I Saw a Bee in January

I was outside cutting wood the other day, and for the past few hours I'd been wondering. Why?  Heck, new years was just a few days ago - I could still taste the cucumber flavored vodka in my mind.  But outside the temperature is over 50 and in a t-shirt I was fine.  I'd never known such a warm stretch of days in the middle of the winter.  But then again, it's not like it hasn't happened before.  At least this time it was to my benefit.  This weather was perfect for chopping wood.

A thing about chopping wood, even though it can be time consuming, it's very much a sort of zen type activity.  The day was so nice, that combined with the chore at task, it was difficult not to slip into thought.  Now what could have easily been a 15 minute task, took double that.  No matter.  I've come to accept and rather enjoy taking my time.  After all, in general the amount of work I have to do never really seems to reduce.

In spite of this I still manage to catch nature at work regularly, this time, on a much smaller scale.  A honey bee catches my attention.  Now what in the world would a honey bee, be doing out this time of year?  I begin to consider the fate of this bee.  Death possibly.  I mean, being realistic, there is nothing for this bee to eat.  Or maybe he will just go back to his hive and hibernate a little more.

Then I look closer at the bee.  So clean and fresh, almost new in a way.  I watch as the bee moves from each end of the freshly cut wood, likely looking for moisture.  Perhaps attracted by the smell.  It didn't matter, this creature had my fascination.  Then the School bell rings.

I realized that my connection with the time and space of that bee had been interrupted.  Automatically I search for the bee and try to focus again, but my mind won't let me.  I have a task at hand, to chop the wood.  No matter, this is not the point anyway.

In fact, there really isn't one.  Except that I saw a bee, in January.

Putting up your Crops Part 1: Peppers, Peppers and More Peppers

It seems that one vegetable we have no trouble growing is peppers.  This year we grew literally hundreds of peppers, and unlike the tomatoes that still had pounds and pounds of fruit on the plants as well, these peppers were all ripe.  That's right, plant after plant of brightly colored, waxy, practically perfect peppers.  We didn't even bother with the less than ideal candidates, they went straight to the worms or chickens - It's no surprise my egg yolks these days are more vibrant than an orange crayon.  Unfortunately a good half of the most ideal candidates didn't make it to the plate.  This isn't really how I wanted to see the culmination of our hard work and the magic of nature end.

This brings me to the question of what to do with all the excess.  Do we really just feed it to the chickens?  If you knew me well enough you'd know that I give everything to my chickens.  Obviously the first thing you'll want to do is eat as much as you can while it's fresh.  But then what?  The society we live in today separates us from our cultural traditions of eating seasonally.  What I'm getting at is if you can't fathom eating 20 winter squash in your lifetime let alone 6 months, then you may have to focus on a few preserving methods that can help you increase your variety.  One easy way to store perishable produce is by freezing.  Now this is a big subject, and I'll leave you to do your own homework on the matters of the process, but each vegetable has a different reaction to freezing (think blackened potatoes) and you have to counter each potential problem with a different process. For most vegetables this process is blanch, cold water bath, and freeze.

To understand how to freeze your food successfully it's important to understand the dynamic that causes it to go bad in the first place, enzymes.  The enzymes in fresh produce are what causes rot.  Even though enzymes are massively beneficial to our health, we don't want them destroying our food before we get to it.  The goal of freezing is to slow this process down, and it works well.  But for longer storage times it's simply not enough.  What you'll need to do is blanch (cook at high heat for a short period of time) your vegetables before you freeze them.  Again, each vegetable is different.  Raspberries, blackberries & strawberries for example are great to just pop in a bag and chuck in the freezer, and spinach is not.  Most times you'll only need to blanch for a few minutes at boiling temperatures.  This kills off a vast majority of the enzymes and greatly slows decay.

Now lets say you're a gardener and a hunter, just hypothetically, and you've just bagged yourself a deer. We can all understand that when the freezer is full of meat, you 'ain't gonna put no stinkin' green beans in there.'  So what then?  There are options.  One of the easiest is to grow what stores well. Vegetables such as winter squash, potatoes and long keeper tomatoes, all of which require no refrigeration, can last anywhere from 3-12 months. Store them in a well ventilated area that maintains a temperature of around 45-65 degrees. For better shelf life you can wrap them in non-glossy newspaper. There's other staples that store great and are begging for a spot in your garden too. How about garlic, oregano or dill? Herbs require minimal work to store, in fact with most, you pretty much hang them in an area with similar climate conditions as above, and let them dry out. Then just stuff them in an airtight jar or paper bag.  Easy peasy. 

There you go, everything that's required to get through the long cold winter.  Well, hopefully.  Not sure?  Ok ok, I've got a few more tricks too.  But you'll have to check back for part two.  I mean, I'm not writing a book here.

Forward: Fighting Monsanto!

Some good news comes out of India.  The fight to maintain their food heritage is about to be brought to court as Monsanto is being sued by the Indian government for violating the Biological Diversity Act (BDA).  Of course this isn't the first battle with GM crops for Indian farmers.  Suicide among farmers in India is not uncommon.  However, recently the rash of deaths has been blamed on money and failed genetically modified crops.


"famine and pestilence are part of India's ancient story.

