Tag Archives: winter

February, Quite Contrary, How does your Garden Grow?

24 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Garden Inspiration, Garden Plan

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My Google calendar recently alarmed me to the official start of the gardening season, this past weekend of February 17. After a brief, but restful, garden dormancy over the past 2.5 months, it is time to begin it all again. Apparently, nature had some other plans and time traveled ahead by 3 months to spring time highs of 65°F and sunshine, complete with scampering animals and chirping birdsong. This, friends, is 30°F over the average blistering February temps. But please…global warming is a hoax.

While I have enjoyed the unseasonable weather for dog walks and weekend outdoor excursions, its worrisome if any of my dormant perennials get too excited and wake up from hibernation, just to be killed off by a surely expected March freeze. I shall keep an eye out for any early risers and smother them with straw mulch. The silver lining in all of this, of course, is a much more hospitable environment to begin some late winter tasks, such as pruning and trimming. February is a great time to give a hair cut to the fruit trees, and a great opportunity to clean out any vegetation I left in the beds over the winter.

Though I am enjoying the respite from the cold, the major garden work is done in the basement under grow lights. The weekend kicks of the business of seed starting, with some celery and leeks, and a through review of the weeks and months ahead.

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Always up for new adventures, I added some new fun items this year based on my culinary preferences. New this year for produce I am adding leeks, an assortment of fresh herbs, and strawberries to the garden. I am expanding the varieties of everything else from asparagus to tomatoes. I have also made the executive decision to move certain plants strictly to a fall-harvest cycle. Broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, rutabaga and turnips have proved too challenging with the unreliability of spring weather. All in all there will be 136 varieties of fruits and vegetables on our one-acre homestead. If I can pull this off, it will be quite a boon for this four-mammal household.

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March/April plotted plan for the early spring garden. 

As is in my nature, I have plotted and planned the timing of starting, transplanting and sowing based around my travel schedule. With a little assistance in watering from CFO, we should be enjoying fresh salads by late April. Having a little OCD in gardening does make a difference in success rates. By first identifying realistic times when I can tend to my little spouting babies, I don’t overwhelm myself and make tasks unreasonable. Yes, garden upkeep is no different than maintaining anything else like clothing and upholstery, but organization makes anything possible. I also really like binders.

This year I am taking a different rotation approach. Yes, you should rotate beds by type of vegetable. Yes, you should not overcrowd your plants. But, given limited space, I have limited rotation and spacing capabilities. Instead of proper form, this year I am rotating by garden “season.” I will have one bed for spring produce, which will be ready to replant for the fall garden. Three beds will be summer produce (which often lasts well into fall). One bed for blueberries, one for strawberries, and an assortment of other planters for items that need a bit more separation and attention. I also to work in as much companion planting as I can within each bed. In such a small space, companion planting has been beneficial in my short experience. While I see plenty of the bad bugs, they have yet to demolish entire sections. Attracting the good bugs and very aggressive birds helps as well. While I do not like the birds hovering about my cherry tree, I audibly cheer when I see them circling the garden. For new plantings I will use row covers, but after that its open season on caterpillars.

Well, I better get to work before old man winter returns this upcoming weekend. I hope your garden planning is off to a great start!

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Mr. Jack prepares for the return of winter.

A Year of Backyard Food: A Study

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in Cost Cutting, Garden Concepts, Garden Inspiration, Garden Plan

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INTRODUCTION

Its that day once more, that day the ends the annual cycle of time, also known as my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday sis! It’s a pretty popular event; people all around the world celebrate by drinking profusely, declaring how the next year will be the one, and making out at midnight. I prefer to celebrate by eating dinner around 6pm and falling asleep promptly at 9pm once again disappointing CFO. He’s a party animal.

I’m not one for making these so-called resolutions, because I feel that it is a system of preplanned failure. If you ever bought a gym membership in January, you are not my people. But I respect your choices. I prefer to think upon the last year and note what worked, and what didn’t, and make some informed decisions of how I might make better decisions going forward. For example, last year I evaluated how much I have zero interest in cleaning my house, and how I have lots of interest in paying people to do it instead. That’s a “resolution” I am happy to keep going in 2017.

When it comes to the garden, I think about what worked, and didn’t work a lot in January. Mainly because its time to order seeds and get planning. One of my goals from last year was to keep track of what I grew and what I harvested. I was sure that growing food in the backyard is a financially stable way to eat better, but I have no evidence to support the statement. I wanted to do a season-long very unscientific study to prove my point, mainly to CFO, but also to the 22 people that might read this post. I am happy to say that not only did I complete my project, but also I am here, on December 31 to report the results.

HYPOTHESIS

Growing vegetables in one’s own backyard provides a cost savings over purchasing the same food in a grocery store. I know this might seem obvious, but food in this country is shockingly cheap. I felt as if my work was cut out for me.

METHODOLOGY

In order to report the findings as accurately as possible, I had to consider the costs to grow said food, as well as the market value of the food I harvested. I factored in all of the things I use to grow food: cedar for beds, compost, seeds, transplants, fertilizer, mulch, water, and also the grow light system I purchased to start my own. The only thing I did not include was labor. I mean, let’s face it. If I weren’t willing to donate my time this whole adventure would be pointless. I also think that the time I spent in the garden probably equals the amount of time I would otherwise navigate the produce aisle at my local store, which is about as easy to shop as a new IKEA during the grand opening.

For the harvest itself, I had to find a way to quantify the value of what I had, and the only way I could think was to compare it to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service produce commodity averages. This is an average of the countries produce costs at retail, and is published weekly. It worked pretty well for the common items, but for those odd duck veggies I grow (parsley root anyone?), I had to get more creative. I found an online co-op that published produced prices daily, and used that for a reference. Also, because I practice the general “organic” growing system, meaning I do not use anything on my crops that requires a gas mask, I opted to compare the produce to the organic rates. I know, I know…kind of unfair because I don’t normally buy organic produce, but I grow it and this is my study.

DATA ANALYSIS

The grand total of my garden expenses was…. $1284. Yikes. Last year had some expensive costs to be fair: CFO finished building the remaining garden beds and I invested in a growing system for the basement. Ideally, those two purchases will not be on-going costs. Using cedar, the beds should last 10 years, and since I received 3 shipments of broken growing lights, the supplier sent me about 12 bulbs at no cost in order to maintain his positive EBay rating. I should be good for a while. Based on annual expenses like seeds, compost, mulch, etc. I realistically spend about $250 a year, which seems much more reasonable. Maybe this wasn’t the best year for my study. Meh.

In 2016, I grew a total of 87 varieties of 54 different fruits and vegetables. I began the harvest the week of April 17 with asparagus, and ended the harvest the week of Thanksgiving with sage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. That’s 8 months of food! That’s a win in my book. I had some winners and some losers. I was giving away tomatoes, squash, basil and berries, but the melons and eggplants eluded me due to my unpreparedness with the late cabbage and unwieldy tomatillos. My peppers were a flop again for the third year. But I won’t be giving up on them just yet. Overall, I think this year was my most successful garden year. I figured out the watering system and my rotation and spacing scheme worked out very well. I didn’t have any problems with transplants because I grew them self. In order to properly assess the produce harvest, I used a kitchen scale, and weighed 470 lbs of vegetables for a grand total cost of….

Drum roll please…

$1250!!!!!

And yes. I know that is $34 in the red.

