Tag Archives: Garden

My sunny disposition

September 16, 2009Garden, ThoughtsGarden, Thoughtswarren

Even though I don’t care much for fall and winter, the sunflowers in the garden certainly do a lot to brighten my day during this time of the year. Initially, it’s hard to get over their size. Sunflowers are huge. Maybe they are too huge to even really hold themselves up, but, as I have said before, I love the optimism that they seem to symbolize. I suppose in the wild economic world in which we live, their bold yet simple existence is just what I need.

(sorry to the box-elder bugs that I caught in a private moment)

Anyhow, enough of that philosophical stuff…I also am fascinated by the pattern of the seeds in their head and the apparently sweet nectar that draws so many bees and other bugs. It seems like every time that I look at the sunflowers, they have a new bug climbing on them. In addition to bouying my mood, they sustain insects in a typically difficult part of the year when most nectar sources dry up.

I love sunflowers…not like I love Edward Cullen or Mountain Dew, but as far as natural things go, they are the tops in my book!

Garlic, you sure do clean up real pretty

August 25, 2009GardenGardenwarren

A couple of weeks ago, we harvested garlic that we had planted last fall. We dried it under cover until Emily’s grandfather got sick of finding the dried out dirt from the roots on the hood of his truck. We knew it was ready based on his blood pressure.

I took down all of the garlic from where it was hanging and loaded it up in the man-van and headed for home. You see, I treat the man-van very much like most folks would treat a pickup truck. Emily, on the other hand, sees it more as a family vehichle. Of course, this causes some contention between us, but I always figure (as someone wisely said) that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Anyhow, I loaded all of the garlic into the van and brought with it a bunch of dried dirt. Emily’s blood pressure headed north as well so I knew the garlic was done.

People process and store garlic in all sorts of different ways, but I like to cut the stalk off leaving only about 1-2 inches still attached to the bulb. I knock off all of the dirt from the roots and then trim them down to 1/4 inch or so in length. I peel a few layers of the outer “paper” from the garlic and that’s it. One should not wash garlic to remove the dirt. Of course, part of the point of drying the garlic was to remove excess moisture that would cause rot. Garlic cleans up very nicely without water so I figure, there is no sense in taking a chance.

So, I did an actual count of the garlic we harvested and we have 116 heads hanging in onion sacks in our basement ready for use. Some we’ll save for seed to plant this October but the rest we’ll use. If we estimate 6 cloves per head, that means we have 696 cloves of garlic for use this year.

The really cool thing is that garlic is its own best medicine. It seems to raise the blood pressure of folks in my family, but it also, apparently, is a good way to lower blood pressure as well. Garlic is almost like a blood pressure perpetual motion device!

She’s pickled and I’m sauced!

August 5, 2009Food, GardenFood, Gardenwarren

I tried and I tried but Emily got pickled the other night. Of course, the same night, I got pretty sauced so I guess we’re even. The garden hasn’t produced most things very well this year but we do have a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers.

(Ahhh…sauced!)

We’ve already made plenty of salsa with the tomatoes and peppers, onions, etc that we got. We figured tomato sauce can be used for about everything so we made a batch of that. It’s pretty easy really so it was ideal. We run the tomatoes through our Velox tomato press and then throw it all in a crockpot to cook down. Some folks boil their tomato puree until it is half the volume. We just throw it in the crockpot (uncovered) and forget about it for 24 hours. By then, it is cooked down and we are oficially sauced. I think we had about 2500 pounds of tomatoes and once it was all cooked down, we ended up with 5 pints of sauce. We’ll run throuhg several more batches of sauce because it is so handy when we need to make something yummy over the winter!

(That’s the good stuff…I love the smell of vinegar and pickling spices)

Neither Emily nor I like cucumbers raw. Emily doesn’t like them pickled either but she’s sauced, obviously. Anyhow, I love pickles so we made a bunch with the cukes we harvested this year. I grow dill too so we definitely made our pickles from some of the freshest ingredients around. I suppose we could make vinegar, but I don’t think we’re ready for that yet. Anyhow, I love making pickles because the smells of the ingredients take me back to when my Grandma canned pickles. She canned tons of stuff and the smells and the warmth of the kitchen remind me of her<sniff, sniff>

(This is really a pressure canner but it’s deep enough to water bath can too…without the lid of course)

Ok, so it was a bunch of fun getting pickled too. Don’t tell, but I figure we’re get pickled and sauced a bunch more times this summer!

It’s garlicky

July 16, 2009GardenGardenwarren

I debated on facebook a bit earlier this week on how to spell garlicky…and I was informed of the correct spelling…so here I am to share it with you! We planted garlic last fall (cause that’s when one plants garlic) and it has grown to maturity. We planted 4 varieties. I know we planted Metechi, Music, and Romanian Red. The fourth variety is a mystery garlic which was presented to us as “wild garlic”. I have no idea what it’s real name is, but it looks significantly different from the other types and produced nice sized, very pretty bulbs. We’ll plant it again for sure assuming it stores and tastes good.

