Another Garden Update

The last of the transplants went into the ground today. The garden is starting to fill out nicely. The melon seeds that I planted have sprouted, though they got mauled by some sort of very small little bugs that I could see on the newly sprouted leaves. They're in sad shape. Depending on what happens over the next week or so with them, I may consider buying a melon plant or putting something else in there.

A couple of the early season crops are nearing the end of their cycle. The first planting of Arugula bolted. I was going to try to cut back the flower stalks and see how long they would keep producing leaves, but they're not really making leaves at all. They are just sending up lots of flower stalks. In the end, I yanked out the whole plants and took what leaves I could. I can see flower buds in the hearts of the biggest Pak Choi plants, so I harvested one, and there is still one more really big one left in the garden.

Recall that when I planted the potatoes, I dug trenches and only partially filled them in. The plants are over 2' tall now and are having a bit of trouble staying fully upright, so I decided this would be a good time to fill in the trenches. Pushing in the dirt mounds added another 4" or so of depth around the stems.

I've notice on two of the plants that there were some leaves turning brown and dying. It looks suspiciously like pictures I've seen of blight. Ugh. I cut off and discarded any branches that looked diseased. Not much I can do about it if it is blight. I'll just cross my fingers.

Between Arugula plants bolting, Pak Choi being harvested, and some other greens and onions being thinned, we got a pretty good harvest today. Between stuff from the CSA and from our garden, we will be hard pressed to keep up with the greens this summer. For reference, the white bucket in the picture is 10" diameter.

Life and Death on the Homestead

The viney plants (cucumber, melon, squash, zucchini) went in the ground this past week. It was a few days ahead of schedule, but the forcast was for very warm temps. Tomatoes and Peppers are the last plants that will need to be transplanted. They may go next weekend or the one after that, depending on the weather forcast.

As I have probably mentioned in the past, we are members of the Genessee Valley Organic Community Supported Agriculture. We actually just got our first share today. They produce a wide variety of veggies, but you don't really know what you're going to get on a given week or even for the year. They gave us a list of the vegetables being produced, but there are two different membership levels and the two don't always get the same food. Out of all the vegetables we're growing at the homestead, the one crop that I know there is no chance of us getting from the CSA is Melons. Guess which plant is the first and only plant on the homestead to fall victim to pests/vermin? You can see the carcasses in the picture below. They appeared to have been cut off at the base and just discarded. They were not eaten, merely killed for sport or out of spite. Maybe the families of those weeds I've been killing are retaliating. Its senseless. They were so young....

I'm not willing to give up quite yet, though. I buried the carcasses and planted new melon seeds just above them. The decomposing bodies will provide nourishment for their young siblings. Its a circle of life.

In other news, the first plantings of Pak Choi are getting pretty good sized. There are a couple plants in the bucket in the picture below that I had to thin out. They made a nice little side dish when sauteed.

Which brings me back to the CSA. Guess what we got in our shares this week? Oregano, Garlic Chives, Carrots, and.........Pak Choi.

Poor Ol' Bessie

What is that you ask? Why, its a giant pile of meat, of course. I'd like to say that one of the dairy cows at the homestead stopped producing milk and we had to chop her up, but we don't have the space for a herd of dairy cows in the 20' x 20' back yard.

In reality, some of our friends did an informal buying club sort of thing and bought 1/4 cow together. We got it from McDonald farm in the Finger Lakes. Not only is it a local farm, but its organic, pasture-raised, stress free, etc, etc. You can read about all the reasons that their animals are happy and healthy on their website. There are quite a few farms around Rochester that sell beefs like this in the fall at "harvest" time, but the nice thing about this place is that they have a really big freezer and can keep a lot of meat there that they sell year round. The farmer also comes to Rochester every other week to drop off meat. The cows get dressed, dry aged, butchered, vacuum sealed and quickly frozen in the fall. It should keep well for over a year when packaged that way.

