April 13, 2011
Since I last wrote we’ve all been very busy moving on with our plans for the spring and summer.
Gary worked a little overtime at his job this week so he couldn’t do much to help in either endeavor until Friday afternoon. Once home though he really pitched in and the gardening went a lot faster.
Monday Sean went to pay off his truck and while out he found some Canadice red grapes, Tuesday he planted those in the grape garden. I then planted Bloomsdale spinach between the grapes and the strawberry plants. I’ll probably add a few marigold to this garden as well since we have a lot of rabbits in the area.
Prior to Friday Sean worked on building another 24 foot row in the garden by himself as I worked on the potato garden. In this long and narrow bed I planted Russet white potatoes, and Norland red potatoes. Then I companion planted Copenhagen Early Market cabbage, Spring broccoli raab, and Green Sprouting broccoli.
Normally I wouldn’t plant three Brassica in the same garden, but I only want a few heads of cabbage because none of us like sauerkraut that much and the smell of cooking cabbage can run you out of the house—although I do love a good cabbage roll. So we decided we’d grow only a few head this spring (if the rabbits don’t get them) and then go for a bigger crop in the fall of a long keeping cabbage, with possibly trying to grow a few heads in the greenhouse.
I misplaced the broccoli seeds on Friday (found them that night) so the broccoli raab got planted in that row instead.
Once the broccolis and cabbage were planted two Victoria rhubard were planted at the opposite end of the bed from the already well established horseradish. This left a little space for a short row of something else. Got to check my companion planting chart to see what.
That leaves the area between the fence and this garden where we will add marigold seeds, if ever there was a garden that would need it this would probably be it. Last year we got very little lettuce and NO cabbage due to Peter Cottontail.
By the end of Friday Sean, Gary and I had finished building the second row in the big garden. In this we planted Adirondack blue potatoes. I will be adding a few other seeds to this garden as well this next week.
The three of us started building the third row in the big garden and have it nearly completed.
Along the same line, but different…while purchasing feed on Thursday I noticed they had a sign up they had freshly harvested asparagus up for sale. While my husband won’t eat asparagus Sean and I love it and my asparagus hadn’t started sprouting yet (first shoot appeared the next day). So I inquired about the price. I had to have them repeat it.
The last I had priced at Wal-Mart was nearly $7 a bunch and a bunch wasn’t quite a pound. I later called our local produce place where I buy a lot of bulk produce and was told their 1# bunches were $3.99 each or 3 for $9. The feed store price was $2 a pound for firsts and $1 a pound for seconds. I purchased a pound of each.
For those of you who don’t know a second where asparagus is concerned is usually those super skinny stalks that despite how they look are tough just past the tip. I had a plan.
The first night I fixed a nice mess of asparagus on the charcoal grill to go with our grilled chicken for dinner.
GRILLED ASPARAGUS
I make this vegetable numerous ways, but this is one of the simplest asparagus recipes. I used a small loaf pan and placed some of the tender spears of the firsts after I had cut off the tough ends and fed those tough bits to the greedy geese. Over the tender spears I poured a mixture of lemon juice, garlic salt and black pepper (all mixed to taste) then topped it with pats of butter. A foil lid was added to the loaf pan and then it was set on the edge of the grill where it would get heat, but not boil dry. Simple, simple and delicious!
If you are using an indoor grill, like a Foreman grill you can let the asparagus set in the liquid for a while then remove, drain and grill it until tender crisp on the indoor grill.
That left a LOT of leftover raw asparagus. As anyone who has dealt with this divine veggie knows it has a short fresh shelf life and I knew we wouldn’t eat it all before it went ugly.
The next morning I filled the dehydrator with the remaining asparagus. ALL of it, including the tough parts. No I’m not insane, I’m a tightwad that is gazelle intense about getting out of debt.
After following all the usual cleaning standards for the veggie I trimmed the tender parts separate from the tough parts. The tender parts were put on two trays of the incubator in about inch long pieces-give or take.
The tough parts were also trimmed to that length, but the thicker pieces I also sliced in half length wise. From the remaining bundles of that $3 investment I filled a cheap round five tray incubator to capacity with asparagus. It ended up being three trays of the tough parts and two of the tips and tender pieces.
The reason I separated them is once they are dry it’s really hard to tell the tender pieces of stem from the tough pieces. Like I said, I had a plan.
I learned years ago that you can dry the tough parts of things like broccoli, asparagus and similar plants (as well as the peels from fruits and vegetables) and then pulverize them using either a mortar and pestle, a blender or a food processor into a nice powder.
This powder can then be added to any number of things to get the vitamins, fiber and other nutrients of the produce to whatever you are cooking from what many people throw away.
The tough ends of the asparagus are destined to become part of soups, omelets, soufflés, side dishes and many other things. I’ve added recipes for a few of these uses below.
As I cut up the beautiful CHEAP asparagus I thought about the BIG dehydrator I’ve saved the money for, but have not yet purchased. I decided it was time, but I was still leery of letting go of that much money. Gary, being the practical and loving husband he is, told me he thought I should order it that day.
He pointed out that even if the garden doesn’t make well there are always produce markets, u-pick farms and other places we could get a wealth of good healthy foods to dry. So I ordered it. I ordered the Styx Dehydra 800w with the bread/yogurt drawer from a gentleman on ebay. I also ordered some fruit leather sheets for it.
I much prefer dehydrating over freezing or canning of many fruits and vegetables for several reasons. The top ones being:
1. Ease of preparation, you seldom need to blanch, ice water dip or exact time.
2. Storage space is minimal for dried foods.
3. Shelf life is extremely long.
The unit is due to arrive here on Thursday. If the feed store still has good cheap asparagus on Thursday I will go get more asparagus. As long as it is that cheap and my asparagus bed isn’t up to producing enough for a year’s worth of mine and Sean’s need for that lovely green I’ll purchase and dry all I can comfortably afford. After all when it’s dried it will keep forever! (well almost).
BTW, drying foods is super easy. I’m self taught on doing it, canning and freezing were the way my mother and grandmother did things. Gary says he remembers his grandmother spreading clean sheets on the roof and drying apples up there when he was a kid, but that was the only experience he’d had with food drying as well.
I highly recommend two cookbooks on drying your own foods (and you can dry almost everything). They not only tell you how to dry the foods, they give you recipes to use the dried foods!
Those two books are:
Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrating Cookbook by Mary T. Bell
Making and Using Dried Foods by Phylis Hobson
I also recently stumbled across some interesting websites
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/
http://www.countryconsultant.com/
http://cookmyfoodstorage.blogspot.com/
There are numerous ones available and I really suggest you cruise around on them.
ON THE HOUSE FRONT:
Sean’s tax refunds came in so he is now a debt free (except for Sallie Mae) man. So he was anxious to get started on his place this weekend. Right up to and including going to the home improvement center and figuring out exactly how much each of the 16 pillars was going to weigh in just the raw materials (cement, cinder blocks and rebar) and that we would have had to unload it the minute we got home because of rain in the forecast. When the weight topped 1,000 pounds it was more than he thought the three of us could handle that late on Friday night. So the purchase was put on hold.
