Feed the Birds!

Today is the official start of winter but we've already had a couple of little tastes.  It's pretty mild here in the Gulf Islands, however, we've had one spell of very cold weather and just recently, a bit of snow which is now melting.

There's not much happening in the garden, but our bird feeders are very busy.  We've had to put out a small hummingbird feeder for two Anna's Hummingbird females.  These hummingbirds don't migrate in winter, finding sustenance in small insects, tree sap provided by sapsuckers and the occasional brave flower.  We have a viburnum which starts flowering in November and doesn't stop until spring which must be of some help.  Still, the cold weather must take its toll on them so we help them out with sugar-water feeders.  Usually you make a hummingbird mixture 1 part sugar to 4 parts water but in the winter you can do that 1:3 for Anna's, which is how ours is set up.  Anna's look very similar to Rufous Hummingbirds.  The females are much the same coloration, but without the rusty tones of the
Rufous and they're slightly larger.  We've never seen a male, which has an iridescent red-coloured head.

Chestnut Backed Chickadees

We always have a feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds for birds winter and summer.  We see lots of chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, towhees and purple finches in the winter.  At this time of the year we augment the feeder with a suet block.  The chickadees especially love the suet block as they're very adept at hanging upside down.  I make my own suet blocks following a recipe I found and adapted from the Internet.

Suet Blocks for Birds

1 part lard
1 part crunchy peanut butter
1 part flour
2 parts rolled oats
2 parts cornmeal
various seeds and dried fruits.

Melt the lard in a large pot.  Add the peanut butter and stir together.  Add remaining ingredients and pour into a baking pan.  Since I use a whole pound of lard, I pour the mixture into a 9x13 pan.  Allow the mixture to cool and slice into blocks.  The 9x13 pan makes 6 blocks.  Now put the pan in the freezer and leave overnight.  You can easily remove the blocks by running hot water over the bottom to just melt the outside edges of the blocks.  I place the blocks in large ziplock bags and freeze them until they're needed.

The blocks I made last week have niger seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, currants and dried cranberries added.  I throw in whatever is on hand and since I have quite a bit of it, I used half old fashioned rolled oats and half steel-cut oats.  I've seen recipes with sugar added.  Why on earth would you add sugar?!  It sounds totally wrong.

Applesauce

Just as the vegetable garden is slowing down, the orchard kicks into high gear.  What to do with all the apples!  We have 6 apple trees, all fairly young.  The production wasn't stellar this year, probably things were a bit cool at the critical pollination time.  That said, however, we still have more apples than we can eat fresh.  I made a few apple crisps, and we've eaten lots.  There are still quite a few apples to deal with.  The obvious solution is applesauce which is good all on its own or used in baking - such as applesauce cake.  Check out the links for the recipes.

I had already bottled applesauce made of Gravenstein apples and had some more made up waiting to be bottled.  Today I used some Liberty apples.  The Liberty apple is a delicious tart apple for eating fresh.  It's small compared to other apples, but has dense, crisp white flesh housed in a pretty red skin.  That red skin lends a lovely blush to the applesauce.

Since I'm using my latest kitchen tool, a food mill, to process the applesauce, preparing the apples is a snap.  I quarter them, take out the seeds and chop off the dried blossom end - purely for esthetics - chop them and into the pot they go.  No need to peel or core.

I added a little water to the pot, just to keep the apples from burning, popped the lid on and simmered them slowly, stirring from time to time.  I found with the Liberty apples that I needed to add a bit of water several times.  The Gravenstein apples are much juicier and didn't need further water added.  You just have to keep an eye on them while they're cooking and judge for yourself if you need to add water.

When the apples were cooked down, I spooned them into the food mill.  This one is made by Oxo and the design is excellent.  It goes together and comes apart easily and the legs, which fold up for storage, fit over a range of bowl sizes.  It comes with 3 sieve attachments - I used the medium one.

In a minute or two, I had a bowl of thick tasty applesauce.  As both Gravenstein and Liberty apples have their own sweetness, there was no need to add sugar.  I reheated the applesauce so that I could bottle it in 1-cup jars, the perfect amount for applesauce cake.  I jarred both the Liberty applesauce made today and that of Gravenstein apples which I'd made yesterday.

It's easy to tell which is Liberty and which is Gravenstein!

