I get mine at the municipal dump.  The city drops all the chips it generates from tree trimming there.  They are free for the taking.  Check with your city administrator.

Besides keeping down weeds, retaining moisture, and amending the soil, woodchips indicate where one can walk in my garden.  This is extremely helpful, even my five year old can remember to STAY ON THE WOODCHIPS!

My Potatoes are Coming Up!

In one bin, my favorite blue potato plants have grown tall enough for me to “hill” them.
The more potato stem covered, the more potatoes will develop. My goal for this bin is to fill it to the brim with soil. The potatoes can easily be picked out of the soil once the plants begin to flower. To “hill” the potatoes, I carefully cover the leafy stems with soil, making sure some leaves still remain above the surface of the soil.
I checked my other bins for signs of life. I planted Yukon Gold potatoes in the largest garbage can and I haven’t seen much action there. Those plants only receive direct sunlight at high noon. They are planted at the bottom of the can and the high sides of the can shade the plants for the majority of the day. I finally saw some anemic looking tendrils, pushing their way through the layer of compost. Success!
I taught my oldest how to prepare potatoes the way my mother did when I was little. She would slice them thin and slow fry them in bacon fat with sliced onions and lots of pepper. The caramelized onions and browned potatoes taste like heaven. He was impressed that something as simple as potatoes and onions could make such a wonderful meal. I was happy to pass a little bit of Grandma down to him.

Can You Do It? I Bet You Can.

Homegirl Lisa called me last weekend.  “I don’t think I can fix my dryer,” she said.  “I just have so many other things to do.”

Well, it was raining, so weeding was out of the picture.  Housecleaning?  Inevitably, the house will get dirty again.  Laundry, same problem.

“Look at it this way,” I said.  “Is your time worth the price of a new dryer?”

I asked myself the same question when my dryer broke.  It wasn’t a big break.  Three of four ballasts (those plastic thingees that stick out in the dryer drum and keep my clothes from rolling into a big, wet ball) had detached from the drum wall.  I knew it would cost me the $85 house call for the repairman to look at it and say that I needed new ballasts.  I knew that I needed new ballasts!  The old ones were cracked at the point where they screwed into the drum.  The deal was this: I had to pay the repair man $85 to look at my dryer, diagnose the problem, and then another $85 for him to come back to my home with the pieces needed to repair the dryer.  Then I’d need to pay him for his time to replace the ballasts.  All totaled, I was looking at a $300 bill to replace three ballasts.  It seemed a bit excessive.

I could order the pieces myself and I did.  I could wait for my husband to fix the dryer, but I really needed it sooner than he could get to it.  Why not try to fix it myself?

First, I unplugged it.  Unplugging is REALLY important.  Then I took it apart.

It was pretty easy to get the top off the dryer.  I lifted it up and figured out how to get off the front of the dryer.  Once those pieces were removed, it was obvious what needed to be done.

No wonder the ballasts had worked their way free from the drum.  The metal screws that attached them to the metal drum had worn bigger holes into the drum.  I bought machine screws and oversized plastic washers at the local hardware store (those family owned stores always have the most knowledgeable staff and they are more than happy to explain, in detail, most DYI projects).

I fixed the dryer for less than $50 in supplies and actually improved it with the addition of the plastic washers to all the ballasts.

Please note:  I am not, by nature, a handy person.  But I am a frugal person and I am willing to give most jobs a try.

I once worked for an older woman whose husband, like mine, was an engineer.  She relied on him to do most “mechanical” things around the business because he was good at it.  But, from time to time, business called him away from the shop and the rest of us were left to deal with the maintenance things he usually did. 

She would say, “Come on, ladies.  We all have degrees from major universities.  We can figure this thing out.”  Translation: we were smart enough to handle this problem.  We could do it.

I don’t need a college education to fix my dryer.  A manual would have helped.  But most important is attitude.

My mantra is one part “Bob the Builder” and one part Barack Obama, “Can we do it?  Yes, we can.”  At the very least, we could try.

Is it worth a $300 repair bill or a $600 replacement price?  I thought so.  When I put it that way to Lisa, she agreed.  The piece she needed to fix her dryer is due in today.  I’ll keep you posted.

No Rest for the Weary

The worst thing about being the homemaker is the general lack of benefits.
Sick days?  Can't I call in a sub to finish up the day when I have to clock out to blow chunks?  Forget "paid medical leave", I'd just be happy if someone could make sure that dinner doesn't burn and the dishwasher is unloaded while I'm driving the porcelain bus.
Being a sick homemaker stinks.  There is no two ways around it.  The compassion of a five year old has its limits.  Teen age children need to be ridden hard all the way to the finish line of the school year, no matter how the head of a homemaker pounds.
Could there be a temp agency for homemakers?  Could homemakers organize for benefits?  Combat pay for spouses who return from work to find their spouses down for the count?  There must be a better way.

Getting Started: Don't Be Daunted!

Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t be. Its not even Memorial Day, there is still plenty of time to get started.
My inspiration to go edible came from a Sunset Books publication titled “The Edible Garden” that I found at Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, OR in 2008 (if you visit Portland, you MUST GO to Powell’s Bookstore http://www.powells.com/). It was a Mother’s Day gift to myself and it was a gift that kept on giving.
As I’ve said before, I had grown weary of weeding and watering my perennial gardens. “The Edible Garden” was a beautiful book and it gave me the confidence to make some changes. I poured over it for the next few weeks and began to rethink the yard.
I took my new frame of mind to my father’s home to help him with my mother’s garden. My mom had died unexpectedly the previous summer and he was daunted by her large flower gardens.
“Can I take out some of these flowers and put in some vegetables?” he asked.
"You can do whatever you'd like," I told him.
My cousins and I helped him move the flowers to the border gardens and the big bed in the center was converted to a vegetable garden. The planters on the decks were filled with herbs instead of geraniums that year.
A friend’s yard became suddenly sunny when a neighbor’s tree was removed. She started with a single hanging basket, a “pizza” one, planted with a “Tumbling Tom” tomato plant, basil, and oregano. Each year, she adds a new container planting of food.
Another friend called me last week. Rumor had it that the empty lot across the street was being turned into a community garden. She fantasized about her own plot of beets, just beets.
With a three day weekend on the horizon, plan to put aside some time just to dream. Pick up a book at a local bookstore or library. Grab a glossy magazine from the shelf at the grocery store. There is still plenty of time to get some plants into the garden.

Its Raining, Its Pouring

It was a total washout of a rainy day today.
I ducked out, between downpours, to pull some weeds (aka make some compost).  Once I determined that it was far too wet to plant anything, I figured that I had better find something to do indoors.
I could clean, but the house would just get dirty again.
So I finally decided to take the leap and build a seed-starting grow-lamp setup.
I have had terrible luck with starting seeds in my windowsill.  I just don't have enough natural light from one source or the space to move my seedlings from sill to sill.  I saw a great article in the March/April 2011 issue of Urban Farm.  See www.laguerrillagardening.org/PDF/urban_farm%20article.pdf pp44-47.
My husband nearly had a heart attack when he spied me behind a copy of Urban Farm.  This is "Green Acres", but he is Eva Gabor and I am Eddie Albert.  If it gets more farm-like around here, he may leave me.
But he was really helpful when it came to building my grow-lamp.  I was on my way out the door to the home improvement center, when he made some helpful, money saving suggestions.
Since I was just setting the grow-light stand up in the basement, why not forgo the stand and suspend the lights from the ceiling?  And why buy new shop lights when I could scavenge ones from the garage?
It was much easier than I expected.  I suspended chains from the basement ceiling joists with screwhooks and hung the salvaged shop lights from the chains.  I plugged both lights into a short extension cord, plugged that into a timer, plugged the timer into another extension cord, and plugged that extension cord into the wall.  It worked!  Just for good measure, I installed another smoke detector.  I'm weird like that.
Had I not gone with the basement option, the Urban Farm grow-light stand would have worked perfectly.  Built of PVC pipe, the whole stand goes together easily and breaks down for easy storage.  Best of all, I had most of the PVC pieces needed around the garage and basement.
PVC is always overbought in my house.  Either we didn't need that much or that diameter.  We use some of the pipe and throw the rest in the rafters of the garage.  Any re-purposing it may see is for the making of bottle rocket cannons.  Lord knows, I don't need any more of those.
This article is definitely worth a look when taking the plunge into seed starting.  My squash starts look great and seem happy enough in their bed.  But I am worried about the sunflowers.  I never had much luck direct sowing sunflowers and my windowsill seedlings never seem to develop a strong enough stem to give the flowers a good start.  I started a new batch of sunflowers and placed them under the grow-lamps.  We'll see how they fare.
With garage sale season in full swing, it may be time to put shop lamps and PVC pipe and fittings on the shopping list.  Ours can't be the only household stocked with leftover PVC.  Many old garages and basements have shop lamps in them that are unused.  It never hurts to ask if someone holding a sale if they'd like to be rid of them.  You could make someone's garage a happier place.

Planting Tomoatoes in the Rain

In the Spring and Summer months, I become a weather site junkie.  I guess that it all started when I was painting our house.  Now, I plan my trips out to the garden, based on the advice of "The Next 24 Hours" of the weather report.
I gave the kitchen an extra good cleaning, drank lots of coffee, suited up for some muddy tomato planting, and waited for a break in the rain.  We had a beautiful rain all evening and into late morning.  I could think of other jobs to do, but my purchased tomato starts are 5-6 times taller than their plastic pots and they REALLY needed to get into the ground.  The rain let up and I grabbed my chance to head outside.
These leggy beauties won't suffer for being so top heavy.  I dug deep, small holes, less than six inches in diameter, with my poacher's shovel (Transplanting Spade/Poachers Spade).  I pinched off all but the top four leaves and buried the plant deep into the hole.  Roots will sprout from the buried stem and give the tomato plant the strong base it will need as it begins to bear fruit.
I finished as the rain began again in earnest.  No need to water those plants in, nature is doing the job for me!
In this bed, I planted all our eating tomatoes:
"Moskovich"
"Matt's Wild Cherry"
"Black Cherry"
"Mexican Midget"
"Jaune Flamme"
"Hillbilly Potato Leaf"
"Nyagous"
"Red Fig"

