The Landless Homesteader

Citrus marmalade recipe (without added pectin)

2012-02-06T11:27:00.001-08:00

I've had alot of people ask me how I make marmalade, so I wanted to write it out. I'll work on adding step by step pictures later. This has worked for me using limes, lemons, kumquats, and cara cara oranges. You could probably also mix any combination of citrus too.

Recipe for (any) citrus marmalade:

Remove zest/peel from fruit with either a vegetable peeler or a citrus tool , scrape away any white pith off the peels, set aside.

Take fruit and using a paring knife cut away any white pith on the outside of the fruit. I then cut the fruit into thin slices that look like wagon wheels. Remove any seeds, set aside ( we can use seeds for pectin later) and remove any tough white core from the center of the segments. Cut wheels into fourths. Cut up enough fruit to give about 4 cups of citrus slices/pieces.

Take reserved zest and slice into thin slices, like little ribbons. You can cut them thicker but I like the peel in thin slices in my marmalade.

In one pan add sliced zest, enough water to cover, and 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, bring to a boil,turn off heat, and let sit for 15 minutes. drain off water, set aside.

To the other pan I add equal parts of the chopped fruit and water. ( about 4c fruit + 4 c water). If you have any seeds from the fruit place tie them up in a piece of cheesecloth or use a muslin teabag to hold them. Add reserved zest slices. Bring all to a low simmer for about 25-30 minutes, or until the fruit segments have fallen apart and the zest slices are soft ( a spoon should cut a piece easily against the side of the pot). Turn off heat, cover, and let sit overnight ( 12-18 hours)

The next day get your jars all clean, hot and ready to fill. Remove bag of fruit seeds ( if using), squeezing hard to get every last bit of pectin out of it. Discard seeds. Stir the fruit, and it should look a bit thickened form the pectin that seeped into the water overnight. You should now have a pot full of about 8c worth of prepared citrus. *Split this into 2 pots* ( I had problems getting it to set when cooked as such a big batch), Measure how much fruit is going into each pot, You should have about 4c in each pot. Add an equal amount of sugar ( 4c) and bring to a boil, and boil until it reaches about 215-220 degrees on a candy thermometer. A test sample on a cold spoon or saucer should firm up, showing you the marmalade is done.

Fill hot jars with marmalade, leaving a 1/4 in head space, add lids and rings, and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Variations: strawberry lemonade marmalade: before heating 4c citrus fruit + 4c sugar, add 1c finely chopped strawberries. If it doesn't want to gel add another 1/4 of fresh lemon juice.

A new year, a new life- now with more focus!

2012-01-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

After over 2 years of not finding time to blog about the little happenings and learnings of my life, here I am again. I've been very addicted to facebook, but those short snippets just don't let me have fun talking photos, showing step by step of recipes I'm trying and analyzing the results. Plus then I can't go back and find the links I've shared very easily. Farmville was fun too, but than it began to represent a cruel irony to me: wasting time on a virtual farm when I could better use the time practicing skills or researching ways of having a real one.

So here I am.

When I last left you guys I was settled in an apartment dealing with my husbands layoff- looking for a job and pondering what to do next. The last few years have been very busy: I've worked in a natural parenting-esque cloth diaper shop, as an agricultural aid for the CDFA looking the the invasive Asian Citrus Psyllid, I've gone back to school to study horticulture, found my groove as a student and worked my way into the honors program and even into Phi Theta Kappa, a national honors society. This year school is partially funded by 2 scholarships and a grant, and currently I have been working at a Garden Center/Nursery as a sales associate for almost a year now and am training to hopefully be a Color Department Lead( Flowers/Veggies/Herbs) someday. I completed my training as a UCCE Master Gardener, have volunteered in trying to get a community garden up and running in my hometown, gave many a talk on veggie gardening, and have made many wonderful friends and contacts with similar interests as me. My two beautiful children are growing up and getting smarter every day, and I am blessed to say I am more in love with my sexy dork of a husband than ever. Life has never been better for me.

But it hasn't all been sugar and sweet peas, in the last 2 1/2 years we've moved 4 times ( various family members, which I am forever thankful), my husband ended up unemployed for over 2 years, our marriage was strained to almost breaking, I had bouts of depression and so much fear and doubt. Life was restless, unsettled. I didn't know how to pull myself out of it, we needed something, anything to just change for the better. Finally, my husband got a job interview out in Missouri, so we flew out to stay with my recently found birthmom in Tulsa,OK so Chris could drive to the interview. That is when the big Blizzard of 2011 hit superbowl week, and we were basically stranded in the snow in the midwest for a few days. During that week I happened to get an email about an application I had put in at a garden center months prior. Chris' interview was cancelled because of the state of emergency the region was in, and after we got home the phone interview didn't pan out well.

My job interview went better then I could have ever hoped for: they hired me.

I had my first full time, more than minimum wage job with an employee owned company that even offered medical insurance. It was my miracle. We could afford to move out of my parents home and sphere of drama to our own apartment where we live now, for almost a year now. We finally had a sense of independence. I've even bought my first real car, a sweet little baby blue car with lots of happy bumper stickers on it. My husband finally got lucky too, as the economy has ever so slowly picked up he stopped the desperate job hunting and started his own consulting gig, which has slowly been picking up steam.

2012 is a year full of promise for me: we're both gainfully employed, in out own little home we work hard for, raising our beautiful children and full of gratitude for our lives now and the lessens we learned along the way. We're slowly working towards a goal of moving to a more rural-ish area where I can have a yard, a garden, and fruit trees again- and maybe even chickens and a dairy goat someday. UC Davis just started a major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems- exactly what I love to study but didnt have a term for. I got to visit the campus last year for a transfer student open house and fell *IN LOVE* with the school and the town. My husband loved it too, so if its meant to be I hope they accept my application next Fall.

We've been blessed with wonderful friends along the way who support us emotionally and spiritually. I have awesome professors who have written strong letters of recommendation that helped me land my current job and a few scholarships. I am lucky to be able to still hone my homesteading skills with limited resources by being frugal and bartering canned goods for produce. Whether its saving the green tomatoes off plants being tossed at the nursery, making friend with the farmers market folks for deals on blemished stuff, joining a local CSA, to offering to pick the fruit and prune the trees of neighbors and aquaintences, I find fresh produce to work with.

My best friend has chickens and more eggs than she knows what to do with sometimes, so I buy or trade for eggs from her. A co-worker keeps bees and gave me 2 jars of lovingly raised honey for Christmas. Many generous friends bring me fruit from their trees. I am always giving away stuff I've put up or crafted with my own hands- my mom teases that I can and stockpile food for lean paycheck weeks but give so much of it away I should stop being so generous and save more for myself. That's because the more I give away, the more that comes back to me and my family, and the more I can give to others on tough times too. I've been there, and know how quickly I could end up there again.

We all take care of each other.

2012 is a big year, I'm dropping down from full time work to part time hours to focus on a full class load (19 units) of honors classes, botany, California geography, critical writing and hopefully chemistry. I was elected as an officer of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) so theres events and work to do there, and some conferences to attend. By next summer I should qualify to take the California Certified Nursery Professinal exam, and if I pass earn the nice CCNP title and pay raise. I should complete my Associates Degree in Spring 2013, and may or may not be transferring somewhere the fall after, thats still in the works. I'm gaining more responsibilities and experience volunteering as a Master Gardener, and now the Master Food Preserver (MFP) program has its own classwork and volunteer requirements. There are lots of events and classes with local groups that have so much I want to learn from them.

I am happy, I am focused, I am driven but most of all I am blessed.

Every night as I fall asleep I meditate on my own little Mantra:

"I am Blessed, I am Loved, and I am Thankful."

Blessed Be.

Heartbroken

2011-02-16T18:08:00.001-08:00

Yes, I have been on a blogging hiatus, but after some very disappointing news came to light I cannot remain silent.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/02/pasadena_family_trademarks_the.php

http://www.thecrunchychicken.com/2011/02/urban-homesteaders-cease-and-desist.html

I posted this reply on the FG forums, but I do not know if the post will remain or not so I am posting it here as well. I am well aware it seems to now contain many trademarked terms but whatever....

~*~*~*~*~*

I am at a loss for words, while the intentions may have started off... sound ( to avoid the phrase being used too loosly, I understand where you are coming from there) - and I can apprciate that- and you do have every right to protect your own published *original* works such as your magazine articles and documentaries- somehow the concept that calling my yard a urban homestead ( something I called it before I ever heard of you guys) on the public internet is now somehow a trademark issue I *have to* turn around and give *you* credit for- just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

What about old mother earth news articles from way back in the 70's and 80's that talk of urban farms/homesteading? Isnt that what inspired Jules Dervaes in the first place? I loved linking/sharing information from you guys, and its a choice I made because I really liked seeing your yard as an example of what can be done with a regular yard in suburbia can be with hard work and careful planning. As of yet I have not received any such notification of trademark issues ....but I can only imagine how others who did receive that letter might feel- especially if they had never heard of you but do in fact have what is called an urban homestead. I would feel shocked and a bit angry too.

Definitions:

ur·ban (ûrbn)
adjective
1. Of, relating to, or located in a city.
2. Characteristic of the city or city life
home·stead (hmstd)
noun
1. A house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land.
2. Law Property designated by a householder as the householder's home and protected by law from forced sale to meet debts.
3. Land claimed by a settler or squatter, especially under the Homestead Act.
------>4. The place where one's home is.
v. home·stead·ed, home·stead·ing, home·steads

There are as many types/styles of urban homesteads as there are homesteaders/gardeners. Some organic, some mixed, some not....for some its 5 acres, others its a potted tomato plant on their 3rd story apartment balcony. If they wish to blog or speak of their experiences as urban homesteading it is only loosely affiliated with you in that you are both referring to a choice in lifestyle where you are aquiring substinence from your home....but by the strict dictionary definitions it doesnt even involve gardening...or chickens...or goats...or soil or whatever.

My point is, technically if you have a place in the city you call home, you have an urban homestead, no matter what you do with it, or what you or others call it. Its just too broad a concept to narrowly defein as only being able to be what you trademarked it to be.

I also noticed theres a trademark on FREEDOM GARDENS....while I can see that since this is the name of this website and all, at least it was only trademarked in the plural gardenS sense....since my own hometown and many other already have a Freedom Garden (singular) to refer to a rose garden in rememberance of those who died protecting our country's freedom- but what then of articles that speak collectively of these living, botanical memorials to our loved ones? If they speak of the growing movement of freedom gardens ( as in memorial gardens) do they still have to refer to you as well? Where does it end?

*blinks back tears* PLEASE reconsider your stance on some of these terms you are so wanting to call your own, or the very community you so inspired and supported will no longer feel comfortable supporting you.

Transitioning to Fall

2009-10-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

This week the weather has been so gorgeous: mild, cool, (60-70 degree) and crisp nights (50ish). I'm trying to enjoy it the best that I can, autumn is a very short season in SoCal, its likely to jump back to 90 degree temps to get cold and drizzly and rather depressing on natures whim. I've heard and read that autumn in SoCal is the equivalent of spring back east; we're finally wandering outside again after the brutal summer sun and heat, and the ground is warm enough for seeds and plants to take off but not too warm as to need to water every hour and hope the plants make it.

I harvested 12 nice sized tomatoes from the 'Bush Champion' plant on the balcony. I haven't called the plant "done" yet because its still producing new flowers on the top, hoping to get a few more tomatoes from it. I finally had to cut down and toss the other 2 'Patio' tomato plants because they were over run with spider mites, and being determinants were looking rather lackluster and not flowering or setting more fruit. I cut down the 'Jaune Flamme' tomatoes after their last batch a few weeks ago because whatever disease the plants had just took over completely. Pole beans look nice, they have stretched all the way to the top of the trellis netting I installed and are flowering like crazy, I even spotted 1 lone bean pod this morning, prob the first flower the vine made was pollinated right away! I also planted some pea plants I got from our community garden fundraising booth. I lightly tied them to the netting with some tomato tape, I hope this cool ( 60-70 degree) ish weather stays for awhile longer to give the plants time to settle in and take off, praying for no more crazy heat waves like the one last year that decimated everyone's cool season gardens.

My pole beans have some sort of issue where the older leaves are turning yellow, dying, and falling off. My first guess would have been nitrogen deficiency since its starting with the oldest leaves and leaving the veins green at first- but this is a legume here, aren't they supposed to MAKE nitrogen? I didn't inoculate the beans first tho, so that may be a reason.

With my limited growing space I have to rotate plants sometimes if it seems some things aren't getting enough sun, or last week when the spider mites were really bad I tried to space things in a certain way so when I blasted the plants with plain water with a tank sprayer I wouldn't get mites onto uninfected plants- turns out they got on everything anyway. I'm pretty sure the constant breeze didn't help me there. It was pretty hot and dusty last month- which spider mites love- so I kept trying to mist them daily with water to try and keep the mite population down. When that didn't work I tried garlic & oil, soap and water, even water and cayenne pepper. Nada, they just kept breeding like rabbits and as fast as I could knock them off with water they rebounded and spun millions of tiny webs all over my plants. This week after seeing how badly they were damaging my new planting of tomatoes I finally gave in and applied a neem oil solution to all my plants. At least its an organic miticide but I still hate spraying something that can harm beneficials as well, so I sprayed it at 11pm at night so for sure no stray bees or hummingbirds would be out and about. Today when I checked on the plants I saw very few live mites, so I hope a few more doses at neem to get whatever hatches out again should help knock the population back down a few notches.

I ran out of potting soil, I need to get some more compost to mix with the vermiculite and coco peat I have in the garage, or I may be lazy and just get some Dr.Earth or Ednas best or something all ready to use. For fall I still want to plant some Swiss chard, baby beets, dwarf bok choy, nasturtiums, lettuce, and of course mesclun. I'm craving some sweet fresh salads again.

Ok, gotta go, I need to finish up that pomegranate jelly :) My dad's tree is packed with fruit this year, so he gave me 2 buldging bags worth ( barely dented whats on the tree) and Chris helped me remove the seeds. Then I ran them thru the blender quickly to puree ( without liquefying the seeds as much as possible), then strained in a colander lined with a clean cotton cloth. I squeezed as much liquid as I could from the 'pulp', then poured the juice into clean quart jars to let any solids settle out. After a couple of hours I have jars full of translucent dark red pomegranate juice with a layer of white seed particles settled at the bottom. I hope by carefully decanting the liquid I can get nice clear juice and some beautiful clear pomegranate jelly! More photos on that to follow shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy my little slide show of how my garden has been faring over the last month or so.

video of my Toddler's antics in the kitchen

2009-09-26T21:52:00.001-07:00

This is why I can't take my eyes off my son for even 5 minutes, espcially when I leave an open bag of flour out on my freshly scrubbed down counters before starting a new batch of dough.

What you can't see in the video was the flour all over the floor as well as the counter, plus as he scooted around on his butt his underwear was like a powder puff, just coated in the stuff. His shrugging shoulders and avoidance of eye contact are Tristan's classic "Uh oh I am in trouble and I know it" routine. My favorite moment in this video is his answer to "Are you going to touch mommy's flour again?"

Wagons East! ( We're looking to leave California)

2009-09-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Yup, the inevitable has come at least: My husband has been laid off.

I can't say it was a surprise- actually it was a relief after nearly a year of being yo-yoed by his former employer, the bank that owned our house, family members, and the economy- I can finally say we're free.

We don't own a house, we don't have a job, our bankruptcy is almost done with, and we have unemployment benefits, savings ( that we've squirreled away since this hell started a year ago), a full chest freezer and 4 3f by 5 ft pantries crammed to the brimming with canned book and dry staple goods I have been hoarding like an OCD hamster. So overall, I can say we will be OK for right now.

The only things we really buy from the store in a regular basis were eggs, milk, chocolate, sugar, canning jars, and odds n ends, and thankfully the kids qualify for WIC so theres the milk and eggs. Starting next month CA WIC finally changes over to the new healthier program, so they will nwo offer whole grains such as brown rice or whole wheat tortillas, vouchers for fruits and vegetables ( even organic!) and more options for dried or canned beans/lentils instead of peanut butter. Hooray! I get a little bit of money here and there for speaking gigs, friends buying the Jam I make and hopefulyl soon a few odd jobs some friends have offered to my husband. I've gotten quite good at Pinching a penny till Abe Lincoln cries ( thanks for that quote Kathe!). Our grocery bill for a family of 4 is around 300 a month, I think lately its been a little more with buying produce and canning jars in the summer. In California thats quite an achievement to be proud of.

Chris and I have been talking in earnest about possibly moving out of state where its cheaper, quieter, and life is less hectic, but we didnt have a clue where- being we've been in California our entire lives. This summer when we were in Missouri for a wedding we both kinda fell in love with the areas we drove thru: its was green, had trees, land prices were way cheaper, and somehow our blood pressure was considerably lower there even with the drama of a family wedding, our 2 small kids and knowing the clock on Chris job was running. So this week when I kinda just sat down, looked outside at the hot dry brown landscape that is SoCal in the summer and said "Man, why can't we just move somewhere else in the country" Chris actually agreed with me. He's really over California and is curious to live elsewhere and have a different lifestyle.

What a huge weight off my shoulders! I wasnt just a crazy wife wanting to drag my husband away, he seriously looked like he's also had enough of our states stupid budget, the politicians, the celebrities, lack of rainfall, crazy electric prices, even crazyer home prices, and the starbucks on ever frigging corner...the list goes on and on. I love the beautiful view of the San Gabriel mountains from our windows- but now that view is oftentimes obscurred with smog and the blob of urban sprawl keeps climbing up the foothills. Gone are the citrus groves, the vineyards, the windbreaks of eucalytus trees, wandering sheep herds, blooming yucca plants like giant candles in the moonlight. This area no longer feels unique- you can find almost exact copies of the housing tracts and shopping malls all over SoCal.

I tried to look and see how much renting a small home with a little bit of land ( an acre or less) around it was, and even a piece of crap house in a terrible area with an acre of land is renting for 2,000-2,200 a month. No thanks.

We've lost so much in the last year, but in return we've gained something precious: freedom. As weird as it may sound, the world is our oyster for a moment, if we can find a job somewhere else thats stable and meets the cost of living in the area, we're good. Problem is in this economy having a college degree and years of experience isnt the golden ticket to a happy middle class lifestyle like it used to be. So all we can do right now is plan, research, and look for work across the country.

I know some people would think I'm nutts for wanting to leave, I mean this place has everything, a baseball stadium down the street, a NASCAR racetrack in Fontana, a bunch of colleges nearby, 3 malls within a 30 minute drive, 40 minutes to the closest ski area, an hour from the beach, 90 minutes to wine country, an hour to downtown LA and that street scene- but we don't really care! LOL

What do we both want at this point in our lives?

* Peace and quiet. NO big rigs honking, sirens constantly from the freeway and streets, people and their pimped out cars with a subwoofer blaring the base for a mile around them. Car alarms, helicopters, drunk idiots walking home, airport traffic, I'm sick of never having silence not even in the middle of the night.

*Less Traffic- it shouldnt take 2 hours to do 20 miles, but at 5pm on a Friday, thats the minimum drive time. If you need to take the 91 or the 101, double that time. Even to cross the city of Rancho Cucamonga, which is like, 7 miles? Takes me an average of 25 minutes up one street. Yes I've been timing it. With nearly 250,000 people living in a 10 mile radius, theres almost always some traffic, and its worse with all the street expansions and new contruction going on.

*S-P-A-C-E: I hate seeing these new homes so close together you sneeze and your next door neighbor hears you from inside their house. I don't want to hear them arguing, watching TV, or having sex either when all I want is the windows open for some air.

*Privacy: goes hand in hand with space. I want to be able to walk outside, tend a garden, sit and read a book on a porch, or have a BBQ without 20 people being able to see me or hear me outside. I've heard strong fences make good neighbors, but an acre of distance would sure help it as well.

*Seasons: so far here we get wind, fires, floods, and 100+ heat. At any time of the year, and sometimes in the same week. I've had pool parties on my birthday (Jan 3) because it was 95 degrees. I've never watched the leaves turn to shades of red and gold, seen frost make lace on the windows, or looked for the first snowdrops of the spring. Thins other states take for granted. The days blend into each other and don't change much and somehow my body just feels tired and confused. Yes the sunshine is nice, but the sound of rain falling as I sleep is the sweetest therapy ever. As much as I hate cold, I would put up with snow so a hearty hot soup or stew is that much better, and so I'd appreciate spring more. Yes theres blizzards and tornados, but here we get earthquakes and santa ana winds. Its give and take, no place is perfect.

*Land: I don't want a landscaped front lawn, or a backyard or a cul de sac lot, I want land. At least an acre or 2. Room for a well planed intensively planted fruit orchard, a sustainable tree area for firewood, a large compost area, a vegetable garden, a berry patch, Bees, space for a couple of egg laying chickens or ducks and agoat or 2 for milk someday down the road round out my American dream nicely.

to be continued.......

Lesson learned: do not add cold jars to a hot canner...

2009-08-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

I had chicken stock simmering all night, and today needed to get it strained, chilled (to remove the fat) and canned. My mind must have been somewhere else entirely, I had turned the stove on to heat up the water in the pressure canner while I filled jars with cold stock...then when I added the first jar in- CRACK!

I freaked out and checked to see what cracked before it hit me that the water was hot, the glass jar was cold, bad combo. I've never had a jar crack on me. So I carefully lifted it out with the jar lifter and ot my surprise the whole bottom of the jar fell off in one piece! LOL

So I ended up with a bottomless jar and a canner of stock-y hot water. Kinda cool actually. The edge where the glass cracked isnt even sharp surpriseingly enough. I'm saving the jar to use as a cloche in springtime. Now I'm curious to replicate cracking just the bottom off of big clear wine jugs and such to make my own glass cloches for plants.

Later while waiting for one batch of stock to cool and the next batch to warm up so I could put them in the canner I noticed how much the color changes after being in the pressure canner. I hope I'm not "burning" the stock in the process, I'll have to wait till I open one to taste and compare to some fresh stuff that I have frozen into cubes.

Canning / JAMboree 2009 (part 1)

2009-08-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

What I started with: 50 pounds of 'O Henry' peaches and 56 pounds of 'Friar Plums'

Heres just some of what I've made so far: (In this photo) 9 1/2 pints of plum jam, 3 quarts of brandied peaches, 4 pints of peaches in light syrup, 9 quarts of plums in cinnimon syrup

I played around with raw packing some and hot packing some, didnt notice too much of a difference in how much they float, so to sva etime I may just raw pack them all from now on.

simple plum jam with sugar, lemon juice, and low sugar pectin. My mom will be happy, plum is her favorite jam.

Was playing around with plums and noticed something cool, when I put the first batch of plum halves to 'poach' on the syrup the skins slipped off showing off this beautiful yellow flesh, but as I did more batches of plums the syrup got darker and darker from the plum skins (going left to right in this photo) , to the point that the fruit was taking on the red color from the syrup even before the skins slipped off. In the end I just raw packed some plums skins and all in the dark red syrup, resulting on the really dark jars on the far right.

Last night I made 10 1/2 pints of Peach Melba Jam ( peach/raspberry) and 10 1/2 pints of a plum sauce flavored with orange juice and cardamon. Its sweet, but with a good tang from the orange and the hint of spice, good as a soft fruit spread, a pancake syrup or if I add some more spice and ginger possibly a good asian plum sauce. I also took some of my frozen raspberries form our picking trip to Riley's farm and have them soaking in a quart of Brandy- a little experiment in preserving fruit with alcohol. I forgot to take photos of those.

