Monday, October 8, 2012
End of Season One
Hard as it is to leave Hardrock when the days are sunny and glorious (where is that gray and drizzle we constantly complain about?), we are closing up shop and heading to Bisbee. Not sure of the best thing to do with the vegetable garden, but we decided to follow Ruth Stout's advice, and mulch with lotsa hay. Maybe some of the veggies will be edible, or start growing again, in the spring. So that's the Season One cliffhanger...will the garlic survive? The leeks? And what will the cauliflower look like?
Our van refrigerator, as you may know, is not much more than a single cubic foot. Today was Road Food Prep Day. From our garden, quart-sized bags of carrots, salad mix, braising mix, turnips, and green beans. From the kitchen, roasted piggie, potato salad with lemon and pesto (thanks again, Konnie), and baba ganoush made from kabocha winter squash. I picked a few tiny summer squash and left those tiny yellow green beans on the vine.
Posted with BlogsySunday, October 7, 2012
Maritime climate
In warmer areas, it wouldn't be possible to still have tender, leafy greens this time of year. Here, you can pretty much grow them year round. Lucky us. Our garden still has lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, chard, mizuna and endive.
Did you know you can eat the flowers, leaves AND the seed pods from nasturtiums? All have a nice, peppery flavor. Some people pickle the seed pods and use them like capers.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
The frost is on the pumpkin
We don't actually have any pumpkins, and fortunately it hasn't yet been a "killer frost" (however that is defined), but to me it meant it was time to do some serious harvesting. I know frost probably won't do much damage to the root vegetables, but we'll be leaving soon for Arizona, so better to take some extra for the road. I'm leaving some in the ground, in hopes they'll be good when we return.
The beans, well, there are still oodles of the yellow variety on the vines, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to get much bigger despite the phenomenal October sunshine we are seeing each and every day.
The oblong knobby potatoes are Ozettes, a tasty local variety I planted from a grocery store potato.
The beans, well, there are still oodles of the yellow variety on the vines, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to get much bigger despite the phenomenal October sunshine we are seeing each and every day.
The oblong knobby potatoes are Ozettes, a tasty local variety I planted from a grocery store potato.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
More inside stuff
We built the barn in the summer of 2000 but had never finished off the upstairs, known as "Carol's Playroom." This summer, we felt like we needed the space. It's a fairly gigantic 800 square feet, with a 14 foot peaked ceiling. Husband had installed the drywall several years ago, but we hadn't finished the taping and mudding. We also had quite a mold problem, evident on the upper sheetrock, so we installed a dehumidifier and a heater. After a coat of zinser to seal off the mold, I tried my hand at applying some mud on a few of the joints and almost immediately cried "uncle." The 14 foot ceiling did not make it easier and I'm a little wobbly on scaffolding as well as generally lacking in patience, so $700 and 4 days later, Ralph's Drywall had it all taped, mudded and coated smooth.
Then it was time to paint. I let Husband do the scaffold part and I worked from the floor with a long-handled roller. After three coats of paint on the ceiling and end walls, it was looking pretty good. Next we tackled the floor. If we had wanted a perfect floor, we should have sprung for a notch above CDX. I suggested we do minimal prep work (my impatience again), and just paint it with a porch-type paint, so that is what we did - a coat of primer, then three coats of the special paint. Still looks like plywood, except it's clean and purdy.
Final items to complete next spring: window trim, base molding and some work on the doors. Pretty cool, right?
Then it was time to paint. I let Husband do the scaffold part and I worked from the floor with a long-handled roller. After three coats of paint on the ceiling and end walls, it was looking pretty good. Next we tackled the floor. If we had wanted a perfect floor, we should have sprung for a notch above CDX. I suggested we do minimal prep work (my impatience again), and just paint it with a porch-type paint, so that is what we did - a coat of primer, then three coats of the special paint. Still looks like plywood, except it's clean and purdy.
Final items to complete next spring: window trim, base molding and some work on the doors. Pretty cool, right?
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Hey, hay!
We're getting the hang of this. We posted an ad on Craigslist, "Wanted: spoiled hay for mulch." Lo and behold we got a reply the next day saying there were 70 bales for the taking in a field less than 5 miles from here. Husband somehow managed to load 17 of them in his Toyota pickup and claims he got home with all of them. Ruby is counting.
September bounty
The weather is holding up . Warm (by which I mean it hit 70) and sunny again today. It feels like a miracle.
Today's harvest included some pole beans, finally. The green ones were there all along, just not as easy to spot as the yellow:
These squash are small, but I'm still having trouble with rot, so I didn't want to risk leaving them too long:
Today's harvest included some pole beans, finally. The green ones were there all along, just not as easy to spot as the yellow:
Sunday, September 23, 2012
In other news
I made these drapes all by myself. For our tenant in "dad's house" because the old ones didn't dry-clean well and needed to go. It wasn't all that easy, but I got them done and they look great. Thank goodness for Husband's curtain rod construction and hanging abilities.
