tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83115946461999930142024-02-06T21:31:58.234-06:00The Accidental HuswifeA Handmade, Homegrown LifeLisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-83273209295562829792013-07-03T11:47:00.001-05:002013-07-03T11:47:43.114-05:00Cold Brewed Coffee: You Lie, Blogger!I'm not going to name names, but certain persons are claiming, in blogs both humble and famous, that cold brewed coffee is a good thing. It is not. It is bland, dull, and entirely without merit. It is fit only for people who do not like coffee. To whom I say: fine, then may I suggest you drink another beverage. Tea is lovely. Perhaps you would like some Postem. But do not offend against coffee.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-69170925392857154482013-05-06T11:19:00.000-05:002013-05-06T11:19:10.197-05:00The Ruth Stout Gardening Method: Victory Over Clay SoilsOne of the reasons I haven't posted in a while is that every single piece of electronics I own is in open rebellion. I can't seem to load photos from my phone to my computer; my Ipad won't talk to my computer; I've lost the power cord to my camera. So anyway....<br />
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An update on the Ruth Stout gardening technique. Ruth Stout's idea is so simple that it seems unlikely to work. There's nothing to it really. Just keep 18 inches of mulch on your garden. It compacts pretty fast, so when it does, add more. Weeds growing through the mulch in thin spots? Add more. That's all.<br />
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I tried it for two seasons in my huge rural garden and was amazed. It eliminated all, and I mean all, weeding. I used to spend hours and hours and hours weeding. But with that huge, deep cap of mulch in the garden, none. No time at all. It also meant much less frequent watering. Also, I added compostable items directly to the garden. Veggie scraps and such were just tucked under the layer of mulch here and there in the garden. So that's easy.<br />
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And I had one of the best crops I've ever had.<br />
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Here in town, I wasn't as hopeful. The soil is solid gumbo clay, convered in a 60 year old lawn of thick St. Augustine. I was sure I needed to do as almost all my neighbors do: either build a raised bed garden with purchased soil or dig in a few feet and replace the soil directly in the ground.<br />
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I tried digging but gave up after an hour in the brick-like soil yielded no more than a couple of sad little trenches. Then I put it out of my mind in the flurry of moving in. Then I decided to make that spot my Ruth Stout trial bed. I just started heaping hay and leaves on it, as well as kitchen scraps. Four months later I moved aside a bit of the mulch and plunged in my hand trowel to discover rich, soft dirt active with gorgeous earth worms. I've planted the area with tomatoes and a few peppers and I'd show you pictures of my first harvest if my camera were working.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-87906516164803812052012-11-01T18:20:00.003-05:002012-11-01T18:20:46.103-05:00Breaking NewsIt's been a while, friends. And I've moved, into Austin, and am adjusting to urban homesteading. Different soil, different scale, different conveniences, and different inconveniences.<br />
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Back soon to write about some new experiments in making stuff!<br />
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Best,<br />
AHLisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-1800594491520133602012-01-25T14:14:00.000-06:002012-01-25T14:14:27.175-06:00Winter Sewn Garden, Dried Tomatoes, Soap Paste. Now with Tutus!So I know there are all these people out there who have six children and are pregnant with twins and still find time to make cheese and card wool. I know it because they also seem to find time to blog about it and post adorable pictures of their kids in hand-smocked blouses. Me, with two kids? All I can seem to do is keep the kids from maiming each other (mostly) and the house from burning down.<br />
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In between administering first aid and putting out fires, I've managed to fit a few projects that I feel inordinately proud about:<br />
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-- Winter sowing lettuces, herbs and garlic has got to be the most rewarding gardening for the least effort in Central Texas. Because we get erratic freezes and our garden well does not have any of the infrastructure to for a freeze, I have to drain the well (it's a tiny little tank, but still) and the hoses after just about each use. So instead I've just not watered the garden. Not even once. Which in these parts is usually just a guarantee that lots of insects will feast on toasty, dry, unsprouted seeds. But we've had enough rain that everything germinated and took off. Plus, two of my friends brought three different varieties of garlic out and we drank wine while we planted it. (Or maybe that last part was just me.)<br />
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-- I've been experimenting with some awesome soap paste, made out of my homemade bar soap, essential oils, and glycerin. I use it to wash dishes and it makes suds, cuts grease, and rinses cleaner than regular homemade soap. I continue the experiment and shall post about it when I feel it's good enough to share.<br />
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-- Making lots of quick sauces from last summer's dehydrated tomatoes. Seriously, why did I ever bother to can tomatoes? You can do just about anything with dried.<br />
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-- Planted a hillside with Winter Rye for my kids to roll down. Just for the fun of the technicolor green in the middle of dull green and brown winter landscape. That stuff does not even look real.<br />
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That's what comes to mind right now. I'll leave you with this parting image. It's two o'clock Central Standard Time and we are inside because it's raining. My son and daughter are wearing tutus and diapers. I am wearing flannel pajamas. <br />
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They were wearing pajamas as well until my three year old daughter stripped hers off to put on a bright green and blue tutu. Then my two year old son tackled her and said, "Want! Want!"<br />
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I said, "Hey, don't fight. There are tutus for everybody."<br />
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And I went and found him a pink and purple tutu. <br />
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Then my daughter said, "No, pink is for girls!"<br />
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So they switched tutus and now my son is wearing a blue tutu and my daughter is wearing a pink one. Seriously, where do they pick up this sexist stuff?Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-65825053413844856722011-12-01T09:28:00.000-06:002011-12-01T09:28:42.849-06:00Occupy Wallstreet and Food GardensAwesome post that includes reflection on the meaning(s) of Occupy Wallstreet and gardening. Plus, social theory!<br />
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<a href="http://www.cluborlov.blogspot.com/2011/11/million-gardens.html" target="_blank">A Million Gardens</a>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-68830327552834450952011-11-03T11:02:00.000-05:002011-11-03T11:02:52.219-05:00Vertical Food Garden for Small Spaces<a href="http://directive21.com/blog/?p=867" target="_blank">Vertical Food Garden</a><br />
