Old Friends In The Garden

George wrote another article that brings back a lot of memories for me from Mexico. I  was the kid who appropriated some of his seed, mostly because I found some that had a map of Mexico on them and I thought that was so cool. My dad asked me to share his article with you all.

“I’ve gardened for over 54 years. Some varieties I’ve grown, I’ve grown for more than half that time. For instance, I’ve been growing one tomato for 44 years (though not every year). Why grow something for years and years, instead of changing varieties every little bit? Well, if it’s really good, you might not want to change! That tomato, for instance, has the strongest “tomatoey” flavor of any tomato I’ve ever tried. That’s one good reason to save seed and grow something over and over.

 

Some people say that if you save seed and grow the same variety over and over, that it will adapt to your soil and climate; thus producing better. There may be something to that idea, though, I have often thought, that for such a mechanism to work, one would need to grow a good many plants and intelligently select which ones from which to save seed. Yet, when I have saved grown just a handful of plants a year, from my own homegrown seed, I’ve often seen better and “prettier” yields in three years! In fact, thinking about it, I have to conclude that oftentimes everything is better even in the second year!

 

As I pondered this recently I asked myself, “Is this really adaptation, and if so, just who is adapting? Suddenly it hit me, maybe I’m the one who adapts! By this I mean, I plant the same variety, and I learn its quirks and requirements. I learn how to help it prosper in my given environment. Individual vegetable varieties are often quite unique, even if not too many people write about it.

 

Take beans, for instance. Most gardeners know that there are two main distinctions in the “bean world.” There are bush beans and pole beans. Bush beans don’t require support. Pole beans do. But did you know that there are numerous variations in the growth habits of both bush pole beans? Some bush beans reach for the sky, so to speak. They’re fairly tall. A few produce their pods above the foliage. Some carefully hide their pods and make you hunt for them. Some flower and produce for only a couple of weeks. I know of two bush beans which produce indefinitely until conditions force them to stop.

 

Some pole beans only get 3-4’ tall. Some would probably hit 20’ if planted on a wire going up a telephone pole! Some branch and some barely branch at all. Bean plants can vary in the color or tone of their foliage and stems.

 

There are differing affinities for high or low humidity, hot or cooler temperatures and insect resistance. This is not to mention the varying pod and seed colors, or how they behave at different latitudes due to day length sensitivity.

 

One interesting bean I’ve grown is called Tarahumara Pink Green Bean. It originated with the Tarahumara Indians in North Central Mexico, which is an arid region. A friend sent me seed when we were living in Hidalgo (South Central Mexico) and I grew it there, at the 20th parallel. It climbed its pole to about 6’ high and produced a respectable crop of green pods, ripening to yield striking pink seeds with black spots. My daughter, Emily, who was a little girl at the time, appropriated that variety as her bean, probably because of the color of the seed and its bright pink flowers,

 

In 2003 we grew it again, in NJ (at the 40th parallel). It got really tall and it didn’t flower until very late in the year. We grew it in Oklahoma in 2006 and 2009, noting its rampant growth and late, prodigious production of seed. We misplaced our seed and in 2009 I only managed to scrape up two or three to plant. That was on one pole, which, by mid summer, the vines broke with their excessive growth. I put up another pole, which they climbed. I looked the other way… and the vines jumped over to a neighboring tomato planting, smothering four tomato plants in their 5’ cages! That fall we harvested 2 ½ quarts of seed! I planted it in 2013 (the year of the grasshopper plague) and the vines were killed by grasshoppers. Then, something happened. All of my bottled seed stopped germinating. I don’t know just what I did to it. But it died. We were unable to get any seed to germinate after this.

 

So, early this spring I contacted Native Seeds/Search the organization which first brought this variety into reach of most gardeners. I inquired about Tarahumara Pink Green Bean and was told that they had some seed in frozen storage, but they were not offering any for sale. After chatting for a bit, the young woman in their store decided to take down my information and pass it on to their seed curator, who later contacted me. In the end we agreed that they would send 50 seeds and I would grow it out for seed, returning a healthy portion to them.

 

I planted this seed on May 22 and have been diligently caring for the plants. It’s been a delight to see my old friend again! I had forgotten that its tendrils are reddish in color, not simply green. The vines are fast growing. By June 26th some of the vines had grown off the top of 8’ poles. I’ve tried to visit this planting, even if only for a few moments, every day, just to watch over it and to make observations.

