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Gardening: (2016– )

Nancy in Pátzcuaro
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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

re: sugar beets

FWIW, 

The sugar beets are for an experiment in making fish hydrolyze.

Fish hydrolyze is a fermented fish (probably carp in my case) fertilizer that differs from fish emulsion in that it's not cooked.

Fish, kelp, and molasses (or other sugar source.)

Molasses is recommended because it helps mask the odor.

But molasses can be expensive...dark brown sugar is a decent substitute.

Anyway, I'm planning to extract juice from sugar beets via an Acme commercial juicer to make my own molasses.

The pulp and tops are a good carbon crop.

Sugar beets and tops are also edible just as any other beet....best when relatively young.

 

 

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

My outdoor peas just germinated!  They were not there last night.

 

 

"We blithely speak of Nature's laws,

but do things have a natural cause?

Black earth turned to yellow crocus

is undiluted hocus-pocus."

    ----- Piet Hein, from his Gruks

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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TicTac

TicTac

Posted
Posted
On 4/12/2019 at 10:09 AM, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Were the fruits they were harvested from fully ripe?

Full ripeness is a requirement for viable chile pepper seed.

That I cannot comment on, unfortunately.  My guess however is that might have been part of the culprit. 

 

Question for @dcarch (saw him doing it) and others who use this method - I would think that after using a seedling tray (36) the next step might be some plastic cups (perhaps their final place of rest prior to being put outside).  Are you putting any material at the bottom to provide some drainage, or all soil?

 

Just put 9 varieties of tomato seeds (all but 2 we saved ourselves) into another 36 cell trey, so far a much better germination rate than the preserved pepper seeds.

 

1.25 CY of high % earthworm castings organic mix arrived today for the newly expanded 9x16 bed.  Now the real fun (manual soil integration) begins!

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dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, TicTac said:

Question for @dcarch (saw him doing it) and others who use this method - I would think that after using a seedling tray (36) the next step might be some plastic cups (perhaps their final place of rest prior to being put outside).  Are you putting any material at the bottom to provide some drainage, or all soil?

 

My method is very simple.

Cheap soft drink plastic cups. I use a soldering iron to burn a few hole on the bottom and fill the cups with fine potting soil. Seems to drain very well.

dcarch

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

On Saturday I went to my Dad's place down in Pennsylvania, about 19 miles away, and got some wild cattails and wild daylilies.

It seemed like a wonderful idea until I had to dig the holes for the 5 gallon "bog" pails that I made. LOL shock2.gif

I surrounded the cattails with the daylilies in the pails

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Okanagancook

Okanagancook

Posted
Posted

So jealous about the asparagus.  I think our farm asparagus from up the valley will be another couple of weeks seeing it has been so darn cool.   BUT, I did see the first humming bird visiting our feeders...need to make new feeding liquid for them.

Due to the cool temps, my little arugula plants are the same size as they were two weeks ago.  Peas are poking up.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

Seeds sown tonight...256 chile pepper and 962 Mary Washington asparagus.

Seeds in the fridge stratifying...Good King Henry (Blitum Bonus-Henricus) and Caucasian "Spinach" (Hablitzia Tamnoides)

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted
On 4/8/2019 at 8:45 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

If I wanted to safely sanitize the soil capsules for my Click & Grow, is there a way to do it?

 

How hot do you think you could they could stand?

 

Pressure cooker = autoclave = sterilizer..could they take that?

 

If not you could sous vide them at 180F for a day..

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dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted
On 4/16/2019 at 10:29 AM, Shelby said:

Just took a walk around the gardens.  

 

Asparagus is up!  Be ready to eat in a few days.  I can't wait.

 

IMG_6129.JPG.1ad0ef7c4553bbebade6cec529497967.JPG

 

Also up are some potatoes and many many onions.

 

 

What I have done.

 

I use a large sheet of  clear greenhouse plastic to cover the asparagus plot early in the spring. The sun warms up the soil, and I can get two to three weeks earlier asparagus.

 

dcarch

 

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, gfweb said:

How hot do you think you could they could stand?

 

Pressure cooker = autoclave = sterilizer..could they take that?

 

If not you could sous vide them at 180F for a day..

 

I was thinking of the CSO.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

About the Mary Washington asparagus seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company:

The recommendation was to soak the seeds for 24 hours.

Many seeds have germinated in less than one day.

 

About the sugar beet seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company:

I very recently received a letter from them.

