February, Quite Contrary, How does your Garden Grow?

Tags

fruit, garden, grow lights, pruning, raised bed, spring, vegetables, winter

My Google calendar recently alarmed me to the official start of the gardening season, this past weekend of February 17. After a brief, but restful, garden dormancy over the past 2.5 months, it is time to begin it all again. Apparently, nature had some other plans and time traveled ahead by 3 months to spring time highs of 65°F and sunshine, complete with scampering animals and chirping birdsong. This, friends, is 30°F over the average blistering February temps. But please…global warming is a hoax.

While I have enjoyed the unseasonable weather for dog walks and weekend outdoor excursions, its worrisome if any of my dormant perennials get too excited and wake up from hibernation, just to be killed off by a surely expected March freeze. I shall keep an eye out for any early risers and smother them with straw mulch. The silver lining in all of this, of course, is a much more hospitable environment to begin some late winter tasks, such as pruning and trimming. February is a great time to give a hair cut to the fruit trees, and a great opportunity to clean out any vegetation I left in the beds over the winter.

Though I am enjoying the respite from the cold, the major garden work is done in the basement under grow lights. The weekend kicks of the business of seed starting, with some celery and leeks, and a through review of the weeks and months ahead.

Always up for new adventures, I added some new fun items this year based on my culinary preferences. New this year for produce I am adding leeks, an assortment of fresh herbs, and strawberries to the garden. I am expanding the varieties of everything else from asparagus to tomatoes. I have also made the executive decision to move certain plants strictly to a fall-harvest cycle. Broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, rutabaga and turnips have proved too challenging with the unreliability of spring weather. All in all there will be 136 varieties of fruits and vegetables on our one-acre homestead. If I can pull this off, it will be quite a boon for this four-mammal household.

March/April plotted plan for the early spring garden. 

As is in my nature, I have plotted and planned the timing of starting, transplanting and sowing based around my travel schedule. With a little assistance in watering from CFO, we should be enjoying fresh salads by late April. Having a little OCD in gardening does make a difference in success rates. By first identifying realistic times when I can tend to my little spouting babies, I don’t overwhelm myself and make tasks unreasonable. Yes, garden upkeep is no different than maintaining anything else like clothing and upholstery, but organization makes anything possible. I also really like binders.

This year I am taking a different rotation approach. Yes, you should rotate beds by type of vegetable. Yes, you should not overcrowd your plants. But, given limited space, I have limited rotation and spacing capabilities. Instead of proper form, this year I am rotating by garden “season.” I will have one bed for spring produce, which will be ready to replant for the fall garden. Three beds will be summer produce (which often lasts well into fall). One bed for blueberries, one for strawberries, and an assortment of other planters for items that need a bit more separation and attention. I also to work in as much companion planting as I can within each bed. In such a small space, companion planting has been beneficial in my short experience. While I see plenty of the bad bugs, they have yet to demolish entire sections. Attracting the good bugs and very aggressive birds helps as well. While I do not like the birds hovering about my cherry tree, I audibly cheer when I see them circling the garden. For new plantings I will use row covers, but after that its open season on caterpillars.

Well, I better get to work before old man winter returns this upcoming weekend. I hope your garden planning is off to a great start!

Mr. Jack prepares for the return of winter.

A Year of Backyard Food: A Study

Tags

cost savings, direct sow, fall, fruit, garden, heirloom, homemade, raised bed, spring, start indoors, sustainability, vegetables, winter

INTRODUCTION

Its that day once more, that day the ends the annual cycle of time, also known as my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday sis! It’s a pretty popular event; people all around the world celebrate by drinking profusely, declaring how the next year will be the one, and making out at midnight. I prefer to celebrate by eating dinner around 6pm and falling asleep promptly at 9pm once again disappointing CFO. He’s a party animal.

I’m not one for making these so-called resolutions, because I feel that it is a system of preplanned failure. If you ever bought a gym membership in January, you are not my people. But I respect your choices. I prefer to think upon the last year and note what worked, and what didn’t, and make some informed decisions of how I might make better decisions going forward. For example, last year I evaluated how much I have zero interest in cleaning my house, and how I have lots of interest in paying people to do it instead. That’s a “resolution” I am happy to keep going in 2017.