 

On July 1 I was pulling a few weeds by Tarahumara Pink Green Bean. As I delighted in its vigor and the beauty of its foliage I noticed… the vines had started to throw horizontal tendrils… searching for additional support! One tendril almost spanned a 3 1/2’ space between the beans and… a planting of tomatoes! I thought “You rascal! You’re after my tomatoes again!” Reflecting on this, I realized that I I can’t think of any other pole bean with such a strong tendency to seek support laterally. This is a unique feature of Tarahumara Pink Green Bean. How many years have I grown this bean? Yet it took until this year to notice this trait!”

Escargo Without A Shell

One of our homesteaders from Homesteading Edu wrote an article recently that he told me he would like me to share. So, here is Escargo Without A Shell, written by George McLaughlin.

“

Escargo Without A Shell

Okay, I admit I came up with the title for this article, simply because it tickles my funny bone! I have never tried eating slugs, and have no plans to try. Though, I suspect… they wouldn’t be all that bad. If you have ever gardened where slugs are a problem, you know just how frustrating they can be. Where there are appropriate damp conditions, slugs can become a huge problem, devouring plants in the garden faster than one can replant!
Slugs are most often a problem in climates with prolonged periods of wet weather. Hence, we rarely have to deal with them in Oklahoma. However, in other areas slugs can be a really big problem.
Here are a couple of remedies for slugs:

1) For minor infestations one can go out at night and drop a pinch of salt on the offending slugs. This kills them.
2) Hand picking and dropping them into a soap or ammonia solution will kill slugs. No, slugs don’t bite. They can’t hurt you. So hand pick to your heart’s content.
3) Diatomaceous earth, which can be purchased in garden centers will sometimes help. One simply lays it down around affected plants. Supposedly, its microscopic serrations will lacerate a slug. I have not personally seen this to work.
4) There are a number of snail/slug baits available, commercially. Most contain iron sulfate. The slugs eat it and die. In my experience, these baits are indeed effective. The most commonly available slug bait is called Sluggo. Apparently these baits do not harm other critters in the garden.
5) Beer! Yes, slugs are natural born alcoholics. If you pour beer into little dishes, even bottle caps, and place them in your garden at night, the slugs will flock to them, drink and… die! Bahwahaha! I did this when we lived and gardened in Indiana. My impression was that beer and iron sulfate were tied for effectiveness.
6) If your garden is fenced, and your situation allows it, it doesn’t hurt to free range some ducks in the yard. They’ll clean up on slugs, cutting down on those who make it to your garden. DON’T believe glowing reports about allowing ducks to scavenge inside the garden. I tried that a couple of times, using runner ducks, which are small. In every case the ducks had a party in the garden, destroying valued crops! I’ll never forget, checking on the “duck patrol” and seeing a duck nonchalantly pull up a young onion plant and swallow the whole thing, moving on to the next…. “Slugs? Who wants to hunt slugs when I can visit the salad bar?!” However, if your garden is surrounded by a lot of slug habitat, and it’s fenced, some ducks might indeed help.
7) Encourage toads in your garden. Leave a hiding place for toads, such as a weedy corner with some shade. Set out a shallow tray, flush with the ground, with water in it as well as some rocks, so a toad can get in, soak and get out. Toads eat a lot of pests.
6) Finally, it helps to eliminate weeds which conserve moisture near your young plants. So, while it’s sunny out, weed in and around your plantings. ”

 

Photo from: https://pixabay.com/en/snail-black-dirt-environment-grass-1836103/

 

 

 

Money on the hoof and in the ground

I’m a strong advocate of David Ramsey’s money system. Especially keeping a emergency fund of at least $1,000. But, what if you exhaust your emergency fund and still have things needing to be paid? Well, one of the things that my family has found to be so helpful about homesteading, is that as long as we raise more than we need, we can always sell something if we need to. For example, we sold some goats at one point to pay some bills that we were beyond our emergency fund to be able to pay. we also raise extra sprouts and other crops because it’s a little extra money in the pocket for us.

 

Another thing is that if you raise a few extra animals, as in the case of our milk goats, we like to keep an extra doe, even though we don’t want to be milking the one extra, at least until kidding has passed. The unfortunate truth is that birth is risky. We don’t want to lose a doe, and we never have so far. However, we do keep an extra aside each year, bred her, and then when all have successfully kidded, we sell her in milk. That’s money on the hoof for us.