Confessions of a Homemaker

Okay, I admit it.  I hit the garage sales when I was supposed to be cleaning.
I promised to pick up Homegirl Lisa when she dropped her car off for repair.  We had a couple of hours to kill, waiting for the car, so we cruised the sales.
It was a big garage sale weekend, with two newer neighborhoods hosting sales.  We were so disciplined.  We had our own personal shopping lists of things we needed.  We strictly swore off knick knacks.  If it wasn't on the list, we didn't stop to consider it.
In the end, our self control worked to our advantage.  We ended the shopping trip with a few pieces of clothing (jeans, shirt, and a skirt for her, two pairs of jeans for me), a choice mirror for my bathroom for $5, and a free refrigerator for her garage, all for less than $25.  When we returned with the truck for the fridge, I scored a great old Singer that had a buttonhole option for free.
I could have bought scads of clothes for my daughter.  Had she been with us, we would have been overrun with more toys than we could carry.  I'm always tempted by books, but I controlled myself.
Good thing I did, I hit one last sale in an older neighborhood and asked about #1 on my shopping list, old metal wash tubs for my potato garden.  It NEVER hurts to ask, and this time-- success!  One couple replied that they had some old metal wash tubs that were taking up space in their garage.  They promised to bring them with them to the sale the next morning and I told them I'd return with my truck.  My long search is finally over and their garage was free of more stuff.
My father-in-law helped me with holes in the bottoms of the rest of my bins and I got them planted with the rest of my seed potatoes.
While digging a spot for planting my sunflowers and squash starts, I found a blue potato that I missed last fall.  It was beautiful, deep blue-purple, bigger than my fist, full of eyes and ready to go.  I planted a 20 gallon garbage can with half of it and will give the other half to Lisa.  When I cut the potato in half, it looked very firm and healthy.  I felt confident planting it for a new crop.  I dug up a second potato, a red, but it didn't look as good as the blue.  I threw it in the garbage.  If it had been diseased, I would not want to compost it in case it may infect my compost as well.
Now my potato/squash/sunflower garden is planted.  I got my house clean in the nick of time.  I made it to the garage sales of the season.  I'm ready for a rainy weekend.  I think I'll check out my new find, this old Singer!

I'd Rather be Weeding

In May, its all I can do to keep myself in the house.
There are so many tasks that call to me outdoors.
After dropping my boys off at school, I took a trip through my garden, coffee cup in hand.  I couldn't help but push aside the compost to look for the beginnings of my potatoes (two of three bins are sprouting!).  The peas are finally starting to peek out of the ground, so I removed the chicken wire I put down to protect my seed from the squirrels.  I hauled my recent garage sale acquisitions, two metal wash tubs and an old garbage can and staged them in their places in the potato garden.  I was just about to head to the garage to get the weed bucket, when I had to stop myself.
I have about 14 hours to get my house clean before my in-laws arrive.
I shouldn't be prowling through garage sales, looking for the last three bins I need for the potato garden of my dreams.  I shouldn't be planting beets or putting in tomatoes.
I should be cleaning bathrooms and dusting.
And its BEAUTIFUL outside today, with rain forecast for the whole weekend.  My in-laws would happily put in tomatoes and onions.  My mother-in-law came from a big gardening family and grew acres of tomatoes in her day.  But Saturday's forecast calls for all day rain.
So I'll down one more cup of coffee and head up to the bathrooms.  Maybe I'll close the blinds so I can't see out them.  I wish that I was a more patient person!

Choosing "Seed Potatoes"

“Seed Potatoes” are, simply put, potatoes reserved to grow new potatoes.  All those potatoes, morphing into extraterrestrial monsters in the pantry, growing “eyes” stems and leaves, are just itching to get into the ground to make new potatoes.

The ideal time to be thinking of the varieties of potatoes to plant in the garden is around the time the garden is closing down for the year.

Potatoes, unlike most plants, have an internal clock.  They will not sprout until their internal clock says its time to do so.  The “seed potatoes” that we plant in the spring to grow new potatoes were harvested in the preceding fall.

If a gardener chose to grow one thing organically, the best choice may very well be potatoes. Commercially grown potatoes are typically heavily laced with pesticides and other pollutants.

Shop around for varieties of organic potatoes of interest, be they white, red, yellow, or blue. I place my seed potatoes (about three or four healthy looking specimens) in mesh onion bags, noted according to variety, and keep them all in a paper bag marked “SEED POTATOES”.  When they seem to be attempting an escape from the bottom drawer of the fridge, I know that they are ready to go.

Organic potatoes are key because commercial ones have been treated with a chemical that deters them from sprouting.  Sprayed potatoes don’t make good seed potatoes because they have been treated to keep longer on the grocery shelf.  Besides, I really don’t want to serve my kids anything that deters them from sprouting!

