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.
Monday, March 2, 2015
The timing of seeds
Welcome back my darlings!
It is kinda-sorta-almost spring if you squint here in the lovely Northeastern US. It will be spring some day drat it. I have eternal hope. Even if it is March and snowing. Anyhow, moving along. Today we're going to look at starting seed indoors.
First off, why on earth would anyone want to start seeds indoors, then transplant the baby plants? Why not just stick the seeds in the ground and have done with it? I'm so glad I imagined you asking.
The benefits here are two fold:
1. A longer growing season. You're planting seedlings outdoors, which means they've already got a head start. When you have a shortened growing season (I mentioned I live in the Northeastern US right?) you need all the time you can wring out.
2. Your seedlings are less vulnerable. Those tiny tender shoots that happen when the seed first breaks the earth are easily shaded out or eaten. Planting something a bit larger and established makes it less likely to die off because a dandelion decided to take up residence right next to it.
Seed starting is easy. First thing you need is to know when it's safe to get your seeds into substrate. May I suggest the Old Farmer's Almanac? They have this awesome free planting guide, you put in your location (city an state) and they automatically generate a listing of planting indoors, outdoors, and harvest times for a whole range of plants. Here's what mine looked like:
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NY/Schenectady
(copy and paste that, I couldn't get the picture to work).
Timing is important. If you're anything like me your natural inclination is to toss everything in at once, do a little garden dance of glee, then wonder how come your peas aren't doing so hot (hint, it's because it's too hot). If you plant too early then your seedlings can (and more than likely will) end up root bound. This makes it far more difficult to get the nutrients they need from the soil and it'll stunt their growth. If you start too late you end up not getting the benefits of starting indoors, only now you've got the added challenge of transplanting wimpy seedlings. So follow that link, input your own location, and check your starting dates.
Next thing you need is something for your seeds to grow in, and the seeds themselves. Personally I just buy the jiffy seed trays that come with the compressed peat moss pellets. They are stupid simple, add water to the tray until the pellets inflate, add seed to the moist peat moss, put the lid on it, set it in a place with ample light, and ignore until the seedlings start pushing on the lid. These do have limits (they're small, you can end up with root bound seedlings if you let them get too big in there, ect) but they're good basic starters.
Another option is to visit a hydroponic store (hydroponics - not just for growing weed anymore!) an pic up some of their starter plugs. They'll function roughly the same, you still need a tray to keep them safe in, and a light source, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper than peat moss pellets, and the person at the hydroponics store will more than likely be perfectly happy to talk your ear off about the various benefits to using them. I'll be using them next year, I'd already bought the peat moss pellets this year. Next year though... next year I am all over a whole tray full of plugs for the cost of one frickin' pellet.
Speaking of hydroponics, actually, no. Hydroponics will be its own post, keep an eye out for it.
It is kinda-sorta-almost spring if you squint here in the lovely Northeastern US. It will be spring some day drat it. I have eternal hope. Even if it is March and snowing. Anyhow, moving along. Today we're going to look at starting seed indoors.
First off, why on earth would anyone want to start seeds indoors, then transplant the baby plants? Why not just stick the seeds in the ground and have done with it? I'm so glad I imagined you asking.
The benefits here are two fold:
1. A longer growing season. You're planting seedlings outdoors, which means they've already got a head start. When you have a shortened growing season (I mentioned I live in the Northeastern US right?) you need all the time you can wring out.
2. Your seedlings are less vulnerable. Those tiny tender shoots that happen when the seed first breaks the earth are easily shaded out or eaten. Planting something a bit larger and established makes it less likely to die off because a dandelion decided to take up residence right next to it.
Seed starting is easy. First thing you need is to know when it's safe to get your seeds into substrate. May I suggest the Old Farmer's Almanac? They have this awesome free planting guide, you put in your location (city an state) and they automatically generate a listing of planting indoors, outdoors, and harvest times for a whole range of plants. Here's what mine looked like:
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NY/Schenectady
(copy and paste that, I couldn't get the picture to work).
Timing is important. If you're anything like me your natural inclination is to toss everything in at once, do a little garden dance of glee, then wonder how come your peas aren't doing so hot (hint, it's because it's too hot). If you plant too early then your seedlings can (and more than likely will) end up root bound. This makes it far more difficult to get the nutrients they need from the soil and it'll stunt their growth. If you start too late you end up not getting the benefits of starting indoors, only now you've got the added challenge of transplanting wimpy seedlings. So follow that link, input your own location, and check your starting dates.
Next thing you need is something for your seeds to grow in, and the seeds themselves. Personally I just buy the jiffy seed trays that come with the compressed peat moss pellets. They are stupid simple, add water to the tray until the pellets inflate, add seed to the moist peat moss, put the lid on it, set it in a place with ample light, and ignore until the seedlings start pushing on the lid. These do have limits (they're small, you can end up with root bound seedlings if you let them get too big in there, ect) but they're good basic starters.
Another option is to visit a hydroponic store (hydroponics - not just for growing weed anymore!) an pic up some of their starter plugs. They'll function roughly the same, you still need a tray to keep them safe in, and a light source, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper than peat moss pellets, and the person at the hydroponics store will more than likely be perfectly happy to talk your ear off about the various benefits to using them. I'll be using them next year, I'd already bought the peat moss pellets this year. Next year though... next year I am all over a whole tray full of plugs for the cost of one frickin' pellet.
Speaking of hydroponics, actually, no. Hydroponics will be its own post, keep an eye out for it.
Monday, February 16, 2015
Nothing Survives first contact
So back in July I made a post about my garden plan for this year. That lasted until my awesome friends decided to do a seed exchange in January. And I decided to expand my back yard garden, and add a front yard garden. And Husband decided to grow grain for beer, which means we have a second garden plot (Fwigg - Field where I grow grains) for growin' barley.
What does all this mean? It means I needed to reconfigure my garden plan. So here's the new plan:
Fwigf:
Yellow corn (6 stalks)
Ashworth sweet corn (6 stalks)
Butternut squash (6)
Acorn squash (6)
Northeast pole beans (24)
Cow Peas (12)
Purple stringless beans (12)
Snap peas (5)
Oxheart tomatoes (5)
Eggplant (10)
Kholrabi (10)
Peacock broccoli (6)
Peppers - mix of sweet and hot (13)
Turnips (20)
Golden midget Watermelon (7)
Bush cucumbers (13)
Again, all that is going into 400 sq ft. A 15x30 plot with 1 foot walkways between each row. Now all of these are things that I don't have to harvest the second they're ripe. I have a day or two wiggle room in each direction. Which is good because I'll be starting a new job next month which means my time to go out will be limited to 2-3 times a week tops. So I need things I can pick the day before they're ready or 1-2 days after without worrying that they're going to taste funny.