The final step was processing the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  I now have 7 more jars of applesauce to add to the 6 I did last week.  That should be more than enough for our household.

Cantaloupe!

I had originally been going to post about disappointments in the garden and cantaloupe was going to be the star of the post.  I'd Googled "cantaloupe+harvest" to see how you tell when they were ripe.  Apparently the stem starts to separate from the fruit - much as a cake will start to separate from the pan when it's baked - but I hadn't seen any of that on my cantaloupes.  I did pick one when I started to see a little bit of yellow on the netted skins - but it was only partially ripe and totally tasteless.

Then I noticed that one was starting to rot, so a few days ago, I picked the last 2 cantaloupes and brought them in the house.  I'd been going to chuck them, but decided to cut them open first.  Surprise! Beautiful, deep orange inside - and deliciously sweet!

Okay, maybe I will grow them again next year - with some changes.  I'll start them a bit earlier and coddle them in the potting shed longer.  When I plant them out - again in the compost bin - I'll protect the tender stems with water bottle collars.  The damage that wood bugs did to the stems this year probably set the plants back quite a bit.  And I might grow 3 plants instead of the 2 that I grew this year.

This year's crop was certainly pretty meagre when you consider the time and effort that went into producing 2 small fruits, but they weren't taking up room in the garden, so perhaps they're worth another try.

Planting Garlic - Full Circle

It's hard to believe that a year has come and gone.  I started this blog last year on September 12th with the planting of garlic and today, almost exactly a year later, I'm planting garlic again!

Russian, Porcelain (I think!) and my own bulbs.

I had saved two bulbs of my own growing but wanted to get some new ones as well.  Long Lake Nursery in Nanaimo had garlic for sale grown on Gabriola Island - Porcelain and Russian.  Unfortunately they were all in one basket and not easy to identify!  I know that Russian has some red to  the skin of the clove and Porcelain doesn't, so I tried to get 2 bulbs showing red and 2 not.  When the wrapper came off, however, 3 of them look like Russian and the other looks like Porcelain.

Half planted

The bed was prepared several weeks ago by adding a couple of wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil.  It had previously grown snow peas and they would likely have put some nitrogen back into the soil.  Today I marked out my rows with a good trowel full of homemade fertilizer.  I allowed a row for each bulb and placed the rows of what I hoped were the same variety together.  At least if each bulb has its own row I might have a better idea of which variety that bulb is.  But then, maybe not!  Each row has 6 or 7 cloves in it, gently pushed into the soil root end first.

Garlic all planted and waiting for the soil to settle.

Once the soil has settled with the coming of the fall rains, I'll add a mulch of chopped leaves on the top.  Garlic doesn't like competition and chopped leaves are very good at keeping weeds at bay.

Oregon Sugar Pod II

The snow and snap peas are planted in the bed beside this one and are doing very well.  I'm hopeful that this year I got them into the ground with plenty of time for some production.

Sugar Lace II

I planted 2 varieties, Oregon Sugar Pod II - which I had grown in the spring - and Sugar Lace II which is actually a snap pea.  Now that they are growing, it's very easy to tell which is which.  Sugar Lace has an abundance of very curly tendrils and apparently doesn't even need a fence to grow on.  I'm thinking they won't be as tall as the Oregon Sugar Pod.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard volunteers

And in between the zags of peas are the volunteer Bright Lights Chard, looking extremely happy and healthy.

Zippy Salsa

Salsa!

A number of years ago I started making my own salsa.  I was using a mix made by Bernardin which produced a lovely spicy salsa.  I didn't follow their directions exactly (what else is new!) and added my own onions and sometimes peppers I'd grown as well.  Unfortunately, last year they discontinued that mix and put out a new one which looked very different.  As I didn't have enough tomatoes last year, I didn't bother trying it out but this year, there are lots of tomatoes on hand as well as some great peppers.

My husband's cousin had also been making the salsa using Bernardin's mix and this year she tried the new one but was very disappointed with the results.  She found a new recipe on the Internet, so I decided to search out one as well.  Of course, I tried Canadian Living first and found one called Peppy Salsa which had very good comments and even a video to show you how to make the salsa.

I had the tomatoes, onions, garlic and jalapeno peppers thanks to the gift of a plant from a friend.  Jollity Farms proved to be a good source for medium heat peppers, although they didn't have the peppers called for in the recipe.

