Garden Notes - December 6, 2009

The broccoli heads continued to get larger even into the colder weather. Colder weather makes baking more appealing, so I would cut a broccoli head and pull a carrot to make veggie quiche. Jack likes quiche too.

The picture above shows the final carrot harvest after the first snow that stuck (yesterday). This is the first course of carrots to go into the box with sawdust and water sprinkled onto it. By the time I pulled all the carrots, this box was mounded with four courses of carrots. I could hardly carry it. This box joins the other items still in the garage where it's cold but still above freezing. The root cabinet is warmer than the garage since it has the thermal mass of the foundation for three of its walls. I am a little concerned that the cabinet isn't cooler than it is. After all, construction of the cabinet is an experiment that is yet to prove itself. More on this later when it really gets cold and items need to go somewhere other than the garage.

The apple butter I mentioned in the previous garden notes posting turned out to be fantastic! Just after making that, I tried making homemade saurkraut in my crock. After about 3 and a half weeks of fermentation, it was ready. It looked pretty nasty on the surface, but after scraping away the mold and cover of leaves, the beautiful kraut was revealed below. I have used it for beer & onion kraut with brautwerst, and also for reubin sandwiches. Everybody likes it very much.

What? I Have a New Cousin?

Latest pix of Madison

Contrats to Tom and Kristie

Kayla, born October 28, 2009

Apple Butter Recipe

*Set two days aside for this (8 hours of cook time)*

10 lbs. (about 1/2 bushel) Apples (pealed, sliced & cored)
4 C. Apple Cider
Brown Sugar
1 T. + 1 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Allspice
1 t. Ground Cloves
1 t. Nutmeg

Bake apples and cider in turkey roaster with lid, 325F for about 1-1/2 to 2 hrs. (or until very soft).

Run cooked apples through food mill, measuring out 1 cup increments into separate bowl. Keep count of the number of cups until all apples are processed.

Add 1/2 C. brown sugar for each cup of processed apples. Stir in the spices too.

Now for the hard part: Cook over low heat, stirring very frequently for about 3-4 hours the first day in a stainless steel pot. Cool down rapidly on a wire rack and even in an ice-water bath in the sink if necessary before refrigerating for the night. On day two, move the mixture to a dutch oven and bring a boil once more. Continue cooking (and stirring) for another 3-4 hours using a screen over the dutch oven and some newspaper on the floor since it will spurt sticky stuff all over as it cooks! Cook until a small mixture dropped on a plate does not form a liquid rim around the edge.

Ladle into hot sterilized half-pint jars and process using water-bath method for 10 minutes.

Yield: About 13 half-pint jars (which starts out with about 20 cups processed apples reducing to 13 cups in the end).

Banana Bread Recipe

2-1/2 C. Unbleached Flour
1 C. Butter (two sticks, softened)
1 t. Salt
1 t. Baking Soda

2 C. Ripe Banana (mashed)
2 C. Sugar
4 Eggs

1 C. Chopped Walnuts
1 T. Dark Rum

Cut butter into flour with salt & baking soda.

In separate bowl, use mixer to beat wet ingredients (banana, sugar & eggs).

Use mixer to beat dry ingredients into wet until smooth consistancy.

Fold in the nuts and rum.

Pour into loaf pan with non-stick spray & flour coating.

Bake @350F for 90 mins. or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Garden Notes - November 1, 2009

The second planting of peas didn't have time to mature, and I will be putting brussels sprouts there instead next year. The broccoli heads formed nicely, but very slowly. I will need to plant those a little further apart next time. There are still two more heads of broccoli to harvest. The carrots are still in the ground except for a couple that I've pulled. They will come up just before the first hard freeze and go into damp sawdust in a box that fits into the root cabinet.

I learned that beets are biennials, and should produce seed next year. I just need to mulch up around them.

I am keeping root cabinet items in the garage until that gets too cold. At that point, I am hoping the root cabinet will have dropped enough in temp to move the apples and potatoes there instead. The onions and squash will go to the space below the steps. They only need to be about 45-50F and dry to keep.

Right now I am working up some apple butter. It's cooking down for the second day! I didn't realize how long it takes to get it reduced to the right consistency. I hope it turns out like Grandma Farison's apple butter.

Root Cellar in a Cabinet

The cabinet I started last April and put off until cold weather just got finished. The idea is to create a space to "put up" vegetables for the winter. I've been looking at the cut-out in our very thick basement wall for quite a while wondering what to do, and after reading a book on root cellaring, it dawned on me that four of the six walls would be below ground, just like a root cellar. In the end, only a ceiling and a front with doors needed to be built and insulated.

