Monday, January 31, 2011

Harvest Monday - 31 Janauary 2011

Oh so much to talk about today. No, no harvests. The tunnel is still buried in snow and no thaws in sight. But I have been using my harvest, finished part of my experiment, and started my spread sheet tally. I'll start with what I've been eating.

As usual when my husband is out of town, I made a batch of soup to eat up over several days. This time it was black bean soup. It is an easy recipe. Black beans, salsa, broth, cumin, and salt. I cooked the Trail of Tears black beans (from the garden) the day before. The salsa was canned from my tomatoes and peppers. The broth was made from a chicken raised by a friend of my townhouse mate. Sadly the cumin was bought from the store. I did try to grow cumin last year but all the seedlings died very quickly. I'm trying again this year. Anyway I whiz it all up in a blender and heat it up. It is fast and delicious. I topped it with Vermont cheddar. Yum.

Also I'm sad to report I ate the last of the pickled hot peppers. My breakfast every morning is eggs. I fry up some veggies. In the summer it is whatever is on hand. But in the winter it is peppers, onions and mushroom. Then I scramble them and the eggs all together. When I don't have any red peppers to use in the fridge I toss in my pickled jalapenos instead. Yum. This was the last batch of eggs to be made. BTW this is not four eggs. This is two eggs. They both had double yolks. I guess it was a fitting send off of the last peppers. Now breakfast has no home grown produce in it at all. How sad. I'm growing a lot more peppers next year. So hopefully I can freeze some for my breakfasts. I'm going to test if frozen peppers work well first, but I think they will.

I had a minor experiment going to see how things stored in the fridge. In December before the ground froze solid, I picked a lot of Asian greens. I wanted to see how they would last. The results are in. The tatsoi above is from that batch. I can probably keep it two months in the fridge without an issue. The Fun Jen gets a bit dry on its leafy ends, but the rest of the stalks and closer leaf is just fine. The boc choy is OK but not great. It lasts a bit shorter. BTW I store my greens in a large tupperware container with a towel on the bottom of it. It seems to keep greens better than any other way I've done it. Nothing slimes out. The greens get enough air, but it is small enough that the air stays very moist. It works well.

Tatsoi picked at the beginning of Dec and stored until the end of January

The greens that I picked in January (I saved some tatsoi from that picking to see how it would last) didn't last as long. They really needs to be eaten within a week or two of picking. The partially frozen stalks just can't hold up. This gives me a really good handle on how to save my greens for next year. Basically fill up the fridge as much as possible with them early. Then during winter during thaws only pick enough for a week.

I used the tatsoi in a nice stir fry. Again featuring the chicken mentioned before. Basically it was roast chicken one night. Chicken soup another. Then stirfry. Then the last of the broth in my black bean soup. I still have some shredded chicken left which might go into enchiladas or tacos later this week. A whole chicken lasts a long time in a two person family.

Now for the tally. I've bought seeds from Fedco. My biggest order ever at $74.50 for seeds. Usually it is half that. But then I used to have less than half the space too. And I'm trying new things I haven't ever done (like fava beans) or haven't done in a while (like corn and melons). I have the space for it all now, so I might as well use it. I might order from Pinetree too. Ali was raving over Black Futsu Squash and it seemed perfect for me. But I don't know. It might happen another year. We will see.

I also placed an order with the Northeast Organic Farming Association. A big one so I joined too. I have to laugh at it since our little 9000 sqft lot that I share with another family is by no means a farm. But I figured I would stock up for the next several years with heavy stuff. It costs too much to ship and they sell it so much cheaper than my local shops. I probably won't do this often, but this year seemed like a good one. The total is $454.52. Which is a lot. Yes indeed. But over the long run it will be cheaper. Fertilizers, soil amendments, worm poo, Sluggo, seeds starting soil, netting, irt mulch, twine. I'm wondering how many years it will be before I have to buy it all again. Since it is for more than one year I'm going to amortize it over three years. Some of it will last much longer and some less, but it is a good enough.

