I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had decided to dry my beans. Why? Well, I'd originally planted them to eat them green, but after only a couple of times of that, I just fell behind and ended up with plants full of fat green beans at the end of the season. Once they get those full beans (the seeds) inside, they're no good for eating green anymore. I could have let them dry on the vine if we'd had nicer weather, but about that time it turned wet, and we had frost predicted on several occasions. Frost that never materialized and hasn't to date, but it meant bringing them in.
I went out and pulled all the bean plants and stripped them of their fat pods. I had four teepees of beans, with three stakes per teepee. Each stake had two plants, which means a total of 24 bean plants about 6' high. Took me a couple of hours to strip them all bare and pull out the stakes, pile up the vines and leaves for compost, and put all the beans into a bucket.
After I had all the bean pods inside, I used some heavy cotton sewing thread to stitch them all into 3' long strings, by simply running a needle and thread through the end of each bean. Once I had about 3', I tied the strings to the bottom of a sturdy coathanger, about 5 bundles per coathanger. Then I took them down to the woodstove and hung them from cracks behind the stove, against the brick, to dry out thoroughly.
A few days ago, my husband came to me with a handful of chocolatey brown beans and let me know that the pods were splitting open and dropping their beans everywhere. I interpreted that as, "Your stupid beans are getting everywhere, do something!" So tonight I took them all down, got a bucket, and shelled all the beans out. We ended up burning the dry pods, but I was thinking that they'd probably make good feed supplements for ruminants, if we'd had any.
After all that, I wound up with about 4 pints of beautiful brown beans. 4 pints. I figure it was about 2 hours each picking, stringing, and shelling, so over an hour to get a single pint of beans. *looking at large bag of beans picked up at Costco* Well, at least I know these are organic! Plus, drying them wasn't the original intent, it was just the result of wanting to save the last of the beans from going to waste. Now, we'll see how they actually taste...
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
How Not To Grow Tomatoes
My tomatoes did horribly this year. I know why, so I thought I'd share!
For one thing, I planted them far too late into the season, due to a variety of factors including a late start on the seedlings and a late start getting the raised beds done, coupled with the fear of starting them too early. As it was, they wound up 2-3 weeks too late into the season, or about the end of June. They should really have been in ground by the beginning of June, covered with a light row cover if necessary to prevent frost damage.
Due to what I suspect is way too much nitrogen in the soil (heavy compost load in the soil), the plants got GINORMOUS, and as a result they crowded against one another, broke their tomato cages and in some cases literally snapped the stakes in half, and fell over. I planted them quite far apart, and in fact my husband teased me about how much room I left between them. Or he did, until they started to get big. But the upshot is, they got too big and both undid themselves with their own weight and crowded out all possibility of light and air getting to the inner parts of the plants. No ventilation = bad juju.
And then there was the overhead watering. Due to the speed with which we had to get the plants in the soil this year, we ended up not being able to install the drip irrigation system we normally use. Instead, we installed a "spic spic spic whirrrrr" type sprayer at the center of the garden and let it water everything. Overhead watering is NOT usually a good thing for gardens, and it really proved true this year. I wound up with foliar problems I've not faced in the past, and between that and the lack of ventilation under the tomatoes, they stayed rather damp.
And finally, when the tomatoes were finally setting on and just thinking about ripening, we had a couple of weeks of cool, dampish weather and rain. Boom, late blight. Now from my research I've been doing, it looks like late blight is not common in our area and is usually found in the Northeast, but I'm almost entirely certain that's what's wrong with the tomatoes. They got yellowed and spotty on the leaves, and the tomatoes themselves developed brown leathery areas near the top of the stems. We ended up with only a few pounds of ripe, edible tomatoes from 42+ plants, and a few pounds more of edible green tomatoes. Rather ridiculous.
On the up side, it turns out that late blight doesn't typically overwinter in the soil, so if I pull all the plants out and get rid of the blighted plants in the garbage, it shouldn't recur next year. I will be sure to plant the tomatoes in another part of the vegetable bed as well, just in case. Though the spores are wind-blown and would travel easily to another part of the garden, the largest concentration should be in the soil at the base of the currently affected plants, so by moving to another bed I should hopefully avoid the worst potential for contamination.
To Sum Up...
* Plant tomatoes with LOTS of space between them, to insure adequate air flow and ventilation.
* Plant early enough to leave them time to ripen in the heat of the summer sun, so they're not trying to ripen in the cool, wet fall weather. This may mean using Wall O Water or some row covers to lengthen your growing season in spring.
* Nix the overhead watering. Drip systems win.
* Don't overdo the nitrogen fertilizer, or the nitrogen-rich compost.
