In the spring I'll spread the contents of the compost pile and the compost barrel over the garden and mix it in with the dirt as a fertilizer. Between the stuff I emptied out of the barrel, the leaves, and the new stuff in the barrel, there is probably about 65-75lbs of fertilizer for next year, plus any additional stuff that we add over the winter. That seems like a lot for such a small garden, but considering the amount of vegetables that we harvested this year, that is probably necessary. How much did we harvest, you ask? Well, here is a link to the harvest summary spreadsheet. 143 lbs seems like a pretty good harvest from an area that is probably only about around 250 square feet of usable area. The prices in the spreadsheet come from Wegmans' website. I used prices for organic produce when I could find it (everything from the garden is effectively organic), and when I couldn't find it, I multiplied the price of non-organic produce by 150%. Between the CSA that we joined and the garden, Jaime and I were not really able to keep up with the amount of produce that we had. We've made the decision that next year we won't do the CSA. Instead, we will rely on the garden for most of our produce and supplement it with stuff from our neighborhood farmer's market.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The 2010 Harvest
With the forecast nightly lows starting to dip below 32 degrees, I figured it was time to harvest what I could from the garden. I picked the last of the peppers and tomatoes (green). I also harvested a couple heads of broccoli. The only things I have left in the garden are the brussels sprouts (likely not going to produce anything this year, but I figured I'd leave them in just in case), one broccoli plant that is growing a head, a couple pak choi and lettuce plants, and a bunch of green onions. I then hacked up the plants that are done for the year and was going to put them in my compost pile, but I realized that the compost barrel was getting too full to really be able to mix up. The stuff in the barrel was mostly composted, so I dumped it out in a pile of leaves that I had put in the garden after I raked the front yard last weekend. The newly chopped up plants went into the barrel. So I now have a compost pile to go along with the compost barrel. You can see part of the leaf pile behind the hot tub on the right side of the picture below. You can also see the oats coming up in the areas of the garden that I planted them.In the spring I'll spread the contents of the compost pile and the compost barrel over the garden and mix it in with the dirt as a fertilizer. Between the stuff I emptied out of the barrel, the leaves, and the new stuff in the barrel, there is probably about 65-75lbs of fertilizer for next year, plus any additional stuff that we add over the winter. That seems like a lot for such a small garden, but considering the amount of vegetables that we harvested this year, that is probably necessary. How much did we harvest, you ask? Well, here is a link to the harvest summary spreadsheet. 143 lbs seems like a pretty good harvest from an area that is probably only about around 250 square feet of usable area. The prices in the spreadsheet come from Wegmans' website. I used prices for organic produce when I could find it (everything from the garden is effectively organic), and when I couldn't find it, I multiplied the price of non-organic produce by 150%. Between the CSA that we joined and the garden, Jaime and I were not really able to keep up with the amount of produce that we had. We've made the decision that next year we won't do the CSA. Instead, we will rely on the garden for most of our produce and supplement it with stuff from our neighborhood farmer's market.
In the spring I'll spread the contents of the compost pile and the compost barrel over the garden and mix it in with the dirt as a fertilizer. Between the stuff I emptied out of the barrel, the leaves, and the new stuff in the barrel, there is probably about 65-75lbs of fertilizer for next year, plus any additional stuff that we add over the winter. That seems like a lot for such a small garden, but considering the amount of vegetables that we harvested this year, that is probably necessary. How much did we harvest, you ask? Well, here is a link to the harvest summary spreadsheet. 143 lbs seems like a pretty good harvest from an area that is probably only about around 250 square feet of usable area. The prices in the spreadsheet come from Wegmans' website. I used prices for organic produce when I could find it (everything from the garden is effectively organic), and when I couldn't find it, I multiplied the price of non-organic produce by 150%. Between the CSA that we joined and the garden, Jaime and I were not really able to keep up with the amount of produce that we had. We've made the decision that next year we won't do the CSA. Instead, we will rely on the garden for most of our produce and supplement it with stuff from our neighborhood farmer's market.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Introducing the 2010 South Wedge Winery Traminette
Its that time of year again. As the vegetables in the garden wind down, the grapes are finishing ripening on the vines. Last month, Jaime and I spent a weekend in the finger lakes to celebrate our 1st anniversary. While there we did a wine tasting tour. One thing we learned while doing that is there is a second source of grape juice in the finger lakes for home winemaking. Fulkerson Winery on Seneca Lake sells a variety of juices and winemaking supplies. I decided to give it a try this fall.