Even after all of that canning and jamming, giving fruit to the kids as snacks, and gifting some to my mom and dad, I still have a 25 pound box each of fruit. And I'm almost out of jars...I'm down to 1 dozen each of 1/2 pints and pint jars. I guess next I'll have to try my hand at freezing fruit pies in plastic lined pie tins to have pies ready to go later on this year. After that if I still have ziplocks I may resort to sugarpacking/freezing whatever fruit is left before it goes bad. Its ripe but still firm thankfully, I dont want to have mushy fruit left to freeze.

In my Garden : new beneficials, and of course new pests

2009-08-28T13:03:00.001-07:00

My summer Balcony Garden ( and eager 2 year old looking for ripe tomatoes)

Yum, nothing beats a sun warmed ripe tomato fresh from outside with a bit of salt and pepper. I didnt even bother with basil this time, I was too eager to eat it.

The humingbirds love these scarlet runner bean vines, but they are too fast for me to get a photo of them (yet). Originally I had hoped to harvest these beans for green beans, but the pods swell so fast I gave up and will just let the pods mature to save seeds for next year. I planted some bush beans and real edible pole beans for an early autumn harvest, they have taken off wonderfully well in this heat.

When we first moved here I didnt see any bees, zip, nada- so I planted marigolds in a planter box hanging off the balcont railing, hoping the bright colors would catch the eye of a wandering honeybee. It seemed to work, and we have a few that show up daily to the tomatoes, basil flower and these oregano flowers I took the photos of. None ever land on the marigolds tho oddly enough.

This week has been so very very hot, its 108 outside right now and supossed to stay that way or hotter thru the weekend. I know I shouldnt be complaining, thats the norm for around here, but its been an unseasonably cool summer, all of June pretty cloudy and cool, only getting into the low 90s most days of July & August. I had actually been seriously considering starting my fall seedings this week ( carrots, beets, lettuce, cabbage etc) worried that we'd have a very harsh cold winter if summer was so cool, but again mother nature likes to surprise us.

Fall frost dates are weird around here, for San Bernardino ( the closest city I have weather data for) the 50% date for frost is around Dec 25, and the last Spring frost date is Jan 21, so not a whole lot of risk of a frost or freeze most years. Plus being on the 2nd story surrounded by concrete I'd guess the reflected heat, covered overhang and reflected light from the carport would all keep my balcony above freezing even in a cold snap. So for fall crops I'm looking at planting around Late September/into October. But with this heat I'm not so sure, we had record setting heat last October in the 90s. Weird.

Anyhow, my balcony garden has proven to be fairly successful, lots of herbs and 'Flamme' cherry tomatoes, and the 'Patio' and 'Bush Champion' plants are packed with blossoms and smell green tomatoes, they really kicked into high gear when the sun finally came out in July. The 'Flamme' tomato had been going strong since it was planted last March, so it made sense it was the first to fall victim to some bugs and some sort of disease.

First off I noticed some leaves randomly dying, drying up and falling off, then it was side branches wilting and dying, and now I'm seeing it in more and more places on the plants. I tried to take detailed photos and spent a few hours pouring over my notes from our disease management class and the Master Gardener Handbook. I think its some sort of wilt, just not sure which type-grrrr. I tried to cut off the damaged areas and sterilized the slippers after each cut and its still popping up all over the 2 plants. *sad sigh*

PEACHES!

2009-08-25T13:57:00.001-07:00

While driving back from Palmdale this weekend I passed alot of orchards around Littlerock and along pearblossom highway...so when I passed a fruit stand that had fruit for $9 a box I made a crazy quasi-illegal u-turn ( 138 doesnt have many turnout areas) and went back to check them out. I got 2 28 pound boxes of Friar plums for $9 each, and they had O'Henry peaches for $9 a box as well, but on the way to pay I spied boxes of smaller peaches for $6 (They were just a bit smaller then the regular/med peaches that were selling for more), SCORE! grabbed 2 of those instead.
Actually I didnt grab them, I tried to carry them to Chris' truck 1 box at a time, but do you have any idea just how heavy a 28 pound box of plums is? I thought I was going to drop them. One of the workers must have seen the vein in my neck almost pop out and smiling came out to help me carry the rest of my precious cargo and cram it into the cab of the truck.

I'm quite pleased with myself, I've been stalking the farmers market all summer drooling for peaches but even now at the peak of the season they were $2.99-4.99 a pound. Boo.

A local supermarket finally had them on sale for $0.99 a pound....then a 1 day sale for $0.39 a pound, which I missed because I lost track of which day of the week it was. *facepalm*. It seemed it was going to be a peachless summer for me. I think $0.24 a pound for what the owner said was picked fresh that morning seemed fair.

So now theres nearly 100 pounds of fruit sitting in boxes on my kitchen table. Even tho they are "tree ripe" they were hard as baseballs when I got them, but after 48 hours in our 70 degree apartment most have softened up a little and taste much sweeter. Perfect for hands on attempts in canning them. Right now I have 3 quarts of Brandied peach halves in a combo of light syrup and brandy. I have a batch of lavender syrup on the stove ready for another batch of peaches in lavendar syrup later, and I have a pot of water heating for helping get the peach skins off ( dunk in boiling water, dunk in ice water, skin slips off). Also on my list of recipes to try: Peach Chutney, Peach Melba Jam and Peach salsa.

The art of kefir making

2009-08-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post about how I make kefir from the grains I got from my freedomgardens pal Theresa. Its only taken 6 months to pull this post out of my draft folder and finally finish it! Kefir grains are interesting in that they cannot be made in a lab persay as a culture, the only way to get more kefir grains is to keep some happy until they grow (propogate) and you have so many grains you end up having to give half of them away unless you're making huge qualities of kefir daily. My grains came from Theresa, who got them from a friend, who got them from a friend in Missouri, and at some point those came from New York, and thats as far back as I personally know....theres something very cool having a culture with a lineage. :)

In the interest of time I'll spare you the details of what kefir is, its history, and the science behind it. To find out more then you ever wanted to know about kefir, check out Doms Kefir In-site, he seriosly answers any question you could ever think of and then some. I learned by reading and rereading Doms site, and he updates it regularly with more info, recipes, and methods for using kefir grains for fermenting other drinks. I still check it out every week because theres so much still to learn, and he has a ton of info on his sites.

Why do I bother making it? To summarize, I drink it because its like yogurt but tastier, its fizzy, and because I think its really cool how these little cauliflower like 'grains' turn milk into something different.

Because I am working with a dairy product, I make sure everything that touches the milk or kefir is very clean, not sterilized, but just washed with hot water and soap and rinsed very well. Remember we are activly trying to give the milk a good environment for the kefir to ferment as it would, and if any other 'bad bugs' get into the party it can cause issues.

Cindys Step by Step kefir culture methods ( if you want more photos to double check your work, see Doms instructions)

My basic kefir making supplies are:
1 glass quart canning jar (washed in hot soapy water, rinsed very well, and air dried) and its 2 piece lid
1 glass quart jar of fresh milk/kefir grains thats cultured as long as I've intended (more on this later)
jug of fresh milk, fresh from your animal or from the fridge.

*** if you have never made kefir before and have just gotten your grains, you should have a small bowl of your kefir grains soaking in a bit of cool, filtered and very importantly unchlorinated water (chlorine kills things, dont kill your grains) and 1 jar of fresh milk ready to go

1 small strainer that fits in the opening of your quart jar (some people avoid metal, I never had a problem with my particular little strainer)
1 small bowl/dish for collecting the kefir grains as they get strained out
1 long handled spoon, for stirring

First of all, observe your grains. Take a whiff of them, either the jar of cultured milk with the grains floating in it, or your shipped container of grains in their liquid. Its normal for them to smell slightly yeasty, or kinda sour like a good yogurt ( the longer its cultured the more 'tangy' it smells), but not bad like rotten milk or heaven forbid rotten eggs, that means some other bacteria got into your culture or the milk and contaminated your liquid. Do not drink the liquid, but do not throw away your kefir grains, they can be rinsed and reused, but more on that later. The more you get used to making kefir, the more you get a sense ( and smell) of whats normal and whats bad.

I start and end my kefir culturing in the fridge, so when I am about to stain my kefir the grains have either sunk to the bottom, or more often risen to the top and are trapped in this thick mass of what looks like curds or foam on the surface, depending on how long it was culturing, if it was culturing at a lower temp in the fridge vs at room temp, and how often I disturbed the kefir by shaking the jar or stirring. I break it up with a spoon to make straining the grains out of the liquid easier.

OR

stirring results in something like this, kindof a creamy cottage cheese stuff, which is your kefir grains and the coagulated kefir ( a mixture of milk and a substance called kefiren) that sticks to them and protects them.

place your strainer over your clean quart jar, and slowly pour in the cultured kefir, its thick so give it a few seconds to strain thru, its easy for it to get a little backed up if its very thick or theres a big clump of grains. Gently stir the kefir in the strainer if needed with a clean spoon to gently break up any large lumps and free up that thick kefir from the grains to fall into the collecting jar below ( thats the most concentrated stuff right there, whats on the grains themselves). I find that gently tapping the strainer on top of the jar shaked the kefir thru faster and knocks off a good amount of the very probiotic 'curds' thru the strainer and into the kefir below.

As our strainer fills with grains tip them into a little clean bowl and voila, you have a glass jar full of ready to drink kefir and clean ready to resuse kefir grains for your next batch. Depending on the batch its perfectly normal for the grains to sometimes have more or less 'curds' sticking to them. I tap the strainer until most of the creamy stuff have been knocked off.

If you are just starting off with new grains from the internet or a friend, strain the kefir grain/water mixture thru the strainer, discard the water and now you are on the same page: a batch of happy little kefir grains ready to go back to work. I know its tempting to touch the grains , they have a firm, rubbery and slimy feel to them, but try to only do this once in a great while with very, very, VERY clean hands so you don't get germs on your grains- not to mention they are very slippery and easy to drop down the kitchen sink. (don't ask how I know this)

You should now have your clean jar full of freshly strained, ready to use kefir, your little bowl of kefire grains and 1 dirty jar that was the culture jar.

Don't wash the jar.

No, I'm not kidding. We're taking advantage of a little thing called continuous fermentation, that is, that kefir clinging to the sides of that jar when mixed with the kefir grains and fresh milk will help jumpstart the next batch. But before you dump in the grains and milk, get a papertowl moist with hot water and wipe off the inside rim as well as the thread on the outside rim, since if any icky bugs were lurking from exposure to air thats where they'd most likely be. If the idea of reusing your culture jar freaks you out, go ahead and wash it out with hot soapy water ( double checking the rim and screw thread on the jar), triple rinse it, and make sure the jar is cool before jumping your kefir grains into it. Adding a spoonfull of the just strained kefir to your fresh milk will do the same thing. Or don't knock any of the creamy curds off the grains the way I do. Or all of the above.

Everyone has their own way that works best for them. Some people always add up to 1/4 c of the strained kefir back into the 'new' culture jar to help ensure the 'good' culture is thriving in the milk and quickly lowering the pH, which lessens the chance of a 'bag' bacteria interfering. I usually only add kefir to fresh milk when the grains have been 'resting' in the cold fridge for more then 2 weeks or its a new batch of grains that may not be up to full power yet after the stress of being shipped.

The fresh strained kefir should taste kinda like yogurt with its own slightly yeasty tart tang to it, the longer its been culturing or the amount of grains in the milk will affect how strong or sour (acidic) the kefir is. No 2 batches taste the same, at least not for me. I've had people come to me and ask why their new kefir grains produce kefir that doesnt taste or smell quite right, not bad, just not what they expected. I say give it a bit of time. It could be the grains adjusting to a new routine, new brand of milk, switching from goats milk to cows milk, a different dairy, or the temperature changes in your kitchen over the year. Depending on how well the grains were treated in their past certain cultures may have died off or taken over- kefir grains are made up of multiple organisms from some 4 different genus groups. Some people swear by organic milk because they fear antibiotics excreted in non-organic milk can affect your kefir. Sounds totally plausable to me but so far I have had great luck using non-organic, but non-rbst milk from my local store ( and local cows) cold right out of the fridge with no issues.

The usual ratio of kefir grains of milk is anywhere from 1-3 tablespoons of grains to a quart of milk. More grains means the milk cultures faster and is usually thicker. I like that. Every couple of weeks my kefir grains will have doubled in volume as they continue to grow. This is when I split my kefir grains into 2 batches of about 2 T each. I keep my extra grains in the fridge in a jar of milk "resting" while I culture the other half or I give them away.

So now you have your culturing jar with your kefir grains and milk, ready to go- you reach for your canning lid/ring combo to put it on- WAIT. Don't put that top on until you have made sure the underside of the lid, the ring, the thread on the jar and the inside rim of the jar are clean. Use a new paper towl moitened with hot water to wipe it well. Especially if you're using the culture jar without rinsing it, make darn sure you clean the rim and thread!

Ok, so NOW you can set your lid and ring on, or if you're reusing some other type of jar, the screw on lid. Do not tighten the lid, you don't want an airtight seal here, which is why I like 2 piece lids better, I can leave it just a bit loose so as the kefir cultures and makes CO2 you dont get pressure building which could blow up the jar.

Store your fresh strained kefir in the fridge with a clean lid a bit loose as well, or if you'd like fizzy bubbly kefir only fill the jar 3/4 full then put the lid on tight ( so the Co2 gets trapped into the liquid like soda, its really good).

Take the culturing jar of grains and milk and set them in a dark, warm place. It cultures faster the warmer it is, so I usually leave it overnight at room temp on my counter. The next morning I 'burp' the jar by unscrewing the lid all the way to let out any trapped gas, tighten well, shake gently, then loosen the lid up again. I then put my cultured kefir in the fridge for another day or two to then let it slowly culture at cooler temps for a thicker, less sour kefir.

I've noticed theres a slight color change to the milk as it cultures. In this photo from left to right: kefir grains +fresh milk, 8 hours culture time, 12 hours culture time

If I just left the jars of culturing kefir or the strained kefir out at room temp alone undisturbed for 24 hours ( or less if its warm or theres alot of grains for the volume of milk) I get this:

The kefir basically cultured quickly, lowering the pH so the kefir literally seperated into curds and whey, like in cheesemaking. The whey can be clear, whitish or even slightly tinted yellow. Its still perfectly drinkable, just stir it with a spoon and it easily breaks up into a thick creamy consistency, but very tart. If you leave strained kefir out at room temp to this stage you can carefully pour out the whey and straining the solid curds in cheesecloth or butter muslin to make a soft kefir cheese! Just like making yogurt cheese, its very tasty with herbs on toast or crackers and keeps in the fridge for up to 2 weeks tightly covered.

If you really hate the tartness of kefir you can culture it entirely in the fridge, it will take anywhere from 4-7 days at that temperature but it seems to favor certain strains of yeast and bacteria in the grains that don't leave the kefir as strong and tart. Then after straining mix in a glass with honey or some other fruit syrup, or in a smoothie and you have a very healthy pro-biotic drink. :)

Troubleshooting:

I've been very lucky in the 10 or so months that I've been making kefir on a bi-weekly basis to have only once had an issue where a batch that had been 'resting' in a jar of milk in the back of the fridge for 3 weeks went "off" and smelled terrible, like sour rotten milk, and the whew had a slightly green tinge to it. I had been gone on vacation for 2 weeks and when I came back had forgotten to change the milk- so either the kefir got too acidic and somethign went wrong or a tiny bit of unwanted bacteria that would normally be kept in check by all the good yeasts and bacteria in the kefir grains got a foothold and had a long enough timespan to develop.

What I did was strain the kefir like usual, throw out the undrinkable kefir, and using very clean hands in a bowl of cool, filtered and unchlorinated water I gently washed and rubbed the grains to get all the milk off of them, they were still kinda slippery to the touch which is a good sign. I changed the water about 5 times until the water was clear and I couldnt rub anymore milk or little whitish curds off, leaving the light yellow kefir grains totally clean looking.

I then let the kefir grains sit in a jar of room temp, filtered unchlorinated water overnight ( this is called purging or fasting the kefir grains, try not to do this unless you have to, it can damage the balance of organisms in the kefir grains and it takes them a bit to recover and be at full culture strength again). The next morning I strained off the water and placed them in a clean jar with about 2 tablespoons of fresh yogurt with active cultures and 1T of fresh milk. I got that tip online since the cultures in the yogurt will help reinnoculate the kefir grains with the lactobacillus cultures we want and kill off any unwanted bacteria. I don't know the science behind this and havent experimented, but it sounded like a decent idea at the time. If you have multiple jars of kefir in your home you can also use 1/4 cup of fresh strained active good kefir to soak the grains in. After letting this mixture sit in the fridge for a day or so I strained the grains out like usual, added them to a jar of fresh milk and havent had a problem with them since (2months).

adventures in bread baking

2009-08-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have a great appreciation now for people who really can blog something insightful and interesting every single day. I have big dreams ( and great posts) in my head I always mean to type up when I get home- but in the midst of a toddler and a newly initiated kindergardener (she started this week) my brain is kinda like a etch a sketch with Mona Lisa on it...after its been dropped down a few flights of stairs. Kinda blank and spotty at the same time. Its been a busy summer, we've gone to the beach, visited the Orange County Fair, I got even more involved with the formation of the local community garden and I've been spending alot of time in the kitchen making more jams and pouring over my prized vintage cookbooks for something inspirational to tackle. Blame it on being a double Capricorn, but I'm not really ever content unless I'm pushing myself to learn something new and inprove on it.

While on my blogging sabbiatical of sorts I've gone into the realm of making bread. Yes bread, staple of millions, and for me a $3.79 multigrain loaf is always on my shopping list, to toast alongside my beloved homegrown fresh eggs (from chicken blessed pals) sunny side up over easy. Then it kinda dawned on me that it wouldn't cost me almost $4 to make a decent loaf of bread that wasnt just "white crap", and after all my birthmother did get me a kitchenaid artisan mixer ( Luv ya MoMo!). Yes the powers that be made it known to me by my inability to cut carbs that if I was really delving into the mental state of a country woman I needed (I typed kneaded at first, LOL) to make a decent, healthy, preferably multigrain bread. French bread would be awesome too, what was once a $.89 loaf for garlic bread was up to $1.29 now. I hate relying on the supermarket for something as basic as bread. I've been reading books, vintage cookbooks/magazines, websites, and blogs learning all sorts of interesting trivia, history, and factoids about the different types of flours, milling processes and different breads and baking styles. I am such a food nerd. King Arthur Flour's website and Bobs Red Mill have aot of awesome information for novice bakers. So far my attempts have been rather successful if I do say so myself.

Heres the bread I had been making for the last 5 years, a gluten-free bread for my husband that was quick to assemble and bake in my bread machine. Works great for toast, garlic bread, stuffing, bread crumbs- its dense but not dry, which is the usual issue with GF bread.

For my first attempt at making "real" bread I wanted a recipe I could easily use my kitchenaid mixer to knead for me. Yes I know that isnt really 'traditional' but in my household counterspace for kneading dough is hard to find and my kitchentable too corwded with other stuff to use. So the mixer was a good first step for me. Eventually I totally want to learn how to knead the bread myself and literally get a feel for it in my hands, but baby steps here.
My first attempt was an ode to my favorite bread in the world, the sweet Molasses Oat bread from Black Angis steakhouse. Boy every time I go there I polish off 2 loaves of the stuff with their butter before my food ever comes out. You'd think I'd learn by now but nope. Its just that good. So when I did a google search for "Kitchenaid Oat Bread" I found a very good recipe on recipezarr for a Honey Oatmeal Bread, I knew I had found an awesome recipe. It rose and baked beautifully, as my proud photos can attest to. Later on I tweaked the recipe a bit, using 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses and 1/4 honey, and the flavor was subtle. I wanted more so then I tried 1/2 blackstrap molasses and 1/4 c honey. You could def taste the molasses, but it wasnt as sweet. So finally I used a 1/2 c molasses, 1/4 c honey AND 1 T of white sugar disolved in the warm water mixture. Bingo! Nice and sweet, but not too much, with a wonderful taste of molasses in it. Yesterday I played around with it a bit more substituting half of the rolled oats with some milled 10 grain cereal to try and get it closer to store bought multigrain bread. It turned out well, I totally forgot I was supossed to soak the grains in hot water first, but maybe because it was pretty fine gound and I used a bit extra water it worked just fine, but took closer to 3 hours to double and rise instead of 1 hour. Next time I make it I may add some cracked sunflower seeds and flax seeds in as well.

This week I also tried my hand at making French Bread. For some reason I had it in my mind that it was really complicated with milk and eggs and dry milk and who knows what- probably because when I watch chefs on TV make brioche I feel overwhelmed...but this French Bread recipe Kitchenaid publishes in their mixer manuals is really awesome, and with only water, flour, yeast, butter, and salt. ( don't use a peel so I skipped the cornmeal, and forgot about the eggwash and it still turned out great). I hope to buy a baking stone someday for artisanal breads and pizza, but for right now my non-stick cookie sheet seems to be working. Alton Brown says you can use a plain unglazed $2 quarry tile from Home Depot, so I'll go check that out sometime as well. I tried to be fancy and braided one loaf like my mom described in how she used to make Challah, and I was so overjoyed to see how pretty it turned out.

In the future I want to try making rolls out of it, or adding fresh chopped rosemary to imitate my other favorite restaurant bread, Maccaroni Grill's Rosemary bread. My mom suggested added shredded cheddar cheese or dried herbs to it, I hope this dough is as flexable as I'm praying it is. I love the idea of getting a few dough recipes down pat and then just changing it up a bit to add more variations.

Looks like I might not be able to rely on my mixer to do all the kneading for me- when I made the french bread I substituted bread flour for all purpose since I had hoped it would make it better, but boy did my mixer have to work at it. The top part wobbled so much the hinge pin that holds the motor part to the base of the mixer worked its way out almost all the way- not good. I had to go google a solution because of course that day kitchenaid customer service was closed because of department meeting. I ended up taping the pin very gently into place with a hammer then tightening the screw underneath thats supossed ot hold it in place. Later on I looked up why that had happened-found the answer on the official Kitchenaid Forums- I guess artisan mixers can only handle up to 9 cups of all purpose flour at a time or 6 cups of specialty flour ( whole grain, bread, or high gluten ) per load. I guess having 7 cups
of bread flour was making the motor a bit grumpy. I may have to cut some recipes in half to avoid burning out the motor on my hardworking buddy. I had no idea there were different mixers for such things, I could never figure why if a mixer is supossed to do so many basic functions and last for years why people own 3 or 4 of them... or why some are more expensive or whatever, I guess the stronger the motor the more dough it can handle at once and can handle denser flours. Interesting. Now I know!
But I think no matter how much I try and justify this to my husband he ain't going to go for it.

At only $900 at Williams-Sonoma this 575 watt, 6qt, real copper coated thing of beauty is going to stay on its shelf along with all the rest of the really beautiful and expensive stuff there I'll always drool over but never buy. Well, maybe for our 10 year anniversary or something, kitchenaid outlet sells reburbished ones for only $450 on ebay.

Only $450. yeah. only. ha.