The problem was how to introduce cold air into the cabinet, and the solution was to bore holes through the basement window which is just above it, plumb them down to the lower part of the cabinet, and then bore a couple of vent holes in the top to encourage a natural convection current. The division down the middle is not essential, but I want to store apples, potatoes and carrots for the winter. The book says that apples should not be stored near potatoes since the apples give off ethylene gases which promote sprouting in the potatoes. So, the solution was to build the partition wall so apples could be on one side, and the carrots and potatoes could be on the other.

Just in case you are wondering why there is only one pipe on the left side, and two on the right, it's because I broke my drill (and nearly my wrist) trying to bore the hole on the far left due to a loose piece of wood flopping around inside the window sill! I guess one pipe will have to do on the left side!

Garden Notes - October 1, 2009

The tomato crop was nearly a complete failure, with only about ten pounds of usable fruit from about fifteen plants. The ones that managed to turn red were usually half rotten, and the green ones would simply rot instead of ripening. I had to settle for one small pot of cooked tomatoes for fresh eating; nothing to can.

The beans kept producing into mid September, but with shrinking yields that were best eaten right away. I didn't have time for canning anyway since the whole month of September was absorbed by a project on the front porch. The summer squash continued into September as well, but I grilled them for eating instead of canning. The second planting of peas are about five feet tall and have a few young pods. The broccoli did finally form heads, with the largest one being about four inches across, but the others are 2-3 inches. As a matter of fact, I just came in from squishing some little green caterpillars that were hiding on the bottom side of the leaves. The carrots are looking great, so I pulled one of the bigger ones and it's about five inches long. The beets are doing well too.

The herbs are dried and stored in jars. The seeds from peas, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are also dried and stored at this point. The few beets left from the first planting have yet to bolt, so I am wondering how I am supposed to get seed from them. Time will tell!

Garden Notes - September 2, 2009

Since the last post, the unusually heavy rains have continued and have contributed to a poor tomato crop for the entire region. The plants began showing signs of fungal infection in early July. I trimmed all the dead leaves from the bottoms of the plants, but the problem is in the soil. The leaves keep dying all the way to the tops of the plants. There's no real treatment other than planting in a different plot next year or covering with plastic to bake out the spores. Neither of these is an option in my small garden. I have trimmed dead leaves from tomato plants in previous years and had successful crops, but it's never been this bad.

The cucumbers failed early on as previously noted. I just harvested the only two cucumbers for seed. The escarole simply bolted to seed. I won't even bother with escarole next year. The green beans did well and I've canned and eaten them as they are harvested. The amount to harvest dwindles in heat of July, but the quantities per picking are up again with the cooler weather coming on.

The two biggest producers are the beets and summer squash. I've pickled lots of summer squash and everyone loves how it tastes. The beets are coming right along with their second planting too, but the few original plants left for seed have not yet bolt.

I have a second planting of peas, and a bag for seed, but I doubt I will bother with peas next year. There's simply not enough production in all the area the plants consume. I am thinking that brussels sprouts would do nicely where the peas currently are.

The broccoli plants have large leaves but are not forming heads. I tried putting some epsom salts around them impulsively. I should read up on the right way to encourage heads! Let's wait and see. I have four rows of carrots; two planted early July, and the other two planted in the third week of July. The earlier planting has 12"-14" greens, and the later has only 6" greens.

I tried getting serious about drying herbs this year since we have always picked fresh as needed and let the rest go in previous years. I got crazy one day and cut and hung bunches of basil, sage, peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, thyme and chives all from the rafters of the tool shed. The chives don't look very good, but everything else is drying nicely. One more thing different about this year too is the collection of walnuts. I cart some in the wheel barrow to the stone driveway where the car can smash them down to break off the pulpy stuff surrounding the nuts. I rinse off the nuts, dry them a bit in the sun and then move them to a crate in the garage. I picture myself drinking home brew and cracking walnuts in front of the fire this winter!

Garden Notes - July 31, 2009

It's been a very busy month in the garden since my last post. I was busy the first two weeks fighting the rabbit and the woodchuck!

I saw the rabbit eating escarole one day, so I erected a chicken wire fence around that bed. A few days later I saw the woodchuck roaming about, and then I noticed digging under the chicken wire and freshly eaten escarole. The moth ball crystals had little effect on this guy, who was apparently the one eating the small tomato plants. I also tried Repels All spray which did not work. I tried smoking him out with my smoker jury-rigged with my shop vac hose. That only melted the hose. I tried putting Bubble Yum near his entrance holes which he's supposed to choke on and die. That didn't work. All the while I had also been using a live trap with the wrong bait and caught a squirrel four times and caught one skunk as well! Finally, I dug up an escarole plant, potted it and put it in the live trap for bait. That did the trick as you can see in the picture above. I drove him a couple of miles away and released him near the creek.