When it comes to the garden, I think about what worked, and didn’t work a lot in January. Mainly because its time to order seeds and get planning. One of my goals from last year was to keep track of what I grew and what I harvested. I was sure that growing food in the backyard is a financially stable way to eat better, but I have no evidence to support the statement. I wanted to do a season-long very unscientific study to prove my point, mainly to CFO, but also to the 22 people that might read this post. I am happy to say that not only did I complete my project, but also I am here, on December 31 to report the results.

HYPOTHESIS

Growing vegetables in one’s own backyard provides a cost savings over purchasing the same food in a grocery store. I know this might seem obvious, but food in this country is shockingly cheap. I felt as if my work was cut out for me.

METHODOLOGY

In order to report the findings as accurately as possible, I had to consider the costs to grow said food, as well as the market value of the food I harvested. I factored in all of the things I use to grow food: cedar for beds, compost, seeds, transplants, fertilizer, mulch, water, and also the grow light system I purchased to start my own. The only thing I did not include was labor. I mean, let’s face it. If I weren’t willing to donate my time this whole adventure would be pointless. I also think that the time I spent in the garden probably equals the amount of time I would otherwise navigate the produce aisle at my local store, which is about as easy to shop as a new IKEA during the grand opening.

For the harvest itself, I had to find a way to quantify the value of what I had, and the only way I could think was to compare it to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service produce commodity averages. This is an average of the countries produce costs at retail, and is published weekly. It worked pretty well for the common items, but for those odd duck veggies I grow (parsley root anyone?), I had to get more creative. I found an online co-op that published produced prices daily, and used that for a reference. Also, because I practice the general “organic” growing system, meaning I do not use anything on my crops that requires a gas mask, I opted to compare the produce to the organic rates. I know, I know…kind of unfair because I don’t normally buy organic produce, but I grow it and this is my study.

DATA ANALYSIS

The grand total of my garden expenses was…. $1284. Yikes. Last year had some expensive costs to be fair: CFO finished building the remaining garden beds and I invested in a growing system for the basement. Ideally, those two purchases will not be on-going costs. Using cedar, the beds should last 10 years, and since I received 3 shipments of broken growing lights, the supplier sent me about 12 bulbs at no cost in order to maintain his positive EBay rating. I should be good for a while. Based on annual expenses like seeds, compost, mulch, etc. I realistically spend about $250 a year, which seems much more reasonable. Maybe this wasn’t the best year for my study. Meh.

In 2016, I grew a total of 87 varieties of 54 different fruits and vegetables. I began the harvest the week of April 17 with asparagus, and ended the harvest the week of Thanksgiving with sage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. That’s 8 months of food! That’s a win in my book. I had some winners and some losers. I was giving away tomatoes, squash, basil and berries, but the melons and eggplants eluded me due to my unpreparedness with the late cabbage and unwieldy tomatillos. My peppers were a flop again for the third year. But I won’t be giving up on them just yet. Overall, I think this year was my most successful garden year. I figured out the watering system and my rotation and spacing scheme worked out very well. I didn’t have any problems with transplants because I grew them self. In order to properly assess the produce harvest, I used a kitchen scale, and weighed 470 lbs of vegetables for a grand total cost of….

Drum roll please…

$1250!!!!!

And yes. I know that is $34 in the red.

RESULTS

So okay, I technically didn’t make money on the garden, but if you consider I “spent” $34 for 470 lbs of vegetables, many of which are still stored in my freezer or canned and in the pantry in various forms, I think I did pretty darn good. And what a fun project. At its height, the garden was astounding, and received comments and questions from the neighbors (possibly some grumbling and complaints that I tuned out) and also kept me outside for a good chunk of the summer. I got to make farm dinners for family and friends that visited, we grilled vegetables I didn’t know could be grilled, and reduced our grocery expenses to the point where I could justify buying lobster for dinner. I even liked keeping track of all the produce; my charts and files have provided me solid information to make better planning for next year. I think I will keep this going if I can.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that 2016 was a good year in garden for me. I have already started plotting the changes and new vegetables and varieties to try, and making my informed decisions to better myself.