RESULTS

So okay, I technically didn’t make money on the garden, but if you consider I “spent” $34 for 470 lbs of vegetables, many of which are still stored in my freezer or canned and in the pantry in various forms, I think I did pretty darn good. And what a fun project. At its height, the garden was astounding, and received comments and questions from the neighbors (possibly some grumbling and complaints that I tuned out) and also kept me outside for a good chunk of the summer. I got to make farm dinners for family and friends that visited, we grilled vegetables I didn’t know could be grilled, and reduced our grocery expenses to the point where I could justify buying lobster for dinner. I even liked keeping track of all the produce; my charts and files have provided me solid information to make better planning for next year. I think I will keep this going if I can.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that 2016 was a good year in garden for me. I have already started plotting the changes and new vegetables and varieties to try, and making my informed decisions to better myself.

Next year will be…the Year of the Salad (because I have 10,000 lettuce seeds to start).

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and have grand adventures in gardening!

The Life Changing Magic of Squash Soup

19 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in How-To, Not a Garden Post, Nutrition and Diet, Recipes

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There are a few things that were introduced during my lifetime that can be considered truly life-changing…the internet, smart phones, fourth generation antihstamines, and some others. These are really great and all, but today I am reminded of a two other “discoveries” that have significantly changed my life, specifically in regards to the autumn season: no-peel winter squash and the immersion blender.

The pureed squash soup is like the elixir of fall. There is something about that warm, slightly sweet orange silky squash liquor served in a big bowl or just a mug. Its something I look forward to every year when I see the piles of butternut squash and pumpkins at every store in town. Every season, I make up batch to kick off the shorter days and cooler temps. I have tried many a recipe, and have come up with an adaptation that works for whatever I have on hand. The only real requirement is that you have squash, and a preheated oven at 425°F.

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See that pretty dumpling above? This is the ultimate of winter squash (in my opinion). This little nugget is the French heirloom potimarron squash. The name is a combination of two words: potiron (pumpkin) and chestnut (marron), and the flavor is a delightful marriage of the two as well. It is by far not only my favorite winter squash but also my favorite pumpkin, hands down. This squash is also called red kuri or hokaiddo or onion squash, depending on where it is grown. Beyond the flavor, the best part is that this is a thin-skinned squash which means…NO PEELING (enter sounds of crowds cheering! alarms blaring! fireworks exploding!)

If you have never experienced the wonder of not peeling a winter squash, I implore you to get on this. My first no-peel squash was a delicata I received in a CSA box many moons ago, and it was an eye-opening culinary experience to be sure. I looked for that squash for years in two different cities, and nary a grocery stocked it. I knew the solution: grow my own. While I intended to grow delicata squash my first year of the garden, the seed company I was using only had it available in their membership program, which I was not a part of. Instead, I found their potimarron in the seed catalogue which said no peeling was required so I took a chance. I have never looked back since. Granted, these do not store well because of the peel (two weeks at best; probably why there is no commercial presence), but two weeks is about all I can hold out for anyways.

So let’s get started on this special soup journey. To start, take the little squash and just cut of the top and bottom, scoop out the seeds and strings (save for the broth later), cut into chunks and mix with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Easy like Sunday Morning.

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To flavor our soup, I like to use this combination of pear, tomato, garlic, and leek. But you can also use apples, onions, ginger, peppers, anything. I happen to not have any leeks on hand, but I do have sweet onion. The combination of sweet and savory really enhances the sweetness of the squash but not in an over the top way.

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Cut the vegetables in half so they are all roughly the same size, removing seeds and stems. You can peel anything that requires peeling, but I tend to be a no-peel advocate if I can get away with it.

 

Just like with the squash, toss in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

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Lay everything out onto a large roasting pan, and stick in the oven for a good 30 minutes at 425°F, or until the squash is nice and tender.

While that is roasting, heat up 6 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable or whatever you have) to boil. I am woefully out of my homemade broth, I have some bullion cubes that will do fine in a pinch. To enhance the flavor, you can add the squash seeds and guts to the broth, reduce to a simmer, and let it mellow until its time to add the vegetables and then remove.

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The thing about a squash soup is that it needs to be pureed. Chunks of squash and other vegetables in a bowl of loose broth would just not translate the same way, nor be as beautiful or delicious. The flavors have to marry to make it truly enticing. Typically, this is done by using a blender in batches and you see directions that suggest at any time the hot soup and chunks will explode in a furry of chunky orange projectile blender vomit if not done properly. I have no intentions to clean squash off my ceilings, thank you very much.

Enter the greatest kitchen utensil since the slow cooker: the immersion blender. This bad boy is not just a God-send, it’s a life-changing soup instrument. It also reduces post-soup making cleanup by 5 dishes, which in and of itself, is a gadget worthy of an extra trip to Bed Bath and Beyond.

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Once your veggies are roasted up, just pop them into the simmering broth (after removing seeds/guts). Hook up that immersion blender, and BLEND BABY BLEND.

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Look at that…

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Golden colored…

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Lovely silky and smooth…

At this point, you could just add a big straw and be done with it. Or you could add a few enhancements. I like to top each bowl with a handful of crumbled gorgonzola and some chopped hazelnuts. You could also do a dollop of whole milk Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. You could also do a sprinkle of fried sage and prosciutto. You could also do sharp cheddar and apple chips. Whatever floats your boat.

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How every you top it off, you won’t regret it. Simple, sweet and savory, no-peel immersion blended winter squash soup. If only every day could be like today.

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…and Repeat.

Life-Changing Squash Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 potimarron squash, about 3-4 lb., stemmed and seeds and strings removed and set aside (can also substitute butternut, pumpkin or acorn but peel these first!)
  • 2 medium pears (or 4 small), stemmed and cored
  • 2 medium tomatoes, halved
  • 1 medium onion (or half large), chopped into wedges
  • 3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp pepper
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 oz. Gorgonzola or blue stilton cheese, crumbled
  • 2 oz. chopped hazelnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Cut squash into small wedges, toss with half the olive oil, and half the salt and pepper. Arrange squash, skin-side down, on a baking sheet.
  3. Toss prepped pears, tomatos and onion in remaining olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on a second baking sheet skin-side down.
  4. Put both sheets into the oven for 30 min. to roast.
  5. Heat broth in a large pot to boil. Add reserved pulp and seeds to broth, and reduce to simmer. Let simmer until vegetables are done, then remove pulp and seeds and discard.
  6. Add roasted vegetables to broth. Use immersion blender to puree entire batch to a consistent texture so that there are no lumps or large pieces. If you want a thinner soup, add water as needed.
  7. Serve immediately, and top with scant crumbled cheese and scant chopped hazelnuts to taste.

DIY Guide to Trimming Trees with Questionable Results

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in Garden Concepts, How-To

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They say the best way to learn how to do something is to try it out. I don’t know who “they” is, but I certainly hope they are experienced fruit tree-trimming professionals in this particular case. CFO has been asking me for four years now to trim back my unruly pear and cherry trees. For four years now, I have had very convincing reasons to leave the dwarf-turn-giant trees untouched, most of them sounding like “I can’t because its damaging to trim the trees in [insert current season], but I will definitely do it next season.” I managed to get away with this excuse for four years only because he rarely commits my excuses to long-term memory.

Why have I been so resistant to tame the wild timbers? Trust me, it is not because of some deep-seated belief that the trees are of nature and nature shall run its course. This is what I use to explain why I refuse to weed my lawn. No, the truth is that I am terrified of trimming those trees. The discovery that we had fruit trees, long before the garden was installed, was like a beautiful amazing gift. It wasn’t mentioned in the home sale, in fact, none of the landscaping was mentioned in the home sale. (Home buying tip: if landscaping is not described as a selling point, that generally means it is the opposite of a selling point). What if I did it wrong? What if instead of cutting the dead wood, I cut off all the blossoming wood? Our neighbors had a peach tree when they moved in, that had a booming crop one year, and three years later, that tree is but a shadow of its former self, and has never had a single fruit since. Our neighbor is an aggressive tree trimmer. So while I have no evidence he trimmed the tree to death, in my mind that is the cause of his peach-less summers.