I like buying a 1/4 cow for a few reasons. First, its significantly cheaper than buying the individual cuts of meat. Second, it really give you a feel for the relative amounts of different cuts from a cow. For instance, the good steaks that you get in a restaurant probably only make up 10-15% of the animal. Lastly, it forces me to eat cuts of meat that I probably otherwise would not have eaten. For some reason it gives me a certain amount of satisfaction that I am making sure all the different parts of the cow get eaten. Makes me feel like I'm a native american using every last piece of the Bison or something. And no, there was no organ meats. You don't get those unless you buy at least a 1/2 cow.

Our 1/4 cow was 162 lbs hanging weight (before it is aged, butchered, and deboned). The farm charges $4 per lb hanging weight for a 1/4 cow. Less if you get a half or whole cow. I think they charge based on hanging weight so that regardless of how the cow is butchered (bone in or out, etc), the farmer still gets the same amount. The final weight of the 1/4 cow when I received it was right around 120lbs.

Check back soon for the 2nd (and even more exciting) cow related blog post!

Meat Draft!!!!

Recall that some friends and had recently joined together and purchased a 1/4 cow with Jaime and I. There were actually 6 different parties (some were couples) that evenly split the purchase.

So how do you split 120lbs of various cuts of meat between 6 different parties? You could try to evenly divide things, but there aren't 6 pieces of everything and some people put higher value on different cuts than others. You could do an auction with everybody having the same amount of money to spend, but that would take a long time and there might be large variations in the amount paid for similar cuts of meat. Or, you could do a meat draft! That allows for equal opportunities for everybody(especially if its a serpentine draft), and allows people to choose what cuts of meat are the most valuable to them. Besides, its just too awesome of an idea to not do.

The meat is all cut up into steaks (one per package), small roasts, and various other things. The packages ranged in weight from probably 3/4lbs for the smallest steak up to maybe 3lbs for the biggest roast. The ground beef was in approximately 1lb packages. Here is the list of what packages of meat were available. Jaime and I put together our own ranked list based on type of cut and approximate guess for the size of the package.

Here is an excited participant getting psyched up for the draft:

Here is the meat being laid out:

Intently studying a few roast options. Yes, that is a scale on the ground there:

The draft format was serpentine, so the draft order from the first round is reversed in the second round, then reversed again in every round thereafter, thus creating a snakelike progression. That way the person who picks first gets their choice of everything, but they don't get another pick again till 10 other packages of meat have been chosen. The Millers drew the 3rd spot in the draft. I'm sure you're wondering exactly what the Miller homestead ended up with after the draft, so here is the list:

1st round: Flat Iron steak. Not an extremely well known steak but rumored to be the 2nd most tender steak (after a tenderloin), but with more flavor. It was also a pretty big chunk. There was only one flat iron steak, and I was very interested to try it. Very happy with this selection. In case you think I'm crazy, the farmer charges the second most for this cut of meat (after the tenderloin).

2nd round: Sirloin Steak. A really big hunk of sirloin steak. Can't complain about that.

3rd round: Delmonico Steak. A good-sized piece of a highly ranked steak. At this point, the steaks choices were getting thin, only steaks had been chosen to this point.

4th round: Top Round London Broil Roast. There was only one or two steaks left at this point and a run on the better roasts had begun at this point. This was a pretty big roast that is tender enough that it could be cut into steaks and grilled, if desired. I was pretty happy with this pick.

5th round: Brisket. There were only two Brisket pieces and the first had just been taken before us. I thought this might be a bit early for Brisket, but I REALLY want to make home made corned beef, and this is the perfect piece of meat for it. Incidentally, the last of the steaks (a smallish Delmonico) went in the 5th round, which makes my pick of a Delmonico steak in the 3rd look like a bit of a reach. Oh well.

6th round: Eye round roast. A relatively big piece that should make a good slow cooked roast. Another solid pick.

7th round: Bottom round roast. A moderate size roast that will work well as either a regular roast or a pot roast. Can't complain about this pick.

8th round: Shank. This is a bone-in cross cut that is a bout 1.5" thick. The bone part of it is also known as osso bucco. This was a good looking one. Should be a good piece for the crock pot. Again, nothing to complain about.

9th round: Kabobs (aka stew meat). These packages were pretty big, probably around 2lbs. This meat is probably pretty tough, but we wanted to make sure I got at least one of these to marinade and use as kabobs.