Next year will be…the Year of the Salad (because I have 10,000 lettuce seeds to start).

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and have grand adventures in gardening!

How to Manage 25 Pints of Raspberries, In Photos

Tags

fruit, garden, homemade, local foods, rabbit, recipes

I used to think April was my busiest month in gardening. Then I experienced May. Then June. And now, July. Let’s face it, this “hobby” of mine has really taken precedence over a lot of things in my life, like, umm, clean floors and bed sheets. My goal in all of this is to demonstrate by action the benefits of urban vegetable gardening, and fortunately one of those goals is not a magazine-cover-worthy kept house. One of my goals is, however, manageability of the work involved. July, and my little 10 ft x 5 ft patch of summer-bearing raspberries, threatened to bring down my noble charge. This month, I harvested 25 pints of raspberries, or 50 cups, or 12.5 quarts, or just over 3 gallons, which adds up to somewhere in the realm of 10 billion berries. Growing perennial cane berries is a great investment, especially if you want to be so overwhelmed in one short period of time, that within two weeks you can’t even look at anything berry-flavored without screaming obscenities and punching through drywall, and then you swear off that fruit for the next 11 months. Which is great, because that’s when the next crop is ready.

Fortunately, fresh-picked raspberries at the peak of ripeness are beyond amazing, and purchasing off-season raspberries after you taste these beauties will leave you disappointed and let down, so you will never do it again (in my experience). Even my rabbit won’t eat store bought raspberries anymore, but to be fair she is highly spoiled and very snooty for a prey animal. If this is something that interests you, and I do suggest it, I’ve added a new feature on this blog, Produce Primer, which will include features of various fruits and vegetables that I have grown, and the first one up is the luscious red raspberry.

If you are concerned about how to manage all those raspberries, take it from me, there are ways. Check out the photos below for some sweet red rasp-iration.

Raspberry Chip Ice Cream

Raspberry White Wine Popsicle

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

Fresh Raspberries and Yogurt Dip

Raspberry French Macarons

Raspberries and Cream

Raspbery Creme Brûlée

Raspberry Pecan Coffee Cake

Enjoy!

DIY Guide to Trimming Trees with Questionable Results

Tags

fruit, garden, winter

They say the best way to learn how to do something is to try it out. I don’t know who “they” is, but I certainly hope they are experienced fruit tree-trimming professionals in this particular case. CFO has been asking me for four years now to trim back my unruly pear and cherry trees. For four years now, I have had very convincing reasons to leave the dwarf-turn-giant trees untouched, most of them sounding like “I can’t because its damaging to trim the trees in [insert current season], but I will definitely do it next season.” I managed to get away with this excuse for four years only because he rarely commits my excuses to long-term memory.

Why have I been so resistant to tame the wild timbers? Trust me, it is not because of some deep-seated belief that the trees are of nature and nature shall run its course. This is what I use to explain why I refuse to weed my lawn. No, the truth is that I am terrified of trimming those trees. The discovery that we had fruit trees, long before the garden was installed, was like a beautiful amazing gift. It wasn’t mentioned in the home sale, in fact, none of the landscaping was mentioned in the home sale. (Home buying tip: if landscaping is not described as a selling point, that generally means it is the opposite of a selling point). What if I did it wrong? What if instead of cutting the dead wood, I cut off all the blossoming wood? Our neighbors had a peach tree when they moved in, that had a booming crop one year, and three years later, that tree is but a shadow of its former self, and has never had a single fruit since. Our neighbor is an aggressive tree trimmer. So while I have no evidence he trimmed the tree to death, in my mind that is the cause of his peach-less summers.

Alas, CFO is no fool, and this past summer he did a little of his own research and told me that winter was the best time to trim trees and those trees NEEDED a haircut. I had my “its way to cold” excuse all lined up to go, when behold, we had a freak warm-up weekend mid-February and temps rose to a balmy. Excuses out the window.