This year I decided to make a Traminette. The decision was based not only on grape preference, but also price and availability date (they only offer each juice for about 4 days). Much like last year's Seyval, Traminette is a mid-level priced grape that has some resemblance to the region's famed Gewurztraminer and Riesling grapes. In fact, Traminette is a hybrid and one of the parents is Gewurztraminer. The hybridization allows it to produce higher yield and have better cold tolerance for this area than a pure Gewurztraminer. I'm still not quite ready to move up the to higher priced grapes yet. The Traminette is $10/gal. as opposed to $20/gal for Gewurzt. After I make a good wine that I'm happy with, I'll try a more expensive juice.
Here is a blurry picture of the juice pickup area at Fulkerson. Each spigot is labeled with a different juice type.
As you may remember, 2009 was a terrible growing season not only for vegetables, but also for grapes. The Seyval that I got last year needed a significant amount of sugar added as well as Calcium Carbonate to reduce the acidity. Last year, the Seyval juice had 15.8% sugar and a total (or titrable) acid level of 1.185. Ideal levels of those are around 22% and 0.5-0.85 TA. This year, the Traminette juice that I purchased had 22.8% sugar and 0.85 TA. The sugar level is just about ideal while the acid level is a bit high, but not so high that it will make the yeast unhappy or upset the winemaking process. Recall also that the acidity will be reduced a bit during fermentation and stabilization. That means no extra additives this year, yay! The only thing I added was a small amount of yeast nutrient and the yeast itself. I used Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast. (The winery added potasium metabisulphite to prevent bacteria and wild yeasts from growing.) Here is the juice being transferred into a glass carboy for fermenting. I started the fermentation on 10/19.
About 24 hours later, this is what it looked like. Note that you can actually see little bubbles coming up the side in the front-right.Interestingly, it gets cloudier every day. I would assume thats because of the yeast multiplying like crazy. Here is what it looked like about 72 hours after beginning fermentation.
So thats about where it is now. The juice will stay in the carboy for probably a couple months fermenting. The vast majority of the fermenting takes place in the first week or two and then it tails off slowly after that.Friday, October 22, 2010
Urban Foraging
My most common running route winds through residential streets to an area called Pinnacle Hill. I'm pretty sure its the tallest hill within the city (probably 100-150 feet from base to top), and there are a number of TV and Radio antennae erected near the top of it. The slopes of the hill are undeveloped, and there is probably 10-15 acres of wooded area. I'm not entirely sure who owns the property, though I suspect its the city. The property is not maintained in any way, and its not heavily used, but there are some trails on one side of the hill. There is even a vew from the top. I mostly see people walking dogs there. I often do part of my runs there because I prefer to run on trails, and I figure its probably good to include hills while I'm running.
So the last couple times I had gone running there, I noticed that a big, immature puffball had been kicked apart near one of the trails. I knew that puffballs are edible when they are young(though I'd never had one), and fun to poke when they are mature (spewing clouds of spores). I'd never actually seen a giant puffball, and I thought it rather unfortunate that this puffball was neither eaten, nor allowed the chance to propagate. There were several chunks of it near the trail, and another chunk about 20 feet away from the trail. This time when I went back, I noticed that the chunks near the trail were rotting, but the chunk away from the trail actually looked bigger that it was before. Upon closer inspection, that "chunk" was actually a different, whole, puffball. Knowing that these are prized edibles, I quickly picked it up, knocked the slugs off the bottom, and set off home with my 'shroom. I was quite excited about this.
I didn't know what puffballs tasted like, but I certainly wanted to give it a try. Personally, I think that mushrooms can have dramatically different flavors. The basic white ones and even the portabellos have a pretty mild, dirt-like flavor. Others that are cultivated and you can find at most grocery stores like oyster and maitake are usually pretty boring, too. In my opinion, Shiitake's are the one cultivated mushroom that have a really distinct flavor. I think they have a stronger flavor and bit of a metallic tang to them that I didn't like at first, but I've actually been craving lately. The uncultivateable, wild foraged ones are the more expensive ones, and from my limited experience, can have some stronger flavors. I love Porcini mushrooms, and they make a pretty amazing risotto. I haven't had Chanterelles or Morels, but those are the most sought-after mushrooms short of truffles. So you can see why I was so excited about trying the wild puffball.