I also need to add in things that were already amortized. The beds, soil, tomato cages, concrete bricks, and composter. So far this year I'm down -349.49 and I have more to add in. I need to buy more tomato cages and supports for my beans, cukes and melons. I might get bamboo for that. I liked bamboo in my old garden. It was easy to make any support you needed. I'd like to make an arch over one section of my path and I could do that with bamboo. They sell large bundles of bamboo which I'd have to get. Bamboo is also nice since we are putting in live bamboo along the edge in the shaded spot in the yard. We could harvest to add to the stash as it grows. But I'm still thinking on it. I won't need it for a while.

  • Spent and Amortized total: $-363.49
  • Total harvested for the year 0.59lbs
  • 2011 Tally $-359.38

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Planning and Record Keeping

I got my seeds from Fedco a while back. Once I have a list of seeds that I'm going to use then I have to make my plan. I already sketched out the garden before ordering the seeds so I would know what I wanted. My most important plan is my seed starting schedule. I need to know what has to start and when. I make it in my spreadsheet as then it calculates what the starting dates are. I tell my spreadsheet how far before or after the first frost date the plants should be planted out and also how many weeks I want to grow the transplants.

For instance I will say that I want my tomatoes to be four week old at transplant time and I want to transplant them one week after my last frost date. It knows my last frost date is May 1st (though here it might be different, time will tell). From that it calculates for me that I want to start my seeds on April 10th and get them in the garden on May 8th.

This seed starting list has all my different varieties and tells me how many soil blocks of each to start. It also has rows for what actually happened. The number, the dates are all just estimates. I'll still do what I think best at the time.

There are two parts to my list. The first is the indoor transplant schedule. The second is the outdoor schedule. These are seeds that are mostly directly seeded into the garden. I occasionally decided to start a couple of them inside for a week or two to get them started. Like squash are often done that way, but not always. I'm guessing because of the size of the garden I won't do many indoors that aren't on the list. I may even decide to do my cucumbers direct seeded this time. Usually I don't as the slug eat them down before they are really up.

