Migrating back to the blog

I'll admit that its been too long since I last posted. But its honestly because I didn't feel like I was doing anything new or exciting in my garden last year. So, to keep myself inspired, I've decided to give myself the freedom to write about garden related natural science as you'll see with this post.

Each year I am particular about hanging a birdfeeder through the winter then taking it down once food sources are reliable. Then I hang my hummingbird feeder in anticipation of their arrival from Central America. It truly amazes me that animals so small can make such a long trip- no wonder they need to drink sugar water to meet their energy needs! I mix mine in a 4:1 ratio of boiling water to sugar (no need for red food coloring) and then just let it cool to room temperature before filling the feeders.

                                  (Photo by Mike Dunn on his blog Roads End Naturalist)

A couple of years ago, I learned a great tidbit from a colleague at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. You should hang your hummingbird feeder when red buckeyes start to bloom. This is a spring flowering understory tree with tubular flowers that are pollinated by the ruby throated hummingbird among others. Last year I saw the trees flowering at the NCBG and duly hung my feeder. Then last fall, I bought a buckeye for my yard and have had the pleasure of watching it flower (though I'll admit that it isn't in the ground quite yet).

                                    The flowers aren't quite at their best but you get the idea.

Yesterday I was sitting on my front porch and saw my first male ruby throated visiting the feeder. It took him less than a day to find the first feeder and only hours to find the second one. Talk about instant gratification! Now I'm looking forward to having multiple birds in my itty bitty front yard chattering at each other as they claim my territory for their own. (Friends are invited to join me for this and a cold beverage this summer).

 For more information about ruby throated hummingbirds and to hear their call check out Cornell's site.

First Seeds of 2012

My seeds from Seed Savers Exchange arrived on Friday! In case you haven't heard about them, they're a non-profit with the mission of saving and sharing heirloom seeds. So they have both "normal" varieties and some really strange ones. I've started forming my list of favorite varieties that work well for me. Some of them are in this picture. But each year I try to experiment with at least one new thing.

The rest of the seeds that I'll use this year are leftover from last year or still on order. But I'll do new posts once they come in and I start doing things with the seeds. Even though its warm outside, the soil is still cold so I'll be starting most of my stuff inside again. But for some cold hardy veggies, you can go ahead and plant now. I'm not planting carrots so radishes will be the first seeds that go into the ground in our garden this year. And if you haven't planted these or other really small seeds that have a suggested spacing for direct sowing (planting seeds straight in the ground), you should know that getting the correct spacing is a pain. So folks have figured out ways around it.



You can purchase pre-made seed tapes like the ones sold at Gardeners Supply. I'm not recommending those because you can make them yourself but in case you're curious, check it out.

To make your own seed tape, cut strips of newspaper about 1 inch wide and lay it on a flat surface next to a ruler. Then dab (I use my finger) a small bit of flour paste (mix flour and water so its about the consistency of glue) at the spacing called for on the seed packet. My radishes call for being sown 1 inch apart so that's the spacing I used here. Then drop a seed on each dot of paste and let the tapes dry. They plant them at the depth designated on your seed packet.

Is it really winter?

A head of lettuce from the market (January 2012)

I don't know about y'all but I think this weather is especially mild and finicky even for a winter in NC. Yes, its been cold- for about 3 days at a time. I had to go out with my headlamp to pick the last of the tomatoes on my plants a few months ago when it looked like we'd get our first frost. And a lot of my wildflowers have died back for the year. But its January and I have bulbs coming up. I'm not so confident that they'll be successful this year.



The upside is that there has been a wonderful array of fresh vegetables available at the farmers markets. I've found myself able to enjoy experimenting with greens since I can still get some other things to go along with them. And you can always grow your own to supplement the market. I've already done a few batches of sprouts this year and continue to add them to salads and other dishes whenever I can.
And growing sprouts isn't hard. The most difficult part for me is remembering to rinse and drain them a couple times a day. But thats all you have to do :)







An especially exciting salad I made lately- I loved all of the colors!



Ingredients:
purple cauliflower
spinach
beets
pickled radishes (get the recipe from me at the carrboro market)
pea shoots
carrots
alfalfa sprouts
lettuce
egg
croutons from leftover bread
(avocado, nuts & olives not local)

Happy New Year!

Last year I didn't do a great job of blogging- I'll admit it. Many of the things I did in the garden were the same or similar to the previous year. And I don't like being repetitive. But I did take some pictures and I'll work to catch up as the garden slumbers through the winter.

This year we started off in locavore style for our new year's meal that will hopefully bring us luck and money in 2012. Because I've been spending more time this year cooking and preserving my harvest (and that others) it seems fitting to share our cooking adventure with y'all.



Menu:
sweet potato biscuits (with sweet potatoes from my grandad's farm)
hoppin' john (with peas from the Cranford Sr. garden)
greens (from the Heeks Family Farm)
flounder (caught by my uncle)

As much as I'd like, we don't always cook this straight out of the garden/ocean. But when it does happen, I like knowing that I'm eating things grown/caught by people I know and love.