Good thing it was, the next day I found two coupons mixed in some mail that will save him $35 on the first $300 of his purchase. Around here that’s a lot of money. So if the weather is good we’ll get started on the footing pillars next weekend.
THE PROMISED RECIPES—all serve 4
To simply cook as a veggie:
Pour 1 c boiling water over 1 c asparagus spears or pieces. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until tender. This will yield 1 ½ c cooked asparagus
Cream of Asparagus Soup—using dried/powdered asparagus
In a soup pot melt the butter and cook the flour
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
Season with:
Dash of nutmeg or mace (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper
Stir in:
¼ cup asparagus powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 cups chicken broth or stock
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon onion powder or a small chopped onion
Heat over a medium heat until heated through thoroughly.
Asparagus Souffle
2 tbl butter
2 heaping tbl flour
1 ¼ c milk
¾ grated cheddar cheese
¼ c asparagus powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
5 eggs, separated
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then sprinkle in the flour. Remove from heat and whisk together well. Stir in ½ c of the milk and mix well again. Add remaining milk, whisking all the time a little at a time.
Return the pan to a low heat and cook until the mixture thickens, whisking as you go. Remove from heat and add all remaining ingredients except eggs. Let cool. This is your base.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Heat a six inch souffle dish, or four ramekins, in the oven to heat as it preheats just long enough to warm it. Then butter the dish/ramekin.
In a bowl beat the egg yolks well and then add them to the cooled base using a whisk.
Beat the egg whites until the form stiff peaks. Pour half of the base mixture over the whites, fold in gently. Repeat with the second half. Do not overblend.
Pour either into the souffle dish or ramekins
Bake:
Souffle dish 30 minutes
Ramekins 25 minutes.
Marinated Dried Asparagus (basically a pickled asparagus)
Place in a jar and then shake together well:
½ c oil
4 tbl. Lemon juice
1 tbl minced dried celery
½ tsp minced dried chives
1 dried bay leaf
1 sprig dried thyme
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground paprika
Pour over 12-18 dried split asparagus spears that have been placed in a serving dish. Refrigerate overnight. At serving time remove bay leaf and thyme sprig.
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sunday, December 26, 2010
BRINGING THE COST OF GROCERIES DOWN
December 26, 2010
As a roast simmers on the stove and the air fills with the delightful smell of bread in the bread machine my thoughts turn to what I consider “the cooking season”. The weather outside is below freezing, so what better way to warm up the house than to cook?
Only cooking can be the biggest part of any household budget, beyond your house payment. It is also the easiest one to go over budget on, therefore special attention needs to be paid here.
There are numerous ways to cut grocery costs and there is absolutely no way I could even begin to list all the ways to cut those costs, but I can list several. It is my hope that you will add more cost cutting measures to what I’m listing.
So let’s get started:
LOSS LEADERS, as I explained in the previous post on the blog loss leaders are an incentive to get you into the store. It is also one of the best ways to cut your grocery costs.
The best way to use them is to first learn what day your local grocery puts out there weekly sales ads. In some cities it’s Sunday’s others it’s Wednesday, your town may be entirely different. It is important to know how long a sale will last, it could be very frustrating to go to a store on a Sunday and find out the ad you planned your shopping around ended at midnight the night before.
I personally do not subscribe to a newspaper, and I live rurally so I seldom if ever get sales flyers in my mail, especially since I have registered our address on the no junk mail website. So I must be a little more creative about getting my ads. It’s a simple tool called “the internet”. Yep, just about every store known to man has a website with their weekly sales flyer on it.
Once I’ve located where these ads will be for the stores I’m doing cost comparison at I bookmark the site and/or subscribe to their email ads. I do this not only for grocery ads, but for hobby stores, and my husband gets notices and fuel coupons from Murphy fuel stations in his email on a regular basis.
Once you get the sales ads take time to sit down and really look at them. Just because it’s in a sales flyer does not mean it is on sale. Read the ads closely. Even better get out your PRICE BOOK (more on this in a moment) and do some serious comparison of not just price, but sizes.
Now make a list of the things that your family will truly eat that is truly on sale. Store by store, it’s always better to compare various stores loss leaders. Here’s one trick you may not know. Many major stores like Wal-Mart, Target and others (not just grocery stores) will do price match for IDENTICAL items. So if your local grocery has say a name brand frozen food on sale that you want, but it’s not worth the drive to pick up just that one item, take the ad to one of the price matching stores and get it for the same price there. Not only do you get the item for a lower price, but you don’t burn extra fuel or time to pick up the item.
Once you get the list made, you can possibly plan a menu for the week around these loss leaders. You can also consider stocking up to help cut your food costs for future meals. Ideally this is what you want to do if you are trying to meet the $1 a day challenge. Some stores will limit you on how many of what item per person per purchase you can get.
There are, of course, ways around this limit. Shop more than one time, more than one store, or take a shopping buddy with you. If the store is out of an item request a RAIN CHECK. This can be a true help in cutting costs. Because it allows you to spread out the cost of those more popular items. It is simply a coupon to purchase X amount of that item at the loss leader price when the store once again has it in stock.
Now about that PRICE BOOK. What you put in a price book is entirely up to you. My personal one is a spread sheet. The rows are the items ie: Chicken, leg quarters per pound; chicken, boneless skinless breasts per pound; Green Giant green beans 14 oz can. Being who I am it’s alphabetized for speed in locating an item.
The columns are the stores ie: Wal-Mart; Target, Dollar General, Aldis etc.
Then I start filling in the columns with the non-sale (every day) prices for each store. This can be quite time consuming at first. I recommend using grocery receipts you have at home to start out doing this, you can gather a lot of information and fill in the spreadsheet as you watch tv. Then each time you go to a grocery gather a little information while you are there. Just spend five minutes or so on a single aisle making notes and after a while you will have all the stores done with little effort.
Another way to save money is couponing. I am a former coupon/rebate queen. In the 80’s I was like those ladies you read about. I did not pay for groceries, in fact a grocery store once paid me because they doubled the free food coupons I had. Back then I ate only name brands, worked hard at rebating and our stores doubled and sometimes even tripled.
Those days are gone for me. I use very few ready made mixes or convenience foods. I clean with basic cleaners and like I said I do not purchase newspapers or magazines any longer. What I do have is a large box of non-expiring coupons from those days on basic items. So as the loss leaders pop up I will use those coupons until they are gone.
You can also download coupons from the internet, but be aware many stores will not take internet coupons, so before you waste the time, ink and paper check with the stores you will be shopping at.
There are also several individuals who will, for a fee, send you sets of coupons via the mail. I personally have not used any of these services, so I have no idea if they are cost affective or not.
Remember, a coupon is only good if it is an item you will truly use normally and it brings the price down below similar items that are equally as good. Ideally you want to match your coupons to the loss leader sale ad for the best deal. Also if you shop at places like CVS they have special store credits they hand out for certain purchases that can be used to bring your prices even lower.
If you are blessed enough to live in an area that still doubles coupons, by all means read their rules closely and then take advantage of it.
STORE BRANDS. Quite often a store brand is produced at the exact same factory as a name brand. It is in fact the same item, just a different label. But not always. Know what your family will and won’t eat. It’s not a good deal if your family won’t eat it.