(Once you harvest garlic, you need to dry it out of the sun for a few weeks)

We’ve had a ton of rain in WV this spring and summer which has killed a large portion of the garden. The garlic is about the only thing that thrived so I am really pleased we planted so much. We’ll likely have to survive on it all winter since we won’t have many beans or peppers or salsa (a near staple at our house). If anyone comes to visit, you had better “garlic up” before you come!

(These are the scapes from the “wild” garlic. They look very much like little heads of garlic as well. We’ll eat them sometime soon to find out!)

Ok, I’ll play sort of serious…we love garlic and there is nothing to beat fresh garlic. I like it in just about everything and we use it about that often. It’s great because it grows through the fall, winter and early spring and can be harvested in time to allow the gardener to plant cabbage or broccoli in its place (which is what we’ll do) for a later harvest. If you have never tried growing garlic, you definitely should!

So, anyone ever seen this “wild garlic” or know anything about it?

I am tired…but I have raspberries

June 9, 2009Garden, NatureGarden, Naturewarren

I am tired. I get plenty of sleep most days but my tired is a little more than that I think. I am tired of running. I am not one to usually chase after stuff so that’s not really it either. I don’t know what it’s all about (aside from maybe I am crazy), but I am tired.

So, for awhile, I am going to take pictures of simple things that make me not-tired. Kim over at Achorn Farm is who made me realize that simple stuff is the best stuff. I’d love to hear if you have stuff that makes you not tired…

Anyhow, we have raspberries now! They are really starting to give the berries and Abigail loves to pick them and feed them all to me. Fortunately, I can eat raspberries all day long!

So, here is a simple thing that makes me un-tired…

I’m not George Bush

June 3, 2009Fun, GardenFun, Gardenwarren

Back when the first George Bush was president, he (somewhat) famously said, “I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” In fact, he went so far as to ban broccoli from the White House and Air Force One menus.

Truly, it was a sad day in American history. In a brilliant move, broccoli growers shipped 10 tons of the stuff to the White House (which was refused and later donated to food banks). The funny thing is that the popularity of broccoli grew after President Bush’s statement. I guess it sort of follows his presidency really. No wonder he wasn’t re-elected! It all started with his distaste for broccoli…the American people could not tolerate such a a trait in a President!

I never realized, but broccoli is very important in American politics and appears to swing elections every cycle. Discussion of broccoli started back in Roman times but first figured into American politics when Thomas Jefferson wrote about it. Let’s see, Jefferson, one of our most foundational leaders loved broccoli…yes, George Bush should have choked it down and followed after Jefferson!

We harvested our first broccoli the other day and it was delicious! I have long been a proud broccoli-eater and am delighted to have fresh available again! I think it is pretty clear…along the Presidential continuum, I am much closer to a Thomas Jefferson than a George Bush!

How I resist Edward Cullen…or…Isn’t my garlic awesome?

May 22, 2009Fun, GardenFun, Gardenwarren

Some folks know that I am addicted to the Twilight series of books. Basically, they are about a girl’s experience with a family of vampires, including one vampire named Edward who is incredibly handsome, smart, charming, etc…you know, all the stuff that guys typically aren’t. I read the books and saw the first movie. Edward is indeed a dreamy bugger. Fortunately, I am a married man and also have my secret weapon…

I planted just shy of one ton of garlic last fall. It seems that most of it has done very well and will be ready for harvest later this summer. Garlic is so fun to watch grow. It starts in the fall and shows itself but then dies back over winter. Early in the spring though, you will see it poking back up through the dirt and by late spring, it produces large, hardy onion-like leaves. In a month or so, it shoots up scapes full of little garlic seeds (if you let it go that far. The scapes are good to eat on their own). It sort of looks prehistoric to me. Anyhow, prior to growing our own, we never really used garlic much. Once you try fresh garlic, though, you’ll never go back. We use it in everything. We can with it, we cook with it. We even bake heads of garlic in olive oil to make a quick and easy spread for on bread (pour olive oil in between the cloves that you separate slightly, leaving them still mostly attached. Bake at 350 until they are tender…maybe 30 minutes…serve the cloves with bread. Once baked, they are spreadable).

All this food talk is nice, but the most important thig about garlic is it’s effect on vampires. I wear garlic around my neck to ward off Edward Cullen and his ilk. As much as I like Edward, I am pretty sure that I prefer my human form and plan to stay that way! If you have a Twilight addiction like me, I recommend you plant some garlic this fall!

Who needs girlie mags?

November 27, 2008Garden, ThoughtsGarden, Thoughtswarren

I have a secret stash of magazines hidden under the mattress on my side of the bed. I know I am not the only one with this problem, but yesterday, I added to my collection…the Gurney’s catalog came in the mail! I have a problem and I am willing to admit it. I just love to look at seed catalogs. I pour over each page and read every description of every seed. I make lists of what I want and more lists of who sells at the best price. I have a problem!