Alas, CFO is no fool, and this past summer he did a little of his own research and told me that winter was the best time to trim trees and those trees NEEDED a haircut. I had my “its way to cold” excuse all lined up to go, when behold, we had a freak warm-up weekend mid-February and temps rose to a balmy. Excuses out the window.

I headed out to take a look. I had armed myself with tree reading, and printed off a cheat sheet, and my tools. These trees are approximately 18 feet at this point, which means there will be a lot of looking up.

The three step approach I read about includes:

  1. Trim dead, diseased or dying branches, watersprouts, and any limbs below the grafted point.
  2. Thin out the branches so that there is 6-12” of air space around each branch, making sure that branches do not cross each other. Trim the least healthy branches.
  3. Cut back 30% of all new growth from the previous year.

Sounds simple enough right? Well…the thing is, READING about something is much different than DOING something. Here is a more realistic DIY tree-trimming primer:

  1. Does it snap off when you bend it? Its probably dead or dying, or you’re really strong. Either way you have accomplished step 1. For higher up branches, hope for the best.

Would it surprise you to know, that ALL tree parts look the same? The only way to tell a dead from dying branch is to either have x-ray vision or speak native tree language and ask the damn thing. Wood looks like wood. You know how I know a dead branch from a live branch? Because one is on the ground and one is on the tree.

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Dead or Alive? Look closely. 

  1. Keep the prettiest looking limbs and branches, and cut everything else off.

I mean, how do I know what is the “healthiest” branch in a jumble of branches? How is that even advice? I went for aesthetics, and also thought about where fruit would be the easiest to pick. I did make sure to trim back any crossed limbs, that at least was easy enough.

  1. Cut back 30% of new growth…oh hell, skip this part because that is a $#!+ ton of trimming to do.

New growth?!? If I can’t tell dead wood from live wood, how can I possibly be expected to know what “new growth” looks like? What a ridiculous proposition. I think the tree-trimming community has really over-estimated the general population’s detailed attention to trees. For the record, this is what new growth looks like.

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Do you see that tiny little wrinkle, and the subtle color change on the bark (this has been color enhanced)? That is what you are supposed to look for, and then trim 30% of each of these little branches…and they are 10 ft above your head. Let’s just stop here.

Check out the before…

Before…
Before…
Before…

 

Follow my steps and…

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After!

Ta-da! Fully trimmed trees. There is approximately equal chance that I killed these little guys as I helped them, and I am hoping for the latter.

As one step below a tree-trimming novice, I can’t in good faith recommend following my advice, but I can safely say I know the proper way to trim trees: hire someone.

Stay tuned for pear and cherry photos (or lack there of ) later this year…

A Year in Review

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Garden Plan

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It’s been three months. THREE MONTHS since I last wrote about my beloved, now departed, food crops. Three months sure seems like a long time, but truth be told, not much has changed. El Niño has made for a weird winter experience. My chives actually started to flower in November, after dying back, like little green and purple allium zombies. Its now December, temps still above 40°F, and I swear my dwarf pea plants were just a hair taller. I don’t like to think about what this will mean for spring, but I suspect we will get some late frosts, so I may plan conservatively.

Speaking of spring, and plans, two of my favorite things, its time to start the garden planning for next year! Right on schedule, now that the 2015 garden has wrapped up (though I won’t put it past the arugula to keep it up for another month), seed catalogs arrived. With my highlighter, and excel spreadsheet open, I spend a good 2-3 hours salivating over the photos and started crafting the next unobtainable garden expansion. The big out door project for 2016: a fence. This is not necessarily a project that CFO has high on his list, but if I have learned anything over the last three years of marriage, its that if I haphazardly start a project that is way over my head and skill ability and has the potential to do bodily harm, he will generously donate his time and skills to get it done. I am really looking forward to my new fence.

I am also looking forward to trying out some new veggies this year and some new methods. In 2015, I spent approximately $170 on seeds and starts, which is quite a bit. About $100 of that alone was just tomato, eggplant and pepper transplants because the first round were sun-blasted to death, and I had to buy doubles. I am not going to lie, being frugal chic, that hurt. A lot. For 2016, I have decided to take that $100 and invest in a set of grow lights and a heating pad and try to see if I can make a go at it. I have started broccoli and kale in the plastic greenhouse with great success, but that just won’t work for the tropical plants, and in the long run paying $2 for a packet of tomato seeds that will last 4-5 years, versus $5 for a single transplant just makes more sense, even with the added set up and electricity costs. Plus, starting seeds in February will give me way more to blog about than the not-surprising observation that nothing is going on.

I will be trying a few new things this coming year, specifically some new vegetables to supplement the fall diet: rutabagas, turnips, root parsley, and celeriac. I am going to expand my summer squash repertoire to beyond zucchini, hopefully get a few melons growing, and try out some fava and lima bush beans. With my new fence, the sky is the limit!

As for the 2015 garden, it was a great success overall. To break it down, here are the year’s Top 7 BEST AND WORST from the garden. Why 7? Because that’s how many I came up with.

2015 BEST OF THE GARDEN

  1. Basil – I planted 3 types: Genovese, Thai and Mrs. Meyer’s Lemon. The Genovese was OUTSTANDING with leaves the size of my hand. It was the kind of basil you dream about, if you dream about those things. Delicioso! The Thai basil was my second favorite, and I generously added it to every stir-fry made, and it took the meal beyond all expectations with its spicy flavor. The lemon basil was a small-leaf variety and had a nice subtle lemony hint and made a great summery addition to grilled vegetables and fruits. All varieties grew like gangbusters and I had fresh basil right up through the end of September.

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  1. Lacinato Kale – I planted 2014 seed, and surprisingly, these did better this year than the year I bought the seed. I had three plants, started in the greenhouse in coconut coir and they got huge by October when I harvested the rest. Lacinato kale is one of those cut-and-come-again plants, and is a great fall performer.
  2. Beets – Planted varieties of Chioggia and Golden Beets and both grew superbly and tasted divine. Even CFO, who tells people he doesn’t like beets, was a fan of both varieties. The fact that they are so astoundingly beautiful doesn’t hurt either.

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  1. French Breakfast Radish – Seeing as how I wrote an entire blog post about these little gems, I think its safe to say these were one of the standout picks for 2015. I will definitely be growing these guys again, and may be I will only speak français while eating them as we prepare for a Paris visit in spring of 2016…oh la la!
  2. Carrot – The mighty, mighty carrot. I STILL have carrots in the fridge from the last harvest. These little guys store great! I had three varieties in 2015: my standard, Scarlet Nantes, the fun purple Dragon, and the white Jaune du Doubs. All three grew large and relatively straight, with minimal pest issues. The Jaune du Doubs was nice and sweet, but I didn’t mound the tops so the ends were slightly green and bitter, but overall a great variety.
  3. Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard – always a knockout, I don’t even know if this should be a “success” when I am convinced there is no way to mess this one up. I had 12 plants, and daily had 24” leaves to pick. I made some great stuffed chard this year.

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  1. Lettuce – Talk about overkill. I guess I decided that CFO and I were going to eat three salads a day, because that’s how much of the stuff I grew. In total there were twelve (12!!) varieties over six square feet, but I couldn’t tell you which was which if my life depended on it. Most of it was in a mixed bed, and I just cut as I needed, not giving mind to what it was. It was all good and tasty. I will say that I am not going to be ordering any new lettuce seed any time soon. The favorite still remains the Mantilia butterhead.