People sure do look at you funny when you walk around a city residential area gingerly carrying a 5.5lb mushroom. I had one kid on a bike stop and say, "Wow! Is that a mushroom?!" As I was walking home, I started to notice the smell of the puffball. I can't say I found it entirely appetizing. At this point I was starting to realize that I may have (almost literally) bitten off more than I could chew.
As soon as I got home, I measured and weighed the specimen. It was approximately 10" x 12" x 14", and weighed in at 5.5lbs. I captured the moment with my phone camera.
The next step was to verify that it was, in fact, edible. Checking my mushroom identification guidebook and the internet, I determined that giant puffballs are indeed, "choice edibles." All puffballs are edible, but the larger species (like this one) are supposedly best. Disclaimer: Some highly poisonous immature mushrooms look like small (we're talking an inch or so) puffballs. Those poisonous mushrooms start off as little balls before popping up into things that look like normal mushrooms. If you cut the puffball open and you see something that looks like the gills and cap of a mushroom inside, don't eat it! If a puffball is more than a few inches in diameter, there really isn't anything else that it can be mistaken for (maybe a soccer ball?). You still need too cut it open to check the inside, though. Once the inside of a puffball has started to mature and create spores, its no good. Supposedly its not really poisonous, but tastes really bad and might "irritate" your digestive system, or so the internet says. So cut it open and check to see that it is a uniform white color inside without any purple or brown areas. Done:
That picture doesn't look too impressive, but that knife is actually a pretty good-sized 9" blade. I wish I had Jaime take a picture of me holding it for scale.
So now that I know its edible, how do I process it? The internet says not to wash puffballs because they suck up water like a sponge. Ok, so I just cut away the parts that had been nibbled on by slugs. Jaime refuses to eat it (or even allow it to be kept in the refridgerator or house). While she likes normal grocery store mushrooms, she's "got a thing about big mushrooms and fungus". So apparently I'm on my own with this thing. I did find one friend who wanted some, so I have him about 1/6 of it. Nobody else has shown any interest, so I'll probably give him a bunch more of it.
On to cooking.... The internet says the best way to cook it is to bread and fry it, or sautee it in butter. Done:
Hmm. Not only does it suck up water like a sponge, it also does the same with butter. It tasted like butter with a bit of generic mushroom flavor. It was surprisingly mild. I can't say that I'm entirely sad about that, though. I was pretty worried about the flavor considering that I wasn't too fond of the smell. I also tried chopping some up and putting it on leftover pizza. I couldn't taste it at all. I found the texture very interesting, though. The closest comparison I could come up with was the inside of a biscuit. Very soft. It didn't cook down to be rubbery or slimey like normal mushrooms do.
My brother (who didn't want any of my puffball because he and his wife already had a puffball of their own that they had found and were eating) suggested that I make puffball parmesan, which is his favorite method of puffball preparation. So I gave it a try.
I liked that quite a bit better than the sauteed in butter method. The puffball flavor wasn't too strong, but it was definitely there. The problem is, I'm not sure that I like the flavor. I want to like it, but I'm starting to think I don't. Its got some normal mushroom flavor to it, but its also got its own flavor that is hard to describe. Hang on, let me pull out my wine wheel.... In addition to the standard dirt-like mushroom flavor, I get hints of oak, medicine, and licorice. I don't know if that really does it justice, but thats the best I can do; the wheel was made for wine, not mushrooms!
I did hear about a few other interesting puffball recipes. I'm not sure if I'll try any of these or not. An internet recipe suggested stuffed giant puffball. You basically cut off the top and hollow it out like a pumpkin. Then you put in meat and chopped up veggies and some of the chopped up 'shroom that you removed and put it in the oven for a long time. I don't see myself doing that, and its already been cut in half. A friend of Jaime's said that her family coats slices in egg and cooks it like French Toast. Lastly, I saw a suggestion on the internet to cut it into slices and use the slices as crust for pizza. Just spread sauce and cheese and toppings on it and cook it like a normal pizza. Considering its mild flavor and bread/biscuit like character, that might be worth a try.