* Pull up and destroy blighted plants as soon as blight appears. Do not compost blighted plants. Blight can cross to potatoes, eggplants, solanacious weeds (like nightshade) and petunias, so watch those plants as well.
* Don't plant tomatoes in the same spot where diseased or pest-laden tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants grew the previous year.
For one thing, I planted them far too late into the season, due to a variety of factors including a late start on the seedlings and a late start getting the raised beds done, coupled with the fear of starting them too early. As it was, they wound up 2-3 weeks too late into the season, or about the end of June. They should really have been in ground by the beginning of June, covered with a light row cover if necessary to prevent frost damage.
Due to what I suspect is way too much nitrogen in the soil (heavy compost load in the soil), the plants got GINORMOUS, and as a result they crowded against one another, broke their tomato cages and in some cases literally snapped the stakes in half, and fell over. I planted them quite far apart, and in fact my husband teased me about how much room I left between them. Or he did, until they started to get big. But the upshot is, they got too big and both undid themselves with their own weight and crowded out all possibility of light and air getting to the inner parts of the plants. No ventilation = bad juju.
And then there was the overhead watering. Due to the speed with which we had to get the plants in the soil this year, we ended up not being able to install the drip irrigation system we normally use. Instead, we installed a "spic spic spic whirrrrr" type sprayer at the center of the garden and let it water everything. Overhead watering is NOT usually a good thing for gardens, and it really proved true this year. I wound up with foliar problems I've not faced in the past, and between that and the lack of ventilation under the tomatoes, they stayed rather damp.
And finally, when the tomatoes were finally setting on and just thinking about ripening, we had a couple of weeks of cool, dampish weather and rain. Boom, late blight. Now from my research I've been doing, it looks like late blight is not common in our area and is usually found in the Northeast, but I'm almost entirely certain that's what's wrong with the tomatoes. They got yellowed and spotty on the leaves, and the tomatoes themselves developed brown leathery areas near the top of the stems. We ended up with only a few pounds of ripe, edible tomatoes from 42+ plants, and a few pounds more of edible green tomatoes. Rather ridiculous.
On the up side, it turns out that late blight doesn't typically overwinter in the soil, so if I pull all the plants out and get rid of the blighted plants in the garbage, it shouldn't recur next year. I will be sure to plant the tomatoes in another part of the vegetable bed as well, just in case. Though the spores are wind-blown and would travel easily to another part of the garden, the largest concentration should be in the soil at the base of the currently affected plants, so by moving to another bed I should hopefully avoid the worst potential for contamination.
To Sum Up...
* Plant tomatoes with LOTS of space between them, to insure adequate air flow and ventilation.
* Plant early enough to leave them time to ripen in the heat of the summer sun, so they're not trying to ripen in the cool, wet fall weather. This may mean using Wall O Water or some row covers to lengthen your growing season in spring.
* Nix the overhead watering. Drip systems win.
* Don't overdo the nitrogen fertilizer, or the nitrogen-rich compost.
* Pull up and destroy blighted plants as soon as blight appears. Do not compost blighted plants. Blight can cross to potatoes, eggplants, solanacious weeds (like nightshade) and petunias, so watch those plants as well.
* Don't plant tomatoes in the same spot where diseased or pest-laden tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants grew the previous year.
Hot Hot Hot!
Of all the things I planted in the garden this year, my cucumbers were the most prolific, with the Anaheim peppers close behind. The serrano, jalapeno, and habanero peppers also did well. So, what to do with all those peppers?
I made a couple of kinds of hot sauce! Sadly, I won't eat either one, but they are being distributed to friends. One is a mixture of roasted jalapeno and serrano peppers plus garlic and vinegar and a single habanero, and the other is a mixture of onion, carrot, and several habaneros. The former is green, the latter is electric orange and could be aerosolized and used as a chemical weapon (capsaicin. It's not just for the Military anymore!)
Carrot Habanero Hot Sauce
* 1 large yellow onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, diced
* 1 Tbl cooking oil
* 1 1/4 cup shredded carrot
* 2 cups water
* 3-4 habanero peppers
* 2 Tbl lime juice
* 2 Tbl vinegar
* 1 tsp salt
In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic until translucent. (Do not caramelize!) Add the carrot and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrot is soft. Pour into a blender, add the peppers, lime juice, vinegar and salt, and puree until liquid. Eat, or use to defend yourself against attackers, your choice. Can be served hot or cold, and is probably best used sparingly.