But the death of this respected farmer has been blamed on something far more modern and sinister: genetically modified crops."

http://wakeup-world.com/2011/10/11/indian-government-files-biopiracy-lawsuit-against-monsanto/

What we've harvested so far

Well this year has been an excellent year, so far. However, not without some sweat off the brow.  I'm gonna keep this short and sweet, because we all know you just want to see the inspirational pic(k)s, the fruit of our labor, the reaping of our sow (?), alright enough of that. Up first..


Spinach

There was a ton of spinach, before we blanched it.  It shrinks considerably when cooked, so we'll definitely need to grow more.  At 8 lbs. of spinach we'll figure $12 total.


Peas

These are your standard sweet pea.  As you can see we have a few over-ripe ones in here, but we'll use 'em anyway.  These peas took 2 people a combined 5 hours of shucking.  Yikes that's a ton of work.  The flavor of some is great, most are only ok.  Notes for the future, pick sooner, before the pods start turning yellow.  Also, invest in a shucking machine, they are on Amazon for as low as $25.

We did end up with 6 quarts, it felt like 10 pounds.  So we'll figure about $20 worth of veggies.

Potatoes

What better staple for long storage than potatoes?  High in energy and, umm.. productive?  I'd say we got less than we could have.  I'm not sure if I should attribute that to the soil (which is mediocre), the seed spuds from Walmart, or some other factor I haven't yet thought of.  This is from 2lb. seed and doesn't really show everything I planted (I still have 20 plants in the ground).  All in all, we've got 30 lbs. so far.  We'll compare the yield of our last harvest, which looks to be better.

These are some delicious potatoes, a more earthy flavor and buttery in texture.  I'll say $2.99 for 5lbs. so $18 total.

Raspberries

You can tell a raspberry is ripe because it pulls away from the center and they practically fall off when pulled. These are a treat to harvest, especially around breakfast time.

We managed to a few pints of berries, some went straight in the freezer.  I expect as these plants develop we'll double or triple the production.  Since I love berries, that's not enough.  We've started another raspberry and I have plans for 3 more blackberry vines started next spring.  We also had a few blueberries, which are really challenging in Utah due to the alkaline soil.

Overall 8 pints, and at $2.99 a pt. that makes $24.00, and they taste good to boot!

Last but not least..

Garlic

We planted these last fall, and it's been a joy to watch them grow.  I loved harvesting, drying and cleaning the garlic because it makes everything smell so damn good, even though it lingers on the fingers.  After they hang for a couple weeks in a dry well ventilated area, garlic is relatively easy to prepare for storage.  Just wipe off the dirt, and when needed, peel back a layer of "skin" to reveal a fresh clean layer.

Just this morning I cleaned mine, first by cutting the tops off with clean pruners, it was better than coffee.  Trim the roots back (I just twisted them off).

I'll only store the unblemished bulbs.  Overall 21 bulbs, or 5 lbs. These are very nice gourmet garlic, so $25 total.

Other than that, we harvested a ton of strawberries, although I didn't count how much  We also already have 14 jars of pickles and I think the cucumbers will be the winner in overall productivity (again).  We've just started dabbling in fresh and dried herbs, using fresh dill & dried coriander with our pickles, and screwing up a batch of chamomile.  There's definitely more to come.

Forward: Hedge Farm!

I read an interesting article regarding investment hedges over at www.observer.com. One that actually makes a lot of sense, farms.

It may seem a little odd that in 2011 anyone's thinking of putting money into assets that would have seemed attractive in 1911, but there's something in the air-namely, fear. The hedge fund manager and others like him envision a doomsday scenario catalyzed by a weak dollar, higher-than-you-think inflation and an uncertain political climate here and abroad.

The rest over at observer.com

Forward: Interview with Dr. Don Huber Discusses Science Behind New Organism and Threat from Monsanto's Roundup, GMOs to Disease and Infertility

A must watch regarding GMOs, Roundup and the problems they may bring to our food. Also, Be sure to sign the petition to prevent the spread of GMOs into Alfalfa. Sign the petition here.

Dr. Huber Explains Science Behind New Organism and Threat from Monsanto's Roundup, GMOs to Disease and Infertility from Food Democracy Now! on Vimeo.

Tomato Primer

Tomatoes are most certainly the top plant for home gardeners.  Nothing compares to a vine ripened delicious variety such as Brandywine, or that unique acidic bite of a mortgage lifter.  Even a Long Keeper that stays edible for months without refrigeration tastes great compared to store-bought when it's grown in the garden.

A few quick tips for growing tomatoes:

• Start seeds indoors 8 weeks before the last frost
• Transplant your tomatoes deep, taking leaves off the stem.  Tomatoes will send roots out all along the stem
• Be prepared to stake your plants, almost all tomato varieties will require support
• Give them lots and lots of water (with good drainage)
• Don't over fertilize with Nitrogen after flowers set

For more beginner tips on tomatoes, Redwood Barn has a great Tomato Primer explaining some of the tomato basics.  This should help you in determining what to plant and what to expect.

To go a little bit further I'd like to explain determinate and indeterminate growth types.  Determinate, essentially, will grow to a certain size and then start to flower.  Once this type starts to flower the plant focuses primarily on setting fruit, and doesn't usually grow much more.  Indeterminate on the other hand, will grow and set flowers all year long.  Sometimes these indeterminate tomatoes can be trellised up 6' or higher, and with proper care you can harvest a hundred or more tomatoes all year long from one single plant.  A good list of tomato cultivars and their growth type can be found at gardenweb.com.