Archive for the 'Organic Gardening' Category

What the Kitchen Slave (errr, I mean Witch) Did Today

tammy July 16th, 2010

Today I peeled and seeded over 5 pounds of tomatoes (organically grown in our garden). This involved boiling a big pot of water in which to blanch them for a minute or so, then dipping them into a large bowl of ice water.  The skin then peels off easily, and slicing them in half makes it easy to squeeze the seeds out. This process took forever!

Tomato Skins and Seeds

I’ve since remembered that you can also put the tomatoes into the freezer, then when you take them out and thaw them, the skins come off just as easily.  I did that last year a couple times, and it saved a lot of work without all the water and boiling and dipping in and out of hot and cold water. I will definitely go that route with the next batch… much easier.

Tomatoes

Then I chopped jalapeno peppers (from our garden) until my entire hands were burning. I scratched my nose and had my face on fire also. I can still taste the peppers on my hands and feel the fire, even though I’ve washed them several times and also had a shower.

Then on to mince about 12 cloves of garlic (from our garden), chop some onions, cilantro and tomatoes.  Put them all together with some lemon juice, water and salt to make 2 quarts of lacto-fermented salsa.

Lacto-fermenting Salsa

THEN, I chopped some more onions and green peppers and garlic, and the processed tomatoes, to make an amazing batch of homemade spaghetti sauce.  I added quite a bit of dried holy basil and oregano (both from our garden), some salt, a pinch of sugar, and some sweet white wine.

Holy Basil

I let it cook for an hour or so, used the hand blender to puree it all together, and let it simmer for another 3 hours.  This will be delicious with some sweet Italian sausage and some quinoa pasta.

Spaghetti Sauce

Spaghetti Sauce

At the end of it all I was in the kitchen for over 4 hours.  Chopping and processing all those vegis takes quite a long time, not to mention the clean up.

I’m tired.

The end.

I’m Growing Garlic!

tammy November 19th, 2008

I can not believe how incredibly easy it is to grow garlic! Just look at this little plot of land that I carefully mulched over with grass clippings.  There is garlic planted in there, uh-huh, uh-huh…  [doing the happy dance here]

Since I use garlic almost every time I cook, as well as in medicines, this is a major, major skill for me to know how to grow it myself. For some reason, I thought it was a very complicated thing and had never yet taken the time to look into it.  But my herbal email buddy, Leslie, enlightened me a few weeks ago to how easy this is, so now I’ll spread the knowledge.

You only need to buy a bulb (or two or three or four) of organic garlic from the produce section of the grocery store.  Break it apart into cloves, then plant each of the cloves about 4 inches apart, pointy side up.

Like most plants that grow from bulbs, you plant garlic in the Fall (I actually planted this a few weeks ago, late October, zone 7 Eastern U.S.). It is supposed to start sending up green shoots in the Spring, and by late Summer, early Fall there should be whole bulbs under the ground everywhere I planted a clove.  Leslie says that when it sends up shoots you should pinch the flower heads off so it will keep its energy down in the ground to make those bulbs fat and juicy.

There are also lots of varieties of garlic that can be special ordered.  Although I’ve not ordered garlic from them before, I have gotten good seed from Southern Exposure, and will probably try some of their garlic next year.

See, I told you it was easy! I think maybe anybody can grow garlic!

The Chicken Whisperer

tammy July 13th, 2008

All I can say is, be careful what you wish for! Dreaming of our own fresh eggs and being one step closer to producing more of our own food, not to mention all the wonderful fertilizer for the plants, we’ve been wanting to get chickens for some time now, but hadn’t had the time to prepare a coop yet. I was sure we would wait until next spring to begin this new venture. But what did I know?

Last weekend, out of the blue, we were given 16 young chickens that needed a home immediately.

Yes, I said 16.

We had to hurriedly scramble to put together a safe, cozy home for them. We ended up converting a dog kennel into a chicken yard by covering it completely with chicken wire, and we used a bunch of scrap wood to build a secure coop inside it. The dog kennel is one of those huge chain-link thingies that was also given to us some time ago. Our dog won’t use it because he thinks he is one of the children and has full rights to the house.