Six kinds of peppers chopped up!

I bought pepperonchini, Hungarian wax and another red pepper the name of which escapes me.  I got sweet red and yellow peppers from the grocery store.

All the ingredients ready to cook up.

My daughter scared me when she blanched at all the peppers in the recipe so I decided to halve it, which gave me 6 sealed 1-cup jars and a half jar for the fridge.  Now that I've made it and tasted it, next time, I'll do the full recipe.  It's pretty good!  I call mine Zippy Salsa because I didn't make it exactly as Canadian Living's recipe dictated, but here's the link to their recipe:  SALSA! 

Three Sisters - Judgement Day

Although it's been a lovely warm September day, fall is in the air.  The corn is long finished and the beans have all but stopped producing.  Squash vines are dying while the fruit on them is ripening in the sun.  It's time to take a good hard look at how the Three Sisters garden worked out this year and to decide on what changes should take place if I decide to repeat the experiment next year.

Today I took apart one of the beds, all except for a butternut squash which was still growing in the bed.  I was careful not to uproot the cornstalks around it; I just cut them down.  Everything else, irrigation line included, has been removed from that particular bed.  Two very large wheelbarrow loads were removed to one side of the compost bin.

I think that overall, the experiment was successful.  There are definitely things which need tweaking, however.

The corn component worked out very well.  With the strength of the bean vines, it withstood the wind and wasn't blown over as corn has been every year in my garden.  We certainly enjoyed feasts of fresh corn from our garden!

Beans set aside for seed ripening in the sun

The beans were immensely successful - in fact much too successful.  They broke down the cornstalks, luckily after the corn had been mostly harvested.  We had enormous harvests of beans and were very pleased with the quality.  When I took apart one of the beds, however,  I discovered masses of beans which had been hidden in the jungle.

Spaghetti squash

The squash component has been the least successful.  Those plants which were placed directly in the beds with the corn and beans were definitely over-shadowed and didn't produce much.  The spaghetti squash which was planted in the bed between the two corn/bean/squash beds fared much better and there are lots of squashes ripening from this one plant.

Will I do another Three Sisters garden next year?  I think so.  We have plans to replace the old wooden beds with something more durable.  What will I do differently next year?

As I did this last spring, I'll start the corn in the potting shed and plant it out when the night temperatures are about 10 C.

When the corn is about 6" tall, I'll plant the beans outside protected by water bottle collars so that the timing is better and the corn has a chance to make some height before the beans start scrambling up the stalks.  And instead of the 16 plants I grew this year, it'll be more like 8.  I think I might grow more bean plants separately so I can keep better control over the production.

The squash is a puzzle, though.  I'm not sure how I can grow good squash plants in my restricted raised bed situation and next year it might be a Two Sisters garden!  The squash might be planted in one of the new 4x4 beds so that I can ensure that it gets the proper care.

And on a squash note, the cantaloupe is starting to ripen in one side of the compost bin.  I got 6 cantaloupes from the 2 plants.  And here, as well, I have plans to grow cantaloupe again next year, but with changes.  I'll grow the plants in the potting shed for longer and I'll put a water bottle collar in place while they're still tiny.  The wood bugs had quite a feast on the young stems before I protected them this year.  I'm sure it set them back more than a bit.

All in all, the Three Sisters garden was successful.  With minor changes, I'm sure it'll be even more successful next year.

Tomato Retrospective

These days the kitchen is humming with the sound of the dehydrator hard at work.  The tomatoes in the garden are ripening quickly now, but we're also getting some rain and cooler temperatures.  The time of the tomato is drawing to an end.  I now have a very good idea of which varieties worked in the garden and which ones didn't.

KEEPERS

Principe Borghese will always be a keeper in my garden.  This plant produces good crops of cherry-sized tomatoes which I use exclusively for dehydrating.  I use the dried tomatoes all winter long in soups, stews, etc.  While it's not very exciting eaten fresh, I have lots of others that will fill this niche.  Principe Borghese is my tomato of choice for drying.