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2015 WORST OF THE GARDEN

  1. The White Walkers, AKA Devil Deer, AKA Thieves in the Night, AKA Bringers of Sadness, AKA Hungry Hungry Hippos, AKA Starving Family of Eight…you know, the deer that ate everything. While technically they are not a vegetable, they prevented me from growing vegetables so I included them.
  2. Pepper problems – After a rocky start with killing my pepper starts from too much heat, the plants grew and gave me exactly 2 hot Black Hungarian peppers, and 4 small King of the North sweet peppers that promptly dropped off the plants. Seems I have still not solved the pepper plant mystery.
  3. Blue Jade Corn – I bought seeds for a rare blue miniature sweet corn, but had poor pollination due to wind and predators. I had about 8 small ears at one point, and then no ears. I wonder what it would have tasted like…
  4. Rapini (Broccoli Raab) – My first attempt at growing this was not so successful. I didn’t do my research, started too early, and allowed it to be crowded out by big brother De Cicco broccoli. But, I am not giving up on this guy just yet.
  5. Purple of Sicily Cauliflower – The plants did well, but I just never got any heads. I think I started these ones a bit too early, and the temperatures were a little too chilly for the temperamental cauliflower. Ms. Jessica tells me the leaves were tasty.
  6. Tendercrisp Celery – My first (failed and uninformed) attempt at celery. Actually, I shouldn’t say “uninformed” because I knew that celery was a picky plant and I ignored intelligent advice. My bad. Lesson learned. Next year I will do right by you, Tendercrisp.
  7. Prize Pac Choy – This was the second year I tried this one out, and while technically not a failure, I have always been unimpressed by this plant. There is one invisible insect that just loves this green, and the plants always seem to grow a little leggy and don’t form great heads as described. Once the seed is gone, I may start to research a new variety.

So there it is, some old, some new, and more adventure to come. The other fun part of next year’s garden is that I have acquired a new helper. While we are still debating whether his form of fertilizer is really what is needed in the garden, he is showing promise in the squirrel and chipmunk control department.

This is Jack, our little discount puppy we got from the shelter. He and big sister Jessica share a love of carrots, and each other.

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Happy Holidays and May 2016 bring lots of love, fun, friends, and gardening!

Live to Eat, Eat to Live

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Nutrition and Diet

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It has been a while, dear garden blog friends, and so much has been happening. This summer has been a little nutty and rather busy and now its over, dead, gone and my lawn is strewn with brown decaying leaves. Ah, autumn and its beauty.

The garden, this year, has been productive in many ways, and less successful in others. For example, my irrigation system worked better than I could have imagined and took all the guesswork out of watering. I set up a timer, which was just supposed to last for the month I was traveling in July, but it was so darn handy I never took the thing off. Sure it has its flaws, like it leaked a bit and the water-encroachment caused it to reset every once in a while, but the time-savings and reduced stress while traveling was worth it. Another success was my insect management program this year. I inter-planted the crops in order to “trick” the bad bugs, and generously spread marigold seeds around the garden border, specifically to manage the fiendish Cabbage Moth and friends. I also opened the garden up to the 4700 wild birds in the yard. The moths were able to find the brassicas after a month of searching, but barely a kale leaf was sacrificed. I loved watching the robins and bluejays and sparrows and chickadees and warblers dive-bomb the bushy plants. Hell hath no fury like a hungry birdy.

What didn’t work so well this year? Well, I opened up the garden to the 4700 wild birds in the yard, and doing so, opened it up to other hungry critters. After a year of not seeing any deer on the property, they have returned, and they returned with empty bellies. Without the bird-tight netting, the garden offered a 24-hour Vegas-style buffet without the two-hour time limit. The deer, sight-unseen, feasted and left the garden in shambles in the course of one night in late August. It was official, the white (tailed) walkers were back, and winter was coming. Would you like to know the damage tally?

  • Corn: gone
  • Tomatoes: gone
  • Swiss chard: gone
  • Pole beans: interestingly, leaves were gone, but the beans remained.
  • Winter squash: leaves gone, too early for fruit
  • Peppers: gone
  • Fall seedlings (cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, broccoli): trampled

What they didn’t take: kale, carrots, basil, fennel, eggplant, parsley. This leaves the score, Deer: 7, Me: devastated.

The only saving grace was the eggplant, which is needed to fulfill one of my New Years resolutions, to eat as much eggplant as possible. They left me the five plants untouched, undamaged, maybe because they know they are toxic, or maybe because they got too full on the tender greens. The tomatoes were hurtful. Seeing my four ready-for-the-picking, full-fruited, prized tomatoes gone in the course of one night was like being stabbed in the shoulder and thigh. It doesn’t kill you, but it is really f-ing painful.

I am not going to lie; it was hard to not be thoroughly angry at the deer. I put a lot of time and thought into that garden, and a lot of sweat and blood. No, that’s not a metaphor. There were a few times I bled into that garden. But, in the end, what was I going to do about it? The deer were doing what deer do: survive the Hunger Games that is their life. The truth is, their entire species has had a tough go at it in Wisconsin. Cronic Wasting Disease is no fun, and neither is the reintroduction of the gray wolf and the coyote. Seeing as how many deer starve to death in the winter, I have to meditate this away, and find acceptance. The garden will continue to grow, and they will continue to feast, and maybe we can find a happy medium.

Swiss Chard after the deer.

Swiss Chard after the deer.

Leaf-stripped pole beans. Makes the bean picking easier.

Leaf-stripped pole beans. Makes the bean picking easier.

In other news, after an embarrassingly unhealthy summer of travel eating, I am reaffirming my commitment to vegetablism. What is that you ask? Who knows, I just made it up. I love all things nutrition, and I love reading books on new diet fads, and trends. Can’t get enough! I mean, all fad diets are absolutely, completely ridiculous, but as a student of life-knowledge I want to know about them all. It is my personal belief that any “diet” that requires a person to take handfuls of vitamin supplements is just not cutting it. Neither is any diet that tries to mimic the diet of our Neanderthal ancestors. We all know that Neanderthals went extinct right?

I used to try these diets a lot in my twenties and the only change they caused was the onset of food-anxiety. I have accepted that I will never be the 120 lbs I was on my wedding day, but that’s okay because the papers were signed and half of CFOs money and property is mine whether I later go on to star on TLC’s 600-lb Life or not. I remind him of this routinely.

But in all seriousness, part of my love of gardening is that I have learned over my life that I feel best when my diet consists of mostly vegetables and fruits and other plant foods. I do love meat too, and would find it challenging (and a little sad) to be fully vegetarian. (Being vegan is not remotely possible because I live in Wisconsin, and if I don’t meat the minimum criteria of 250 lbs of cheese consumption a year I will lose my benefits card.) I don’t need to eat meat all the time, or even every day and I also think the American obsession with protein is a little wackadoo, when clearly the people that can afford to eat only bacon and steak are not the sub-group at risk of protein deficiency. But I digress…

I recently read the China Study by T. Colin Campbell and found its premise fascinating: all diets that are not vegan will give you cancer and kill you. Okay, maybe that’s a broad generalization, but I think that some of the info presented has merit. An animal-free diet was found to significantly reduce the risk of many cancers, heart disease and diabetes and other acquired health diseases. Now, because of the aforementioned Wisconsin benefit card, I will not shun all animal products quite yet. The study does provide me with some merit for my pro-vegetable lifestyle, and validation always feels good. If you were not aware, the China Study is the basis for the book and documentary Forks Over Knives, which advocates not using olive oil or drinking wine. To that I say, I don’t need to live forever.

Now that the garden is heading to its close for the year, keeping seasonal produce the foundation of my diet will get challenging, but for health and personal satisfaction its important to me. So, I am reaffirming my commitment to this semi-vegetarian vegetablism, right after I use up the 245 lbs of venison meat in the freezer.