Gardeners hoping to plant potatoes this spring can buy seed potatoes online or at local garden centers.  Some choose only purchased seed potatoes.  Grown in a controlled environment and culled for disease, many growers prefer the assurance of a disease-free crop.  Since I grow my potatoes in bins, I don’t worry as much about my potatoes infecting the soil with diseases like blight.  I can always dispose of diseased plant matter and start over with new soil.

Potatoes, Planning Their Escape From The Pantry

The majority of my potatoes will be grown from my “seed” potatoes, kept in the refrigerator all winter.  If space allows, I hope to get in a container of fingerlings called “Swedish Peanut”.  I bought them last winter to serve with a stew and they were a big hit, just like miniature white baking potatoes.  I forgot that there remained a few in the back of the pantry and found them this spring when I was rooting around for an onion.  What a shocking, but pleasant surprise, a bag of spuds, ready to be planted.

Sprouts, Onions, and Carrots! Oh, my!

I put in my ”Falstaff” brussel sprouts and cherished “Copra” onions.  I planted them with my well-worn copy of “Carrots Love Tomatoes; Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening” by Louise Riotte at hand.  It goes everywhere with me, from planning my yearly gardens to harvest.  It is full of helpful information about plant companions and garden systems.

For instance, I planted onions and brussel sprouts together because all members of the cabbage family do well with aromatics, like onions.  I also interspersed alyssum with my onion starts and sowed California poppy seeds with the brussel sprouts because cabbages also benefit from plants with lots of flowers.  It looks like something got into them though (robin, rabbit, most hated squirrel???).  Hopefully, they will recover and be beautiful.

I next plan to plant carrots.  Carrots will go up with the peas, as carrots are beneficial to peas.  Carrots and onions will be planted along my rows of tomatoes.  The onions will repel carrot flies and both are compatible with tomatoes.  No onions will be planted with the peas though.  Once I harvest the peas, I plan to plant beans, and onions and beans don’t do well together.

It sounds complicated, but my plants have flourished using this system.  Ms. Riotte’s book also contains information on poisonous plants that is invaluable to the mixed gardener.  I am happy to let most perennial flowers from my former flower beds pop up in my garden, but I have taken drastic steps to eliminate all the Lily of the Valley from my salad bed.  All parts of Lily of the Valley are poisonous!  That information alone was well worth the purchase of the book.  Besides, it was such good winter reading, with so much fabulous information.  I especially found it useful when I put in my dad’s garden.  Once I figured out where the major players were going, I then looked at what could be planted along the paths in his garden.  I then filled in those blank spaces with the vegetables and herbs that would repel pests, attract beneficial bugs, and add nutrients to the soil to help his garden thrive.

Remember, gardening is a lifelong learning process.  No need to feel overwhelmed by information.  Don’t feel compelled to till the whole lot under and place an order for Astroturf because you planted onions next to the beans this year.

If you’ve already planted, don’t worry.  You can always pick up this book for some winter reading.  If you are still in the planning stages, consider getting a copy of Ms. Riotte’s book and trying a few of her combination suggestions.  I was happy that I did.

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em

Dandelions are in full bloom in my neighborhood.  Though our neighborhood is looking pretty yellow these days, we have surprisingly few in our yard.

Our own dandelion colony dwindled to a fraction of its previous size when we tried a new approach—when dandelions bloomed in our yard, we picked them.  My husband (who dreams of a beautiful, lush lawn) then goes through with a dandelion digger and pulls out the plants.  The blossoms went in the trash and never the compost.  Those little seeds are just too numerous and hardy.  The plants and roots cook on the driveway for the day until they are good and dead.  Then they end up in the compost pile.  All that good phosphorus should make it back to my garden eventually.

This year my five year old daughter is absolutely enthralled with dandelions.  She picked bouquet after bouquet for me while I was planting my father’s garden.  This week, her friends stopped by to play and they had already picked a bag full of them.  I sent the girls back for more with a promise to make dandelion jelly.  Years ago, I found the recipe in an old, local cookbook, belonging to my mother.  Compiled by Katie Fiene Birchler, it is a collection of recipes she published in the Sparta News-Plaindealer.  This variation on her recipe for dandelion jelly is a great springtime treat, often our first harvest of the season.

PLEASE NOTE:  We only pick dandelions in areas where we are sure there have been no chemicals sprayed on them.

All three girls brought home more than enough dandelions for a double batch of jelly and had a wonderful time playing in the ravine, picking dandelions.

Dandelion Jelly

Ingredients:

2 qt dandelion blossoms, separated from their stems

8 c. water

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 package of Sure-Jel

3 c. sugar

Remove the green collars from the dandelion blossoms and discard green portion, reserving the yellow petals.

Boil 4 cups of dandelion petals in 8 cups of water for 3 minutes.

Strain and cool the steeped dandelion tea.

Bring 3 cups of dandelion tea to a boil.

Add the lemon juice, Sure-Jel, and 3 cups of sugar.

Boil for 2 ½ minutes, stirring continuously.

Pour liquid into sterilized half pint jars and seal with 2 part caps.