Home:
Back yard:
Snow Peas
Brussel Sprouts
Watermelon
Broccoli
Market Cabbage
Loose Cabbage
Roasting peppers
Dwarf corn
Cheese pumpkins
Noodle beans
Carrots
Front yard:
Morning Glories
Borage (it's a flower)
Marigolds
Turnip greens
Carrots
By the sidewalk:
Red cherry tomatoes
Yellow pear cherry tomatoes
The amounts for home haven't been determined yet (depends on space), but I also have two window boxes that I'm using for lettuce. Since it'll be easy to snag greens for work lunch if I have them at home. Which also means they'll get eaten, instead of turn into a really bad science experiment. I'm also planting things at home (see Noodle beans) that need to be picked and eaten (or preserved) before they go starchy and gross. So that's the new plan, we'll see how it works out once it isn't -20 with 3 feet of snow.
I'm only exaggerating by a couple of inches and a few degrees in both directions. It's miserable here right now. I'm counting down 'till spring.
What does all this mean? It means I needed to reconfigure my garden plan. So here's the new plan:
Fwigf:
Yellow corn (6 stalks)
Ashworth sweet corn (6 stalks)
Butternut squash (6)
Acorn squash (6)
Northeast pole beans (24)
Cow Peas (12)
Purple stringless beans (12)
Snap peas (5)
Oxheart tomatoes (5)
Eggplant (10)
Kholrabi (10)
Peacock broccoli (6)
Peppers - mix of sweet and hot (13)
Turnips (20)
Golden midget Watermelon (7)
Bush cucumbers (13)
Again, all that is going into 400 sq ft. A 15x30 plot with 1 foot walkways between each row. Now all of these are things that I don't have to harvest the second they're ripe. I have a day or two wiggle room in each direction. Which is good because I'll be starting a new job next month which means my time to go out will be limited to 2-3 times a week tops. So I need things I can pick the day before they're ready or 1-2 days after without worrying that they're going to taste funny.
Home:
Back yard:
Snow Peas
Brussel Sprouts
Watermelon
Broccoli
Market Cabbage
Loose Cabbage
Roasting peppers
Dwarf corn
Cheese pumpkins
Noodle beans
Carrots
Front yard:
Morning Glories
Borage (it's a flower)
Marigolds
Turnip greens
Carrots
By the sidewalk:
Red cherry tomatoes
Yellow pear cherry tomatoes
The amounts for home haven't been determined yet (depends on space), but I also have two window boxes that I'm using for lettuce. Since it'll be easy to snag greens for work lunch if I have them at home. Which also means they'll get eaten, instead of turn into a really bad science experiment. I'm also planting things at home (see Noodle beans) that need to be picked and eaten (or preserved) before they go starchy and gross. So that's the new plan, we'll see how it works out once it isn't -20 with 3 feet of snow.
I'm only exaggerating by a couple of inches and a few degrees in both directions. It's miserable here right now. I'm counting down 'till spring.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Tiny Gardens
Ok, so remember six months ago or so when I promised resources on container gardens? Yeah I'm finally getting around to making that post. When I say I'm going to do something and you really want to see it? Remind me about it or I'm going to forget for months. Let this be a lesson to you spiceberries.
Right! Moving along! As a bonus you're getting square foot gardening with container gardening. Buckle up this is going to be a bit long. Resources are in the bibliography page as always.
Container Gardening
Ok, container gardening is one of those things I utterly love in concept. The idea of growing veggies in pots when you don't have a yard is really really attractive. I advocate container gardens for urban dwellers and college students trapped in dorms. They're space effective and because you can replace the soil every year you don't have to worry that you're going wear out your soil, and because you can keep them indoors you get a longer growing season.
But let me let you in on a little secret:
I've never had ANY success with them. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but something is going pear shaped without producing pears. So please keep in mind that the rest of this information is coming from a place of wistful longing.
To begin: the first thing you need to consider is your space. Are your containers inside or outside or stay outside in the summer and over winter indoors? Do you have asshole pets that'll get into your pots? That'll determine your pot size which will then determine what you can grow.
Second consideration: What to grow in your space? The most common container veggie? Tomatoes. So for the sake of the rest of this we are going to assume you're growing something else, lets say... kale. Mostly because you can find resources for growing tomatoes in pots almost anywhere and doing what everyone else has done is boring to me.
Kale is a fantastic green to do in a container! Most greens are! Kale is shade tolerant which means you don't need to have a window with direct sun to keep them happy. They are also nutrition bombs that you can eat raw, cooked, dried, or blanch and freeze. So kale in a container.
Third thing: Pot size. In our example you don't need to have a large container. Greens have (comparably) shallow roots so you could grow a couple of them in a standard window box. Kale needs 6 sq inches per plant, so for a 18in long window box you can fit three plants, or do them in individual small traditional style pots.
Forth consideration: Soil Now that you've decided on what you're growing and what size pot you need (in this case kale in window boxes) you need to figure out what kind of soil will make your plant the happiest. Kale is easy, it wants a loamy somewhat loose soil that's pretty close to pH neutral. A standard potting mixture will work just fine. Use compost if you've got it.
That's really it. Container gardens are dead simple if you follow those four considerations. Or should be. One day I'll manage one.
BLOG POST PART TWO: SQUARE FOOT GARDENING!
Still with me loves? Good. Go get a drink and then we'll continue.
Back? Awesome.
Square foot gardening is, at its essence, intensive gardening of a small space. It is a much more effective use of space than traditional row planting, but it is slightly harder to weed and harvest. But if you've only got a postage stamp of a yard? You can still get a solid amount of food.
Square foot gardening is based on the concept of a grid which makes it very new gardener friendly. First measure out your gardening space and develop your grid. 4ft x 4ft is traditional but whatever space you have is great. The lay out in what is important. For this we're assuming you're starting with a 4 x 4 plot.
You have your large square (your whole garden). You divide that by 4 and keep reducing each section by 4 until you have 16 units. The basic rule of thumb is 1 large plant (tomatoes, squash grown up, cucumbers ect) per unit, 4 medium plants (kale, lettuce, other greens) per unit, 9 for medium small plants like spinach, and 16 plants for things like herbs and other small plants. In our case we're doing kale, so 4 kale plants per unit, there's 4 units per square foot which means a total of 16 kale plants per square foot or (if you plant the whole thing with kale) you get 64 kale plants in 4 square feet.