10th round: Shank. I think we had the option for either shank or Kabobs at this point. I picked shank because I figured we could use both at the same time and Jaime and I could each have our own shank, but looking back, the one piece would probably have been good enough for both of us and I could have gotten another kabob. This was the only decision I regretted (mildly) afterwards.

11th-16th rounds: At this point all that was left was ground beef, so we each got at least 6 of those.

We weighed each person's totals afterwards and they ranged from 18.7 to 22.2lbs (ours was 20.2lbs). I think everybody ended up pretty happy with the whole draft idea. I was happy with the way our choices ended up, and the entertainment value was priceless.

South Wedge Sparkling Seyval - 6

Its finally here. The moment you've all been waiting for. The review of the 2009 South Wedge Seyval produced by your very own Miller Homestead!

You may have noticed the title said sparkling Seyval. Observant readers may also notice the bubbles in the above picture. Interestingly enough, this was not a sparkling wine 2 months ago.


A few days ago, I went down into the wine cellar to get a bottle of the Seyval and noticed that the floor looked wet in one area. I assumed that was because of the recent heavy rains. After all, the basement does have a history of efflorescence. Upon closer inspection, Jaime noticed a drip coming from one of the wine racks, and then we noticed a cork sitting on the floor at the base of the furnace, which is directly in line with the wine bottles. Yup. One of the bottles had shot a cork across the room. Uh oh. Better start drinking fast....


This wine was completely different 2 months ago. There was a very minor bite to the wine, which I guessed at the time to be a very small amount of carbonation. It was a very good tasting wine, though. Delicious fruity grape flavor with moderately high sweetness that was balanced by the moderately strong acidity. Recall that I had to add chemicals to reduce the acidity because the growing season was so bad last year. Even with doing so, it is still pretty acidic. The sweetness works well with it, though. It was actually a good wine not just for homemade wine, it was good in general. I would have paid money for it. If I remember correctly, I probably would have rated it a 7. Other people seemed to like it, too. Its a shame I didn't do a review then because I could have had two completely different reviews. Oh well, I'll just review what I can now.


The wine actually has a very minor pinkish hue. No idea where that came from. I didn't notice it when I bottled it, but I did notice it in the first bottle I opened (several months ago). Its not not obvious, nor is it unpleasant, more of a curiosity. There is an annoyance in that there is some sediment in the bottle. This is likely because of the problems I had with filtering and bottling last year. No effect on the wine once its in your glass, you just can't quite use all the wine in the bottle without stirring up the sediment.


I taste apricot, grapefruit, and smokey flavors. The acidity is quite obvious. There seems to be less sugar than there was a couple months ago (goodbye sugar, hello CO2). I would say that the acid/sugar balance is no longer optimal, but its not so bad that its a major negative. In fact, I'd say many of the Champagnes that I've drank are rather sour (especially the dry ones). I'd call this a semi-dry sparkling wine. A pleasant amount of carbonation, just about right I'd say. Ignoring the sediment in the bottle, I'd say this is an above average sparkling white wine. I'd call it Champagne, but I'm not legally allowed to do that since it was not produced in the Champagne region of France.


Jaime says this is very much like a semi-dry champagne. She says she's not a big fan of champagnes, though. She notes a hint of apple flavor. Its not too sweet.


Peter gives this wine a 6 out of 10. I would purchase this.
Jaime gives this wine a 6 out of 10 on her Champagne scale.


I think the moderately high remaining sugar and warming spring temperatures must have combined to restart the yeast that wasn't properly filtered out before bottling. I think I need more practice at this before I go pro.

Garden Update

Its been a while since my last update. Nothing too crazy going on in the garden. Lots of weeding. Things are growing slowly but surely. Actually harvested enough greens (mostly thinned Arugula) to make up most of two salads. There have been two minor garden related problems recently.

First is that I messed up the location of the potato plants. I spread the rows out a bit further than I intended. I forgot that I was supposed to plant beans along one side of them. Oops. So now the beans are being spread out to a few different locations. A bit in the pepper area since my wimpy looking pepper sprouts have reduced my expectations for that crop. A good amount of beans alongside the tomato area because that was larger than it needed to be. A few more over by the Swiss Chard. It would probably make more sense if I just link my updated planting map.