Makes 6 half pints (for less than $5 a batch).

This recipe makes enough dandelion tea for two batches of jelly.  Prepare each batch separately as jams and jelly recipes require precise measuring and timing.

Dandelion jelly can be processed in a hot water bath, as with other jellies.  I usually do, but it was a late night.  I’ll keep this jelly in the refrigerator.

Every family should try dandelion jelly.  It’s a fun way to spend an afternoon, picking flowers and making a sweet treat from something most people revile.   And it makes a great family memory.  How many kids can say they made dandelion jelly growing up?  Hopefully more now!

My Switch From Gardener to Farmer

When my husband and I bought our house in 1992, it came with a spectacular yard.  A strange collection of cast offs, courtesy of a previous owner’s son who worked at a large local nursery, dotted to property.  Trees in various states of decline did too.  We became adept at tree removal and bought a woodstove to heat our home with our growing woodpile.  Nearly twenty years later, only one of original trees remain.  Our yard got sunny in some spots and shadier in others.  Things changed and the landscape moved with the sun or the shade.

Bee Hives

When my first son was very little, a neighbor divorced.  Part of her divorce settlement was half the garden.  As she was moving to Florida to care for her mother, her share of a beautiful perennial garden was passed on to her friends and her friends’ friends.  My brother and I made countless trips with my son’s wagon and my new wheelbarrow to collect hostas, ginger, lilies, roses, astillbe, and many other beauties.

A neighbor with a passion for hostas shared his extras and my shade gardens grew big and beautiful

When my second son was born, I realized that I had bitten off more than I could chew in the yard.  The weeds went wild while I was pregnant and fighting them off seemed impossible with two small children.

My husband always joked that we couldn’t have another child until the garden was weeded.  It was a big job and good birth control.

The real problem was that I wasn’t really very interested in my gardens once they were planned and planted.  Weeding them was just work, hard work.

As time passed, I realized that I really did want that third child, so I made myself get out there to weed.  I weeded and worked on my husband.  In time, the garden got neater and his resolve softened.  I convinced him that a third child would be a good addition to our family.  We started our adoption process in 2005.

Gray Water Irrigation

In the coming months, I weeded and waited.  By the end of the summer of 2006, our trip to Armenia to adopt our daughter was taking shape and our garden was nearly weed free.

Late summer/early fall in Armenia is a magical time.  The markets fill with beautiful, local food.  Fruit is ripening everywhere.  Its harvest time and its delicious.

Part of our adoption fee included “Travel”.  I assumed that this meant transportation to and from various agencies.  But our agent was adamant that we see the country of our daughter’s birth.

My favorite portion of the travel, by far, was a trip to a family farm.  We were fed a wonderful meal of traditional Armenian barbeque.  The “farm” was a lot 200’ square, but it included a milking cow, a flock of chickens, a bee colony, grape vines, fruit trees and shrubs of all varieties, and vegetables and herbs in between.  The lot provided enough food for two extended families with overflow that was sold to neighbors to buy dry goods.

Grapes

The yard that surrounded this house was completely edible and fantastically beautiful.  Our hostess led me through the property and we identified plant life in both Armenian and English.  The whole place reminded me of “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”.  It was a completely edible tour.

That garden made me thing differently of my own garden.  I realized that it was hard for me to spend time working in it because it always seemed just that, work.  I derived enjoyment from the planning and planting of the garden, but the reward of experiencing it was overshadowed by the work of maintaining it.

When I returned home, I began taking out perennials and replacing them with vegetables.  I gave my sunny perennials to friends in exchange for some of their shadier varieties.  My brother dug up extra plants from his wonderful raspberry patch.  I dug a long trench and planted asparagus.  Delphinium were replaced by tomatoes.  Phlox gave way to potatoes and squash.  I limited limited my flower gardening to the spots too shady to grow food.

Picking Herbs for Cooking

Five years later my garden is a completely different place.  I never consider it work to weed, as I once did.  It doesn’t seem a chore to take a bucket into the garden and fill it with weeds on my way to check out the garlic.  I don’t even consider it “weeding” anymore.  Instead, I think of it as “creating compost”.  It’s a treat to sit out in the garden and pull up a few weeds, while chomping on freshly picked green beans.

In transforming my yard from garden to “farm”, I transformed myself and grew in ways I never could imagine.  I learned far more about “farming” than I ever did about gardening.  In the process, I learned to feed my family, the soil, my community, and my soul.

Pumpkin Pie, Good Enough to Make You Cry

This pie is so yummy.  Its cold and rainy here, hardly springtime.  I think I'll make another pumpkin pie from that Chersonskya Squash.