My new addiction to bread baking is supossed to be SAVING me money! (right?)

computer issues, please stand by

2009-07-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hooray for getting computer to boot up in safe mode with networking!

Our computer has been having some major driver issues (IRQL driver not less than or equal) leading to blue screen of death every few minutes and constant reboots....My husband the computer whiz tried EVERYTHING from uninstalling/re-installing drivers to virus scans, defragging, system restore, BIOS settings, and finally did a clean erase and re-install of windows- nada, still having massive errors, so its probably the motherboard thats fried. We can't load windos at all normally, it just freezes up or blue screens again. After a week of aggrivating sessions of trying to post/email/browse/look up randomness and having it crash on me I just had to walk away for a bit and do other real life stuff like laundry, cooking, and learning how to make real bread from scratch (using the kitchenaid mixer ot knead it for me, works great). I just wanted to leave a little note on here so people know yes I am alive, and yes I have a ton of blog ideas going and in various states of drafting on notebook and in my drafts, but its slow going when i have to hit SAVE every 60 seconds in case my computer suddenly crashes again. Hoping in the next few weeks ( after next paycheck) to order a dirt cheap refurbished laptop for simple internet/word processing needs, then I can live the dream of going out to starbucks and blogging in peace and coffee induced euphoria without my kids whining/screaming/fighting in the background.

Gardening related stuff:
-finally shook off the flu and could walk outside and breathe real air again. Too bad it was ickly humid and about 104 out.
-harvesting 'Jaune Flamme' tomatos, tasty but I think think the high temps and my keeping the water reserve in the SWC full for fear of wilt is blowing them up into tomato water balloons with a much diluted flavor then the first batch harvested when it was cooler.
-made my first batch of pesto and frozen basil cubes, cut down all basil to 6 inches and now its grown out nice and bushy again, almost time for another trim
-my former fruit trees are thriving at my dad's house and even tho I trimmed them severly before the move some of the blossoms bore fruit so I got to taste an apple, peach, and apricot from them. Happy they survived the move. The huge container o tomatos is also doing well, I brought home about 5 pounds of tomatos today alone. I love the large 'Big Mama' hybrds, huge dense fruits the size of my palm. Planning on mixing those, my little flammes and a few carmellos from the container tomato into some fresh basily tomato sauce and canning it.
-my dad's brown fig tree is having a bumper crop, brought a box home tonight and am debating between different fig jam/fig preserve recipes or just canning them whole in syrup.
-The Kadota fig we transplanted form my old house has also rebounding nicely and is PACKED with fruit, should be ready in a few more weeks.
-learned how to make lemon curd, got some fresh homegrown eggs and homegrown lemons from fellow freedom gardeners I need to use this week and can as well.

Its going to be a busy week of canning/prepping and freezing. And I am so thankful and excited for it!

Flu

2009-07-10T13:22:00.001-07:00

Been sick with the flu for over 2 weeks now, neither me or Chris seem to have been able to shake the damn thing off. This is be my 3rd weekend in a row of feeling sick now. After yet another long night of coughing up phlem and hardly able to swallow, my throat hurt so bad, I went to the doctor this morning desperate for some relief. Turns out my tonsils are infected ( looks like I have two strawberries glued to the back of my mouth) and it may be starting in my ears...except one eardrum is buldging out and the other is sucked inward a bit, so the pressure in them is off, no wonder my ears hurt and won't "pop". So hopefully a round of antibiotics will help. I usually shun the meds and just try to let my body fight it off, but with so much stress and lack of sleep I think my body is just out of reserves to fight anything off. So I've caved and given in to the "help" this overworked urgen care doc was willing to dole out in a Rx.

This flu overlapped with the very stressful/scary last week- our daughter was still running some high fevers off and on at night for the last month since we got back from our trip ( her doc said it was just fifth disease and the intermittant fevers were normal) but then last week she started throwing up and had fevers all day and all night too, high ones, like 104-105 constantly even with motrin and tylynol. No other real symptoms, was trying to wait out the weekend to see her doc when she had a febrile seizure on sat, went to the ER, her fever was 105.6 - they ran some tests but nothing came up conclusive other then a very high white blood cell count.
Ended up coming back on Sunday because her temp suddenly crashed down to 97 and she went pale as a ghost with bluish lips and scared the crap out of us, this time tests showed a teeny weensy bit of bacteria in her urine. Since the docs couldnt find anything else amiss, they gave her some antibiotics as well, even tho it seemed more of a viral thing, they were worried she was developing a secondary bacterial infection somewhere from her immune system being overwhelmed. After a week of those antibiotics she is finally doing so much better, no more fevers and her energy is back to normal.

So yup, I am so over being sick/caring for sick kids/caring for sick spouses/eating soup. I just want a few decent ( 4-6 hour) nights of sleep and no one sick so we can actually get out of the house, I am going stir crazy here.

Hope everyone elses health is great!

Building a Community Garden from the ground up

2009-06-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

The article posted below is a brief summary of the project I am now involved in. When I first saw mention in the paper that RC was starting a community garden I started crying. From joy. Seriously. I also thanks every deity I could name off the top of my head.

I don't know if people get just how badly I miss having a little spot of dirt to call 'my own' in the sense of having my own plants to care for and harvest....of course I researched getting a local community garden plot but alas, there arent many community gardens in the region, and all the ones I called had waiting lists, priorities for their own city residents or simply too far from me to be able to tend my plants as often as I would have liked.

The timing is serendipity at its best- since we moved back to the I.E. I am no longer a Los Angeles county resident and therefore no longer eligible to be a LA County Master Gardener. Its a mixed blessing, I was very homesick for the I.E. yet sad I wouldnt be involved in such an awesome program anymore, nto to know SB county's master gardeners, but their focus is much borader, where as LA is focused on improving the health of low income residents via school gardens, community gardens and of course educating them to grow their own as much as reasonable possible.

Anyway, so I find myself back in the I.E, after classes that involved visiting a couple of school and community gardens and hearing speakers talk about the work involved with geeting them started- then BAM- this opportunity basically fell into my lap. And the SB county master gardeners are helping with this project. Talk about perfect timing for me to move back! So now I literally get to watch and listen as some very motivated community members put their effort and ideas into making the largest community garden west of the Mississippi- 15 acres to be exact.

It was very exciting going to the committee meetings, 4 hours worth one day, 2 hours the next, but so many things to think about, research, and share with the others. I really hope I can make a difference and help this project get growing, literally! Everyone in the room just has their vision of the garden shining in their eyes- so now we have to work together and make it the best place for our community as we possibly can. Theres also plans for donating fresh produce to local food banks either via member donations from their plots or volunteer maintained "Gift of Giving Gardens". We also want a good educational opportunity for local schools to have their own school gardens here, or somehow have a children's garden that can function for multiple lesson plans. Theres also plans for a on-site farmers market to sell "cash crops" such as strawberries, pumpkins and grapes. I am just so amazed and humbled by these great folks who brought forth the idea to the city council and the property owners and are patently listening to all our crazy garden ideas! LOL

Rancho Cucamonga effort targets creating community garden - DailyBulletin.com

2009-06-23T15:47:00.001-07:00

Rancho Cucamonga effort targets creating community garden - DailyBulletin.com

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Show your support for local farms and gardens with bumper stickers

2009-06-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

I thought this was kinda cool. A bumper sticker to show you know where food comes from :) And its for free from the American Farmland Trust.

http://www.stonyfield.com/SpecialOffers/aft/

http://action.farmland.org/site/PageNavigator/05_09_Stonyfield_Order_Form

Plus FreedomGardens.org is selling these really cute bumper stickers for only $6, proceeds go towards their "Change for CHANGE" fundraising event. At times like this putting your money ( literally) where your food is speaks louder then anything else.

Homemade Butter from my apartment

2009-06-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

I had gotten the idea from Matron of Husbandry's wonderful post on the step by step of churning butter at home. Then Freija did a post on making ghee. I saved the posts to my favorites list, and filed them off in my head as one of those little adventures I'd get around to trying-someday. I have a great respect for handmade butter. Besides reading about it in the Little House books, I have a fond memory of making it in class when I was in first grade or so. We simply all took turns shaking a mason jar half full until we felt our arms were falling off, eventually we had this little blob of butter the teacher rinsed in a bowl in the classroom sink, added some salt, and we all had a slice of storebaked french bread with fresh butter. I remember it tasting very good.

Then this week there was an article in Mother Earth News on butter making and the history of cultured vs sweet butter, and then last but not least the book "Self Sufficient Life and how to live it" I have from the library had a great writup on how to make it as well.

Being that the sun has hardly peeked out in about a month now, (this is the coldest, gloomiest "June Gloom" I have ever seen) I have been massivly bored and out of sorts. I needed to mix it up, so domething new, something interesting, something indulgent! Thats when it hit me. Butter! I have been using quite a bit of it latly trying to perfect my old fashoned butter pound cake skills, but thats another post in and of itself.

Ok, so I set out to make butter. Being that I have no pasture, no happy jersey cows and no butter churn I had to improvise in my urban setting:

Trader Joes Heavy whipping cream. This stuff claim to awesomeness is that its not ultrapasterized- that is, its fat molecules arent zapped to kingdom come. At only $2.50 for 16oz, it was more affordable then $16 for 16 oz of organic raw cream from the organic pastures dairy which is the only raw dairy thats to be found anywhere around here.

Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer: my choices for churning the butter were the blender, the food processor, the mixer, or good old arm power with a jar. Being that I'm dealing with 2 small kids I dont have 2 hours to shake a jar, plus then my arms would be hurting so much I wouldnt have the strength to work the butter afterwards. The mixer was a Christmas present, and I am somewhat obsessed at the moment with figuring more uses for it then just the million attatchments.

Ok, so I skipped the culturing part since I forgot to buy cultured buttermilk to 'ripen' the cream. Next time I'm out I'll get some to experiment with my other pint of cream, for right now I just wanted to see how the process worked. I was also impatient and didnt let the cream warm to room temp or anything. I just pulled it out of the fridge, poured it in, and turned the mixer on as if to make whipped cream.

So here we start with that looks like standard, fluffy whipped cream. I let it go for about 5 minutes more...

Now we have a very stiff cream that looks almost like whipped butter. The flavor has also changed from being very bland cream (usuall I add sugar when making whipped cream) to a slightly "buttery" taste. a couple of minutes more, and it is actually starting to look grainy and theres a bit of liquid starting to seperate...

Another min or so and Suddenly its like the whole thing collapses, blink and you'd miss it, now you have little butter clumps and liquid buttermilk

Pour off this liquid and save it, voila, real (uncultured) fresh buttermilk. I'm planning on making bread with it tonight.

Cool thing with using the mixer is it made pouring the buttermilk off fairly easy, most of the butter was trapped in the whip. I used a plastic paddle from my rice cooker to mold the rest of the butter in the bowl into a ball.

At this point I tried to add clean water and let the mixer do the work of 'washing' the buttermilk, oh boy, bad idea, water sloshed everywhere, not even the bowl shield thing helped. Luckily the butter stayed in the bowl. So now its hand/paddle action time. Add cool water, press and fold butter over, twist a bit, repeat. See the buttermilk washing out into the water?

Pour water off, add fresh water, repeat. It only took me 3 times before the water looked fairly clear. Then just in case I did one more time.

Pour this off and now I'm using the paddle to try and press water out of it. I also added some salt to it. I'm not sure if I overworked the butter or something, but it got "greasy" (to quote matronofhusbandry). Mother earth news article mentioned something about not spreading the butter too much against the bowl or the butter can get "oily". Ok, I guess I did that. It was like soft margerine. Pour water off.

Then I pressed it all into a small blue glass creme brulee bowl and smoothed the top. Pretty! Then licked the paddle, mmmmmm buttery!

16 ounces of cream yielded oh, 3/4 of a cup of butter? and 6 oz of buttermilk

It was a fun experiment. I like the taste of this sweet, yet lightly salted butter. Covered in plastic wrap ( so it doesnt absorb any weird flavors) and set it in the fridge to harden.

Great time Blueberry Picking!

2009-06-07T15:19:00.002-07:00

We had a great time berry picking yesterday at the Temecula Berry Co. The cool cloudy weather was pleasant to be outdoors with the kids. Each kids got a cute plastic pail to fill with berries and we adults got pitchers with the # of pints clearly marked on them. One of the owners even greeted us and was nice enough to show us ( and the kids) how to pick berries and choose the biggest, sweetest ones.

It was alot of fun just wandering around rows of bushes you could smell the berries on. So many clusters of deep blue berries, but theres ripe berries then theres RIPE berries, the ones that fall off in your hand ( or the ground) with the slightest touch. Even if its a deep blue, if it doesnt come off with a tiny bit of a pinch/tug motion it needs a few more days to reach its prime. They were still all very tasty to each, some a teeny bit tart from not hittest their sweetest yet and some berries so heavenly theres no way I could each store bought berries again without remembering their sweet sun warmed flavour.

After an hour or so of stuffing ourselves silly with berries ( and alas, the pitchers were full) we paid for our 8 pints of berries @ $5 each, they carefully poured them into the traditional plastic berry box complete with their logo, which made stacking them between layers of ice in the cooler for the trip home really simple. If only I had more cash I would have bought more.

Visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder

2009-06-07T14:02:00.001-07:00

Small slideshow of the photos I took while I was there. Sadly you are not allowed to take any pictures inside the house, but the Laura Ingalls Wilder cookbook has lots of great photos. :)

My Summer Homestead-related Reading List

2009-06-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the library the other day to find some good "book learning" materials. I devoured the new issue of Mother Earth News the night after I got it. Another Fantastic issue! I have fallen into a new addiction latly: reading to fall asleep. For some reason reading a good cookbook or 'how to' book is oddly relaxing at the end of the day as it takes my mind off all my stress and worries, plus it seems to set in my brain better then as I'm sleeping. ( I learned that in college, if I study then sleep I remember it better).

I just finished The $64 Dollar Tomato and loved it! It was witty, it had some interesting food for thought ( no pun intended) and the issues the author goes thru with deer, squireels, Superchuck, purslane and crazy gardeners brought a smile to my face and many funny memories of our own experiences in trying to start our garden(s). I too have often had moments where I've wondered if all the headache and expenses of a garden really justify the sometimes meager harvest- and it so totally does. I think its a nice break from the usual gardening book, kinda like reading a blog!

Right now I am reading Fresh Food from Small Spaces. Its a very new book, just published last year, and so far I am enjoying the info so far. I'm glad theres finally a book for "us" city dwellers trying to work with very tiny areas and limited resources. It has lots of info on making healthy food not necessarily raised by us, such as yogurt, kefir, sprouts and kimchi. Us city dwellers cant grow alot, but its nice to take store bought ingrediants and increasing their nutritional value. Since all of those things are on my "works in progress" list it really makes me feel like the book was written just for me :) I can't wait to get to the chapter on using reflected light to help grow things, since I do have some light reflected off my glass doors back out onto the balcony. Theres even step by step instructions for building a SWC with rubbermaid bins, that made me laugh out loud, apparently I'm ahead of the trends again! Theres also a nice list of "Apartment Garden" friendly plants, one of which is bush beans which I hadnt considered growing here- but the author says they produce well even in partial shade as long as the weather is warm, so I may give them a shot as an experiment, once this stupid cloudy weather clears out. This is one book I am adding to my wish list on Amazon that I'd actually love to own.

The three "cookbooks" are for reference as I start canning & jamming again, I've already read Nourishing Traditions & Stocking up but havent had the extra funds to buy them just yet. I'm on the search for a good Kimchi recipe, and I'd like to try making it with Swiss Chard like Anais Dervaes did. The Preserving without Sugar looked interesting as I hoped it meant not relying on commercial pectin as well- unfortunatly its recipes still rely on pectin as well as glycerine for thicking- yuck?

Last but not lease Self Sufficient Life and the Goat book just looked really interesting on the shelf so I grabbed them. :)

Powdery Mildew Woes

2009-06-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

This crappy cloudy June gloom really isn't helping my balcony gardening attempt at all. As if sunshine wasn't already in short supply! I haven't seen the sun out shining solidly for more then 15 minutes in almost 2 weeks. Theres just all these broken up little thunderstorm clouds that keep blocking out the sun and occasionally looking very dark and threatening us with thunder/rain a couple of times a day. Its very bizarre for this area. Usually we just get some "June Gloom" which is a marine fog in the mornings that burns off by the afternoon, but theres usually no actual rain involved.

I think the high humidity, stormy weather and unseasonably cool ( 68-70ish) weather has jump started powdery mildew on my chard plants. It started on the bright lights chard, so I moved them off the balcony completely and set it inside next to the glass door for light- but today I went to check on my 'Fordhook Giant' chard that was growing wonderfully in its windowbox and saw some of the leaves looking "droopy". To my sadness and horror all the leaves have faint spots all over of telltale powdery mildew fuzz. Argh! I tried to trim off as many of the larger leaves with spots as I could, the newest leaves int he center of the clumps don't seem to have any-yet. Unfortunately as careful as I was trying to be when I was cutting off the outer leaves I could see 'puffs' of white dust coming off the leaves. boo! Now I'll need to play around with either a diluted milk spray or a baking soda spray, I'm trying to avoid the neem oil as my tomato plant really needs the help of every bee that happens to find it, I don't want to risk spraying anything that could hurt the bees.

I've never dealt with PM on my chard before, last year when I had that crazy double planted 15 foot row packed with chard it didn't show any signs of it until the humid dog days of August and the squash & cucumber were infected. First crazy weather and now crazy plant issues. I'm still kinda stumped where the spores came from, I suppose they were carried here by wind but my balcony isn't all that windy either. I really hope this strain of PM doesn't start up on anything else.

I'm really disappointed by the 'Bright Lights' chard, its go gorgeous looking and I keep hearing it does very well in containers, but for me its been very wimpy with tiny leaves, not much color, and not the hotbed of the PM infestation. Earlier this spring I bought a few at the garden center for my container gardening presentation and as soon as the weather was over 70 it bolted, in March. Ford Hook giant dealt with a scorching 120 degree summer and never bolted, I finally ripped it out because I was sick of it. If I had known we were moving and all I would have canned and frozen all of it! I wish I could get some of that beautifully colored chard growing nicely because its so pretty, but I think I'll just stick to my favorite 'Fordhook Giant' chard for now on.

Canning season has begun....

2009-06-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we're planning (barring any children related issues) to drive down to Temecula and pick blueberries. I'm still somehow astounded that somewhere as hot and dry as Temecula can grow blueberries, let alone support a farm of them, but talking to people who have been there its apparently a very nice u-pick destination for families. $5 a pint for fresh picked blueberries. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I'm bringing a cooler of ice and a lot of zip lock bags to partially fill with berries then chill on the drive back- and make jam & syrup.

June is Cherry season in most of SoCal, but sadly the odd weather we had in early spring ruined the blossom set ( hot, then freezing cold, then hot again) and what little fruit the trees had is splitting with this week's crazy not-normal-for-this-climate thunderstorms. We usually drive out to Beaumont or Cherry Valley to pick cherries, and one by one each has posted on their websites that they are closed for u-picking this year. I checked out www.pickyourown.org to see what other local farms there are- and saw theres another whole cluster of fruit farms in Leonna Valley, about an hour north of Los Angeles and about a 90 minute drive for us via the 15 & Pearblossom Highway. Yvonne sent me the link for a huge cherry orchard there, Villa Del Sol (www.upickcherries.com) and WOW, 25 acres of cherries, and they are open for picking starting tomorrow. I am hoping we can go up and check it out on Sunday, get a few pounds and check the place out, and if its really awesome go back next weekend and get the "jam batch", 20 pounds or so.

Depending on how much blueberries we get Sat I dont want to have too much fruit sitting around in my fridge and kitchen waiting to be canned. I prefer to focus on one fruit's products at a time if possible, so its as fresh as can be from the farm to the jars quick as I can well, can. This year I wanted to try my hand at canning some pie filling as well as my usual jam, and I like to freeze a good 2 gallon bag worth as well of everything for "fresh" use later on.

Then in july comes peaches and nectarines....oh yummy! *drools*

More Garden Humor: Lawns & God

2009-06-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

GOD: Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there in the USA? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, Withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds.

I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass Growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, sir -- just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will Grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and Saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stoke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in The spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and Protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to Enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great Piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the Winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy Something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in Place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us Tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: "Dumb and Dumber," Lord. It's a real stupid movie about -

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

Garden Humor: Italian Tomato Garden

2009-06-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work as the ground was hard.

His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you,
Vinnie

Back from the Ozarks

2009-05-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Just came back yesterday after a week trip to Branson, Missouri for my sister's wedding at Big Cedar Resort. We also drove around the backwoods of the Ozarks, visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home & museum, attempted to go fishing, explored a cave, Went to a trout hatchery, searched for tadpoles, saw the Dixie Stampeed show, ate alot of southern cooking and generally had a memorable time.

Oh, and we drooled at the low home/land prices too. We're now seriously condidering moving to Missouri or possibly northern Arkansas- its so lush and green and so many trees! The clincher would be visiting in the dead of winter THEN evaluating what we'd want in a property. But thats years in the future.

Its going to take me a few days/weeks to get settled here at home again and catch up to a weeks worth of facebook, blogs, freedom gardens etc.

EDIT: I meant to say we are now considering moving......so tired I typed "not" instead of "now"

Americas next Top Gardener?

2009-05-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine and a VERY credible source passed this to me, feel free to pass it on to any other gardeners who may be interested!

A GardenRant tipster tells us that Hollywood is searching for the next big
sustainable vegetable gardening guru. If you are hip, edgy, comfortable in
front of a camera, and cool enough to connect with thirty-something
locavores, this is the gig for you. They want somebody who's into growing
their own food, raising their own chickens, maybe keeping some honeybees--
and doing fabulous things with all of it in the kitchen.

If you're ready to do all that and be a horticultural and culinary rock star
in front of the camera, send a paragraph, a picture, a link to your website,
and a link to a video, if one exists, to:

http://us.mc380.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=tvshowcasting%40me.com

This is the real deal--we know the people and we know it's got potential.

Pass the word on. The future of gardening television is in your hands.
Don't let us down.

A pinch of hapyness....

2009-05-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'm tired and sluggish and made some 5 minute spaghetti with canned sauce. Then I spyed the basil in its pot outside and added a bit of that. Its a nice taste of sunshine in my day.

My Little Apartment Balcony Garden in progress

2009-05-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Now that looks a bit more like home :)

Mother's Day we went picked up as many plants as we could cram into my corolla and my husband's small pickup truck. Don't ask me how I squeezed a potted lime tree into the passenger seat, but I did, just barely, and my right arm has scratches to prove just how tight of a squeeze it was. I still need to go get my mango tree, blueberry bush, blackberry vines and some other odds n ends pots o plants.

May has suddenly burst into summer, hot and bright and sunny. I was worried with the heat that my sister in law had been too busy to take care of the plants I had left behind, but she did a great job watering them. The SWC tomatoes look fantastic, and the 'Big Mama' & 'Carmello' tomatos in the big round planter were full of blossoms and even some little green tomatos! Amazing what 2 weeks of hot sunny weather can do to jumpstart those veggies into growing.