Example: My family will eat the store brand instant oatmeal just as well as they will eat the Quaker of the same flavor. The store brand is of course much cheaper (but not as cheap as making your own instant oatmeal—a recipe to post at another time). However, we find the store brand raisin bran cereal tough and unpalatable, so we stick with our favorite name brand.
BULK COOKING. I’ve already wrote volumes on this in the past, simply do a search in my blog using the search feature at the left using key words/phrases like bulk cooking, Once a Month Cooking, OAMC , OMC and you should be able to pull up the posts on it.
GARDENING. I’ve done a few posts on this in the past and as spring approaches I will be doing more. Anyone can garden, no matter where they live. Many a garden is grown in window boxes and flower pots. Remember even one tomato plant gives you garden fresh tomatoes year round (yes they are a perennial) even in the coldest climates if you bring the plant inside when the weather turns nippy.
PORTION CONTROL. My last post had a lot on this, but it needs to be pointed out again. Control the portions, control the cost.
PLANNED LEFTOVERS. Instead of trying to figure out what to do with a leftover after the fact, plan for it before you even cook. Then once the cooking is finished set that leftover aside before serving up the meal. I’ll do a post in the future on the numerous ways you can use leftovers you may never even have thought of.
This has ran on too long, so I’ll close for now.
Jan who is looking forward to your suggestions on cutting grocery costs in OK
As a roast simmers on the stove and the air fills with the delightful smell of bread in the bread machine my thoughts turn to what I consider “the cooking season”. The weather outside is below freezing, so what better way to warm up the house than to cook?
Only cooking can be the biggest part of any household budget, beyond your house payment. It is also the easiest one to go over budget on, therefore special attention needs to be paid here.
There are numerous ways to cut grocery costs and there is absolutely no way I could even begin to list all the ways to cut those costs, but I can list several. It is my hope that you will add more cost cutting measures to what I’m listing.
So let’s get started:
LOSS LEADERS, as I explained in the previous post on the blog loss leaders are an incentive to get you into the store. It is also one of the best ways to cut your grocery costs.
The best way to use them is to first learn what day your local grocery puts out there weekly sales ads. In some cities it’s Sunday’s others it’s Wednesday, your town may be entirely different. It is important to know how long a sale will last, it could be very frustrating to go to a store on a Sunday and find out the ad you planned your shopping around ended at midnight the night before.
I personally do not subscribe to a newspaper, and I live rurally so I seldom if ever get sales flyers in my mail, especially since I have registered our address on the no junk mail website. So I must be a little more creative about getting my ads. It’s a simple tool called “the internet”. Yep, just about every store known to man has a website with their weekly sales flyer on it.
Once I’ve located where these ads will be for the stores I’m doing cost comparison at I bookmark the site and/or subscribe to their email ads. I do this not only for grocery ads, but for hobby stores, and my husband gets notices and fuel coupons from Murphy fuel stations in his email on a regular basis.
Once you get the sales ads take time to sit down and really look at them. Just because it’s in a sales flyer does not mean it is on sale. Read the ads closely. Even better get out your PRICE BOOK (more on this in a moment) and do some serious comparison of not just price, but sizes.
Now make a list of the things that your family will truly eat that is truly on sale. Store by store, it’s always better to compare various stores loss leaders. Here’s one trick you may not know. Many major stores like Wal-Mart, Target and others (not just grocery stores) will do price match for IDENTICAL items. So if your local grocery has say a name brand frozen food on sale that you want, but it’s not worth the drive to pick up just that one item, take the ad to one of the price matching stores and get it for the same price there. Not only do you get the item for a lower price, but you don’t burn extra fuel or time to pick up the item.
Once you get the list made, you can possibly plan a menu for the week around these loss leaders. You can also consider stocking up to help cut your food costs for future meals. Ideally this is what you want to do if you are trying to meet the $1 a day challenge. Some stores will limit you on how many of what item per person per purchase you can get.
There are, of course, ways around this limit. Shop more than one time, more than one store, or take a shopping buddy with you. If the store is out of an item request a RAIN CHECK. This can be a true help in cutting costs. Because it allows you to spread out the cost of those more popular items. It is simply a coupon to purchase X amount of that item at the loss leader price when the store once again has it in stock.
Now about that PRICE BOOK. What you put in a price book is entirely up to you. My personal one is a spread sheet. The rows are the items ie: Chicken, leg quarters per pound; chicken, boneless skinless breasts per pound; Green Giant green beans 14 oz can. Being who I am it’s alphabetized for speed in locating an item.
The columns are the stores ie: Wal-Mart; Target, Dollar General, Aldis etc.
Then I start filling in the columns with the non-sale (every day) prices for each store. This can be quite time consuming at first. I recommend using grocery receipts you have at home to start out doing this, you can gather a lot of information and fill in the spreadsheet as you watch tv. Then each time you go to a grocery gather a little information while you are there. Just spend five minutes or so on a single aisle making notes and after a while you will have all the stores done with little effort.
Another way to save money is couponing. I am a former coupon/rebate queen. In the 80’s I was like those ladies you read about. I did not pay for groceries, in fact a grocery store once paid me because they doubled the free food coupons I had. Back then I ate only name brands, worked hard at rebating and our stores doubled and sometimes even tripled.
Those days are gone for me. I use very few ready made mixes or convenience foods. I clean with basic cleaners and like I said I do not purchase newspapers or magazines any longer. What I do have is a large box of non-expiring coupons from those days on basic items. So as the loss leaders pop up I will use those coupons until they are gone.
You can also download coupons from the internet, but be aware many stores will not take internet coupons, so before you waste the time, ink and paper check with the stores you will be shopping at.
There are also several individuals who will, for a fee, send you sets of coupons via the mail. I personally have not used any of these services, so I have no idea if they are cost affective or not.
Remember, a coupon is only good if it is an item you will truly use normally and it brings the price down below similar items that are equally as good. Ideally you want to match your coupons to the loss leader sale ad for the best deal. Also if you shop at places like CVS they have special store credits they hand out for certain purchases that can be used to bring your prices even lower.
If you are blessed enough to live in an area that still doubles coupons, by all means read their rules closely and then take advantage of it.
STORE BRANDS. Quite often a store brand is produced at the exact same factory as a name brand. It is in fact the same item, just a different label. But not always. Know what your family will and won’t eat. It’s not a good deal if your family won’t eat it.
Example: My family will eat the store brand instant oatmeal just as well as they will eat the Quaker of the same flavor. The store brand is of course much cheaper (but not as cheap as making your own instant oatmeal—a recipe to post at another time). However, we find the store brand raisin bran cereal tough and unpalatable, so we stick with our favorite name brand.
BULK COOKING. I’ve already wrote volumes on this in the past, simply do a search in my blog using the search feature at the left using key words/phrases like bulk cooking, Once a Month Cooking, OAMC , OMC and you should be able to pull up the posts on it.
GARDENING. I’ve done a few posts on this in the past and as spring approaches I will be doing more. Anyone can garden, no matter where they live. Many a garden is grown in window boxes and flower pots. Remember even one tomato plant gives you garden fresh tomatoes year round (yes they are a perennial) even in the coldest climates if you bring the plant inside when the weather turns nippy.
