I promised an update and here it is:
We got into the garden today (yay!) turns out the combo really starts with a 1 and the person who sent out the email started it with a 2, just to keep us on our toes apparently. But Garden Buddy and I got in! We planted the last of the tomato seedlings.
Ox hearts are finally in the ground, This is about when I got tomato seedlings in last year so I hope that it gets hot/sunny enough to let them grow enough to produce fruit. I'm really looking forward to these guys and I hope against hope that I get some. I think next year I'm going to do these guys in big pots so I can bring them indoors under a grow light if it gets cold. It's been a weirdly cold summer this year. It took forever to warm up, and I'm still alternating nights between the air conditioner and an extra blanket. But I digress.
We also got in eggplant, broccoli, carrots, and more beans today. Out 3 sisters area is officially all planted, so we'll see how it goes. The corn seems to be happy (two stalks have silk!) and the squash are ENORMOUS. This will clearly be a good year for squash. The tomatoes that had already been in are starting to produce fruit, there was one mature indigo rose tomato there today. I'd show you a picture, but I ate it. The cucumbers also have wee little proto-pickle nubbins!
I also discovered a volunteer! The bird's eye peppers that I'd planted last year and intended to save see from (but didn't) came back! Those hot little numbers were a favorite of Ben's, so I'm really glad they came back. Even if they're at the end of my eggplant row.
As for being fed today? I had to thin out my turnips. I got three bulbs about the size of golf balls and some nice big bunches of greens. I had 2 commercially bought turnips at home, so today's lunch is oven roasted turnips with sauteed greens. I am inordinately pleased with this.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Mini-Update 'Cause I Said I Would
So garden buddy and I went to Fwigf at 8am. The plan was to plant the last of our seedlings, do a little weeding, squee over the flowers on various veggies, ect. We got there with our seedlings, went to the gate... and the combination didn't work. My community garden has changed the combination on the lock and emailed us the wrong one. They didn't open until 9. So we got no garden time today.
Instead we went to (big box home improvement store) and picked up plant stakes. Tomorrow we're going back in the morning, planting the seedlings, staking what needs to be staked, pulling the worst of the weeds, and squeeing over flowers.
From what I could see through the fence (so close and yet so far *sobs*) we've got a couple ears of corn on the biggest stalks, the little ones are growing just fine, I've got flowers on my squash, green tomatoes, flowers on my cucumbers and Buddy's melons, and everything is nice and strong looking. Hopefully I'll have a better update (and some pictures) tomorrow.
Instead we went to (big box home improvement store) and picked up plant stakes. Tomorrow we're going back in the morning, planting the seedlings, staking what needs to be staked, pulling the worst of the weeds, and squeeing over flowers.
From what I could see through the fence (so close and yet so far *sobs*) we've got a couple ears of corn on the biggest stalks, the little ones are growing just fine, I've got flowers on my squash, green tomatoes, flowers on my cucumbers and Buddy's melons, and everything is nice and strong looking. Hopefully I'll have a better update (and some pictures) tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
2015 Update!
Yup, I am terrible at blogging, lets just accept that now shall we? Good.
Ok so lets start out with what I actively did today. I'm going out to Fwigf tomorrow and so will be able to give a better update about what is going on there after I check it.
Today I made two quarts of refrigerator pickled peas. The vines I had in my backyard had been... lets say neglected... for the last couple of weeks. Which means everything bloomed, and ripened, and I wasn't harvesting. So those two quarts are all I'm getting out of my pea plants this season. They feel they have succeeded in their mission of "reproduce damnit!" and so are now going to die off.
Note: Harvest your food as it becomes ripe. This will keep your plants producing far longer. Learn from my failures.
I also made a small pint jar of what I will now call DEATH SAUCE. Yes the caps are required. What is DEATH SAUCE? DEATH SAUCE is what happens when you take about 20 peppers of a stupidly hot variety (say 80k scu) and pack them into a pint jar with some brine and garlic powder and proceed to ignore it on your counter for two weeks. Added fun? Add in some OTHER stupidly hot peppers as those ripen. Because you hate your GI tract and want your sinuses super clean every time you open the jar.
I also thinned out my carrot pot so hopefully I'll actually get some carrots out of it and not just spindly, twisted, bits of orange sorrow. We'll see.
My front garden is doing lovely. The pumpkin vines are nice and strong. they aren't flowering yet but it's still early for them. The brussel sprout plant is doing ok, it's growing. Something (some kind of beetle) is eating my cabbages, but I'm not sure what.
So yeah. That's home. We'll see what's going on at Fwigf in the morning.