Unfortunatly the big round planter was just too big for our balcony and would cast too much shade, so I left it in my parent's backyard ( and begged them to care for it for me) and setup my SWC here. I'm playing around with placement trying to give the SWC the hottest/brightest part of the ledge without casting so much shade on everything else. I noticed the container basil I planted in between them in the SWC was being totally shaded by the tomato folliage ( see them tucked by the watering tube?) , so after I took this photo I carefully transplanted them into their own windowbox.

One huge concern I have is even tho its a south facing exposure it really only gets the brightest direct sun from around 10 am to about 4 pm, with the edges going into shade sooner. The area that actually gets hit by direct sun is rather small, as you can see in these photos. Great for people who want to just sit out on their balcony, not so great for crazy people like me trying to grow plants. I hope to get around this issue but buying a few railing brackets so I can hang the windbowboxes on those horizontal rails, and then I can keep the swiss chard, lettuce, dill, chives and mint in the partial shade those boxes cast. I wish I had one of the 3 bedroom units directly above the garages at the end of the building, those have a large rooftop access patio about 25 x 25 feet with no overhead shade. I don't know how much those are a month but I may ask out of curiosity, and if we do end up staying here longer then a few months and financially secure we may be able to upgrade to one of those units, I can dream right!

Everything seems to survive my absence OK, but the dang earwigs went to town and just decimated the pak choi and really did a number on the chard and lettuce. Some of the lettuce was starting to bolt from the heat along with some of the bright lights chard, so I just ripped those out and dumped the soil from those planters. I can replant some of those here. The earwigs are hiding in the little gaps between the potting soil and the sides of the containers, along with hiding under the folliage itself. I need to devise some sort of trap to catch them to they are just going to keep destroying my plants. Cabbage loopers are all the remaining lettuce too, boo.

So thats where I am right now. I did win a couple of container friendly tomato plants at sat. master gardening class, a 'Sprite' and a 'Bush Champion', which I may plant into the other SWC I havent use yet, or I may just put each in a 5 gallon bucket ( taller and thinner taking less space) and put a bush zuccini in the SWC- I so miss fresh summer squash!

You know its a recession when....

2009-05-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Theres a Jaguar parked at Winco.

seriously. I laughed, then grabbed my camara as proof.

I'm not sure whether to be seriously impressed that someone is actually trying to slash their food budget- or- being that this Winco happens to be next to a section of Fontana known for its ...um, how do I put this delicately.....very friendly women waving to cars at late hours of the night. ...... this car belongs to a pimp.

Either way it made me laugh.

There was also a very cool looking red moon, so maybe this was all just a cosmic fluke.

Settling In

2009-05-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

So far so good. We've unpacked alot of stuff, still need to haul all my plants and canned goods here, its nice and quiet here and my latest addiction is playing Farm Town on facebook.

To start this post off, I am sitting here on my hands waiting for some eggs and butter to warm up to room temp. My goal for today is to bake a Butter Pound cake from scratch, and of course the stuff needs to be room temp.

But I am hungry and impatient! LOL I havent had pound cake in....a year? maybe more. Being in a gluten free household I usually feel too guilty having something so delicious in the house that my poor husband can only look, sniff, and sadly admire from afar. BUT I figure if I can learn how to properly make one from scratch I can then learn how to convert the recipe using gluten free flour to make something yummy for my wonderful man without paying $6 for a tiny bag of GF pound cake mix.

And so, I must make the noble sacrifice of baking a regular old fashoned pound cake only I can eat this first time around. *fights to keep a straight face* The kids? oh yeah, they don't like pound cake.

( looks around)

I'm going to tell them theres vegetables in it.

muaw hahaha

I'll try and take photos if I remember so I can document my success or failure.

Moving....yet again

2009-04-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

Yes my dear blogger pals, we are on the move yet again. Tomorrow we're officialyl moving into another apartment of our own. *cheers* I am almost tempted to rename this blog " The Wandering Gardener" or " The Nomadic Homesteader" since we've moved 4 times in 6 months now. sheesh.

I'll spare you the drama, the whining, the anger, and my bitch rant to sum it up as living in this giant house with so much family tension just wasnt working out for us. The End.

That and my husband's company hasnt let him go even tho all signs pointed to that happening any day now. So before he loses his job and the foreclosure & bankrupcy hit our credit we figured get out now while the going is as 'good' as its gonna get. Also this way we'd have Aurora enrolled in a school and not worrying about suddenly moving if/when this house sold.

Once again the Gods smiled upon us, and we found a nice 2 bed 2 bath apartment for only $1,250 a month. Not bad at all. Our last place was 1249 sq feet and $1775 a month, this place is 1,136 sq feet for 1250. Not too shabby. If Chris gets laid off and gets unemplyment thats $1900 a month, so with careful planning we could squeeze thru it.Rental prices have really dropped in the last few months, and this place is 5 minutes from my husband's office, so a win-win there. we're actually about 5 minutes away from our now foreclosed on house, but oh well. Its bittersweet, but overall I'm glad to be going "home" to the Inland Empire where my parents, my friends, and my kids friends are.

Bad news gardening wise, we're on the 2nd floor so just a tiny balcony about 15 feet long and 5 or 6 feet wide? They dont mind plants on patios so I'm going to get some of those sturdy window box holders for the balcony rail, line the bottom with more windowboxes, and possibly squeeze my one lone SWC into a corner for a taste at summer tomato goodness. Thankfully its a south facing patio. I can also hang plant baskets so maybe some mint, oregano, thyme in the hanging baskets. Right now the plants are the the bottom of my worries list, I just made sure to water everything very, very, very well tonight and topped everything with a layer of coconut coir mulch so if I dont get to coming back for them this week and they dont get watered everyday they may handle it fine with the weather staying fairly cool.

so yeah, theres my update. I wont have internet at our new place for a week or so. I'll talk to you all later!

Unexpected Visitors

2009-04-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

These 2 ducks showed up in our pool last week for a few hours, we figured they flew in from a local park or something. This morning around 5 am I thought I heard quacking outside and figured it was in my head- till I looked out the window and saw the ducks had come back. As cute as they were my first worry were my seedlings, I hope they didnt munch on them. So far they havent bothered them, but I'm not going to leave them out on the lowest shelf anymore. I'm going to start keeping an eye out for them in the early morning and see if they keep coming back.

My first SWC completly built and planted/ Weather Rant

2009-04-10T11:16:00.001-07:00

Last week the weather stayed warm enough ( and hubby felt well enough) to finally sit outside and help me assemble a SWC, make some planting mix and fill/plant it. Hooray, 1 down, a bunch more to go. ( in these photos the soil lvl is a little low, I went and mixed up some more then filled the bins to the brim. )

I need to have hubby go buy and cut me some more PVC pipe for the watering tubes. I had 4 already cut to 2ft lengths ready to go but to save my life I have no idea where I put them, they arent outside where I thought I had them, and no one else has seen them either. Bah. Once I get those the other bins are cut, drilled, and ready to assemble.

I just hope these SWCs drain well enough internally. I'm concerned because when I dissassembled the first "prototype" SWC I built the potting soil at the bottom of the SWC was moist but had the most aweful smell! It was that stinky anerobic bacteria smell from the water stagnating in the bin for 2 weeks. I have a drainage hole in it but I guess somehow that bottom layer of dirt wasnt waterlogged except what was in the wicking basket but phew did it reek. I thought anerobic bacteria was bad news for plants and/or a sign of poor drainage, so I'm hoping waiting to fill the SWCs with dirt until I can put plants in at the same time will help so the tomatos get their roots down deep quickly to keep air and moisture moving thru the soil. *crosses fingers*

I am saving the cages for the indeterminate varieties, and hoping they thrive as well as everyones photos show they do. I am especially hoping the 'carmelo' and 'cherokee purple' tomatos do well, everytime I read people's great reviews of them my mouth starts to water.

These tomatoes I planted in my first SWC are "Jaune Flamme", and indeterminate that yields small, intensely flavored persimmon colored tomatos that supposedly make wonderful dried tomatos.

This week the weather has been a bit of a disappointment, it suddenly got stormy again and cold- it was down to 48 the other night and I was terrified my seedlings were gonna die, but so far they seem to have hardened up enough to be handling these chilly spring temps we've been getting. I have them against a south wall thats out of the direct wind. They are just starting to get a bit yellowed at the bottom where they are outgrowing the peat pots I planted them up in. They need to be in their permanent homes soon.

I am really boggled by our Spring weather this year. Usually the Los Angeles area doesnt get much of a spring- usually its just 80 degrees instead of 100. Last 2 years it was already in the 70s and 80s weeks before the spring frost date. I planted my tomatoes in the begining of March with few problems and was harvesting my first basketful of cherrys around June. This year the spring frost date was between Mid March- Early April but even now I'm nervous to set them out in their planters for fear we'll get another one of these freak storms which isnt really a storm: no rain, just cloudy, cold wind and cold nights. The plants aren't as large or vigerous either, only about a foot tall and rather leggy even tho they are in the sunniest part of the deck, the sun's warmth hasnt felt very intense at all with all the haze and clouds. We had that freak week of 90ish degree weather in October, and it hasnt been that warm since. Very odd for around here.

I can normally count on Jan-Feb having some rain and cold 50-60 degree says mixed in with 80 degree days, then in March & April it quickly warms up to the 70s & 80s and everything planted takes off and gets well settled before the heat sets in. May/June we get some " June Gloom" of odd cloudy haze from the marine layer getting trapped over the valley then my Jun-August its full on summer with 90-110 being the common highs. September it stays in the 90s, October/November is 80s-90s, then December is the coolest month averaging about 65.

My Birthday is Jan 3 and for the last 5 years 4/5 it was hot enough to have a BBQ and a pool party outside, all except this year. Bizare.

C'mon Sun, come back! My tomatoes & basil are waiting for you!

New Issue of Mother Earth News is in!

2009-04-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

Oh happy day! The April/May issue of My favorite magazine came in this morning. I wish it was a monthly magazine instead of every 2 months, it has such good info in it. A quick peek thru showed an article on my favorite vegetable: swiss chard, as well as an article on grass fed beef. oooo

My magazine subs are my little selfish pleasures. I try my best to savor every page by choosing the perfect place to read it over a few days to stretch out the joy. I need my own temporary sanctuary. Someplace comfy to sit long enough to read an entire article or two at a time, not too bright, not too dim, comfy temp, and preferably where the kids wont climb into my lap and start trying to rip the pages out of my hands.

In other words, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the bathroom.

Photos of Spring

2009-04-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Flowering Parsley

Kadota Fig Cuttings I'm trying to propagate

Windowboxes doing well, Swiss Chard looking pretty!

A Pool Deck Garden

Basil & Det. Tomato Planter

I found this wagon in a dumpster just missing a bolt and I'm reusing it for my transplanted up tomato & pepper seedlings

SWC Building

2009-04-06T13:00:00.001-07:00

OSH had the 54 in tomato cages on sale so I went by and got 6 of them, then hit Target and got enough bins to build 4 18 gal and 2 31 gal bins since the bins I bought originally for that use are holding other clutter at the moment. Hubby helped me cut off the bottoms of half yesterday, so today I'm working on driling, fitting the bond baskets in and assembling them. According to my Gardening by the Moon calendar this week is a good week for planting, so I'm hoping ot take advantage of that.

Today the sun is (finally) hot and intense, so I'm carefully keeping a close eye on the shallow windowboxes and keeping them well watered. This heat should help give everything a nice jolt of growth.

I found some more winged green aphids appearing on my sweetpea vines along with some inchworms, I tried ot pick off as many as I could by hand since there werent many. I bought some bronner's soap and need to make up some spray and try to nip these bugs before theres too many more.

sick :(

2009-04-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Kids had a fever/colds this week and then gave it to me- ugh. Plus our internet keeps going out randomly for hours on end, and picasa photo albums are acting weird on me too.

Give me a few days to get everything in order again and I'll get these posts sitting in the draft folder up and posted. :)

No More Braces!

2009-03-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Oh happy day! Oh happy week! Theres no more metal shredding the insides of my mouth every.single.damn.day.

After nearly SIX YEARS of wearing braces I finally had enough, called it done and begged the orthodontist to take them off ( and threatened to do it myself with pliers if he didn't). I had to sign a waiver stating that I was going against his advice and ending treatment early- but c'mon, I had braces put on in May of 2003- before either of my children were born, or conceived. I was a college freshman there, a newlywed. In all my wedding photos I NEVER smiled with my teeth, EVER. My parents didn't have the money to pay the $2k or whatever it was supposed to cost for braces, so I just dealt with it. My teeth were crooked, overlapping, it was awful. It was embarrassing. So I learned to perfect the chubby cheeked forced lip smile. Sometimes if the camera caught it just right I looked pretty, but more often then not it made my chin jut out at an odd angle, my cheeks looked like a hamster and it looked very cheesy. Thankfully we had an awesome wedding photographer who understood my concerns and worked alot with me on how to turn my face , position, and smile so it looked good on camera.

My wonderful husband Christopher promised me one day I would be able to smile and not be ashamed, so the first big thing he bought me wasn't a car, or jewelery, or a house : it was a new smile.

Unfortunately starting orthodontic treatment as an adult (18) meant my bones and teeth were more solid and more stubborn to moving. I spent the first year and a half or so with a annoying gizmo called a "spider" in the roof of my mouth. It was like a frame that fit up in the roof of my mouth that required a tiny key to turn every day to s-l-o-w-l-y widen the frame and push the top of my mouth wide enough to fit all my teeth. For awhile once my mouth was stretched wide I had this hillbilly wide gap between my teeth.

I forbid anyone from taking a picture of me with a gap so wide I could fit a virginia slims cigarette in it.

Then x-rays revealed I still had adult teeth stuck up inside my upper jaw that never descended, and were pushing on the bone making these bumps under my upper lip that looked like there was a tooth about to pop any second. First I had to go get 'baby' canines yanked out. Then when they shaved off those bumps to expose the teeth they realized the teeth weren't there..they were deeper in. I think one of my worst memories was being totally awake, but numbed with local anesthetic ( since I was breastfeeding my daughter) and hearing the sound of that bone drill thingy grinding away at my jaw and smelling something burning...all to hear the dental surgeon go " Uh oh, this doesn't look right..." *shudders*

Then more dental surgery to expose those 'lost' teeth and glue a tiny chain to them so they could be slowly yanked back down to proper positions. This time nursing or not I insisted on being sedated, I didn't want to hear what they were doing.

Then the right side of my jaw decided to be stupid and began to tilt upward at a slight angle...so that meant 2 years of wearing 'triangle' rubber bands to hold my jaw shut and in alignment as often as possible ( I only wore them at night because I couldn't stand having my mouth banded shut). I skipped monthly checkups because all they did was wire another sire in, put new silver bands in ( I refused to wear colors, I was an adult! and my teeth would hurt for a week afterwards. I became an expert at the sly smirk in place of a toothy grin.

My teeth ached, they were sensitive to anything hot or cold, food was constantly stuck in the space between the spider and the roof of my mouth, and my teeth moved into proper position one week only to tweak slightly out of place again by the next checkup. My teeth were as obedient as toddlers being told to stay still.

2 babies and a lifetime later its Finally enough. The 'lost' eye teeth had been coaxed into position, with one slightly twisted but more or less OK. My 2 molars on one side didn't meet up exactly but it wasn't too noticeable. I'm 25 now, and I don't need to look like a frigging teenager anymore. My orthodontist wanted my teeth "perfect" and insisted that I just wear the rubber bands on my jaw for a few months more to get my jaw to bend back- but I said no. ( Hes a really good guy and well respected in this area and orthodontist to celebrities, so he knows perfect teeth). Tuesday was my emancipation, my day of freedom from wires and chains and brackets and rubber bands and miles of floss.

For the first time in my life, I could *really*smile. New hair, new glasses, and I could finally smile about it all. Despite all the shit going down in my life right now...

I'm smiling because I finally physically can.

Aphids

2009-03-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

bah, I went outside to pick some mint and it was just coated in green and black aphids. wtf! There wasnt a single one 2 days ago!

so in a panic I went and checked on my precious lettuce box greens, and sure enough, they all had a smattering of fat winged aphids with little broods of baby ones. In less then 48 hours. Geez that was quick! I had been seriously considering making wire 'hoop houses' with netting over the windowboxes to keep the bugs out, I guess I should have acted faster.

I'm going to try and make some DIY spray using crushed tomato leaves first, and if that doesnt work a homemade garlic spray. In the past I usually just reached for the Safer organic bug spray, but I am trying very hard to practice what I preach LOL.

My Bucket List

2009-03-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the things I personally want to accomplish in my lifetime and laughing at how the list has changed over the years. Before I forget to write them down yet again heres some things I can think of oof the top of my head I'd like to go do/see/accomplish and things I have done ( in no particular order)

1. get married (done)
2. go to prom with the guy I'd marry ( done)
3. have a kid with no drugs (done)
4. Breastfeed for over a year ( done)
5. breastfeed for more then 2 years
6. own chickens to riase my own eggs
7. milk a cow and/or goat
8. make my own cheese ( sorta done, did 30 minute mozzarela, I'd like to try something more challenging)
9. learn Portuguese ( specifically the type spoken by my family in the Azores)
10. Attend a Portuguese Festa
11. Go the THE Festa in Gustine, CA
12. Learn how to make my own linguica ( Portuguese sausage)
13. swim with a dolphin
14. take a cruise across the ocean
15. visit Europe
16. visit Ireland
17. Visit the middle east ( for the food!)
18. Visit New Zealand/ Austrailia
19. Visit India
20. go to Hawaii
21. Learn how to survive in the wilderness with just a knife and my witts
22. slaughter/gut/skin/butcher an anymal all my myself
23. learn how to make working snares/traps
24. have a large enough garden & orchard to be as self suficient as possible
25. can all the food I could use in a fall/winter
26. go backpacking somewher remote with my husband
27. have retro pinup photos done for my husband (while I'm still young enough to pull it off)
28. get a tatoo
29. add another piercing to each ear
30. attend the birth of a child other then my own
31. be a proficient herbalist
32. learn how to weave & dye cloth
33. ride a horse, NOT one of those lame ass trail ponies
34. get in way better shape where maual labor is tiring because its work, not because I'm a wimp
35. spend time in a navajo indian reservation learning about their culture
36. go on a cruise ( done)
37. learn how to dance ( ballroom, waltz, swing, etc)
38. dance the night away with my husband

Happy Spring!

2009-03-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

I meant to wake up early and attempt to have some sort of mini-pagan Ostara ritual at sunrise....turns out we all slept in till around 2 pm for some very odd reason. Now I'm all foggy headed and still exausted, odd. I guess I am an even lazier Pagan then a lazy Catholic- so this year I suppose I'll still celebrate Easter sunday with the family and all because quite frankly its the holiday I grew up celebrating, my family will be royally pissed if I don't show up all dressy for diner and for the kids I'm sure the easter eggs and chocolate bunnies will excite them more then my 'wheel of the year' musings. This pagan conversion thing is proving to be harder then I had first imagined in a very Christian-Judeo society. I don't even feel comfortable calling myself wiccan or a witch, I just know Christianity hasnt settled well with my spirit for a very long time, and many pagan ideas do. Only time will tell what religion I will find suits me completly. This year with all thats going on it was quite a relief to not have to worry about lent and giving up something for the first time in my life, and not having to stress about meatless Fridays.

Yesterday I got my Pak Choi and 'Fordhook Giant' swiss chard seedlings into some large windowboxes my sister-in-law found in the garage while spring cleaning. The lettuce and pursland are growing nicely, almost enough to make another bowl of salad already! That sure was fast. The weather has been pleasant and warm this week, we even had an impromtu pool party/BBQ today since my son turns 2 tomorrow and I'll be at Master Gardener training and its supposed to rain on Sunday.

Next week I get my braces taken off-finally! I have had braces (a wedding first from my sweet husband who knew how much I hated my badly mishappen teeth) since May of 2003. 2 pregnancys and my own laziness to make every appointment had stretched out the treatment time this long. My kids have never seen me without braces, so I'm excited, just nervous about how much its going to hurt breaking these darn things off.

The Beauty of Homegrown

2009-03-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago when I visited a local freedom gardens buddy she generously gave me a dozen eggs fresh from her chickens as a gift. They were so beautiful I had to take some photos before enjoying them in my favorite breakfast of sunny side up eggs, niceand soft & runny with toast. :)

I never realized how lovely these eggs could be: tan, mocha, greenish, even a delicate shade of blue.

*SIGH* Ok, having my own chickens to have my own eggs is def on my bucket list now.

First harvest of 2009: God(dess) Bless my bountiful little containers!

2009-03-17T22:32:00.001-07:00

A bowl of sweet fresh lettuce from my window box and my 'mesclun pot' ( that I need to sow the mesclun in, I keep forgetting). Sweet and green and fresh, I was proud as a peacock walking around with my bowl of greens, and everyone was curious and tasted some and said it was good. Most were all amazed that I grew it, I guess they never really paid attention to what I was watering on all those pots and boxes LOL. I had just eaten a very nice dinner so I walked over and gifted the bowl of greens to my vegan best friend/sister-in-law, who is the one person I knew would truly savor it the most. She was happy.

an "after" show post-salad clipping

Heres the rest of my hodgepodge " container garden" so far taking advantage of some benches on the pooldeck no one ever sits on:

I even built my first SWC prototpe with some "Mels Mix" inspired potting soil:

I started a round zuccini and some spacemaster cucumbers in largerpeat pots today to transfer to SWCs in a few weeks.

I'm just going to do about my daily life and not let the stress get to me to the best of my abilities. I refuse to just sit here and be the victim and be bored and miserable, even if its just greens and cherry tomatos a container garden is a garden dammit.

I will not let the bastards grind me down!

Canned Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

2009-03-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe in a canning book once and but couldnt remember what the proportions of lemon juice, strawberries & Sugar were. While at the farmer's market sunday they had half flats of gorgeous organic strawberries, berry season is just about to start! Of course I got some and planned to make this yummy fruit drink. I googled for the recipe and found this one on recipezaar that looks pretty close to what I remembered:

Ingredients
12 cups strawberries
4 cups fresh lemon juice or lime juice
5 cups sugar

Directions
1.Rinse and drain the strawberries quickly.

2Hull and measure.

3Squeeze the lemon juice and measure.

4You will probably need about 16 lemons, or 24 limes, but buy a few extra as they can vary quite a bit in juiciness.

5Put the jars on to boil in a large kettle, with the water coming up at least an inch over the tops of them.

6Let boil 10 minutes before removing to be filled.

7Meanwhile, purée the strawberries.

8Heat them with the lemon or lime juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved, but do not boil.

9Pour into hot sterilized jars to within 1 cm (1/2") of the tops.

10Seal with lids sterlized according to the manufacturers directions.

11(Generally, boil for 5 minutes.) Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

12To serve, mix with cold water to taste, about one part syrup to two parts water.

13Serve over ice.

Yield: 10 pint jars or 20 half pints

The lemon tree here is packed with lemons and new flowers, so I've been wanting to zest and juice a bunch so the tree can put all its energy into the next crop worth of fruit. Took me 2 hours of work to zest the lemon with a microplane grater, then juice the lemons by hand, and strain. I finalyl had to call my husband in to help cut/blend the strawberries and rinse off my canning jars to save me some time.

It looks really beautiful in the jars, I can't wait to open some up this summer for a refreshing taste of early spring.