I headed out to take a look. I had armed myself with tree reading, and printed off a cheat sheet, and my tools. These trees are approximately 18 feet at this point, which means there will be a lot of looking up.

The three step approach I read about includes:

1. Trim dead, diseased or dying branches, watersprouts, and any limbs below the grafted point.
2. Thin out the branches so that there is 6-12” of air space around each branch, making sure that branches do not cross each other. Trim the least healthy branches.
3. Cut back 30% of all new growth from the previous year.

Sounds simple enough right? Well…the thing is, READING about something is much different than DOING something. Here is a more realistic DIY tree-trimming primer:

1. Does it snap off when you bend it? Its probably dead or dying, or you’re really strong. Either way you have accomplished step 1. For higher up branches, hope for the best.

Would it surprise you to know, that ALL tree parts look the same? The only way to tell a dead from dying branch is to either have x-ray vision or speak native tree language and ask the damn thing. Wood looks like wood. You know how I know a dead branch from a live branch? Because one is on the ground and one is on the tree.

Dead or Alive? Look closely. 

2. Keep the prettiest looking limbs and branches, and cut everything else off.

I mean, how do I know what is the “healthiest” branch in a jumble of branches? How is that even advice? I went for aesthetics, and also thought about where fruit would be the easiest to pick. I did make sure to trim back any crossed limbs, that at least was easy enough.

3. Cut back 30% of new growth…oh hell, skip this part because that is a $#!+ ton of trimming to do.

New growth?!? If I can’t tell dead wood from live wood, how can I possibly be expected to know what “new growth” looks like? What a ridiculous proposition. I think the tree-trimming community has really over-estimated the general population’s detailed attention to trees. For the record, this is what new growth looks like.

Do you see that tiny little wrinkle, and the subtle color change on the bark (this has been color enhanced)? That is what you are supposed to look for, and then trim 30% of each of these little branches…and they are 10 ft above your head. Let’s just stop here.

Check out the before…

Before…

Before…

Before…

 

Follow my steps and…

After!

Ta-da! Fully trimmed trees. There is approximately equal chance that I killed these little guys as I helped them, and I am hoping for the latter.

As one step below a tree-trimming novice, I can’t in good faith recommend following my advice, but I can safely say I know the proper way to trim trees: hire someone.

Stay tuned for pear and cherry photos (or lack there of ) later this year…

Spring, to the Lackadaisical Home Gardener

Tags

direct sow, fruit, heirloom, raised bed, SFG, vegetables

Can you believe it is just about May? I should say, do I believe it is just about May? I wouldn’t think so based on the cold front blast this past week that reminded me what it looks like when it both rains and snows at the same time (if you don’t remember, it usually looks like hail). This chilly weather was a bit detrimental to my garden, but those little seeds always pull through.

This week things are finally coming up spring, as the temps slowly rise back into the 50’s. And, as such I am enjoying my daily morning walkabouts with glee. I have this little routine I like to do in the morning:

1. Wake up grudgingly to the alarm at 5:30 am
2. Go back to sleep for at least 8 minutes
3. Hear the coffee grinder whirling away (CFO’s most important responsibility)
4. Roll out of bed
5. Pick self off floor
6. Four minutes later find my self in the kitchen with cup of coffee
7. Sit on couch drinking said coffee
8. CFO goes upstairs to ready himself for bacon-bringing-home job
9. Head to mud room, fill up 3 gallons of water in buckets
10. Circle the yard in light dance steps watering things that grow and smiling like an idiot

For the last step, I generally start at my poor man’s greenhouse, walk to the back raised beds, loop around the fruit trees, come back to the herb garden, around the deck to the hydrangeas, bleeding hearts and turtle heads, up front to the asparagus, bulbs and hostas, then finally to the berry canes. The whole process takes me about 30 minutes and gives me a chance to see how things are progressing, and identify problems early on.