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With all the talk about vertical gardens, I just had to share this link. Most of the vertical gardens I've seen are ornamental, complicated expensive to install, and labor-intensive to maintain. There's a multi-story garden at the Whole Foods on 5th in Austin, for example, that is stunning, and that I always stop to admire, but often has half-dead plants. <br />
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This garden, however, seems practical and productive. It's just three rows of rain gutter nailed to a sunny wall, filled with soil, and planted with salad greens and radishes. One of the commenters suggests adding a drip irrigation system as well, which would probably be useful in our hot climate because such a small bit of soil would dry out so quickly. I do wonder about her siding though, and the problem of rot from regular watering and contact with the soil-filled gutters.<br />
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In any case, I love this woman's garden and just wish I'd thought of doing something similar when I lived in central Austin, with our tiny, shaded yard. One sunny wall could enough yield salads and greens to feed our family.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-58065564542490676922011-10-27T06:00:00.002-05:002011-10-27T08:56:09.708-05:00Tiny Rain, Big Runoff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeW4BTL7lz7yj1MtcdeCf2tiqeW3I9ML1RFkCrzcPYXPWiLJDL2p4KTtGR6EHEzH0zUOJu54fmEc0N6DsvaA6ZjL22eEPOiRbZmf9IYZ_1idB6bcCcqOj8oeNP2C11znG5uimy9ouf7qM/s1600/IMG_1895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeW4BTL7lz7yj1MtcdeCf2tiqeW3I9ML1RFkCrzcPYXPWiLJDL2p4KTtGR6EHEzH0zUOJu54fmEc0N6DsvaA6ZjL22eEPOiRbZmf9IYZ_1idB6bcCcqOj8oeNP2C11znG5uimy9ouf7qM/s320/IMG_1895.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>This photo is from a few weeks ago, right after a quick intense rain that gave our area a mere inch of rain, but that I am immensely happy to have received nevertheless. <br />
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Last summer our neighbor began clear cutting several large fields, probably about twenty acres worth. His plan was to plant Coastal Bermuda and graze Longhorns on it. Now I don't know anything about Coastal Bermuda, and whether he could really have grown it here so far from the coast, on our stony land, without irrigation, and I guess I won't find out anytime soon. Our neighbor abandoned the project and is left with acres of parched, bare ground. That's his soil you see washed all over our road, and also into our field which sits below his. So I guess we gained some soil but I don't feel like celebrating. <br />
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Our field is parched too, but the tough native grasses send roots down two, three, or more feet and hold tight to the soil in even the biggest gullywashers.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-42032198538687804992011-10-23T20:52:00.002-05:002011-10-27T08:59:39.625-05:00Cow Rampage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQg6_Rbvde_Nurf8SN2xD9retWBMnravYFOh_h-u_71BzxNItCvrsO_HyCOTpgy01uhtmRdqWVF7XqPdwnIrA-YmLA5DBRjV_VoRT7t2ezGwdy1FFPLnoSOFQ5JFLEEftNT03WkLgHR_U/s1600/IMG_1873.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQg6_Rbvde_Nurf8SN2xD9retWBMnravYFOh_h-u_71BzxNItCvrsO_HyCOTpgy01uhtmRdqWVF7XqPdwnIrA-YmLA5DBRjV_VoRT7t2ezGwdy1FFPLnoSOFQ5JFLEEftNT03WkLgHR_U/s320/IMG_1873.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Maybe you've heard that Central Texas is having the worst drought in recorded history. The 110 degree days seem to be behind us, and we've had a couple of tiny rain storms, but the landscape is still parched. The cove we live on is completely dry. The other morning we awoke to discover that the cows that normally graze across the cove had crossed over the now dry basin, somehow climbed up the cliff to our front yard, and mowed down a twelve by ten or so hedge of thornless cactus. I don't blame them. That cactus looked seriously juicy and is probably the greenest thing for miles. When I was growing up farmers used to take a blow torch to the very thorny native cactus during the driest part of the summer, singe off the thorns and let the cows have at it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The photo is post-cactus binge. That almost bare ground is where the cactus used to stand. The green you see is some Turk's Cap I planted alongside the cactus and which seems to need less water than just about anything else around here. Miraculously, cows do not seem to find it tasty.</div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-49603457200224960082011-06-23T11:32:00.000-05:002011-06-23T11:32:15.425-05:00Advantages of Dehydrating Foods for Short or Long Term Storage, with Instructions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_YYK3ftRWEr9Scoj5QcgBjm2J7gW60WlOCATxJ2sH5Rrn2yq3GIPk9Kj_e-Gp4dDUWF3KJ6lrKH4FMVtF3VxZvRl6MTc3blAlxP5M3qIXK7ihOPszlnmyZNr9FChoAdLWtAe5yNvfA0/s1600/IMG_1780.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_YYK3ftRWEr9Scoj5QcgBjm2J7gW60WlOCATxJ2sH5Rrn2yq3GIPk9Kj_e-Gp4dDUWF3KJ6lrKH4FMVtF3VxZvRl6MTc3blAlxP5M3qIXK7ihOPszlnmyZNr9FChoAdLWtAe5yNvfA0/s320/IMG_1780.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is the time of the season when fruits and vegetables are really ramping up production and we have more than we can eat but not enough to justify getting out all the canning apparatus. You know, ten tomatoes a day, a quart or two of figs, six or seven cucumbers, an armful of basil, a half bushel of squash.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
In past years I’ve tried freezing these small bits and although it's quick and easy, it degrades the flavor of some things, like tomatoes. Freezing also requires a lot of apparatus: freezer bags are usually single use; plastic containers are, well, plastic, and jars take a lot of space. Obviously, you'll need a freezer big enough to hold what you freeze and electricity to keep it going. Sad and busy is the day when electricity goes out for more than a short while (as it does occaisonally in our neck of the woods) because then you've got to try to find ways to use or alternatively preserve all that hard won garden produce.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Canning requires a lot of apparatus and time. Jars need to be sterilized, water boiled, syrups made, processing tended. Especially if you have small children running around underfoot, it can be hard to carve out a chunk of time when everyone will be safe from boiling liquids.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dehydration has a number of advantages as compared to freezing and canning:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">1. Dehydration can be done in absentia. Just wash, slice, pop in the dehydtor and go about other business. <br />
2. Dehydration often improves the flavors of foods. Tomatoes become richer and more intense. <br />
3. Dehydrated foods store compactly. A bushel of dehydrated tomatoes can be stored in a couple of canning jars.<br />
4. Dehydrated foods are easy to use. Ever tried to make tomato paste from canned tomatoes? Prepare to be at the stove all day as they cook down. Ever tried to make tomato paste from dehydrated tomatoes? Soak in water, then blend. That's all.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">By the way, the instruction part of the title of this post is a little joke. There’s really nothing to know, no real instructions needed to dehydrate fruits or veggies. Just wash and cut produce in more or less even pieces and then dry until you’re satisfied. The drier the food, the longer it lasts. But don’t overdry herbs. </div><div><br />
