A Clever Idea for a Bountiful Tomato Harvest

Happy Earth Day!

I love our world. I love being out in it, even if it's just in my own little garden. When it comes to trying new techniques to make the garden thrive, I am ever an optimist (even in the wake of a rocky track record). This year, I'm trying a brilliant idea by a man named James Bryan that should lead to a bumper crop of ravishing tomatoes. Check out his impressive results. (Here are the directions from his Facebook page, which vary slightly.)

In a nutshell, the idea is to plant your tomatoes around a container that will provide subterranean water trickling through a pile of compost. Here's how easy:

I drilled holes in a little six-gallon trash can: one round near the bottom of the can, and another ten inches higher, just above where the dirt level would be after I buried it. (According to this report, Bryan started out with a 13-gallon garbage can, but eventually switched to 5-gallon buckets, which are cheaper and easier to find... you just have to fill more often.)

I then buried the container, filled it with a couple big scoops of the best compost I have, and planted four little tomatoes I'd started* around the can. 

I filled the bucket with water. Some trickled out of the top holes, but most seemed to push through to the bottom row. The water level went down pretty fast. I love that it must travel through that rich compost before meeting the roots of the plants.

In studying the original idea for this post, I discovered two important points I overlooked in my initial reading:

1. Whatever size container you use, you want to give each plant about five gallons of water per week. So if you have four plants surrounding a 5-gallon bucket, you should fill the bucket four times per week. 
2. I also saw in the comments of that first article that you should add fresh compost a couple times a week until fruit starts setting. (The comments are very helpful.)

I've only been filling the bucket maybe every five days or so (they haven't looked thirsty, even on hot days), and haven't added extra compost. I figured that Byron's burst of growth was mainly from the compost, but apparently, it's at least equally from the quantity of water and the additional nutrients added to the container. I'll make those changes! (For you tomato gurus, he also doesn't prune the suckers! That was a surprise to me. I'll have to experiment with that.)

Nevertheless, I'm pleased with my little plants. They're starting to flower like crazy. Here is the change that's occurred over three weeks:

I plan to try this method with squash and pepper plants, too, as well as another round of tomato plants. Watch for an update!

~~~~~

Lucky for me, I live in a warm climate where I can garden year-round. What about you? Have you started your tomatoes yet? Does this look like something you'd like to try?

*I was hesitant to use these particular plants for this idea because I started them at the end of January, and though they sprouted just fine, their first couple months were spent in a small container in mediocre soil (so in my opinion, they'll never be what they could have been). But in the end, I decided that this method may be just the boost they need. We'll see what they can do!

DIY: Installing Airlocks (Cheap, Easy, Fast!)

Well, I'd say we took the summer off blogging, didn't we!? We've all been off galavanting every which way, enjoying the long summer days, and trying new things to share. :)

I've had several inquiries regarding my previous post on making sauerkraut. I'm happy the love is spreading! I have officially installed nine airlocks this summer, and just must share how easy and worthwhile it is.

The point of the airlock is to allow carbon dioxide to escape (put off by the lactic acid-producing bacteria), without reintroducing any oxygen. Those little critters need an anaerobic environment to thrive.

Here's What You Need:

Some airlocks

Some 3/8" grommets

A drill with a 7/16" bit

Here's What You Do

1) Attach the 7/16" bit to your drill (if you find this too tight to slide the airlock in later, you can also use the 1/2" bit, but try the former first).

2) Drill a hole in the top of a mason jar lid. I found it easier to do this while the lid was secured onto a quart jar. Mason jars really seal well, which is why I like to use them, but you could also use a jar with a lid that has a rubber edge around that inside of the lid (like most salsa jars).

3) Fit the grommet into the drilled hole.

4) Carefully press the end of the airlock into the grommet. It doesn't need to go in terribly far, it just needs to be as tight as possible. (Be careful how you put weight onto these cheap airlocks—they can crack, like the one pictured here. We used some super glue on it and thankfully didn't have any leaks.)

5) Ta-da!

6) After you pack the jar with whatever you want to lacto-ferment, be sure to add a little water to the fill-line on the airlock. This helps keep your veggies airtight.

Right away I started fermenting some garden beets and carrots. I found tricky ways of keeping the veggies submerged below the brine. For the beets, I left the largest slices uncut and lodged them down beneath the shoulders of the jars. For the carrots, I used celery slices (which ended up being delicious) and did the same thing. Be sure to leave at least an inch of headspace between the brine and the top of the jar.

 Feel free to stare for a few minutes.

I did.

I left them at a friend's house for a few weeks while I was out of town, so eager to try them upon our return. Wow. I was not disappointed. Neither were my little boys. We all loved them!

Next I did pickling cucumbers, Bubbies style. I kept the cucumbers submerged with grape leaves, which help keep the pickles crisp. Two of the jars are still going (six weeks later) and some of the brine has sunk below the leaves at the top. I can see no sign of mold. Props to the airlocks!

Here they are after three weeks of fermenting.

The airlock water in the first jar is a little 

off-color because some of the escaping 

CO2 tried to drag my brine up with it!

Lastly, I made 5 gallons of sauerkraut (2.5 pictured here, 2.5 in my Harsch crock). I kept the kraut submerged by anchoring a large, firm cabbage leaf beneath the shoulders. The sauerkraut became really bubbly really quick as the first stage of fermentation began. I had to open the jars and re-press the cabbage beneath the brine. I recommend leaving a little more than one inch of headspace, and plenty of brine above the veggies.

I made these five weeks ago.* We've already gone through two of these jars, with three of them (and the crock) still going strong. The flavor is a little different every time I open a new jar (the older it is, the more I like it). When we're ready to dig in, I swap out the airlock lid for a unpunctured lid, and pop it in the fridge, ready to accompany every meal. :)

Honestly, it's a thrill.

*I must admit, I came out liking the airlock method more than the open-vat method (mentioned in the sauerkraut post) for two reasons: 1) I never had to deal with skimming mold off the top, and 2) I found the flavor slightly more complex for the same amount of time.

CO & Potato Printing

You may remember that for this year we are going through the values of "charity." Do you remember the first one for January?  "Long Suffering."  Yeah, we should have given a second thought before praying as a family to be more long suffering.
We passed around the stomach flu, had the coldest month we could remember, and had a gas leak that resulted in co2 poisoning, and having our gas turned off because of a leak, taking with it our heat and hot water.

Our home was swarming with these guys late last Friday night as they tried to detect the source of the gas leak.

Our CO poisoning came from corrosion of an old gas pipe.  We don't know how long it's been leaking, but we definitely experienced most of the symptoms: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion.  Especially the confusion ;)  Having the gas turned off in January was a good crash course in preparedness.  I'm happy to say we did pretty well, and we're very grateful for a very effective wood burning stove that did the job beautifully.