Ok so lets start out with what I actively did today. I'm going out to Fwigf tomorrow and so will be able to give a better update about what is going on there after I check it.
Today I made two quarts of refrigerator pickled peas. The vines I had in my backyard had been... lets say neglected... for the last couple of weeks. Which means everything bloomed, and ripened, and I wasn't harvesting. So those two quarts are all I'm getting out of my pea plants this season. They feel they have succeeded in their mission of "reproduce damnit!" and so are now going to die off.
Note: Harvest your food as it becomes ripe. This will keep your plants producing far longer. Learn from my failures.
I also made a small pint jar of what I will now call DEATH SAUCE. Yes the caps are required. What is DEATH SAUCE? DEATH SAUCE is what happens when you take about 20 peppers of a stupidly hot variety (say 80k scu) and pack them into a pint jar with some brine and garlic powder and proceed to ignore it on your counter for two weeks. Added fun? Add in some OTHER stupidly hot peppers as those ripen. Because you hate your GI tract and want your sinuses super clean every time you open the jar.
I also thinned out my carrot pot so hopefully I'll actually get some carrots out of it and not just spindly, twisted, bits of orange sorrow. We'll see.
My front garden is doing lovely. The pumpkin vines are nice and strong. they aren't flowering yet but it's still early for them. The brussel sprout plant is doing ok, it's growing. Something (some kind of beetle) is eating my cabbages, but I'm not sure what.
So yeah. That's home. We'll see what's going on at Fwigf in the morning.
Monday, May 18, 2015
It's Been Quiet 'Round Here
It's May, which means New York has no idea what season it is. This seems to have been a trend this year, we had eternal winter (I feared Ragnarok was upon us) and then skipped right to summer. Spring? Bah who needs spring?! This does mean that my seedlings got kind of a weird start this year.
I experimented with using a lamp and a lizard light (vitamin A bulb from the reptile section of the petstore) and while it gave proof of concept the light was too far away from the seeds and they ended up leggy and dead. So I had to restart about 2 weeks ago out doors. Yeah, yeah I'm late I get it. But I couldn't get into Fwigf until it was tilled which wasn't until after the spring brunch on May 3 so I'm really not that far behind. Last year I didn't start until June. So I think all will be well.
I've had to scrap the large garden at home, as well as the decent sized one in the front yard. This is just due to time and my physical limitations. Gardening is my thing, it's not fair to ask Husband to do all the back breaking labor of tilling up our yard for me to plant stuff.
BUT! He is out front right now building me a mini-raised bed to grow greens in. This gives me the happiest of wiggles. My greens bed is:
3 ft x 3ft x 6inches tall. Or 1m x 1m x ~12cm for our metric friends. I'm filling it with 2 cu ft of top soil, 1 cu ft of composted cow manure, 1 cu ft of peat hummus and one 5 gallon bucket of composted horse manure (thank you local horse farm for letting me dig in your shit pile!).
In that I intend to plant 1 brussels sprout seedling right in the middle and scatter Amish Deer Tongue lettuce around it and hope it takes. The goal is to have a small, rich, plot that I can just succession plant greens in to have a constant supply for salads and Husband's sandwiches. We'll see how this goes! I may plant some spinach or hardier greens in there next to be able to actually blanch and freeze them. No repeat of the lettuce sourkrout experiment of last year.
Well, time to go fill my mini-bed with dirt and plant it up!
I experimented with using a lamp and a lizard light (vitamin A bulb from the reptile section of the petstore) and while it gave proof of concept the light was too far away from the seeds and they ended up leggy and dead. So I had to restart about 2 weeks ago out doors. Yeah, yeah I'm late I get it. But I couldn't get into Fwigf until it was tilled which wasn't until after the spring brunch on May 3 so I'm really not that far behind. Last year I didn't start until June. So I think all will be well.
I've had to scrap the large garden at home, as well as the decent sized one in the front yard. This is just due to time and my physical limitations. Gardening is my thing, it's not fair to ask Husband to do all the back breaking labor of tilling up our yard for me to plant stuff.
BUT! He is out front right now building me a mini-raised bed to grow greens in. This gives me the happiest of wiggles. My greens bed is:
3 ft x 3ft x 6inches tall. Or 1m x 1m x ~12cm for our metric friends. I'm filling it with 2 cu ft of top soil, 1 cu ft of composted cow manure, 1 cu ft of peat hummus and one 5 gallon bucket of composted horse manure (thank you local horse farm for letting me dig in your shit pile!).