Compare that to how you'd normally plant out kale which is 8 per square foot (two rows of 4) which gets you a total of 32 kale plants in the same space.
This method is also great for diversity in a small space. You have the potential 16 different types of veggies, greens, and herbs in a 4 x 4 plot of land. Tell me that isn't cool as hell?
Right! Moving along! As a bonus you're getting square foot gardening with container gardening. Buckle up this is going to be a bit long. Resources are in the bibliography page as always.
Container Gardening
Ok, container gardening is one of those things I utterly love in concept. The idea of growing veggies in pots when you don't have a yard is really really attractive. I advocate container gardens for urban dwellers and college students trapped in dorms. They're space effective and because you can replace the soil every year you don't have to worry that you're going wear out your soil, and because you can keep them indoors you get a longer growing season.
But let me let you in on a little secret:
I've never had ANY success with them. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but something is going pear shaped without producing pears. So please keep in mind that the rest of this information is coming from a place of wistful longing.
To begin: the first thing you need to consider is your space. Are your containers inside or outside or stay outside in the summer and over winter indoors? Do you have asshole pets that'll get into your pots? That'll determine your pot size which will then determine what you can grow.
Second consideration: What to grow in your space? The most common container veggie? Tomatoes. So for the sake of the rest of this we are going to assume you're growing something else, lets say... kale. Mostly because you can find resources for growing tomatoes in pots almost anywhere and doing what everyone else has done is boring to me.
Kale is a fantastic green to do in a container! Most greens are! Kale is shade tolerant which means you don't need to have a window with direct sun to keep them happy. They are also nutrition bombs that you can eat raw, cooked, dried, or blanch and freeze. So kale in a container.
Third thing: Pot size. In our example you don't need to have a large container. Greens have (comparably) shallow roots so you could grow a couple of them in a standard window box. Kale needs 6 sq inches per plant, so for a 18in long window box you can fit three plants, or do them in individual small traditional style pots.
Forth consideration: Soil Now that you've decided on what you're growing and what size pot you need (in this case kale in window boxes) you need to figure out what kind of soil will make your plant the happiest. Kale is easy, it wants a loamy somewhat loose soil that's pretty close to pH neutral. A standard potting mixture will work just fine. Use compost if you've got it.
That's really it. Container gardens are dead simple if you follow those four considerations. Or should be. One day I'll manage one.
BLOG POST PART TWO: SQUARE FOOT GARDENING!
Still with me loves? Good. Go get a drink and then we'll continue.
Back? Awesome.
Square foot gardening is, at its essence, intensive gardening of a small space. It is a much more effective use of space than traditional row planting, but it is slightly harder to weed and harvest. But if you've only got a postage stamp of a yard? You can still get a solid amount of food.
Square foot gardening is based on the concept of a grid which makes it very new gardener friendly. First measure out your gardening space and develop your grid. 4ft x 4ft is traditional but whatever space you have is great. The lay out in what is important. For this we're assuming you're starting with a 4 x 4 plot.
You have your large square (your whole garden). You divide that by 4 and keep reducing each section by 4 until you have 16 units. The basic rule of thumb is 1 large plant (tomatoes, squash grown up, cucumbers ect) per unit, 4 medium plants (kale, lettuce, other greens) per unit, 9 for medium small plants like spinach, and 16 plants for things like herbs and other small plants. In our case we're doing kale, so 4 kale plants per unit, there's 4 units per square foot which means a total of 16 kale plants per square foot or (if you plant the whole thing with kale) you get 64 kale plants in 4 square feet.
Compare that to how you'd normally plant out kale which is 8 per square foot (two rows of 4) which gets you a total of 32 kale plants in the same space.
This method is also great for diversity in a small space. You have the potential 16 different types of veggies, greens, and herbs in a 4 x 4 plot of land. Tell me that isn't cool as hell?
Happy New Year!
It's 2015! You know what that means my darling spiceberries?! No seriously, do you? 'Cause I haven't got a clue.
Anyhow, I think I've got the home gardens figured out. The problems I face at home are two fold: the Back Yard is cursed by the fact that it must remain very small. I have a pair of large, curious, dogs who want to "help" when I go play in the dirt. Chicken wire only does so much. The Front Yard is cursed with shade. So anything I plant out there needs to be fairly shade tolerant. Which rules out most veggies.
The front yard is getting the following along the porch:
Red noodle beans (to use the porch as a trellis, and if they don't grow then I'm not out anything since I'm growing them out at Fwigf too), then I'm doing a section of Kale (leafy greens are fairly shade tolerant and n fact growing them in shade can help keep them going in the heat of summer), then in front of that I'm doing as many carrots as I can cram in there (root veggies also like shade).
I also have a small narrow island between my driveway and walkway that I think I'm going to plant up with raspberries, blackberries, and use strawberries to fill in the negative space (at least until the cane plants get big and start baring).
My front yard will be pretty, and edible. Neighbors who complain will get bought off with small baskets of produce. Kill 'em with sarcastic, bless-your-heart, kindness.
I'm debating the pros and cons of doing cherry tomatoes along the sidewalk with a sign that says 'free, pick me!' I live right by a high school (and low income kids) and I like the idea of planting something they can take as incentive to leave the rest of my edible front yard alone. And give them something healthy to nosh on before/after school. We'll see how I feel about that when it comes time to plant.
The Back Yard:
I have a space in my back yard that's roughly 10ft x 3ft (or 3m x 1m for our metric spiceberries). What I'm going to do back there is a row of Jade Blue Dwarf Corn (because I had really good luck with it last year, so I think it'll work in the back yard) with turnip greens along the front of them.
That should (with any luck) keep me in veggies and greens all the way through next winter where all I'll need to buy for produce will be potatoes and onions.
What are your plans for gardens in 2015?
Anyhow, I think I've got the home gardens figured out. The problems I face at home are two fold: the Back Yard is cursed by the fact that it must remain very small. I have a pair of large, curious, dogs who want to "help" when I go play in the dirt. Chicken wire only does so much. The Front Yard is cursed with shade. So anything I plant out there needs to be fairly shade tolerant. Which rules out most veggies.
The front yard is getting the following along the porch:
Red noodle beans (to use the porch as a trellis, and if they don't grow then I'm not out anything since I'm growing them out at Fwigf too), then I'm doing a section of Kale (leafy greens are fairly shade tolerant and n fact growing them in shade can help keep them going in the heat of summer), then in front of that I'm doing as many carrots as I can cram in there (root veggies also like shade).