</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div></div></div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-79307970266322640962011-05-16T15:39:00.000-05:002011-05-16T15:39:20.642-05:00Planting Potatoes in Central Texas<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvUIwRqKZjP0vvVmjHiC180QQMxEc6An-hf47mpDgnZXDknroVUpGtp3x7bNyK_h_Am7cDDZIF2GDUO2RQzO5wJSHMmRNMO0hLYYFO2-xv1Xiqev0BMpWFXKQqo4CDWPO1rDuerdPnig/s1600/IMG_1756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvUIwRqKZjP0vvVmjHiC180QQMxEc6An-hf47mpDgnZXDknroVUpGtp3x7bNyK_h_Am7cDDZIF2GDUO2RQzO5wJSHMmRNMO0hLYYFO2-xv1Xiqev0BMpWFXKQqo4CDWPO1rDuerdPnig/s320/IMG_1756.JPG" width="320" /></span></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yellow wax, french fingerling, purple Peruvian, and red potatoes</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We have two great challenges to growing potatoes in central Texas. First, potatoes like deep, rich, loose, slightly acid soil and ours tends to be shallow, poor, highly alkaline, and sticky. Potatoes also give small yields if exposed to high temperatures or really wet conditions too early. And we have short, wet (if we're lucky) winters and springs.</span> So many gardeners in this area grow potatoes in chicken wire towers or boxes from pallets.<br />
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My dad and the old German farmer down the road from us grew potatoes old school, straight in the ground, and had a good amount of success, so I tend to do the same thing. Dad and our neighbor both had the strange good fortune to possess some small pockets of deep, black soil among the rocky hills that make up most of this area. Plus, they were both incredibly stubborn.<br />
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We too have a pocket of fairly good soil, although it's a little heavy and sticky. Still, with lots of organic amendment, I can grow potatoes right in the ground with reasonable success. And I even take a few liberties with conventional wisdom about growing potatoes.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here's what I know of conventional wisdom and where I've diverged:</span><br />
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<u>Using grocery store potatoes versus seed potatoes</u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The word is, you should never plant grocery store potatoes because they may have been treated with a growth inhibitor. I guess that may be true since everyone says it, but it's an hour drive to the nearest place that sells seed potatoes and I've yet to try and save my own seed. So I've planted grocery store potatoes from time to time. They do sprout quite readily. Hasn't everyone accidentally sprouted potatoes in their kitchen?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><u>Pre-sprouting versus not prespouting</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I think the idea behind pre-sprouting is that it shaves a week or so off time between planting and maturity. It also easily lets you see where to cut the potatoes so that you have at least one growing eye in each piece. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Our neighbor never presprouted. He had a huge field he planted every year, and he said he had to move too fast to worry about knocking off the fragile sprout tips. He grew more potatoes than anyone I've ever known. My dad always pre-sprouted so I always did too, until this year when my mother-in-law gave me a bunch of very tiny seed potatoes from her nursery. They were small enough that I knew I couldn't cut them and also, for some reason, they never sprouted above ground. So I planted them anyway and have had a pretty good harvest. I</span>t's hard to tell if it took a lot longer for the potatoes planted without pre-sprouting to mature because we had a crazy early heat spell that caused the plants to jump ahead by about a month. So we harvested in early May. <br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><u>How to Pre-sprout (also called chitting)</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> L</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ay potatoes in a single layer on a shallow box or tray. Do not let them touch.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> If your potatoes are small enough, an egg carton is a great way to keep them sorted properly. They should ideally remain at around 60-70 degrees. But that's a temperature range that's hard to come by around here. Outside, in the house, on the porch, in the garage, it's usually either hotter or colder than that. I think as long as it's well above freezing and below wiltingly hot, those potatoes will sprout. Also, try to keep them dry. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Try to plant before the sprouts get too long or they will tend to break as you drop them in the ground.</span><br />
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<u>Cutting potatoes versus planting whole</u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A large sprouted potato can often be cut into three or four pieces, so cutting is definitely the frugal choice. If you do cut, no peice should be smaller than a golf ball. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><u>Curing seed potatoes with sulfur versus wood ash versus nothing</u> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The purpose of curing cut potatoes with sulfur is to prevent rotting in the ground. </span>My dad always used wood ash instead of sulfur and he had enormous yields. I confess that I have several times skipped this step entirely and have yet to suffer adversely. I wonder if it is in wetter climates that curing really matters? <br />
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<u>How to cure seed potatoes with sulfur or wood ash</u><br />
After cutting potatoes, let them dry until a skin forms on cut surfaces. Dust with sulfur or wood ash and let potatoes dry another day before planting.<br />
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<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">How to plant potatoes</span></u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Dig a furrow 6-8 inches wide and 6-8 inches deep. Most sources say to space seeds about 10” apart, but if there's room, space even more widely. I like about 14 inched so they have plenty of room to spread their toes. I also think it keeps disease down. Cover potatoes with soil. After plants are about 3-4” tall, add more soil.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f4806; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><u>When to harvest potatoes</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Once the plants are flowering, wait a week or so, then carefully dig around the plants for new potatoes. Between </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> 90 – 120 days, t</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">he plants suddenly turn yellow and start looking like they're dying.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Now it's time for the big harvest. This year, the potato gods went crazy and I started havested in about 70 or 80 days. This means I'll have a smaller crop, but it's still a good one. I think it got hot so early it sent the potatoes into hyperdrive. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f4806; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.1667px;">What varieties grow best in Texas? Well, I've tried a number of red, white, yellow, and purple. Sadly, so far I've had very limited success with purple. I say sadly because those are my favorites and they are also the most nutricious. Here in our alkaline soils, it seems the yellow, waxy varieties grow best. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f4806; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.1667px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f4806; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.1667px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small;">For red potato, Red La Soda and Pontiac are proven favorites; for white, Kennebec or Irish Cobbler varieties are the choices. Russets do not grow well in our area.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="color: #1f4806; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 74px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px;"></div></span></div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-69764932305466645142011-05-10T08:01:00.002-05:002011-05-10T16:37:43.642-05:00Are Oak Leaves Safe for Garden Mulch?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XulwIZk8KQeQ2aW1oIitrMuNx9kZGR76kF-MeJsBsSZc9AEv7WhIUcpvRginfxYHczSmT9DWVEuncdOV0w8gBh5VNboCNoBNXrRsTZk6CPwjZVAcE4TSTqXRphvIwUaNBCEF0jEzq6I/s1600/IMG_1414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XulwIZk8KQeQ2aW1oIitrMuNx9kZGR76kF-MeJsBsSZc9AEv7WhIUcpvRginfxYHczSmT9DWVEuncdOV0w8gBh5VNboCNoBNXrRsTZk6CPwjZVAcE4TSTqXRphvIwUaNBCEF0jEzq6I/s320/IMG_1414.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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Everyone knows that walnut trees produce a potent growth inhibitor as a way of protecting their territory. Juniper trees are rumored to do so as well. But what about oak trees? Live oak trees, which are our most plentiful hardwood, make small, very fibrous leaves that take forever to decompose. For that reason, as I explained <a href="http://accidentalhuswife.blogspot.com/2011/05/oak-leaf-mulch.html">here</a>, I've been tending to use them as mulch rather than adding more than a small percentage to my compost pile. And because I'd heard they might contain a plant growth inhibitor, I only used them on the walkways, never near the vegetables I was growing.<br />
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But now as weeds invade my beds and rows of tomatoes, squash, greens, onions, herbs, beans, garlic, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, and other lovely deliciousness, I wonder if I can use oak leaves as mulch near the plants themselves. Oak leaves are certainly something we have plenty of.<br />
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It turns out the question of oak leaves containing growth inhibitors is fairly debatable. Definitely they contain lots of tannins. That's why if oak leaves fall in a container of water, the water will turn brown like tea. As far as I can tell, tannins do play some role in plant growth regulation, in the plants that produce them. It might be reasonable to expect them to affect plants growing in the same soil in which tannins from other plants are being released. But whether that means tannins from oak leaves would inhibit vegetable seed germination and growth, I don't know. One benefit would be that many animals find the taste of tannins unpleasant, so perhaps oak leaves would repel unwanted pests.<br />
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More definitively, oak leaves release phenols in their first month or so of decomposition, which do inhibit seed germination and growth. So I'd conclude that only leaves that have rotted for a month or more should be added to the beds itself, but that fresh leaves are fantastic for walkways. In fact, this is the perfect way to work with nature instead of against it.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-6951561171851590122011-05-08T16:57:00.000-05:002011-05-08T16:57:03.118-05:00Oak Leaf Mulch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3yet2IHPoq6K4jDCW1SAk8xQYDDcegt3gOF_1Ey8tpJnCNvvUh5ELUc3OLNIOfIittUkZmhUDN7AW5_I-LN6mKLGSEGXBQ7MX9pgZDBMFa2t6xEV-WYVY2EdTeWrWWewSGAp-3q3ICY/s1600/IMG_1371.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3yet2IHPoq6K4jDCW1SAk8xQYDDcegt3gOF_1Ey8tpJnCNvvUh5ELUc3OLNIOfIittUkZmhUDN7AW5_I-LN6mKLGSEGXBQ7MX9pgZDBMFa2t6xEV-WYVY2EdTeWrWWewSGAp-3q3ICY/s320/IMG_1371.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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Here in Central Texas, oaks are the most common deciduous tree. So we have lots of leaves and they take forever to decompose. I've taken to using them less for compost and more for mulch for this reason. I understand that most people shed them with a mower first but I think that step is unnecessary. They compact pretty quickly and in the meanwhile, I'm prepared to slide around a bit. It may be that they contain some kind of plant growth inhibitor, as juniper is rumored to contain. Just in case, I've not ever tried oak leaf mulch around the plants themselves. I do know that I won't have any weeds between rows this season.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOEJbEnfmrNTfsC8rJrvWrEPq9Zr5GuEZ0eYarOd0E8wiIojM1uRGa6AS5-WuCXaSXrl05UjvbtJWCDmujjumkPKcEIprTdO4Qutpwq3UOOw15EvWxkvyI5poDZm3Iszr7B-1gWONYgTw/s1600/IMG_1412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOEJbEnfmrNTfsC8rJrvWrEPq9Zr5GuEZ0eYarOd0E8wiIojM1uRGa6AS5-WuCXaSXrl05UjvbtJWCDmujjumkPKcEIprTdO4Qutpwq3UOOw15EvWxkvyI5poDZm3Iszr7B-1gWONYgTw/s320/IMG_1412.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-64715105518058542012011-05-03T13:00:00.000-05:002011-05-03T13:00:11.467-05:00Easy Homemade Laundry Soap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The simplest, most effective, least costly soap I know of. It takes a minute or two to make, works in any type of washer, is safe for all washable clothes, is non-toxic, and stores indefinitely.</span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqKO76ddDx2dBM4PkXcdIBAMnFu43k0PzU7OQ28c8CJA_2_ZAvAnI9BXc-b1Rm3-pOwvup6cA_ldTECvHaNkZEMXJJNCPAYVwqZ4LoGCDuDxExg2rDc4znHvFnFWpMPL7J09Hf7CHZGU/s1600/IMG_0173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqKO76ddDx2dBM4PkXcdIBAMnFu43k0PzU7OQ28c8CJA_2_ZAvAnI9BXc-b1Rm3-pOwvup6cA_ldTECvHaNkZEMXJJNCPAYVwqZ4LoGCDuDxExg2rDc4znHvFnFWpMPL7J09Hf7CHZGU/s320/IMG_0173.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chopping the bar soap before adding it to the food processor<br />
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</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ingredients</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">You’ll need some kind of bar soap. I prefer my own homemade soap, but just about any kind will work. Fels Naptha and Zote are especially nice because they were designed for laundry (Zote is also hot pink and makes a very pretty laundry detergent </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">J</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">), but I’ve also used Ivory, and once in a pinch, I used a handful of tiny hotel soaps.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p>You’ll also need washing soda and either borax or baking soda. I prefer baking soda because it’s non-toxic and does a nice job deodorizing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A note about the ingredients: <o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Washing soda or sodium carbonate: It removes dirt and deodorizes. I’ve found it in the laundry isle of my grocery store and also at Ace Hardware.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate: It also removes odors. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Borax:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Also a deodorizer but a whitener as well. It’s a great ingredient but I don’t use it anymore since I had kids. It’s a little more toxic than I like to have around my kids.