In case you didn't know, I've been doing some work with the Heeks Family Farm in northern Durham County. So far I've worked on the actual farm, which uses organic practices but isn't certified organic, and am currently selling their produce at the Carrboro Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. If you're around, stop by and say hello :) And I'll try to do a post about the farm sometime soon.

It's Strawberry Time! (or it was not so long ago)

I love strawberry season! Most years it seems to fly by with only a few chances to get away and spend some time in the field turning my fingers red. This year I've resolved to make an extra effort both to get out pickin and to also experiment some on what I can do to preserve the berries. If you need help finding a berry farm near you, check out the Pick Your Own website. You How to Pick a Peachcan sort it geographically and it tells you about lots of other produce in addition to strawberries.

I got out at the very beginning of the season and caught an unusually cool and cloudy day for strawberry picking (it even rained). I'm used to it being so hot that I can't pick as many as I want before feeling like I'm going to pass out. Anyhow, I went home with ~10 pounds of fruit.

From there, the adventure of preparing strawberries as many ways as possible started. Of course plenty went straight into our bellies or in fruit salad type dishes. My more labor intensive projects were strawberry sorbet (similar to past recipes) and strawberry jam. (David is taking the finished sorbet out of the ice cream maker in this picture).














I've been reading a book called "How to Pick a Peach" and it has information about the origin of food crops, how choices are made of what varieties are sold in stores, storage information, and recipes. I've found it really interesting in my gardening geek way- but do be warned that people who see you with this particular book will suggest that you just go and pull the peach off the tree.

The strawberry jam recipe sounded exciting to me because you do small steps spread out over 3 nights (as opposed to hours in the kitchen in one day). You sugar the strawberries to soften them. Then the next day you add simple syrup and lemon juice. The final step is to cook the jam until it starts to jelly up a bit and then can it. The whole process went pretty well except that my jam is not so solid. It never set. So there wasn't enough pectin in the fruit alone to do the job. I guess this means I'll have to try another recipe.
Night 1:














Night 3:

Spring (aka pollen) is in the Air

This winter I was busy changing jobs and then planning my garden so I haven't posted in a while. But, now that temperatures are (mostly) rising, its time to get started again. Spring really is my favorite season even though allergies kick my butt every year! I've had many of the same plants come up again this year but here are a few new pictures:














In my ongoing quest to make my gardening efforts go further, I've changed up a few things. First, I traded in the old peat pods for small cow pots filled with potting soil as my method of starting seeds inside. My inner hippy was having trouble with the practice of harvesting peat to make the starting pods so I went for a more eco-friendly option. So far, they seem to be working about the same though the little pots take up a little bit more room. Here are my eggplant sprouts:


I also expanded the cold weather operation onto the front porch in a mini greenhouse of sorts. I can verify that it gets mighty toasty in there. I've actually started to leave it open during the day for ventilation so that it doesn't get TOO hot. Thank you Alex for giving me the idea! As the weather has warmed, different things have moved in and out of the "greenhouse" as they are able to handle the outside world.






Out in the garden, I only have garlic from the fall and snap peas. I really like the trellis design that we've used for a couple of years now. Once again David helped out with the construction while I worked on other projects. My challenge with the peas this year has been a bunny rabbit who thinks that the pea shoots are for him- doesn't he know that they sell them by the bag at the farmers market :)

Another new thing I'm trying out this year is growing squash in pots. We've had horrible luck with growing squash in the past thanks to squash bugs. But David really wanted to grow squash this year so I concocted a plan to grow them in pots (where the soil won't harbor any overwintering bugs) and to cover them with a black plastic of sorts to help keep the bugs out. As they grow, I imagine that I'll only have one plant per pot but I started off with 3 in each to make sure I have enough. Fingers crossed that this will help.

Helping Friends I Don't Know and Other Updates

The other day, Caela helped me make a connection between my self proclaimed "friend supported agriculture" and my most recent efforts to organize people here to help others. She is doing her anthropology field work in St. Lucia where Hurricane Tomas recently caused significant damage to the island. People there are currently searching for water and working to figure out when they will have sources of income again.

One of the supplies they expressed a need for was seeds. This way they can plant gardens to feed their families in the upcoming months as they get back on their feet, replant farms, and excavate their houses after landslides.

In response, I went down to a and asked for their help. Not only were their seed packets marked down to half off but they generously offered to help me find any seeds I needed. To say the least, I was happy to see my many hours and dollars spent there result in their willingness to help me help others. And as a gardener, I feel very strongly in empowering and enabling otheres to grow their own. That's why I started this blog after all!



As an update on my garden, it is now put "to bed" for the winter. Based on my observations this morning, it looks like last night was the first killing frost of the year. Considering that it's late November, that is pretty remarkable. Luckily I pulled out the rest of my tomato and basil plants yesterday so nothing went to waste. Now I just need to do something with the green tomatoes and basil on my counter...