The cucumbers are down to two plants after the others wilted away from beetle damage. Those two will be for seeds, and next year I will inter plant some radishes and some marigolds as a deterrent to the beetles. I found a crock for $20 and a half bushel of pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market for another $20 and started up a batch of brined dill pickles. The ones that didn't fit in the crock are canned as bread and butter pickles. So regardless of the loss of my crop, I still have pickles put up.

The bed where the cucumbers failed has become a succession planting experiment. I grouped the broccoli together and planted a few more. I also planted another couple of rows of carrot.

The beets have been the most productive. I've canned both plain cooked and pickled beets, and I've canned the beet greens as well. The trick is to put the greens in a camping cooler (aligned with stems all pointing the same direction) while dealing with the roots. The greens are easy to put up the next day (wilt and then pressure can for 90 minutes). Also, as each row of beets gets pulled, I follow right behind with a succession planting of beets.

I have small, green tomatoes at this point in the game. I have my doubts they will ripen before the first frost due to a rainy, cloudy summer and having stunted the seedlings at an early stage.

The green beans are producing, and at this point in time I've put up 1-1/2 quarts two weeks ago, I've eaten about a quart fresh, and I've just put up another 2 quarts the day of this post. The peas are time consuming to shuck, and I put up only 1 quart a couple of weeks ago, I've eaten about a pint fresh, and at the time of this post there's about another pint in the refrigerator for fresh eating. Just yesterday, I decided to yank all the plants (many of which where yellowing anyway), and then plant a succession planting as an experiment. The summer squash is productive as can be expected. I pickled eight pints a couple of weeks ago, and I probably have enough squash in the refrigerator to put up that much more, which I need to get on since we can't grill and eat it fast enough.

Garden Notes - July 3, 2009

We've had an abundance of rain in the last couple of weeks, and the trend is continuing.

The stunted tomatoes had a mystery critter nipping away at some branches, and even completely removed a couple of small plants. I had a few volunteer hybrid tomatoes growing out of the compost pile that I used to replace the destroyed ones. I even tried planting a few more non-hybrid seeds on 5/30/09. I saved two of those out for an experiment to see how late you can actually plant tomato seeds in the ground. Whatever the critter was stopped bothering them at about 3 inches high. Some online research suggested I try moth ball crystals around the plants, which may have helped.

The surprise problem was an infestation of cucumber beetles. These yellow and black striped beetles gather & mate on leaves (especially tender, curly ones) and then lay eggs near the stem. The larva then attack the roots as well. I tried insecticidal soap, but this had no effect. I tried the recommended non-organic as a last resort, which is an insecticide called "Sevin." This would have worked, but the damage had already been done. Now, there's only 11 of the original 40 plants showing signs of growth. Next year, I will try inter planting radishes with the cucumbers, which repels cucumber beetles according the the book "Country Wisdom & Know How" from the editors of Storey Books.

Rather than waste the garden space left by the dead plants, I've tried my hand at "succession planting" described in the book "Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel. The idea is to plant certain types of vegetables in July that flourish into late September. So, I planted some hybrid carrots and broccoli. My first choice from the list on page 5 of the book was leeks and brussels sprouts, but Lowes didn't have them.

The peas are taller and heavier than I had expected, so I will be building a more durable pea trellis next year. The beans are doing well since I gave them a dose of Epsom Salts, separated the double plants to replace ones that didn't germinate and applied mulch. The beets are doing well since I thinned them to 3-inch spacing and used the unwanted plants for salads. The escarole is still an experiment. If there's enough to put-up in the fall, I will try an experiment with replanting a few in boxes for storage in the garage. This is a technique suggested in "Root Cellaring."

Finally, I need to make note here of the organic fertilizer I am trying called Espoma Plant-Tone. I picked this up at Lowes when I had actually been looking for fish emulsion, but they didn't have that. The Espoma website tells me there's a blend more specifically for gardens, but this is what Lowes had for now.

Summer Scenes

This view of the west side of the house shows the honeysuckle in full bloom. This is the third year (I think) and it's the fullest so far. Before looking at the next picture, keep in mind that there's a robin nesting in the upper left quadrant.

The mother robin decided to fly in just as I snapped the picture above. I moved in slowly to catch this view of her perched on the edge of the nest feeding her chicks. Apparently, they just hatched in the last day or two.

Here's the view on the east side of the property. The summer perennials are beginning to show. You have to imagine how it annoys me when our neighbor parks that equipment trailer up against landscaping I did by hand over the course of four years! That used to be a wild jungle of weeds. Most of the time there's a 40 foot motor home next to the trailer too!