Pumpkin Pie from Scratch
Ingredients:

• 2 eggs 
• 1 egg yolk 
• 1/2 c. dark brown sugar 
• 1/2 c. white sugar 
• 1/2 t. salt 
• 2 t. cinnamon 
• 1 t. ginger 
• 1/4 t. cardamon 
• 1/4 t. cloves 
• 1/4 t. nutmeg 
• 1 t. vanilla 
• 2 c. pureed pumpkin/squash 
• 1 1/2 c. heavy cream 
• single unbaked pie crust 

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Beat eggs in a mixer.  Add sugars and continue to beat.  
3. Add salt and spices and beat.  
4. Add vanilla and beat. 
5. Spoon pumpkin/squash puree into the above mixture and pour in milk.  
6. Mix on low speed until all ingredients are combined. 
7. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. 
8. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. 
9. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 45-55 minutes.  To test for doneness, insert a knife near the middle of the pie, if it comes out clean, your pie is finished! 
10. Cool on a rack for 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream.

Planting Potatoes in Containers

There's nothing like a trip out of town to get a girl off her game.  I thought I'd never get anything done.  Between errands and laundry, I accomplished one task.  I planted some potatoes.

My potatoes grow in containers in my upper garden.  This year they are growing in old wash tubs and garbage cans.  I have an abundance of both in various states of decline, either with holes in their bottoms or missing tops.  I am hoping that they will look interesting and not too junky.

How to Grow Potatoes in a Container

Potatoes planted in an old wash tub

1. Choose a container according to potato variety. Potato size will vary with the size of the chosen container; therefore, I plant small variety potatoes, like fingerlings, in smaller containers.  This year’s fingerlings are going in old metal wash bins.  The Yukon Golds will be planted in large metal garbage cans.
2. Be sure that all containers have adequate holes for drainage.
3. Fill the bottom of the container with 1-6” of good soil, depending again on the size of the container.  The edible portion of a potato is not a root, but an enlarged stem, so what is most important is the amount of dirt ABOVE the seed potato.  Deeper containers can accommodate more growth and can afford to have a deeper base layer.
4. Space seed potatoes 8 to 12” apart
5. Cover with 4” of soil and an additional 2” of compost.
6. Water well and often.  Remember that containers dry out more quickly and require more frequent watering.
7. When the potato plants reach 6” in height, it is time to “hill” them.  Do so by carefully adding 2” of soil around the plant.  This will help lengthen the plant stem, thus making more edible portions of the plant.
8. Repeat this process until the entire container is filled to the top.
9. Small potatoes can be harvested after the plant has flowered.  Do so by reaching down into the soil and carefully pulling out the potatoes.
10. The entire crop can be harvest once the plant portion has died back.  The container can carefully be dumped and the potatoes harvested.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Just arrived home from a whirlwind trip to my father's home in Illinois.  I planted his garden for him, my Mother's Day gift to him.
Now I am back in time (from Zone 5 to Zone 4) and my own garden is looking ready to be planted.
But first, sleep.

What a Way to Celebrate Mother's Day, Attend the Friends Sale with a Friend!

I just returned from the Friends School Plant Sale, held annually, Mother's Day weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.  Anyone within driving distance of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, MN or planning to visit the area Mother's Day weekend, should put this event on their calendar and plan to be amazed. http://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/
Even better, take a friend to the Friends Sale.  I went with my homegirl, Di and we had a great time.
Receiving my plant catalog for the Friends School Plant Sale is one of the highlights of the drearier winter months.  I spend days slowly cruising through the possibilities, putting stars next to the plants that interest me.  By the time May rolls around, that catalog is dog eared and coffee stained and I have whittled down my stars to a real shopping list.
Every year, the Friends School of Minnesota perfects their sale.  Di and I arrived around 10:30 and were in the gates by 11:30, easily.  We were home by 1:00 with the most unusual array of garden goods.
While waiting to get into the sale with our "group" (entrants are given numbered wristbands to gain entrance, an excellent form of crowd control), we perused the yard art and rain barrels, chomped on free apples from a local co-op and fed their cores to some happy chickens showing off their really cute coops, and marveled at all the cool things to build if we only had an arc welder.  Time flies with so many creative things to see.
Once inside the Grandstand, the sale is superbly organized.  I found everything I wanted.  My most treasured acquisition was 12 "Falstaff" brussels sprout plants.  They are the most gorgeous shade of purple you've ever seen and so tasty.
My second most wonderful find was a variety of onion that I had hoped to start from seed, not realizing that I should have begun the process in February.  I bought 6 packets of "Copra" yellow onions, proclaimed to be one of the best storage onions.  I'll save my seed until February 2012.  I almost squealed in delight.  Everyone else carries ONIONS, yellow, white, or red and blink when I ask "what kind?".
The BEST thing about the sale is the people.  Everyone is trying to negotiate their wagon/wheelbarrow/stroller/shopping cart through a crazy maze of shoppers and plants and no one develops a case of wagon rage.  Everyone is laughing and scooting around each other to get to the one plant THEY MUST HAVE and no one seems to mind if you are a terrible wagon driver in reverse.
And the variety of shoppers is wonderful.  It gives a gardener hope for the future to see so many fellow gardeners, young and old, from all walks of life, speaking so many languages, and ALL loving green things.
I was most impressed by the students who lend a hand with this sale.  They know their stuff and all have a favorite plant of their own.
I crammed my wagon full of plants that will feed my family and my soul.  I laughed with grandmas and their babies.  I chatted with a nice woman who has a hearing aid similar to the one my nephew wears.  I traded blueberry growing tips with some young moms, looking to feed their babies some home grown food.  Di and I giggled at a man who read his plant catalog while lounging in his wheelbarrow.
It was a great morning.  My plants are all on the backporch, waiting to go into the ground and I had a fabulous time on a perfect spring morning.