In that I intend to plant 1 brussels sprout seedling right in the middle and scatter Amish Deer Tongue lettuce around it and hope it takes. The goal is to have a small, rich, plot that I can just succession plant greens in to have a constant supply for salads and Husband's sandwiches. We'll see how this goes! I may plant some spinach or hardier greens in there next to be able to actually blanch and freeze them. No repeat of the lettuce sourkrout experiment of last year.
Well, time to go fill my mini-bed with dirt and plant it up!
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Sprouts!
Brussels spouts, peas (both cow and sugar snap), cabbage, broccoli, pretty much everything is sprouting!
Except my ox hearts. They aren't sprouting yet. I'm hoping they start sprouting soon since I'm really excited about those tomatoes. Everything else is tiny so they aren't too far behind. Here's hoping they catch up soon.
The snow has started to melt. The weather has started warming up. It's getting sunnier and warmer. Soon it will be spring! And soon my little spoutlings will be outside and growing me food.
Except my ox hearts. They aren't sprouting yet. I'm hoping they start sprouting soon since I'm really excited about those tomatoes. Everything else is tiny so they aren't too far behind. Here's hoping they catch up soon.
The snow has started to melt. The weather has started warming up. It's getting sunnier and warmer. Soon it will be spring! And soon my little spoutlings will be outside and growing me food.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Fwigg post: Spent Grain to Flour
What the heck is Fwigg? I'm glad I imagined you asking dear. Fwigg is the brand new community garden plot next to Fwigf. It stands for Field Where I Grow Grains and it does what it says on the tin. This year Husband and I are attempting to grow barley for his brewing efforts. We are attempting to make our hobbies intersect so we can both get more excited about what the other does, and reduce both our costs of doing business. Clever, no?
Posts marked with Fwigg will be things having to do with grain production, malting, brewing, or uses for spent grain. If you have no interest in brewing, or don't know a brewer that you can get spent grain from, feel free to skip these posts. Nothing about regular Fwigf will appear here, and I will try to keep Fwigg business out of Fwigf posts. Ok? Ok.
Today we're going to skip to the end of the brewing process (no, not drinking loves.) What the heck to do with spent grain?
Spent grain are the left overs from brewing. Unless the home brewer has a garden, or turns them into flour like I'm about to discuss, they generally get tossed. Pounds of useful grain just discarded. I don't have enough money to let that keep happening in my house. There are really three ways to deal with spent grain.
1. Compost it. Seriously, just toss the whole wet mass onto your compost pile and let it go. Use it as fertilizer later. Your garden will thank you.
2. Feed it to livestock. Chickens, goats, sheep, cows, ect. Spent grain is a tasty treat.
3. Turn it into flour and use it for baking.
Lacking both a compost pile (thanks dogs) and livestock I'm going with method 3.
First thing that needs to happen is you need to dry your grain. When your beloved brewer (this may also be yourself. You should be beloved to yourself, darlings) has finished with the grain it will be a heavy, dense, sopping, mass. Not very useful or appetizing. Unless you have an industrial dryer you're going to need to use your oven. Do NOT put wet grain in pillow cases and put it through your dryer, I don't care how many websites say this is a good idea. That knot WILL come undone and your dryer, lint trap, and vent will be clogged with grain. That will proceed to be impossible to get out an rot. No I didn't need to do this for myself to know this is poor decision theater, don't make me disappointed in you darlings. I know you're smarter than that.
So, set your oven to 350 F. Spread our your grain in an even layer (no more than 1/4 inch thick) on as many baking sheets as you've got. I used two. You will have to do this in batches. This is an all day affair to process 12 pounds (what I'm working with). Roast your grain, stirring it at 15 minute intervals until it's dry and brittle. Mine took about 45 minutes a batch. Make sure your grain is very dry. Do not cut corners, a little damp is not acceptable here. It'll just clump in your grinder. Transfer dry grain into a mixing bowl, spread out more grain and get those trays back into the oven.
Next you need to grind the dried grain into an powder-like consistency. If you're lucky you have a stand mixer with a four mill attachment. If you're like me and you are not so blessed, use a very clean spice grinder. A food processor will work in a pinch but it really won't get the really fine flour we're looking for. You'll end up with a courser flour and that's ok. If you're using a spice grinder or food processor, pour in as much dried grain as it can safely handle, pulse until it's the right texture, then pour your flour into a container that seals.
Repeat until your grain is gone, your container is full, or you can't take this anymore.
Baking with Spent Grain
Your flour is going to be a little more course than commercial flour. That's really not avoidable. This means don't use it for things were fine flour is a must. IE no malted pastry baking. Really this can replace commercial bread flour, not all purpose.