The chickens are all small now, so they have enough room for the moment, but we know that will change as they grow bigger. Thankfully, our son is planning to take half of them as soon as they develop enough to see which are hens and which are roosters. He already has a coop. We also plan to extend the dog kennel to make a bigger yard for the ones we keep.

Chickens are funny creatures, I’m finding. I’ve really enjoyed sitting out by the chicken yard just observing their behavior and the way they communicate with one another, peeping warnings to the others to scatter if you come too close, sometimes fighting, always looking for bugs and worms. If one finds a particularly tasty morsel like a fat worm, it will take off running away from the others to try to eat it before they see it. But as soon as the others see the lucky one running, the jig is up. Busted! The others will all take a stab at darting in to grab it away, only succeeding if they are very fast.

We had a chicken run the first day we brought them home. They all got out of the pen at once. They mostly all stayed together during their frantic escape, peeping to each other which direction to take. Run this way, no here she comes, run that way, no back this way, wait, there she is again… It was hysterical.

We’ve settled into a daily routine of feeding and watering and securing the coop. Now I’m looking forward to all those gorgeous, super nutritious, golden-orange yolked eggs, and a very rich compost pile for next year’s garden.

Planting in the Rain

tammy April 22nd, 2008

Most people think of sunny days for gardening. Not me. I like to plant and weed and mulch during the gentle drizzle of a warm Spring rain. Father Sky makes love to Mother Earth and the ground is wet and fertile. The soil is loose and the plants and seeds eagerly take root. Gardening is effortless.

We’ve just had a string of such magical days and I’ve been taking advantage of every one of them to get my baby plants into the ground and the beds cleaned out from the Winter.

While the rain pours down I get drenched to the bone and my toes squish in the mud. I don’t even need a shovel or a spade. I just push my bare hands into the soil and shape an opening to receive the new plants. The smell of the moist earth is intoxicating. I am one with the rain and the dirt, a co-creator in the miracles of Spring.

I’ve got dirt so far under my fingernails it’ll be days before I get it all out, and my muscles are pleasantly sore from the stooping and digging. But my garden is growing and my joy is complete.

My No-Till Garden

tammy March 16th, 2008

Here we go with my third year of trying to grow an organic vegetable garden!  I haven’t had much luck the last two years, but I have great hopes for this year.  I’m trying a new method this time where the focus is on building up the soil and providing gentle nourishment and protection to the earth in return for her bounty, instead of ripping into her, plowing violently with the till, and spending the summer constantly pulling out weeds, destroying pests, watering, and trying to force her to produce. 

I heard about no-till for the first time this winter, and I immediately knew deep in my heart that this is a much better way of doing things.  It is respectful of mother nature and her needs, plus it is sustainable.  Traditional agriculture, like much of the larger dominant culture, has tended to take more than it gives.  Chemical fertilizers and pesticides leave the soil depleted and poisoned, and the produce yielded is often low in nutrients. 

In contrast, with no-till you leave the ground intact, allowing previous growth to decay and feed the soil, while using compost and thick mulching to avoid an overgrowth of weeds.  The mulch also decays over time to feed the soil further, and then another layer is added the following year to start the process again.  The soil gets constant organic fertilization, is better aerated, and retains moisture better.  Since the garden does not need to be watered as often, it conserves water as well.  Very little watering and weed pulling makes this a much less labor intensive way of gardening.  Best of all, the healthier soil tends to produce better quality, more nutrient rich vegetables.  It’s an all around win-win situation. 

Since this is my first year doing this, I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes along the way.  From what I’ve read, this way of gardening can get quite intricate and technical.  To begin my journey, I’ve chosen to follow the simplest method I could find. 

First I started with newspapers for sheet mulching.  I just laid them out 4 or 5 pages thick over the area where I want my garden to be.  Then I piled a layer of compost on top.  Next, I’ll add several inches worth of organic mulch, consisting mostly of hay and leaves gathered from other areas of my land mixed with more compost. 

