So, it seems that 2015 is my year of changing, learning, and growing. Of course every year is like that to some degree but this year, this year has taken the cake in that regard. My latest learning and growing experience consists of my iPhone and some water (yes, right out of my pocket and into the toilet). So, why do you need to know about this whole TMI situation? Well two reasons.
The first is that it's meant no pictures of things that usually motivate me to get a post up. The second is that I found out that although I purchased Apple Care +, it's not showing up on my local shop's system. So that's meant a week with no phone. Now this is definitely a first world (or developed world, to be more accurate) problem but a problem it is. In my case, it's not just a convenience thing, I use my phone with my clients to book appointments etc. so this has made it tough for them to get ahold of me. In future, I'll be going to my local provider to be sure that my Apple Care+ is showing up on their system before there's a problem. Coming up next... tomatoes!
Well that was a surprise. Mama had been on her nest diligently but it's been three weeks already? I'm glad I'm home today to see who else shows up.
In addition to The Cuteness, these chicks represent a new phase in my smaller living scheme. My hope is to go another step back and have on farm hatched/raised chicks so I can stop buying from hatcheries. Our last hatchery order had a bunch of chicks from good brooding/mothering breeds in the hope that this will happen.
Ultimately, I hope to
It's not that I don't appreciate hatcheries, of course I do. But, it's one more thing I can do for myself, which is awesome. It's also another step back from commoditizing living beings - something that doesn't feel ok to me.
Of course, in my usual way, I may have overdone it as I now have two muscovies (ducks) and four hens on nests. Sigh. If you ask the people who know me, that sums me up in a nutshell - feast or famine! I love it when my plants work together. Here we have a gooseberry (all harvested) and a grape (eaten by deer fruitless) holding up a massive Hokkaido squash. Even though this year has been soooo hot it's been unpleasant, the produce is loving it. I've never had so many cucurbits growing so early.
In addition to the Hokkaidos, we have some pumpkins and more cukes than I know what to do with. And while relish and dills are great suggestions... I recently cleaned out my cold room and really need neither of those, likely for years, actually. So far we've been living off cucumber salad - cukes sliced thinnish, sesame oil, rice vinegar, water, and a bit of sugar. Topped with some gomashio. Delicious. The first crop of chicks were a surprise. Momma just arrived with eight chicks in tow. Cornish hens, gotta love them!
So, as we slid closer to the other side of summer gardening season, new questions start to crop up. One I have been asked about is... how do you know when to harvest your potatoes? Especially when they look like this: I mean seriously - how can you see those blooms and not be thinking... can I eat these yet? Such a good question - how do we know our potatoes are ready for eating? So, you probably planted your potatoes much earlier this year. Don't know much about growing potatoes? Let's start there then. You'll want to plant seed potatoes, rather than just grocery store ones, even organics. I've found that even with the organic ones (the non-organics are treated to keep them from sprouting), the yield isn't great and sometimes the potatoes never really get big. So, consider purchasing some seed potatoes from a reputable provider. You can't (I think) ship potatoes across the border so buy from your own country. Ideally, you'd want to get them well before it's time to plant. That way, you can chit them well in advance of planting. I've seen two explanations of chitting -one is to just let them be in a light place and grow long shoots; the other is when you cut them into quarters and let the sides harden a bit before planting. Either way, get them well before planting, and place them in an egg carton with the most eyes up. By the way the side with the most eyes is called the rose. So, plant them rose side up. Once they eyes have grown to about an inch long, plant them out according to your local calendar and their variety - there are earlies, mids, and lates. Smart planters want all three :) And yes they're a bit sensitive to frost but you can mitigate that by covering them in a bit of row cover. So, you can plant them a few ways. You can plant them old school - in depressions that allow you to mound up soil around them as they grow. Or newer school - in a container. Either way, adding dirt as they grow up will mean more potatoey deliciousness for you. Continue to water regularly and mound up the soil.
With earlies, you can start digging (carefully - use your hands not a shovel) for new potatoes once you see the blooms fully open and definitely once they're dropping off. The longer you wait, the larger the potatoes get. With maincrops (as the mids- and lates are called) you're supposed to wait until the foliage starts to turn yellow and gives up. And then 10-14 days after that (depends on who you ask) you can lift them. I am not the best at keeping track of which type is which so I'm often scrabbling around the base of the plants once the blooms are visible. Also - I love potatoes and by the time they're blooming, I'm so excited that I just need to eat some fresh from the garden. If you aren't going to devour them straight away, you're best to leave them sitting out to dry before storing. This helps to harden the skin and preserve them. Best ways to eat potatoes? I love new potatoes boiled and then tossed with a bit of butter and fresh herbs from the garden. I also love potatoes roasted, baked, and mashed. I just love them and that's all there is to say about that. So, we have two freezers. In theory, I'd be able to empty one in the summer by consolidating them. This year, thanks to a pig and a quarter cow, I wasn't able to do that. In addition to the strange and random package sizes that having all of this meat brings, I also freeze in jars. So, you can imagine the organizational shuffling that has to happen in my freezer. And the catastrophic sliding around of things at times. Ugh. So yesterday, when I cleaned out one freezer in the hopes of consolidating, I was trying to find a way to keep the jars from falling whenever the support of the neighbouring jar was extracted. So first I tried the five gallon bucket method. I know that technically that means there's a bunch of wasted space but I thought I'd be able to pack stuff all around them. It was way too much wasted space that no amount of packing around could compensate for. And yes, ideally I would have defrosted and gotten rid of that snow in there but because the other freezer is pretty full too, I had nowhere to store the food while I did that. As I was puzzling until my puzzler was sore, I came up with a couple of other ideas. One is to make some broth out of some of the bones etc. that I just threw in the freezer. The other was that I remembered that I had some of those wire grid storage things that tend to be more frustration than anything else most days. So... I grabbed them to deploy. My verdict? Awesome. Now I just have to do the other one...
|
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
August 2017
Categories
All
|