Because beer is made with malted grains your flour is malt flour. In general it'll be sweeter and hardier than standard flour. Beyond that the flavor profile depends on what the grain bill for the beer itself was. Stout flour will be darker and richer than IPA flour for example. I have scotch ale flour. This is light brown, mildly honey flavored, flour. I like it. For the sake of comparison I've made two loaves of bread, exactly the same, except for which flour I used. The commercial flour was King Arthur Bread flour. Below the recipe are mine and Husband's different impressions of the bread.
Basic Bread Dough:
(single small loaf)
1/4 cup warm water
1.5 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups flour
1 table spoon olive oil
Proof the yeast in the warm water, add the sugar, it'll make the yeast proof faster. Put everything into a mixing bowl and mix until the dough is a non-sticky lump. You may need more water. Set it in a warm place to rise. Punch down when it's doubled. Form it into a loaf (I like round loaves on the baking sheet) and let rise again. Bake at 375 F until it the loaf sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom.
I know, I know, I don't normally measure anything. But to make sure the loaves were the same (except for flour type) I needed to. I did end up having to go about 2/3 spent grain to 1/3 commercial flour in order to get it to form anything resembling dough. I either got a mudpie or a crumbly mass. It didn't rise either, but stayed a small, dark, loaf.
My flavor reaction:
This is a very hearty and coarse bread. Not really good for sandwiches but would be awesome dinner rolls. It's got a bitter molasses/caramelized sugar flavor, but isn't sweet.
Husband's flavor reaction:
Needs soup or honey. I'd want it sweeter and it's too dense to eat by itself.
Posts marked with Fwigg will be things having to do with grain production, malting, brewing, or uses for spent grain. If you have no interest in brewing, or don't know a brewer that you can get spent grain from, feel free to skip these posts. Nothing about regular Fwigf will appear here, and I will try to keep Fwigg business out of Fwigf posts. Ok? Ok.
Today we're going to skip to the end of the brewing process (no, not drinking loves.) What the heck to do with spent grain?
Spent grain are the left overs from brewing. Unless the home brewer has a garden, or turns them into flour like I'm about to discuss, they generally get tossed. Pounds of useful grain just discarded. I don't have enough money to let that keep happening in my house. There are really three ways to deal with spent grain.
1. Compost it. Seriously, just toss the whole wet mass onto your compost pile and let it go. Use it as fertilizer later. Your garden will thank you.
2. Feed it to livestock. Chickens, goats, sheep, cows, ect. Spent grain is a tasty treat.
3. Turn it into flour and use it for baking.
Lacking both a compost pile (thanks dogs) and livestock I'm going with method 3.
First thing that needs to happen is you need to dry your grain. When your beloved brewer (this may also be yourself. You should be beloved to yourself, darlings) has finished with the grain it will be a heavy, dense, sopping, mass. Not very useful or appetizing. Unless you have an industrial dryer you're going to need to use your oven. Do NOT put wet grain in pillow cases and put it through your dryer, I don't care how many websites say this is a good idea. That knot WILL come undone and your dryer, lint trap, and vent will be clogged with grain. That will proceed to be impossible to get out an rot. No I didn't need to do this for myself to know this is poor decision theater, don't make me disappointed in you darlings. I know you're smarter than that.
So, set your oven to 350 F. Spread our your grain in an even layer (no more than 1/4 inch thick) on as many baking sheets as you've got. I used two. You will have to do this in batches. This is an all day affair to process 12 pounds (what I'm working with). Roast your grain, stirring it at 15 minute intervals until it's dry and brittle. Mine took about 45 minutes a batch. Make sure your grain is very dry. Do not cut corners, a little damp is not acceptable here. It'll just clump in your grinder. Transfer dry grain into a mixing bowl, spread out more grain and get those trays back into the oven.
Next you need to grind the dried grain into an powder-like consistency. If you're lucky you have a stand mixer with a four mill attachment. If you're like me and you are not so blessed, use a very clean spice grinder. A food processor will work in a pinch but it really won't get the really fine flour we're looking for. You'll end up with a courser flour and that's ok. If you're using a spice grinder or food processor, pour in as much dried grain as it can safely handle, pulse until it's the right texture, then pour your flour into a container that seals.
Repeat until your grain is gone, your container is full, or you can't take this anymore.
Baking with Spent Grain
Your flour is going to be a little more course than commercial flour. That's really not avoidable. This means don't use it for things were fine flour is a must. IE no malted pastry baking. Really this can replace commercial bread flour, not all purpose.
