I'm back!

I had left this blog on the fence post for a few while waiting for the inevitable fall of my Republic. That could be, may be getting closer, and will depend on a number of factors as we move into the summer of 2016 and beyond. Just who will be taking over the reigns of this country may prove pivotal as to what direction we will take. Personally, I don't think it will make much difference...

In the intervening time, I've sold my home and moved to a condo located in the same area. In some ways, that will pose more of a challenge and in others it will actually help me to come up with better strategies. Stay tuned!

Weather moderates in September!

While this summer was pretty much a flop – too hot and too dry for much in the way of good vegetable production, the early fall has proved to be just the opposite! Some where’s around mid August things got cooler and wetter and, can you believe it, my pepper plants that had languished all summer kicked into high gear! I’ve had a bumper and welcome crop that have become the mainstay of my salads as celery is currently at 1.89 a bunch. That’s just too expensive!

The change in the weather patterns also prompted me to plant fifteen lettuce seeds in starter trays that consisted of Little Caesar and Buttercrunch varieties on August the 15^th. Most of them germinated and were placed into tow cold frames I maintain in front of my house. My timing was good as the day after they were transplanted out, it began to drizzle for the next three days. I also went ahead and planted some Cherry Belle radish seeds in the spaces between the small lettuce plants. They should be up for harvest by the end of October when temperatures will still be moderate. The lettuce should get big enough to harvest and then will stay in good shape under glass for the balance of the winter. There’s something special about eating fresh romaine lettuce in December!

Drought strikes small gardens all across the Midwest!

Nobody knows for sure how long or how bad the drought of 2012 will get before it finally breaks. Currently, over one thousand counties across the United States are affected and have been deemed ‘natural disaster areas’. Some are saying that this should serve as a warning to us all; especially as concerns our rampant manner in which we are adding greenhouse gases to the planet’s atmosphere. Others are saying that it’s either already too late or just nature doing her thing. Take your pick. Either way, all that I know for sure is that my small raised beds have suffered as has my pocket book in paying both for water and air conditioning.

Right now, all the raised beds can be called pretty much a total loss! Not only has the water available to them been stingy, but the heat we’ve all endured has pretty much sounded the death bell for the few straggling plants that remain. Now my focus will be on a fall crop, hoping against hope that by August of September better climates will reign supreme.

At some point it is certain we will end up paying dearly for lost crops, especially commercial plantings like corn. What had already been one of the worst years for this very important crop has now turned into a certified disaster as many farmers across the Midwest are contemplating cutting up what has grown to use as animal folder. The US has also downgraded its estimates of total tonnage and is now waiting for fall to see just how badly we have been hit. What’s for sure will be even faster rising prices for many items that contain corn and even meat and meat related products that will go up due to increases in the cost of feed.

My onion sets did not do well in 2012!

Earlier this year, I bought about fifty mixed red and white onion sets from a local store. These were planted into various sites both in formalized beds and in areas I had cleared of sod. The results in all cases were the same; very little bulb development with a good percentage going to seed.

I fault this lack of growth on a number of factors with soil quality (perhaps surprisingly) not being one of them. Three reasons I feel that good development did not take place were; 1) lack of good consistent moisture, 2) unusually hot temperatures combined with a shorter than normal spring and 3) I failed to get the sets planted the previous fall. Rather they went into the ground in the early spring and didn’t have time to develop good root systems prior to the warm spring and early summer days when they are induced to bulb up.

A representative collection of three onions pictured above tell the story pretty well. The red onion weighed in at 68 grams while the two whites averaged about 38 grams. Sizes ranged from 1 ¾ x 1 ½ inches up to 2 x 1 ¾ inches; not very large, but still usable in salads and such.

Next season, I hope to perform a field test whereby I start equal numbers of onion sets at the same time (this coming October in cold frames). Over time, factors like rainfall and average temperatures will also be recorded. I’m still not sure, at this point what varieties I’ll be experiment with.

Learning you can can – a good survival skill!

One of the old saying that have always stuck in my head was the one that states, ‘give a man a fish and feed him for one day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.’ Not sure if that is the exact quote, but the meaning is sure clear. If things get rough and food at the grocery gets scarce, having canned goods put by (and the knowledge of how to can) can make all the difference. Can-can??