Arabian Jasmine

As the fall has started setting in and the temperatures have been dropping on the farm, I have started thinking about teas that I like again. During the winter, I try to keep a collection of varieties around to help warm me up when I come in from working with the animals.

One of my favorite teas is Jasmine. I first started paying attention to that one when my sister found the idea for the dog waterer for her boxer, Penny who is Baran’s sister. When Keli got the things she needed together to do a dog waterer, she chose Jasmine as the plant to plant around the water dish.

A few months after she had shown me what she had done, I flew to the state of Washington to visit my brother and sister in law. I had always been more of a fruit tea person than a dark tea or herb tea person. But, when I was in Washington, I was introduced to Jasmine tea and loved it.

When I returned to the homestead, I started doing some research on the herb because I wanted to grow it. It can be used as an indoor plant like my sister is doing, but it needs to have it’s roots lightly covered. It’s supposed to also be good for moisturising skin. I found several really good articles on the plant as I was investigating, and I probably will grow it eventually once I have more shelving in my home. I’ve recently moved and my house isn’t quite ready to put the whole quantity of herbs that I want to grow in there. I’m still researching and dreaming. Here are a few of the articles I found on Arabian Jasmine:

http://www.naturalremedies.org/jasmin/

http://floridata.com/Plants/Oleaceae/Jasminum%20sambac/982

Making a basil dog waterer

After my last post, I had people wanting specific instructions on how I was going to make my dog waterer. I didn’t have time to make it before my last post because of farm related busyness that made it so that while I was researching what I wanted to do, I hadn’t had time to do it yet. So, here is how I made this, now that I finally found time to make this waterer.

First, get a pot and a water dish that fits nicely inside your planting pot with room to spare around the sides. Keep in mind how big or small your dog is when choosing the height of your planting pot.

Partially block the drainage hole in your pot with rocks or pebbles to prevent dirt from escaping too badly.

Partially fill your planting pot with potting soil. Keep in mind that the bowl will have to still fit in the pot once it has been planted.

Next, add compost soil or dirt from your garden or yard. This adds a few more vitamins to the pot for your plant.

In my case, the plant I picked, as mentioned in my last post, was basil. There are three ways to plant basil. The first, obviously is from seed. Second, is transplanting. That is what I chose to do. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures from the transplanting. Make sure that your roots are covered over if you use basil. The third method is to essentially create cuttings from basil from the store. If you get some stems that are 4-6 inches long and make sure you have a fresh cut on the bottom of the stem. Stick them in water like a bouquet and keep them in a sunny window. They will root in about a week.

My sister made Baran’s sister a similar waterer, but she used Arabian Jasmine. Any herb that isn’t poisonous to dogs and can be grown in a pot can work. You’ll want to check before you start your project so that you know how deep to plant your chosen herb.

Once the waterer is finished, your dog will quickly figure out how to access the water dish, and you will have fresh herbs year round that your dog is helping you keep watered.

The finished dog waterer with potted basil.

Pixie, the rat terrier, has figured out my dog waterer and is getting a drink from between the fragrant basil plants.

 

A plant buried with the dead

I was recently trying to find an herb that could be grown indoors in a pot with my dogs’ water bowl in it. I have a boxer and a terrier so it was important that not only did I come up with something to cut back on the amount of water on my floor from my boxer Baran’s exuberant style of drinking, but also try to make it a useful pot that Baran could simply water with his mess. Then too, there was the fact that it obviously needed to be dog safe. After some research, I came up with basil.

The professional water dish slosher himself! This is Baran. He’s a 2 year old boxer.

 

I found out that basil can be grown in pots, and it is well suited to my sunny home. It likes the warmer temperatures that I like, and needs rich, moist soil. It’s a delicious herb with a rich history. It was buried with the dead in India, Greece, and Egypt to speed their way into the afterlife. It was also used as a healing herb in India. It is used to treat stress and to treat the flu. I was amazed at the quantity of things that the basil is good for. I’ve actually wondered if basil might not have been an inspiration for athelas in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. I’m a little skeptical without seeing research backing all of the things that basil is supposed to be good for, but I know that just on nutrition level alone, it’s good stuff.