Health Kick is a plant I picked up at a nursery in the early summer.  Its growth habit is tidy and with the coming of the rains, there was no sign of blight on its leaves.  It has had a tremendous crop of good-sized plum tomatoes.  The picture above is a basket which represents about half of the crop of one plant!  Currently West Coast Seeds doesn't carry this variety although I've sent them an email requesting that they consider it.  Mckenzie Seeds does carry it in Canada, so I can buy my seeds there if necessary.  As it's a hybrid, saving seeds from this variety is not an option.  Next year I'd like to grow at least 4 plants in the garden.

Cherry Tomatoes:  I'll probably continue to grow Gold Nugget and Sweet Baby Girl.  Their growth habits are tidy as both are determinates and both provide good crops of sweet-tasting tomatoes for salads and sauces.

REJECTS

I will not be growing Moneymaker and Bonny Best again.  They both were very unsatisfactory.  Bonny Best, in particular, is not suited to my concrete raised beds.  Its water requirements were excessive and the plants were always droopy no matter how much water I gave them.  Both developed blossom end rot which is a sign of insufficient water.  In my opinion they both put too much energy into structural growth and not enough into fruit.  The jury is still out on Honey Bee.  It produced good crops of tomatoes and its semi-determinate growth enabled me to keep it relatively under control.  The question is, however, do I really need 2 yellow tomatoes?  Unfortunately, Beth's Big Fat Tomato quickly fell prey to blight.  This was particularly disappointing because I so wanted it to succeed.

NEXT YEAR PLANS

I would like to have at least 4 plants each of Principe Borghese and Health Kick.  I'll likely also have at least one each of Gold Nugget and Sweet Baby Girl.  I still need a good slicing tomato that will be able to flourish in the confines of a concrete raised bed.  Research!  I need good crops of tomatoes to fill our needs of sauces and salsa.  It's been a couple of years since I was able to make salsa, but if Health Kick works out next year, perhaps I have the answer.  That's it with a gardener, isn't it?  We're always thinking, "next year....."

Insidious Cedar Roots

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the cedar is an important tree.  Tall, majestic and long-lived, the cedar provides superior wood which is light and resistant to rotting.  It's the tree of choice for the long native dugout canoes.  It's not, however, the friend of the gardener!  Cedar and maple roots are always searching for water sources and these two trees are the main reason we went to concrete raised beds.

Today I was preparing a bed for this year's garlic planting which will take place in a couple of weeks.  As I turned over the bed, I discovered the intricate network of cedar roots in one end of the bed.  This bed was one of the first we made - before we realized how important it was to have the exit drain pipes above ground!  I had thought this bed only had one drain, but obviously there was a second one hidden under the old carpeting which keeps down the weeds in the path between two beds.

Exposed roots on the inside of the bed.

Digging out the end of the bed finally disclosed the second drain which showed me where to dig outside the bed to find where the roots were coming in.  I hacked off the roots, which given a few more months, would have completely filled the drain pipe.  My husband has cut out a piece of the old carpeting to expose the drain end and in addition, drilled out what he could of the pipe.

Cedar roots showing on the outside of the drain pipe before being drilled out.

When cedar roots work their way in through the drainage pipes they are fairly easy to deal with.  Not so easy is one bed where they've discovered a hairline crack in the base of a bed.  With this bed, I have to dig it out each year and rip out the roots.  Unless I expose the entire base of this bed, I'll never be free of roots here.  It's a never-ending battle with the cedar trees and their roots will travel an amazing distance to search out the rich soil in my concrete raised beds.

Seared Cherry Tomato Spaghettini

As mentioned in the previous post, today I had a surplus of cherry tomatoes.  A week ago, I saw an appealing recipe which used cherry tomatoes and here was an excellent opportunity to try it out.  I made a couple of changes - such as reducing the salt - but it was a definite winner and we'll be having it again.  It's certainly quick and easy - only takes about 15 minutes to make if you have all the ingredients prepared ahead of time.

Yum!  Quick and easy pasta dinner.

Seared Cherry Tomato Spaghettini

12 oz spaghettini
1/2 cup of reserved pasta water
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
2 Tbsp dried bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic sliced
pinch of crushed hot pepper flakes
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil over medium-high heat.  Saute tomatoes until lightly seared (about 1 minute).  Sprinkle with bread crumbs and salt, toss to coat.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the pan.  Cook the garlic and hot pepper flakes over medium high heat until fragrant and softened (about 2 minutes).  Add tomato mixture, pasta and reserved pasta water, stirring to combine.  Toss with parmesan cheese and basil.  Serves 4.