But seriously--get a CO Detector!  People can go years not knowing they're being poisoned, if the leak is small.  Who knew?

Needless to say, we're very happy to be moving into February, with slightly warmer weather, slightly more light, and instead of focusing on "long suffering," we get to be "kind."  How bad can it be?

To celebrate, the littles and I made this super easy poster.  We used potatoes and a red and black ink pad, and viola!  A reminder poster.

Happy February!

DIY Slippers

I've kind of been moping around lately because I didn't have any slippers, thinking vain thoughts like, "Why doesn't the world give me nice free slippers?  Can't it see my toes are cold?"

Finally I had a day of recovering from an illness, my feet were cold and I wasn't going anywhere, so I just made myself some slippers.

 They're a little frumpy, but they've grown on me (hard to stay mad at fleece-lined slippers).

I made them following this tutorial.  I made them out of old cord pants, and scrap fleece.  I had to make some adjustments, because I didn't exactly follow the instructions (why? what do I always have against instructions?).  I traced my foot as directed, then gave it an extra 1/4" all the way around, I thought for the hem.  I guess now they're reinforced and stronger, but they'd be more slick and ... aerodynamic... if I had followed directions.

Oh well, next time!  And there will be a next time.  They really came together quite quickly, and I'll definitely be making another pair!  If you want a pair, just trace your foot and send it to me--I'm on a roll!

Tea Party

My little baby, Evelyn, is turning one!  I can hardly believe it.  In honor of the occassion, she is throwing herself a tea party.  Here are the invitations, as she dictated them to me.

In case you can't read them (they were very small because they were for babies), they read:

Dear Colette,

The pleasure of your company is requested at

 A Morning Tea

In honor of my first birthday

Saturday the 28^th of September

At ten o’clock

1234 Anywhere St

Silver Spring, Maryland

You may bring your mother and sister.

Evelyn Bea Marshall

Please arrive promptly, as my attention span for social gatherings is limited.

RSVP regrets to my assistant at: .........@gmail.com

The envelopes I made out of thick brown paper I had.  I did mine free-hand, but you can just carefully take apart an envelope you like and trace it on any paper to create your own custom (cheap) envelope of whatever you have on hand.

For party favors, I'm giving out these little headbands.  The small flowers are for the babies, the bigger ones are for their sisters.  The elastics were from the dollar store, and the fabric was out of some IKEA fabric I found for super cheap in the as-is section.

If the spread proves presentable, I will post a few recipes next week.

Wilbert

Benjamin recently finished an "after potty chart."  He has been potty-trained for a long time, but the whole flush-underpants-pants-wash thing does not happen.  He usually runs to the toilet, and when my back is turned, tip-toes outside bare-bunned before I can do anything.  He's going to pre-school on Tuesday, so I thought (before he really frightens the little girls in his class) it was a good time to get this thing under control!  

His reward for finishing his chart was going to be a pair of cowboy boots, but when I saw the prices, I thought a hobby horse would be more economical.  And it was!  I only ended up spending about $3 (for the stick).  The rest was made from odds and ends I already had.  

Wilbert, the DIY Hobby Horse

Meet Wilbert (Benjamin thought of his brilliant name).  He was pretty fun to make.  I couldn't find a tutorial for one I liked, so I just looked at a bunch of pictures and used what I had here to make him.  Along the way, I thought "I should be making a tutorial for this."  However, I'm just not good at taking pictures while doing projects.  In fact, my children are lucky if they get fed and put to bed when I'm working on a project.

My work station looks like this right now.

So, because there's no picture tutorial, I'll tell how I did a few things that took me a little while to figure out.

• The eyes are fabric, pasted on with my glue-gun
• The ears are kakhi pant fabric and burlap. I made a pattern that looked like this (look, I even took a picture of it for you). 

• I sewed them together insideout, flipped them right-side out, then sewed along the bottom. They took the right shape on their own.
• To attach them to the sock, I cut a line on each side of the heel, stuck the bottom of the ears in, and sewed them in inside out.  
• For the hair, I wound some yarn around and around something that gave me the right side of loop, then I sewed it on a long skinny piece of fabric in batches (does that make sense at all?).  Then I cut a long line on the top of the sock, and sewed the whole thing in (again, with the sock inside out, and all the "hair" inside the sock, being careful that the other piece of fabric didn't show.  It also would have worked fine to glue the yarn to the fabric, but sewing seemed easier.

Well, that was probably completely un-helpful without pictures explaining what I meant.  It was a half-day project that was cheap, and turned out fun.  And if Benjamin learned the lessons his chart was supposed to teach him, then it was well worth it!

DIY 3' x 6' Raised Square Foot Garden

A little late in season, I finally completed my first raised bed!  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to make the other two.