The first picture in this post was of a basil plant with flowers. This picture is a side view of another basil plant.

If you want to read more on the plant, here are some great sources to go check out:

https://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-basil/

https://www.munch.zone/herbs-and-spices-for-dogs-the-good-and-the-bad/

http://naturalsociety.com/sweet-basil-growing-your-own-medicine/

http://www.thekitchn.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-growing-basil-221272

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1101-holy%20basil.aspx?activeingredientid=1101

Home grown tea plant

It has been a crazy last few weeks. Hopefully, I should be able to post more often now. In Mexico, when I was growing up there, we used a particular plant for both a cold drink and a hot drink. That plant is called Jamaica in Mexico and is a type of hibiscus called Rosselle for English speakers.

 

Interestingly, when I was looking at more information on the plant, since my family grows Roselle to use for tea, I learned that medicinally, Roselle was used for fever, cough as well as high blood pressure. I knew about willow bark for fever but had no idea that Roselle could be used that way too. Apparently, some people eat hibiscus as a snack. I hadn’t heard of that before. You can hop on over to https://waterdogfarms.com/our-favorite-recipes/roselle-hibiscus-recipes/ to see some different recipes that they posted about. I though it was pretty cool.

This plant does get pretty tall. Rosselle is also called Hibiscus.  Here is George with a Hibiscus plant in the garden.

 

If you would like to read more on this plant, here are some articles that I had found very interesting when I was learning about the plant myself.

http://www.exotic-hibiscus.com/misc/history.htm

http://www.trop-hibiscus.com/agnlinfo.html

 

A Mountain Joy

When my sister went to Ecuador a few years ago, she came home with some recipes that work beautifully with an herb that my family likes to grow. In Ecuador, they use this particular herb, not just for seasoning, but also for medicinal purposes. In Ecuador, as I recall, they use it in chicken soup with lemon added in to help with colds, and upset stomach.

That herb is Oregano. Now, I know that reading about an herb may not sound all that terribly exciting unless you are into gardening. I wasn’t overly interested in it myself until just recently because my line of expertise lies more in the livestock than in the garden. My dad is more the gardener. However, I do use it in cooking and I decided that aside from mentioning the plant and the fact that it is used both as seasoning and medicinally in Ecuador, I ought to look it up and see what the history on this plant is.

As it turns out, Oregano has a long and very interesting history. Did you know that Oregano was first as I understand it, found in Greece? As a matter of fact, it has a place in the ancient Greek lore. The ancient Greeks believed that the goddess Aphrodite created the plant as a source of joy for her garden. Oregano comes from the two Greek words Oros which means mountain and Ganos which means joy. So, this plant is not only a culinary delight but is also a Mountain Joy.

Another interesting fact to me historically, is that the ancient Greeks used it as an antidote for narcotics poisoning. The ancient Egyptians also used it as an antidote, and as a preservative.

Apparently, and this was a fact of interest to me as a homesteader who keeps milk goats, dairy farmers also used to feed it to their dairy animals to help sweeten their milk.

 

I used this culinary delight in a stew recently. I call this type of stew the Watchagot Stew.

Basically, it’s whatever you have on hand. I made a huge pot of the stuff and it was fantastic! The ingredients I used were:

Barley: 2-3 cups
Lentils: 2-3 cups
Smoked turkey: approximately 3-4 cups
Carrots
Tomatoes
Green beans

1 1/2 cups of mushrooms
1 lime squeezed
fresh Cilantro to taste
fresh Oregano to taste
A pinch of rosemary
A pinch of basil
Chicken bullion to taste

 

The white strips in the stew are home made noodles. The recipe for those is:

2-3 eggs

1 pinch of salt

3 cups of flour

Knead that until it is no longer sticky.

Then cut it into strips and drop it into boiling soup.

 

I put all of that in a large pot, and boiled it for about 2 hours. It was one of the best stews I have made in a while!

There was really so much information out there on the medicinal uses and the folk lore behind this herb, that I felt that I couldn’t do it justice in this blog post without it taking many more hours than it already has to look up information aside from how we use it for cooking, and the fact that we do grow it. I knew how to grow it, but I had no idea how much there really was to know about this herb. If you are interested in reading further on it, the websites where I was reading up on Oregano  are as follows:

http://www.herballegacy.com/Branca_History.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266259.php

The History of Oregano