I'll have to do whatever I'm going to do soon, though. I can't imagine it will keep more than a few days wrapped up in a towel in our garage.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
2010 Gardening Lessons Learned
As the 2010 growing season winds down, I thought I would summarize some of the things I've learned this year. Hopefully some of this will be useful next year. Here they are, in no particular order.
1. Vegetables take longer to grow than it says on the back of the seed package. My Broccoli this year is a good example. It should have been ready for harvest before summer (listed at 55 days), but it didn't mature enough before it got hot out, and the plants seemed to basically go into hibernation during the summer. The first harvest was actually at 120 days. Only one out of my 5 plants produced a head by mid-summer. Happily, they are producing well now in the fall. I planted my Brussell's Sprouts based on the directions of 3-4 months before the first fall frost, and now that it has been 3-4 months, it is pretty clear that they will not have enough time to grow their sprouts before the end of the year. Any veggetables that have a window of opportunity need to be planted early or start them extra early indoors and transplant them.
2. I'm not good at growing seeds for transplant. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, though I suspect some combination of overwatering, not enough light, and not enough heat. In the spring I started some Broccoli seed indoors for transplanting. About two weeks later, I planted some seed directly in the ground. After about 4 weeks of growing, I transplanted the indoor seedlings into the garden. The outdoor seedlings that were half as old were the same size, and actually surpassed the indoor started ones in size soon after that. After being in the ground for a week or so, the transplants seemed to grow at the same speed as the direct-sowed ones. Its not just a matter of not having enough light/heat indoors, though. I started Brussell's Sprouts during midsummer, and I sprouted and grew those outdoors in full sun(in little plastic containers). I transplanted most of them, but didn't have space for all, so I left a couple seedlings in the containers in case any of the transplants died. I noticed that after a week or two, there was a dramatic difference in the size of the ones that had been transplanted vs. the ones left in the container. I suspect that at least part of the problem was overwatering. I'm really going to have to improve my seedling growing next year.
3. Use disease resistant seeds/plants. My disease/pest plan for this year was to assume that since I was in the middle of the city, and far from farm fields, I wouldn't have too much of a problem. I was actually most worried about varmints eating on my plants. Turned out not to be the case. I had one plant killed by a cat going to the bathroom on it and my Melon seedlings were maimed and killed(but not eaten) by some evil creature, but none of the plants were eaten by varmints. Bugs weren't too bad, though they might get worse in future years. On the other hand, diseases decimated some of my plants. Powdery Mildew killed my Spaghetti Squash, Downy Mildew killed the Cucumber, Bean Mosaic Virus prematurely ended the harvest of beans. Late blight affected the tomatoes, but not too dramatically. Most seed companies offer some varieties that have been bred to be resistant to different kinds of disease. Knowing that the above mentioned diseases are a problem around here, I will try to get varieties that are resistant to them.
4. Plants take up a lot of space. Granted, I tried to crowd some things in this year, but many of the plants exceeded my expectations for how big they would get. Who would have thought that a row of bush beans would spread out to be 3' wide? Potatoes that fall over and grow 3' sideways along the ground? Pak Choi growing to be 20" wide? Tomatoes growing 9'+ high? The Cucurbits were the worst. I had set aside a 4' by 4' area for the "Bush-Type" Zucchini. It grew to take up an area about 10' X 15'. The Spaghetti Squash grew to absurd proportions(multiple 20'+ vines), and would have been even bigger if it hadn't been killed by Powdery Mildew. About the only thing that didn't take up more space than expected was onions. Perhaps thats just because they didn't grow too well, though.
5. Good access to all plants is needed. Partially this is in reference to having a better path system between my plants than I did this year. Its also a matter of being able to get at each plant. I think part of the reason my peas were so annoying to pick this year is because it was difficult to reach some of the peas.
