How does your garden grow?

Most people I see ask the same questions...Do you have your garden planted? What are you growing now? When is the best time to plant (name your own vegetable)? So, I try to keep the answers to these questions on this site. However, I have a some times, maybe later, when I get to it posting schedule. This post will be me trying to play catch-up.

As in the previous post you already know about the potatoes. But the corn is on the way...

We have been culling a few onions...

The squash is doing well...

Cabbages are being harvested and some more are on the way...

Been giving the royal red lettuce and Swiss chard a good cutting every week...

By the way, all of this was before the drought kicked in to high gear. It looks worse now. But it is time to start on the Fall/Winter plantings. And so it goes....

SDG

Veggies by Lee

Those wily old Spaniards have a saying that roughly translates....'a man should do three things before he dies; plant a tree, write a book and have a son.' Well, I can say that all are worthy goals, but when the children start becoming human, it is the best. For my part these past few weeks have been one of amazement as my son, Lee has begun the long slow and mostly up hill climb toward a humane life. He recently advanced from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts by receiving his Arrow of Light. He will most likely have to shave his upper lip before the end of the summer (although his dad does not). He had another birthday last week which added to his growth rings (he now wears larger shoes than I do). Then today he came home from school and his 'garden project' with a bounty similar to what we produce here in the home garden. I am very pleased and wish to share a photo of his efforts.

Sola fide
Sola gratia
SOLI DEO GLORIA

Remember those Potatoes

It has been some time...but I did not forget that I was goin to up-date you all on how well the potatoes were doing. So, here is what they look like now...

Of course that is above ground, so naturally one wonders what is going on below. After a little digging, I pulled up about a pound of 'new' potatoes. Washed and scrubbed, they look good enough to eat.

I'll let you know how they taste and in a week or two, you too will be able to experience fresh potatoes.

SDG

Potato planting

Some time ago, I threatened to show ya’ll how we grow potatoes here on the North Prong. Well, today is the day. First, you should know that all the potatoes have been planted. In fact as of today, it is most likely too late for spring potatoes. So what you are going to see and read occurred in the third and fourth week of February. We only have a two week window to plant spring potatoes, so one has to get with it.

To begin with, our soil is a bit heavy with clay. As a result growing root crops is really almost like growing plants in a container. For our soil, I dig a trench that is 18 inches wide and 30 foot long. The trench does not have to be very deep, but I attempt to get it down about four to six inches. Sometimes, I have gotten it deeper.

Above is the finished trench with the drip irrigation tube running through the center. The drip tube that I use has an emitter every foot and is easy to measure and easy to install.

Next, I place the seed potatoes at six inch intervals alternating down the trench. Again, the drip tube is helpful here with placement of each plant.

On one side of the trench each potato is placed at an emitter. On the opposite side, the potatoes are placed between emitters.

Picturesque uniform placement – all my standards associates would be proud.

Once the potatoes are placed, I put down a covering of fireplace ashes. The particular practice is more important where the soils are slightly acidic, but it doesn’t hurt to keep up a practice that my grandparents thought was critical to successful potato growing.

Compost is next. I put down a two to four inch layer of compost. It may or may not cover the seed potato. It does not seem to matter to the plant.

This year’s compost is very good.

If you do not have compost, just about anything will do – hay, straw, newspaper, cardboard. If you use paper or cardboard be sure to tear it into strips or small pieces so the plant can push through.

Finally, cover the trench. You can leave it level or mound it up. Again, the potato plants will not know. Turn on the irrigation water to give the trench a good soaking.

Each row like this will produce between 100 and 200 pounds of potatoes. This year, I planted six rows. Two rows of Kennebec and four rows of Red Lasoda and if we get 1200 pounds of potatoes, we will be greatly surprised.

These rows will be ready to start digging in mid-May and carry us through the summer. We then have a small one week window during the first week of September to plant for the fall/winter season. But, potatoes store well and can be used a feed for any number of our animals.

I used some of my seed stock this year to teach Cub Scouts how to grow potatoes in a bag. I will let you know how that turns out.

