A few tips and preservation techniques I thought I'd pass along. Seems like the appropriate time of year, when people are hauling in the last of their crops!
* Beans to be dried for later use in soups or bean dishes can usually be left to dry on the plant. When they rattle in the pods, they're dry. If you live in an area, like I do, where frost or rain would threaten the beans before they're dry, you can pick them early. If you have the space, pull the entire plant and hang somewhere warm and dry until the pods turn brown and the beans rattle. If you don't have space, pull the individual pods, then string together 2 or 3 feet-worth on a heavy beading thread, and hang somewhere warm and dry (such as near a woodstove.) When the beans rattle in the pods, you can either continue to store them in the pods, or pop them out of their pods and store them in a glass jar.
* Many vegetables can be sliced and dehydrated. You can follow the instructions on your home dehydrator, or you can use your oven turned to the very lowest setting, around 175 degrees. Celery should be blanched first. Zucchini, apples, pears, eggplant, carrots, and tomatoes can be merely sliced and dried. All of the above can be stored in glass jars. (Note: Potatoes need to be blanched and steamed to absolute transparency before dehydrating. Skipping this step or under-steaming will result in your dried potatoes turning black.)
* Most herbs can be dried by gathering a bunch early in the morning (when the aromatic compounds in the plants are at their peak) and then hanging them upside down somewhere cool and dry.
* Winter Squashes can be stored for months. Pick the squash, leaving at least 2-3" of stem. Allow to toughen on your counter for 2 weeks, then rub the skin lightly with olive oil. Store on your counter if you like, or in cold storage. Do NOT store in a basket or bowl, as the restricted airflow and retained moisture may cause them to rot prematurely. Thinner-skinned summer squashes can also be stored longer by the same method, though they should be refrigerated and may only last a couple of extra weeks.
* Other things can be fermented and made into "sauerkraut"-like concoctions in the same way sauerkraut is made. Shredded carrots and red onions make an amazing combination.
So, if you want to extend the life of your harvest and don't want to dry, can, or ferment your pickings, you can also keep them in a kind of "suspended animation" using vinegar, salt, or a combination. This would be the kind of storage folks used before refrigeration, when copious quantities of salt or storage in cold root cellars were the preferred method for storing foods.
* Basic Brining Formula - 1 Tbl salt per 1 quart of filtered or spring water. Pour over green beans, sliced carrots, peppers, eggplant, or other vegetables to extend their storage life. Keep in the fridge for up to a month. The salt retards the growth of mold and other spoiling organisms, as does the cool temperature.
* Basic Vinegar Formula - Wash your vegetables and dry thoroughly. Pack a jar with your vegetables, poke holes in larger ones like Japanese eggplants and peppers. Fill jar 1/2 full with vinegar, 1/2 full with good filtered water, and top with a few drops of olive oil to create a seal at the top. Store in cold storage for several months.
NOTE: I don't vouch for the safety of storing foods without proper canning or refrigeration, unless fermented safely as in sauerkraut. Botulism, while uncommon, is a dangerous potential side-effect of improper storage under anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions such as produced when submerging vegetables in liquid and sealing the surface with oil. The acidity of the vinegar should provide protection from most toxic growths, but as it's not a measured, tested recipe, variables may change results. Proceed at your own risk, and do your own research online or in books!
Showing posts with label penny pinching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penny pinching. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Hot.
While heat is all relative, we're having quite a heat wave for our area. For us, that's temperatures in the upper 90's to triple digits for more than a day or two. It happens pretty much every summer for a week or two, but it seems to always be shocking to the residents of the area, who are used to thinking of themselves as living in a rainy and cloudy area.
Our new house is built with a daylight basement, which means the downstairs is fairly cool even with no air conditioning or fans, even in sweltering heat. Since we do most of our "living" downstairs, it's a pretty convenient state of affairs and much easier on the pocketbook than it might be if we had to cool most of the house. Conversely, it stays relatively warm in the winter, and if we run the wood stove, we don't have to turn on the natural gas furnace very often either. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that our heating/cooling bills for this house are significantly lower than the previous house.
In any event, the heat has had me looking at weather reports from all over the country, and even outside the country. In particular, I have been examining the water restrictions in San Antonio, Texas, and in parts of Australia. We don't consume ridiculous amounts of water at our house; we don't water the lawn in the summer, we always run full loads of dishes and laundry, we mostly shower instead of taking baths, and we use rainwater we collected during the rainy season for incidental watering. However, we aren't particularly conservative about water, either. The weather reports just made me look at how our water consumption might have to change if we lived in an area so desperate for water, and has prompted me to conserve a little more water just "in honor" of them, to see what it might be like.