Today was a most exciting walkabout because real evidence of green growing things can be seen and now I know the fickle vixen we call spring is here for real this time. I am the first to admit that I am the laziest gardener there is. Not because I am lazy, per se, but because I am already busy and AWOL 50% of the time because of my bill-paying job, so I try to balance garden chores to get maximum reward, with minimal effort. So some of you might have full on industrial supplies of spring lettuce at this point in the season, but since I nearly exclusively plant from seed and do nothing special to my soil or environment other than compost and bird netting, growth tends to be about as seasonal as it gets. Take a look at my future dinner guests.

Leafy Greens

Bloomsburg spinach sprouts and fast growing Apollo arugula. Leafy greens will be the first homegrown meal this May. I also have four types of heading lettuce, mixed leaf lettuce, and endive planted out.

Peas

Peas don’t mind a little cold weather, in fact, it may have encouraged them. If I blink, these little guys will be seven feet tall and falling overthemselves. Next week I will be trellising. Here we have Golden Sweet peas and Amish Snap peas in the back.

Herbs

The chives are looking lush and tender already. These are always the first to emerge. You can’t kill a chive plant. Chives are the hydras of the plant world. Cut off one head, and two more will grow. But, they make fantastic flowers that bees and other pollinators enjoy, so I plant en mass where I need a little pollinator loving.

Not surprisingly, there is nothing here in the herb garden but vermin. I have not actually planted herbs yet because the deck will need a coat of sealant, and it’s not exactly a fertilizer, if you get my drift. Once the deck is sealed, I can build up the soil and put in the herbs. I hope to have some success this year, though with the new squatters that have moved in and enjoy their late night parties, one cannot predict. I did manage to catch one of them up to no good.

Truthfully, when I first caught him in one of my new vole traps, I had a complete freak out because I realized that I had planned to set traps, but I had not planned for what I would do if they worked. I panicky called a friend, drove this little guy to the lush manicured neighborhoods of a nearby town, and we released him to the wilds of Milwaukee suburbia. I promised he would be reunited with his family soon, because, well, I’m ordering two more traps to beef up security.

Orchard

The cherry trees and pears have swollen buds, signaling the start of lush vegetation. The cherry blossoms are in full display in our nation’s capital, but here they won’t arrive until May on my little tart (cherry).

Asparagus

Now this is some real magic. I still have another year left to baby this little patch of goodness, but I love seeing asparagus shoot upwards in the spring. Most people have no idea how asparagus grows or where or why or what, but as a plant it actually looks nothing like you would expect. Once the stems shoot up past 8 inches or so, the little asparagus tips we are accustomed to will actually produce branches with feathery, fern-like leaves. I have two varieties here, Purple Passion and Jersey Knight, both hybrid all-male varieties that should not produce berries (yes, asparagus makes little red berries). If maintained, this should provide 20 years of homegrown asparagus in the spring. Are you writhing in excitement yet?

So there it is, there is the progress on the homestead. The compost was delivered a week ago and both garden beds are moving right along. I get a compost/topsoil mix delivered by a local compost facility. Its not organic, it’s not blessed by Buddhist monks, and doesn’t have buried cow heads and moon dancing or anything fancy. It’s good old fashioned compost made by vegetable and plant material collected from around the county. But it grows good food and I don’t have to add anything except, well, more compost. Check out the garden plan for what I’ve got in the ground right now.

Playing in dirt. This is spring to me.

This is spring to Jessica.

There are Healthy Eating Habits, and then there is Me, When No One is Watching

Tags

fruit, homemade, local foods, nutrition, recipes

This time of year is tough on the diet. I like to eat seasonally, but there is not much seasonality between February and April. Don’t get me wrong, winter is tough but I made a lot of great meals with inexpensive root vegetables and grains this year. I swear there are more ways to use a rutabaga than you think. But come February, it is slim pickings. For the last few months I have been doing a bang up job clearing out the freezer and pantry making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but this past month has required more pricey grocery shopping trips. This week, CFO is away on business, leaving me alone to make my own coffee in the morning (which is the WORST), and also making dinner for one (not as terrible as the coffee thing). I had this really grand idea of eating takeout every night because I never eat out by myself or get takeout because I am sodamnthrifty, but the idea sounded fascinating. I had it all planned out with specific restaurants and everything. Then of course, I realized that to do such plan would require me to drive to said restaurants to pick up food, and, well, a greater thrill took over. The thrill of the yard, followed by the thrill of the Netflix. I decided to scour the freezer for any remaining foods, so I could stay cozy at home.