PORTION CONTROL. My last post had a lot on this, but it needs to be pointed out again. Control the portions, control the cost.
PLANNED LEFTOVERS. Instead of trying to figure out what to do with a leftover after the fact, plan for it before you even cook. Then once the cooking is finished set that leftover aside before serving up the meal. I’ll do a post in the future on the numerous ways you can use leftovers you may never even have thought of.
This has ran on too long, so I’ll close for now.
Jan who is looking forward to your suggestions on cutting grocery costs in OK
Friday, May 14, 2010
PART 2—Includes a Blast from the Past Story—“It’s not Charlie.”
Now about the potatoes and tomatoes. This late in the season it’s often hard to find tomato and pepper plants, or seed potatoes available here in OK. So I was concerned I’d have none of the above available for my garden this year. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
At first when I was checking Wal-Mart for the desired plants all I found were tomato and pepper plants starting at $3.50 each. Way too expensive for my shoestring budget.
Sean and I kept looking, finally pushed to the back we found some 9 packs of Beefsteak tomatoes. They had been marked down to $3 a 9 pack. They were tiny plants, but we kept digging around until we found the healthiest of the plants, PLUS many of the sections had two tomato plants in each one. So we purchased two 9 packs. I ended up with 25 plants to plant for $6. A great deal as far as we were concerned. Beefsteak is not normally what I raise for canning, but I could go $6 far easier than I could go the $3.50 PER PLANT!
Further digging around found some $3 bell pepper plants (when all others were around $3.50-$4 each) again there were 2 plants in each of the three pots we purchased.
So those went in the ground the next day and were companion planted with basil and carrots. The cages are already set around them and they are growing quickly, much to our delight.
The following week Sean dropped Gary and I off at Lowe’s while he went to do a mystery shop that demanded he do so alone. I decided to look for seed potatoes.
I found a location that had a sign that said the burlap bags of seed potatoes were marked down to $2 each. Unfortunately there were no burlap bags of potatoes in the bin. Instead there were 20# paper bags of red seed potatoes marked at $19.95 each—WAAAY too expensive and definitely more seed potatoes than I had planned on. In the same bin were peck baskets that contained mixtures that had potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb for $9.95 each.
Knowing that in the past I have on numerous occasions asked for and received discounts on items that are similar to items they have on closeout or the damage bin I decided to see if they would at least discount these items . So I approached the cashier and inquired about the burlap potatoes and the remaining products in the $2 priced bin. She told me they were out of the burlap bag ones, but since the others were now in the bin I could purchase those items at $2 each as well. So I did. I happily left with 2 peck baskets and a 20# bag for a total of $6.
Sean and I planted all the items the next couple of days. It was far more potatoes than we’d planned on and I had not planned on many of the other items, so we had to snug up the garden a bit, but I just couldn’t resist the bargain.
We already had asparagus and garlic growing in the garden, but we figured we could always use more. LOL!
While we were home we had a few visitors of the unwelcomed type. SNAKES! The first one was a king snake that Sean promptly removed from the area and re-homed far away from our bird eggs.
The presence of the second snake became well known when our best broody Banty hen started screaming bloody murder as she fled her nest under the front porch. Just as soon as he heard the screams Sean knew what was going on and ran out front to see if he was right. The water moccasin was just starting to swallow the first of her nearly hatched eggs when Sean spotted him.
We spent the next minutes scaring the snake away from the nest, first by waving things at it through the gaps on the porch to then spraying it with a jet from the water hose, then with a long pole we have for just such a purpose. This one was a fighter, and it soon became apparent rehoming was not an option with this snake. It had to be dealt with as it climbed a cedar that was taller than our two story Dutch colonial home. He ended up in the maggot bucket. Little Speck returned to her nest and all was well until…
Two days later we heard our favorite little wild bird that builds a nest every year on our back deck hollering like crazy. You guessed it a third snake—a rat snake this time. This too got rehomed.
All of these snakes made remember a blast from the past story I wrote about Sean being snake bit when he was much younger. If you don’t like snake stories just move on to part three of this long missive that contains some recipes to add to your Master Mixes stash.
So for your enjoyment here is “It’s NOT Charlie”
IT’S NOT CHARLIE!
Again, if you don't want to read snake stories move on to part three. I do not want to make anyone uncomfortable.
When I was growing up my grandparents always kept a king snake around for mouse and rat control. Whether they lived in the city or in the country. So having a king snake in your garage was nothing unusual to me. My husband had agreed it was fine and we released one we called Charlie in the garage one late summer day. On and off we saw Charlie and he grew plump with the field mice that tried to find their way into our home.
The next summer my two children Sam and Sean came into the bedroom of our home. Sam was carrying a beautiful speckled king snake. "Look Mom I found Charlie!" I said, yes it was another king snake, but it was not Charlie, who was used to be handled, and this one needed to be let go outside. Being a stubborn child Sam argued with me that she was certain this snake was Charlie despite it being smaller than the snake we had released the year before. All this time the snake is becoming more and more agitated. Doing as all snakes do, rattling its tail and hissing. Unfortunately at the height of its anxiety Sean, the younger super allergic to everything child, happened to walk by.
Charlie took the opportunity to strike, nailing Sean firmly on the thumb joint of his right hand. Dadburn it! Now we had to hang onto the snake instead of letting it go. I sent Sam to put the snake in something it couldn't get out of, and Sean to wash his hand and then to the living room to sit down while I called ER. Like I said, Sean is my allergic child. When the tested him for allergies for 103 known allergens he reacted to 98 of them. I could see what was coming, an allergic reaction for certain. This is basically how the ER phone call went.
"St. John's Emergency Medical, How may I help you?"
"I'd like to speak to someone who is knowledgeable about snake bites."
"One moment please"
"May I help you?"
" Yes, my son is very prone to allergies and he was just bitten by a non poisonous speckled king snake and I was wondering...."
"Are you certain the child was bit?"
"Yes, I saw it happen."
"Then you've killed the snake?"
"No, it's very much alive and in my ....just a minute" (at this point I realized the snake was crawling out the holes of the cat carrier and I had to shoo it back in with a pair of scissors they were the closest thing handy). "Sorry, it was escaping the cat carrier."
"Let me get this straight, you saw your son bit by a snake and it's now alive and living in your cat carrier?"
"Yes"
"Can you describe the snake?"
"It's a non poisonous speckled king snake."
"You said you saw it bite your son, how and where did it bite him?"
Folks I am sorry to say, but this is where I made my BIG mistake...
"My oldest child Sam, was holding what she thought was Charlie, the snake, we were arguing about it being Charlie or not and just as Sean, my son walked by the snake RATTLED it's tail and struck Sean on his thumb."
"RATTLED IT'S TAIL!? Mam, can you describe the snake?"
"It's a non poisonous speckled king snake, I just need to know if Sean could have an allergic reaction and if so how I should treat it"
"Where's your son now? Rattle snake venom needs to be counter treated immediately."