(On another note, the severe water shortages in arid, hot areas also point out the ridiculousness of humans. Who honestly thought that moving into a desert and then trying to live as if it were a temperate, farmable area was a good idea? Living there is fine, but living within the capabilities of the climate would have been much better for both humans and the environment. Who seriously tries to grow a lawn in a desert? Ah humans, always trying to bend Nature to their will. Eventually, Nature bites back, and her teeth are much bigger.)
For our area, we've been asked to conserve water, but it's more of a polite, "Hey, we would like it if you didn't tap all our water resources" request rather than a mandate. So today, I took the quart of just-off milk and poured it to my tomatoes instead of washing it down the drain. I washed my day's harvest of pickling cucumbers, peppermint, and onions over a bucket, and poured the gray water to the lilies and the hydrangea instead of watering them with the hose. I know in parts of Australia they shower in buckets; while I understand the need, I'm not quite that interested in the experimental mindset! Washing vegetables over a bucket doesn't make much difference, I know, but I suppose if everyone in my city were to cut back by just two gallons of water a day (about what I poured onto my flowers), it would lead to a daily savings of 34,000 gallons, or 238,000 gallons a week. I've heard the argument that water evaporates and goes back into the water cycle, so it doesn't matter how much we use. That'd be okay if it weren't also true that we use water faster than we the system can replace it in many areas. There's also the fact that humans pour water into a sewer system, where it then has to be cleaned and treated and purified, so any water that doesn't go down the drain means less stress on the infrastructure, and less expense to the homeowner both for water consumed and for sewer volume.
Even with water conservation in mind, in this heat, we're still filling up the wading pool for the little one, though! (When we have to drain it, it all goes on the various plants in the yard and into the bird baths and such.)
Our new house is built with a daylight basement, which means the downstairs is fairly cool even with no air conditioning or fans, even in sweltering heat. Since we do most of our "living" downstairs, it's a pretty convenient state of affairs and much easier on the pocketbook than it might be if we had to cool most of the house. Conversely, it stays relatively warm in the winter, and if we run the wood stove, we don't have to turn on the natural gas furnace very often either. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that our heating/cooling bills for this house are significantly lower than the previous house.
In any event, the heat has had me looking at weather reports from all over the country, and even outside the country. In particular, I have been examining the water restrictions in San Antonio, Texas, and in parts of Australia. We don't consume ridiculous amounts of water at our house; we don't water the lawn in the summer, we always run full loads of dishes and laundry, we mostly shower instead of taking baths, and we use rainwater we collected during the rainy season for incidental watering. However, we aren't particularly conservative about water, either. The weather reports just made me look at how our water consumption might have to change if we lived in an area so desperate for water, and has prompted me to conserve a little more water just "in honor" of them, to see what it might be like.
(On another note, the severe water shortages in arid, hot areas also point out the ridiculousness of humans. Who honestly thought that moving into a desert and then trying to live as if it were a temperate, farmable area was a good idea? Living there is fine, but living within the capabilities of the climate would have been much better for both humans and the environment. Who seriously tries to grow a lawn in a desert? Ah humans, always trying to bend Nature to their will. Eventually, Nature bites back, and her teeth are much bigger.)
For our area, we've been asked to conserve water, but it's more of a polite, "Hey, we would like it if you didn't tap all our water resources" request rather than a mandate. So today, I took the quart of just-off milk and poured it to my tomatoes instead of washing it down the drain. I washed my day's harvest of pickling cucumbers, peppermint, and onions over a bucket, and poured the gray water to the lilies and the hydrangea instead of watering them with the hose. I know in parts of Australia they shower in buckets; while I understand the need, I'm not quite that interested in the experimental mindset! Washing vegetables over a bucket doesn't make much difference, I know, but I suppose if everyone in my city were to cut back by just two gallons of water a day (about what I poured onto my flowers), it would lead to a daily savings of 34,000 gallons, or 238,000 gallons a week. I've heard the argument that water evaporates and goes back into the water cycle, so it doesn't matter how much we use. That'd be okay if it weren't also true that we use water faster than we the system can replace it in many areas. There's also the fact that humans pour water into a sewer system, where it then has to be cleaned and treated and purified, so any water that doesn't go down the drain means less stress on the infrastructure, and less expense to the homeowner both for water consumed and for sewer volume.