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6AVnt5YwZe0aUP03mTYy6L-uf8QPHLA79eIQcuLkvUpLuugDkW5lRzzMFXW1fhz7sPqUc3fdLb5b_ZDokniZd3QyU68EcvkWvWUUm9MQk_N1Ujiqj5MgHIfUQvU7oZ6LOu_SIgGC_Vw/s1600/IMG_0175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6AVnt5YwZe0aUP03mTYy6L-uf8QPHLA79eIQcuLkvUpLuugDkW5lRzzMFXW1fhz7sPqUc3fdLb5b_ZDokniZd3QyU68EcvkWvWUUm9MQk_N1Ujiqj5MgHIfUQvU7oZ6LOu_SIgGC_Vw/s320/IMG_0175.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished Laundry Soap</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Recipe</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Actually, it’s so simple it can hardly be called a recipe. First grate the soap. (I chop it roughly first and then finish the grating in a food processor. You can also use a cheese grater.) Then mix one part soap, one part washing soda, and one part baking soda (or borax). Store in a container with a lid and it lasts indefinitely. Use about 1-2 teaspoons per load of laundry. Yes, that’s right: 1-2 teaspoons. This soap has no fillers or liquids and you don’t need very much.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Why go to the trouble of making your own soap?</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1) So, so much cheaper. By my rough calculations, this recipe comes out to about a penny a load. Seriously, a penny. Even the cheapest commercial soap costs far far more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">2) Less waste: no enormous plastic containers to end up in landfill. No filler ingredients had to be manufactured either.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">3) Easier. Takes about a minute to make enough to last a month or more. No toting heavy containers from the store.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">4) Non-toxic ingredients. I feel better about using it for my own laundry, my children’s laundry, and my pets’ bedding. I’m not worried about the fumes created when it is dissolved in hot water, nor about storing it in my household.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The most common questions about this recipe are: Is it safe for HE or front loading washers? And, does it work? Well, I’ve been using it in my own HE washer for over five years with no problems. And I have two kids, two dogs, and a messy, messy life. It works as well as any other laundry soap or detergent I've ever used.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-69154358521130931462011-04-14T10:29:00.001-05:002011-04-14T10:32:39.000-05:00A Central Texas Plant Heritage<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHhm6P1k5LFcUmOrDF3116VgoNsMg9XlVriIBv2tSl0JGwmT8u5sBeJIls2bHra2_PRfd7Q66hVPAcJiQEoxVwWMzQZgoGB0b6tjWXvaqSmc2qGX6ALXnons4NkQfYb5KSuOy4Vp_uqg/s1600/IMG_1360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHhm6P1k5LFcUmOrDF3116VgoNsMg9XlVriIBv2tSl0JGwmT8u5sBeJIls2bHra2_PRfd7Q66hVPAcJiQEoxVwWMzQZgoGB0b6tjWXvaqSmc2qGX6ALXnons4NkQfYb5KSuOy4Vp_uqg/s320/IMG_1360.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table>This bearded iris is planted near an oak tree at the entrance to our driveway. We never water or pay much attention to it, but it gives us flowers anyway. Irises are one of those plants that get divided and passed down between friends and family. This one came from a patch near the front door of my current house. I planted that patch from some divisions I took when we moved from our last house. And that patch came from some divisions from my good friend Lori's yard.<br />
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Next weekend I plan to go out to my dad's farm and while I'm there I'll dig up some rhizomes from a patch of white irises, the kind I've heard called German Settler, and take them back to my house to plant. I don't know who planted those white irises. They were there when my parents bought the land more than sixty years ago. Dad speculates that there was another house, in another site, that had long since burned down or tumbled to dust. The previous owners didn't know, and there are no records to show another house was ever there. But near my parents' house is a fine spot for a house, with a pretty view and a patch of irises, and another patch of horehound. We do know that the early settlers to the area tended to plant both irises and horehound. <br />
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It would have been a woman who made these plantings, from divisions, given to to her by a friend or a sister or a mother. She would have been looking to take care of her family, to provide medicine, in the form of horehound, and beauty, in the form of irises.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-30714977156438984022011-01-23T01:11:00.000-06:002011-01-23T01:11:36.470-06:00Everyday Emergencies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZV_hC3VVQMvCMq21xa9vwFk-1iusawVQBFpYJNzo4DLfFg3MMHw2K2H2WvMk0K0qH3z5PAvPN6WZkAJ7c55neAegh-MVP7cd-QNvGeDqFYC7Sb2K9TR0DoAvBnabCgpL3-a-qEPenG-w/s1600/IMG_1500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZV_hC3VVQMvCMq21xa9vwFk-1iusawVQBFpYJNzo4DLfFg3MMHw2K2H2WvMk0K0qH3z5PAvPN6WZkAJ7c55neAegh-MVP7cd-QNvGeDqFYC7Sb2K9TR0DoAvBnabCgpL3-a-qEPenG-w/s320/IMG_1500.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><!--StartFragment--> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">For the last week my husband and children have had a stomach flu and all I’ve been doing is wiping whatnots and cleaning up unspeakables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And just when my husband and daughter are able to mostly control their bodily functions, it has somehow transmogrified into a respiratory infection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My poor little boy gets both problems at once. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">This is our first round of simultaneous illnesses with the kids and we’re lucky that I didn’t get sick too. Yet. So I’ve been learning what everyone who has small children knows: at a time like this there are two many temperatures to take, tummies to tend, brows to cool, cries to comfort, and messes to clean up, for anything like normal life to carry on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means laundry doesn’t get done, bread doesn’t get baked, yogurt doesn’t get fermented, gardens don’t get weeded, jam doesn’t get made, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly errands and appointments have to wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the kinds of ordinary, everyday code reds that I realize now I was unprepared for. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I somehow managed to run out of yogurt and the small jar I usually set aside to start the next batch turned out to be a jar of home-rendered lard my sister had given me at Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where did my starter jar end up?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know but I assume we ate it at some point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yogurt was the only thing my daughter wanted or could keep down.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">We had no juice on hand, since we ordinarily don’t drink it, and my daughter was refusing regular water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had nothing like Pedialite or Gatorade either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No soup ready-made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No crackers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A cold front came in and tore through some tender just-sprouting greens before I could get a chance to cover them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laundry is piled in mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">By a cruel twist of fate, for the last few months I’ve been trying to use up last years home-canned, frozen, and dehydrated foods, the bulk-purchased flours and grains, honey, beef, chicken, and pork, all to make way for the next season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we were low on everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t actually run out of any of those things, but if we’d needed to go much longer without a trip to the store, we would have.