I also have a small narrow island between my driveway and walkway that I think I'm going to plant up with raspberries, blackberries, and use strawberries to fill in the negative space (at least until the cane plants get big and start baring).
My front yard will be pretty, and edible. Neighbors who complain will get bought off with small baskets of produce. Kill 'em with sarcastic, bless-your-heart, kindness.
I'm debating the pros and cons of doing cherry tomatoes along the sidewalk with a sign that says 'free, pick me!' I live right by a high school (and low income kids) and I like the idea of planting something they can take as incentive to leave the rest of my edible front yard alone. And give them something healthy to nosh on before/after school. We'll see how I feel about that when it comes time to plant.
The Back Yard:
I have a space in my back yard that's roughly 10ft x 3ft (or 3m x 1m for our metric spiceberries). What I'm going to do back there is a row of Jade Blue Dwarf Corn (because I had really good luck with it last year, so I think it'll work in the back yard) with turnip greens along the front of them.
That should (with any luck) keep me in veggies and greens all the way through next winter where all I'll need to buy for produce will be potatoes and onions.
What are your plans for gardens in 2015?
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Speak to me of worm bins
So it's the time of year where I need to start thinking about next year's garden. And that includes considering soil augmentation. The soil at Fwigf is pretty good, however I only have one small plot. This means I'm not able to engage in any true crop rotation without doing a lot of session planting. And even then? I am going to wear down my soil in a few years. Unless I start supplementing.
Now, Fwigf is an organic practices only garden. This means I can't go and pick up a container of synthetic fertilizer, I need to get manure or compost. I don't know if you've looked at price comparisons, but covering a 400sqft area with enough manure and/or compost to make a difference in soil quality does get kind of pricey. And I am time rich but cash poor.
The obvious answer is to start a compost pile/bin. Or this would be the obvious answer if I didn't have a pair of inquisitive jerks who insist that EVERYTHING is either food or something to knock over then roll in. I think my dogs are really goats in disguise. Maybe a cross between goats and something larger, like say an elephant, given the noise the fuzzy heathens make going up and down stairs. But I digress. A compost bin/pile is not something that is feasible given my current space/living situation.
Which leads me to researching alternatives. In my travels (read: finding blogs and wiki articles through google) I've come across the idea of using worm casings. They are apparently a low nitrogen growth enhancer. A little goes a long way apparently, and they have the added benefit of being organic which means I can use them at Fwigf.
They are also hella expensive to buy. Probably because worms are small and worm casings are basically worm poop. Small critters produce small poop (the exceptions being human babies and puppies, both of which contain a little known quirk of anatomy which allows them to pull poop from sector Fecal Five, the poop dimension).
The good news is I can in fact raise worms and harvest worm casings at home. For pretty cheap since I'd have to feed them things like table scraps and coffee grinds. You know, things I'm currently throwing out because my Heathens won't let me have nice things like a compost pile/bin.
I have never raised worms however and have no idea where to start. Should I just go dig up a bunch of earthworms? Perhaps enlist friends with toddlers andmake use of the slave labor to dig worms up offer free babysitting? What do I need to start? Is this a thing I should even consider? Anyone actually try this?
Now, Fwigf is an organic practices only garden. This means I can't go and pick up a container of synthetic fertilizer, I need to get manure or compost. I don't know if you've looked at price comparisons, but covering a 400sqft area with enough manure and/or compost to make a difference in soil quality does get kind of pricey. And I am time rich but cash poor.
The obvious answer is to start a compost pile/bin. Or this would be the obvious answer if I didn't have a pair of inquisitive jerks who insist that EVERYTHING is either food or something to knock over then roll in. I think my dogs are really goats in disguise. Maybe a cross between goats and something larger, like say an elephant, given the noise the fuzzy heathens make going up and down stairs. But I digress. A compost bin/pile is not something that is feasible given my current space/living situation.
Which leads me to researching alternatives. In my travels (read: finding blogs and wiki articles through google) I've come across the idea of using worm casings. They are apparently a low nitrogen growth enhancer. A little goes a long way apparently, and they have the added benefit of being organic which means I can use them at Fwigf.
They are also hella expensive to buy. Probably because worms are small and worm casings are basically worm poop. Small critters produce small poop (the exceptions being human babies and puppies, both of which contain a little known quirk of anatomy which allows them to pull poop from sector Fecal Five, the poop dimension).
The good news is I can in fact raise worms and harvest worm casings at home. For pretty cheap since I'd have to feed them things like table scraps and coffee grinds. You know, things I'm currently throwing out because my Heathens won't let me have nice things like a compost pile/bin.
I have never raised worms however and have no idea where to start. Should I just go dig up a bunch of earthworms? Perhaps enlist friends with toddlers and
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Red Noodle Beans
Chinese red noodle beans were an experiment this year. I'd never had them before, either eaten or grown. Honestly I decided to grow them because they look cool. Yup, that very mature and well researched reason. But the seed was inexpensive, it was a heritage type of bean, I had the space. I decided to go for it.
Seriously, don't these look cool? (Image from http://www.cherrygal.com/images/RedNoodleNew.jpg)
We planted a single row of them in Fwigf. I proceeded to spend all summer worried about them. The reviews said they grew like kudzu, mine were a bit short. They were supposed to get 8 feet tall, they were barely three feet by mid-July/early August. They hadn't put off a single flower or bud and it was approaching mid-August. I had written them off as a loss resolved not to plant them next year and chocked it up to a learning experience.
Then they exploded.
No seriously. In two weeks I went from 3 foot stalks with nothing happening to an over grown hedge putting off massive beans by the handful. For context on size, each bean is roughly 18-24 inches long. They go from blossom to full bean in 3-4 days. I have roughly 10 pounds sitting at home. That we harvested today. This isn't counting the maybe 3-4 pounds I dehydrated for soup mixes last week.
Apparently noodle beans are fantastic in stir-fry. They can also be used instead of green beans in any recipe. I'm debating the pros and cons of making green bean casserole (the kind where you use the can of cream of mushroom soup and fried onion strings) using these instead. In fact? Screw it. I'm going to do it.
But I'm going to can them first so I can do it for Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll do a mix of these and green beans in the casserole for Christmas. Red and green beans swimming in white. That's festive right? Gross sounding. But festive.
Seriously, don't these look cool? (Image from http://www.cherrygal.com/images/RedNoodleNew.jpg)
We planted a single row of them in Fwigf. I proceeded to spend all summer worried about them. The reviews said they grew like kudzu, mine were a bit short. They were supposed to get 8 feet tall, they were barely three feet by mid-July/early August. They hadn't put off a single flower or bud and it was approaching mid-August. I had written them off as a loss resolved not to plant them next year and chocked it up to a learning experience.