Frustrated

2009-03-16T16:50:00.001-07:00

Its been one heck of a couple of weeks. I had to stop myself from posting here because in the mental state I was in I'd be doing nothing but rambling and whining, and goodness knows I read enough whiny blogs without adding to them myself.

Good news is I survived my garden talk on Sat. I ended up talking for 90 minutes before the librarian had me wrap up and barely made it thru half my powerpoint presentation of 46 slides, I had so much info and people had so many questions- but it was ok, alot of people had their questions answered so I'll consider my talk a success.

Of course theres bad news as well.

I finally got a medical diagnosis for some health issues I've been having, and basically was shocked to find out I have PCOS (polycyctic ovarian syndrome) so I might not be able to have more kids. Explains so much yet so heartbreaking. And the medications they gave me for it make me feel weak and nauseated constantly. But worse yet is finding out we're going to have to find a new place to live again within the next few months.

The long and the short of it is I have been thwarted in my garden plans- again. Unknown to us and without my husband's ( or 4 of his other siblings knowledge) the oldest brother who tentativly has a legal agreement with their father authorizing 3/7 siblings if in agreement could put the house on the market- did. Well 5 of the 7 didnt know until after the realtor had been hired. So on top of the stupidity its breaking their own legal agreement they dragged thru court for the last year to accomplish. *bangs head against the desk* So now this house is for sale for a rediculously low price, its insult to injury. There had been talk of splitting the proceeds of the sale amonst all 7 siblings, but the price is so low by the time the legal crap and realtor have been paid there isnt going to be anything left. Its not surprising to me, I never thought we'd see a dime from here, but my husband is bitterly dissapointed that he trusted his brothers and moved us here, away from our very nice apartment, my family, my friends, when I really didnt want to live here, all to be betrayed. Live and learn.

This is 3 weeks after moving here with the understanding that we were welcome to stay here for 1-2 years while the market picked up so they could sell this place at a decent price. I painted rooms. I fixed things, I was planning a garden, all because we were encouraged to stay here rent free and get back on our feet while we waited to see how Chris' job situation panned out.

I was beyond spitting angry and frustrated and wanting to kick some ass, but of course the brother in question has turned his cell off and only gave a vague email of " I've done my job now its up to you".

Um, ok. But theres a 3 month contract with a realtor, so to make things even more stressful theres this idiot of a realtor who shows up unannounced with liek 10 people to parade thru the house, including mine and the kids rooms. I hate the invasion of privacy, but we're powerless ot do anythign about ti since this realtor will only answer to the oldest brother who hired him and talked down to me like I was some sort of homeless squatter on the property when I politly refused to let a group of people to 'our' end of the house while my kids were asleep and had no notice of them, I just happened to see a group of people milling about outside on the pooldeck and put 2 + 2 together. Every other day or so we get these surprise visits from peopel coming to see the house and this place is just a mess with no one ever really picking up and of course 2 kids living here. Maybe I am just old fashoned but I feel really ashamed having strangers see the house like this- but no one else here seems to care. So I try to keep the place swept, mopped, and somewhat decluttered.

So we've decided to declare bankrupcy so we can get out of here, unload the house thats finally begining the process of foreclosure, and start over without credit card collectors breathing down our necks. Makes me feel dirty inside doing it, but we're rapidly running out of options. Wether or not this house sells in this shitty market isa coin toss, but we can't stand being here having our trust and our privacy discared like we have no rights, so even if we're in a tiny place somewhere at least its OUR place. It has to be cheap since if Chris gets laid off we have to survive off of less then 1800 a month. ugh.

SO ANYWAY, back to the gardening part...

Scrap the plans of an inground garden. I have enough containers to make 4 or 5 SWCs, alot of random pots, buckets, and windowboxes, and I have enough coconut coir, peat moss, vermiculite and compost in the back to probably fill all of them. I just need ot pick up a few more containers and I should be set. Now I am trying to brainstorm a priority list of what I really wanted fresh, and came up with a shorter list:

1. Green Beans ( tie 5 6 ft bamboo poles and place in a SWC with some pole bean vines)
2. Summer Squash ( 1 'Ronde de Nice' round zuccini is a compact plant thats very productive)
3. Cucumbers (Spacemaster cucumber should do the trick)
4. Carmelo tomatoes ( 2 per SWC with some basil)
5. Amish Gold tomatoes
6. Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
7. Yolo Wonder Peppers ( I'm trying to see if I can squeeze 6 plants in a SWC, probably just 4)

I have some random flower pots lying about I could probably put a few chili pepper and eggplants in, and just have to hand water them more. I may try to grow some melons in a SWC with a trelis, but not sure yet. Winter squash probaby wont happen this year, but at least I still have a dozen quart jars of canned squash from last year.

I have swiss chard and lettuce growing in windowboxes already, I'll probably need 1 more windowbox to have a better successtion planting of lettuce going.

Its likely we will probably be here for 3-4 months, at least till the bankrupcy crap is done and filed, and thats long enough for 1 crop of veggies if I transplat them out in the next week or so.

I already have a friend who is building some new raised beds who needed plants, so I told her I'd give her all my 'homeless' baby plants, so all my other tomato variety plants will go to a good garden. That makes me happy.

But I admit I still want to cry at having my little dream of a garden that can support my family being crushed again. I want to cry because my 4 year old daughter keeps begging me to move back to our apartment where she was really, really happy. I just want to be someplace thats safe for my children where we can mind our own business and live happy peaceful lives. Somehow I must have gotten some screwed up karma to have so much keep happening to us.

Its bittersweet, to see the resurgence of victory gardens ( also known as Recession Gardens) growing in popularity, and working so hard to help other people get started gardening, training as a master gardener and having to tour different school and community gardens and for all I know in a couple of months I may end up in a 1 bedroom apartment somewhere without space for even 1 container plant. Its a very bitter pill to swallow, but I keep telling myself that I'm still doing something worthwhile by helping other people, and it feels good to be doing something thats not just for myself.

Victory Gardens are sprouting up all over- ABC Nightline

2009-03-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6970190

its raining....again. Gives time to plan some more.

2009-03-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

I know I know, California is having one of the worst droughts in years and its hurting farming and all, to the point that Ah-nold has declared a state of emergency- but I really wish it would be sunny for more then 2 days so the ground can dry out enough to work in it.

Plus its cold again, and as I've already ranted about, I detest being wet and cold.

I had to go out to our 'tortoise pen' at 9pm ( a 8 x 20 fenced in grassy area where some adopted desert tortoises have lived for years) to get my rabbit, who has had a free run of it since the tortoises are still hibernating. It really started to pour so I went to make sure she was ok. She was wet from the rain and since shes a miniature breed ( only 3 pounds) I was worried she'd get too cold. Of course she didnt have the common sense to hide in any of the warm dry nesting boxes on the ground, no - she climbs the staggered block wall side to the top ( about 6 feet off the ground) and hides in a cinder block ( she is very little). The cold wet concrete brick didnt seem like a very good hiding area tonight. I tried to bribe her into a cardboard box full of alfalfa hay, but she wouldnt get in it, an I couldnt reach her well enough to grab, so my brother in law held a flashlight while I finally caught her when she tried to jump down off the wall. I ended up soaking wet and with another allergy attack when all was said and done.

Now shes in her old cage with a 3 inch layer of hay, some carrots and a bowl of dry grains in the garage to stay warm and dry.

After agonizing over how to build this garden without all these startup costs, I may very well go with Sinfonian's suggestion of double digging the beds and amending the native soil.

I checked out the book "How to grow more Vegetables" by John Jeavons and I'm very temped to just double dig ( or triple dig if needed) and amend the soil with some good compost/manure. Its more work in a way, my arms will be a bit achy I'm sure. But this ground doesnt have large roots or rock in the way of digging and instead of hauling in 12 cubic yards of soil to fill in beds I can use about 1/3 of that to just amend the top 12 inches of the existing soil. No wood to haul, no mesh, no power tools, just a shovel, a well paid/bribed babysitter and one hell of a good workout over a few days. I may be able to pull it all off.

If the weather clears up tomorrow I hope to drive by some soil depots and check compost prices.

Oh! And I finaly learned how to use powerpoint, so I'm working on my slideshow for next Saturay's talk.

Allergies & finances suck, seriously

2009-03-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

After weed whacking the slope I had the worse hay fever/asthma attack, I could barely breathe.
This morning I did get up at 5 am and was outside before the sun was up, but my nose just would not stop dripping that watery snot that you desperaty try to stop with your sleeve as you're working, but it didnt stop, I finally stuck kneenex up my nostrils to try and stem the flow while I worked, but everytime I bent my head at all forward ( which I was doing alot since I was raking and picking up the cut grass) it still would soak thru and start dripping again, driving me insane. It was also getting harder to breathe. I finally gave up after about 30 minutes and came inside to make myself some breakfast and get some coffee, since caffine usually helps with my allergies, it didnt. I finally ended up with claritin in my system form the night before, a zyrtec I took before I walked outside and finally a benedryll severe sinus pill I took in absolue desperation because I couldnt breathe and my nose wouldnt stop. I ended up passing out in a very deep anti-histamine induced coma till 1 pm this afternoon.

so much for my plans of starting off the day early for a hard days work. ugh.

I seriously can't be a total farm girl. I'm allergic to anything with fur. I recently found out I'm severly allergic to horses, and most birds make my eyes burn so I assume chickens would too- altho I desperatly want some for eggs. Combine that with general allergies to cut grass, pollen, smog, cigarette smoke, dust, and pineapple juice and dammit, I wish I hadnt inheirited those genes or something. I keep reading about how kids kept in ultrasterile environments as kids have all these allergies- I guess I can attest to that. My mother swept, vaccumed, mopped and dusted every day. I was rarely allowed outside, and was mad to bathe twice a day ( start and end the day clean!) till my teens. Anyway my point is it makes my love of gardening difficult at best sometimes. I hate having to take 2 or 3 allergy meds to function in this house (which has 2 cats that belong to my brother in law) and years of dust.

Today I just wanted to plop down in my half weed whacked plot of hope and cry, seriously. Its like 3 feet out of level, I only see my husband for a couple of hours some evenings and on weekends, theres so much work to be done to even consider this piece of crap a garden and I can't do it all alone. I need my husband's truck to haul wood or soil, or compost, but its his work car, plus I can't cram 2 carseats in it. I barely know how to use a drillgun, but I am trying. I have a friend who offered to let me use her husband's bobcat tractor thingy (You rock Theresa!) but hello, again I need a way to haul it here and I cant be operating the thing and watch 2 little ones at the same time. I need my husband here to help, but I know we need every penny he can earn before they can him, whenever the hell they get around to it. I'm just frustrated and driving myself batty over it.

Doing all containers sounds mighty tempting, I can build a SWC by myself, fill it and plant it, I can figure that out well enough and fit the materials in a few trips to wal-mart with my car. And yet I can't get past the fact that I can't grow nearly as much in the SWCs without building like 75 of the damn things, and big plants like melons and winter squash might be a bit tricky.

To me the raised beds are a better investment. I can keep planting in them till they fall apart, I have them designed to use floating row cover or plastic to help protect from critters, insects and the hottest part of summer and coldest of our winters. I have trellises in there too- its almost 400 sq feet of planting space. I want my tomatos in SWCs for sure, those babies I'm willing to spoil, but I guess I love that 'big garden' feeling. In this huge house crammed with stressed unhappy people I want a space to call my own, work my ass off in and reap the rewards.

but the cost, UGHHHHH. I HATE spending money, especially right now. I've been pushing off bills to pay for this crap. I'm just seriously afraid if I half ass it and go the cheapest route possible I'll end up with so many headaches I'll regret not doing it as best as I could the first time.

Overwhelmed

2009-03-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

2 x 18 gallon sterilite bins @ $4.99 each= $9.98
2 x 54 in Heavy Duty Tomato Cage @ $3.99 each = $7.98
1 7 in round pond plant basket @ $1.65 each = $1.65
1 bag miracle grow potting soil (because its easiest) @ $10.85 = $10.85

total cost for 1 18 gal SWC = $ 30.46 or $22.48 without the tomato cages

This isnt counting the pvc pipe, fertilizer or clips to attatch the tomato cages with.

now the hair raising part. Multiply this by 10 ( I already have bins for 5) and the cost is $304.60 for my "money saving tomato garden". hmpf.

if I want to do an entirely SWC garden I need another 15 containers for peppers, eggplant, beans, herbs, tomatillos, cucumbers, and salad greens. thats another $337.20

total cost of an all SWC garden: $641.80

can justify this with: " Do I spend more then $54 a month buying fresh produce?" and the answer is usually yes.

If I buy my potting soil in bulk from the soil depot the cost goes down to less then $3 per SWC in dirt, lowering the total cost to $226 for the tomato containers only and $445 for a completly SWC garden.

Cost of the 'raised bed' garden:

lumber & drip irrigation from lowes ( including a 10% off total coupon): $293. 82
4 ft x 100 ft roll of galv 1/2 in mesh: $169
100 ft roll of floating row cover: $40
cost of 256 c f or 12 c.y. planting mix: $1,872 if I buy bagged peat/coir/vermiculite/compost and mix it myself, holy shit what a markup on buying the stuff in bags!

or, buy vaggie garden soil form the soil depot @ $22 a cubic yard and the cost is $264

I'll assume the cheaper cost.

total cost of a new raised bed garden: $766.82

so far I have already spent ( that I can recall off the top of my head, yikes):

$45 in light fixtures
$40 for the 5 shelf unit
$18 in light bulbs
$50 for 10 18 gal containers
$150 in seeds & starts
$50 in seed starting trays w/ covers, seed starting mix
$150 in vermiculite, potting soil, compost, peat moss
$80 in amendments bone meal, blood meal, lime, 14-14-14, sure start, B1 transplanting solution, osmocote, liquid 4-4-4 for seedling trays

ugh, I'm so pissed at myself that I have already spent so much for this damn garden and I dont even have a place to plant anything yet. UGH! This has been my 'stress shopping', bad, bad Cindy!

I'm in the newspaper!

2009-03-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

Sorta, theres a little blurp about the talk I'm going to do at the Upland Public Library:

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_11796882

http://uplandpl.lib.ca.us/asp/Site/Library/Programs/details/index.asp?ID=137

eeeeek!

I'm frantically compiling notes, working on a powerpoint presentation and was lying awake at 4 am when I had this amazing idea to put samples of different potting mediums in quart mason jars for people to shake/view/compare growing mediums as I explain them. Brillant! I figure I could do that as well for perlite and vermiculite. Also good for comparing "good" potting soil vs the "cheap" potting soil that doesnt drain well and kills your plants.

I just hope that I can speak clearly and reasonable enough to make sense to people. When I get excited I tend to start babbling in hobby jargon and lose people.

weed whacking

2009-02-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

I spent a few hours outside while the kids napped with the weed hacker and tried to 'scalp' it off as close to the ground as I could. I managed to get the whole perimeter before it started to smoke and the motor died...um, I guess I killed the weed whacker. whops.

The hill is so- holey! Those gophers have a freaking city there. And while I was working I saw one of those big bushy tailed red squirels in the trees. Dangit, another rodent that could eat my veggies. I'm hoping to use a liberal amount of well fastened row floating row covers, between the birds and the critters I'm hoping I can minimize as much damage as I can, but still planning on 'overplanting' to account for some loss.

I'm still kinda iffy on the garden layout, I really liked having 3 x 25 foot beds instead of a bunch of 4 x 8 boxes, but the boxes make it easier to work around and 'customize' the bed for the veggies planted there.

We went out earlier today and went to a local lumberyard, but at .53 a ft Lowes is def cheaper for the wood. However this place did have 4 ft x 100 ft rolls of 1/2 in poultry mesh for $96, which is way cheaper then anywhere else I've found. I still need to price out the planting mix for the raised beds. So the wood, mesh, pvc, row covers and drip irrigation stuff should bring my garden total up to around $400. My planned budget was 500, looks like I will be over. I spent about $200 in seeds, lights, the shelf, starting mix, containers for 5 SWCs and bareroot plants.

I'm hoping to be up at 5:30 am (ouch) to rake up all that cut grass and get it into the 'green barrels' for green waste pickup. I was going to just make a huge compost pile with it, but I dont have a large enough space thats readily accessable and theres SO MUCH GRASS I dont have enough 'browns' to add to those greens. I may save some to put in the bottom of each raised bed as a sort of slow rotting amendment, but right now I need all this grass out of there pronto so I can see, dig, and level.

This was my last free Saturday for the next 3 months. LA county master gardeners classes start next sat, 9 am - 4pm. So I'm trying to take advantage of hubby being here to watch the kids while I try to work my ass off to get it plantable by mid-March.

My garden layout

2009-02-28T00:30:00.001-08:00

Price of lumber

2009-02-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

comparison of different wood dimensions available at Lowes and the price. Beds will be 4 feet by 8 feet and 12 inches deep. I have a nifty coupon for 10% off my total purchase at lowes as well.

I am thinking of building the beds similar to this:

http://www.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed-00400000039550/

Various 2" x 6" x 20' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #95724
$6.72 x 26 =$174.72

Various 2" x 12" x 20' Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #231297
$17.66 x 13 = $229.58

Various 2" x 12" x 8' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #91796
$7.12 x 32 =$227.84

Various 2" x 4" x 8' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #45116
$1.70 x 96 =$163.20

Various 2" x 6" x 12' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #95705
$3.98 x 44 =$175.12

Various 2" x 4" x 20' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #53001
$4.25 x 39 =$165.75

Various 2" x 6" x 8' Top Choice Green Douglas-Fir LumberItem #53056
$2.69 x 64 = $172.16

Productive day

2009-02-26T19:50:00.001-08:00

Today I woke up to FINALLY see the sun shining- and I couldnt hold it in any longer: I needed to do something on the garden, touch dirt, pull a weed, SOMETHING or I was about to go nutts. seriously.

So I threw my almost 2 year son on my back in his ergo carrier, gave the 4 year old the 'task' of picking up rocks and throwing them out of the planter I wasd working on, and I managed to de-weed, rototill, smooth, dump a ton of starbucks coffee grounds, till again, and rake smooth again a whoping 6x3 ft area. I could have done it alot faster without a 30 pound toddder trying to sqiurm off the carrier on my back and if my daughter would just STAY PUT in one area and not go bolting off into the driveway....ugh. I am trying to stay calm, but I am living in a house with 8 other family members and when I have to ask anyone to watch the kids ( like for a routine doc appointment for me, I havent gone to the doc in 2 years) I felt like I was really asking too much or something. I just feel really guilty having other people watch my kids. * sad sigh* Everyone is freaking out about jobs and finances and such so everyone is in a bad mood/dont want to do anything, well so am I, except my frost date is next week and the ground isnt going to till, amend, and plant itself with a magic wand. Oh well, I'd rather take out my frustration on weeds then people. Especially because I can rip the weeds to shreds and cackle about it.

I guess I kinda feel like the little red hen here....I may start dropping more less subtle hints about needing help, but oh well, this is my project, I dont think anyone is going to understand the work involved or why its so important, I know they get its food, but they dont know the work involved or how hard it is to do with 2 small kids underfoot.

After I came inside sweating after my 3 hour gardening ordeal I decided to get out of the house and drive to a few places ot price stuff out. So armed with a clipboard, a graph pad, and half a dozen pencils ( if the kids touch it I'll never see it again) I went to Home Depot, Lowes, and OSH to price my 'necessities' like potting soil ( for price comparison), fertilizer, chicken manure, floating row cover, lumber, hardware mesh, 6 foot stakes ( bean teepees) and veggie plants. In every store I must have spooked the workers with my clipboard and frantic scribbling. I kept reassuring them I was just a gardening comparing prices to get my moneys max worth but I think they all thought I was some sort of crazy AR secret shopper. Found 2 little bags of vermiculite for $4 each, got them anyway. Tomorrow I plan on making a 'mix' of coconut coir, vermiculite, and miracle grow potting soil. I figure it lets me stretch the pre-mixed stuff without making it too much of a water sponge. but back to shopping...

Of course I couldnt resist the lure of the bareroot plants and starts, I got starts for shallots, some mary washington asparagus plants, and 2 dozen bareroot strawberry plants. Lowes had all their bareroot trees 25% off and a decent selection, but I had to hold back and just get a 'wonderful' pomegranite. They actually had low chill apricots, pears, and apples that would grow well here, but I dont know when I'd find time to make nice large amended holes for them out here. But I couldnt resist the pomegranite tree for $10. I'm going to put the pomegranite in a huge pot I have, and maybe some strawberry plants around it for right now.

I think I figured out what to build the raised beds with. 2 x 6 x 20 douglas fir is about $7, and Lowes will cut as many as I need for free and build the beds 12 in high. So each 20 gives 2 8 ft sections for the long side and a 4 ft for the short side. then i'll just need a couple cut just into 4 ft sections.

The hardware mesh is the expensive stuff, a 4 ft x 25 ft roll of 1/2 galv mesh is $52. so like $18 per bed just in mesh- and only home depot has it that big. lowes only has 3 ft wide mesh rolls. wood comes in even sizes, so I really wanted to make the beds 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 for simplicity. Especially since I am the one who will probably end up assembling them I need to make them simple, and having the mesh 4 ft wide helps make it easy on my female carpentry skills.

eh, why can't my hubby be home to do this shit. I hate designing/building things. Hes the engineer. I just like to plant and paint.

Thanks blogging buddies!

2009-02-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

I really appreciare your links and advice :) I'm still debating how on earth to make this the best garden ever without breaking my very pitiful budget. Priced out wood at home depot, redwood is 3-4 times the price of untreated fir. We could probably build a 4 x 8 foot, 12 ft deep fir raised bed for around $25, not including the screws, anchors, pvc for hoops, floating row cover or the hardward fabric to line it with. I'm still researching the cheapest way of buying those.

I'm excited to report that my new lights came in! They are some cheap plug in play shop lights from amazon.com . I was a bit worried since the reviews warned that they are shipped in flimsy boxes and the units almost always get damaged- but for the price ( and my impatience) I tok a chance. The boxes looked like shit to be true, but both lights fired up ok. I got some cheap T12 40 watt bulbs at Home Depot, a 6700k and a 4100 K- I don't remember what the 'best' bulbs were for growing plants, but since its a short term thing anyway, I just grabbed one of each. I had been hoping to have more help from Mr.Sun himself, but apparently hes been on vacation the last few weeks with all the rain and clouds, so I needed to do something other then switch trays from the 1 shelf with lighting every day. Now for sure anyone who walked by the window would think I'm growing 'stuff' LMAO. Heres my nice new setup:

I'll probably turn the trays on the top shelf to squeeze 1 more tray I want to get started with some more lettuce and some of the seeds I got at the swap.

Grow my tomato/pepper/eggplant babies!

onions, swiss chard, and pak choi.

I'm also in a quandry about what potting mix to use in my planned SWCs. I was going to do a DIY potting soil mix ( 1/3 coir, 1/3 compost, 1/4 vermiculite or perlite) using coconut coir instad of peat moss, but I was outside checking on a bin on pure coir that got rained on, and even tho it looks light and fluffy, you can take a handful and wring out a good amount of water out. Like, almost equal to its volume in water. Thats good news in that it holds water, really, really well- but now I'm worried that in a SWC design it may hold TOO much water and lead to waggerlogging issues with the plants. Adding perlite or vermiculite may help, I dont know till I've made a few 'mixes' on a smaller scale to see how they compare. Spring frost date is this week, ahhh! I'm so not ready, and with the ground still soaked from todays rains not much I can do out there but plan and obsess.