I made a couple of kinds of hot sauce! Sadly, I won't eat either one, but they are being distributed to friends. One is a mixture of roasted jalapeno and serrano peppers plus garlic and vinegar and a single habanero, and the other is a mixture of onion, carrot, and several habaneros. The former is green, the latter is electric orange and could be aerosolized and used as a chemical weapon (capsaicin. It's not just for the Military anymore!)
Carrot Habanero Hot Sauce
* 1 large yellow onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, diced
* 1 Tbl cooking oil
* 1 1/4 cup shredded carrot
* 2 cups water
* 3-4 habanero peppers
* 2 Tbl lime juice
* 2 Tbl vinegar
* 1 tsp salt
In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic until translucent. (Do not caramelize!) Add the carrot and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrot is soft. Pour into a blender, add the peppers, lime juice, vinegar and salt, and puree until liquid. Eat, or use to defend yourself against attackers, your choice. Can be served hot or cold, and is probably best used sparingly.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Pick a Peck of Pickles
One of the spaces in my garden this year went to pickling cucumbers. I bought a pack of seeds for around $3.00, and started them in the greenhouse. I'm not sure every single seed came up, but it was pretty darn close. And once I moved them to the garden, even though it was late in the season, they took off. They are now producing several pounds of pickles a day. They are thus far the single most productive, useful vegetable I've planted in the garden just in terms of volume picked and used, especially with regard to cost outlay in the beginning.
So far, I've got two gallons of dill pickles brining in the jelly room, using dill from my yard. I also have 8 quart jars and 8 pint jars of bread and butter pickles stored away. In the fridge I have my last three days' worth of pickings, which amounts to enough cucumbers to make about 12 quarts of sweet pickles. And the cucumbers really don't show any signs of slowing down. Pickles anyone?
Brined Dill Pickles
* 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers (whole, small)
* 2-3 bunches of dill heads, fresh or dried
* 3/4 cup pickling spices
* 3 cups white vinegar
* 1 1/2 cups pickling salt (not table salt)
* Garlic cloves (optional)
* water
Wash the cucumbers thoroughly. In a large crock (at least 2 gallons), sprinkle half the pickling spices, and half the dill, and 2-3 cloves of garlic if you wish. Pack with cucumbers to within 4 inches of the top. Add the rest of the salt, pickling spices, and dill. In a large pot, mix the salt with the vinegar and enough water to fill the crock, and add to the crock of cucumbers. Be sure the cucumbers are all submerged in the brine; weight with a wooden block or ceramic plate if necessary.
Let brine in a cool-ish place for 2-3 weeks. Don't stir or disturb, but do make sure the pickles stay submerged. If a scum forms on top, skim off (it's a byproduct of the fermenting process.)
When you're ready to can, strain the brine into a large, non-reactive (stainless steel, enameled, or glass) pot. Bring to a boil. Sterlize your jars and pack with your brined pickles and a small piece of the dill from the crock, then add the hot brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Do not overpack.
If your brine is cloudy, it's due to yeast blooming during fermentation. It won't hurt the pickles, and in fact will taste better if you use it, but if you prefer you can make new brine before canning. Use 1/3 cup salt, 4 cups vinegar, and 1 gallon of water, and bring to a boil, proceed as above.
So far, I've got two gallons of dill pickles brining in the jelly room, using dill from my yard. I also have 8 quart jars and 8 pint jars of bread and butter pickles stored away. In the fridge I have my last three days' worth of pickings, which amounts to enough cucumbers to make about 12 quarts of sweet pickles. And the cucumbers really don't show any signs of slowing down. Pickles anyone?
Brined Dill Pickles
* 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers (whole, small)
* 2-3 bunches of dill heads, fresh or dried
* 3/4 cup pickling spices
* 3 cups white vinegar
* 1 1/2 cups pickling salt (not table salt)
* Garlic cloves (optional)
* water
Wash the cucumbers thoroughly. In a large crock (at least 2 gallons), sprinkle half the pickling spices, and half the dill, and 2-3 cloves of garlic if you wish. Pack with cucumbers to within 4 inches of the top. Add the rest of the salt, pickling spices, and dill. In a large pot, mix the salt with the vinegar and enough water to fill the crock, and add to the crock of cucumbers. Be sure the cucumbers are all submerged in the brine; weight with a wooden block or ceramic plate if necessary.
Let brine in a cool-ish place for 2-3 weeks. Don't stir or disturb, but do make sure the pickles stay submerged. If a scum forms on top, skim off (it's a byproduct of the fermenting process.)
When you're ready to can, strain the brine into a large, non-reactive (stainless steel, enameled, or glass) pot. Bring to a boil. Sterlize your jars and pack with your brined pickles and a small piece of the dill from the crock, then add the hot brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Do not overpack.
