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