Then they exploded.
No seriously. In two weeks I went from 3 foot stalks with nothing happening to an over grown hedge putting off massive beans by the handful. For context on size, each bean is roughly 18-24 inches long. They go from blossom to full bean in 3-4 days. I have roughly 10 pounds sitting at home. That we harvested today. This isn't counting the maybe 3-4 pounds I dehydrated for soup mixes last week.
Apparently noodle beans are fantastic in stir-fry. They can also be used instead of green beans in any recipe. I'm debating the pros and cons of making green bean casserole (the kind where you use the can of cream of mushroom soup and fried onion strings) using these instead. In fact? Screw it. I'm going to do it.
But I'm going to can them first so I can do it for Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll do a mix of these and green beans in the casserole for Christmas. Red and green beans swimming in white. That's festive right? Gross sounding. But festive.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Peppers
Today we're going to talk about drying out and preserving peppers. Specifically hot peppers. I can't can them because I only have a water bath caner, and trust me you really want to can those in a pressure caner. So what else can you do to keep peppers? I'm going to look at 2 different things today.
1. Roasting then Freezing
This is honestly what it sounds like. Cut your peppers in half lengthwise. Preheat your oven to 375, coat with a little olive oil, put your peppers on the pan cut side up, sprinkle lightly with salt. Roast for 20 minutes. Once they cool put them in your freezer. I'm doing this with jalapenos. You can then use the roasted peppers as a substitute for fresh peppers in cooked dishes.
2. Drying
There are a few different ways to dry peppers. You can dry them on the line (like I had set up for corn) but it takes a few weeks to dry them out completely. Leave them whole since it'll cut down on rotting before they're dried. Just tie them up and leave them in a place with open air circulation.
You can dry them in the oven. Set your oven as low as it goes (Generally 120-150) and leave the door open partially. Flip the peppers every hour so they don't scorch. If they start cooking your oven is too hot.
Dehydrator. This is the easiest way. Seriously. Cut them in half and stick them in the dehydrator until they're dry.
No matter what drying method you use keep the peppers in an airtight container. They can last for a a year or so. You can also grind them into chili powder..
1. Roasting then Freezing
This is honestly what it sounds like. Cut your peppers in half lengthwise. Preheat your oven to 375, coat with a little olive oil, put your peppers on the pan cut side up, sprinkle lightly with salt. Roast for 20 minutes. Once they cool put them in your freezer. I'm doing this with jalapenos. You can then use the roasted peppers as a substitute for fresh peppers in cooked dishes.
2. Drying
There are a few different ways to dry peppers. You can dry them on the line (like I had set up for corn) but it takes a few weeks to dry them out completely. Leave them whole since it'll cut down on rotting before they're dried. Just tie them up and leave them in a place with open air circulation.
You can dry them in the oven. Set your oven as low as it goes (Generally 120-150) and leave the door open partially. Flip the peppers every hour so they don't scorch. If they start cooking your oven is too hot.
Dehydrator. This is the easiest way. Seriously. Cut them in half and stick them in the dehydrator until they're dry.
No matter what drying method you use keep the peppers in an airtight container. They can last for a a year or so. You can also grind them into chili powder..
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Food storage and pets
So everyone knows the best way to ripen tomatoes is to keep them on your counter after you pick them, right? Right. Well I can't do that anymore. At all. Why? Because my cat is a jerk. She has decided that she enjoys the feel of her fangs sinking through the thin tomato skin into the pulpy goodness below. She has discovered that round tomatoes are fun to knock off the counter and chase.
Did I mention my cat is a jerk? Because she is.
But this brings me to a very important topic:
Pet Proofing Preservation
So how many of us have a beloved fur ball that just can't wait to mess up their stuff? The vast majority? Yeah. Not everything can go into pet free rooms (which are only pet free until the fuzzy bandit figures out how to open the door) or totes (which collect condensation, so are bad for things you're trying to dry). So how the heck do you keep your food (and your fluffy jerks) safe?
Carefully.
Basic kitchen safety covers most of our problems. Things like making sure your pet isn't underfoot while taking your jars out of the caner. But what about the boiling hot jars sitting on the counter? All breakable and enticing to mischievous four foots? I have no idea. Thankfully Minerva (the aforementioned tomato killing jerk) isn't interested in the jars while they're hot. Once they cool they go up on a shelf that she (so far) can't get to.
But the tips that I have so far are as follows:
Keep anything breakable/edible out of pet reach.
Keep dried things in totes with a well fitting lid
Accept a certain level of loss comes with owning pets.
Did I mention my cat is a jerk? Because she is.
But this brings me to a very important topic:
Pet Proofing Preservation
So how many of us have a beloved fur ball that just can't wait to mess up their stuff? The vast majority? Yeah. Not everything can go into pet free rooms (which are only pet free until the fuzzy bandit figures out how to open the door) or totes (which collect condensation, so are bad for things you're trying to dry). So how the heck do you keep your food (and your fluffy jerks) safe?
Carefully.
Basic kitchen safety covers most of our problems. Things like making sure your pet isn't underfoot while taking your jars out of the caner. But what about the boiling hot jars sitting on the counter? All breakable and enticing to mischievous four foots? I have no idea. Thankfully Minerva (the aforementioned tomato killing jerk) isn't interested in the jars while they're hot. Once they cool they go up on a shelf that she (so far) can't get to.
But the tips that I have so far are as follows:
Keep anything breakable/edible out of pet reach.
Keep dried things in totes with a well fitting lid
Accept a certain level of loss comes with owning pets.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Ahhh Yeah, be jealous
Be jealous because your SOs don't set up a clothes line (henceforth known as food line) in your kitchen.
BEHOLD!
Isn't it majestic? Not pictured is the fan under it, blowing up toward the line to keep air circulating.
Please ignore the YELLOW of my kitchen walls. My landlord calls it 'depressed man yellow' because it's so bright that it helps combat depression. I call it 'rather oppressive yellow'. Anyhow, that sucker is about 8 feet or so in the air, Husband needed to stand on a chair to put the nails in to hang it from, and he clocks in at 6 and a half feet. That's high enough to keep both my dogs, and my pain-in-the-butt cat from knocking things off of it.