The other problem is that I seem to have some flea beetles, primarily on the Pak Choi. I started looking into organic pest control. I was unaware that Pyrethrins are derived from Chrysanthemums and are considered organic. The homestead has never claimed to be organic, and I am not firmly set on it being organic, but I'd like to at least go through a progression of least harmful chemicals up through more nasty chemicals, if needed. Happily, a cold snap came through, including a couple borderline record-low temps and even a bit of snow. That seemed to at least dramatically reduce the beetle action while leaving my plants in good shape. We'll see what happens as it warms back up. The internet tells me that flea beetles are primarily an early summer thing that goes away, so maybe I'll be able to ride it out. Everything else looks disease and pest-free so far, and the homestead is still "beyond organic".

One of my many fans has requested a wide view photo of the garden, so here it is as of May 15th:

This shot is looking SE (towards the upper left of the planting map). I've pulled the compost can out of the way so that the peas are visible on the left. Peppers are going back left, tomatoes front and center, broccoli and kohlrabi middle center, viney plants over to the right side.

Anybody know if you're supposed to thin out potato plants? Each of my seed potatoes were placed about 12" apart, and each one sprouted 3-5 very healthy looking plants. The internet is being surprisingly unhelpful about this. Should I cut them down to one plant per 12"??

A few comments on starting seeds indoors

Since I'm trying to grow as many heirloom varieties as I can, I'm growing a lot of things from seed. The hardier stuff gets planted directly in the garden, but the more temperature sensitive plants get started indoors. So far I've sprouted peppers, broccoli, kohlrabi, squash, cucumber, zucchini, melon, and two kinds of tomatoes indoors. Some have grown very well (zucchini, melon, squash, cucumber), but the others have not done as well. The tomatoes and broccoli are both pretty spindly and sparse. The peppers just haven't done much at all. Here's what they look like today. The viney plants are the four furthest away peat pots, tomatoes in the middle peat pots, peppers in the closest four peat pots. Broccoli, kohlrabi, more tomatoes, and more peppers in the plastic tray.

I know that peppers and tomatoes like to be really warm (thats why they'll be the last ones to go into the garden). I suspect if I had a warming pad to go under the sprouting tray, they would have been a lot happier. A grow-light probably would have helped, too. I just put them near windows. I'm not really sure where I would put a grow-light, but I think I'll have to figure somewhere to put one next year.

I've also learned that its possible to have the soil too wet for seeds to sprout. I started with the big peat pots, then I started using the plastic tray. The peat pots dry out very quickly because the moisture can just wick out right through the sides of the pots. The plastic trays, however, lose very little moisture. When I first tried planting in the plastic tray I put in tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and kohlrabi. Eight of the spots were filled with at least 25 seeds in total. The dirt took literally two weeks to dry out and only one tomato plant sprouted out of all of it. The sad thing is that about 5 days later I had the tray with the one lonely tomato outside. It was sunny but only in the upper 50's, so I put the clear plastic lid on it to act as a greenhouse. Not sure exactly what happened, but when I came home from work that day the tomato was very very dead. From now on, I think I'll keep the lid off after they sprout.

So for next year:

- Get a warming pad and a grow-light

- Don't put too much water in the dirt when sprouting seeds

- After the seeds sprout, leave the lid off

The good news is that everything I've planted in the garden is doing very well so far.

Garden Update

I spent an hour or so in the garden today thinning plants and weeding. When I last did serious weeding (a couple weeks ago) I missed this patch because it was too close to the onions to use the hoe on.

Ugh, I don't know what these things are, but they're all over the place. I've actually transplanted one of the larger ones to a weed-free area of the garden that doesn't have any veggies yet. I want to see what the weed turns into when it grows up. Know your enemy. The rest of weeds got yanked by hand.

The weather for the next several days looks pretty terrific for the garden. 70's during the day, 50's at night with likely rain. This seems like good weather to get my first transplant into the ground. These baby Broccolis are still pretty sparse so I'll wait a bit before I thin them down to one plant.