Oh, and by the way, it may be a good idea to sit down in the shade and drink a cold beer after this activity. That is usually when my philosophical side rears up on its hind legs and shouts, ‘you just dug a trench and then filled it back in! What were you thinking?’ Boy, that beer sure tastes good……

SDG

Production Notes

It seems that things are coming along very well this season. I thought I would give you a peak at what is going on. While these little photographs are not very impressive, they represent only a small portion of what is currently growing.

So, here we have one row or 60 cabbages. There are a total of four of these rows on a drip irrigation system. Each row is planted at weekly intervals so that the heads do not come off all at the same time. Given that there will some losses that amounts to 200 heads or about 560 pounds of cabbage. Did I mention that I make my own sauerkraut - and it is really good. Some will be ready this week.

I love cauliflower anyway it is prepared. So again here we have one of 200 heads or about 600 pounds that are growing and some will be ready this week.

This ragged looking bunch here is a later planting of broccoli. Again, there will be about 200 heads and then several hundred florets. This crop is not as productive and will amount to only about 120 pounds. But it looks like some will be ready this week.

Finally, we have the current and future onions. This is but a small section of rows of sweet, red, yellow and white onions. Each onion row will produce about 140 pounds of large bulbs for a total of about 560 pounds. Your subscription will begin with onions and potatoes that were fall planted. However, these onions will be coming along at the end of April or first of May. This seasons potatoes will start coming off at the end of May and carry through June.



Additionally, there are leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, turnips, beets and spinach that are ready this week.

Other plantings include about 500 pounds of potatoes, carrots, radishes, sweet peas and sweet corn (the first 200 plants are already pushing through the top soil). Starting this week plantings will begin for cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, bush beans and tomatoes. Since Easter is a few weeks away, the black bows you see in the photos are for row covers during any cold snaps that my occur. More critically, we could sure use some rain. I am secure in the knowledge that it will come so these spells help me develop those patience.

SDG

Scotman's Breakfast or Treat

I know this eating thing seems to be getting the best of me, but it has been cold and I have had a little time to come up with better ways to be more convivial. So....

I came across this idea somewhere, and it is really great. They call it Apple-Pecan Baked Oatmeal and well it is a wonderful way to enjoy your oatmeal and apples.

It only takes a few items...

Toast a cup of chopped pecans in a pan until they fill the kitchen with pecan fragrant. Peel and chop some 4 or 5 Granny Smith apples. Cut them into large chunks because after all this is a meal to carry you through the morning. Put the apples in the bottom of a baking dish and spread the pecans over the apples.

Combine 18 oz of rolled oats with three eggs, a cup of brown sugar, a cup of applesauce, three teaspoons of cinnamon, three teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, four teaspoons of baking powder, a cup and quarter of water, a cup of milk and a quarter cup of butter. Stir all this together in a big bowl.

Then pour the mixture over the apples and pecans.

Cover it with some foil and bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven, then uncover and bake for 15 more minutes. When it is golden brown take it out and enjoy.

In case you missed that last part...I said ENJOY!

Home made doors

Someone asked me what I did when it was so cold at the beginning of the month. Well, after feeding and watering the fowl, I checked all the water lines. We only had one ell that broke in the barn and we did not lose much water - just some nerves.

Anyway, I build doors when the weather allows. They turn out very nice when the finisher gets done making them pretty. I'll have to post pictures of the finished products when I get them from the finisher.

In case your wondering, yes this is how it is done....

Breakfast before work

Out here where the days are long, even when the daylight hours are short, one needs something to keep one going from early until the after noon meal. So, inspite of the USDA's new food pyramid, here is a morning meal that gets the job done.

I can hear the nannys sucking wind now! Still with this meal I went out and dug two potatoe ditches. Potatoe ditches are 18 inches wide, 30 feet long and between 1 and 1.5 feet deep. In those ditches I plant 60 seed potatoes and then cover it all with compost and soil. I'll post an example later. In addition to the potatoes, I tilled another quarter acre where peas, cabbage, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and other vegetables will be planted. All this before my afternoon break. I suppose that if there was a gym with in 40 miles, I could go there. But then...maybe not.

Mead and Holiday

One more note before Christmas begins.

I have set up two gallons of mead with a recipe that I got from these folks. Come by in February and we will try some.