Plant

Name

In

Out

#

Actual In

Actual #

Actual Out

Onion

Ailsa Craig

2/6

4/17





Onion

Copra

2/6

4/17





Onion

Evergreen Hardy White/Scallion

2/6

4/17





Onion

Red Wing

2/6

4/17





Onion

Varisty

2/6

4/17





Leek

King Sieg

2/20

4/17





Parsley

Krausa

2/20

4/17

4




Lettuce

Deer Tongue

2/27

3/20

12




Lettuce

Little Gem Romaine

2/27

3/20

12




Lettuce

Paris Island

2/27

3/20

12




Lettuce

Red Sails

2/27

3/20

12




Flowers

Dianthus Rainbow Loveliness Mix

3/6

5/1

6




Herbs

Broadleaf Sage

3/6

5/1

4




Asian Greens

Komatsuna

3/13

4/3

4




Asian Greens

Purple Mizuna

3/13

4/3

6




Asian Greens

Tatsoi

3/13

4/3

10




Asian Greens

Yokatta-Na

3/13

4/3

6




Broccoli

Packman

3/13

4/10

6




Broccoli

Piracicaba

3/13

4/10

6




Broccoli

Windsor

3/13

4/10

6




Cabbage

Ruby Perfection

3/13

4/10

3




Celery

Redventure

3/13

5/22

6




Chard

Argentata

3/13

4/3

12




Chard

Rubarb

3/13

4/3

12




Flowers

Alyssum Carpet of Snow

3/13

5/1

10




Kale

Mix

3/13

4/10





Asian Greens

Chinese Cabbage Rubicon

3/20

4/17

2




Asian Greens

Chinese Kale

3/20

4/10

6




Asian Greens

Choy Sum

3/20

4/10

10




Asian Greens

Fun Jen

3/20

4/10

5




Asian Greens

Michihili

3/20

4/17

2




Asian Greens

Shanghai Bok Choy

3/20

4/10

12




Asian Greens

White Stem Bok Choy

3/20

4/10

12




Flowers

Forget-Me-Nots

3/20

5/1

6




Flowers

Ground Control Marigold

3/20

5/1

8




Herbs

Greek Oregano

3/20

5/1

3




Herbs

Sweet Marjoram

3/20

5/1

3




Kohlrabi

Kollbri

3/20

4/3

7




Herbs

Cumin

3/20

5/15

27




Flowers

Achillea Cerise Queen

4/3

5/1

4




Flowers

Borage

4/3

4/24

4




Flowers

Rudbeckia Goldsturm

4/3

5/1

4




Flowers

State Fair Zinnia

4/3

5/15

15




Herbs

Basil Genova

4/3

5/8

6




Pepper

Anaheim

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Big Chili II F1

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Carmen

4/3

5/15

10




Pepper

Cayenne

4/3

5/15

3




Pepper

Chocolate

4/3

5/15

10




Pepper

Early Jalapeno

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Feherozon

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Hawaiian Chili

4/3

5/15

2




Pepper

Krimzon Spice

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Serrano

4/3

5/15

5




Pepper

Tabasco

4/3

5/15

5




Tomatillo

Verde Puebla Sport

4/3

5/15

3




Eggplant

Galine

4/10

5/22

4




Tomato

Amish Paste

4/10

5/8

3




Tomato

Cherokee Purple

4/10

5/8

4




Tomato

Chocolate Cherry

4/10

5/8

2




Tomato

Heinz 2653

4/10

5/8

12




Tomato

Market Miracle

4/10

5/8

4




Tomato

Sun Gold

4/10

5/8

2




Tomato

Sungold F4

4/10

5/8

2




Tomato

Pruden's Purple

4/10

5/8

2




Cucumber

Diamant

4/24

5/15

10




Cucumber

Little Leaf

4/24

5/8

10




Muskmelon

Halona

5/1

5/15

10




Lettuce

Anuenue

5/10

6/10

15




Lettuce

Jericho

5/10

6/10

15




Lettuce

Manoa

5/10

6/10

15




















Beans, Fava

Windsor

3/20






Carrot

Mokum

3/20






Carrot

Purple Haze

3/20






Carrot

SugarSnax

3/20






Greens

Golden Corn Salad

3/20






Herbs

Bodegold Chamomile

3/20






Pea Snap

Cascadia

3/20






Pea Snow

Blizzard

3/20






Pea, Snow

Golden Sweet

3/20






Radish

French Breakfast

3/20






Radish

White Icicle

3/20






Spinach

Olympia

3/20






Spinach

Space

3/20






Turnip

Oasis

3/20






Turnip

Tokyo Market

3/20






Herbs

Caribe Cilantro

4/3






Flowers

Sunflowers Mixed

4/10






Flowers

Jewel Mix Nasturtium

4/17






Corn Sweet

Shasa

5/1






Corn Sweet

Spring Treat

5/1






Flowers

Lemon Queen Sunflower

5/1






Greens

New Zealand Spinach

5/1






Bean

Fortex

5/15






Bean

Kentucky Wonder Wax

5/15






Bean

Red Yard Long

5/15






Bean

Yard Long

5/15






Bean, Dried

Aunt Jean's Pole

5/15






Bean, Dried

Borlotto Linguia di Fuoco

5/15






Bean, Dried

Cherokee Trail of Tears

5/15






Bean, Dried

Lazy Housewife

5/15






Bean, Dried

Ottawa Cranberry

5/15






Bean, Dried

Petaluma Gold Rush

5/15






Bean, Dried

Rattlesnake

5/15






Bean, Dried

Turkey Craw

5/15






Bean, Dried

Yellow

5/15






Bean, Runner

Painted Lady

5/15






Bean, Runner

Scarlet Emperor

5/15






Bean, Shell

Soisson Vert

5/15






Beet

Early Wonder Tall Top

5/15






Squash

Costata Romanesca

5/15






Squash

Raven

5/15






Squash

Waltham

5/15