What on earth is hanging from the wooden clothes pins? I'm glad I pretended you asked dear reader! That is 9 ears of dwarf corn that I'm drying on the cob for easy storage. That big long green thing on the end is a line of herbs. From the bottom up we have:
Cutting Celery
Sage
Purple Basil (or as I lovingly call it: Goth Basil)
And regular Basil
I call it my soup bundle. When it's done drying I'm going to toss a bunch of each into the jar that I have the dehydrated green beans and soup noodles in. And when the corn is done drying I'm going to put some dried corn in there too. Yup, dehydrated soup mixes are a go.
Also Husband and I have been cleaning the basement. And by 'Husband and I' I mean 'Husband'. Apparently the dust and mildew down there sets off headaches and dizzy spells if I'm working for more than 30 minutes. But Husband is awesome and is cleaning. While he was cleaning he discovered a root cellar.
No seriously. There's something down there that can only have been intended as a root cellar. It is tucked away in a corner, with two exterior walls that never see sunlight, with a third wall and built in shelves. And a window. All we need to do is add a fourth wall (which can be heavy plastic) and a vent into the window. Guess what is happening before next winter? Yup, come this time next year I'll have a legit root cellar for storing the produce from my better planned garden. Which will have more squash, so there will be more need. But if nothing else it's a safe place to keep all my canned goods out of the sun, and my dry goods safe.
Yup. Somewhere along the line I've turned into my grandmother's memories of her mom in the '40s. And I'm perfectly ok with this.
BEHOLD!
Please ignore the YELLOW of my kitchen walls. My landlord calls it 'depressed man yellow' because it's so bright that it helps combat depression. I call it 'rather oppressive yellow'. Anyhow, that sucker is about 8 feet or so in the air, Husband needed to stand on a chair to put the nails in to hang it from, and he clocks in at 6 and a half feet. That's high enough to keep both my dogs, and my pain-in-the-butt cat from knocking things off of it.
What on earth is hanging from the wooden clothes pins? I'm glad I pretended you asked dear reader! That is 9 ears of dwarf corn that I'm drying on the cob for easy storage. That big long green thing on the end is a line of herbs. From the bottom up we have:
Cutting Celery
Sage
Purple Basil (or as I lovingly call it: Goth Basil)
And regular Basil
I call it my soup bundle. When it's done drying I'm going to toss a bunch of each into the jar that I have the dehydrated green beans and soup noodles in. And when the corn is done drying I'm going to put some dried corn in there too. Yup, dehydrated soup mixes are a go.
Also Husband and I have been cleaning the basement. And by 'Husband and I' I mean 'Husband'. Apparently the dust and mildew down there sets off headaches and dizzy spells if I'm working for more than 30 minutes. But Husband is awesome and is cleaning. While he was cleaning he discovered a root cellar.
No seriously. There's something down there that can only have been intended as a root cellar. It is tucked away in a corner, with two exterior walls that never see sunlight, with a third wall and built in shelves. And a window. All we need to do is add a fourth wall (which can be heavy plastic) and a vent into the window. Guess what is happening before next winter? Yup, come this time next year I'll have a legit root cellar for storing the produce from my better planned garden. Which will have more squash, so there will be more need. But if nothing else it's a safe place to keep all my canned goods out of the sun, and my dry goods safe.
Yup. Somewhere along the line I've turned into my grandmother's memories of her mom in the '40s. And I'm perfectly ok with this.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Tonight is the march of NOM!
We went to the garden this morning. We harvested a handful of snow peas (it's been so damn cold that they're still producing. It is august. They ought to be dead by now), the last of the cucumbers, some tomatoes, more evil tasty peppers, some spinach, a few blue potatoes, some more corn, and three pumpkins.
You read that right. Pumpkins, in August.
There is only one thing for it. Tonight? I make pie filling. Just the filling mind you, pie crust and I are not on speaking terms. Husband is also going to make beer at some point, as one of the harvested pumpkins was The Beer Pumpkin. The one he has been babying since he saw it. So some time in the next month or so Husband is making me pumpkin beer out of our own pumpkins. It must happen.
But first, I make beef stock. The plan is to freeze the extra stock that I don't use for soup tomorrow so that I have it for the future. I am also going to dehydrate the veggies I don't use, and make "instant" soup mixes where we just need to add meat and broth (or broth for veggie soup). The dehydrated versions will take up less room than jars of soup, and save me jars.
Mia's Beef Stock
You need:
1 good sized beef marrow bone
1 medium sized sweet onion, cut into large chunks
1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of salt
3-4 quarts of water
Sweat the onion in a sock pot. Add the garlic and saute until the garlic is toasty-colored. Add the marrow bone, salt, and water. Set on low and let it do its thing, covered, for 4- 6 hours. Remove the bone, and use or freeze with the onions and garlic still in the stock. Alternately you can just make it in the crock pot.
Tomorrow I make soup. Beef and Bacon soup.
Beef and Bacon Soup
You need:
1 lb stew beef, cut into chunks
1/2 lb thick cut bacon
1 handful of green beans cut into 1-2 inch pieces
4-5 small potatoes cut into chunks
1/3 package of Orzo or soup pasta
3-4 carrots, sliced into coins
3-4 ears worth of dwarf corn (roughly 1/2 package of commercial frozen corn)
1 handful of spinach
1 small handful of okra
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Oregano
Parsley
Sage
Basil
1-2 quarts of the beef stock outlined above
Cook the bacon until crispy. Brown the stew beef in the bacon grease. Add in everything else and set on low. Let it simmer for 4-6 hours. This can also be made in a crock pot if you want. Eat with a crusty bread.
Still with me after this recipe dump?
Because now I want to talk to you about my pumpkins.
As you know I grew Long Island Cheese Pumpkins this year. From what I'd read they were better than sugar babies for making pies, and they would keep like preservation pumpkins in a root cellar provided they weren't cut into. So I decided to grow them, thinking 'what the hell, the seed packet is $3.00, if it doesn't work or I hate them I'm not out much.'
Guys?
I am never growing a different type of pumpkin. Ever. Allow me to preach the joys of these things. The outer rind is thinner than a sugar baby, which means it comes off easier after steaming or roasting. The inner rind (the part used for pie makin') is thick, and creamy. It looks and smells a bit like a butter colored cantaloupe. The pulp is small and easily removed, the seeds are large and are easy to separate from the pulp. I'm currently making pie, so I'll post tomorrow about how it tastes. But I can't see how this wouldn't be amazing. Why the hell did sugar babies replace these?! If you're going to grow pumpkins for eating, grow these. Seriously.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
You need:
1 medium sized Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
nutmeg
heavy cream
brown sugar
all spice
cinnamon
ginger
cardamom
1 frozen pie crust (because fuck making that fickle bastard)
Cut the pumpkin into wedges (leave skin on, trust me). Remove the pulp and seeds. Roast the slices on a lightly oiled baking sheet at 390 degrees for 1 hour. Let the slices cool until you can handle them. Peel the skin off, it'll be easy to pull off after the pumpkin is cooked. Add the pumpkin and spices to a food processor. Pulse together, add heavy cream until the texture resembles a thick custard. Pour the custard into the crust. Bake at 350 for roughly 30 minutes, until the crust it starting to brown (check frequently to avoid burning). Let it cool.
