Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Room to Grow

As we all know, Spring is here. Yes it is, stop looking at the snow Northerners,    it IS Spring. Those little seedlings that I posted a couple weeks ago are way too big for their trays, so today I finally got a chance to repot the tomatoes. I seeded Red Lightning and Super Sauce. The Super Sauce ones are much sicklier than I expected. I repotted them but I am not holding my breathe.

Here is how to repot seedlings, or at least the tomatoes. I like doing it this way rather than starting them in the larger pots to begin with because tomatoes let you bury up the stems which stabilizes leggy newbies.

First you have to prepare the potting soil. I used an organic, but there were a lot of twigs in there. It isn't a good idea to leave them in with the new seedlings because they are just getting started and those twigs are mighty big to the little plants. You don't have to sort that right away though, just keep it in mind as you fill the little pots.

To prepare the soil, scoop a bunch into a container. I am using a little plastic wash basin that I use for camping:

Then you need to add water. I like to add warm water, even hot water if the soil has been in a cold place. The soil should never get more than blood warm though. Now, stir it around really good. Don't add a lot at once until you get the feel for it. You don't want mud! Just get it all good and damp, it should gather when squeezed but easily fall back into dirt (not big clumps). If you add too much, throw some more potting soil in there.
Now, label those pots! I started doing this and completely forgot so I have a couple mystery tomato plants. The RL stands for "Red Lightning". I know what tomato plants look like, so I don't have to put that on there. If you are new to this, you might want to put something on it, or gather them together in the same trays and label the tray.
Fill the pot lightly. You are going to make a deep hole with your finger, so don't tamp down. You will add more later.

There is the hole, if you can see it. Then you want to gently, I mean gently remove the seedlings from their other container. I grew up putting two seeds in each compartment, but I think that was unnecessary. Since I did, I had to gently (I can't say that word enough) tease the roots apart and choose the sturdiest one. Sometimes that is the small one, so don't be fooled by size. (Where have I heard that before?)


Now ease it into the hole you made and gently pile the dirt around the stem. This is the neat part about tomatoes, you can plant them pretty deep. Once the real leaves come out, which is when you would repot them, you can put them in past the root ball. Any part of the stem in the dirt will root, making the plant much more sturdy. 


See how deep that little seedling is? Now, I carefully put some water on it. The reason for this, even though the soil is already moist, is to help settle the dirt and remove air from around the roots.

Put them under the lamps but make sure that they are not too close to the lights. I give them about six inches or so clearance. Keep an eye on them so that you can move the lights if they get too tall.

That is what I love about my set up. I can move the lights anyway I want, and change the shelf settings. 

Happy planting! Get those hands dirty!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Adventures in Leather... Fruit Leather

Golden Mangoes were on sale the other day, so I bought a few to use in making my first fruit leathers. I have never tried this before, not even when I had the other machine. The concept is very simple: Blend fruit, strain fruit, pour fruit and dehydrate fruit. Ah, there are tricks though, and my one major piece of advice is to try making these in very small batches first, until you get the hang of it. Fortunately, I only made enough for two leathers. 

First, I peeled, pitted and chopped nicely ripe mangoes. I like them to be really sweet so that the leather is almost candy like, but without added sugar.
After preparing I just threw them in the blender with a little water until smooth. Mangoes blend beautifully! 
pureed mango

Then came the straining to remove any fiberous materials or lumps


push it all through completelypush through a fine sieve


Next, it gets poured onto the fruit roll up tray that goes with my dehydrator. If you do not have one, wax paper or plastic wrap is supposed to work. My trays are BPA free though, I can not say the same for the wrap with any surety and wax paper will melt a bit in the warmth. 

 
pour onto leather sheet

Spread out on the tray, making it a little thicker around the outside edge. I spread it evenly this time and the edges dried out much faster than the rest of the leather.

spread out


Let dehydrate at 135 for a few hours. Check it occasionally

dry at 135F

Once the leather has set up, gently flip it so that it dries evenly. I am going to use cooking spray on the sheet next time though, unless I can come up with a better alternative as they are sticky, even on the special sheets. This one came out pretty good, the next one was too dry.

flip overnice and set up

 The problem I ran in to was that there was a teeny spot that took forever to dried, so the rest cracked and got a little too dry, as this next picture shows. Once dried and cool (it is very important to cool thoroughly), lay it on plastic wrap and roll it up.
quite cracked and a little too dryroll in plastic wrap

 Finished!


all done!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Spring is in the Air

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where the flowers iz?

My seedlings are doing wonderfully in my little make shift greenhouse thing. I know, that is the technical name for it. Really. I looked it up. 