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">The kind of preparedness I’d been working on, the stockpiles I’ve built, the skills I’ve developed, are useful for many things, but not necessarily for the intensity of a bunch of sick people in the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So now I’m thinking through how to develop preparedness for the everyday emergencies of life.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have a week of easy meals at hand, canned or in the freezer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are times when scratch cooking just isn’t possible or practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t tell you how much I would have appreciated some homemade chicken soup last week, but I could never find the time to make it. I actually did something like this when my family came to stay for Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had many gallons of soup, stew, and beans along with a dozen loaves of bread waiting in the freezer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It meant we had plenty of time to just enjoy each other. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as I despise the stuff, I’m going to start keeping Pedialite, Gatorade, and frozen juice stocked in the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Depending on the day and the mood, the kids would refuse or prefer Pedialite, Gatorade, water, my homemade electrolyte solution, or juice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And some days, even the time to mix up the electrolyte solution was too much.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">3. I also need to plan a method for rotating stockpiles that doesn’t involve letting so many things run out at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be thinking this through more over the next few weeks.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I don’t want to make this sound more dire than it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t dire at all, in fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just inconvenient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could have run to the store or sent my retching husband.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At any point, I could have called a friend to fetch me some things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We still had plenty of everything, including some stores of food designed to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">last thirty years or more</i>, sent to us by my sweet in-laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how nice some homemade chicken soup would have been, waiting in the freezer.</div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-40293784339891100942011-01-06T15:51:00.000-06:002011-01-06T15:51:48.486-06:00On Not Trying New Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6XoaoABmtyg1TZFs4ZauNfoD_4pFY6MczJiWWcHFLbPshvtg8UtRX1QTAs_ool_gXFz2W0lmyTq5fKtPSAxjXpfR_bhlFP1Yd3ls6DDEb361r7XSKPfpHxaLhHbqkFNzrJtT1SZ3KZqE/s1600/IMG_0794.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6XoaoABmtyg1TZFs4ZauNfoD_4pFY6MczJiWWcHFLbPshvtg8UtRX1QTAs_ool_gXFz2W0lmyTq5fKtPSAxjXpfR_bhlFP1Yd3ls6DDEb361r7XSKPfpHxaLhHbqkFNzrJtT1SZ3KZqE/s320/IMG_0794.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">I started making this bread about twenty years ago, from a community cookbook that had been my mothers, and that she gave me when I left home. It's just a simple sandwich bread, made from white flour, although over the years I started making it from mostly wheat. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Then, after a trip to France, I fell in love with baguette style loaves, and because at that time we lived within walking distance of two very fine bakeries, I stopped baking althogether. When we moved out to this rural area, I started trying to duplicate French style baguettes, with moderate success, using the no-knead bread recipes the New York Times went crazy over. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Which us all well and good. It's fun to experiment and learn new things. But my husband really prefers sandwich bread so we ended up buying bread half the time and my trusty old recipe got mostly forgotten. When my large family came to stay for Christmas, I pulled my old recipe out again, and discovered I was a pretty rusty sanndwich bread maker. I wanted to have enough loaves baked and frozen so that everyone could help themselves to sandwiches for lunch. That means I needed about a dozen loaves to get through the holidays, minimum. The first few loaves came out kind of wonky. I could no longer double and triple the recipe with ease. I'd forgotten how much whole wheat I used to substitute for white, that I'd started using less yeast and letting it rise longer. That sort of thing. The sort of thing a cook knows how to do from years of practice or learns in the kitchen of another experienced cook.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I guess what I'm talking about is tradition. I'm talking about the ordinary, every day traditions that we lose all too easily in a generation or so, if we're not careful. My mother talked about my paternal grandmother's yeast biscuits, which to hear her tell it, were as big as a loaf of bread and as light as a wisp of smoke. Maybe they were really that special or maybe they only became so in her memory but we'll never know because that recipe was lost when Grandmother left her mortal coil. Now that my own mother is gone too, I find myself reaching for the phone sometimes still, to ask her how she made her oatmeal, and why mine never tastes the same. My younger sister does the same thing and we both pine for that oatmeal, but too bad for us. We waited too long to get her technique.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Too bad for the world too. It's all too easy to lose touch with skills that were common just a generation or so ago: gardening, sewing, home repairs, animal husbandry, and so on. In the world I grew up in, cheap oil and the notion of an ever-expanding economy allowed us to believe we could, even should, let go of those traditional skills. And we can't reclaim them overnight either. It takes time to learn how to garden well, for example. It takes season after season to learn about a particular climate and microclimate, to even begin to get a glimmer of understanding about how seasons work, how seeds like to sprout, what makes a tender plant thrive and what consigns it to failure. It takes time to develop any skill and it's always best to learn from an experienced teacher, although books are a great source too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So what I'm circling around to in this rambling post is that it's fun and instructive to try new things, like French style baguettes, but having a practiced, make-it-in-your-sleep skill, like I once had for sandwich bread as part of our every day repertoire cannot be neglected. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-69106276896697590632010-11-29T13:04:00.000-06:002010-11-29T13:04:02.469-06:00The Huswife's Home Pharmacopea: Mullein<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb8v_GJwTF7JCtLay9rDPd7IGDz1lr6cK5BYBhIqd25hfBxcfipfNaQge5WoC5fAEn6d-AmhOnC9W_bBUaNKxZgBFjHVEbULD6nmfNxo63kpei3ETTP5NAH9L80CHOTUrGWKraCUtWIs/s1600/IMG_0789.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb8v_GJwTF7JCtLay9rDPd7IGDz1lr6cK5BYBhIqd25hfBxcfipfNaQge5WoC5fAEn6d-AmhOnC9W_bBUaNKxZgBFjHVEbULD6nmfNxo63kpei3ETTP5NAH9L80CHOTUrGWKraCUtWIs/s320/IMG_0789.