Even with water conservation in mind, in this heat, we're still filling up the wading pool for the little one, though! (When we have to drain it, it all goes on the various plants in the yard and into the bird baths and such.)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Not-A-Bee Traps
A while back I mentioned that I'm alarmed by the number of people who classify anything that buzzes, is black and yellow and vaguely striped, and is hanging around the yard as a "bee". And that they furthermore seem to hate bees with such a passion that they swat, poison, trap, stomp, squash, maim, fold, spindle and mutilate indiscriminately. Eventually I'll get around to posting a quick primer on What Is A Real Bee and Why Do We Like (and NEED) Bees? But right now, I'd like to address a Not-Bee critter that makes itself annoying around summer picnics and backyard BBQ's.
Not A Bee, kids. Yellowjacket. Genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (bees are Apis). These are the most common pests at picnics, because about the time we want to be out frolicking in the late summer heat, their tastes in foods switch over from flowers, fruits, and sap to ripe and fermenting fruits and foods high in sugar like sodas. They also require meat to chew up and feed to their larvae, hence their overt interest in your tasty hotdog. Adding further to their undesirability as a picnic companion, they are much more aggressive than bees, and can sting more than once with no problem. They can also bite. Neato!
So what to do about them pestering you at a picnic? Sprays are a bad idea in general but particularly around food, and I hope I don't have to tell anyone why. Citronella candles can be of some help, but not much in my experience. You can purchase nifty wasp traps, but they're made of plastic, are generally not reusable, and junk up the landfills, plus they're expensive and usually have a chemical lure as part of the trap. You can purchase beautiful reusable glass wasp traps without the chemicals or the plastic, but they get expensive and are better for use on a backyard table than hauled along camping or to a picnic. And realistically, what happens when you're already camping or at a picnic, and the yellowjackets invade? No access to a store, no traps with you, what now? Build your own trap!
I once went camping with some friends, a good half hour from the nearest small town, and we had exactly this sort of thing happen. Lots of yellowjackets trying to ruin our good time. So while some of our companions headed into town to purchase traps, I showed the 9 year old in our group how to make our own.
Remove and discard the cap. Find the part of the bottle where the sloping top turns into straight sides. Cut all the way around the bottle at this point, and remove the tapered top from the straight-sided bottom.
Place your bait in the bottom of the trap. Bonus points if it reeks. Add a little water to the bottom, but don't completely submerge the bait.
Invert the sloped top into the main body of the container. If the sloped top is too large to fit well or hangs too deeply, you can trim some off of it. You will now have a container with what amounts to a funnel jammed in the top.
I'm talking about the Yellow Jacket, or hornets, or wasps. Around here, it's mostly yellow jackets. These guys:
Not A Bee, kids. Yellowjacket. Genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (bees are Apis). These are the most common pests at picnics, because about the time we want to be out frolicking in the late summer heat, their tastes in foods switch over from flowers, fruits, and sap to ripe and fermenting fruits and foods high in sugar like sodas. They also require meat to chew up and feed to their larvae, hence their overt interest in your tasty hotdog. Adding further to their undesirability as a picnic companion, they are much more aggressive than bees, and can sting more than once with no problem. They can also bite. Neato!So what to do about them pestering you at a picnic? Sprays are a bad idea in general but particularly around food, and I hope I don't have to tell anyone why. Citronella candles can be of some help, but not much in my experience. You can purchase nifty wasp traps, but they're made of plastic, are generally not reusable, and junk up the landfills, plus they're expensive and usually have a chemical lure as part of the trap. You can purchase beautiful reusable glass wasp traps without the chemicals or the plastic, but they get expensive and are better for use on a backyard table than hauled along camping or to a picnic. And realistically, what happens when you're already camping or at a picnic, and the yellowjackets invade? No access to a store, no traps with you, what now? Build your own trap!
I once went camping with some friends, a good half hour from the nearest small town, and we had exactly this sort of thing happen. Lots of yellowjackets trying to ruin our good time. So while some of our companions headed into town to purchase traps, I showed the 9 year old in our group how to make our own.
YOU WILL NEED:
* An empty 1 or 2 liter plastic bottle with a narrow mouth. Pop bottles are ideal, but other kinds will work. (Lemon juice bottles and Bailey's Irish Creme come to mind.)
* Bait. Fish is ideal because it smells strongly. Hot dog bits, canned cat food, slices of beef, raw meat, or even regular soda will work if it's all you have. Meat is better, because beneficial bees have no interest in it, while the pesky yellowjackets love it.