Harvesting Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes - Sweet Baby Girl, Gold Nugget and Honey Bee

After our usual dry summer we've had a nice spell of rain.  Nothing waters the ground like rain.  I've been keeping the tomatoes well hydrated, but when I went up to pick tomatoes today, there were lots of cherry tomatoes with cracks.  It happens every time!  Since these tomatoes need to be dealt with immediately, I decided to make tomato sauce with them.  Cherry tomatoes make delicious sauces.  The ingredients were all immediately to hand - tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil.  You can vary it with peppers, thyme and add other ingredients such as carrots, zucchini - whatever takes your fancy.  Here's how I made it today:

Simple Tomato Sauce

3 quarts of cherry tomatoes
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 quarts of cherry tomatoes, stems removed, of course!
handful of basil leaves - chiffonaded*
Salt & pepper to taste and you can add a little sugar as well

Saute the onions in olive oil until they are partly softened.  Then add the garlic and continue sauteing until softened.  Add the cherry tomatoes.  I didn't chop them, just squashed them a little to hasten the breakdown.  Simmer until the mixture has thickened somewhat.  Cool slightly and blend in a food processor.  Put back in the pan and add the basil.  Reheat until the basil is limp and season with salt and pepper.  A little sugar will balance the acidity although cherry tomatoes already have sweetness.  Cool, package and freeze.

I place two-soup ladle scoop amounts in ziplock bags which yields sufficient sauce for two-person spaghetti meals.

* How to chiffonade:  roll the leaves up into a bundle and slice thinly with a sharp knife.  You wind up with thin ribbons of basil which will provide flavour, texture and colour to your sauce.

Oxtail Soup

Yes, really!  Well, I had to buy the oxtails, barley and celery.  Nearly all the rest of the ingredients came from my garden.

Next week, my grandson and his father are coming for a visit while his mother presents at a conference.  My grandson is at that toddler stage in which meat is an anathema.  Some time ago when he was visiting, he really tucked into a bowl of oxtail soup, so I'm hoping this soup will be received with the same relish as last time.

Whenever I make it, this soup is just a little different based upon what I have on hand at the time.  With lots of fresh vegetables available in the garden, there was an abundance to choose from today.  A picking of beans  revealed a number hidden in the leaves which were a little too advanced - they'll soften nicely in the soup.  One Scarlet Nantes carrot sufficed - it was huge!  The dried tomatoes were from last year.  Since this soup takes time to make, I've put the recipe in steps.  It might sound complicated, but it's not and the resulting soup is one of my favourites.  Here's how I made it today:

Oxtail Soup

Step One
4 big oxtails
3 litres of water
2 Tbsp olive oil

In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Meanwhile, pat the oxtails dry and heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.  Sear the oxtails.  Contrary to what I used to think, this doesn't keep the moisture in.  It caramelizes the outer layer of the meat and lends richness of flavour and colour to the dish.  Put the oxtails in the water, bring back to the boil, then lower the temperature and simmer slowly until the meat falls off the bone.  Don't forget to scrape the frying pan for all the extra bits to add to the soup!  The simmering will probably take about 4 hours.  Take the pot off the stove, cool and then refrigerate overnight.  The fat will congeal on the top, making removal easy.  Next morning, remove the fat.  Take the meat off the bones (which you'll discard along with excess fat) and chop it up small.

Step Two

2 stalks of celery, diced
3 handfuls of dried tomatoes
2 handfuls of barley (pot or pearl - I had pearl on hand)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil

Bring the broth up to a boil (you may have to add more water if the broth has lost a lot) and lower the temperature to a simmer.  Add the chopped meat, barley, dried tomatoes and celery.  In a frying pan, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is golden brown.  Again, you're caramelizing the onion.  Add to the soup and simmer until the barley is tender.  This will probably take another half hour.

Step Three

1 very large carrot cut in 1/2" chunks
1 cup of sliced beans.
Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste

Add the carrot and beans and simmer until tender.  Then add the Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

This soup freezes very well.

Easy Banana Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

There's an excellent crop of grapes this year on the grape arbour at the back of the garage.  The vine is Candice which produces sweet-tart seedless grapes that are small and pinkish - perfect for making raisins.  Raccoons permitting, there might also be an excellent crop of raisins!  I still have lots of last year's raisins as well as a bunch of over-ripe bananas, so it's time to make banana bread.