Finally, our old friend Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)has this to say about this time of year:

"...winter is the farmer's holiday, and the husbandman feast on their stores all through the frozen time, and spread the banquet among themselves in mirthful round. Merry winter bids the guest and lightens the heart;..."

It has been written, so let it be...

SDG

Beer or a pill?

If one must keep a psychiatrist, you should keep the one in this video. Now, before you get all excited about why a psychiatrist is on a blog like this - please watch:



Two things should be noted.

First, starting at about 0:42, Dr. Szsaz says that, according to the learned, there are 294 diseases discovered by the psychiatric (read: pill developers) industry in the last 60 years. Dr. Szsaz is a skeptical about this as we all should be. He calls it an 'epidemic of psychiatry.' What a great line. He goes on to say that the entire industry is based upon 'a story, a mythology, a fable.'

Second, starting at about 1:50, Dr. Szsaz makes the brilliant observation that we 'advertise (the pill), but we can not advertise beer.’ Then he asks the critical question; which is more toxic (the pill) or beer? That is the question!!!!

Some years ago, Tom Hodgkinson made a similar observation when he wrote about the obscene profits that the pill industry drags in. Of course their employees, otherwise known as doctors, push these pills for everything. I admonished loved ones to convalesce after an illness or surgery.

Of course, for eight or ten thousand years or until 60 years ago people took a more Epicurean approach to their troubles. That was, as Hodgkinson observes, before our troubles became professionalized, commoditized and industrialized. Back then the cures were good company, good cheer and good beer. That’s correct the best solution was friends, food and drink.

So, open your house, grow vegetables and meat and brew beer because tomorrow…well, tomorrow will have it’s own troubles.

SDG

What to eat?

It seems that in the hollowed halls of learned that they have had a change of heart concerning your diet. You can read about it on the LA Times site. Of course history may make its fatal judgment known...it is too late. The industrial feed companies have 'only met a market need.' Since most people gave up their humanity to be employees lonely refueling with industrial feed is perfect for the Neolithic civilization that make up the undifferentiated ant mounds known as 'the city.' An acquaintance recently allowed that he never had to worry, because the shelves of his favorite grocery store are always full. A moment’s reflection would remind him that the same was said in Soviet Russia, Weimar Germany and Britain in the 70's and 80's. Still as much as one would like for things to be different - one can only look upon such creatures with compassion and let it go.

So, what should one be eating? I can not answer for others but at this time of year the garden here are very dry and in need of rain (forecast for the next couple of days). However, currently the gardens are producing beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard, several varieties of lettuce, potatoes, radish, spinach and turnips. One could do worse, say a manufactured and chlorinated carrots.

Given that last month was the month to fill the storage with meat, I would say that one should have a good stock of your favorite meats. It is still too early to enjoy the salted pork or a ham, but if you started early some of the bacon may be just right. Additionally, a few pullets or hens can always be recruited to fill the pot for the week. Also, should you be fortunate enough to have shot a deer or two or three, a few rabbits and a turkey then you are set.

Oh, I forgot all the vegetables that were canned or frozen during the summer. Heck, we are not missing a thing except bread. So, with the winter wheat only just now showing growth, one could dig into last springs wheat and oats. Here I mix both into bread that will keep you going all day.

That just about does it for all of the basic food groups - meat, roots, leaves, grains, vegetables. Did I mention that the only food pyramid we use is how high the food can be stacked on the plate?

Somewhere in the dim past, say eight to ten thousand years ago, a group of rather ‘unhandsome and inferior creatures’ began to plant seeds, tame animals and harvest both. Thus, this ‘exceedingly nasty tribe’ was able to spread throughout the earth. This Neolithic being, despite fashions, plumbing and other “camouflage of civilization”, remain constant, “just a repulsive type of animal, very inferior to pretty much all the rest of creation.” In the end, to manufacture its feed and collect it into herds seems to be best for this “unformed, unquickened, Neolithic matter.”

SDG

Blood Month or Hunter's Moon

November has started with a great wind. Seems that we are in for some cold this first week of November and that is a good thing for the preparation of meat. We often have warm and sometimes hot weather at this time and it can make meat gathering and storage into a race as opposed to the earthworms pace of life. That it has cooled off is a good thing in that respect.