Smashing and Mashing Pumpkins (or Squash)

After a frustrating morning spent trying to format my blog, I decided to do something I knew would turn out okay.  I made a pie out of my lovely Chersonskya Squash.  I'll post that recipe under "Posts of Note".

How to Make Pumpkin Puree from a REAL Pumpkin (or Squash)

Chersonskya Squash

 

1.  Start by cutting your favorite squash in half, lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and scrape the inner cavity clean.

2.  Cut the squash into quarters or eighths, depending on their size, and place them on a baking sheet.

3.  Roast at 350 degrees until the flesh is soft.

4.  Meanwhile, remove the pulp from the squash seeds and set it aside to feed a compost pile or a flock of hungry chickens. 

5.  Rinse the seeds in a colander until all the pulp has been washed away from the seeds.

6.  Spread the seeds out on paper towels to absorb any excess liquid.

7.  Move the seeds to a plate and place it in a warm, dry place to allow them to dry completely.

8.  Check the roasting squash with a fork.  When the flesh is soft, remove the squash from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature.

9.  Scoop the cooled flesh from the rinds.  Send the rinds to the compost pile or the chicken coop.

10.  Puree the flesh in a Cuisinart or a blender.

11.  Pureed squash can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days or frozen until needed.  Best of all, IT DOESN'T TASTE LIKE A CAN.

Future Pies, Future Squash, Future Eggs (or compost) with NO LEFTOVER CANS.

Daily Bread, Laundry Piles, THEN Compost Piles, Potatoes

Its a great day outside and I'd LOVE to spend it all outdoors, but some jobs just need my attention.

Preschoolers who don't always make it through the night dry can produce some pretty impressive laundry piles.  In my haste to make it outdoors and get some work accomplished before my afternoon of driving and evening of meetings, I forgot about the day's pile of wet bedding.  When my husband went to put our daughter to bed, there was the pile of bedding, right where I left it.  He pulled together some spare bedding and put the extra tired girl to bed.  Then dragged the laundry down to wash it for me.  "What did you do all day?" he asked.  Plenty, just not the laundry.

I think the Universe was trying to teach me a lesson in living in the moment, completion, follow through etc., because this morning we woke up to another wet bed and more bedding to wash.  I am forcing myself to finish it BEFORE I head out the door.  In the meantime, I'll bake some bread.

Don't let me fool you into thinking that I am a fabulous baker of bread.  I let them machine do the work.  I just add the ingredients.

As the mother of teenage boys and the keeper of the checkbook, I was becoming increasingly alarmed at our rising grocery bills.  On non-school days, my family can knock off a loaf of bread a day.  At nearly $4 a loaf, I was watching our grocery money being eaten up very quickly.

So I pulled out the breadmaker that I had nearly retired a half a dozen times and found it a permanent home on the countertop.

I normally make a loaf of bread every day or so.  I have found that if I bake it, they will eat it.  I can throw the ingredients into the breadmaker in less than five minutes and it generally costs me less than a dollar a loaf.  I know exactly what is in that bread because I made it.  Its so easy, its embarrassing.

Once that loaf is going and my laundry is under control, THEN I'll head out to the garden to build my compost pile and plant some potatoes.

My breadmachine is a hand-me-down from a friend looking to get more counterspace.  I thought of passing it on myself several times for the same reason, UNTIL I realized how cheaply I could make my family’s bread.

Family’s Favorite Bread Recipe

• 3 T. melted butter, cooled to room temperature
• 1 c. milk, room temperature
• 4 T. sugar
• 1 ½ t. salt
• 3 c. flour
• 2 ¼ t. yeast

1. Add the above ingredients to the breadmachine pan in the above order.
2. Follow breadmachine’s instructions for a 1 ½# loaf.

Spring Officially Begins With The Last Squash

This morning I dispatched the last squash of the 2010 garden.

Chersonskya Squash

I spent the fall months of 2010 interviewing candidates for the 2011 squash/pumpkin patch.  My standards were high and my criteria, numerous.
Candidate must:
1.  Be interesting enough to display on a front porch in the fall months.
2.  Store well into the winter months.
3.  Have a firm, sweet flesh.