So now I'm debating how to make a new mix for the SWCs, or if I should just skip the water resivoir part of the SWC altogether, and basically just drill holes at the bottom of these rubbermaid bins for drainage, plant in them, and just top water as needed. I could even make some of those watering stake bottles with 2 L cola bottles if the mix starts to dry out too much.

I have to consider tomatoes, esp indeterminates are heavy drinkers, plus our summers are over 100 easy, very low humidity, and oftentimes windy. All very drying factors. Its a big scale in my head...too much water in the soil....too many factors that can dry the plants out to a crisp in a container. Luckily both areas I am planning for SWCS get morning sun from sunup to around 2-3pm then are shaded partially by the house, so I'm hoping that will help prevent blossom drop and poor fruit set in the hottest part of the year.

Gah, why do I do this? I have this idea I'm all confident with and then I read so much of other peoples opionions and experiences I get nervous, panic and lose all confidence in what I thought I had figurd out! LOL Its what I love about the "blogosphere" its this huge everchanging library of information at my fingertips whenever I escape to the computer and want to learn something.

Or drive myself nutts from an information overload!

Working on Garden Layout

2009-02-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

Now for the funnest part: planning the garden layout and where to put all these plants I want to grow! Behold my subpar photoshop abilties! Voila!

I measured it out and the actual 'flat' squareish area is 25 ft x 25 ft. I drew that out on graph paper, and made beds 3 feet wide and path ways 2 feet wide. ( Last years walkways were 18 inches and it was a tight squeeze in some places). That gives me 5 beds that are 3ft x 25ft and are further subdivided for different veggies.

Now I have to figure what do I want to plant near each other and what should not be planted near each other. I just don't want one's vegetable pest to wreck havoc on another if I can somehow minimize it my mixing plants and scents, as well as companion planting garlic, marigolds, leeks, and basil thruout as needed.

anyone have a good website with companion planting info?

Seed swap a success!

2009-02-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

My meetup group did our first seed swap and monthly get togetjer, and I am proud to sya it went extremely well. There were about 10 of us and we had a grand ole time chatting for 4 hours about gardening, the safty of our food supply and all the nifty things you can use for DIY garden stuff at the dollar tree. I brought some tomato and eggplant seeds and left with more goodies :).

I ended up with some seeds I didnt have and am excited to plan on using:

'Lee' Okra
'Henderson' Bush Lima
'Pearson' Tomato
'San Marconi' Sweet Pepper
'Ca Wonder' Bell Pepper ( none of my seeds sprouted, so some fresh seeds may work better)
'Bavaria' Endive
Kaffir Lime
'San Marzano' Tomato

plus I got a small Loquat tree seedling and a 'Patio Pixie' tomato in a pot I'm hoping to use for my "Gardening vegetables in containers" talk in March.

I was really excited about having even more tomatos, my main goals were to can at least 2 dozen quarts of tomatos this year, and I now have a few canning varieties: Roma, Big Mama, San Marzano, Pearson and Amish paste. I had never been able ot find Pearson seeds locally, I read it does well in our extreme heat and used to be a big commercial canning variety in CA in the 1950s. woot! I love seed swaps!

Soil Testing

2009-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Picked up a set of soil test kits at Lowes a few weeks ago, tonight I finally got around to testing my garden soil...

pH: 6.8-7 ( good)
potassium : low
Nitrogen: Low ( boo)
Phosphorus: very high

eh, I wasnt expecting miracles from it, its Middle Miocene Modelo Shale, so around 12-15 million years old. No I'm not making this up. I can walk up to the cut sides in the hill, pull out rocks that have been untouched for millions of years, crack/peel the layers apart and if I'm lucky find a fossil fish. Usually theres just tiny leaves, what looks like ashes/burnt grass, and the occasional fish scale. Tomorrow I'll go poke around if I have time and see if I can find something cool to show you.

Being a geology brat gives me a better understanding/appreciation for this sort of stuff, almost enough to go finish my degree in geology.

almost.

but not quite.

Maybe the rain isnt so bad afterall....

2009-02-17T02:33:00.000-08:00

I took this photo Monday Feb 16th 2009 @ 3:10 pm. Beautiful isn't it? I havent seen a full arc rainbow in years, and it looked so closeby too! I could literally see where it was 'touching' the ground, but didnt see a pot of gold LOL.

An afternoon Adventure in my own backyard hillside

2009-02-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

Today it finally cleared up ( and dried out a bit) enough for me to put on my hiking boots and take a stroll (hike) thru my new 'backyard' a.k.a the rest of the hillside of this property no one pays any attention to EVER. I felt adventurous so armed with my camara, my cell phone ( in case I stupidly tripped in a gopher hole and hurt myself) and a pair of pruning shears I set off to hike the wilds of our hillside.

Hiking thru that iceplant is a royal pain in the ass, it does a great job holding the slope in place and preventing erosion but years of overgrowth mean your walking in this stuff halfway up to your knees and can't see where the actual ground is, and the top layer of iceplant seems far more of a gentle slope then it really is. The photos don't do a very good job showing how steep it is in a few places, but then again I'm the only one crazy enough to bother caring whats growing around here.

To the south theres some citrus trees my father in law planted years ago and installed a sprinkler for each then promptly ignored for 4 years. The hard freeze we got last winter did kill a couple of them, or maybe it was the 120 degree summers, but there are about 10 or so hardy trees still alive along the bottom of the hill on the SE side of the property

I saw a moro blood orange, a few valencia orange trees, a washington navel, a couple of unknown orange trees, 2 mandarins, and an unknown with teeny tiny fruit I first thought was a kumkwat, but after eating the only one ripe on the tree realized it was a very tiny tangerine. They all need a bit of pruning to remove some dead branches and open the form up a bit, and all were yellowing, I need to put some fertilizer spikes and blood meal around each one. It was a wonderful surprise tho, from my bedroom doors I could see what I thought were random shrubbery at the bottom of the hill, I had no idea it was citrus. I had been trying to figure out where to sneak in and plant a few fruit trees, so it was awesome to find some already established. They all have flower buds forming, so I'm hoping to take better care of them this year and hope they produce better.

Up the hill some directly below my 'balcony' outside the bedroom theres an apple tree that every year gives a great display of blossoms but no fruit. I have no idea what the variety is but I'm guessing it needs a cross pollinator of some sort or something else is amiss. I noticed that the iceplant has grown rampant up and over the tree, which isn't looking too hot this year, so I went to investigate. Heres the tree after pulling the front of the iceplant off to show just how much iceplant was burying it:

It was bad. So after cutting and swearing and having a fun ole time ripping plants away I found out why the tree wasn't looking too good.

Look at the bottom along the soil line, theres some sort of mildew/fungus eating away at the bark. Apparently the iceplant was holding way too much moisture against the tree itself and the resulting fungus was literally eating away at the bark and girdling the tree.

And THIS kiddos, is why you are NEVER supposed to put too much mulch/compost/dense plantings right up against the tree trunk itself. Between the moisture and I'm sure some insect damage it just left that bark vulnerable to this type of damage. Judging by the sorta healed over edges this has been going on for quite some time now. One whole limb has been completely girdled and is totally dead, I'll need to get a saw to remove that limb. The other 2 limbs have about 50% and 20% bark left form what I can see. I cleared as much soil from around is as I could, hopefully some sun and fresh air will help give the tree a fighting chance. Makes me sad tho, that this tree that has braved years on this hill before my family ever bought the house to be felled by petty landscape negligence and some overzealous iceplant. tsk, tsk.

Then I stumbled my way across to the SE side of the hill, to where my father had some Hass avocados planted 2 years ago. This part of the hill is a bit more 'native' in that there isnt any iceplant but plenty of invasive castor bean plants, Cucamonga manroot vine ( its a wild luffa), tumbleweeds, Tonyon and some other tall plant I haven't been able to identify yet. I even found some wild strawberries sending off runners, so I excitedly collected a handful to plant elsewhere and observe. I am such a nerd.

I managed to find 1 avocado on the ground under a tree but it was pretty buggy so I went tree to tree trying to find avocados to pick. No such luck. I did however noticed what seemed to be some sort of a disease (blight?) on the trees that warranted further investigation:

My first thought was fireblight, but I thought fireblight only affected temperate fruit trees, not tropicals. Breaking off some of the dying/damaged branches gave more clues but no answers that came to mind. The bark starts to darken and the leaves shrivel, die, but cling onto the plant. What was even odder was the innermost part of the stem (xylem) was dark brown and looked very watery, almost syrupy. This discoloration was noticeable in branches cut a few inches past the blackened bark, so whatever this infection is its spreading to the rest of the tree. I have no idea if it can ultimately kill the entire tree or not. I've been doing Internet searches on avocado diseases and not seeing anything like this. I am tempted to go out there with a bucket of bleach water and prune out all the infected branches like it was fireblight and make sure to disinfect the pruners after each cut.

I also got to spy on the neighbors property just a bit, the land right below us has a lovely little lantern studded brick path winding thru some well maintained citrus trees and I even spied a small fenced in area with red winter tomatoes. Impressive!

Theres an area of trees there that makes a beautifully covered shady area filled with a bunch of native plants I need to dig out my guidebook and identify. I think one was horehound, it was very fuzzy and had a strong mint scent, and some other bushes with tiny red berries. Funny how less then a 10 minute walk from the house and I was a whole nother world, away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, it was a little piece of REAL California- at least to me. After following the southern most edge of the fence around I realized it comes right up to the side of the battling cage/basketball court my father in law put in years ago. At least getting back up the hill afterwards was easily then getting down!

Last but not least I visited my future piece of paradise and realized that flat area is AWESOME. the dirt there is very friable and loose and no stubborn weeds like bermuda grass, that soft fuffy velvetgrass rips right out in large tufts roots and all! And theres EARTHWORMS in the soil! Eureka! This soil isnt as craptastic as I thought! I was standing there almost orgasmic ripping out tufts of grass and giggling to myself. I think anyone else watching me must have thought I lost whats left of my mind. But after 2 years of dealing with having to pull out bermuda grass, spurge and common mallow by hand you bet I was THRILLED to see the only stuff I was pulling out was that 'nice' clumpy grass you can rips lots of out and leaves the soil neat and clean looking.

I'm almost tempted to just rip all this stuff out by hand where I want to plant, it pulls out super easy, too hard to mow, we'd need to take a weed eater to it. But now I got to thinking, this this stuff isnt nearly as annoying as most grasses are, maybe I can just rototill it into the soil like a cover crop, as it rots it adds some organic value, and then double dig the beds and amend the beds only with some horse manure and coconut coir to help 'lighten' the soil ( its almost as dense as clay but its not clay its diatomaceous earth). I have about 6 weeks till I NEED to plant outdoors here, I could also put plastic over it and solarize, or just lay out alot of cardboard ( I have alot of empty moving boxes) in this weeks heavy rains and let that smother the grass out a bit. Decisions, Decisions.

So yup, that was my fun afternoon of playing outside in the dirt while hubby watched the kids. woot!

Intro to home vegiie gardening video (part 2)

2009-02-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Just for you sinfonian:

this deals with irrigation, weed control and use of hoop houses and floating row cover. nifty!

Garden Shopping list ( aka what to stalk freecycle for)

2009-02-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Brainstorming....

6 x 6 concrete reinforment mesh for trellises....and wood posts...I have some nylon trellis netting but learned last year it starts to sag with heavy vines. Good for beans & peas, not as good for tomatos and melons

wood for raised beds....redwood and cedar are probably best, but more expensive...I wonder if I can get away with a inferior wood like oak or pine since its so hot and dry here, and with drip line the wood should not be getting too wet...I think...

still need to find some vermiculite locally. Got a few leads from people on freedomgardens, need to actualyl drive out and check.

price out decent compost. armstrong has bags for $8 each and its great stuff, but unless they have a discount on volume I think I am going to have to find something cheaper. worse comes to worse I can make a 'mix' of 50% mels mix and 50% miracle grow potting soil *shudder* hate to do that but I really need to do this as cheaply as possible and miracle grow is usually on sale at this time of year.

quarter inch 'rabbit hutch' mesh to line bottom of raised beds with- to keep out voles. I am thinking of recycling all my moving boxes by lining the beds with these as well to deter the weeds a la lasagna gardening.

question, how tall should the raised beds be?

I can probably reuse alot of the drip line I had at our old house, just need to buy new connectors and find a irrigation pipe I can tap a spigot onto.

need to call city about having them dump a truckload of 'mulch'- i can use that on the 'pathways' around the raised beds, I think.

UC Master Gardener Videos on the web

2009-02-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.uctv.tv/series/index.asp?series=yes&seriesnumber=11

Came across this gem when checking out the files section of the 'private' Los Angeles County Master Gardeners. I was lucky and was able to get 'transferred' from Sb county to LA since we moved out here, so my MG classes start up (again) in March every saturday thru May.

This list videos are really awesome, I started playing the vegetable gardening one in the background while searching the web. Great lecture so far! UC ANR has made them availible on the web for the public, so by all means enjoy!

heres part 1 on vegetable gardening

My new Garden in its infancy

2009-02-13T17:33:00.001-08:00

Alrighty then, so our new 'digs' are on the side of a hill. Literally. The only real flat planting area I have is this section where my sister in law had as her garden years ago when she lived here. Its the only area with any real soil, since this hill is all uplifted medello shale- which for you non geology people means its a giant pile of diatemacious earth. No organics, no worms, nada. I'm not even sure how this weed/grass grows here, the dirt is pale grey and when you crack open the rocks you can occasionalyl find impressions of soft bodied oceanic critters and fish. Very cool fossils. But back to gardening.

This stuff sucks for growing in. It absorbs water like a sponge, but can't grow anything without some serious heavy amending.

Heres a short photo tour of what I'm dealing with in all its slanted, concrete glory.

So it looks like my best bet will be to create raised beds on this slanted flat area (looking North in the first photo, and then turning to my left looking west in the second one)

heres a wider view of the area. The only tree I want to keep is the avacado in the center of this photo, the rest of the bushes are weeds of some sort that need to be dug out.

view from our bedroom doors that open to the deck- a lemon tree, more concrete where I plan to set up some SWCs, and the 'garden' beyond. Still looking North- so the whole area is in full sun year round.

walk around the corner we're now looking northeast to part of the pool deck. More concrete area for SWCs and other containers. That window on the left is that south facing window I talked about where my seed tray setup is. I also have my potted trees and herbs below my window right now ( not shown in this photo) Awesome view of the San Fernanod Valley from this deck.

swivling around looking due East is more of the valley view, the non-functioning spa ( oh I hope they fix it soon!) and the area edging the pool deck I want to 'line' with SWCs.

The Beauty between Rainstorms

2009-02-13T17:31:00.001-08:00

Ok rain, can you please go away now? I want my sun back.

2009-02-13T16:53:00.001-08:00

ugh, its cold and raining. I love the sound and the smell of rain, but its this cold I can't stand...I know I know, I'm a weak SoCal wimp whining about cold since its below 70 degrees, but its a whoping 48 degrees, which for me is pretty damn cold.

At night its been dipping into the 40s- if it gets to 38 tonight I need to go cover my potted plants & citrus- right now I have them in a kinda wind wheltered corner on the south side of the yard, which hopefully should help keep them a bit more protected. I'm dreading having to go outside in the rain and cold and fight a giant tarp to cover them.

The 2 things I hate most in life are being wet and being cold, and may the gods help you if you get caught in my wrath when I am both ( think; geology field trips in college).

Right now I am sitting here in these warm fuzzy PJs with feet like the sleepers little kids wear, with wool socks and flannels underneath and my feet are still icy cold, and as I sit here trying to type my hands keep going icy cold. Ugh. Excuse the horrid photo.

I don't mind the occasional SoCal cold spell to have an excuse to wear a sweater and to snuggle up under extra quilts, but alfter 2 weeks of some 80 degree weather in January its a shock to the system to have it cold and raining for a week, with a 1 day break and now 2 more storms moving in tonight For the last week we've kept a space heater on in 'our' wing of the house to keep it warm- its really drafty with so many single pane glass windows. I put curtains up which help a little but we just need to seriously get some weather stripping and caulk and fix all the gaps. No one has been living back here on this end for years until we recently moved in, so no one paid any attention.

We have a fireplace on this end, but it hasnt been used in over 10 years, so I'm really paranoid about starting a fire and burning the house down from dust catching fire or something. I'm going to bug my hubby and brother in law to check it out and see if its safe to light a fire- rather then waste gas on the furnace trying to heat this drafty house I'd rather get a bit of firewood and have a nice bank of coals going for heat and some romantic fireside snuggling for valentines day. Plus then I can make s'mores!

I'm kicking myself for not buying a better space heater. When I was at Lowes getting seed trays they had all their space heaters 75% off, ( only ~$30 after the discount) and I walked right by, thinking to myself how rarely it is that we're cold enough to bother with a space heater, and it would be a waste of money- arg.

I'm strggling to keep my seed trays warm. I jimmy'ed up a growing area with a rubbermaid garage storage shelving thing, some bungee cords, aquarium lights, and shoe boxes to raise the trays up close to the lights. Woohoo for being cheap!

They are in a south facing window with 2 aquarium lights. they are tiny so still have that plastic tray cover on that should help keep the warmth in overnight, I hope. So far the tomatos, eggplant, broccoli, swiss chard, basil and lettuce have sprouted. I'm still waiting on the leeks, pak choi and peppers to make an appearence.

spring cleaning

2009-02-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, the kids are down for a nap, I have unpacked 6 boxes, plus made chicken soup from my own canned goods and have a roast in the oven for dinner- I think I have earned some ME time to work on updating my blog.

so if things get wonky, text boxes out of whack and links broken, its OK, its just me playing around with the code.

Seed orders are in!

2009-02-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy unpacking, painting, and trying to keep the kids out of everyone's way. But my seeds are here at last!

listed by source:

Tomatofest.com

Carmello
Ildi
Amish Gold
Lemony (aka Limmony)
Jaune Flamme
Aunt Ruby's Green
Brandywine
Sunset Red Horizon ( Thanks Sinfonian!)

already had:
Cherokee purple chocolate
Gardener's Delight
Roma
Big Mama Hybrid

Botanical Interests
Cucumber -Armenian
Cucumber -Homemade Pickles
Cucumber -Spacemaster
Eggplant -Black Beauty
Eggplant- Long Purple
Eggplant -Rosa Bianca
Lettuce -Mesclun Gourmet Baby Greens
Pepper- Chile Ancho/Poblano
Pepper -Sweet Yolo Wonder
Squash- Summer Baby Round Zucchini
Squash Summer -Blk Beauty Zucchini
Swiss Chard Bright Lights Blend

Renees Garden
Lettuce, Ruby & Emerald Duet
Pak Choi, Green Fortune
Peppers, Habanero, Suave
Basil, Italian Cameo Catmint, Ornamental
Dill, Dukat Melons, Three Flavor Mix

Freedomseeds.org
Haogen Melon
Yellow Crookneck squash
red Dandelion

Seeds of Change:
Thai Lettuce
Golden Purslane

Seeds from last year:
Buttercrunch Lettuce
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard
Lacinato Kale
California Wonder Pepper
Serrano Chille

Urban Homesteading: Appreciating the "Bounty" of the supermarket

2009-01-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

Just because I'm not growing anything right now doesnt mean I cant find an excuse to get out the canner, jars, clean the freezer and exercise my food budgeting prowess! When having limited space/time for growing food sometimes you have to meet in the middle with 'normal' folk and rely on the wonders of the local supermarket . Some have 'points' you get back in the form of coupons or store credit rewards, its nice to get some money back to spend on other necessities. If you pay close enough attention theres a cycle to the prices of meat and produce when they are in season and plentiful. I have price "limits" that I set for myself to know when to buy/stockup and when to pass. Just read the weekly flyers they mail you for a few weeks and you will see the trends.

For example I do not buy boneless, skinless chicken breast unless they are $1.99 a pound or less. Usual price is 4-5 a pound, but every 4-6 weeks 1 or more stores will have them on sale. Latly I havent been buying it as much since I finally learned how to cut up my own whole chicken and take the breasts off myself- which on sale is usually 69-79 cents a pound instead of 3.99 a pound. More cluck for my buck, I got some inspiration from another blogger and now I take the breasts off and freeze them separately, roast the rest of the bird and then use the bones to make stock. This week whole chickens were 77 cents a pound, so I got the limit of 3 birds and happily brought home my days 'hunt'.

My other favorite 'budget' staple is chuck roast. This humble piece of meat is more then just a pot roast. Using my wonderful slow cooker I can leave it cooking overnight until its falling apart and shred ot make tacos/fajitas. Or I add red wine and potatoes and make a Portuguese meal called Al Catra, which is a roast with red wine, lots of onions, garlic and potatoes. The shredded meat is also good stuffed in pitas with hummus like a gyro, or fried crispy with some eggs to make machaca for breakfast. Add broth and rice/quinoa and we have a gluten free version of beef n 'barley' soup. Normal price is 3-4 dollars a pound, this week Vons had it on sale for $1.47 a pound. So I bought 4 5 pound roasts to freeze and cooked one for meals this week.

London Broil is another good 'cheap' cut- also known as top round, or more specifically its the bottom part of a top round cut. ( or maybe its the other way, need to check my book again). It can serve all the functions of a chuck roast, but when cut into cubes and marinated it can be quickly cooked to make tender cubes of beef for kebabs, stir fry, fajitas, curries and stew. The trick with London broil is to cook quickly and marinate well first, or you get little cubes of rubber. I learned this by trial and error!

Ground beef always comes in sale for $1.99 or less occasionally. Its endlessly useful, from adding some protein and flavor to red rice n beans to meatloaf (stretched with rice/quinoa) to thickening pasta sauces, I love ground beef, and try to always have some on hand for a fast meal my toddler and preschooler will eat.

Last but not least theres pork shoulder/boston butt roast or a picnic shoulder roast ( with bone). Once again I rely on the slow cooker to make a nice sort of pulled pork. Sometimes I use wine and garlic, or tomato sauce and Italian herbs, sometimes BBQ sauce, sometimes salsa- the variations are endless. Leftovers have same use as shredded beef. If the roast has a bone I save the bone and boil it later to add some flavor to split pea soup. a Ham bone from Easter also works well for this and has even more flavor.

Deals on supermarket produce come in handy as well. Bananas turning brown are clearenced to 10 cents a pound before they toss them: freeze them for smoothies or make banana bread/muffins, which also freezes well. Bruised apples can still be chopped with onions and fried for a side dish. If i had a cider press I would try cider or vinegar. I got a kitchenaid artisan mixer for Christmas from my birthmom and hubby got me the attachment set for my birthday, so we now have a food mill, I want to try my hand at applesauce. In strawberry season I know the berries are local so when they are $2.99 for the flat (6 pints) I get a few and make a bunch of jam and/or syrup, so far everyone tells me my jam is better then anything store bought. That always cheers me up.

One market was carrying "rainbow" carrots (bag mixed with white, yellow, purple, and red carrots as well as orange) for the first time and no one was buying them. I guess people saw they werent all orange and didnt want to try them. So they were a managers special: 5 x 2 pound bags for only $1. Yup, 10 cents a pound. I bought a whole lot and canned them. The colors fade a bit when canned but they still look pretty in their jars, and taste very nice and sweet. It was the first vegetable I used the pressure canner for this summer.