When I am ready to plant, I’ll use the shovel to dig down through the mulch and newspapers to plant my seedlings.  Then I’ll push the mulch back around the plant.  Over the season I’ll keep adding mulch periodically, grass clippings and such.  I’ll deal with any pests that present themselves organically.  I have quite a large file on organic, non-toxic pest control. 

Look for more posts on how my garden grows throughout the season!

Ways to preserve and use Garden Sage

tammy September 26th, 2007

Well my vegetable garden flopped again this year, but the good news is that my herbs are doing wonderfully! They really are soooo easy to grow, and they require virtually no maintenance. I can feel Fall in the air here in central Virginia, so I’ve been trimming back the herbs and harvesting their goodness before they die back for the winter. The last couple of days I’ve been working on the sage. I have tons of it. I don’t want any of it to go to waste, so here are some ways I am preserving it.

Sage Honey

Preserving sage in honey is a delicious and healthful way to enjoy the sage all winter long. When I say it is delicious, I mean so delicious you just might want to sit down with a spoon and an open jar and eat the whole thing! (Don’t really do that… way too much sweet for one sitting!) :-)

Honey itself is highly anti-bacterial and tends to draw moisture to itself. For these properties it is considered an excellent wound remedy — raw honey applied to a wound will keep it moist and free of bacteria and speed its healing — and is also wonderful for healing many ailments of the digestive tract and sore throats. In addition, honey is an excellent source of high quality protein and carbohydrates plus many vitamins. It is an all-around health food that should be consumed regularly in small amounts. When you combine honey with an herb, the honey will draw out the water soluble vitamins of the herb (due to it’s water drawing properties), and also the strongly fragrant and anti-infective volatile oils in the plant. The result is a sweet and delicious medicinal.

To make sage honey start with fresh sage and a small glass container (I used a pint size canning jar, but you can also use recycled jelly jars, etc). Pull off only the unblemished sage leaves from the stem and tear these into smaller pieces and fill your container. Press it down and really fill it — this takes quite a bit of herb to do, so if you only have a little sage, use a smaller container such as a baby food jar. When it is full, pour raw honey over the herb to cover, and then use a chop stick or other utensil to poke around to get the honey all around and under the herb. You will then probably have to pour on more honey to cover the herb again. Fill the container all the way to the top with honey, then cap tightly, put on a label with the name of the herb and the date, and then sit it on a shelf to “brew.”

The honey can be used within the next day or two, but the medicinal properties will increase the longer it sits. Many wise women let their honeys sit for at least six weeks before consuming. You do not need to remove the herb before using. To enjoy, just take out a spoonful of honey and herb, put it in a cup and pour boiling water over it for tea, or take a spoon full at a time like a cough syrup for a sore throat. You can also spread it on toast, or any other way you might use regular honey.

*Note: Do not give honey to children under 1 year. They cannot digest honey well enough to kill potentially harmful spores that are found in all honey. Older children and adults do not have this problem. *

Sage Vinegar

I started making herbal vinegars last year. I have found my vinegars to be wonderful for seasoning dark leafy greens and other vegetables, and as a primary ingredient, along with olive oil, in salad dressings.

Consuming herbal vinegars is really good for your bone health, too. According to Susan Weed, vinegar splashed onto cooked leafy greens increases the amount of bio-available calcium from the greens by one-third. Herbs are chock full of additional minerals that also become readily available to your body when they are infused in vinegar.

To make sage vinegar, start with fresh sage and a glass container. Pull off the unblemished leaves, tear them into smaller pieces, and fill your container. Pour regular apple cider vinegar over (I buy a gallon at a time from the grocery store) and stir to remove air, then pour more to completely cover the herb and fill the container to the very top. Cap tightly with a non-metal top, and put a label with the name of the herb and the date on it. Vinegar eats metal! Do not use a metal top. If all you have is metal, put a plastic baggie over the top of the jar before screwing on the lid. The vinegar is ready to use after six weeks. You can strain out the herb and put it in a nice bottle with a sprig of fresh herb, or you can just keep it in the “brewing” jar.