"Sean is in the living room watching cartoons and it NOT a rattle snake, it's a non poisonous speckled king snake."
"You need to get here immediately so we can give him anti venom."
"I'll bring him, but you can't give him anti venom, he's allergic to horses and that is made with horse serum. Besides it's a non poisonous snake!"
After that frustrating call I told Sam to put Not Charlie in a more secure container and Sean to get in the van. Sam did as she was told and also brought out her favorite reptile book with a very good picture of a non poisonous speckled king snake in it. Telling me to make sure they don't kill the snake just because it was stupid enough to bite her dumb brother.
On the way into Tulsa I observed Sean carefully, as he was trying to look at Not Charlie through the opaque 1/2 gallon ice cream container Sam had put him in. The thumb was starting to swell so I enquired about how he was feeling. His response was he was worried about what they would do at the hospital. I told him they'd probably look at the snake, wash his thumb and give him a tetanus shot then say "That will be $50 please." Sean started to protest he had just gotten a tetanus shot the month before when he had reached for something as Sam was cutting with a pair of scissors, accidentally cutting Sean. I promised I wouldn't let them give him another one.
When we got to ER I groaned, the parking lot was full, the waiting room was full and I knew this was a nonsensical trip. Now folks, I'm going to tell you right now how to move to the front of the line in a packed ER. Here's what happened:
They were, as I said, backed up. An ambulance driver had just brought a man in on a gurney and they were busy admitting him when someone asked if they could help us. I said I had called earlier about how to treat an allergic reaction to a non poisonous snake bite. They asked if I had killed and brought the snake. I said we hadn't killed it, Sean had Charlie in that container. Right on cue Not Charlie rattled his tail in that hard plastic container sounding like the granddaddy of all rattle snakes. Like something out of a cartoon all of the sudden the only thing left in the area with us was a few papers fluttering to the ground and the poor guy trying to get off the gurney. Staff, nurses, patients and their families had all scattered to the four winds. I'm sorry, but it was hilarious! Sean and I started laughing, and the more we'd laugh the harder that snake would rattle its tail. We were totally alone with the man on the gurney and the snake. I assured the man it was a non poisonous snake and it could not get out of the container.
After awhile one little nurse peeked around the edge of the door and timidly said "I got the short straw. Which one is Sean and which one is Charlie." I told her which one and she told Sean to bring Charlie and come to the back. Instantly the back emptied and I had all the out front help I could handle.
As I filled out paper work I heard a high pitched female scream and then Sean's throaty laughter. I could guess what had happened. That is the fastest I have ever been able to get paper work filled out at a hospital. They quickly led me back to my son who was standing at a sink washing his own thumb with betadiene. No staff was to be seen anywhere in that back area. I asked Sean what had happened.
Because the snake was in an opaque container it had to be put into something clear for them to see it clearly. Just as the nurse had poured the very angry snake into one of the clear canisters for the respiratory machine an orderly had poked her in the sides hissing. He later asked me for the snake, as he knew what type it was and he wanted it to eat mice at his house. Not Charlie went to live under a trailer house. So the scream had been her, and Sean had laughed at the whole situation.
We waited around for the "Snake Expert" for goodness knows how long. Everyone and his dog kept wanting to give Sean anti venom and I kept saying no. Finally the snake expert showed up. Took one look at it and said "It's a non poisonous speckled king snake, wash the boy's thumb good, give him a tetanus shot and send him home."
As Sean started to protest I said, "he was in here last month when his sister accidentally cut him with a pair of scissors and we got a tetanus shot then." The doctor looked square at Sean and said "Let's see, last month you had to have stitches, this month you get snake bit what do you have planned for next month?" "Going back to school" Sean solemnly told him. Everyone laughed.
The doctor grinned and said. "So I guess you can go home now as your thumb looks very clean, I guess this was the most exciting part of your summer wasn't it?"
Sean looked at me and grinned wickedly, taking my hand and pulling me toward the exit he said "No sir, them catching an alligator under our camper at Walt Disney World was!"
I was wrong about one thing, it wasn't $50, it was $54.
Jan who wonders how she survived raising her kids in OK
At first when I was checking Wal-Mart for the desired plants all I found were tomato and pepper plants starting at $3.50 each. Way too expensive for my shoestring budget.
Sean and I kept looking, finally pushed to the back we found some 9 packs of Beefsteak tomatoes. They had been marked down to $3 a 9 pack. They were tiny plants, but we kept digging around until we found the healthiest of the plants, PLUS many of the sections had two tomato plants in each one. So we purchased two 9 packs. I ended up with 25 plants to plant for $6. A great deal as far as we were concerned. Beefsteak is not normally what I raise for canning, but I could go $6 far easier than I could go the $3.50 PER PLANT!
Further digging around found some $3 bell pepper plants (when all others were around $3.50-$4 each) again there were 2 plants in each of the three pots we purchased.
So those went in the ground the next day and were companion planted with basil and carrots. The cages are already set around them and they are growing quickly, much to our delight.
The following week Sean dropped Gary and I off at Lowe’s while he went to do a mystery shop that demanded he do so alone. I decided to look for seed potatoes.
I found a location that had a sign that said the burlap bags of seed potatoes were marked down to $2 each. Unfortunately there were no burlap bags of potatoes in the bin. Instead there were 20# paper bags of red seed potatoes marked at $19.95 each—WAAAY too expensive and definitely more seed potatoes than I had planned on. In the same bin were peck baskets that contained mixtures that had potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb for $9.95 each.
Knowing that in the past I have on numerous occasions asked for and received discounts on items that are similar to items they have on closeout or the damage bin I decided to see if they would at least discount these items . So I approached the cashier and inquired about the burlap potatoes and the remaining products in the $2 priced bin. She told me they were out of the burlap bag ones, but since the others were now in the bin I could purchase those items at $2 each as well. So I did. I happily left with 2 peck baskets and a 20# bag for a total of $6.
Sean and I planted all the items the next couple of days. It was far more potatoes than we’d planned on and I had not planned on many of the other items, so we had to snug up the garden a bit, but I just couldn’t resist the bargain.
We already had asparagus and garlic growing in the garden, but we figured we could always use more. LOL!
While we were home we had a few visitors of the unwelcomed type. SNAKES! The first one was a king snake that Sean promptly removed from the area and re-homed far away from our bird eggs.
The presence of the second snake became well known when our best broody Banty hen started screaming bloody murder as she fled her nest under the front porch. Just as soon as he heard the screams Sean knew what was going on and ran out front to see if he was right. The water moccasin was just starting to swallow the first of her nearly hatched eggs when Sean spotted him.
We spent the next minutes scaring the snake away from the nest, first by waving things at it through the gaps on the porch to then spraying it with a jet from the water hose, then with a long pole we have for just such a purpose. This one was a fighter, and it soon became apparent rehoming was not an option with this snake. It had to be dealt with as it climbed a cedar that was taller than our two story Dutch colonial home. He ended up in the maggot bucket. Little Speck returned to her nest and all was well until…
Two days later we heard our favorite little wild bird that builds a nest every year on our back deck hollering like crazy. You guessed it a third snake—a rat snake this time. This too got rehomed.