Et tu, March?

07 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Garden Plan

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It was around this time of year when Caesar was betrayed by his best friend and protégé, Brutus. I don’t pretend to understand the inner workings of ancient Roman senate proceedings, but I do know all too well that stab-in-the-back feeling every March. You know what I am talking about.

The weather warms, the first glisten of sunshine before 7:00 AM, and that first robin sighting! It is all so exciting and you think, its time! It’s going to be SPRING! And then March shows up, and I mean really shows up and ruins everything by being, well, March. That one last winter storm mid-March is an annual betrayal that somehow always surprises me. They say “in like a lion, out like a lamb” that’s March, but I think we all know its more like, “in like a cute big-eyed red fox, but as it gets closer it rips apart and eats your designer toy poodle, and out like a satisfied no-longer-hungry just-as-wily fox.”

Okay, so maybe my metaphor is a bit extreme, but the month of March has always frustrated me. It’s cold, and snowy and it is supposed to usher in spring time but it takes so goddamned long to get through, and all I want to do is put some seeds into the ground. But because March is a lying, betraying frenemy, I know that those seeds must be strong and resistant to March’s bitter games and hold their own. The garden beds are (shockingly) completely snow-covered so I have a few weeks left to simmer and be antsy, but in the meantime let’s talk cold weather leafy greens! Here is my plan for late March plantings, once I see evidence that my garden beds still exist.

Spinach

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I am currently in love with Bloomsdale spinach, an heirloom variety from 1826 that is utterly delicious. Bloomsdale was once THE spinach that was grown in the US, but it does not hold up well during shipping, and was replaced with the current hybrid you see on the markets. It’s too bad really, because its flavor is tender and sweet and tastes fantastic fresh or cooked. It likes cool weather but is very slow to bolt (go to seed) so lasts longer though the season. It can be harvested from baby to full-grown age, and like most greens, can be continually harvested until it is spent, and for me that is when it heats up around late June. I have some seed left over from last year that I will probably use up this year. I can grow 9 plants per square foot, and I will start with 2 square feet of spinach this spring.

Arugula

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This Apollo arugula is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Technically, I think arugula gets classified as an herb, and it has an intense spicy flavor, which is fabulous with a little citrus and olive oil. I love it as a salad green or slightly wilted, and it packs quite a nutritional punch. This is a green that grows very fast and because it grows in cold weather, has very limited predators (other than the human kind). Arugula doesn’t take up much space, and can be easily grown in a pot. I can get 16 plants to one square foot, and will plant 2 feet this spring. That’s a lot of arugula! And it will go to good, delicious use.

Peas

Another fast growing staple of springtime is the garden pea. Well, there are many kinds of peas actually. There are the snow pea types (edible flat pods), snap varieties (edible pods with big fat peas, usually sweeter), and English peas or garden peas, which are grown for the starchy large peas and not the fibrous tough pods.

With my two garden beds, I have limited space for peas because they do require trellising so I am sticking to three varieties this year, to be split between spring and fall plantings. The great thing about peas is that they will produce as fast as you can keep them picked and I can put 8 plants in one square foot of garden space, which I will split between my spring picks:

IMG_1507Amish Snap – This is a very tasty snap pea, reportedly from the Amish community. The pods are large and edible. I prefer to eat the pods when they are young. Once the peas get large and the pods swell, the pods get tough. That’s when they are better as shelled peas. These get tall, about 6-7 feet high, so a decent sized trellis is needed.

IMG_1499Golden Sweet Peas – A new variety for my garden, these peas are lemony yellow in color and flat-podded. The description simply states: “collected from a Market in India. Rare and tasty.” I can get behind that! I will grow 4 plants with the Amish Snap peas and hope there is limited cross-pollination.

Endive

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This is a new one for me this year and I am very excited about it. This variety is Très Fine Maraîchère and is a fast growing French frisee. Endive is related to chicory and radicchio, and not technically a lettuce as we know it, but it is used like lettuce and adds a nice bitterness (if you like that sorta thing) to the mix.

Lettuce

Lettuce is the quintessential spring veggie and so of course I must grow unmanageable quantities! Well, that is what I thought last year. I also learned that lettuce, if you don’t want baby mixes every day, takes some time. Baby lettuces are great but I really love a nice head of romaine and butter, so this spring I am limiting my lettuce plantings to save room for summer vegetable space. Fall time is when I will really hit the lettuce bandwagon and go crazy. Here is the plan for this spring:

IMG_1504Winter Density – I can get 4 of these into a square foot. Winter Density is kind of half-way between romaine and bibb. The leaves are crisp and refreshing, and the rich green outer leaves can be picked early on. This is a slow growing variety, and the heads get to a size just larger than a softball, which is the perfect amount for a two-person salad.

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Mantilia – This was a big winner last year, and was specifically requested by CFO for the garden this year. Mantilia is a butterhead lettuce, pale creamy green, extremely tender and really special for a salad. The heads have large loose leaves that can be picked as needed and are great for stuffing or lettuce wraps, and the heads will keep producing more leaves for the picking. I will put 4 plants in a square foot this spring.

IMG_1502Paris Island Cos – This is a new romaine lettuce I got from a clearance bin last fall. The packet describes this as “large erect oval well-formed heads with dark green outer leaves and lighter green interior. It is a valuable green salad variety, crisp mildly bitter with endive-like flavor.” Sounds good to me. I will put 4 of these into a square foot space this spring.

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Leaf lettuce – Once of my favorite seeds suppliers, Seed Savers Exchange, sells a mixed-seed packet of lettuces for cutting. This mix contains Australian Yellowleaf, Forellenschluss, Pablo, Red Velvet and “at least four more varieties.” So, basically I have no clue what lettuces these all are, but I spread the seeds around one square foot and start trimming when they get about 4” high and then I have fancy “organic spring mix” just like in the plastic tubs at the grocery store. Delicioso!

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Prizehead Early – Another clearance item, this lettuce is a red/bronze color with frilly leaves. I plan to grow this as a leaf lettuce in another square foot space. I think it will add some fun to my salads this spring. Hopefully it’s a tasty one.

So there you have it, my planting list that is on hold pending decent weather. After the inevitable March betrayal, and once the snow melts, we can get the garden started with some frost-tolerant greens, which will be the first harvests of the spring and make for some great eats. I cannot wait to share some home grown kitchen fun with you all.

Just please remember to water the greens this time.

Just please remember to water the greens this time.

Seed Germination: A Love Story

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, How-To

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February has just poked its tired little blanket-wrapped head around the corner, got spooked, and dumped 8 inches of Lake Michigan blizzard onto southeastern Wisconsin. This is not just accidental, this is kismet. February is, after all, a very romantic month, and cold snowy weather is just more reason to stay inside and snuggle by the fire. Not only is it Valentine’s Day, but February also marks the anniversary of CFO and my first date, and my birthday. Needless to say, a pretty great month for me, and a costly month for CFO. With all the love in the air, February is a great month to start planning for a spring (garden) family. If you are like me, you have been thumbing through seed catalogs since December, making lists, changing your mind, ordering new and different catalogs, wondering if there are other seeds out there you haven’t even considered…or maybe you have a significantly healthier relationship with your seed catalogs. Either way, February is a great time to take stock of last year’s seeds, and think about what worked, what didn’t, what you can use again, and what will need to be reordered.