6. A roto-tiller isn't totally necessary for annual maintenance on the homestead. Since the garden is modest in size (~300 sq. ft.), turning my garden over with a shovel isn't a terrible ordeal. I'm glad that I had one when I was first making the garden, but now that the soil has been loosened a couple times, its not too bad with the shovel. It would probably take 3 hours or so to do the whole thing, but if I'm not renting or borrowing a tiller, I can turn over small parts of the garden individually when different crops are ready to be planted. Besides, using a shovel leaves more worms alive and I can dig deeper with the shovel than the tillers were able to dig.
7. The growing season is slightly longer at the homestead than other areas around Rochester. There was a frost advisory for the greater Rochester area on 10/13 with the comments that it would be widespread, with only areas near the lake escaping frost. We didn't get any frost, but I know that the farm that provides food for our CSA (its well outside of the city) did get hit. It was a similar story in the spring when the expected frost(s) did not appear. I think that being in the city proper and being surrounded by buildings on two sides and tall fence on the other two sides offers some protection from temperature extremes. Last year I planted some hardier things (peas, onions, pak choi) outdoors the first week of April and they seemed quite happy. Next year I may try planting some things as early as mid-march.
1. Vegetables take longer to grow than it says on the back of the seed package. My Broccoli this year is a good example. It should have been ready for harvest before summer (listed at 55 days), but it didn't mature enough before it got hot out, and the plants seemed to basically go into hibernation during the summer. The first harvest was actually at 120 days. Only one out of my 5 plants produced a head by mid-summer. Happily, they are producing well now in the fall. I planted my Brussell's Sprouts based on the directions of 3-4 months before the first fall frost, and now that it has been 3-4 months, it is pretty clear that they will not have enough time to grow their sprouts before the end of the year. Any veggetables that have a window of opportunity need to be planted early or start them extra early indoors and transplant them.
2. I'm not good at growing seeds for transplant. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, though I suspect some combination of overwatering, not enough light, and not enough heat. In the spring I started some Broccoli seed indoors for transplanting. About two weeks later, I planted some seed directly in the ground. After about 4 weeks of growing, I transplanted the indoor seedlings into the garden. The outdoor seedlings that were half as old were the same size, and actually surpassed the indoor started ones in size soon after that. After being in the ground for a week or so, the transplants seemed to grow at the same speed as the direct-sowed ones. Its not just a matter of not having enough light/heat indoors, though. I started Brussell's Sprouts during midsummer, and I sprouted and grew those outdoors in full sun(in little plastic containers). I transplanted most of them, but didn't have space for all, so I left a couple seedlings in the containers in case any of the transplants died. I noticed that after a week or two, there was a dramatic difference in the size of the ones that had been transplanted vs. the ones left in the container. I suspect that at least part of the problem was overwatering. I'm really going to have to improve my seedling growing next year.
3. Use disease resistant seeds/plants. My disease/pest plan for this year was to assume that since I was in the middle of the city, and far from farm fields, I wouldn't have too much of a problem. I was actually most worried about varmints eating on my plants. Turned out not to be the case. I had one plant killed by a cat going to the bathroom on it and my Melon seedlings were maimed and killed(but not eaten) by some evil creature, but none of the plants were eaten by varmints. Bugs weren't too bad, though they might get worse in future years. On the other hand, diseases decimated some of my plants. Powdery Mildew killed my Spaghetti Squash, Downy Mildew killed the Cucumber, Bean Mosaic Virus prematurely ended the harvest of beans. Late blight affected the tomatoes, but not too dramatically. Most seed companies offer some varieties that have been bred to be resistant to different kinds of disease. Knowing that the above mentioned diseases are a problem around here, I will try to get varieties that are resistant to them.
4. Plants take up a lot of space. Granted, I tried to crowd some things in this year, but many of the plants exceeded my expectations for how big they would get. Who would have thought that a row of bush beans would spread out to be 3' wide? Potatoes that fall over and grow 3' sideways along the ground? Pak Choi growing to be 20" wide? Tomatoes growing 9'+ high? The Cucurbits were the worst. I had set aside a 4' by 4' area for the "Bush-Type" Zucchini. It grew to take up an area about 10' X 15'. The Spaghetti Squash grew to absurd proportions(multiple 20'+ vines), and would have been even bigger if it hadn't been killed by Powdery Mildew. About the only thing that didn't take up more space than expected was onions. Perhaps thats just because they didn't grow too well, though.