You just have to know whats on season and know when to take advantage of the stores having alot of supply or just a great limited sale.

Stater Bros had a 2 days sale on potatoes this weekend: 10 pound bag for $1.99- so 20 cents a pound, can't beat that nowadays! I remember when that was the normal price and on sale they were 1.00 a bag...but oh well, food prices keep going up. So I clipped my coupons and hit 2 stores to get 40 pounds, (4 bags) of potatoes. I should have got more, but I'm on my last case of new quart mason jars, and now that its winter no local stores carry them- I checked everywhere. Rather then order them online I'll just use what I have, now that we're cycling thru the pantry more with better meal planning ( relying on my pantry instead of running to the stores for everything) I end up with 2-3 empty jars a week to be washed and put away anyhow.

My plan is to peel/slice 2 bags and can them in quarts, for stews, pot roast etc, and the other 2 bags peel and dice into cubs and can in pints, for quicker things like hash or soups or whatnot. I don't cook with potatoes as much as I used to- now that I have expanded my repertoire of vegetables beyond carrots, onions and potatoes. What usually gets me hung up is scrubbing and peeling them while watching 2 kids and getting other things cooked and cleaned at the same time. Rather then pay $2 per 16 oz can of sliced potatoes at the store, I'd rather just do them myself. Sounds pretty simple, peel, slice/dice, boil for 2 minutes, and hot pack into jars ( add salt is desired). Can in pressure canner at 10 pounds for 40 minutes.

Overall I'm quite proud of myself this week. I spent $40 at Vons just getting roasts and chickens that were on sale and a couple of gallons of milk and my total was about $47 with tax, and at the bottom of the receipt it said "You saved $39.85 this week" Woot! So my chest freezer has more then enough meat to last us thru the rest of this month, I have potatoes to can and I still have canned squash, green beans and carrots in the pantry. I used the last of my canned whole tomatoes and sauce tho :( Hence why I am dreaming and drooling of the tomatoes I hope to plant this year, and pray they do wonderfully in the containers I am planning.

Just because you arent completly self sufficient in the food you eat doesnt mean you can't exercise some good homesteading skills of 'waste not, want not', preserving 'extra' food for later and being in tune with the produce of the season. All it costs is a little time to plan out and patience to wait for the sales. :)

A new year...another move

2009-01-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

Been too busy to post much between keeping up with my meetup group, freedom gardens, unpacking, and the holidays. And now we're moving, again.

yup, thats right, apparently my plans for cramming a garden into this little townhome space won't be happening this year.

As everyone knows the economy has slowed many industries to a dying crawl- including construction- and being that my husband is a geologist who supervises construction his whole industry has died as well. His whole office ( except for him) got laid off before Christmas. He's the last man tanding probably because he has a stack of files and reports that need to be completed thats almost as tall as him, since he now has to finish all the reports that belonged to the people who were laid off as well. Its a mixed blessing. He has a job at the moment, but its not looking like we can count on it for much longer. So we started looking at a fallback plan- since I have not been able to find a job in the year I have been looking for work.

His older brother- who is also a geologist, can't fid a job, and his other siblings ( also geologsts, its a family thing) are about to be out of work as well. In the midst of all this, their dad owns a home in the San Fernando Valley thats paid off, no mortgage, and happens to be realy big, ( as in, 8 bedrooms- it was a house that was damaged in the Northridge quake and sold for rediculously cheap in the '90s). Did I mention it has a pool and a hillside view of the entire valley? Anyhow their dad said we could stay there and weather otu this recession till things blow over and constructin comes back to life. So as luck would have it, we're gonna be "homeless" and staying at this huge "Valley" house along with 8 other inlaws. Its like being trapped in yuppie paradise.

Oh boy, do I have my work cut out for me. Urban Homesteading, family commune, same thing really. Much easier for 3 families and their unemployment checks to scrape by and get thru this economic dowturn then struggling to pay rent in a 'decent' area and make ends meet.

I have taken on the offical job of playing farmer to grow as much as I can, so we don't have to buy much food besides the parishables.

Since its on a hill I dont have one large flat area to work with, I have a bunch of terraced off areas ond slops where I can cram in some raised beds for veggies and maybe some fruit trees ( transplanted from our old house, the foreclosure isn finalized yet). Even the pool deck has apurpose, I'm planning on using one large open area as a "garden" of large DIY self watering rubbermaid container planters. Oh yes, call me crazy, call me paranoid, but goshdarnit I am going to grow veggies in every spot I can cram them, and then find some more places LOL.

Canning: 1 Freezing: --

2008-11-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Another reason why I love canning food more so then freezing them now...

I'm sooo annoyed right now, this is the 2nd time this month the chest freezer in the garage has gone off because the GFCI its plugged into tripped. I just got some butter out of there yesterday afternoon and everything was fine so it must have tripped sometime during the night. I went out today to pull out the turkey carcass to make stock and to my horror everything was thawed and mushy, but thankfully still very very cold ( alot still had frost & ice crystals) with a layer of water at the bottom. After it tripped last week ( and I caught it right away) I spent this week emptying ice cubes from our little freezer ice maker as added insurance in case it tripped again. Glad I did. I had to throw away the overripe banananas and cooled cooked spaghetti squash that was on top and the mushiest, but I'm at a loss at what to do with everything else that got sorta thawed in the ice water.

I mashed up all the raspberries and am going to make jam with them tonight, my poor husband had to drive to 3 stores to find pectin since (unknown to me) its a seasonal item they dont always have in stock.

I have 4 gallon zip lock bags full of tomatillos that are still mostly frozen solid and some a bit soft, 6 gallon bags of sliced bell peppers thats still firm but mostly thawed and 2 gallon bags of cubed cantaloupe thats frozen slush.

I'm heartbroken that a summer's worth of peppers and tomatillos might have to be thrown away, I'm not sure how well they'd hold up to being frozen again. I think I can make salsa from the tomatillos if I can go get some cilantro tomorrow, but the bell peppers? Anyone know a good chutney or something that uses ALOT of bell pepper?

UGH! I love our new place but I'm irked that we just had maintenance come out last week and replace the entire wall outlet because the GFCI would not come back on. I'm really afraid that theres something screwy in the wall thats not grounded correctly and thats whats tripping it, the freezer is less then 2 years old and never had a problem with it.

Goes to prove why canning & drying can be so much more reliable then a freezer- you're at the mercy of a $4 plactic outlet to keep your precious goods safe. I just bought about 20 pounds of ground beef for the month to portion out and freeze, looks like I'm going to have to babysit this freezer/GFCI outlet to make sure it doesnt go out again. The tiny freezer above the fridge in our apartment is crammed with kid stuff like (HG) nuggets, GF bread, flours and my beloved Haggan Daaz.

A Humbling Thanksgiving, as well as a new Begining

2008-11-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

(Meant to post this a week ago but between the world of warcraft expansion and out of state family visiting I've been short pressed for time with the 2 kids and all when I'm sitting at the computer- but for the record my night elf druid is lvl 76 with 450 alchemy, 450 jewelcrafting, 425 fishing, and 422 cooking woot! I don't need a powerleveling service thank you very much! LOL)

Hello all, sorry for yet another hiatus, but its been a hectic few months. I had been avoiding posting on here since well, I just didn't really feel like spewing my emotional turmoil and also because our whole lives were up in the air. But the long and the short of it is: my large organic garden paradise is no more.
Faced with the stupidity of a mortgage modification gone terrible wrong and the advice of family real estate lawyers, we 'chose' to walk away from our house,foreclose and start anew renting a nice 2 bedroom apartment in the same city....I say 'chose' with air quotes since its a very fine line between "choosing" to " walk away" from your beloved home vs. waiting till you get eviction papers. Its more of a mental game really, feeling like we somehow won and came out ahead by walking away with our heads held high ( while fighting back tears). For the sake of our sanity and the well being of the kids we didn't want to drag the whole thing out with government bailout programs, counseling, short sales, etc. Once we realized that the expenses ( with this new loan) were exceeding our income, and me having no luck in finding work in the last 8 months I have been frantically applying everywhere, we got no answers on how long we actually had before foreclosure would be filed against us, we had to move fast to secure safe affordable living accommodations before the foreclosure hit our credit and ruined it. Its frustrating to say to least to not even get a straight answer on how long the proceedings take to know when we'd have to move out. Its been utterly depressing, and I didn't want to get into it on this blog, I have had to explain the situation over and over again to the bank, friends, family, our former neighbors...I'm kinda sick of talking about it, I'm trying to move past it with positive energy. We felt utterly betrayed by our mortgage company for taking what was a very nice and safe loan, and (*&*(^% it up to the point that we couldn't afford to make the house payment and make ends meet, which is the total opposite of a loan modification is supposed to accomplish. We accept responsibility for our actions and are accepting the credit hit of the foreclosure. We fought, we cried, we researched options, made a choice, and have made peace with it. blablabla, wawawa, ok, I'm ok now.

It has all worked out for the best it seems:we had fallen in love with a nice new 2 bedroom 2 story town home in a new complex. Its actually the same sq footage of our old home (~1300 sq ft of living space) that had of all things a small (15 x 15 ft) but nice private courtyard. When I first saw it I immediately realized there was some potential here: I could garden in containers, not to mention without property taxes and a money pit of a 50 year old fixer upper hanging over our heads we'd be able to possibly budget in a CSA share or a plot at a community garden for "big" crops like winter squash and melons. But one can totally grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, salad greens, and herbs in pots. Citrus trees too! Unfortunately the monthly rent was at the uppermost limit of our intended budget ($1980) and there were no units of that floor plan available or showing as being available any time soon.
We had sadly thought it was a a far fetched option when by some stroke of luck someone who had a unit reserved backed out at the last minute, and prices dropped dramatically ( a sad upside to this crazy economy), and there was a new leasing special being offered, so the price was only $1775- for comparison our mortgage payments were $2,700 a month...plus $4,000 a year in property taxes, and $600 in insurance.
So here we are 2 months later, blessed with a brand new home ( they just opened this section of the community this summer) with a sunny south facing courtyard, and a beautiful view of my beloved mountains from the kids room upstairs. Both bedrooms have their own bathrooms and walk in closets- I am feeling rather spoiled after living in a house with so many things needing to be fixed! From my living room we look out at the mountains and to the tree lined bike path that leads to a park and an elementary school in an awesome school district. I am relieved and happy here so far.

Right now I have my large "Italian Herb" planter still giving us sweet and Cinnamon basil, oregano, and parsley. I have another container with 2 small rosemary plants, and my mango tree in its pot. We're still unpacking things so I haven't had time to set up my planned window boxes with 'Tom Thumb' lettuce and 'Bright Lights' chard, and of course some mesclun. For Christmas I am asking Santa for an 'Improved Meyer Lemon' on dwarf rootstock! LOL Gotta make some lemonade with those lemons ya know? *wink*
In the garage I have 4 milk crates packed with all the butternut squash from our garden that was ready to pick ( those crazy vines are STILL flowering) as well as a box of Pomegranates from our tree. We got 5 persimmons this year too. For thanksgiving dinner I made butternut squash soup and a awesome pomegranate reduction sauce for the turkey along with fresh herbs form my pot, so the spirit of self reliance was still there as much as we could.
Before we mail the keys to the bank ala jingle mail we're hoping the trees go dormant enough to dig some of the fruit trees to plant in my dad's yard and 'adopt' out to fellow gardening friends. Its been cool and raining (!!!) this week so hopefully that will finally get the trees dormant enough to transplant without shocking them. I just couldn't the bear the thought of abandoning my 'babies' to be ignored, not watered, or worse ripped out when they come re landscape the place. I also want t0 try and save my 'Misty' blueberry in a pot if I can. And take some cuttings from my fig tree. Yes the wheels of my mind are still whirling in how I can "downsize" my garden aspirations while maximizing production in a small space. I can do this! its another new challenge, and I love being challenged.

Anyway, theres an update for now, kids are asleep so I'm taking advantage to go play WoW with my husband for a little bit before my bedtime LOL. Plus I need to check on my after thanksgiving turkey stock simmering on the stove. (waste not, want not)

Stick aound as I plan to attempt making kefir, kombucha, and even my own cheese at some point this winter. :) Love thrives in small(er) spaces, and I fully intend to live it that way.

Getting involved with my local community, and come thoughts on Rancho "Going Green"

2008-10-08T01:26:00.000-07:00

The widget you see to the right is for the Meetup group I started specifically to help other local gardeners. My friend Mandi was generous enough to 'sponsor' us by giving me one of her subscription slots, which is why shes listed as the organizer and I'm the assistant. But in reality I rule with an absolute iron will.....HAHA just kidding. I do post alot of info tho, everything I come across on blogs, UC cooperative extension articles, other states extension articles, forums, etc. I know not everyone has as much time ( or passion) to search the world wide web as I do on nights like this when I can't sleep.

Master Gardening classes are going wonderfully. Monday nights are now my "ME" night. Chris gets home early, I have my 20 minute ( not much traffic thank GOD) drive to Loma Linda, then I get to sit in the beautiful Loma Linda East Campus' new tranquility garden and relax and read a bit before class. I love my kids but man I've missed having an activity that doesn't revolve around them. Last week we learned about the basics of soil ( types, composition, water holding capacity) and water ( its structure, how plantsuse it, its relation to soil type, irrigation) and this week we learned all about irrigation. An expert who works for Rainbird ( and also a master gardener) came and spoke to us about different types of irrigation systems, sprinklers, drip systems, timers, controllers, planning an efficient irrigation system, upcoming legislation regarding residential water usage....wow, theres alot more to watering then the ole' thumb over the hose thats for sure. Some of it I knew from designing my garden's drip system, but now I can see where theres tons of room for improvement.

I've also been approached to do a talk on organic gardening a a local library, hooray! I'm in the process of getting those details from the library and checking if I can get community service hours for it ( since I need 50 hours for the Master Gardener certification). Its exciting to think in March I could be speaking to the public about something I love with a name tag saying I'm a trained Master Gardener. It gives me goosebumps.

Being the overacheiver that I am ( or was in my life before kids...) I'm also planning on God willing taking the county's Master Composting seminar later this month to become a Master Composter- and hopefully be able then to give classes in my city about it. Sadly my city is a little slow on that part of green living...but they are building and promoting some huge LEED Platinum building (aka build up to the strictest 'green' building codes) as an office building. Interesting...but eh. In contrast the Sam J. Racadio Highland Library and Environmental Learning Center that just opened up in Highland a few months ago is only a Gold LEED building but is more then just a 'green' library building. It also has a rooftop garden and many programs designed to provide and promote environmental education .

woot, thank you Green Valley Initiative! I think....hopefully its not just another cleverly disguised lobbying group.

At least theres finally some atttention to the issue. San Bernardino county is pushing for all of their cities to become more "green". I am proud that my city is trying to become "green" certified, but theres more to it then putting in fancy buildings with nifty soar panels and recycled materials. We have NO community garden, NO composting program, and NO recycled green waste availible to the public. Tsk Tsk. I think responsible horticulture ( xeriscaping, organic gardening, green waste recycling,sustainable agriculture) are also very important issues community members should be encouraged to learn more about. How can you be "green" without growing PLANTS? hmm?

A Late Summer Update

2008-10-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the big hiatus again. One thing I didnt quite realize was just how much time I needed to dedicate to my garden weeding, watering, and of course, harvestng and preserving. Literally figs "not quite ripe" one day will be mushy and too ripe within a few days so I have to be checking every day to catch them when they are perfect. Tomatos are a big more forgiving but a few times I waited too long ( trying to let them develop maximum sun kissed flavor) and they has soft rotten spots on them or bugs found them.

Cantaloupes are the worst with this- you have to pick them at "full slip" when you lift the fruit it readily deattatches from its vine- that means its ripe. Sometimes I don't see them nestled in all the tangle of leaves and vines and by the time I find them little bugs have chewed holes into the soft spot where the melon is resting on he ground and the melon rots to the center before I find it. Its quite frustrating to be searching for melons, finding one thats already off the vine, pick it off and have it dissintegrate into a pile of emptyskin, goo, and seeds in my hand. Sometimes this happens in the house to, I set my picked fruit on the table and forget to put them in the fridge/eat them right away and with how warm its been they rot sitting on the table. Thankfully I've only lost a few melons, I had harvested 12, yes TWELVE of them in one day some weeks ago and had ot usily chop them all and freeze them, no way I could eat all of them and even if they are mushy when thawed should make a decent cereal or fruit salad addition in winter. I'm still finding 1 or 2 ripe melons a week, and the vines are still flowering. They taste INCREDIBLE, I've never ever had such sweet wonderful melons in the stores.

Ironically, these plants were a result of store bought melon I had thrown the seeds in the composter, and they all sprouted. The seedlings I had tried to start in trays died, and the ones planted in ground were eaten by a bug, so I tried planting some of these random seedlings to see how they'd fare in the garden. So I have no idea what the name of the variety is, but they taste amazing.

Of course my Husband wanted pics of my melons. And I wanted to post them on the internet. Original huh? ( Even more ironic that I'm trying to look sexy and not laugh at myself when I look like crap after working outside all morning)

I also finally broke down and bought a pressure canner. I have processed a ton of strawberry jam, raspberry jam, fig jam, tomatos, tomatillos, salsa and dilly beans (picled green beans) but I really wanted to be able to can this bumper crop of butternut squash, and for that I can't use a boiling water canner. I sold my brand new, in the box, singer sewing machine I got 2 years ago and still had never used ( and had no clue how). I needed a pressure canner. So I used the funds from the sewing machine to buy a 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner off Amazon.

Heres a pic of it next to my boiling water canner for comparison. Please excuse the grungy stove, after a long afternoon of canning a stove will not look clean no matter how many spills you try and wipe up LOL.

I have been quite enjoying my expanded canning possibilities. I had 7 quarts of homemade chicken stock frozen in various tupperwards in my chest freezer and needed the space for freezing meat and bread. Plus sometimes its a pain to wait for the 'brick' of stock to melt when making soup. So I asked around on some forums and found out its perfectly safe to thaw, boil, and can previously frozen chicken stock. The boiling water canner minus the canning rack makes an excellent large pot for boiling stock. The pressure canner was very easy to use, I was scared it would blow up but it really was easy once I read the directions and followed them step by step. I even used it as a pressure cooker to make a pork roast. Usually I cook it slowly overnight in the slow cooker, but I was able to cook a very fork tender, flavorful roast in about 2 hours. My local market had a crazy manager special on some organic rainbow carrots, 20 cents per 2 pound bag ( 5 bags for $1). Apparently people we'rent buying them since they weren't all that "traditional" orange, its a mix of heirloom varieties. Their loss was my gain and I happily practiced pressure canning with 10 pounds of carrots. Alton Brown had a show where he made chicken stock in a pressure in hours rather then how I do it simmering slowly for 2 days. I may try it one day for comparison, but I'm cusiour of the pressure cooker extracts as much minerals and collegen from the bones into the stock. But first I needed to can some butternit squash....quite a bit of it.

Canning the squash was an all day project. Apparently you cannot can mashed or pureed winter squash for safty reasons, you can only can them in cubes with a pressure canner. I realized by accident that by canning the butternut squash the same day as I pick them the skin isnt hard and much easier to peel with an ordinary kitchen knife. I didn't even have to soften the squash by baking or steaming it. Thankfully Walthum butternut doesnt have much in the way of seeds, so I didnt waste much squash in peeling and seeding. The result is some very gorgeous looking canned squash. I keep opening the pantry door just to admire my handywork!

Heres my other pantry shelf stuffed with home canned goodness:

Huzzah! I'm happy!

2008-08-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

got this in my email today, finally some good news in the midst of real life stress.

Dear University of California Master Gardener Program Applicant:

Congratulations!

You have been accepted into the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program!Attached please find a letter with complete details. If you are unable to open the attachment, please note that hardcopies of the same information were mailed to you today.Welcome to the world of volunteerism and Master Gardening.
We look forward to meeting you and to your involvement in what we hope will prove a rewarding and fulfilling experience!

Janet Hartin
Jackie Brooks
University of California Cooperative Extension
University of California Cooperative Extension Environmental Horticulturist and MG Program Manager
MG Program Coordinator

Peaches (For SonomaMom)

2008-08-17T01:49:00.000-07:00

SonomaGarden got me to thinking about peaches. We picked these back in mid June, they were wonderfully juicy. I wish we had some ripe peaches right now LOL. Hopefully next year all 8 varieties will give and we can enjoy them all summer long.

Oh Snap! (Beans)

2008-08-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

Growing up my experience of beans was refried from a can or glued to construction paper for some sort of a craft. I knew green beans existed, they were in cans in my mother's pantry where every once in a while she'd dump the lot into a pot, boil it, and serve. ewwwww. I hated the taste, the texture...just ickick ick. Everytime I saw that french's frid onion commercial of " I brought the green bean caserole!" I shuddered and couldnt imagine how that was a good "Welcome Neighbor" gift. So naive I was...

So this year when I had a 'free' row to try and grow something new I wanted something easy to grow, liked warm weather and gave a good bounty for its space. On the forums I haunt it was suggested I try pole or bush beans. I was very iffy at first, I had this image of a row of beans that when shelled would give about 2 cups worth of beans...until I researched them a bit more and found out you eat the thing pod and all as green beans when young and tender. Something about "young, tender, green, & delicious!" got me hooked. It was a great sales pitch. Since this was my first time growing them I wanted to go with a variety that was full proof and bountiful, so I looked on Burpee and there was rave reviews for their Bush Bean Heavyweight II so I ordered a packet and hoped for the best. So far they have lived up to their 'hype' and given us quite anabundance of pods, I cant get them blanched and frozen fast enough LOL. I still had no idea how to cook the darn things...but I felt happy I had them LOL. Until I found a mouthwatering recipe for green beans from The Pioneer Woman blog...I thought I had died and found heaven in a vegetable....those beans were so damn good I ate them cold the next day like a cold green ean salad....it is that amazingly good (and simple to boot).

Eventually I bought a packet with 3 different colors beans ot fill in betwene where some beans didnt grow, so now I have some purple and yellow beans growing too, very pretty! Sadly when pickled they dont stay purple...and the yellow ones just kinda turn white...

Edible Weeds: lots to love about Purslane

2008-08-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was poking around on mother earth news and was reading an interesting article on how healthy purslane is and I had to feel a bit guilty- I spent a couple of hours today pulling weeds and purslane is the most common weed I have. I don't aim to keep my garden perfectly weed free but even with landscape fabric, cornmeal, and mulch its a never ending battle against spurge, burmuda grass and purslane for precious water and space. I remember reading about edible weeds in "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" years ago so I reasoned it was safe to add to my compost bin unlike most other weeds. For some reason I havent been able to bring myself to eat 'weeds'- yet.
I guess its because I'm not much of a salad fan so as tasty as dandelions, sheperds purse and purslane may be I have the excuse of not being a salad person to avoid eating them. But in the name of good gardening as well as being more open minded I will probably nibble on some purslane and see how it is. I mean really, if its thriving in your garden,its plentiful, and its FREE and its healthy why not eh? Talk about the ultimate freebie!

If I can be 'brave' enought to forego the traditional lawn and water greedy landscape plants for edibles I may as well try the stuff I didnt plan on planting but showed up anyway. How about you guys?