Plants are not complex beings: they grow, hoard nutrients to flourish, until they sense the end is near and they put all their focus and effort into making seeds to ensure they leave something for their progeny. See that, plants are nothing more than aged parents with a solid end-of-life plan. In nature, these seeds have a rough life ahead of them: wind, cold, animals eating them, drought, etc. By the time they settle down and decide to start a family of their own, they are well-traveled little microcosms of nutrition. In nurture (not nature), we collect these seeds by hand, keep them dry and safe until we are ready for the subsequent bounty. Seeds have the best chances when they are sown the year after they are formed. After that, their viability will go down, some more than others.

I planted over 20 varieties of vegetables last year from seed, and most of those seeds are packed into a plastic box inside the night stand of my guest room (don’t ask). Being financially conscious and knowing that I probably only used at most 20% of those seeds, I don’t want to buy them all over again. The thing is, who I am I to say they won’t grow up to be famous? Or, I love them too much, to let them go. What is a love-struck seed obsessed girl to do? Well, she can totally test those slightly older seeds for virility. Unfortunately, there is no blue pill to help them go a little longer once they are past their prime.

To germinate most seeds, all you need is a little water. This reminds me of the little encapsulated bath sponges my sister and I would get as kids. During bath time, we would throw these little colored pills into the water, and poof! a magical sponge creature would emerge, like a dinosaur or a giraffe. The sponge was 10 times the size of the pill casing. Seeds are no different. You can poof! the seeds in a similar way.

Select what seeds you want to check. I picked Scarlet Nantes carrots and these Hollow Crown parsnips I got last summer from a $0.25 clearance bin.

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Carrots have very sporadic germination, and germination of parsnips rapidly decreases after the first year. For each seed you are testing take two paper towels together, label the variety near the top in pencil or indelible marker.

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Depending on how many seeds you have remaining, you want to pick a good number to check. This is a percentage game, so the more you use, the better the results. I have enough left, so I decided to use a test of 30 seeds each.

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Wet the paper towels and squeeze out as much water as you can so they are damp, but not soaking. Spread the seeds out so they are not near each other, making sure to keep the carrot seeds on the carrot paper towel, and parsnips on the parsnip paper towel. Roll up the paper towels with the seeds inside, and place into a plastic zipper bag. Press out any extra air, and seal.

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You will want to know the average time of germination for these seeds. For both carrot and parsnip, it could be anywhere from 5-25 days. Put the seed test bags somewhere safe. The water in the paper towels should provide enough water to saturate the seed hulls so they can germinate. You may want to check the paper towels every couple of days to make sure they are still damp. If they dry out, you will want to add a little more water.

After five days, I can check the seeds. Slowly unroll the paper towels and see if any magic has happened.

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Huh. I don’t remember using printed paper towels. Because all of that is mold. Check the seeds and pull out any that have sprouted and any that are moldy. The moldy seeds will look either black or fuzzy or both. Write down how many seeds for each have sprouts on them. They may try to stick to the paper towel. Just pull them off. Roll the towels back up, and put them back into the bags. Set aside, and check a few days later.

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Sprouted Scarlet Nantes carrots after 5 days.

Wowza! Look at those carrots. After the first 5 days, I had a 70% germination rate, and after 10 days, it’s over 90%. I don’t think I need to take this further. These carrots will work just fine.

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Sprouted Hollow Crown parsnips after 10 days.

As for those parsnips, I didn’t have anything after 5 days, and only 12 seeds that sprouted after 10 days. I can either let this go until 25 days, or judging by the mold growth, I can assume that going further will be futile.

So my old carrots are still going strong and don’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon. Parsnips, however, are not aging with quite as much grace. A 40% germination rate, though, is not nearly as terrible as I expected. I will still try to use these parsnip seeds, but I may increase my plantings to 6 seeds per slot instead of my usual 3. The lower the germination rate, the more seeds should be sown to ensure that something will emerge.

How simple was that? No go forth and test every seed from last year.

seedpackets

You have got to be kidding me.

I am! What is the point of all of this, when so many smart people have already done the work? If you tend to hold seeds past the expected lifespan or if you play fast and loose with storage conditions, it may be worth testing for germination so you can suck every ounce of life left in those guys. But you and your seeds will have a better relationship if you follow these simple guidelines for some of my favorite vegetables and herbs:

Plant Average Seed Longevity
Arugula 4
Beans, Pole and Bush 2-3
Beet 3-5
Bok Choi. Chinese Cabbage 3
Broccoli 3-5
Brussel Sprouts 3-5
Cabbage 3-5
Carrot 2-3
Cauliflower 3-5
Celery 2-3
Corn 1-2
Cucumber 3-5
Eggplant 3-5
Endive 5
Fennel 4
Kale 4
Lettuce 3-5
Parsnip 1
Peas 2-3
Pepper 2-3
Radish 4-5
Spinach 1-3
Squash (winter, summer, zucchini) 3-4
Swiss Chard 2-4
Tomato 3-4
Parsley 1-2
Flower, annual 1-3
Flower, pernnial 2-4
Melon 4-5

There you have it, seed germination practice to keep you and your plants happy, healthy, and growing in love for years, and years, to come.

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These carrots taste a little off.

You Stock Questions? I Stock Answers.

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Cost Cutting, Not a Garden Post, Recipes