5. Good access to all plants is needed. Partially this is in reference to having a better path system between my plants than I did this year. Its also a matter of being able to get at each plant. I think part of the reason my peas were so annoying to pick this year is because it was difficult to reach some of the peas.
6. A roto-tiller isn't totally necessary for annual maintenance on the homestead. Since the garden is modest in size (~300 sq. ft.), turning my garden over with a shovel isn't a terrible ordeal. I'm glad that I had one when I was first making the garden, but now that the soil has been loosened a couple times, its not too bad with the shovel. It would probably take 3 hours or so to do the whole thing, but if I'm not renting or borrowing a tiller, I can turn over small parts of the garden individually when different crops are ready to be planted. Besides, using a shovel leaves more worms alive and I can dig deeper with the shovel than the tillers were able to dig.
7. The growing season is slightly longer at the homestead than other areas around Rochester. There was a frost advisory for the greater Rochester area on 10/13 with the comments that it would be widespread, with only areas near the lake escaping frost. We didn't get any frost, but I know that the farm that provides food for our CSA (its well outside of the city) did get hit. It was a similar story in the spring when the expected frost(s) did not appear. I think that being in the city proper and being surrounded by buildings on two sides and tall fence on the other two sides offers some protection from temperature extremes. Last year I planted some hardier things (peas, onions, pak choi) outdoors the first week of April and they seemed quite happy. Next year I may try planting some things as early as mid-march.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The 2011 Growing Season Has Begun!
Faithful blog followers have been begging for a post, so here it is! Before I get to 2011, a quick update on 2010. About 60% of the garden is done for the year, so I turned that portion over (with a shovel) and planted it with cover crops. I spread a mixture of oats and hairy vetch. The oats are supposed to grow quickly in the fall and die over the winter while the Vetch will grow slowly over the fall, survive the winter, and grow again in the spring. The Vetch is a legume and should add some nitrogen to the soil. The Oats grow quickly and should add a bunch of organic matter, and may help the Vetch survive the winter. Its definately later in the year than these cover crops should be planted, and the vetch might not survive the winter, but it can't hurt to plant them. Here is what it looks like after I had done about 40% of the garden. 
As you can see in the picture, there are still some things growing. In the picture you can see green onions and broccoli. There are also still some cherry tomatoes, pepper plants, pak choi, lettuce, and brussells sprouts. Recently there was a forcast of widespread frost everywhere in the area except right by the lake, so I harvested most of the remaining peppers and tomatoes (most of which were green). It didn't end up frosting, so I'm glad I left some of the stuff on the plants. Below you can see that harvest.
In the bottom of the picture, you can see some garlic lined up. That brings us to the 2011 part I mentioned. I planted a dozen cloves of garlic. It should theoretically overwinter and be ready for harvest in the late spring or early summer. Those cloves came from a few heads of garlic that we got from the CSA this summer. Hopefully that means that they should grow well around here. Here is what the garlic patch currently looks like.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sauce 'n Squash
My last post showed a large harvest from one of the tomato plants. Here is how the tomatoes look now.
It amazes me that around 13lbs of tomatoes, plus 2 onions and 3 peppers somehow turn into just over 3 quarts of sauce. I was hoping to get 6-8 quarts. I guess we'll just have to savor it that much more.
All the Spaghetti Squash vines are completely dead and brown now, so cut the squash off the vines and put them in the sun to try to get them to ripen up a bit more. Some of the vines died off before the squash on them had a chance to ripen. The color looks pretty washed out in the picture below, but about half of the squash are more green than they are yellow.
The stuff in the planters behind the squash is herbs. More Sage, Rosemary, Parsley, Chives, and Catnip than we can use.
It amazes me that around 13lbs of tomatoes, plus 2 onions and 3 peppers somehow turn into just over 3 quarts of sauce. I was hoping to get 6-8 quarts. I guess we'll just have to savor it that much more.
All the Spaghetti Squash vines are completely dead and brown now, so cut the squash off the vines and put them in the sun to try to get them to ripen up a bit more. Some of the vines died off before the squash on them had a chance to ripen. The color looks pretty washed out in the picture below, but about half of the squash are more green than they are yellow.
The stuff in the planters behind the squash is herbs. More Sage, Rosemary, Parsley, Chives, and Catnip than we can use.
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