Because pumpkin pie isn't complete without whipped cream:
Basic Whipped Cream
You need:
1 quart (or however much you have left over) heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp white sugar
Pour the cream, vanilla, and sugar into a food processor and pulse until a light and fluffy whipped cream happens. Or you can use an egg beater. But I don't have one of those.
There's one more recipe that I forgot to include the other day. I made a pork rib marinade with the Peppa Sauce that I made a couple of weeks ago. So here's that too.
Peppa Pork
You need:
1 lb pork ribs
2 tbs Worcester sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs Peppa sauce
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Put everything together in a container in the fridge. Let the pork marinade over night, flipping frequently if the marinade doesn't cover the ribs. Either bake, or grill the ribs like normal.
Husband and I did the pork in the crock pot with some sweet onions. It came out tasting more like a delicious pork roast than ribs, but it was still tasty tasty stuff.
Ok, I think that's it for today. Time to go continue my cooking.
You read that right. Pumpkins, in August.
There is only one thing for it. Tonight? I make pie filling. Just the filling mind you, pie crust and I are not on speaking terms. Husband is also going to make beer at some point, as one of the harvested pumpkins was The Beer Pumpkin. The one he has been babying since he saw it. So some time in the next month or so Husband is making me pumpkin beer out of our own pumpkins. It must happen.
But first, I make beef stock. The plan is to freeze the extra stock that I don't use for soup tomorrow so that I have it for the future. I am also going to dehydrate the veggies I don't use, and make "instant" soup mixes where we just need to add meat and broth (or broth for veggie soup). The dehydrated versions will take up less room than jars of soup, and save me jars.
Mia's Beef Stock
You need:
1 good sized beef marrow bone
1 medium sized sweet onion, cut into large chunks
1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of salt
3-4 quarts of water
Sweat the onion in a sock pot. Add the garlic and saute until the garlic is toasty-colored. Add the marrow bone, salt, and water. Set on low and let it do its thing, covered, for 4- 6 hours. Remove the bone, and use or freeze with the onions and garlic still in the stock. Alternately you can just make it in the crock pot.
Tomorrow I make soup. Beef and Bacon soup.
Beef and Bacon Soup
You need:
1 lb stew beef, cut into chunks
1/2 lb thick cut bacon
1 handful of green beans cut into 1-2 inch pieces
4-5 small potatoes cut into chunks
1/3 package of Orzo or soup pasta
3-4 carrots, sliced into coins
3-4 ears worth of dwarf corn (roughly 1/2 package of commercial frozen corn)
1 handful of spinach
1 small handful of okra
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Oregano
Parsley
Sage
Basil
1-2 quarts of the beef stock outlined above
Cook the bacon until crispy. Brown the stew beef in the bacon grease. Add in everything else and set on low. Let it simmer for 4-6 hours. This can also be made in a crock pot if you want. Eat with a crusty bread.
Still with me after this recipe dump?
Because now I want to talk to you about my pumpkins.
As you know I grew Long Island Cheese Pumpkins this year. From what I'd read they were better than sugar babies for making pies, and they would keep like preservation pumpkins in a root cellar provided they weren't cut into. So I decided to grow them, thinking 'what the hell, the seed packet is $3.00, if it doesn't work or I hate them I'm not out much.'
Guys?
I am never growing a different type of pumpkin. Ever. Allow me to preach the joys of these things. The outer rind is thinner than a sugar baby, which means it comes off easier after steaming or roasting. The inner rind (the part used for pie makin') is thick, and creamy. It looks and smells a bit like a butter colored cantaloupe. The pulp is small and easily removed, the seeds are large and are easy to separate from the pulp. I'm currently making pie, so I'll post tomorrow about how it tastes. But I can't see how this wouldn't be amazing. Why the hell did sugar babies replace these?! If you're going to grow pumpkins for eating, grow these. Seriously.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
You need:
1 medium sized Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
nutmeg
heavy cream
brown sugar
all spice
cinnamon
ginger
cardamom
1 frozen pie crust (because fuck making that fickle bastard)
Cut the pumpkin into wedges (leave skin on, trust me). Remove the pulp and seeds. Roast the slices on a lightly oiled baking sheet at 390 degrees for 1 hour. Let the slices cool until you can handle them. Peel the skin off, it'll be easy to pull off after the pumpkin is cooked. Add the pumpkin and spices to a food processor. Pulse together, add heavy cream until the texture resembles a thick custard. Pour the custard into the crust. Bake at 350 for roughly 30 minutes, until the crust it starting to brown (check frequently to avoid burning). Let it cool.
Because pumpkin pie isn't complete without whipped cream:
Basic Whipped Cream
You need:
1 quart (or however much you have left over) heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp white sugar
Pour the cream, vanilla, and sugar into a food processor and pulse until a light and fluffy whipped cream happens. Or you can use an egg beater. But I don't have one of those.
There's one more recipe that I forgot to include the other day. I made a pork rib marinade with the Peppa Sauce that I made a couple of weeks ago. So here's that too.
Peppa Pork
You need:
1 lb pork ribs
2 tbs Worcester sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs Peppa sauce
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Put everything together in a container in the fridge. Let the pork marinade over night, flipping frequently if the marinade doesn't cover the ribs. Either bake, or grill the ribs like normal.
Husband and I did the pork in the crock pot with some sweet onions. It came out tasting more like a delicious pork roast than ribs, but it was still tasty tasty stuff.
Ok, I think that's it for today. Time to go continue my cooking.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Tomato Sauce for freezin'
So today I'm making tomato sauce. Because I have tomatoes that are ripening faster than I can eat them raw. So I'm doing a basic sauce.
Lazy Freezer Sauce
You'll need:
Tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Basil (fresh if you've got it)
Parsley
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Garlic
Bay leaf
Wash your tomatoes well. Cut them into chunks. Toss them (seeds, skin and all) and the seasonings into a sauce pot on low. Let them simmer for 20 minutes covered. Uncover and let cook down about another 20 minutes to thicken. Strain to remove the seeds and skins if you want to, then put it through the blender until it reaches your desired consistency. Then toss the sauce into freezer bags and freeze until you're ready to use it.