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It is mid-January, and this is a garden blog. Lately I have been asking myself, who starts a garden blog in January!? When the earth surrounding you looks like the dark days of Narnia, there is not a whole lot to sow and grow. What is even in season in January, you ask? If you’re lucky enough to have a root cellar, maybe you have storage potatoes, turnips and rutabagas ready for cooking, or if you left a few carrots in the garden and you’re happy digging up the frozen tundra, I guess that’s seasonal. Up north, our much more tropical distant states graciously send oranges, pineapple and pomegranates to the arctic markets, but really, the only produce that is “in season” in southeast Wisconsin are what was frozen at the end of last summer. And at this point, all that’s left in my freezer is raspberries, blackberries, peas and a vast assortment of herbs. So what is a seasonal-minded home cook to do come January? First off, she is to calm down and buy some damn groceries. Second, she is to take advantage of the cold and make some rich, warm, silky chicken/turkey/beef/any-tasty-meat soup stock to fill with beans, grains, and root vegetables from the pantry. January is, after all, soup season. Now, I am not at food-hoarder level, but I am pretty much a certifiable food extreme cheapskate. While I do not (yet) collect scarps left on diner’s plates at restaurants, the more food I am not throwing away, the less I am paying at the grocery store to replace it. Of course, part of this is that I despise food waste. Food waste is kind of like a slap in the face of everyone that has ever gone a day without food. Additionally, most of our processed foods have chemical preservatives so they don’t readily break down in our landfills. Financially, food waste is a bummer. Ecologically, food waste is a super bummer. Vegetable gardening has not only improved the quality of my dinner table deliverables, but has expanded my view on food and food use. What does any of this have to do with soup? I give you The Ultimate Cheapskate (and delicious!) Chicken Stock. This is so simple and can cost almost no moolah if you make a few adjustments to your routine food preparation STEP 1: Gather your Equipment IMG_1268 That’s it. Right there. A large pot. If you have a stockpot, even better. But I don’t and I make it work, albeit with some manhandling. STEP 2: Collect your Ingredients IMG_1269 What is that bag of green stuff? That is two weeks worth of vegetable scraps that would otherwise be destined for the trash bin. This is KEY #1 to The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. During the summer, most of my vegetable scraps go into Jessica’s dinner bowl or the compost bin, but by the winter, the compost is full and very slowly breaking down so I can’t dump the scraps as often as I need, so I simply keep a bag in the freezer and throw in anything that I think would flavor a stock. I usually stick to aromatics in the onion family, fresh herbs, dark greens, and roots like carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc. I avoid potatoes, which will add too much starch, and anything too flavorful like tomatoes, which can overpower the flavor. But, its really chef’s choice and every stock batch I make has a different profile. Its part of the fun! IMG_1270 Let’s see, in the mystery freezer bag I have some leeks, ginger peel, green onion, fennel stalk, Swiss chard stems, and spinach. These are the parts that I didn’t use for fresh cooking, or got a little old or wilted in the fridge. Just pop them into the freezer bag. Nothing to waste. This might add 30 seconds on to each meal you prepare. Assuming you prepare on average 1 meal a day with fresh produce, over the course of a year that is 3 hours additional work. The pot I use is a 6-quart capacity. For that size, I will throw in about 3-4 handfuls, give or take, of veggies from the bag. Now, pay attention! These measurements are crucial and precision is key to successful stock. IMG_1273 I could only use my mystery bag to flavor the stock, but there are some staples that I always have on hand and I like to throw into the pot. IMG_1272 Carrot, celery and garlic make great stock and add some goodness as well. I chop one carrot, one rib of celery, and as much garlic as I want. You will see I don’t bother peeling the carrot. It’s all good stuff, just wash or scrub any scary dirt you see. When you peel carrots for food preparation, in fact, you can save the peels and throw them into the mystery freezer bag. No waste! For the garlic, peel and smash the cloves. I don’t bother chopping. The flavor will release in the pot. IMG_1274 IMG_1275 IMG_1276 IMG_1278 Add it all to the pot. IMG_1280 Already I am getting hungry. If I were making vegetable stock, I would add way more vegetables. But I am making The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. Now I will tell you about KEY #2: the chicken. IMG_1271 If that looks like a frozen chicken carcass, you would be correct! Just like my waste vegetables, I save the shells of the animals I consume. My freezer looks like it belongs at a Hannibal Lector dinner party. I don’t compost meat because 1) it attracts raccoons and coyotes, and 2) its illegal in my city. So what we don’t eat, I freeze. This primarily consists of bones and organ meats. For example, Thanksgiving turkeys, rotisserie chickens, ham bones, beef bones, and bones of any non-human food animal (my freezer would not actually be useful at a Hannibal Lector dinner party). This also may add an additional 30 seconds to your meal cleanup. On average I collect the bones of my enemies…er…dinner once a month. That is 6 minutes over a year. Wow. The time commitment is really adding up. IMG_1281 STEP #4: Fill the Pot with Water IMG_1282 STEP #5: Bring to Boil, Cover, Simmer Now just fill that bad boy up with water, feel free to grind in some pepper, or other dried herbs you wish, bring to boiling, pop on a lid and set to low and simmer simmer simmer as long as you want. I recommend at least 6 hours for the flavoring components to thaw and for the good stuff to be pulled into the water. If you are fortunate enough to be at home during the day, or work at home, like me, you can start this in the morning, forget about it entirely, and emerge from work 10 hours later and the entire house smells like chicken noodle soup. My mouth is watering. IMG_1286 For the majority of you who may have to leave your house everyday, this might be a weekend project, or you can do everything in a slow cooker on low. The total prep to get the pot going takes about 10 minutes. 10 minutes!!! I make stock about once a month in the winter, which where I live is 6 months, so that’s a total of 1 hour over a year’s time. Okay so I have a pot full of stock, chicken and vegetables, now what? Now, I must be honest. This next part is the most labor intensive of the entire process. You have a few options here to strain the solids from the liquid. My preferred method is to use a large measuring bowl and cheesecloth. IMG_1289 STEP #6: Strain Stock I use a 12-cup measuring bowl with a pour spout, and cheesecloth that is approximately $1.50 for two yards at the grocery store and it lasts me the entire year. Just spread a cut piece of cheesecloth over the bowl, and verrrrryyy sllloowwwly pour the finished stock over the cheesecloth. If you pour too fast, the cheesecloth will collapse and won’t strain well. IMG_1290 Next, just gather the edges of the cheesecloth to bundle the solids and remove. You can use a strainer to remove any large pieces that were missed. IMG_1292 I mean look at that color! You will notice that the Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock is deeper in color and more opaque than it’s commercially prepared fancy cousins. That is due to the inconsistency and variety of flavoring components. Also, did I mention that this version is completely fat-free? No? That’s because it is not. It is not even close to being fat-free, which is why you will see it is so. damn. tasty. The chicken fat, proteins collagen and gelatin, and bone minerals all melt into the liquid with the leached vitamins and minerals from the vegetables. Smooth. Silky. Flavorful. Full of goodness. You will see. STEP #7: Cool Stock Once the liquid is separated, it will be hot. You can let it rest at room temperature for an hour (at most two), and then just cover with plastic wrap, make a few slits to vent, and pop into your fridge. Your best bet is to cool it in a place with lots of air circulation. My fridge is perpetually empty because we eat everything that’s in there, so I always have room. You want to bring the temperature down to at least 100°F, or warm to touch, but not hot. The bowl should be cool. While it’s chilling out, take some time to prepare your freezer bags. This is KEY #3: Freeze the Stock. I do this with a bottle of wine. That’s not a requirement, per se, but…isn’t it? I use 1-quart freezer bags because they can easily hold 2 cups of liquid. For 12 cups of stock, that would be 6 bags. I label the bags with the name of the innards “chix stock,” the amount “2 c.,” and date it was made. This allows me to keep a first-in, first-out inventory in the freezer. IMG_1296 But why can’t I just keep it all in the fridge? Because this is pure stuff and even with all that boiling, bacteria, yeast and mold that live in your kitchen (yes, they do) have instantly taken up residence in the stock. See, there are many benefits that preservatives provide. Increased shelf life is assuredly one of them. I have found that the stock stored in the fridge will stay fresh tasting for about 4-5 days at best. It could go longer, but you want to ensure you are re-cooking it (boiling) with all subsequent use. If you are planning to use it in the next few days, by all means don’t bother freezing. In fact, I usually keep 2 cups in the fridge to get me through the next few days. STEP #8: Freeze Stock Take your cooled stock out of the fridge. You may see a layer of oil collected at the top. If you cooled it long enough, you may see a hard layer solidify. You can scrape that of (if hardened) to remove some of the fat, or use a fat separating measuring cup. This style of measuring cup works because it is plugged at the spout and the spout feeds from the bottom of the cup. Pour 2 cups of stock into the measuring cup with the spout plugged, and then pour it off slowly into the bag (with the spout unplugged of course), stopping when the oil layer reaches the base of the spout. IMG_1299 Carefully seal up the bags, pushing out as much air as you can without spilling. You will notice that if you lay the bags flat, they self-level as all liquids do. I like to lay the bags flat on a large tray, and pop the tray right into the freezer and let freeze overnight. This makes flat, easy to store, 2-cup chicken stock blocks. IMG_1301 Now, you don’t have to use the freezer-bag method. Any freezer container would work. I highly recommend adapting to what best suits you and your stock usage requirements. So the last step takes the most time commitment. I would say, it’s a good 30-minute active process to prep the bags, pour and freeze. That amounts to an additional 3 hours annually, keeping with my 6-month stock-making schedule. So, how much time are we talking? Well let’s do the math:

  • 3 hours to collect vegetable scraps
  • 6 minutes to save meat and poultry bones
  • 1 hour to prepare the stock
  • 3 hours to freeze the stock

This brings us to a grand total time commitment of 7 hours and 6 minutes. That’s quite a lot, if it were in one day. But this is over the course of ONE YEAR. One year, friends. That sounds all well and good, but how much is this going to cost me? Oh I am sooo glad you asked! CFO talks about time-equity a lot and it usually goes something like, “blah blah blah, time, blah, blah, blah, money, blah blah blah, equity” and ends with him telling me that we cannot get a chicken coop. I think the point he is trying to make is that before I decide to take on a major project, I should assess the real value of the work involved. So here is my financial assessment of home stock making, per 12 cups (96 oz):

  • Scrap Vegetable cost: $0      Saved from the trash bin
  • Chicken bones: $0      Saved from the trash bin
  • 1 Carrot, 1 celery, 5 garlic: $0.12      Estimate based on full purchase price
  • Freezer bags: $0.67      Six bags at $0.11
  • Water and electricity: $1.00      I completely made this up
  • Gadgets and utensils: $0      Assumed these are owned (pot, tray, bowl, etc)
  • Labor: $0      I determined that labor is negligible, because it actually takes me longer to grocery shop for said chicken stock.