However, there is another side. The tomatoes, beans, Southern peas, corn and squash are still blooming. The tomatoes are heavy with fruit and the corn is making ears. So, the hope is that there will not be a frost. The prognosticators are conjuring up a frost for tonight and tomorrow night. One can only hope that they are struck down.

As the title of this post(Blod-Monath)indicates this is the traditional time for slaughtering of livestock and the hunting of game. This insures that the table will continue to be burdened with food for the winter months and the celibrations that occur in these same months. And so it goes that Deer Hunting season begins on Saturday. One might think that it would be cause for excitement out here on the rolling savanna, but that would be a mass understanding (also a misunderstanding).

The masses will come to the hills beginning tonight and tomorrow and shoot up the place. They will be dined by the towns 'club women and men' and keep the State's warden busy collecting revenue. They will drink deeply and feast greatly in the halls (converted barns) of the bankers, lawyers and oil men. From all appearances it will be a great and glorious 'hunt' for those "unintelligent, ignorant, myopic, incapable of psychical development, but prodigiously sagacious and prehensile" mass-men that come here once a year.

However, for those of us who are "of necessity fitted closely into the pattern of the changing year, who were of the earth and what grows in it," this weekend will be a time of 'staying in.' There will be great danger in the wood these days as the mass-minded are among us. The dogs will be kept inside, the children dressed in bright colors, and with God's mercy no livestock will be shot down.

There will be much to keep us occupied indoors. Vegetables to be canned or frozen, peas to be shelled, corn to shuck and bread to bake. So, in all even the moderate disturbances of the barbarians we will contue to be blessed and fill our days with joyful service to those who have been given to us as gifts.

SDG

Fall Gardening at it's best

Well, another 1.10 inches of rain - Thanks be to God!

Four Rows of Blue Lake Green Beans have been planted and were just showing prior to the rain. With this good rain it is a fair bet that I will have a fall harvest of about 300 pounds of green beans. That should keep us till next spring.

Also, four rows of summer squash were just showing prior to the rain. If all goes well I should be able to harvest 430 pounds of squash. Everyone should keep the window on their cars closed, I may slip some squash into open car windows!

Next week the main fall/winter crops will be transplanted into the garden. Looks like I should get about 100 pounds of Broccoli, about 100 cabbages (280 pounds), 100 cauliflower heads (300 pounds) and some Brussels sprouts to round things off.

Since I have not mentioned it before, the five new keets are well and growing fast. They have moved out of the shop and into a kennel that has been renamed the "G" shack. More as they develop.

SDG

Preparing for Fall

Rain glorious rain.  For two days now we have been blessed with rain.  The fall tomatoes were transplanted into the garden in August and needed watering everyday through that month.  Our 'highly mineralized' well water keeps the plants alive, but they become anemic looking.  Pathetic really.  However, with these rains the plants are looking much better and already beginning to bloom.

As for the black-eyed peas...they were planted mid-August and came along very well, until the Vandals hit them.   It is interesting that for two or more years (even with the great drought of 08-09) the deer were not interested in the garden.  However, this year they found it.  It seems that due to a good spring the local doe population have all twined.  As a result they are hungry!  They ate corn, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and even the leaves off of the red okra.  Of course, I had to declare war!  After several attempts at reinforcing the fence, I settled on electricity.

Fence charger and insulators were less than $30.00, whereas a roll of barbed wire was over $60.00.  I already had the electric fence wire so it was a simple afternoons project to secure the garden.  I am pleased to report that the vandalism has stopped and we are well on our way to a good fall/winter harvest.

The pepper continue to produce at a good rate and should meet the expected goal of 320 peppers by the end of the season.  The sweet corn and Lima beans planted last week are already coming up.  The rows of corn should produce about 450 ears and the Lima beans about 250 pounds of beans.  This week the green beans are being planted in the garden.  This summer we harvested about 200 pounds of green beans.  I am putting in the same amount for the fall, so we shall see if we are blessed again this year.  In the grow beds we now have the starts for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower.  These will be transplanted into the garden by mid-September for harvesting to begin in November.

Our table should be burdened and our pantry full for this coming winter.

SDG