Basically I purchased a metal shelving unit, 4 shop lights for florescent lights and some S hooks. It is very simple and effective. With the purchase of some heavy plastic, it will go outside when the weather warms up a touch more so that I can keep a steady supply of seedlings since there isn't a lot of room to seed bi weekly for an extended harvest. 

Here is the set up:

     There is an outdoor surge protector for the lights so they can all be turned of with one switch. I am using regular old cool light florescent bulbs and the seedlings are loving it. When they first started to sprout they were trying to lean towards the only window in the room, but only an hour or so after turning the lights on they were growing pretty straight.

See how pretty? Those are the nasturtiums. Their leaves are peppery and look so pretty in a salad or as a garnish on any other dish. The way I have the lights set up, they can be moved higher or lower depending on the needs of the plants. These light were raised up a lot since this picture was taken as the lights were too close to the seedlings. 
Here are my lovely little Toy Choy seedlings. I have never tried growing this type of vegetable before. I really want to try celery too, but that may have to wait until next year.

So, there we are, starting off the Spring on the right foot. The tomatoes are growing, but much more slowly. They don't even have their second leaves yet, but I have had excellent results with my own seedlings in the past.

Next will be the yard clean up. My leftover Chard from the Fall is still in there kicking, but oddly the rosemary died. Plants can be weird. The old compost area needs to be taken town and the old garden bed needs to be turned to get rid of some very aggressive weeds that moved in a couple of years ago. We need to keep on top of them or they will take over. 

I hope that everyone is having a great start to Spring! (Yes, I know that it isn't technically here yet, don't harsh my mellow.)


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Well, That Didn't Work


I have been avoiding updating here because the FODMAP thing did not achieve what I hoped it would. During the time I was trying it, I was in severe and ongoing pain and was ready to do  just about anything to stop it. 
At first, I didn't have too much of a problem. I wasn't noticing a big difference, but at least I had the possibility of helping myself. Control over my own body, which is scary when lost, was very important to me.
Alas, it was not achieving what I had hoped. It did however prove that I am not currently lactose intolerant. I have noticed that I tend to go in phases with that, with years in between having problems and not having problems. I actually am eating a number of "bad" FODMAP foods and have actually been almost pain free (at least as pain free as I ever get) for about a week now, and before that have had stretches without pain. 
This leaves me fairly certain that my problems are unlikely to be dietary in that extreme. My doctor and I are looking into allergies. Part of me is good with that, another part feels it is a bit of a cop out, kinda like my IBS diagnosis in the first place.
IBS is diagnosed by ruling out other digestive problems. While there is something going on for sure, IBS is more a catchall for things that the medical profession do not completely understand yet. All well and good, but you can't cure a catchall with a single change or medication.

As such...... I am back to homesteading! 

Last night I made a sausage ragu for dinner using up the last of my canned tomatoes from the summer.  It was my first experience canning whole tomatoes and I followed directions that told me to press the tomatoes down firmly until the juices rose up. I did that, and during the pressure canning, "lost" several inches of liquid so that the solids were above the juices. The tomatoes were absolutely fine, but I learned that packing too tightly does tend to cause that issue. Lesson learned.

Here is the ragu, which was quite delicious and there was enough leftover for another meal for the three of us.

It was extremely easy to make, and reminded me to definitely make quarts of tomatoes next time! If I ever get some good, farm raised pork I will try my hand at sausage making, because it must be much better than the stuff I used.

Sausage Ragu

1 lb Italian sausage I used 1/2 hot and 1/2 mild. Remove from casings if in them and crumble

Tomatoes: This one is tough to measure. I did not weigh them before using them, but I did use about six pint sized jars. Drain the water, especially if the tomatoes are not in puree. I was not careful enough this time.

4 cloves minced garlic (or more!)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely diced
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano (I rarely use this for anything other than pizza, but it was good in this dish)
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Brown the sausage until cooked. Remove excess oil from pan then add the onions and peppers. Cook several minutes until onions are translucent. Throw in the garlic and saute until you can smell it cooking. 

Throw that, the seasonings and the tomatoes which are either squished or chopped, into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours or more.

I put the parsley in at the end to avoid the brown bits in the sauce as the parsley over cooks. 

Also, I use this fantastic slow cooker that I love so much. You can take the insert and put it on the stove top for browning. TRUE one dish cooking! And yes, it works great as a slow cooker. I was dubious because I have been sold on the crockery versions, but this had done a lot of excellent work so far.

These ones are only offered at William Sonoma, but are available now for 129.99. I do NOT get kick backs from William Sonoma, I have just had this until for six months now and want to share the love. Here is a link to the product on the site if you are interested: Breville Slow Cooker

Now, back to school work!