All of these snakes made remember a blast from the past story I wrote about Sean being snake bit when he was much younger. If you don’t like snake stories just move on to part three of this long missive that contains some recipes to add to your Master Mixes stash.
So for your enjoyment here is “It’s NOT Charlie”
IT’S NOT CHARLIE!
Again, if you don't want to read snake stories move on to part three. I do not want to make anyone uncomfortable.
When I was growing up my grandparents always kept a king snake around for mouse and rat control. Whether they lived in the city or in the country. So having a king snake in your garage was nothing unusual to me. My husband had agreed it was fine and we released one we called Charlie in the garage one late summer day. On and off we saw Charlie and he grew plump with the field mice that tried to find their way into our home.
The next summer my two children Sam and Sean came into the bedroom of our home. Sam was carrying a beautiful speckled king snake. "Look Mom I found Charlie!" I said, yes it was another king snake, but it was not Charlie, who was used to be handled, and this one needed to be let go outside. Being a stubborn child Sam argued with me that she was certain this snake was Charlie despite it being smaller than the snake we had released the year before. All this time the snake is becoming more and more agitated. Doing as all snakes do, rattling its tail and hissing. Unfortunately at the height of its anxiety Sean, the younger super allergic to everything child, happened to walk by.
Charlie took the opportunity to strike, nailing Sean firmly on the thumb joint of his right hand. Dadburn it! Now we had to hang onto the snake instead of letting it go. I sent Sam to put the snake in something it couldn't get out of, and Sean to wash his hand and then to the living room to sit down while I called ER. Like I said, Sean is my allergic child. When the tested him for allergies for 103 known allergens he reacted to 98 of them. I could see what was coming, an allergic reaction for certain. This is basically how the ER phone call went.
"St. John's Emergency Medical, How may I help you?"
"I'd like to speak to someone who is knowledgeable about snake bites."
"One moment please"
"May I help you?"
" Yes, my son is very prone to allergies and he was just bitten by a non poisonous speckled king snake and I was wondering...."
"Are you certain the child was bit?"
"Yes, I saw it happen."
"Then you've killed the snake?"
"No, it's very much alive and in my ....just a minute" (at this point I realized the snake was crawling out the holes of the cat carrier and I had to shoo it back in with a pair of scissors they were the closest thing handy). "Sorry, it was escaping the cat carrier."
"Let me get this straight, you saw your son bit by a snake and it's now alive and living in your cat carrier?"
"Yes"
"Can you describe the snake?"
"It's a non poisonous speckled king snake."
"You said you saw it bite your son, how and where did it bite him?"
Folks I am sorry to say, but this is where I made my BIG mistake...
"My oldest child Sam, was holding what she thought was Charlie, the snake, we were arguing about it being Charlie or not and just as Sean, my son walked by the snake RATTLED it's tail and struck Sean on his thumb."
"RATTLED IT'S TAIL!? Mam, can you describe the snake?"
"It's a non poisonous speckled king snake, I just need to know if Sean could have an allergic reaction and if so how I should treat it"
"Where's your son now? Rattle snake venom needs to be counter treated immediately."
"Sean is in the living room watching cartoons and it NOT a rattle snake, it's a non poisonous speckled king snake."
"You need to get here immediately so we can give him anti venom."
"I'll bring him, but you can't give him anti venom, he's allergic to horses and that is made with horse serum. Besides it's a non poisonous snake!"
After that frustrating call I told Sam to put Not Charlie in a more secure container and Sean to get in the van. Sam did as she was told and also brought out her favorite reptile book with a very good picture of a non poisonous speckled king snake in it. Telling me to make sure they don't kill the snake just because it was stupid enough to bite her dumb brother.
On the way into Tulsa I observed Sean carefully, as he was trying to look at Not Charlie through the opaque 1/2 gallon ice cream container Sam had put him in. The thumb was starting to swell so I enquired about how he was feeling. His response was he was worried about what they would do at the hospital. I told him they'd probably look at the snake, wash his thumb and give him a tetanus shot then say "That will be $50 please." Sean started to protest he had just gotten a tetanus shot the month before when he had reached for something as Sam was cutting with a pair of scissors, accidentally cutting Sean. I promised I wouldn't let them give him another one.
When we got to ER I groaned, the parking lot was full, the waiting room was full and I knew this was a nonsensical trip. Now folks, I'm going to tell you right now how to move to the front of the line in a packed ER. Here's what happened:
They were, as I said, backed up. An ambulance driver had just brought a man in on a gurney and they were busy admitting him when someone asked if they could help us. I said I had called earlier about how to treat an allergic reaction to a non poisonous snake bite. They asked if I had killed and brought the snake. I said we hadn't killed it, Sean had Charlie in that container. Right on cue Not Charlie rattled his tail in that hard plastic container sounding like the granddaddy of all rattle snakes. Like something out of a cartoon all of the sudden the only thing left in the area with us was a few papers fluttering to the ground and the poor guy trying to get off the gurney. Staff, nurses, patients and their families had all scattered to the four winds. I'm sorry, but it was hilarious! Sean and I started laughing, and the more we'd laugh the harder that snake would rattle its tail. We were totally alone with the man on the gurney and the snake. I assured the man it was a non poisonous snake and it could not get out of the container.
After awhile one little nurse peeked around the edge of the door and timidly said "I got the short straw. Which one is Sean and which one is Charlie." I told her which one and she told Sean to bring Charlie and come to the back. Instantly the back emptied and I had all the out front help I could handle.
As I filled out paper work I heard a high pitched female scream and then Sean's throaty laughter. I could guess what had happened. That is the fastest I have ever been able to get paper work filled out at a hospital. They quickly led me back to my son who was standing at a sink washing his own thumb with betadiene. No staff was to be seen anywhere in that back area. I asked Sean what had happened.
Because the snake was in an opaque container it had to be put into something clear for them to see it clearly. Just as the nurse had poured the very angry snake into one of the clear canisters for the respiratory machine an orderly had poked her in the sides hissing. He later asked me for the snake, as he knew what type it was and he wanted it to eat mice at his house. Not Charlie went to live under a trailer house. So the scream had been her, and Sean had laughed at the whole situation.
We waited around for the "Snake Expert" for goodness knows how long. Everyone and his dog kept wanting to give Sean anti venom and I kept saying no. Finally the snake expert showed up. Took one look at it and said "It's a non poisonous speckled king snake, wash the boy's thumb good, give him a tetanus shot and send him home."
As Sean started to protest I said, "he was in here last month when his sister accidentally cut him with a pair of scissors and we got a tetanus shot then." The doctor looked square at Sean and said "Let's see, last month you had to have stitches, this month you get snake bit what do you have planned for next month?" "Going back to school" Sean solemnly told him. Everyone laughed.
The doctor grinned and said. "So I guess you can go home now as your thumb looks very clean, I guess this was the most exciting part of your summer wasn't it?"
Sean looked at me and grinned wickedly, taking my hand and pulling me toward the exit he said "No sir, them catching an alligator under our camper at Walt Disney World was!"
I was wrong about one thing, it wasn't $50, it was $54.