Celestial Tea Strainer
Sits atop your mug while the ingredients brew. No stirring, dropping, or fishing necessary! Available at GardenPlum.com

Dried Sage Tea

A spoonful of dried sage leaves and boiling water will make a lovely tea anytime you want a warm drink. It also has many medicinal properties, which I will go into in a future post.

Different wise women dry herbs in different ways. One way that I like is to pluck off the unblemished leaves and put them in a small brown bag (lunch size). I roll the sides of the bag down to make a little open pouch, label the bag with the name of the herb, and then put the herb in. Every day or two I reach in and stir the leaves around to circulate air and promote even drying.

I like this method because it prevents having a lot of different herb bundles hanging all around the kitchen dropping leaves and debris all over the place. I don’t mind a few herb bundles, but I have limited space, so I would soon have to resort to hanging them from eye hooks in the ceiling if I used that method exclusively! The brown paper sack pouches can be sat anywhere I have room for them, so they make it much easier to live with a lot of drying herbs in the house.

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You can make honeys, vinegars, and teas out of many different herbs in just the same way as you would sage. I plan to also make some of these with my Rosemary and Tarragon. You can experiment freely with just about any culinary herb.

If you haven’t yet grown any sage in your own garden, but want to experiment with it, you can usually buy fresh sage in the produce section of any grocery store. For best results, look for organic. You can also order dried sage at my favorite organic bulk herb resource, Mountain Rose Herbs. Apple cider vinegar is available from any grocery store. For honey, I recommend finding a quality source for raw honey, as the heat processing of most commercial brands destroys many of its healthy benefits. Health food stores usually carry honey in bulk, and there are also several good online sources.

For some more easy ways to experiment with herbs using simple ingredients from the grocery store and/ or your garden, visit www.learningherbs.com and take advantage of some of their free resources.


Well, making my honey, vinegar, and dried tea took care of a lot of my sage harvest, but I still have more! My next post will be about making Sage Smudge Sticks, which are used much like candles or incense in the home…. stay tuned!

Bugs!!

tammy June 23rd, 2007

My husband and I were busy working on a home improvement project this weekend (laying flooring in a spare bedroom), when I happened to look out the window to see every plant in my perrennial flower and herb garden covered in Japanese Beetles.  Ackkk!  I knew the plants wouldn’t last the day if I didn’t do something… quick!

I had been saving organic pest control solutions for sometimes, but do you think I could put my hands on the file?  It was no where to be found.   I did seem to remember that soapy water sprayed on the plants might work.  It was worth a shot.

I filled a spray bottle with warm water and a squirt of soap, shook it a little, and I was ready to go.  In the garden, the first thing I did was knock the beetles off.  Then I started spraying like crazy.  There were a couple of unidentified weeds growing that had been reduced to nothing but veinous skeletons.  This site spurred me on, even when my hand was tired from squeezing the trigger on the spray bottle.

I got everything covered, then stood back to see what would happen.  A few beetles flew back in, landed on the plants, but then quickly took off again.  It was working! 

The next day, I caught a few beetles chewing on some new growth on one of the plants, so I sprayed everything again, making sure to get all around and under. 

I’m happy to report that my plants are still thriving, and I haven’t seen any more  bugs on them.  This remedy also worked for my baby apple trees, which were also covered in beetles.

Soap and water saved the day!

Itty bitty tomato seeds

tammy March 10th, 2007

My lovely non-GMO, non-hybrid, organic seeds arrived in the mail yesterday!  Today I am planting the tomatoes in seed trays so I can get them started growing in a sunny window over the next few weeks.  The last frost should be in just about 3 or 4 weeks, so it won’t be long before I will be ready to set out seedlings in the garden.

As I go about the work of filling each container with soil, wetting them down, and impregnating each compartment with a tiny little pin head speck of a tomato ovum, it is hard for me to comprehend that this seed truly represents the promise of a full size juicy red beefsteak that will come to fruition in the proper time.