This is one of the easiest recipes for banana bread I've found.  Since I always seem to have over-ripe bananas on hand, I generally double the recipe, cut the loaves in half and freeze for later use.  The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of sugar, but since I add raisins, I cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup.  The original recipe didn't call for the addition of raisins or walnuts, but we like it this way.

Easy Banana Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

2 eggs
1/3 cup butter
2 ripe bananas, peeled and broken into pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Combine eggs, butter, bananas and sugar in a food processor (or blender).  Process for 30 seconds or until smooth.  Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add nuts and raisins.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir only until combined.  Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.  (I usually wind up baking it for 60 minutes) Turn out of pan to cool on a rack.  Allow to cool thoroughly before you slice.  Freezes well.

Volunteers

In any sane, organized person's garden, volunteers are called weeds.  I certainly pull out my share of weeds and use mulches where I can to control them.  There is a definite place, however, in my garden for volunteers.

Foxgloves immediately come to mind when I think of weeds which are welcome to make my garden their home.  Unless they actually show up in a raised bed or the middle of a path, I leave foxgloves alone.  Their stately spires are a good food source for bees and I just think they look lovely.

Currant bush against the potting shed

The currant bush which has grown up against the potting shed is another volunteer.  It looks like a cross between the enormous King Edward bush below the potting shed and the currant bushes I gave up on in the garden as the birds nearly always got most of the crop.  My volunteer has blooms which are a darker pink than the King Edward, but produces berries which I leave for the chickadees and their fluttery babies.  Right now this bush is looking pretty motley because it was pruned back severely so we could install the UV light for the pond, but it won't take long to grow back again and its location means that it must be kept small.

Parsley gone to seed

The flat Italian parsley is another welcome plant in my garden.  I seeded this variety a number of years ago and it turns up regularly in a flowerbed above the pond.  I can nearly always find some parsley thanks to the freely-cast seeds of this useful plant.  Similarly, oregano appears all over the garden - mostly where I don't want it!  There's even a clump of it growing in a grassy area which sends up a delicious, spicy scent whenever it's mowed.

Bright Lights swiss chard growing in the snow pea bed

A couple of years ago, my neighbour Beth gave me some Bright Lights swiss chard plants.  My garden is pretty warm and this variety goes to seed quite easily which is why I generally don't grow it.  A recent weeding in the snow pea bed turned up a lot of little swiss chard plants, easily recognized by their colorful stems.  Some I transplanted to more open areas and others I left where they were growing.  Now that we're heading to fall, Bright Lights swiss chard will be a very useful addition to the winter garden.

Bright Lights in the strawberry bed

I even discovered a well-grown plant in the new strawberry bed!  Of course, I left it.

Beth's Big Fat Tomato

And naturally Beth's Big Fat Tomato was originally a volunteer.  I don't think my plant is producing tomatoes as big as the parent plant, but with a volunteer, you never know what you're going to get.  I do know, however, that this plant is very productive and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen.

Arugula going to seed

Several years ago, a friend gave me several small arugula plants from volunteers in her garden.  This is the wild arugula and of all the varieties of arugula, I like this one best.  It's everywhere in my garden, but quite easy to pull out.

A young arugula seedling popping up beside the snow peas

The bed that is now growing the fall crop of snow peas had the original arugula plants in it and any time the soil is turned over, thousands of little arugula plants appear!   And in my turn, I've passed along lots of little wild arugula plants as well.

I certainly have my share of weeds - chickweed, herb robert, snapweed, wild geranium and many others whose names I don't know - but many other so-called weeds, judiciously transplanted, are more than welcome to take up a spot in my garden.

Onions and Garlic - Chores for a Grey Day

Today our weather is cool and cloudy.  There are possible showers on the horizon which will be very welcome on our dry little island.  The onions aren't as dry as I'd like them, but I want to keep them that way, so it was time to complete the harvest.

I'll have to use these onions first.

I started cutting the tops from them and putting them in a plant tray.  The cut tops, however, still looked quite juicy and it occurred to me that the onions might lose more moisture through the cut tops than was good for them.  I'd attempted braiding onions before - quite unsuccessfully, I might add - but perhaps it was time to give it another try.  This time the work went much better.  I'd hate for a true efficient to view my amateurish efforts, but it does the job.  I discovered that if I place the onion being added to the braid at the side that's being brought to the centre, the whole process is a lot smoother.  I tied the tops with twine, made a loop and hung them from nails in the potting shed.  They can complete their curing there and then eventually be brought indoors for storage.