4.  Serve a variety of culinary purposes, from soup to pie plate.

I picked up a variety of likely candidates from local sources.  One beauty from the local big box grocery store was identified by Gary, the Squash Guru at Bergmann's Greenhouse in Stillwater, MN.
Come fall, this place is busting with good squash and Gary can tell you everything there is to know about each variety.  He suspected that the squash I described to him was one of his favorites, a Jarradale.  He also recommended the very beautiful Rouge Vif D'Etampes, also known as the Cinderella Pumpkin, and his absolute favorite, the Gold Nugget Squash.
I spent the next few weeks chopping up pumpkins, baking them in the oven, scooping out their flesh, and rating them according to their various attributes.
The Gold Nugget was indeed, tasty.  It was a nice, dry consistency and baked into a lovely pie.  It was unusual looking, but it didn't have the "presence" it fellows possessed.
The Cinderella (a princess of a pumpkin) was a lovely consistency and a beautiful color, but the flesh was very watery and required lots of draining.  It didn't freeze well, probably because of the high water content of the flesh.
I also had this great looking pumpkin that grew up from a friend's compost pile.  It was the size and shape of a pie pumpkin with a skin covered with warts!  It was the talk of neighborhood and I had high hope for this one, but the flesh was a little too stringy to make a nice pie.
The Jarradale was, by far, my favorite.  It was a knock-out squash.  I originally chose it as an ornament for its beautiful blue skin and deep lobes.  Its flesh was sweet and firm.  It was not watery or thin.  The seed cavity was small and the skin was thin so there was very little waste.  Since I didn't know how it was pollinated or where it grew, I didn't save any seed.  If the squash blossom was cross pollinated from another variety, the seed saved may not be true to the parent squash.  Instead, I ordered seed from Pinetree Garden Seeds https://www.superseeds.com/.  With its beautiful flesh and its gorgeous hue, I was in love.
And then I went to the local coop.  An old farmer was there, peddling a squash variety I'd never seen before.  He had been growing it for years and claimed it was the best squash he'd ever had.  It was so sweet, you could eat it raw.  He had samples of both the raw and cooked flesh and it was divine.  He called it a Chersonskya Squash and said that it originated from Ukraine.  It was similar in size, color, and shape to the Jarradale, without the deep lobes or the smooth skin.  It was a little bumpier than the Jarradale, but every bit as handsome.  I asked him where he got seed and he told me that he had been saving the seed successfully since he grew his first squash.
Suddenly, I wasn't so in love with my Jarradale.  A squash that was tasty raw OR cooked, easy on the eyes, an excellent keeper, with seeds that grow true to the parent sounded like a dream come true to me.
And the Chersonskya lasted through the winter, prominently displayed throughout the house.
I cut it open this morning and it was a true beauty.  The seed cavity is a little larger than the Jarradale's seed cavity.  But I snacked on raw squash all morning long.  The five year old even liked it.  I was sorry to put the thing in the oven.  But it smells so good, roasting away in there.
So I'll try to Chersonskya in the garden.  If it does well, I may stick with it for the 2012 garden.  If not, I always have the Jarradale.
Interested in transforming a lovely table decoration into something to eat?  Check back later and I'll post instructions.  I'm burning daylight and need to get back to building a better compost pile.

Building a Website and a Compost Pile, plus Adventures in Scrounging

Monday is Laundry Day at my house.  Laundry Day includes a fair bit of down time between loads that are coming out of the dryer.  I usually spend this time catching up with bills or emails, planning the week, doing some cooking, or just recovering from the mild case of Post Traumatic Stress I have from the weekend.
This Laundry Day finds me reading code instructions from the lap top that is propped up on the washer while folding laundry.  I ask myself, which is more difficult-- building a website or building a compost pile?
I've already got a start on both projects and both have a few obstacles already.
The website is tough.  I am not a tech-savvy person.  I am struggling with differentiating backgrounds and settings between pages.  I hit the help button and was astounded at the feat before me.  Makes the compost pile job look infinitely more easy.
And I do have a start on that pile.  I have a plan.  I need a truck.  I need some wood posts.
Since parting with my beloved minivan, I have discovered the limitations of scrounging with a sedan.  No 8 foot posts for me this afternoon.  I did score a choice find, a wood pallet that has been lying in a parking lot for the better part of a year.  Getting a pallet into the trunk of a Nissan Maxima is no simple job, but I managed.  Dealing with this pallet before dinner is probably more important that spending my laundry down time on website design.
The key is to take apart the pallet before my husband realizes that I have collected another piece of junk from the side of the road.
FYI:  I am a recovering hoarder.  I am especially susceptible to "junk" on boulevards and in FREE piles.
Note:  I will allow an exception to the "No Drive By Acquisitions" rule if I have a specific purpose for a diamond in the rough like a wood pallet and that project is at hand.  In this case, dismantled, a wood pallet will provide sturdy sides for my compost bin design.  Heck, I saw an entire garage built of pallets in Carbondale, IL once.  Pallets are handy things.
So, I think I'll have a go at that pallet with a pry bar and figure out how to document its use later.

Sleepless

I could spend many a sleepless night monkeying with this thing.
Seeing as its supposed to be ANOTHER cold day today, I think I'll spend it at Menards.  I took a fantastic class this past weekend on Biointensive Gardening at the local co-op (check out http://www.rivermarket.coop/classes.html).  Building a more efficient compost pile and seed starting are the ideas that are currently keeping me awake.

Ready, Set... Go?

Its taken me the better part of today to start this blog at the urging of BFFs Lisa and Diana.  I am definitely a blogging newbie.  I think I had more fun cleaning out the chicken coop.