I know it does. The life cycle of plants has been ingrained in me since kindergarten.  How many times while I was coming up did I sprout a lima bean on a wet brown paper towel from the box near the classroom sink, or grow a marigold in styrofoam cup, or root a potato in a jar?

But oddly, sitting here sprinkling these feather light wisps into their tiny little nursery pods, I feel like I am truly beginning the lesson for the first time.  I sense myself involved in a very magical process, and I feel simply awestruck.

GMO vs. Heirloom Seeds

tammy February 28th, 2007

Tomorrow it will be March – almost Spring!!!  The looong months of January and February are over!  Yeah!!!  With birds chirping outside and a the sweet smell of Spring in the air, I am thinking about what will go into my vegetable garden this year.  My longheld dream of learning how to grow all our own organic food and herbs is pressing for my attention once again.

This year will be exactly my second attempt at growing a vegetable garden.  Last year, on my first try, it was a complete disaster.  I planted tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, caneloupe, and a variety of culinary herbs.  The long and short of it was that for the most part I just didn’t know what I was doing.  All I got out of a summer’s worth of tilling, weeding, and watering were a few regular-size tomatoes, tons of cherry tomatoes, and some herb clippings.  Nevertheless, I’m definitely geared up for the second round, and I just know I’ll get a crop this year!!

The first thing I want to do is buy seeds.  Last year I bought seedlings from our local nursery, from Lowes, and horror of all horrors, from Walmart.  What I have learned since then is that most of what I bought was probably propogated on GMO seeds. 

What are GMO seeds, you say?  Genetically Modified Organisms.  I read that some companies now breed “super produce” by splicing in genetic material from other totally unrelated species.  In one case, salmon genes were spliced into some produce to get a particular desired quality (I’ll look it up and post the exact info here later). Fish genes in your tomatoes?!!!

Nobody knows what all this tinkering with the genetic code of our food will do to our health in the long run, and the worst part is that the companies doing this are not required to label the seeds, seedlings, or produce as GMO.  Under current standards, this produce can be labeled as organic even if it is GMO!  We’re eating it up thinking it is something good for us, and the fact is we just don’t know if it is or not.  In one study I read about animals fed GMO corn (I think) ended up with lesions on their major organs and other serious health problems.  This does not sound good!

Another serious concern I have is that GMO producers are currently allowed to patent the genetic code of the unique fruits they invent, which mean that anybody who grows those varieties in the future would have to pay royalties to the GMO companies.  This means you and I, growing our own vegetables on our own little plot of land, would be breaking the law if we saved seeds from our GMO plantings and sowed future gardens with them without paying royalties, as would poor farmers in 3rd world countries.  That is if you can even get usuable seeds from them — many GMO varieties of plants are seedless, and in others, the seeds you do get will not grow another generation.  Total franken-food!

These “super” varieties of produce seem to many like a blessing because of the large, disease resistant, and abundant fruit they produce, but really they ultimately serve to make the ”inventors” rich and powerful (being able to control the world’s food supply is A LOT of power) and they may endanger our health.   I thought growing your own vegetables was supposed to be good for your budget and your health??

In any case, there is a very strong grass roots movement to preserve non-patented seed varieties, otherwise known as heirloom seeds.  These are seeds that that have been passed down for generations, and that can be grown, collected and shared openly.  This is a great movement to keep the control of wholesome, healthy food production in the hands of the people and not super corporations or governments.

I am committing this year to growing everything in my vegetable garden with heirloom seeds.  So I spent this morning planning what I wanted to grow so I could order what I will need online.  I ordered seeds for collards, tomatoes, peppers (also some medicinal herbs that I couldn’t resist: chamomile, calendula, and St Johns Wort) from  www.gardenmedicinals.com, which is a company local to me.  Now I’m trying to decide what I want from www.rareseeds.com.

Next, I have to learn when to start which seeds when, which ones have to start inside and be transplanted, and which can go directly in the ground, what gets planted next to what… and on and on… more about these things in future posts!