Because beer is made with malted grains your flour is malt flour. In general it'll be sweeter and hardier than standard flour. Beyond that the flavor profile depends on what the grain bill for the beer itself was. Stout flour will be darker and richer than IPA flour for example. I have scotch ale flour. This is light brown, mildly honey flavored, flour. I like it. For the sake of comparison I've made two loaves of bread, exactly the same, except for which flour I used. The commercial flour was King Arthur Bread flour. Below the recipe are mine and Husband's different impressions of the bread.
Basic Bread Dough:
(single small loaf)
1/4 cup warm water
1.5 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups flour
1 table spoon olive oil
Proof the yeast in the warm water, add the sugar, it'll make the yeast proof faster. Put everything into a mixing bowl and mix until the dough is a non-sticky lump. You may need more water. Set it in a warm place to rise. Punch down when it's doubled. Form it into a loaf (I like round loaves on the baking sheet) and let rise again. Bake at 375 F until it the loaf sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom.
I know, I know, I don't normally measure anything. But to make sure the loaves were the same (except for flour type) I needed to. I did end up having to go about 2/3 spent grain to 1/3 commercial flour in order to get it to form anything resembling dough. I either got a mudpie or a crumbly mass. It didn't rise either, but stayed a small, dark, loaf.
My flavor reaction:
This is a very hearty and coarse bread. Not really good for sandwiches but would be awesome dinner rolls. It's got a bitter molasses/caramelized sugar flavor, but isn't sweet.
Husband's flavor reaction:
Needs soup or honey. I'd want it sweeter and it's too dense to eat by itself.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Fwigf begins in 2015!
Today is the day my loves! Today I have started some seed (in a covered tray, with the cover taped on, so my asscat won't treat my seedlings like her own personal salad bar.)
No picture today, since they're just wet plugs of peat with some seed on top, and that's not exciting to anyone but me. Consulting the Old Farmer's Almanac (you did save that link last post didn't you dears?) I saw that this week is the week to start broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, peas, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.
Going back to my garden plan I counted how many of each I need, realized I only have 75 small plugs and 12 big ones, and promptly started hoping I'd have space for these to go in time to start the next batch of stuff.
It's starting! I couldn't be more excited about this guys, I mean it! I'm going to have food that I grew again! That aren't PICKLES!
UPDATE:
Here's what actually in the trays (numbers and all)
Large plugs (16)
8 Oxheart tomato seeds (I need 5, if all 8 sprout well I will offer the other three around to see if anyone else wants to give them a shot)
4 Brussels Sprouts
4 Snap peas
Small plugs (72)
5 Cowpeas
7 anaheim hot peppers
10 peacock broccoli
5 eggplant
7 marconi sweet peppers
16 snow peas
8 Copenhagan market cabbage
8 Calabrese broccoli
6 waltham broccoli
I do have a second type of cabbage (dutch flat leaf) but that's a late season so I'm going to sow that when the market cabbage is gone. And I do have a bunch of other things that are either getting direct sown (corn, beans, squash, turnips, carrots) or I'm not sure how and when to plant yet (kholrabi). The cherry tomatoes should get started but those can wait until the second round of plugs since they're just going into the front yard.
No picture today, since they're just wet plugs of peat with some seed on top, and that's not exciting to anyone but me. Consulting the Old Farmer's Almanac (you did save that link last post didn't you dears?) I saw that this week is the week to start broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, peas, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.
Going back to my garden plan I counted how many of each I need, realized I only have 75 small plugs and 12 big ones, and promptly started hoping I'd have space for these to go in time to start the next batch of stuff.
It's starting! I couldn't be more excited about this guys, I mean it! I'm going to have food that I grew again! That aren't PICKLES!
UPDATE:
Here's what actually in the trays (numbers and all)
Large plugs (16)
8 Oxheart tomato seeds (I need 5, if all 8 sprout well I will offer the other three around to see if anyone else wants to give them a shot)
4 Brussels Sprouts
4 Snap peas
Small plugs (72)
5 Cowpeas
7 anaheim hot peppers
10 peacock broccoli
5 eggplant
7 marconi sweet peppers
16 snow peas
8 Copenhagan market cabbage
8 Calabrese broccoli
6 waltham broccoli
I do have a second type of cabbage (dutch flat leaf) but that's a late season so I'm going to sow that when the market cabbage is gone. And I do have a bunch of other things that are either getting direct sown (corn, beans, squash, turnips, carrots) or I'm not sure how and when to plant yet (kholrabi). The cherry tomatoes should get started but those can wait until the second round of plugs since they're just going into the front yard.
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