Jan who wonders how she survived raising her kids in OK
AT HOME GETTING THINGS DONE—Part 1
April 26-May 12, 2010
After leaving Branson, MO we spent a few days in northeast Oklahoma doing a series of mystery shops and visiting with friends and relatives in the area. We pulled back into our own driveway on April 26, 2010 and immediately started in working at a fevered pitch.
Sean had been so busy getting other things done while we were gone he had done far less in the garden than we’d hoped he’d get completed so the three of us hit the garden area hard and furious.
Gary spent any spare time he had sealing up holes in the fencing and the chickwire roof. HUH?
Yes, I said roof on the garden. I’ve mentioned this before in so many other places it may actually be in my blog somewhere, but if it is I’m going to revisit the basics of my garden area again for those of you who have not heard about the garden set-up. Before I continue on with this two, nearly three weeks at home.
My garden area is currently actually three gardens and a series of flower pots, trash barrels and planters. All of which is planted in the Lasagna Gardening style.
No I’m not planting pasta, although the pasta sauce ingredients are in there. It is a method very well described by Patricia Lanza in her series of books on Lasagna Gardening. Basically it is a cold compost garden that produces rich friable soil that is no till and if done completely right never needs weeding or if it does need weeding it all pulls out with such ease you won’t believe it. Even Bermuda grass pulls out with no problem.
Whether you want to garden in a raised bed or a flower pot I highly recommend you go to your local library and check out her books. They are well written and even include some on Companion Planting.
Companion Planting is organic pest control by planting things that help/protect each other next to each other. Another great series of books that cover companion planting and lasagna gardening (although she doesn’t call it that) are the books by Louise Riotte. Again visit your local library. You will be glad you did. I will admit I do OWN several of the books by both ladies and they are a valued part of my personal gardening library. They are on the shelves with my “Four Season Harvest” by Eliot Coleman, “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew, “The After-Dinner Gardening Book” by Richard W. Langer (this is an excellent book that tells you what you can grow from the “scraps” of cooking dinner—did you know you can plant the root end of an onion and grow another onion?) and numerous other gardening books my journey into trying to be as self efficient as possible have became my guides along the way.
Anyway, back to the garden description. Because my 200 plus birds all free range my garden is caged to protect it from my feathered friends. When I am gardening on a regular annual basis the birds are allowed into the garden area from late fall until spring planting time to weed, de-bug and fertilize to their heart’s content. However, when it’s gardening season we lock them out.
It’s been nearly three years since we had a garden of any true sort so the weeds had the upper hand and the winter storms had done a number on the fences and chickwire (poultry netting) roof. As I mentioned before, the guys had been working hard on getting that back in good condition prior to our leaving. Sean had done more, but not completed it while we were gone. The 90 acre poultry ranch, job hunting and mystery shopping had all kept him busy full time. So he had little time to get the garden protection finished and without it there was absolutely no sense in putting seeds in the ground. Trust me chickens and guinea fowl can take them out far faster than you can put them in.
So as Gary tightened up the last of the gaps in the roof and fence Sean and I started actually prepping the garden and planting. By the time Gary and I left for our next round of on the road mystery shopping we had completely weeded and planted all three of the gardens and the potato barrels—more on this shortly.
The garden area currently has three gardens in it. The big garden is a 24’ X 24’ garden. In it we planted all of the following: sweet peas, broccoli, a salad mixture of lettuces, bush beans, spinach, 25 tomato plants, 6 bell pepper plants, asparagus, carrots, micro salad greens, radishes, okra, zucchini, crookneck squash, rhubarb and…I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
The 8’X24’ “Three Sisters Garden” is currently planted with sweet corn, watermelons , red, white and yellow onions and red potatoes. Once the corn is up Sean will add pole green beans and once they are started he will add pumpkins.
The “Little Garden”, which is 8’ X 8, ’ has a few white potatoes as well as sunflowers and cantaloupes already planted. Once the sunflowers are up Sean will add pole beans to this garden as well.
We have plans to add a fourth garden that will be 8’ X 24’ into this there will be grapes, blueberries and greens planted—Sean is hoping to get this built soon.
Inside the fenced and roofed area along one section we have placed four 20 gallon trash barrels that have drain holes drilled in them. These are for the main potato crop because we have such a gopher/mole problem in our area.
Planting potatoes in a barrel, or in a stack of old tires, is a simple tried and true method that gives you a lot of potatoes in the least amount of space. The concept is simple. The tires are done the same way as I am about to describe, but for my purposes I will use the trash barrels.
First you put drain holes in the bottom of your barrel. Then a shallow layer of whatever potato growing material you plan on using. Because I use the Lasagna Gardening method in all of my gardening I put a shallow layer of a mixture of straw, leaves, dirt and compost. Onto this you lay your seed potatoes (a story on these and some other purchases will be in part 2). I put them about 2-4 inches apart all over the bottom of the barrel. They can be a lot closer than if you were planting them in the ground.
Now add a 1-2 inch layer of your favorite potato growing medium. I add a layer to the lasagna garden per Ms. Lanza’s method. As the potatoes start to sprout through the growing medium you add another layer that goes 1-2 inches above the sprouted potatoes. Repeat this method to the top of the barrel as the potato plants grow. I personally add the next layer to the lasagana (ie: first layer straw/hay, second layer, peat moss, third layer, aged manure, fourth layer, peat moss, fifth layer dirt from my woods etc.)
Once you reach the top of your barrel you let the plant grow on past the dirt and out the top. Potatoes will grow all up and down that long stem that has grown from the bottom of the barrel in its journey toward daylight.
I personally cover the top of the barrel with tulle which can be purchased at any place that sells fabric for under a quarter a 72-90 inch wide yard. I tie it in place with a piece or rope. This keeps the potato bugs from being able to get to my plants. It’s not mandatory you do this, but potato bugs are a big problem in my area. So rather than fight the bugs I block them out.
When it comes time to harvest new potatoes you just dig down in the growing medium until you find the potatoes that have formed along that stem and pick to your heart’s content. When it’s the end of the growing seasons for the potatoes I simply dump the barrels over either on a tarp or into the garden and pick my potatoes out. No digging required.
By using this method you can literally grow potatoes year round if you have the seed potatoes and a sheltered place that gets sunlight in the winter. Simply insulate the barrels with black trash bags filled with leaves, weeds, grass clippings, straw or hay. WORD OF CAUTION do not put GREEN of any of these in sealed bags in the sunlight. Spontaneous combustion can happen. I don’t want you baking your potatoes (or burning down your house) instead of simple insulating the potatoes.
We did not get much planted in the flower pots or planters, other than shallots and garlic, that line my fence on the inside, so that is Sean’s next project. Unless he starts the Grape Garden first. The flower pots and planters will contain herbs and vining fruits and vegetables that will be trained to grow up the fence, but behind the bill guard.
The bill guard is simply chick wire that is attached to the welded wire that is the fencing for the garden on the outside of the fencing. We have placed a spacer between the two types of fencing made out of fallen limbs. This is to do just what it sounds like. Guard my things at the fence from tasting bird beaks and bills.
So that’s part one of what we did while we were home. The next sections will be about recipes and snakes.