If my problem was uni-dimensional, there may be hope…but I have another addiction also. My wife calls it bee-porn. I admit it – I love to read beekeeping magazines and catalogs and websites too. I love to read Beesource.

In one way, it makes no sense why I read the seed catalogs over and over again. The descriptions never change. How many ways can you say a bean is green or a cabbage will make the best kraut ever? Still, as winter looms, I take part in the process. I really hate winter. It depresses me. I have a serious need to be outside but I don’t care for the cold anymore. So I am stuck with a contempt for winter. But the catalogs give me something to look forward to. It’s how I get through the winter. That sounds overly dramatic, but it makes my outlook so much brighter. I love fooling with the garden and it’s sort of what I am all about. Messing around in the garden makes me feel alive. I work on computers all day and they take me so out of touch from other people (don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like people : ) ) and from what makes me feel human. Machines pay the bills, but they are not who I am.

So, I am thankful for Gurneys, and especially their catalog. I am thankful for bee-porn. I am thankful for my crazy wife and kids who support me with my problem! Happy Thanksgiving!

Chow Chow

October 29, 2008GardenGardenwarren

I used to turn my nose up at just about anything vegetable related, but especially things like chow chow and relish – stuff whose components cannot be easily identified. Here I am a bunch of years later wondering why in the world I was so silly. We had a ton of green tomatoes left in the garden when we decided to put it to bed for the winter.

I am not one to just dump the free food so we carried every green tomato into the kitchen. Thanks to the folks at Texas A & M University, we found a way to use them without my having to give myself some sort of tomato facial or make a tomato+Mt Dew sport drink.

CHOW-CHOW: 1 peck (12 pounds) green tomatoes; 8 large onions; 10 green bell peppers; 3 tablespoons salt; 6 hot peppers (chopped); 1 quart vinegar; 1 tablespoon allspice; 1/4 teaspoon cloves; 3 tablespoons dry mustard; Few bay leaves; 1 3/4 cups sugar; cup horseradish (optional)

CHOP tomatoes, onions and peppers together and cover with the salt; let stand overnight. Drain, add the hot peppers, vinegar, spices (tied in cheese-cloth bag) and sugar; allow to boil slowly until tender (about 15 minutes). Add horseradish. Pack into sterilized Kerr jars to within inch of top. Put on cap, screw band FIRMLY TIGHT. Process in Boiling Water Bath 10 minutes.

Of course, chow chow is one of those mystery foods where you can really put just about anything into it. I have seen it with cabbage before and I suppose you could shred squash or pumpkins too. Anyhow, we made several jars of the stuff and it is really really good!

This sucks

October 24, 2008Canning, Garden, TinkeringCanning, Garden, Tinkeringwarren

I talked a little about drying beans the other day but I didn’t tell you what we do with the beans once they are dried. Actually, we dehydrate and dry all sorts of things actually and this applies to everything we do. As I have said before, I get hair-brained ideas fairly regularly. I wanted to be able to vacuum seal stuff in jars but I couldn’t see spending the money to get one of the fancy vacuum sealers. Foodsaver makes attachments for their powered products to evacuate the air from mason jars so I decided to give that a try with a modification of how the air gets removed. I needed something that sucks!

I can’t take sole credit for these ideas but I can’t remember where I saw a similar discussion on the idea. Anyhow, a brake bleeder sucks just fine and, in fact, even has a vacuum guage on it to tell how much it sucks. My first plan was to integrate the brake bleeder with the mason jar sealer. Although I wouldn’t want to hand pump a brake bleeder all day long, I can pull a vacuum of 20 inches of Hg in about 30 seconds. The mason jar sealer works perfectly for that.

Moving on to bigger and better, Harbor Freight (a cheap tool supplier) has a vacuum pump for evacuating hvac systems. You simply hook it up to your air compressor and it will draw around 28 inches of Hg. I couldn’t make it work as well with the jar sealer for some reason though I didn’t try too hard either. You can (as I did) fashion some sort of a cup-like end for a piece of hose. You could use a stout film canister or a small piece of tupperware or somehting similar.

Punch a hole in the lid of the jar and put a piece of duct sealing tape (the shiny silver stuff, not regular duct tape) on the lid leaving the hole exposed. Hold the cup over the hole and tape and start the vacuum. When you are finished, slide the cup off across the tape sealing the hole. The vacuum will further hold the tape in place providing a great seal.

With a little effort, you could probably use the hvac pump with the jar sealer too so it is worth a try. My “cup” solution works for things like large pickle jars or other containers that aren’t mason jar sized.

A traditional vacuum cleaner will not pull sufficient vacuum for this to work by the way. You’ll need something designed to draw (from what I have read) somewhere around 15-25 inches of Hg to be sufficient. Also, this is not a replacement for canning stuff that should be canned. We only store dehydrated stuff this way. Anyhow, it’s a pretty cool option for storing garden stuff and it can be pretty cheap depending on the junk you have laying around your workshop.

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!