Do you go as far as to cultivate what others consider weeds ( dandelion, chicweed, dock, purslane, miners lettuce, etc) or just joyfully pick whats edible as you pull other less wanted pests? Just poking on Mother Earth news I found 2 articles of interest, of course theres good ole google if you're looking for more :)

WILD FOODS IN YOUR GARDEN
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1992-06-01/Wild-Foods-in-Your-Garden.aspx
Power-Packed Purslane
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-04-01/Power-packed-Purslane.aspx

I posted this on the Freedom Gardener forums and I wasnt the only one suprised that this 'weed' is so awesome! I also found a few more links via other posters. This site here deals with edible/medicinal wild plants groups by month, heres the link to their July page with many useful facts on purslane, some recipes, and more links to other sites mentioning purslane.
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/july%20weblog.htm#Purslane

Last but not least one of my favorite blogers SonomaMom had this wonderful looking recipe for a Turkish Purslane Stew

So next time I go on a weeding frenzy I'm going to finally put that weed to good use and try eating it.

Freedom Gardeners Unite!

2008-08-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

I now have another forum to go hang out on in my free time. :) But don't worry, MCD 'Diggin in the Earth' remains in my daily rounds as well. My username (on both) is Geogal17

from www.freedomgardeners.org

Seeding Change: Website Seeks to Liberate Diets—and Wallets—from Supermarket
Site’s “100-Foot Diet” Brings Local Food Movement Home
PASADENA, CA. - July 7, 2008 - Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for backyard pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices and global warming by growing their own food. At FreedomGardens.org, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.
The site is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.
Few can match that output, but the Dervaeses say that by growing at least a portion of what they eat, “Freedom Gardeners” everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money. With food price inflation at the highest levels since 1990, the latter may be the most compelling reason to join what the Dervaeses call their “homegrown revolution(TM).”
To motivate new gardeners and focus their efforts, Freedom Gardens offers challenges like the 100-Foot Diet. With a nod to the 100-Mile Diet and other “eat local” initiatives, the 100-Foot Diet urges people to garden in whatever space they have available, be it a small patio or a spacious backyard, then prepare at least one meal a week using as many homegrown ingredients, and as few store-bought ingredients, as possible.
Mr. Dervaes uses the illustration of a target to explain the 100-Foot Diet in the context of the global food economy and the distance food travels from field to plate. “The outer ring of the target is overseas, while the circle at 1,500 miles represents the average distance produce in a grocery store travels. The 100-mile diet is getting you closer to the center. But, the 100-foot diet is actually bringing you right back to your home, and that is the bull’s-eye,” he says. “We want people to look for food security in their own backyard.”
Freedom Gardens is an offshoot of the family’s first website, PathtoFreedom.com, a seven year-old sustainable living blog that gets 5 million hits per month from 125 different countries. The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.
“We are providing the setting for ‘over-the-fence’ chats,” says Mr. Dervaes. “Neighbors can help each other more than we can from our particular locale. Through the website, we facilitate their getting together.”
Growing your own diet is not easy, but the Dervaeses are living proof that it is not impossible either. In their first year of full-time gardening, the family’s harvest was over 2,300 pounds; by 2003, their yearly take had reached over 6,000 pounds. This year they have challenged themselves to reach a new all-time high: 10,000 pounds from a one-tenth acre urban garden.
The Dervaes family has received several local awards and congressional recognition for their environmental contributions and outreach efforts. They have been the subject of numerous articles in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and were recently featured on ABC’s Nightline and CNN.
About Freedom Gardens
Launched in May 2008, Freedom Gardens is a social networking website for gardeners and homegrown food enthusiasts. The site’s founders, the Dervaes family, draw on years of personal experience on their model urban homestead to help others take back control of their diets and their budgets by growing more of their own food. For more information, please visit www.freedomgardens.org.

The season of Bounty is upon us, woot!

2008-08-06T17:27:00.001-07:00

Just taking a break from the sweltering hot kitchen...todays preserved count thus far:

5 quarts of Dilly Beans

8 pints of Fig Jam

2 Trays of fig dehydrating

1 tray of 'fig leather'

1 tray of tomatos drying

3 pounds of banana cut up and frozen

2 gallon bag packed with bell pepper strips frozen

I HAD to use those figs today or lose them, when I picked them yesterday most were almost to the point of overripe, the sudden humidity with the heat made a whole bunch ripen on the tree even faster then I would have anticipated. They were too squishy to can whole. I still have 4 quarts of whole figs in syrup in the pantry ( I gave some away to family), they look cool in the jars. I'm watching the tree more carefully, with the next 'wave' of figs I want to can them whole again.

My face is all greasy feeling, all that steam and boiling water from canning and blanching is like a sauna, opens the pores which is good I guess but man I feel hot and gross. I keep washing my hands and face to cool off and not feel so oily but my face keeps pumping out more LOL. I'm just letting the kids eat something then mybe they will go take a little nap so I can shower.

I need to do another tray of tomatos in the dehydrator and probably chop some to freeze as well. I have the rest of the row of green beans to pick as well, I only got thru about 5 plants worth, they are so packed with beans right now. Need to do something with the eggplant....not sure if I can freeze it. Oh wait, lookkee HERE I can freeze it , nifty! Fresh eggplant to make curry with for the next few weeks.

I also have a bumper cop of basil I need to do something with, its flowering. I'll probably end up freezing it for later. I tried to keep up with snipping it so it wouldnt flower and affect the flavor, but serious, basil WANTS to flower, I swear the more you snip it the faster it tried to flower LOL. Time for frozen pesto.

Preserving the Harvest

2008-07-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

Been MIA from blogging since I've been busy, busy, busy blanching, freezing, canning, and yes even dehydrating the fruits/veggies of our little happy garden. I'll try to get some pictures and recipes up later.

June's Garden in Pictures

2008-07-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

These photos are about 2 weeks old, I need to take new ones, most of my plants are way bigger then these photos show. Click for captions.

This is why I don't use pesticides

2008-06-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Why would I kill the beneficial ones too when they are so darn cool looking?

Wohlgemuth's Organic Cherry Orchard

2008-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Inland Empire AP yahoo group did a field trip to this orchard last week, but I wasnt able ot make it since my kids decided to be complete brats that day, so driving 45 minutes anywhere was out of the question. I managed to convince my husband that getting up bright and early Saturday to go as a family would be a nice family outing. At 7:30 am in the morning on saturday theres no traffic so it was a nice drive. It turned out great, the day ended hitting 108 degrees but we got there at 8 am when they opened and in about an hour of leisurly picking and eating we picked 12 pounds of bing cherries to take home.

Its a nice little place to go, you pay $1 per adult to get in and then they had lowered the price per pound from $4 to $2. It was very relaxing, it was a nice cool morning and quiet with the few other early pickers that were there. I loved being able to taste a cherry from the cluster before picking, I plan on making jam and its awesome to know all fruit was hand picked and tasted for quality. :)

If you're near Beaumont/Riverside you really should visit this place before the heat claims the rest of the crop.

For more info and picking conditions visit their website at http://www.pickcherry.com/

Fruit Fly issues...

2008-06-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

My kitchen has been overun by fruit flies now that warm weather ( and ripe fruit) abound. I try to keep my fruit in the fridge since I like to eat it cold but I need ot sometimes leave some out at room temp to finish ripening. The flies go nutts over it as well as any dirty dishes in the sink. I try to keep up but even when theres 1 cereal bowl from the kids breakfast in there its just coated with those tiny red bugs. I was looking online to try and find some sort of non toxic trap, but I refuse to pay $10 each plus shipping. So instead I made DIY yeast traps using the instructions on this site:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/FruitFlyTrap.shtml

so simple I dont know why I didnt think of something similar by using overripe fruit in a jar- if the yeast doesnt lure them I'll try that next.

Today's Harvest

2008-06-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have a bin full of yellow crookneck squash, zuccini, brocolli, sweet peppers, bell peppers, and japanese eggplant.

My bush beans have tiny pods starting and my cucumbers vines have a few baby cukes. Hooray! Oh Lord am I going to have alot of tomatos...I can hardly wait!

2008 Master Gardening Certification

2008-06-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of my goals in life: be a Master Gardener.

There site sums it up best so I'll just copy/paste it here to get you all hot and excited. Ok, so maybe just hot, but thats not cuz of me I'm sure.

http://cesanbernardino.ucdavis.edu/Master_Gardener/

Master Gardener Program
The trained volunteers of the UC Master Gardeners program extend the ability of local Cooperative Extension offices to provide practical scientific horticulture and gardening information to the citizens of California. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the master gardeners at (909)387-2182 or you can send them an email at mgsanber@ucdavis.edu. The office hours vary so please leave your name and phone number and we will be happy to return your call.
The Master Gardener program is a non-profit public service outreach program sponsored by University of California Cooperative Extension in which volunteers are trained to extend gardening information to the general public. Applicants accepted into the program receive 50 hours of classroom training and agree to provide a minimum of 50 volunteer hours by May 31, 2007 through approved Cooperative Extension educational activities (excludes manual labor). Daytime, evening, and weekend volunteer opportunities are available, including answering home gardening questions on an assigned office day in the Cooperative Extension office in San Bernardino or the satellite office in Chino, establishing school and community gardens, staffing booths at fairs and civic events, writing weekly newspaper articles, providing docent services, and serving as guest speakers at community-sponsored events. Master Gardeners in good standing may recertify each successive year after completing a minimum of 20 continuing education and 25 volunteer hours per year. There is a $90 fee due the first class period to defray expenses directly related to conducting the program. The fee includes the cost of the Master Gardener Handbook and additional handouts. If you are interested in becoming a Master Gardener but cannot afford this fee due to financial hardship, there are limited need-based scholarships available.

We are planning our next Master Gardener Certification Class series to begin in September 2008 through February 2009 on Monday evenings from 6:30-9:30 pm. Contact the Master Gardener Office at (909)387-2182 or by email at mgsanber@ucdavis.edu and leave your name and mailing address and email to be added to the mailing list.

OOO a Gardening class!

2008-06-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

I had been stalking the Lyle center website for info on their upcoming workshops, but of course thier site still just says "Coming soon". By a stroke of luck, fate, or the sneeze of God another mama in the Pomona Valley chapter of Hollistic Moms Network asked if anyone wanted to carpool to this class. The SOlar living institute has their class list out already.

It sounds interesting to say the least. Lately my newest educational idea has been to pull over my credits from CSUN and finish my major in geology (environmental), go over to Cal Poly Pomona and get a 2nd major in biology/agriculture and get a minor from the Lyle Center in Regenerative studies. I mean the college has a garden for Christs sake, how could I not *heart* that?

But anyway, heres the class info:

http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=1836

PO 131: Ecological Urban Gardening Jul 19 2008, 9am-5pm

Learn to design and maintain your own garden space in the city! We will explore sustainable urban gardening options, such as planters, rooftop boxes, community/school gardens, and more.
Hands-on experience will cover:
• Site/soil analysis
• Composting
• Irrigation
• Planting
• Pruning
Incorporate such concepts as crop biodiversity, companion planting, nutrient recycling, and agro-forestry for use in urban, home-scale garden design.

COST:$95.00

LOCATION:
The John T. Lyle Center For Regenerative Studies
4105 West University Drive
Pomona CA 91768

INSTRUCTOR:

Doug Kent
Since starting at 14, Douglas Kent's passion and knowledge of plants, landscapes, and urban design has steadily grown. He has written four books, authored over fifty articles, received an M.S. from the Lyle Center of Regenerative Studies, and has created beneficial landscapes throughout California. Kent is a passionate, dynamic instructor.

Gardening: the new economically friendly trend

2008-06-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have a running gag: whatever I tend to get obsessed with will get odd looks at first, then after awhile become something huge and popular.

For example, in high school I had to read Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy the summer before sophomore year. As I delved into the world of hobbits I joined a then small but bustling little Tolkien fan website known as Tolkien Online. I happily discussed stuff from philosophy to elven language ( and all sorts of nerdy stuff), actively answered questions from "Tolkien Virgins", and role played via message board. All was well and nerdy as I stuck around in this little hub for years after it was required class reading, I enjoyed it. Then someone posted a rumor that there was a movie in the works. Immediately all was a bustle as we fans were both excited that our favorite literary masterpiece was going to be put on the big screen, and terrified Hollywood would rewrite, dismantle and otherwise add sex and drama in order to capitalize on it. As more details emerged the discussions got more heated and I was one of the thousands who signed a petition against having Liv Tyler's characterization of Arwen being so prominent ( since she isn't a major character in the trilogy). Of course the director didnt change his movies based on a few thousand passionate fans, but he did have one of his underlings keep us updated with how filming was progressing and throwing us tidbits. Finally the movies came out with much hoorah and now of course * everyone* knows the story of Frodo, Samwise, Gollem and Aragorn. My once quiet little hub of nerdyness has been rebuilt, moved to different sites, sued by the Tolkien trust over copyright infringement, all sorts of crap brought about by the sudden interest and millions of new fans. I ended up drifting away as I got annoyed by the constant server overloads leaving the site unusable and censorship nazis complaining about people feeling excluded on ongoing role playing stories and whatnot. Occasionally I drop by to say hello and see if any of us "old timers" still visit the boards.

After I got married my husband and I got into the addictive hobby of saltwater aquariums. We even joined the Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County (MASLAC) and traded corals and fish and other interesting critters at meetings and quarterly " frag swaps". Its a kinda close knot and passionate group of people who really take alot of time and effort into taking good care of their critters and not treating them like replaceable goldfish. Corals are well cared for so the hobby as a whole can rely more and more on corals propagated here in our aquariums rather then fuel an already damaging business of taking corals and fish out of their native wilds. It really is a hobby whos ultimate goal is to have a piece of nature in our homes without raping the environment in the process. Anyhow, I got involved actively on Reefcentral, which is THE online hub for reef enthusiasts. One say someone mentioned that Disney was making a movie about a clownfish named Nemo. Oh how we all laughed. What a silly idea, how the heck can they make a story about a clownfish? Well make it they did, and make it and they shall watch...and shall buy. Suddenly everyone's kid wanted a "nemo", and every store from the responsible importers to the low end petco/wal-mart/petsmart (*shudder*) fish vendors could not stock enough clownfish to meet the demands. It was heartbreaking to see these fish all stressed and diseased and fresh from their native homes to be dumped in 2 gallon plastic critter keeper tanks filled with purple gravel and a scuba diver for the amusement of peoples children. Our message board was overrun with desperate parents and new aquarists who not only bought "nemo", but were suckered into spending thousands of dollars on equipment that sucked or was inappropriate for their setup and other sea creatures such as corals and anemones what are definatly not suited for the beginning aquarium keeper or a newly set up tank system. ( FYI, its a general rule that your tank needs to have been up and running smoothly and aged for about 2 YEARS before its stable enough to keep anemones and most corals thriving with the proper lighting). Once again, I guess what I thought was tool became the in thing.

What dies this have to do with gardening you may ask? Well I'm finally here to my point. I love gardening, and now lots of other people are getting into it too. *giggle*

With gas prices past $4, rising food prices, jobs being cut or at risk, and all this talk of impending economic doom everyone is trying to figure a way to cut costs. The first thing to be slashed is the monthly starbucks/coffee habit. 2nd to be cut is the rest of the grocery budget. Apparently not just people living in rural areas are realizing they can survive off their land. In the past month The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and ABC news have all run stories on how everyday people who could not keep a houseplant alive are now turning to gardening as a way of providing some of their family food needs. Vacant lots and neglected yards are being turned into community gardens. It really is wonderful to see gardening take off again as a fruitful ( sorry for the pun) endeavour and not a "busy habit" for seniors and baby boomers reviving their childhood on the farm. Makes perfect sense to me, use your available resources : dirt + water+ sunshine +love = food and fulfillment. It also goes hand in hand with more people wanting organic produce, and depending on where you live your only option for fresh pesticide free food really is to grow it yourself. Of course everyone knows about the recent tomato salmonella scare. You can't even get tomato on your burger right now, and even Mexican fast food salsas are sadly lacking in them.

Some of my friends who thought I was going overboard when I said I had 13 plants of 4 varieties of tomatoes ( and sad I don't have more space to plant more) are now eyeing my rows and asking when they will be ripe and if I'll have any to share. Godwilling I'll have a bumper crop like I did last year and have plenty to eat fresh, make sauce, make salsa and still have tons to give away. This year however I can't help but think of the story of the little hen who planted, tended, and harvested the wheat with no help form her friends till it was time to eat it. Money is tight for my family too, so I'm not going to start providing everyone's produce until I have my freezer and pantry stocked with sauces and dried tomatoes. I spend everyday checking, watering, weeding, and feeding those baby plants into the happy golliaths they are becoming now. I had alot of extra tomato seedlings this spring and no place to put them, but my efforts to give them away as a incentive for friends to start their own gardens didn't work as well as I had hoped. I did get 2 people to start gardens, and 2 more committed to start next spring. Sadly about 15 seedlings ended up being composted since I couldn't find new homes for them and in the 106 degree heat I couldn't keep them happy in their little containers.

Please don't think I'm going to be all righteous and say " You know what, I did the work, so these are all mine, now go grow your own". I'm not that selfish, for me sharing the bounty is one of my favorite gains of gardening. Its great karma, and if anything I believe it helps my garden thrive more. But my household does have to come first, followed by my close relatives who are also on tough times and don't have the money for much of any produce, organic or not. My aunt who had a major heart attack is slowly recovering but is going to have to adhere to a strict dietary regimen to control her diabetes and progressed kidney failure. I am so thankful to have my garden, since her family does not have the funds to buy fresh produce for every meal and I can help provide that. I also get to learn new recipes, try new techniques, and teach her family about using fresh produce as well. I am thankful to know so many people who could use anything I cannot consume, since I'd feel *awful* letting any of it go to waste.

Gardening takes space, dedication, and some money to get it all started. In this blog I have tried to show my yard's transformation from half assed lawn to my paradise in the making, but that took many hours of manual labor, sleepless nights planning, and trial and error. Next year I am planting less lettuce and chard, and more eggplant and tomatoes. I will sow my cool season veggies in fall, so they actually have the short SoCal cool season to grow in. I'll plant my cucumbers in ground rather then try to grow transplants. I would also stagger when I'd sow the greens, so I don't end up eating nothing but salad for weeks to salvage a bolting drop from a sudden heatwave in March.

I think its very overwhelming for people who have never tried it before and are weighing the benefits vs how much time and energy they have to put into yet another hobby. Not to mention money, not everyone has free compost or mulch available to them, I know I didn't so I had to try and be thrifty and clever about how I got what I needed, and I still wish I had access to more organic soil amendments. I spent a few hours every few weeks lugging bag after bag of used coffee grounds from all the local starbucks because they give it away for free. All is costs is my time and gas. I dont go every weekend like I used to because of gas costs.

Not everyone would be as crazy as me to do that. If you have jobs and/or children, your time is already precious. One New York Times blogger wrote an article on this very subject. Plus you have to sit back and decide what you can realistically handle. Do you have a large area thats not going to be disturbed by dogs or children, subject to HOA rules and has full sun? All Organic or miracle grow? Mixture of each? Or maybe just 1 fruit tree and a few herbs in pots. Theres the upkeep of weeding which for me is a few hours in the evenings when hubby is home to watch the kids. I got nutts yanking out every purslane and spurge plant I find because they use precious water and nutrients my vegetables need.

All in all I feel its worth it and take pride in keeping the weeds under control and eating the fruits of my labor, I'm also very sore and sunburned by Sunday afternoon.

I'm back!

2008-05-29T00:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for such a long delay in posting, my life got suddenly very hectic in the last month with some family issues and a sick relative in the hospital taking all my time and energy when I'm not outside in my garden.

Life is falling back into a rhythm again tho, and I am proud ot say my garden has shaped itself beyond my original expectations. This weekend I finished adding mulch to the yard, so now a good 80% is covered in mulch, which should cut the weeds alot. Purslane is the weed thats most vigour in my garden right now, and even tho I know its edible I dont want it competing with my other vegetables/herbs for water so I keep pulling it out every chance I get get. Luckily when its small the roots arent deep so it pulls out by hand easily, its harder on the knees and wrists then anythign else.

We also got the posts and trellis netting for my cucumbers and bush watermelons. Sometime this week I need to find some 6ftx15ft netting for my planned double row of pole beans.

My garden has already started to share a nice little harvest with us. I got a few handfuls of blueberries earlier this month from my tiny bush, as well a couple pf strawberries from the runners my sister in law sent to us. I have started cutting broccoli, and the kale is a nice size to start using as well. My swiss chard is going nutts and growing faster then I could use it, so I'm planning on cutting it back to all but the youngest leaves and taking it to the inland empire organic produce co-op meetup I just joined.

I had to pull out all the spinach and lettuce that bolted in the sudden heat wave we had earlier this month. The spinach was disappointing, it barely had a few tiny true leaves before it bolted, even tho I planted it back in December and the winters here are mild, it didnt seem to thrive in either of the 2 places I had it.

I have tiny roma and beefsteak tomatos I am drooling over everyday, and today harvest my first summer squash, YUM! I have a japanese eggplant with a couple of fruits I can harvest by this weekend and the bush beans are really taking off and looking wonderful.

My peppers are starting to flower and I see a couple of tiny chilles on some plants, woot!

I'll try to update with photos in the next few days, I just didnt want anyone to think I gave up :)

Aphids, Ladybugs, and other cool bugs in my yard

2008-04-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

These pesky critters are on my Iris plants, and I used these as my photogenic models since taking pictures of the aphids close up hiding in my lettuce would require a but more hassle- so since aphids look the same no matter what plant they are on, here you go, in all my digital macro glory.

Love them or hate them you gotta be a bit awed by their tenacity, the little buggars are born pregnant, so all you need is soem crazy ants herding a couple on you plants and bingo.

I knew once the weather warmed it was only a matter of time, but sheesh, I think my lettuce has become their heaven. On my ornamental plants, herbs, and large leafed vegetables I user Safer Insecticidal soap spray on nre growth and use a nice spray from the hose to wash them off. With the lettuce its alot harder since they are hiding on the undersides I can't easily spray with Safer or the hose. So I fought back- with ladybugs

Armstrong sells a small bucket of about 1,500 (according to the label) for around $10. I released them a few weeks ago before a drizzle and they stayed on the plants then vanished. I was all depressed and then this week voila, I go outside in the mornings and I see lots of ladybugs happly scurrying around my plants. I'm also finding their larvae, which is awesome since the larvae gorge on aphids even more then the adults.

I also found a couple baby preying mantis while pulling weeds, they are so adorable, about the size of my thumbnail but perfect little hunters already. They are very fast, within a few seconds of my trying to pick one up they'd jump and change color to whatever they stand on so its really hard to find them again. I didn't want to stress them so I didnt look for them again to photograph. I was thinking of buying a mantis egg case since they sell those at Armstrong too, but since I'm finding babies I don't want to overwhelm my yard with too many predators, they just decimate the bug population, starve, then I'll have pests all over again.

Whats in Bloom (Early Spring 2008)

2008-03-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Instead of fighting blogger to format all the photos of the annuals in my front yard and such I made a slideshow instead.

Yes I actually DO like this music, its vibrant and bubbly and I can do my weird mr.roboto meets Alizee dance while sitting in my computer chair.

I blame motherhood for my odd manisfistations of youthful desires.