If your brine is cloudy, it's due to yeast blooming during fermentation. It won't hurt the pickles, and in fact will taste better if you use it, but if you prefer you can make new brine before canning. Use 1/3 cup salt, 4 cups vinegar, and 1 gallon of water, and bring to a boil, proceed as above.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Oh Deer.
The garden is proceeding wonderfully. All three sections of raised bed are finished and filled with compost, a three-way soil mix (dirt, compost, and sand) and vegetables. A lot of work, to be sure! Apparently I'm incapable of doing anything halfway, given the quantities of everything I've planted. For example, we have a three person family consisting of myself (a known hater of vegetables), my four year old daughter (likewise), and my husband. And we have, among many other things:
- 42 tomato plants of various strains including Stupice, Beefsteak, Yellow Brandywine, Brandywine, and Roma.
- 18 Cabbages
- 24 pole beans
- 48 pickling cucumbers
- Rows of carrots, lettuce, chard, radishes, peas
- 10 dozen Walla Walla Sweet onions
- 5 dozen each white and red onions
- 3 dozen asparagus plants
- 3 rhubarb plants (huge)
- Several dozen strawberry plants
- Peppers including a habanero, half a dozen jalapenos and about that many serranos and anaheims
- At least 7 squash plants plus 3 (really weak and sad and potentially dead) zucchini plants
- A whole herb bed including 2 kinds of lavender, 2 kinds of rosemary, purple sage, pineapple sage, feverfew, chard, bee balm, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon catnip, 2 kinds of thyme, cilantro (EW!), horseradish, 16 basil plants, and 4 kinds of oregano
- Other things including an eggplant, 4 cauliflowers, 3 soy beans, 18 potato plants, some trees and berry bushes yet to be planted.
Why so much if I don't eat many vegetables? I get a kick out of giving food away, out of processing it down into jams and jellies and sauces and eating it that way, and out of drying it for future use in soups and whatnot. It's healthier and better tasting than the limp stuff that comes from the grocery store, and I actually tend to eat more of it when it's freshly grown than I do when I lug it home from WinCo.
So today, I was out watering the part of the garden that gets missed by the early morning wave sprinkler. I know, I know, drip systems are better, and wave sprinklers are wasteful, and top watering is bad, and so on and so forth. Well, we're putting in a drip system eventually, but right now the garden needs watering and we have other projects more pressing, so a wave sprinkler it is.
Anyway, Todd pointed out to me that the tops of some of my newly planted tomatoes were snipped off. AUGH. We further determined that there was damage to our two small cherry trees as well, and deer prints in my garden beds. While I do like deer, and I don't actually care much if they're wandering around in my yard, and I don't even mind if they eat my ornamentals or poop in my lawn, they best be leavin' my veggies alone. Now I'm on a mission to find deer deterrents that actually work.
Todd's bringing home "repellent stakes" for the edges of the garden. I asked him to call me from the store to read me the ingredients, as I dislike using chemicals in the yard. These contain, and I kid you not, "100% Dried Blood". I tried not to think about what kind of animal might have once been using the blood, and told him to bring some home. While the ew factor for me is a bit high, the plus side is that I don't have to spray it on anything and it's chemical-free.
I'll also be making Deer Repellent Spray at home. I'll post the results after I find out whether it works or not. The spray I'm trying first:
- 3 large eggs, shells included
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 2 cups of fresh green onion tops
- 2 cups of water
- Bar of deodorant soap (like Dial)
- 2 Tbls chili powder or cayenne pepper
Put the first four ingredients in a blender or food processor and liquify completely. Pour into a bucket, add 2 quarts of warm water. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the soap and add to the bucket. Stir well. Add chili powder or cayenne pepper. Stir well again. Pour into a sprayer and squirt your plants well. If there are still chunky bits of shell, use a watering can with big holes to pour some of the mixture around the plants. Use every 2 weeks, works year-round. Rumored to be effective against Voles and Rabbits as well. Also rumored to be more effective if left to "ripen" in the sun for a few days before use.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Progress in the Planting World
For the last few weeks, I've been absorbed largely with preparing for the Oregon Glass Guild's 9th annual Glass Gallery show at the Oregon Convention Center. The show was this last weekend, and my next scheduled show isn't until November, so I have a nice wide chunk of time where there are no pressing crafting deadlines. Convenient, now that spring is sproinging and I'm ready to start planting at least some of my year's crops!
My husband has been hard at work putting together our raised beds and filling them with a combination of a compost underlayment and a three-way mix fill (three-way being 1/3 compost, 1/3 topsoil, and 1/3 sand.) As he's filling the second of the three tiered beds I have designed, I'm busy following behind planting what he's filled.