I used left over Fence Pickets from our new fence.  They're great to use because they're already pressure treated, and they're only @ $1.64 ea.  I used two for each long side, and one (halved) for each short side, so six total.  I then screwed exterior screws into pine stakes (@ $3.49 for a 12 pack).  The only catch is that it's tough to find 1" screws, so you have to double up on the pine stakes if you don't want to get a little poked while happily tending your beautiful garden.

I screwed the fence pickets just to the stakes, not to each other.  That way they can be easily replaced.  I put the stakes every two feet.  If you are doing it this way, put each side into the ground before screwing the corners together.  It's a lot easier to pound it into the ground that way.

Then you can line the bottom of the bed with cardboard or newspaper.  That prevents the weeds from coming up into your bed.  The plants will die and the cardboard will disintegrate.  If you use newspaper, make sure the ink is not colored.  Black newspaper ink is soy based.

To section off the feet, I just tied twine tied around nails.

Then fill your bed!

Oh--bad news for you if you (like me) thought dirt was cheap.  Filling the bed was way more expensive than building it.  Just remember--it's an investment!  You mostly just have to fill it one time with all the right stuff, and then add compost every year (I'm experimenting with composting now--I'll let you know how it goes!).

I'm doing square foot gardening, so I used "Mel's Mix," which is

• 1/3 vermiculite
• 1/3 peat moss
• 1/3 compost 

Peat moss isn't a renewable resource, so I used coco peat, or beats peat, which does the same thing and works just as well or better, while being completely renewable!

I would recommend looking at craigslist or calling local farms to get compost.  Their organic compost will be lots cheaper and lots better than what you can get at a hardware or garden store.  

Just make sure you water soon enough!
A few of my five color silverbeets didn't make the transition *sniff*
Live and learn.

If building a raised bed seems overwhelming, or you're not ready to do all the landscaping required to figuring this out, it's totally fine to dig up two feet of your grass and just stick some starts in the ground.  It's not too late!  It worked for me last year.  What have you got to lose?

Happy gardening!

ps apricots on goat cheese on crackers are delicious.

No Whey? No Way!

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider

Who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away!

Curds and whey? Though I chanted this rhyme throughout my childhood, I never really knew what those words meant until just a few years ago. If you let fresh milk sit out on the counter for a few days, you'll see it separate into two parts: solid curds and liquid whey. Traditionally, milk was typically consumed cultured, as it soured quickly for lack of refrigeration (it did not spoil, just soured). Since many people don't drink milk raw anymore, it's more likely that you know whey as the liquid that appears atop your yogurt. Ever wonder what that was? Now you know. :)

Though sometimes considered a by-product of cheese-making, this powerhouse protein maintains an impressive list of credentials. To name a few:

• Good source of key minerals and vitamins
• Source of natural antioxidants (perhaps because it promotes glutathione production)
• Cancer prevention
• Vehicle for probiotics and prebiotics
• Great natural immunity builder
• Stimulates insulin release in type-2 diabetics

Whey is handy to have lingering in the real foods kitchen for many reasons:

• Soaking grain overnight (as in these pancakes, this orange cake, these sloppy lentils). Soaking in this way helps predigest the grain and free up nutrients for absorption. When soaking grain, the general rule is to add one tablespoon acid medium, such as whey, to each cup of liquid in the soak. For example, I could soak 1 cup of 9-grain cereal overnight in 2 cups of water and 2 T. whey. In the morning I would add more water and cook. (Some people rinse the grain in between.)
• Lacto-fermenting, as in these zingy ginger carrots, these zippy fermented drinks, this zesty salsa, or this homemade mayonnaise. I might add that you can ferment without whey, though it adds probiotics, acts as an inoculant, and speeds up the process. It has been used this way in some traditional dairying cultures.
• Adding to a smoothie for a probiotic protein boost.
• Here are a whole bunch more ideas! Hope you get as excited as I did reading over them. :)

So now down to business. Whey is so easy to come by, right in your own kitchen! Honestly, the best part about it is the delicious cream cheese you get on the other side of the drip-cloth (I've only ever used raw milk, so I can't speak for the yogurt variety). Here's a little how-to:

Ingredients
Raw milk (could also use buttermilk or piima milk) or high-quality plain yogurt

Preparation
If using yogurt, no preparation necessary. If you are using raw milk, let it sit out on your counter until the milk solids (curds) just start to separate from the yellowish whey (the sooner you catch the separation, the creamier your end cream cheese will be). Depending on the freshness of the milk, this can take anywhere from 1-4 days.

Step-By-Step
1)  Set a strainer in a large bowl, and line with a clean kitchen towel. Pour the separated milk or yogurt over the cloth. From experience, I've learned that cheesecloth is too thin, even quadrupled over itself. Tea towels are perfect, as long as you don't use a red one before it's been thoroughly and repeatedly washed (also learned by experience). ;)

2)  Cover and let sit for several hours. There's the cream cheese on top.