Jan who can’t wait to eat the organically grown produce from her garden this year in OK
After leaving Branson, MO we spent a few days in northeast Oklahoma doing a series of mystery shops and visiting with friends and relatives in the area. We pulled back into our own driveway on April 26, 2010 and immediately started in working at a fevered pitch.
Sean had been so busy getting other things done while we were gone he had done far less in the garden than we’d hoped he’d get completed so the three of us hit the garden area hard and furious.
Gary spent any spare time he had sealing up holes in the fencing and the chickwire roof. HUH?
Yes, I said roof on the garden. I’ve mentioned this before in so many other places it may actually be in my blog somewhere, but if it is I’m going to revisit the basics of my garden area again for those of you who have not heard about the garden set-up. Before I continue on with this two, nearly three weeks at home.
My garden area is currently actually three gardens and a series of flower pots, trash barrels and planters. All of which is planted in the Lasagna Gardening style.
No I’m not planting pasta, although the pasta sauce ingredients are in there. It is a method very well described by Patricia Lanza in her series of books on Lasagna Gardening. Basically it is a cold compost garden that produces rich friable soil that is no till and if done completely right never needs weeding or if it does need weeding it all pulls out with such ease you won’t believe it. Even Bermuda grass pulls out with no problem.
Whether you want to garden in a raised bed or a flower pot I highly recommend you go to your local library and check out her books. They are well written and even include some on Companion Planting.
Companion Planting is organic pest control by planting things that help/protect each other next to each other. Another great series of books that cover companion planting and lasagna gardening (although she doesn’t call it that) are the books by Louise Riotte. Again visit your local library. You will be glad you did. I will admit I do OWN several of the books by both ladies and they are a valued part of my personal gardening library. They are on the shelves with my “Four Season Harvest” by Eliot Coleman, “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew, “The After-Dinner Gardening Book” by Richard W. Langer (this is an excellent book that tells you what you can grow from the “scraps” of cooking dinner—did you know you can plant the root end of an onion and grow another onion?) and numerous other gardening books my journey into trying to be as self efficient as possible have became my guides along the way.
Anyway, back to the garden description. Because my 200 plus birds all free range my garden is caged to protect it from my feathered friends. When I am gardening on a regular annual basis the birds are allowed into the garden area from late fall until spring planting time to weed, de-bug and fertilize to their heart’s content. However, when it’s gardening season we lock them out.
It’s been nearly three years since we had a garden of any true sort so the weeds had the upper hand and the winter storms had done a number on the fences and chickwire (poultry netting) roof. As I mentioned before, the guys had been working hard on getting that back in good condition prior to our leaving. Sean had done more, but not completed it while we were gone. The 90 acre poultry ranch, job hunting and mystery shopping had all kept him busy full time. So he had little time to get the garden protection finished and without it there was absolutely no sense in putting seeds in the ground. Trust me chickens and guinea fowl can take them out far faster than you can put them in.
So as Gary tightened up the last of the gaps in the roof and fence Sean and I started actually prepping the garden and planting. By the time Gary and I left for our next round of on the road mystery shopping we had completely weeded and planted all three of the gardens and the potato barrels—more on this shortly.
The garden area currently has three gardens in it. The big garden is a 24’ X 24’ garden. In it we planted all of the following: sweet peas, broccoli, a salad mixture of lettuces, bush beans, spinach, 25 tomato plants, 6 bell pepper plants, asparagus, carrots, micro salad greens, radishes, okra, zucchini, crookneck squash, rhubarb and…I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
The 8’X24’ “Three Sisters Garden” is currently planted with sweet corn, watermelons , red, white and yellow onions and red potatoes. Once the corn is up Sean will add pole green beans and once they are started he will add pumpkins.
The “Little Garden”, which is 8’ X 8, ’ has a few white potatoes as well as sunflowers and cantaloupes already planted. Once the sunflowers are up Sean will add pole beans to this garden as well.
We have plans to add a fourth garden that will be 8’ X 24’ into this there will be grapes, blueberries and greens planted—Sean is hoping to get this built soon.
Inside the fenced and roofed area along one section we have placed four 20 gallon trash barrels that have drain holes drilled in them. These are for the main potato crop because we have such a gopher/mole problem in our area.
Planting potatoes in a barrel, or in a stack of old tires, is a simple tried and true method that gives you a lot of potatoes in the least amount of space. The concept is simple. The tires are done the same way as I am about to describe, but for my purposes I will use the trash barrels.
First you put drain holes in the bottom of your barrel. Then a shallow layer of whatever potato growing material you plan on using. Because I use the Lasagna Gardening method in all of my gardening I put a shallow layer of a mixture of straw, leaves, dirt and compost. Onto this you lay your seed potatoes (a story on these and some other purchases will be in part 2). I put them about 2-4 inches apart all over the bottom of the barrel. They can be a lot closer than if you were planting them in the ground.
Now add a 1-2 inch layer of your favorite potato growing medium. I add a layer to the lasagna garden per Ms. Lanza’s method. As the potatoes start to sprout through the growing medium you add another layer that goes 1-2 inches above the sprouted potatoes. Repeat this method to the top of the barrel as the potato plants grow. I personally add the next layer to the lasagana (ie: first layer straw/hay, second layer, peat moss, third layer, aged manure, fourth layer, peat moss, fifth layer dirt from my woods etc.)
Once you reach the top of your barrel you let the plant grow on past the dirt and out the top. Potatoes will grow all up and down that long stem that has grown from the bottom of the barrel in its journey toward daylight.
I personally cover the top of the barrel with tulle which can be purchased at any place that sells fabric for under a quarter a 72-90 inch wide yard. I tie it in place with a piece or rope. This keeps the potato bugs from being able to get to my plants. It’s not mandatory you do this, but potato bugs are a big problem in my area. So rather than fight the bugs I block them out.
When it comes time to harvest new potatoes you just dig down in the growing medium until you find the potatoes that have formed along that stem and pick to your heart’s content. When it’s the end of the growing seasons for the potatoes I simply dump the barrels over either on a tarp or into the garden and pick my potatoes out. No digging required.
By using this method you can literally grow potatoes year round if you have the seed potatoes and a sheltered place that gets sunlight in the winter. Simply insulate the barrels with black trash bags filled with leaves, weeds, grass clippings, straw or hay. WORD OF CAUTION do not put GREEN of any of these in sealed bags in the sunlight. Spontaneous combustion can happen. I don’t want you baking your potatoes (or burning down your house) instead of simple insulating the potatoes.
We did not get much planted in the flower pots or planters, other than shallots and garlic, that line my fence on the inside, so that is Sean’s next project. Unless he starts the Grape Garden first. The flower pots and planters will contain herbs and vining fruits and vegetables that will be trained to grow up the fence, but behind the bill guard.
The bill guard is simply chick wire that is attached to the welded wire that is the fencing for the garden on the outside of the fencing. We have placed a spacer between the two types of fencing made out of fallen limbs. This is to do just what it sounds like. Guard my things at the fence from tasting bird beaks and bills.
So that’s part one of what we did while we were home. The next sections will be about recipes and snakes.
Jan who can’t wait to eat the organically grown produce from her garden this year in OK
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