TOTAL COST:   $1.79 Now compare this to commercially prepared chicken stock. I used Target.com to estimate the purchase price of two popular brands:

  • Kitchen Basics Unsalted            $2.54 for 32 oz.
  • Swanson Stock Unsalted            $2.69 for 26 oz.

To purchase 96 oz, it would take 3 containers of Kitchen Basics ($7.62) and 4 containers of Swanson’s ($10.76). My homemade version is 20-25% of the cost!! Additionally, using the estimate of 6 lots of homemade stock a year, that is an overall savings of $35.00-$54.00 annually. I like that, and at least now I can provide numbers to CFO when he asks why I have to fill our freezer with bagged bird carcasses. I don’t use that much chicken stock so this all seems pointless. Hey, to each his own. I actually use stock all the time. The possibilities are endless:

  • Base for soups, stews, chilis as expected, either full strength or diluted to make broth
  • Mix with cornstarch to thicken sauces with more flavor
  • Deglaze a pan
  • Replaces water when cooking grains (rice, bulghur, faro, quinoa, etc.)
  • Dilute with water and use to steam vegetables
  • Reheat until hot, drink during a cold/flu for vitamin-packed punch
  • Poach fish and shellfish
  • Use to make gravy and sauces for meat
  • The best damn risotto you ever had

I use stock to replace water in most savory applications. Try it out, and you too will be hooked.

No Jessica! I need the carrot for the chicken stock!

No Jessica! I need the carrot for the chicken stock!

RECIPE: The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious) Chicken Stock Makes 12 cups Total active time: 40 minutes Total time: 7-10 hours Ingredients:

  • 3-4 cups mixed vegetable scraps, roughly chopped (onions, leeks, dark leafy greens, etc)
  • 1 carrot, roughly chopped
  • 1 celery rib, roughly chopped
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, smashed
  • Bones and cartilage from 1 whole chicken
  • 13 cups water
  • 1 tsp ground pepper (optional)

Directions Add all ingredients to pot, cook on med-high to bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 6 hours. Remove from heat and strain to remove solids. Cool to below 100°F in refrigerator. Pour stock into freezer containers of choice and freeze until solid. Storage Frozen stock will taste best if used within 6 months, but can be stored frozen indefinitely. For stock stored in the refrigerator, use within 5 days.

A Look Back at the Beginning

01 Thursday Jan 2015

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Today is January 1, 2015. This marks the first day of a new year and my very first blog post. How utterly exciting. I have decided to blog my experience with growing my own food for a few reasons. The first, because I had been keeping a journal on paper old-skool and that makes my hand cramp. Seriously, the art of writing is definitely long lost. The second reason is because I get asked for photos of my garden often and my Facebook page is getting cluttered. The third reason is because I have an inflated sense of importance and think people really, truly care about what I have to say. Finally, I am doing this is because I want to prove to myself the seemingly impossible, that is, work around the clock and also treat yourself well in the form of really really good food and save some moolah to boot.

So…let us begin this journey. As some of you may know, my garden began just a year ago, in early 2014. I raked the internets looking for directions on how to make a garden bed. There are so many sites and so many recommendations. I settled on the advice of this website, which provides directions for a 4′ x 8′ raised garden bed. I decided on raised garden beds in order to maximize efficiency by utilizing a form of Square Food Gardening, or SFG. This method of gardening relies on deep soil and maximized plant-to-space ratios over traditional row gardening. It reduces compaction because you don’t have to walk on the dirt. A 4′ x 8′ bed is ideal for me, because I can easily reach across 2 feet to plant, weed and hoe without so much trouble.

First garden bed, early spring planting done.

First garden bed, early spring planting done.

For the bed, I used untreated cedar. You can make a raised bed out of anything. Cedar is a good option as it is naturally rot resistant. Untreated is important for growing food. Treated lumber uses chemicals that, while better than the arsenic soup of years past, are still not meant to be sucked up into green leaf cells and consumed. Along with using untreated lumber, you will probably not want to seal or stain the wood for the very same reason, which is why a rot-resistant wood is important. Of course you could go crazy and use brick, cement or other durable materials. They are kind of heavy.

For my bed, I excavated a space large enough for the bed to sit. I lined the  soil with black permeable weed cloth and a good layer of chicken wire to keep out those diggers/root thieves. I filled the box with a 50-50 mix of top soil and compost purchased in bulk locally. An entire truck load (1 yard) cost me a whopping $25. The delivery fee was $50. Somethings will never make sense. I also attached PVC pipe to assist in adding hoops for early plants. All in all, one bed cost approximately $150 to make, and should last 5-8 years.

After some surprising success with one 32 cubic foot garden bed, I decided to add another for this upcoming year. That is, two 4′ x 8′ raised garden

Mmmm, tart cherries getting ready to make pie.

Mmmm, tart cherries getting ready to make pie.

beds, 64 cubic feet of soil. In addition, I commandeered an old cement block 4′ x 4′ planting bed for 16 asparagus plants, revived a 20′ raspberry trellis, and put some TLC into existing pear trees (2) and a Montmorency tart cherry tree.

Another decision I made, which I feel very strongly about, was to use near-exclusively heirloom seeds. Just a little explanation on that one. Heirloom seeds are the seeds of yore, that are almost forgotten. They are seeds of delectable fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and other plants that have been saved throughout the generations when agribusiness has all but made them extinct. Today, many people might be aware that there are literally hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, thanks to a bit of a revolution, but what about the hundreds of cucumber and sweet pea varieties? That’s right. We are only just beginning. My go-to for these seeds

The possibilities are endless.

The possibilities are endless.

is Seed Savers Exchange. SSE is a non-profit that focuses on saving the seeds of yesteryear for today’s enjoyment. They make a certain selection of these seeds available every year for people like me to purchase and grow. There are many organizations that do this, and now many seed companies that are selling heirloom varieties. When the catalogs arrive in the dead of winter, its like Christmas! The SSE seed packets usually run around $3/packet, which sounds like a bit much, but that is for hundreds, if not thousands of seeds. Compare that to $2.00/plant at a discount greenhouse. If that plant dies, or doesn’t make it to fruit, you need to spend another $2.00 to replace it. Meanwhile, you have seeds on seeds on seeds waiting to sprout.

Now we have established the basics: sunlight, water, soil, raised beds, and heirloom seeds. Take a look at my palette.

Empty beds and empty (dinner) tables.

Empty beds and empty (dinner) tables.

Asparagus ferns in December

Asparagus ferns in December

Raspberry and blackberry canes.

Raspberry and blackberry canes.

Barren fruit trees. Pear, pear, cherry.

Barren fruit trees. Pear, pear, cherry.

Everything appears dead. And brown. And yellow. But I know the truth. I know that those sad, withered canes are just hibernating. I know that those spindly trees will blossom once again. I know that under those feathery yellow asparagus ferns are starchy roots that will be the first sign of life come spring time. I know that those two empty wood boxes will become so overwhelmed by lush greenery that I will be fighting to contain it. What miracles, and what fun! I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

IMG_0727

Jessica will be hibernating until the basil is ready.