Amateurish onion braiding!

Then it was time to turn my attention to the garlic.  As I said in an earlier post, this year's crop is a bit disappointing.  Next year's garlic, which will be planted in a few weeks, will get the benefit of lots of SeaSoil.  Today, I trimmed the tops and roots, dusted the worst of the dirt off and put the garlic in open brown paper bags.  They'll be stored in a cupboard that has an outside wall.  Of course, I kept the best 2 bulbs from each variety for planting next month.

Two varieties of garlic - plainly distinguishable.

I plan on ordering some new garlic from Salt Spring Seeds as soon as their 2013 catalogue is available. There's nothing like fresh garlic!  It's crisp, juicy and so fragrant.  It's such an easy crop, anyone can grow it.  I've even given starter bulbs to people who can only grow in containers!

Beans!

One of the things I've learned from the Three Sisters Garden is that I've planted too many beans!  I'll go into all of the things I've learned when the Three Sisters Garden is finished, however, today I'm processing beans.

I normally only plant about 8 pole bean plants and in the past I've always grown Fortex.  This is a bean that produces lots of extremely long, tasty beans which freeze beautifully.  This year, with the gift of seed from my husband's friend, I've grown instead heritage Italian beans.  I put in 16 plants amongst the corn and now realize that's waaaaay too many!  These beans have enormous leaves and I think they're even more vigorous than Fortex.  They've broken the tops of the corn stalks - fortunately corn is finished for the year - and formed a huge mat across the tops of the corn.  It's very hard to grope in the jungle to pick beans!

I've been picking for a couple of weeks now and today there seemed to be enough to process for freezing.  I picked half a big wicker basket full of the purple-splotched beans and carefully left those which are growing on the bean rack I've placed to hold up one of the patches.  Those will be left to mature so I have seed for next year.  I'm sure I'll also discover lots of mature beans inside the jungle when I dismantle it in the fall!

I process beans by first of all topping and tailing, then cutting them up into 1" segments.  I plunge them into boiling water for a minute or two until they turn bright green.  This important step stops the enzyme action which matures the beans.  Most of the purple disappears at this point.  Then I drain them and cool quickly under cold running water to stop the cooking process.  An ice bath, which is how you're supposed to cool them, takes too long and probably uses more water by the time you make huge quantities of ice.  Then I blot them to take out most of the moisture, spread them on cookie sheets and pop them into the freezer.  Once frozen, I vacuum seal them in plastic.  I've learned not to take too much air out of the bags because the sharp points of frozen beans can pierce the plastic.

This is only the first proper picking and there are so many more beans developing as well as lots of flowers.  I think I may have grown enough beans to feed an army!  Next year?  If I do the Three Sisters Garden again, I'll probably only plant half a dozen beans with the corn.  The beans are too heavy for the corn to support more.  I'll probably also bring the bean rack back into use and grow more beans on their own for ease of picking.  In the meantime, we'll enjoy fresh picked beans with our dinner tonight and dream happily of many dinners to come in the winter thanks to the produce of our own labours.

Cantaloupe and Onions

Sounds like an odd combination, doesn't it?  However, those are the crops that capture my interest today.

Cantaloupe vines climbing the walls of the compost bin

I seeded Tirreno Cantaloupe this past spring, gave away 1 and planted out 2 in the compost bin.  They got off to a slow start because resident wood bugs in the bin were feasting on the stems.  I protected the plants with water bottle collars and they eventually thrived.

They spill out the front as well!

Now they are busy escaping the compost bin - spilling out the front and climbing up the walls.  And there are nice little cantaloupes forming.

Tirreno Cantaloupe

Little football-shaped fruits are hiding under the leaves.  I've counted at least 4 so far and there are probably more.  They are quite toasty in the compost bin as they're protected from breezes there, but get very hot and droopy in the afternoon.  I hose them down to help out a bit, but so far this doesn't seem to be affecting the fruit production.  I'll have to do some research now to find out when they're actually ripe as I've never grown cantaloupe before.