As luck would have it, I found this freezer bag full of red gems.

 This is the last of the summer raspberries, frozen at their peak. And let me tell you, they are like some kind of ambrosia. I think they could impart immortality. The smell alone evokes that summery, happy, warm feeling and brings you right back to July. Ooooooo so good. This is divine. This is my dinner.

The nice part about being an adult is I can make really, really good eating decisions. Here is my favorite recipe for all the fruits, and it is enjoyable for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, desserts, and fourth meals: Perfect Fruit Crisp.

Step 1: Gather your ingredients

Flour, brown sugar, lemon, spices, butter, oats, nuts, fruit, corn starch, a little salt) and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Step 2: Mix topping

For a two-person one-person serving, I usually do ¼ c flour, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 3 tbsp chopped nuts (I had slivered almonds on hand, no chopping needed!), a hearty dose of cinnamon (for fall fruits, nutmeg as well), a pinch of salt and mix well.

Melt about 3 Tbsp butter (not margarine, please!), and mix into the flour mix. A lot of crisps require you to “cut in” cold butter, but that is so much more work than I am willing to do.

 Once the butter is mixed, at it looks like soggy batter, stir in about ¼ to ½ cup of rolled oats. This is the key, to mix after the butter. The oats will clump up the whole mixture and you will get that crumbly, expected crisp topping. When I make this for CFO, I like to double the topping for him. For me, I like to double the fruit.

Step 3: Prep the fruit

You can use any fruit that bakes well. I have done this with apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, blackberries, and any combination, but tonight, it’s all about the raspberries. I recommend about 1 cup of fruit per serving. For large fruits that require cutting, I recommend just chop and mix. I don’t bother with peeling if I don’t have to (extra fiber anyone?), but DO core and seed pomme fruits (apples and pears) and pit fruits (plums and peaches). 

You will need the juice of half of one lemon per serving, add about ½ tsp corn starch if using fresh fruit, 1 tsp corn starch if frozen, and if you want a little more sweetness, you can add 1 tsp sugar. That is optional and I won’t need it with these little ladies. Dissolve the cornstarch, and mix the berries with the lemon mixture.

Step 4: Assemble

Pour the berries into ramekins and top with oat crisp. You can also use a larger 8×8 baking dish, if you double or triple the recipe.

Step 5: Bake

Put into 425°F oven, and bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on if fresh fruit (less time) or frozen (more time).

Step 6: Enjoy

Ahhhh heavenly! One for dinner, and one for dessert. Topped with a scoop of ice cream or a hearty dollop of fresh whipped cream, this becomes a complete meal, nutritionally, and also vegetarian-friendly: fruit, nuts, oats, dairy, grain. All it is missing is the wine. Luckily, I have that in spades. Bon santé!

This is the look I get when I eat raspberries in front of her.

PERFECT FRUIT CRISP

Serves 2 (or 1, if you can get it alone)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fruit, fresh or frozen
• juice of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp cornstarch (1 tsp if using frozen fruit)
• 1 tsp sugar, optional
• ¼ c flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp chopped nuts
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• ¼ c rolled oats

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, salt and nuts in a small bowl. Add melted butter and mix until mixture is wet. Add oats until clumps form and it is incorporated. If needed, add more oats. Set aside.
3. Dissolve corn starch into lemon juice, add sugar if desired. Mix lemon juice into fruit to coat.
4. Divide fruit into 2 ramekins or individual baking dishes.
5. Set remekins on tray if desired, bake for 25 minutes (fresh fruit) to 35 minutes (frozen fruit).
6. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.