"We regret to inform you that the lot of seed you purchased tested positive for GMO contamination."

The cost of the seeds was $3.00 for ~250 seeds....there were actually many more.

They did issue me a $5.00 gift card....but that's not much of a consolation considering the amount of time and effort invested (I sowed the seeds one at a time.) 

The seedlings are now about an inch tall.

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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HungryChris

HungryChris

Posted
Posted

Wild ramp omelet. I'm not sure if these ramps in my two modest patches can be called wild, as I put them together with several trips to the Union Square  Farmer's Market over a few years, planting them when I got them home. They do not propagate well at my low altitude, so I leave the bulbs in the ground and have to be happy with just the leaves, which I greatly enjoy.

HC

IMG_0222.thumb.JPG.64e34e9234f25b8d9794c935ccef513e.JPGIMG_0221.thumb.JPG.edfa6961505ae0aac44d53a0acf46ae4.JPGIMG_0216.thumb.JPG.1cf87e1439965d02864f2ac17f53990e.JPGIMG_0215.thumb.JPG.91a2feec3498981f1fae8fa5e56cd328.JPGIMG_0217.thumb.JPG.1e3592aba5f1204c9e85724278390112.JPG

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dcarch

dcarch

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It never occurred to me that I should share this tip.

 

I sous vide my fingers. That's right, sous vide my fingers.

 

It's cold  to work in my shop and in the garden in the late fall to spring. For a lot of work, gloves can be a problem. So I set my sous vide temperature to about 98F in a pot of water. When my fingers get numb and cold, I just immerse my hands into the hot water for a few seconds, towel them dry, and I am good to go for a while.

 

Numb fingers can be a danger working with tools.

 

dcarch

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KennethT

KennethT

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1 hour ago, dcarch said:

It never occurred to me that I should share this tip.

 

I sous vide my fingers. That's right, sous vide my fingers.

 

It's cold  to work in my shop and in the garden in the late fall to spring. For a lot of work, gloves can be a problem. So I set my sous vide temperature to about 98F in a pot of water. When my fingers get numb and cold, I just immerse my hands into the hot water for a few seconds, towel them dry, and I am good to go for a while.

 

Numb fingers can be a danger working with tools.

 

dcarch

Wouldn't it be easier to get a space heater that you can use while you're down there for any extended period of time?

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted

We do that at the Garden "old school" and run the coffee pot with just water and dip in. The greenhouse is heated  of course but fingers can remain stiff and v. cold.  Hard to work with delicate seedling wearing gloves. 

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted (edited)

Speaking of sous vide...

 

I've done some sous vide seed germination...it works a treat.

 

And there's the following, from our friends at Cornell University...

Chart here: Managing Pathogens Inside Seed with Hot Water

And this from OSU...

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/84555/1/Moodispaw_Research_Distinction_Thesis.pdf

And this from PSU...

Hot Water Treatment for Tomato and Pepper Seeds

 

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

Speaking of sous vide...

 

I've done some sous vide seed germination...it works a treat.

 

And there's the following, from our friends at Cornell University...

Chart here: Managing Pathogens Inside Seed with Hot Water

And this from OSU...

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/84555/1/Moodispaw_Research_Distinction_Thesis.pdf

And this from PSU...

Hot Water Treatment for Tomato and Pepper Seeds

 

 

That's fascinating, and never would have occurred to me. My culinary interest in sous vide remains minimal (ducks, runs) but I could see myself eventually picking one up for this kind of use.

 

 

(After which, of course, it would probably see occasional kitchen duty as well...)

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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haresfur

haresfur

Posted
Posted
On 4/27/2019 at 10:34 PM, dcarch said:

It never occurred to me that I should share this tip.

 

I sous vide my fingers. That's right, sous vide my fingers.

 

It's cold  to work in my shop and in the garden in the late fall to spring. For a lot of work, gloves can be a problem. So I set my sous vide temperature to about 98F in a pot of water. When my fingers get numb and cold, I just immerse my hands into the hot water for a few seconds, towel them dry, and I am good to go for a while.

 

Numb fingers can be a danger working with tools.

 

dcarch

 

If they are pasteurized, you left them in too long

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It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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Okanagancook

Okanagancook

Posted
Posted

Radish already!  Totally jealous.  It has been so cold here mine haven't changed in size for two weeks.

Do you cook radish?  They are delicious grilled with the green tops on then tossed in a vinaigrette.

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