Copra Onions curing in the sun

It's been an excellent year for onions.  Only one plant went to seed as opposed to last year when over half of the plants did it.  Last week, most of the plants had drooped to the ground, signalling that it was just about time to harvest.  I pushed the rest of them down and today I pulled them up.  They look to be in excellent shape and have good size.  They'll cure in the sun for a couple of days (unlike garlic which needs shade while it cures) and then I'll move them into the potting shed until all the roots and leaves are dry.  We store our onions in a vented bin cabinet that my husband made just for the purpose.  Copra is a great onion for storing and lasts well into the spring maintaining excellent quality.  This year I think I only had to buy a couple of onions!

Working on the Pond

This last week we finally got the equipment we needed to circulate and clean the water in our pond.  It's a fairly large pond - about 10x14 and 4.5' deep at its deepest.  We definitely have too many fish, but haven't resorted to eating them yet - which was a suggestion the owner of the water garden nursery had for us!  It would be very nice to be able to sit by the pond and watch the fish, though, so over the last two days, we set about making that possible.

Filter & UV at the potting shed.

First, we set the filter into the ground at the front of the potting shed.  It does stand out, but perhaps I can make a small flower bed around it to make it less obvious.  It was the best place to put it.  Then we mounted the UV system on the side of the potting shed.

Pump ready to go into the water at the far end of the pond

Then we pulled up a water lily at the far end of the pond and repositioned it at the front of the pond, so the pump could go in its place.

Electrical joint covered from elements - it'll soon be hidden

With the components in their appointed spots, we could now put in the hosing and electrical to the pump.  The cord on the pump wasn't long enough and so where it joined to a heavy duty extension cord, it was encased in a tin can, wrapped thoroughly with duct tape and hidden under a pot.  The cotoneaster which creeps down the wall will soon cover the pot.
The cord was taken up the rock wall and around to the bottom of the stream where it joined the hose, which took the low road at the base of the rock wall.  We carefully covered the hosing with rocks.

Tucking the hosing and wire under the top side of the stream

Both were then tucked under the stream liner on the high side and taken up to the potting shed to join up with the filter and UV equipment.

The flow is just enough to create lovely sounds and stay in the stream bed

Then for many trial runs!  There has to be a secret for joining flexible hosing to smooth pipe!  We haven't discovered it yet.  All our joins leak to various degrees.  We will find a solution - silicone sealant? PVC cement applied generously?  It'll happen.  In the meantime we can put up with a little leaking until the solution presents itself.

Stream at the bottom just about to enter the pond

Now we have to do some landscaping - covering the liner where it's now exposed.  Rearranging the pebbles and rocks in the stream so that we still hear the lovely rippling noise of the water coursing down, but that they don't force the water outside the stream liner.  Happily, we're now a lot closer to having that pond we've always wanted.  One that fully satisfies the senses of sight and sound.  Beth - just look what you started!

Fall Planting of Peas

Raindrops on a leaf of Russian Red Kale

Last night we got the blessing of rain.  It's been an extremely dry July with no measurable rain at all.  This always makes people who live on Gulf Islands very nervous as we get so many visitors during those hot dry months who think nothing of tossing aside a live cigarette stub.  There's already been one emergency at the ferry terminal which was thankfully quickly extinguished!  But last night we got rain - and rain which actually sank into the ground.  That made today an excellent day to plant the fall crop of snow peas.

I didn't have enough of the snow peas I planted last spring - Oregon Sugar Pod II - and wasn't able to find more of them at Buckerfields in Nanaimo.  Instead, I purchased a package of Sugar Lace II which is a snap pea.  Not quite the same as a snow pea, but it'll do.  The Sugar Lace package says it's a "good candidate for fall harvests" and has "sweet, stringless pods...borne on 24-inch semi-leafless vines".  Sounds like it will work.

Bed prepared for planting

I prepared the spot where the garlic had grown by removing some soil which I tossed on one of the new 4x4 beds, adding a wheelbarrow load of SeaSoil and turning it over.  The zig zag fence was once again brought into action and staked in place.  Homemade fertilizer was spread and scratched in where the peas would be planted.  The Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas were planted at the front of the zig zag fence and the Sugar Lace II took the back portion.  I think I left a blank area which will help me remember which is which.  I hope the snap peas are as delicious as the snow peas are.  I guess we'll soon see!