Here's a close-up of the rock garden which is further in along the east side of the property. The iris to the top of the picture are past their prime, but these two smaller plants shown here attract butterflies. I can't remember the name of the mossy stuff. If it survives the winter, I keep it. I don't worry too much about the technical names.

Finally, here's a close-up inside one of the hanging baskets on the front porch. You can see three (maybe four) baby house finch chicks huddled together. We had a nesting pair of house finches in our hanging baskets last year, and now this year too!

Father's Day Visit to FLA

I am very glad that I chose Father's Day weekend to travel to Florida as many family members who I had not seen in many years were in town! Below are a few photo highlights that I would like to share.

Mal with the shirt I gave him for Father's Day!

Madison and Sarah



Tom and Dave Jr.

Marianne and Dave Sr.

Maureen (better known as Mo)

Kristie, Madison and Kristie's sister Kim

Todd, Mal, Randy, Scott and Brian

Scott, Brandi and Kaiden

Randy with chameleon "ear-ring"

Khristian playing with Buckeye

Brian and Kaiden

Matt the professional wing fryer!

Garden Notes - May 30, 2009

I started expanding this garden in early April from five to nine beds. I did not use a tiller. Instead, I carefully removed the sod which was used in two other areas of the yard left bare from tree/stump removal the year before.

This year, I am using non-hybrid seeds, also known as heirloom seeds, in lieu of commercial seeds. The advantage is that you can save seeds from the previous year's crop for planting. The commercial seeds are good for only one year, and seeds that are produced will not grow plants at all, or if they do, they are likely to be poor producers.

I started some seeds indoors-- Tomatoes, beets, cucumbers and escarole. I learned the hard way that tomato seedlings should not be introduced to direct sunlight abruptly. I also learned that starting beets and escarole indoors is a waste of time and effort. The tomatoes are now in the ground, but stunted. Next year I will stick to tomatoes and cucumber starts indoors only, and I will certainly "harden" the tomatoes gradually.

Seed planting into the ground-- Peas, beets and summer squash on about May 12, followed by bush beans on the 18th or so. The beans are beginning to show as of this post.

At this point I am simply placing grass clippings around plants that are large enough. The pea trellis is next on my list. The tomato cages will come into play when the plants get about 3 or 4 inches high.

First Turkey in a While

I shot this "Jake" on the morning of 5/4/09. For those of you not familiar with turkey terminology, a Jake is a young Tom Turkey. A Tom Turkey is the desired prize, but a Jake is fair game. Hunters who have time on their hands might allow a Jake to pass by and wait longer for a Tom to come along. With my situation working two jobs, and hunting after two hours of sleep, I will simply take the Jake if that's what I see first. There were plenty of Toms gobbling in the woods, but they refused to come out into the field when called on this hunting day and the day before.

This Jake was traveling with another and approached from my 9-o'clock position. With full cammo on and nothing but a tree at your back, you must not move as the birds have you in view from about 25 yards. As they put their heads down to peck occasionally, you can budge ever so slightly to sight your gun. Each peck is a split second to budge. After playing that game as they moved past my decoy towards my 12-o'clock position, one of them simply walked into my line of fire. I shot and he went down.

I hadn't bagged a turkey since 2004 because I was taking online classes, and then two times later because my gun misfired. I finally got it fixed last fall.

Famous Quotes Regarding the Federal Reserve

"We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent."

--James Warburg, Council on Foreign Relations Member speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1950 ... (his father, Paul Warburg, was instrumental in creating the Federal Reserve, which President Woodrow Wilson signed into law in 1913)

Shortly before Wilson passed away, he lamented: "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

Most Economists Do Not Agree With Stimulus Program

It seems like the only folks who don't "get it" are the politicians in Washington. The Cato Institute cuts through the propoganda with lessons from history; showing what clear-thinking people know is obvious-- The solution to deficit spending is NOT more deficit spending!

Prospect Point Trip

Rand & Lisa on the lake snow shoeing (day one)

Lisa making a snow angel

Julie reading to Jack

Todd reading to Jack

Blue Mountain on a clear day (it cleared up on the last day)

Rand & Lisa on a small island we had snow shoed to on day two

Inside the cabin

Rand & Lisa watching three deer cross the lake (day one)

Jack sledding near the cabin for the very first time

Mourning Doves in Winter

I snapped this picture just before Christmas. We were having a significant winter storm, and the birds were looking for cover. This group of mourning doves found a place to roost just outside our dining room window. You can see a couple of houses through the wind-driven snow to get a feel for how rough it was that day!

We like our birds and attract them to the yard with two squirrel-proof feeders, and one squirrel-proof suet feeder. We also have a bird bath. I keep busy in the summer scaring away a neighbor's cat that is contantly on the hunt for our feathered friends!