There's the whey beneath.

3) When the dripping has slowed considerably, tie up the towel with the solids inside (no squeezing necessary!), and rig it up so it can continue to drip a while longer. I usually do something tricky, like hang the bag from a long spoon and balance it over a deep pot.

4) When the dripping stops completely, it's done!

The cream cheese will last several weeks in the fridge and the whey several months. I've only had my whey go bad once, and it smelled clearly moldy. When it's fresh, it doesn't smell like much of anything.

"Whey, which contains the milk sugar and most of the minerals of the milk, is an excellent food... and could, with profit to the health, be more often used in this country."

John and Leah Widtsoe

The Word of Wisdom: A Modern Interpretation, 1938

"Whey is such a good helper in your kitchen. It has a lot of minerals. One tablespoon of whey in a little water will help digestion. It is a remedy that will keep your muscles young. It will keep your joints movable and ligaments elastic. When age wants to bend your back, take whey. . . . With stomach ailments, take one tablespoon whey three times daily, this will feed the stomach glands and they will work well again."

Hanna Kroeger

Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen, 1998 

"Using cheese whey as a beverage in human nutrition, especially for therapeutic purposes, can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, in 460 BC, prescribed whey for an assortment of human ailments. In the Middle Ages, whey was recommended by many doctors for varied diseases; and by the mid 19th century, whey cures reached a high point with the establishment of over 400 whey houses in Western Europe. As late as the 1940s, in spas in Central Europe, dyspepsia, uremia, arthritis, gout, liver diseases, anemia and even tuberculosis were treated with the ingestion of up to 1500 grams of whey per day."

V.H. Holsinger

Whey Beverages: A Review, 1974

Sweatshirt Repurpose 3 Ways

 I had a lightweight sweatshirt that got too old to wear.  I'm always looking for ways to re-use things, and ways to save money, so I came up with three quick projects!

I first made the baby skirt using the bottom hem of the sweatshirt, and a bright shoelace from the dollar store.  An elastic would have worked just as easily.  This is a good basic tutorial, using an elastic.  I used my awesome sewing machine (yay, Craigslist!) to make some simple button holes for the shoelaces to come out.

Next I made some PJ pants for my boys to share.  It really shows off their skinny legs :)  I used the sleeves and just sewed them together using a pair of their PJ pants as a guide.  I opted for the other shoelace, again instead of elastic (but I just found some great cheap elastic at Dollar General!).  There are lots of tutorials on turning sleeves into pants. It's a very fast, rewarding project.

And finally, I made a little flower headband for Evelyn with the scraps.  For the headband, I took three pieces about 1" wide, loosely braided them, and sewed the ends together.  There are lots of ways to do the flower, but I basically followed this tutorial, and hot glued it on the headband over the seam.

What's your favorite way to upcycle your used clothing?

Kid's Fine Art

I really love the color in our diningroom:

Behr's Swan Sea (It's brighter than it looks on your screen)

But I needed something big to contrast it in that big space.  I remembered that my friend, Amy of Progressive Pioneer, helped her kids make a big painting of "fine art."  The how-to video was gone, so I emailed her and got the instructions.  If I still lived by her, we would have gone to the craft store together and picked out some really fun paint combination (she has great taste), but as it was, I put it off and put it off for about a year before I finally just got some paint and did it.

Here's the how-to.  Imagine it in your favorite color combination.  (note: sorry, our camera is having issues and it's in the shop right now.  You'll have to forgive the very sub-par pictures. The color is particularly off.)

Tools:

A large canvas

Large paint brushes (the cheap plastic ones give the most texture)

A cheap squeegee (it may not work for it's intended purpose after this, so buy a cheap one!)

Gesso (at any paint or craft store)

Paint of choice (I went to the hardware store (where I'm much more comfortable than a craft store, I'm embarrassed to say), and paid about $2.50 for paint samples and just used those.

Instructions:

1. Put on smocks or painting clothes
2. Have your kids paint on the gesso.

Here's where much of the "artistry" comes in.  Don't make it smooth.  Be generous with the gesso.  Use things with interesting texture (like leaves, a comb, lids, etc) to spread it around.



Leaving her mark

3. Let it dry.
4. Squeegee on the background color.  This bring out all the texture you created with the gesso.

5. Let it dry.
6. Paint on the foreground color.

I kind of regret how long I let the boys paint.  They were super fast!  I wanted it mostly to be a yellow painting, but it's mostly a red painting (yes, that is red, believe it or not).

6. Let it dry
7. If desired, paint an accent color.  We chose to splat ours:

I just had the boys dip their fingers in the paint (we used our wall color--is that cheating? :)), and flick and shake it onto the painting.

Then we needed something for the other wall, so we made three more :)

Now, we have something to fill the wall space, and best of all, the kids made it!  It's a fun bright piece of art that's also a fun memory.  If you do some "fine art" with your kids, let me know!  I'd love to see it.