* A knife or a pair of scissors
* A knife or a pair of scissors
Remove and discard the cap. Find the part of the bottle where the sloping top turns into straight sides. Cut all the way around the bottle at this point, and remove the tapered top from the straight-sided bottom. Place your bait in the bottom of the trap. Bonus points if it reeks. Add a little water to the bottom, but don't completely submerge the bait.Invert the sloped top into the main body of the container. If the sloped top is too large to fit well or hangs too deeply, you can trim some off of it. You will now have a container with what amounts to a funnel jammed in the top. Place on the outskirts of where you're eating or sitting, preferably in the sun and preferably somewhere humans can see it but won't disturb it. (Don't put it in the grass where someone is going to stomp on it and release the honked-off yellowjackets.)
To reuse or discard, carefully pick up the trap and add water to be sure all the yellowjackets are dead. Remove the funnel top, dig a hole somewhere out of the way and discard the contents in the hole and cover it. You could also chuck the contents in the trash or pour it down the garbage disposal, I suppose. Point is, don't put dead yellowjackets somewhere people will step on them, and don't pour stinky bait somewhere people have to smell it. It's all organic and natural, though, so burying it for the wildlife to find won't hurt anything. Recycle the plastic bottle when you're all done.
Our homemade one beat the storebought one hands down. We caught dozens of them in a couple of little 1 liter traps, using only smoked salmon skin as bait. The yellowjackets smell the bait, fly in, eat a little, and then can't find the hole to get out because it's in the center of the funnel bit, and they can't get to it easily. The heat from the sun eventually kills them, or they fall in the water and drown.
By comparison, the storebought trap actually failed to trap anything until I examined the trap and figured out that the ventilation holes were so large the yellowjackets could crawl back out. With some electrical tape out of my husband's truck, I plugged the holes halfway, which rendered the trap actually operable. However, its chemical bait still only attracted a fraction of the yellowjackets that the homemade one did, and I didn't have to spend a dime or leave the campground!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Plants on a Budget
I love plants. There are certain places where it's dangerous for me to go unescorted, at least when I have my wallet with me: bookstores, craft stores, hardware stores, "organic" type food stores, and nurseries. I seem to be incapable of walking out of a nursery without at least one or two new plants. Problem is, they're expensive, and anyone who buys plants know this. Well, if you don't have a lot of cash, as a lot of us don't right now, there are some ways to keep your plant costs down.
* Where possible, start your veggies and flowers from seed. An entire packet of seeds generally costs the same as or less than a single full-size plant of the same species. If you use newspaper pots or egg cartons or even cut-off toilet paper tubes to start them, you'll save the cost of buying pots and reuse some waste materials at the same time! Of course, it means you have to start thinking about your garden earlier than if you bought large plants, but it's worth it to save some $$. And if you don't want to use an entire packet of seeds, go in with some friends and split them!
* Don't be afraid to buy the end of season rejects! The local Walgreens had out-of-season daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips in 4" pots for sale for $.50 each at the end of the season. All the blooms were spent, and they'd cut off the greenery about 4" up. Take them home, plant them, and they'll be just fine next year.
* Tsugawa has a Clearance section in their parking lot for sad orphan plants that are out of bloom, or otherwise bedraggled. Fred Meyer and other "mercantile" type stores with a nursery section often have a reject/sad plant area as well. You do want to be sure that the plants you pick up aren't actually diseased or laden with vermin, but usually the plants in those areas are just out of bloom, out of season, a little wilted from a heat wave, or somehow imperfect and in need of some extra TLC. Don't forget to look for indoor plants in these places too! At Home Depot, I once picked up a Christmas cactus in January for $1.00 because it had no blooms left. So what? I took it home, it bloomed the next year, and it's still hanging out with me years later.
* Trade with friends and neighbors! If you know folks who garden, schedule Plant Swaps in late spring and fall, when people have divided their plants and planted their seedlings. You can include seeds, pots, and other garden goodies in the exchange too!
* Check out Craigslist under the "Free" or "Garden" sections for free plants. Many gardeners like myself wind up with gaggles of orphan plants that self-seed in the yard, or an overabundance of seedlings from starting veggies, or even large plants from dividing in the spring and fall. I've given away masses of iris and hostas, starts from gooseberries and raspberries, and many herbs this way. Another good place to check is your local Freecycle. (Freecycle.org for the chapter near you!)
* Dumpster dive! Okay, this isn't one with which I'm personally comfortable, but I know people who do it quite successfully, and for much more than just plants! (Google "freegan" if you want to know more.) Nurseries and places like Home Depot often throw out their bedraggled plants en masse to get ready for the next "seasonal" shipment. I would suggest checking the local laws in your area for the legality of climbing into a dumpster before you do so. And if the store objects, politely leave. But you can certainly come away with some great plants for no money if you're willing to walk a little on the wild side.