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A few years ago I had the worst cold I’ve ever had in my life. It might have been pnumonia but I was at a conference at an isolated resort and I never went to the doctor to find out. My airways were severely constricted and when I coughed I wheezed like a newly landed fish. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, the resort spa sold tincture of mullein and it got me through the conference. My airways opened up, coughing diminished, and all without that weird spacey feeling from commercial decongestants. By the time I went home I was on the mend and comnpletely sold on mullein. Since then I’ve kept it stocked in my medicine cabinet. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A few years ago I was in Colorado and noticed it growing along the sides of the road. I stopped and took a few stalks of seeds home and scattered them in a field, hoping to grow my own. No luck. Then I saw it in my brother-in-law’s yard in West Texas, took some seed home, and tried again. Still no luck. Fast forward six months: I spot mullein growing along a road near my dad’s farm. I took some seed home, scratched the earth, planted, watered, and watched. No go. I seemed cursed to buy tincture of mullein forever. Six more months pass and</span> what do I find growing along a small road near my house? Right. Mullein. And lots of it. It seems I can't make it grow where <i>I</i> will but it will grow where <i>it</i> wills. It just doesn't like the field where I was trying to grow it. Around here, it prefers semi-shady, semi-cool, bottom land and thin, chalky soil, I think. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So for now, I'll gather from the wild with a light hand and also try to find a spot on my land that's low and cool and chalky to scatter a little seed. Because I definitely always, always want to have some on hand. And I think you should too.</div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Uses: Excellent for colds, coughs and any respiratory illness. Honest, mullein is far superior to any over- the-counter or prescription cold medicine I've ever tried. It is reputed to be good for skin rashes although I've no experience with this use.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Harvesting: Leaves are the most practical part of the plant to harvest. The flowers are useful as well, but they are tiny and must be harvested as they open. Some folks also harvest the long taproot, but I never have.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">To use: Easiest is to make a tea from the leaves, either fresh or dried. Be sure and strain the tea. The leaves have little hairs that can tickle the throat if you ingest. You can also make an alcohol-based tincture. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If, like me, you don't have an immediate source for the plant, </span> you can buy the prepared tincture from most health food stores and Whole Foods. I've also bought the dried leaves at our local farmer's market.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-30595873396647639922010-11-02T15:05:00.000-05:002010-11-02T15:05:26.167-05:00Lost and Found<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpD72Qn8948JaJJU4W7e1g9x-ipyziOW27uB-94_0tYX78d9-XgCuyAOjFUfft1XclYwJ5TWjgl4X0jafq_uJWCpkafaKCmZp78-WXH6i7oIRRwZQC3WVVDr9kwnKgdiGasJnzX2oJD1U/s1600/IMG_1706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpD72Qn8948JaJJU4W7e1g9x-ipyziOW27uB-94_0tYX78d9-XgCuyAOjFUfft1XclYwJ5TWjgl4X0jafq_uJWCpkafaKCmZp78-WXH6i7oIRRwZQC3WVVDr9kwnKgdiGasJnzX2oJD1U/s320/IMG_1706.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Discovered in the process of mowing my overgrown field: favorite hat and gardening gloves.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-77441832482956859482010-11-01T13:14:00.000-05:002010-11-01T13:14:49.979-05:00My Garden Wants to Kill Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9mzFde8vy31Q1Q7eS7Ym3-8paOptFSnN2JJEt9-gCyXrbhqgjVQivWGT4kAczC8SiCIijUfmA3qKe0o36dnXe85GBbAFcDacaqkhz5cKcKQqIsLAcZ527850TZ1v2h4H4Ba-ir1iKWg/s1600/IMG_1703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9mzFde8vy31Q1Q7eS7Ym3-8paOptFSnN2JJEt9-gCyXrbhqgjVQivWGT4kAczC8SiCIijUfmA3qKe0o36dnXe85GBbAFcDacaqkhz5cKcKQqIsLAcZ527850TZ1v2h4H4Ba-ir1iKWg/s320/IMG_1703.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The biggest problem in the garden? The garden is a patch of about half an acre in the middle of a fenced acre of thick native thatch populated by the most hostile, pain-inducing stickers. The stickers are broken up by occasional cacti, fire ant mounds and needle-thorned mesquite. Even when I was working on it regularly, stickers were a constant battle. I had to wear heavy boots, gloves, and layers of denim. I did my best to mow around the cultivated patch and create a kind of demilitarized zone, but the incursions from hostile plant life were frequent and unrelenting.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Now after six months of neglect, the garden has returned to its natural state of hostility to human flesh. My puny little mower stalls out every few feet. And with the children now, I don't have long stretches of time to devote to two-feet-at-a-time mowing. What's more, I can't take the kids with me to the garden because there are two many things out there that want to pierce tender young hides.<br />
<br />
So what to do? Do I buy a more powerful mower? Hire someone with a tractor to plow the whole acre under and plant more flesh-friendly ground cover? Give the project up as a folly? I'm open to ideas.</div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-81358140797866150522010-06-14T00:12:00.001-05:002010-06-14T00:13:15.372-05:00Volunteer Squash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXr6AeFO7iWl9Uy1GIUZNito9TX3rOKYjx5fUxH9HTJWovBO5owwfffT7bzL8TIv3qCyfGgnwybI6EdgYijdGDR-QU0J0h1pIPGqOcU8ciQLhJj7d6up5Bb4tg0v0PD9hLwImKAv6adU/s1600/IMG_1667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXr6AeFO7iWl9Uy1GIUZNito9TX3rOKYjx5fUxH9HTJWovBO5owwfffT7bzL8TIv3qCyfGgnwybI6EdgYijdGDR-QU0J0h1pIPGqOcU8ciQLhJj7d6up5Bb4tg0v0PD9hLwImKAv6adU/s320/IMG_1667.JPG" /></a></div>About fifteen volunteer squash, of unknown provenance, have sprung up in last year's compost pile. They look like watermelon and spaghetti squash plants, and may well be some Frankensteinian cross. Squash are notorious for cross-pollinating with gourds, which is why I've yet to plant gourds. Time will tell if the fruits of these plants are any good to eat.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-89389168523461509242010-06-12T12:24:00.001-05:002010-06-12T12:26:39.105-05:00Drought Tolerant Vegetable Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZj_-gytRCy9IQQZUbX2ZYQs39kkl3dzLxcpqu2nvKHx_M89weokHs6W7KJDwRPi58LdSumLj_H4ePRmWxgpxDML8YFKkKRTAxgS1tOg7kaCKP3-An347ej76vjeX62Z9yp2OkahjQNA/s1600/IMG_1677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZj_-gytRCy9IQQZUbX2ZYQs39kkl3dzLxcpqu2nvKHx_M89weokHs6W7KJDwRPi58LdSumLj_H4ePRmWxgpxDML8YFKkKRTAxgS1tOg7kaCKP3-An347ej76vjeX62Z9yp2OkahjQNA/s320/IMG_1677.JPG" /></a></div>I've learned a little bit about drought tolerant gardening in the last few years. We had a record two year drought and we also lost access to a well for a brief period of time. This year, I planted an area of the garden for which I've not yet built a drip system, so I have to water with a garden hose, by hand. Pretty time consuming, so I planted some really drought tolerant veggies: hot peppers, calabacita, tomatillos, and zucchini. I drip the garden hose on one plant at a time, near the base, while I go about other garden chores. This means that each plant gets a deep watering about every 7-10 days. So far, we've had enough rains that this has been enough. As the season progresses, I hope to find time to add a drip system. But in the meanwhile, the plants are doing great, and producing like mad. Besides choosing drought tolerant varieties, there are a few other things to do to grow plants with less water:<br />