This is a good basic red sauce, when you thaw it you can add meat or cheese or more veg depending on what you feel like having for dinner that night.
Lazy Freezer Sauce
You'll need:
Tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Basil (fresh if you've got it)
Parsley
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Garlic
Bay leaf
Wash your tomatoes well. Cut them into chunks. Toss them (seeds, skin and all) and the seasonings into a sauce pot on low. Let them simmer for 20 minutes covered. Uncover and let cook down about another 20 minutes to thicken. Strain to remove the seeds and skins if you want to, then put it through the blender until it reaches your desired consistency. Then toss the sauce into freezer bags and freeze until you're ready to use it.
This is a good basic red sauce, when you thaw it you can add meat or cheese or more veg depending on what you feel like having for dinner that night.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Tomatoes and cold
This month has been unseasonably cool. While this is nice for those of us who are heat sensitive and can't eat if it is too hot, it is not great for veggies. My cucumbers have decided it is fall and are done. They have died back and I think they are completely done producing. There may be one or two little cucumbers left from them but nothing like the multiple dozen I was harvesting a week.
But I'm not here to talk to you about cucumbers today. No. I am here to talk to you about tomatoes. Delicious nightshades, the base for red sauces and chili, the lovely red slice atop your burger. I could continue but I will not. Tomatoes are delicious is what I'm getting at here.
Tomatoes also love heat. They ripen best when left on the vine in the hot days of July and August, lazily turning ripe while the world slows down and butterflies drift by. Except this year. It is mid-August and it almost hit freezing at night this week. Tomatoes ripen very very slowly in cool weather. And won't ripen at all after frost hits.
So what is a gardener to do? For as long as the weather holds out and frost stays away, leave them on the vine and just wait patiently. If however you see frost in the forecast? Harvest everything. Even the green ones. You can ripen them inside.They won't be as good as ones that are vine ripened, but they'll be better than store bought and better than having lost half your crop because Mother Nature is a frigid bitch this year.
You need:
A box.
Newspaper.
A place that doesn't get too cold and has very little draft. Like a basement, or a count on your kitchen if you only have a few tomatoes.
Carefully wrap the green tomatoes in news paper, pack them into the box. Set the box in your chosen place and wait a few days. Check your tomatoes frequently because you don't want them to zip past ripe and into overly-ripe/almost rotten territory.
That's it. Ripen your tomatoes indoors and outsmart Mother Nature!
Tune in next time where I'm sure I'm going to pay for that comment somehow.
But I'm not here to talk to you about cucumbers today. No. I am here to talk to you about tomatoes. Delicious nightshades, the base for red sauces and chili, the lovely red slice atop your burger. I could continue but I will not. Tomatoes are delicious is what I'm getting at here.
Tomatoes also love heat. They ripen best when left on the vine in the hot days of July and August, lazily turning ripe while the world slows down and butterflies drift by. Except this year. It is mid-August and it almost hit freezing at night this week. Tomatoes ripen very very slowly in cool weather. And won't ripen at all after frost hits.
So what is a gardener to do? For as long as the weather holds out and frost stays away, leave them on the vine and just wait patiently. If however you see frost in the forecast? Harvest everything. Even the green ones. You can ripen them inside.They won't be as good as ones that are vine ripened, but they'll be better than store bought and better than having lost half your crop because Mother Nature is a frigid bitch this year.
You need:
A box.
Newspaper.
A place that doesn't get too cold and has very little draft. Like a basement, or a count on your kitchen if you only have a few tomatoes.
Carefully wrap the green tomatoes in news paper, pack them into the box. Set the box in your chosen place and wait a few days. Check your tomatoes frequently because you don't want them to zip past ripe and into overly-ripe/almost rotten territory.
That's it. Ripen your tomatoes indoors and outsmart Mother Nature!
Tune in next time where I'm sure I'm going to pay for that comment somehow.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Jerky 2: The reckoning
Ok, so there was something I left out of my little expose (can't get the accent on blogger drat it!) on jerky the other day. Something I'd assumed was obvious, yet apparently needed to have been articulated to Husband.
When slicing meat for jerky, slice it thin. Otherwise it doesn't dry out correctly. Which then leads to having to bake it in the oven at 390 for about 30 minutes to kill off anything living in it and to properly dry it out. After it spent 12 hours in a dehydrator. And I'm still a bit suspicious of whether or not I should eat it. It looks and feels like jerky. It breaks apart like jerky. However food borne illnesses are a thing and I'm not sure I've avoided them entirely.
Food science friends, please advise.
Other thing I made the other day as Peppa Sauce.
Peppa Sauce is apparently a Southern Staple. It is hot peppers in vinegar. That's it. I had hot peppers and apple cider vinegar, and garlic. My husband likes spicy things so I figured why the heck not and thew a bottle together. Specifically a fancy bottle.
When slicing meat for jerky, slice it thin. Otherwise it doesn't dry out correctly. Which then leads to having to bake it in the oven at 390 for about 30 minutes to kill off anything living in it and to properly dry it out. After it spent 12 hours in a dehydrator. And I'm still a bit suspicious of whether or not I should eat it. It looks and feels like jerky. It breaks apart like jerky. However food borne illnesses are a thing and I'm not sure I've avoided them entirely.
Food science friends, please advise.
Other thing I made the other day as Peppa Sauce.
Peppa Sauce is apparently a Southern Staple. It is hot peppers in vinegar. That's it. I had hot peppers and apple cider vinegar, and garlic. My husband likes spicy things so I figured why the heck not and thew a bottle together. Specifically a fancy bottle.
This fancy bottle
I found the recipe (such as it is) here: http://ourdailybrine.com/southern-pepper-sauce-recipe/
The changes I made were:
Apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar (I'm on a budget I had to work with what I had)
A mix of Bird's Eye Peppers (7 or 8 of them), Jalapenos (about 10) and some whole dried red peppers for color (a handful 'cause they're wimpy). I cut each pepper in half so the vinegar could get to all of the rind, and left the seeds in for added burn. I also tossed in about 1 tsp of minced garlic and Husband wanted ground black pepper added because he likes black pepper and we didn't have whole pepper corns.
It's been sitting on my counter for two days now. It has opinions. It would like to share these opinions with you. Mostly by clearing out your sinuses when you sniff it. I wonder how it'll taste.
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