Herb drying
Herbs are fun to grow because they are far less picky than veggies - in general, they like to be ignored and they like bad soil. We also love to use them in the kitchen. Today, I harvested mint, tarragon and savory, and put them up to dry. We mainly use the dried mint for tea.
I'll have to think about trying other herbs next summer. One of my very favorites is rosemary but I don't usually bother to dry any because it is winter hardy here (well, usually) and can picked from the garden year-round as needed. We did get several oregano plants and one sage plant started and those will be harvestable next year. It's worth doing.
I'll have to think about trying other herbs next summer. One of my very favorites is rosemary but I don't usually bother to dry any because it is winter hardy here (well, usually) and can picked from the garden year-round as needed. We did get several oregano plants and one sage plant started and those will be harvestable next year. It's worth doing.
What we need
If we get one or two more weeks of warm-ish weather, our harvest this year will be pretty impressive. Well, impressive to us. We are not about to win any awards or anything. However, if we don't get some more sunshine, the frost will be here before these little yellow beans (French Gold Pole Filet) ever come close to having their advertised 7 to 9 inch pods. Look at all these tiny little beans:
We've got lots of tiny summer squash now, too, just needing a few days of warm weather. Hope nobody is doing the rain dance quite yet.
We've got lots of tiny summer squash now, too, just needing a few days of warm weather. Hope nobody is doing the rain dance quite yet.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
According to the Master Gardeners, when you want to get rid of pests in the garden, you should use an IPM process. The idea is that you don't want to cause harm to the food you're growing, to the environment in which you and your pets live, or the non-targeted organisms. As a responsible organic gardener, you are supposed to have some tolerance for bugs. "Kill Em All" is frowned upon as a strategy. Instead, they suggest walking around with a flashlight at night and killing the individual bugs that are eating too much of your produce.
That's all well and good, and in spite of my upbringing (we fully embraced any and all insecticides and herbicides in my childhood home) I have accepted and have been practicing all of that. UP UNTIL THE THIRD TIME I GOT STUNG. Without going into gory and possibly inorganic detail, suffice it to say there are no more yellowjackets in our hugelkultur area.
That's all well and good, and in spite of my upbringing (we fully embraced any and all insecticides and herbicides in my childhood home) I have accepted and have been practicing all of that. UP UNTIL THE THIRD TIME I GOT STUNG. Without going into gory and possibly inorganic detail, suffice it to say there are no more yellowjackets in our hugelkultur area.
'Tis the season
We've had zucchini pancakes three times in the past week. Other ingredients in our most recent batch included parmesan cheese and chili powder - I know you're jealous!!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Sorrel
Sorrel has an amazingly tangy, lemony flavor. You can put some tender young leaves in your mixed green salad, but it has a very strong flavor and sorrel soup seems to be a typical way to eat it. We tried it and liked it. Also, it's chock full of Vitamin C and is a good source of iron.
SORREL SOUP
1/2 stick butter
2 onions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic
Big bunch of sorrel (maybe 10-12 cups, packed)
1 quart broth or water
1 potato, cubed
1 zucchini, cubed
Fresh or dried tarragon, to taste
2 t ground nutmeg
1 t salt
1 t pepper
Sour cream or yogurt, optional
Melt the butter and saute onions and garlic until very soft. Add the sorrel, cover and cook 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then simmer 45 minutes. Process in Cuisinart till smooth, then refrigerate till chilled (I'd say at least three hours). Serve with a dollop of yogurt.
Next up, sorrel pesto (sorrel leaves, parmesan, pine nuts, parsley and olive oil). We'll pop cubes of that into the freezer to enjoy in pasta or rice dishes over the winter.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Hardrock Ranch and Trailer Spa
The before:
After just three weeks at Hardrock, with all that fresh air and September sunshine, Das Movermeister is looking good:
After just three weeks at Hardrock, with all that fresh air and September sunshine, Das Movermeister is looking good:
Friday, September 14, 2012
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The good: happy hop flowers on the trellis gate.
The bad: this squash plant, which previously was huge and happy, suddenly just sort of blew up and fell apart. Fungus?
The ugly: well, Husband thinks they're ugly because he doesn't like beets. Wouldn't even try this lovely, mild-flavored golden variety, which I boiled up to put in our (my) salad at lunchtime today.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
First frost
Say it ain't so! Yesterday, we had ice on our windshields. It was a very light frost that didn't seem to affect any plants or seedlings. I sure hope we see more nice weather and no killing frost for awhile yet - the garden is just now starting to produce. Today's harvest:
We're planning a visit to see Jerome Ostentowski's forest garden and greenhouses in Colorado - at 7,200 feet. If he can grow stuff, surely we can at 1,700 feet, right? Check out his website at crmpi.org.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Remember our motto?
I'll give you a hint. Some people buy mulch in 25 pound bags at Home Depot. Here at Hardrock Ranch, we have it delivered by the truckload. And I don't mean a pickup truck. Here's what 100 yards of mulch looks like.
Go big or go home!