One problem that faces some folks in areas such as mine, where the weather can be unseasonably cool right into June, is overeagerness. Someone told a gal on one of my gardening mailing lists that she could plant tomatoes starting April 1; another told the same gal she could plant them starting April 30th. She split the difference and was going to plant around April 15th, until a bunch of folks told her that was far too early for our area. The issue isn't so much whether or not we'll get a hard freeze, or even snow, as it is the ground hasn't warmed up yet. Tomatoes (and many of our other summer crops) are tropical in nature, and really need the ground to be 55 degrees bare minimum, with 75-85 being ideal. That doesn't happen around here until June or so.
One reason I use raised beds, even where the soil is fairly decent, is to allow me to extend the growing season a bit. They warm up earlier in the spring, and they are easier to attach row covers and cloches to than the flat ground. I also like raised beds because I can sit on the edge and work towards the middle, and they are never so wide (by design) that I can't reach into at least the middle if not farther, so I never have to get into the beds. And with paths between instead of bare dirt, I battle far fewer weeds, and have an easy place to put my tools and wheel barrow and such. I've been asked if it's necessary to use raised beds, and of course it isn't. It isn't even necessary to rototill or amend your soil; you can use a lasagna layering method, or just strip off the sod and hope. Your results of course will vary on a number of things, including what you plant, the character of your native soil, how you fertilize and water, and even the lay of your land. Raised beds just bring more of the variables within your control.
Today I planted two lavenders, a rosemary, and a feverfew in the center Herb bed. I also acquired a pineapple sage for that bed, though she won't be planted outside until June, and I have some chives and oregano as well. In the middle tier I planted Walla Walla sweet onions, white onions, red onions, 20 asparagus crowns, and three rhubarb plants with room for a fourth. I have room in that bed reserved for strawberries, beans, peas, carrots, radishes, and lettuce. The outside bed will be corn, squash, cucumbers, cauliflower, tomatoes, celery, and perhaps a few other things.
While I was at it, I also planted two new columbine plants and a winter Daphne as well as three ferns and a hardy fuschia for the hummingbirds. I've started my Orphan Plant section too, with three healthy Ivy plants and three small cedar trees.
My husband has been hard at work putting together our raised beds and filling them with a combination of a compost underlayment and a three-way mix fill (three-way being 1/3 compost, 1/3 topsoil, and 1/3 sand.) As he's filling the second of the three tiered beds I have designed, I'm busy following behind planting what he's filled.
One problem that faces some folks in areas such as mine, where the weather can be unseasonably cool right into June, is overeagerness. Someone told a gal on one of my gardening mailing lists that she could plant tomatoes starting April 1; another told the same gal she could plant them starting April 30th. She split the difference and was going to plant around April 15th, until a bunch of folks told her that was far too early for our area. The issue isn't so much whether or not we'll get a hard freeze, or even snow, as it is the ground hasn't warmed up yet. Tomatoes (and many of our other summer crops) are tropical in nature, and really need the ground to be 55 degrees bare minimum, with 75-85 being ideal. That doesn't happen around here until June or so.
One reason I use raised beds, even where the soil is fairly decent, is to allow me to extend the growing season a bit. They warm up earlier in the spring, and they are easier to attach row covers and cloches to than the flat ground. I also like raised beds because I can sit on the edge and work towards the middle, and they are never so wide (by design) that I can't reach into at least the middle if not farther, so I never have to get into the beds. And with paths between instead of bare dirt, I battle far fewer weeds, and have an easy place to put my tools and wheel barrow and such. I've been asked if it's necessary to use raised beds, and of course it isn't. It isn't even necessary to rototill or amend your soil; you can use a lasagna layering method, or just strip off the sod and hope. Your results of course will vary on a number of things, including what you plant, the character of your native soil, how you fertilize and water, and even the lay of your land. Raised beds just bring more of the variables within your control.
Today I planted two lavenders, a rosemary, and a feverfew in the center Herb bed. I also acquired a pineapple sage for that bed, though she won't be planted outside until June, and I have some chives and oregano as well. In the middle tier I planted Walla Walla sweet onions, white onions, red onions, 20 asparagus crowns, and three rhubarb plants with room for a fourth. I have room in that bed reserved for strawberries, beans, peas, carrots, radishes, and lettuce. The outside bed will be corn, squash, cucumbers, cauliflower, tomatoes, celery, and perhaps a few other things.
While I was at it, I also planted two new columbine plants and a winter Daphne as well as three ferns and a hardy fuschia for the hummingbirds. I've started my Orphan Plant section too, with three healthy Ivy plants and three small cedar trees.
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