* Scout out home sites that are going to be leveled or turned into subdivisions. Again, I'm not overly comfortable with this personally, but my parents and I used to do it when I was a kid. You know those abandoned, boarded-up homes slated to be turned into McHouses? Sometimes they have some fantastic plants out front, and if you don't rescue them, they will be run over by a bulldozer, quite literally. It's technically illegal to remove anything from private property without permission, so if you're interested in doing this, you might attempt to contact the property owners. I would imagine most wouldn't care, as the plants will just be destroyed anyway. Or if you're more daring than I, you might just take your chances. Be absolutely sure the property is going to be scraped bare or leveled before you start taking plants out, though.
DO NOT take plants from national forests or wildlife refuges. I know it's tempting to take home that beautiful tiger lily or snowdrop or trillium, but don't. Not only is it illegal, but it's also damaging to the ecosystem. Some plants are endangered in certain areas, and the plants should be allowed to reproduce so all the insects, animals, and humans can enjoy them in their natural habitat.
* Where possible, start your veggies and flowers from seed. An entire packet of seeds generally costs the same as or less than a single full-size plant of the same species. If you use newspaper pots or egg cartons or even cut-off toilet paper tubes to start them, you'll save the cost of buying pots and reuse some waste materials at the same time! Of course, it means you have to start thinking about your garden earlier than if you bought large plants, but it's worth it to save some $$. And if you don't want to use an entire packet of seeds, go in with some friends and split them!
* Don't be afraid to buy the end of season rejects! The local Walgreens had out-of-season daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips in 4" pots for sale for $.50 each at the end of the season. All the blooms were spent, and they'd cut off the greenery about 4" up. Take them home, plant them, and they'll be just fine next year.
* Tsugawa has a Clearance section in their parking lot for sad orphan plants that are out of bloom, or otherwise bedraggled. Fred Meyer and other "mercantile" type stores with a nursery section often have a reject/sad plant area as well. You do want to be sure that the plants you pick up aren't actually diseased or laden with vermin, but usually the plants in those areas are just out of bloom, out of season, a little wilted from a heat wave, or somehow imperfect and in need of some extra TLC. Don't forget to look for indoor plants in these places too! At Home Depot, I once picked up a Christmas cactus in January for $1.00 because it had no blooms left. So what? I took it home, it bloomed the next year, and it's still hanging out with me years later.
* Trade with friends and neighbors! If you know folks who garden, schedule Plant Swaps in late spring and fall, when people have divided their plants and planted their seedlings. You can include seeds, pots, and other garden goodies in the exchange too!
* Check out Craigslist under the "Free" or "Garden" sections for free plants. Many gardeners like myself wind up with gaggles of orphan plants that self-seed in the yard, or an overabundance of seedlings from starting veggies, or even large plants from dividing in the spring and fall. I've given away masses of iris and hostas, starts from gooseberries and raspberries, and many herbs this way. Another good place to check is your local Freecycle. (Freecycle.org for the chapter near you!)
* Dumpster dive! Okay, this isn't one with which I'm personally comfortable, but I know people who do it quite successfully, and for much more than just plants! (Google "freegan" if you want to know more.) Nurseries and places like Home Depot often throw out their bedraggled plants en masse to get ready for the next "seasonal" shipment. I would suggest checking the local laws in your area for the legality of climbing into a dumpster before you do so. And if the store objects, politely leave. But you can certainly come away with some great plants for no money if you're willing to walk a little on the wild side.
* Scout out home sites that are going to be leveled or turned into subdivisions. Again, I'm not overly comfortable with this personally, but my parents and I used to do it when I was a kid. You know those abandoned, boarded-up homes slated to be turned into McHouses? Sometimes they have some fantastic plants out front, and if you don't rescue them, they will be run over by a bulldozer, quite literally. It's technically illegal to remove anything from private property without permission, so if you're interested in doing this, you might attempt to contact the property owners. I would imagine most wouldn't care, as the plants will just be destroyed anyway. Or if you're more daring than I, you might just take your chances. Be absolutely sure the property is going to be scraped bare or leveled before you start taking plants out, though.
DO NOT take plants from national forests or wildlife refuges. I know it's tempting to take home that beautiful tiger lily or snowdrop or trillium, but don't. Not only is it illegal, but it's also damaging to the ecosystem. Some plants are endangered in certain areas, and the plants should be allowed to reproduce so all the insects, animals, and humans can enjoy them in their natural habitat.
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