<br />
1. add berms to the garden, to catch and hold rainwater run-off.<br />
<br />
2. study the topography of your garden so that you can lay out beds in a more or less perpendicular manner to run-off patterns.<br />
<br />
3. amend soil with lots of rich organic matter. I used home made compost and purchased composted turkey manure.<br />
<br />
4. space plants widely, more widely than seems sensible, so that they can really stretch out their toes and have access to lots of water and nutrients.<br />
<br />
5. mulch heavily. I meant to mulch, and I really should have, but I haven't had a chance. Poor plants are probably struggling more than they have to as a result.<br />
<br />
6. Take advantage of natural clay soils, if you have them. Our garden has a large patch of heavy clay gumbo soil, and this is where I have my drought tolerant veggies. Everyone says you can't grow veggies in gumbo soil, but I've found that if I amend with organic matter, it works beautifully.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-22951693710531329562010-06-09T23:40:00.000-05:002010-06-09T23:40:36.538-05:00Something's Lurking Among the Tomatoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZnkeW_X1-bhGcuv1wEt3-ecWc8G_WspFMwOovThaqEaEJTJi48YjVqpe9TDCzcUJz8maMSE1_K5bZOzPbF8f7KMY92cCYDFcpTf-qxmbhU-GHn3kFham2mnFuvop3i53Pgi8A81O9TI/s1600/IMG_0426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZnkeW_X1-bhGcuv1wEt3-ecWc8G_WspFMwOovThaqEaEJTJi48YjVqpe9TDCzcUJz8maMSE1_K5bZOzPbF8f7KMY92cCYDFcpTf-qxmbhU-GHn3kFham2mnFuvop3i53Pgi8A81O9TI/s320/IMG_0426.jpg" /></a></div>About a week ago these creatures starting showing up on my tomato plants. They're just sitting on the leaves and there are perhaps five or six per plants. They look like some kind of multi-lobed egg sac or larvae, about the size of a thumbnail.<br />
<br />
Normally, I don't do much about insect invasions -- I just wait them out and nature usually rebalances everything in a reasonable period of time. Sometimes crops do take a beating but generally, nature just takes her ten percent tithe.<br />
<br />
But there's something kind of ominous-looking about these things. I've never seen them before and suddenly they appear in startling numbers. So I've been peering at them and trying to decide if I should try to remove them. Who are you, creature? Friend or foe?Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-64818093944843747412010-06-09T10:08:00.000-05:002010-06-09T10:08:21.413-05:00Everything I Know about Planting Onions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdVIxPgBRcQpBsWotc33PO103PR0Vcj_zv1VKkTI-0dMPz59gbUPA7G-2hjBJ7Jefx-J7O6CI54FOURms50GG214Jp5XL1U1PFa_zec8oa23Xrjve68m_BxeLPTR4mnRRVzuv1SxYjlQ/s1600/IMG_0428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdVIxPgBRcQpBsWotc33PO103PR0Vcj_zv1VKkTI-0dMPz59gbUPA7G-2hjBJ7Jefx-J7O6CI54FOURms50GG214Jp5XL1U1PFa_zec8oa23Xrjve68m_BxeLPTR4mnRRVzuv1SxYjlQ/s320/IMG_0428.jpg" /></a></div>I don't really understand onions and their life cycle. I really don't. I only know five things:<br />
<br />
1) plant when it's cool, well before the heat of summer takes over. I planted these last February.<br />
<br />
2) plant shallow. In fact, I usually plant so shallowly that I have to really pinch the dirt up around the seedlings to get them to stay up. This seems like the main thing to get big, healthy onions.<br />
<br />
3) harvest when the bulbs push their shoulders up out of the dirt.<br />
<br />
4) cure the onions for a good while in the sun. I'll cure these for about a week.<br />
<br />
5) store in a cool, dry place with good air flow. I break this rule a bit because I don't have such a place to store them. I put them in a basket in my pantry, which is cool and dry but without much airflow. But we eat them so quickly, and we have two growing seasons, so we've not had any spoil yet.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-54487959399636118372010-06-07T23:52:00.000-05:002010-06-07T23:52:17.095-05:00A Day's Harvest from a Neglected Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnUeYk2dk0U6z6JW3MQQVWr2zAQaLkEoQRokKC5XBCi4P6m5EnCMGK5qLFJMnqz7x_Op0ewKFVMJaPYSr-oxeYriq2wmEItQyYdtXTYub7hcQChSRCrdT68FrYqnAnYySxLibGRUnZGk/s1600/IMG_0423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnUeYk2dk0U6z6JW3MQQVWr2zAQaLkEoQRokKC5XBCi4P6m5EnCMGK5qLFJMnqz7x_Op0ewKFVMJaPYSr-oxeYriq2wmEItQyYdtXTYub7hcQChSRCrdT68FrYqnAnYySxLibGRUnZGk/s320/IMG_0423.jpg" /></a></div> Sometimes nature is generous. This summer so far, more rain than usual, no freak hail storms, tornadoes, or sirocco-like hot winds. So, this poor neglected garden carries on, and sends veggies our way.Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311594646199993014.post-34012175162998047872010-05-31T23:12:00.000-05:002010-05-31T23:12:34.812-05:00Squash versus the Squash Vine BorerIn our neck of the woods, the squash vine borer is endemic, fast, and lethal. No method, whether natural or napalm, can withstand the borer if he wants your squash. Many experienced gardeners have given up on certain varieties of squash altogether. <div><div><br />
</div><div>For some reason, the borer hasn't found my garden yet so I'm growing squash like mad while I can. What kind of squash is in the garden this year? Butternut, yellow, calabacita, and yellow zucchini, spaghetti, in that order.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRO2vJugyWhBQVYJSx1yE1FfI617jaDZdh7Kh4buq4qNxoLXYvqgpdmYIi3tcgpDqmkKV0nKDBok5__JcXHHuBAD1KS5beFlw7JVXsUAWBWJkRNaQeUTUbv0odk7HCJ2fir2Pz_AYC-Jg/s1600/IMG_1664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRO2vJugyWhBQVYJSx1yE1FfI617jaDZdh7Kh4buq4qNxoLXYvqgpdmYIi3tcgpDqmkKV0nKDBok5__JcXHHuBAD1KS5beFlw7JVXsUAWBWJkRNaQeUTUbv0odk7HCJ2fir2Pz_AYC-Jg/s320/IMG_1664.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7Wp_k13CoTWvTDa2Nf1rq_7H3uBQsIKkFKk1KF9qhOgb5OpIT_TB-745wWLnR-ryWa61bI44JFPHi1b_NbGeHN2GZh8oZWF81wI4-yty6PaaYuaOagYWhg-h8v06G-63b6pjWPQWPZI/s1600/IMG_1661.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7Wp_k13CoTWvTDa2Nf1rq_7H3uBQsIKkFKk1KF9qhOgb5OpIT_TB-745wWLnR-ryWa61bI44JFPHi1b_NbGeHN2GZh8oZWF81wI4-yty6PaaYuaOagYWhg-h8v06G-63b6pjWPQWPZI/s320/IMG_1661.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfLvZoIK8as8EhA-XH6eV8dcKw8LSZeicU69qpTmuHXlho_u0UmroI35QU8265uz5Ffzi5mrm156-Z7r8ZL9mqei5faXy7C9LKBRXQKhmS3_KDhSsKMD6gtb8PgxL-ZB3Oakq0yIK0zeo/s1600/IMG_1669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfLvZoIK8as8EhA-XH6eV8dcKw8LSZeicU69qpTmuHXlho_u0UmroI35QU8265uz5Ffzi5mrm156-Z7r8ZL9mqei5faXy7C9LKBRXQKhmS3_KDhSsKMD6gtb8PgxL-ZB3Oakq0yIK0zeo/s320/IMG_1669.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WJGdExUGUyb4uAZYcqiTfacXpjTdIpyhAEQB8vCTjEpDa1JXZz4VCEMyzQS8ZFfdkXZe2JLMvYxCIwIzJQxhG76xxRuvM-3o7vIerY5AxA3LPkcVUuyKH71nZutvE0HHXoVsUfk9J-M/s1600/IMG_1646.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WJGdExUGUyb4uAZYcqiTfacXpjTdIpyhAEQB8vCTjEpDa1JXZz4VCEMyzQS8ZFfdkXZe2JLMvYxCIwIzJQxhG76xxRuvM-3o7vIerY5AxA3LPkcVUuyKH71nZutvE0HHXoVsUfk9J-M/s320/IMG_1646.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45lW0uMsRKcFrmBfgvjXlR70qtxGzxcf2ZnC68B9dWdcWHJPkTXBcJJPWrVr72uuOrl_xlUgjX51JtgywB6vmg5A-hlUbxLhqPQt50nna1dGehFBugjJhg55BILC7pE6jKH3rUwwWsuw/s1600/IMG_1668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45lW0uMsRKcFrmBfgvjXlR70qtxGzxcf2ZnC68B9dWdcWHJPkTXBcJJPWrVr72uuOrl_xlUgjX51JtgywB6vmg5A-hlUbxLhqPQt50nna1dGehFBugjJhg55BILC7pE6jKH3rUwwWsuw/s320/IMG_1668.JPG" /></a></div></div>Lisa Carroll-Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10273095136947961386noreply@blogger.com1