To that end, I bought just a few of the bare essentials and gave canning a batch of homemade salsa a go. For this, my first ever foray into the world of canning, I decided to make something that would not be easy to screw up. After all, I reasoned, salsa is not much more than some chopped tomatoes along with a few other veggies that are mixed with seasonings. I mean how hard could it be? Hmmm?

I also picked choose to use a high acid item (like tomatoes) as it would allow me to forego the purchase of a pressure cooker in favor of a simple hot water bath – much less expensive. My total expenses for everything you see here was about $35 which ain’t too bad. And, I must admit I was a little excited to see how it would all work out! For my first effort, I elected to make just two eight ounce jars. That way if things didn’t go well, I could cut my losses.

To begin with, I secured the following list of needed ingredients to make a custom blend:

1 pound of Roma tomatoes (less water and more meat)

1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes

1/3 cup of onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced

¼ tsp dried oregano

1 banana pepper (about 2 tbsp)

2 tbsp of parsley (fresh)

3 pinches of black pepper

1 tsp of dried red cayenne pepper, crushed

2 tbsp of diced celery

3 ounces of tomato paste (adds extra body)

4 tbsp of lemon juice (increases the overall acidity)

1 tsp chili powder (for some added heat)

The most involved thing I had to do in making this salsa was to remove the skins from the tomatoes. This was accomplished by dunking them into boiling water for just a minute then fishing them out and placing them into a bowl of ice water. After they’ve cooled, the skin slips right off!

Next, I used a mini food processor to dice up half the tomatoes and all the celery, onion, garlic and banana pepper. (The other half of the tomatoes were roughly chopped up to give some body to the salsa). This mixture went into a pot, to which I added the rest of the ingredients. Finally, everything was heated to a very low simmer for about 30 minutes to kill any bacteria and to render the natural enzymes inoperative (prevents spoilage). This mix was then poured immediately into the canning jars that had been sitting in a bath (along with the lids and tops) for about ten minutes. After filling each jar to within a quarter inch of the top, the lids were affixed with the bands to assure a good seal and then they were lowered into the boiling water for fifteen minutes (the time will vary according to your height above sea level). Once the time was up, I removed the two jars and placed them on a rack to cool overnight. That’s it! Not very complex after all.

How did the salsa taste? Well, I had some left over which sat in the fridge overnight. I tried it the next day with some tortilla chips and was astounded at how much better it tasted than the store bought stuff! I decided to label my jars ‘Salsa mei Balza’ as eating this stuff really takes some major cojones!

Vegetable gardens in small spaces!

It’s always amazed me how easy it is to set up a miniature vegetable garden in a very small space! Just clear some ground, plants some seeds, water and let er go! Pictured here I have a good number of vegetables growing in a space that measures about 2 by 3 feet. The cucumber vine (Straight Eight) is already producing (it’s only mid June) and just off to the right I have a pole bean plant (Kentucky Wonder) loaded with plenty of great tasting beans now ready to be picked!

These small areas are in addition to my more formal raised beds that are located out back. But, since I planted these guys so close to the front door, it’s easy to grab something off the vine when I get home after a day away!

Mini harvests that match a person’s needs!

Everything here is from my garden!

One of the few talents I’ve developed with time concerns my ability to plan and plant out the right proportion of vegetables such that, during the summer months, I always have enough mature veggies each day to satisfy my needs. It’s a talent, because I also don’t have much that doesn’t get used. (Any leftovers get tossed either into a compost pile or they’re placed right back into the ground in an unused spot in the beds).

Pictured here is a day’s harvest the contained some carrots, an onion and a cucumber that will serve to make a couple of salads. I’d already harvested some lettuce which was stored in a crisper a couple of days before. I also added some raw snow peas to the mix to complete a nice set of salads. Throw on a little oil and vinegar and I’ll enjoy produce that came out of my ground and which is also very nutritious to boot!

Speaking of those snow peas, I’m letting quite a few pods mature so that I can replant them next spring and not have to worry about the cost of seed. Interestingly, I’ll also have more plants than this year and they’ll be free!