Hello All!

 I've been busy as a bee making all the plans for my garden this summer.

I am not a planner.  planning makes my head hurt, and in general I prefer to act and behave spontaneously, but effective gardening does require a bit more consistency than this scatter-brained human is usually willing to put forth.  This is why, even though I enjoy being out in the dirt and watching the plants grow, I cannot in truth say that i have a green thumb.

by trade, I am much more of a forager than a a gardener.  foraging is much more opportunistic, and jives better with my capricious nature; you go out into the woods, or fields, and see what you can find.  if you find something tasty, Hooray!  if not, keep looking.  The level of personal investment in foraging is low, but it is labor intensive, since everything grows without any input from you, but commuting to a fruitful patch of nature and then walking for hours to find a bellyful of leaves and roots is tiresome.

Gardening is tiresome up front, but hard work is rewarded justly with bountiful harvests and very cheap (but not technically free!) meals.

My intention is to plan things to the point that I don't have to do quite so much labor to keep everything green and growing in my little garden plot.

at first I was thinking of creating a "raised bed" from old 5 gallon buckets.  Each plant would have its own little patch of soil and the buckets would be stacked together grid-wise to create a facsimile of a raised bed without actually having to build anything.

Food-grade plastic 5 gallon buckets can be gotten from places like restaurants and bakeries who get certain ingredients delivered in them only to be tossed when the ingredient is used up (although this is not always the case and i will expand upon this in a later post).

Contrary to what the internet would have you believe getting 5 gallon buckets en masse is not as easy as it sounds.  Sure you get a few now and again if you catch the baker on the right time on the right day, but I simply wasn't finding the quantity that i needed.  So i began to look for alternate methods

while sniffing around on youtube, i found some people using reusable shopping bags from walmart as a grow bag.  the bags not only wick up water, but also help keep the soil aerated which prevents the plants from becoming rootbound and generally healthier.  check it out! 

the only problem is that while these bags are inexpensive, they still cost money, which is not good.  so i hung my head and continued to sulk about my lack of either grow bags or buckets until i came across this amazing video:

now granted, laundry baskets and landscaping cloth costs money too, but I used to work at a hotel and I used to sneak home discarded linens all the time because of all the project purposes they could be used for. 
of course while i was working at a hotel, i never had time to actually do any projects because all i did was work and sleep (and I barely got any sleep), which is not good for the human. 
so my stash of old discarded linens have been sitting around for years collecting dust and now I think i can do something similar but line the baskets in a double layer of old sheets to achieve the same effect!

and what's better, is that i also have dozens of discarded pillowcases  which i could use to make something very similar to the grow bags in larry hall's videos out of something that is completely free and theoretically just as easy to set up. my only concern, is that the bags might not be sturdy enough on their own and might need some kind of internal, or external support to keep them upright, so i will have to play around with the concept between now and planting season. 

As always, thanks for reading :)

Found Object Friday

I never did buy those pants

Do I dare make another day-of-the-week recurring topic?  Possibly. This shouldn't be too hard provided I manage to find something cool that week (which is very likely) and also manage to remember to write about that cool thing (which is less likely).  At any rate, it will help to keep this blog anchored and consistent, and  after all, finding cool stuff is the intended purpose of this blog isn't it?

I did not find this cool object this week.  I found it almost 2 weeks ago, but it has launched me into a new field of research that I've been contemplating, but neglecting getting into......Aquaponics!

while on a thrift store foray for a new pair of pants, i stumbled upon a complete aquarium set for only $20.  10 gallon Tank, hood, gravel, working lights, filter and aerator and even a cabinet!

unfortunately, fish husbandry is not my strong suit.  I have never had pet fish before, with the exception of Saskatoona

poor saskatoona :(

Saskatoona was a cute little goldfish that was given to me as a high-school graduation present.  I had never taken care of a fish before and as hard as i tried with my minimal knowledge, the poor little guy only lasted about 2 weeks and out of guilt I have never tried keeping a pet fish since.

Anyway, Ive been doing my research about fishkeeping and I'm a lot more confident.
Im not running down to the pet store yet, for now I'm just playing around with the pumps and filters and learning the equipment, while reviewing different aquaponic set ups, what plant species/fish species to stock the system with and all that good stuff. I'm also contemplating growing spirulina.

 

I really like this miniponics set up, so i think im going to build something like this (possibly several so i can separate fish if i need to) and then i can practice my aquaponics skills on this small scale before building a larger set-up, possible next year.   I'm currently weighing my options between Bettas, Paradisefish or African Dwarf Frogs, all of which are adorable easy keepers that tolerate small tanks.  the downside is none of those critters produce much manure, ie not enough fertilizer for the plant.  but at this point i'm more concerned about not killing fish/frogs than i am killing plants.   Once i feel confident in my aquaponics skills, im thinking about raising crayfish in the fish tanks and growing a year round supply of greens indoors.  I can't wait! 

 

As always, thanks for reading :)

Potatoes are not a Recyclable

Hello all!

its been a long time since I last posted anything, and for that i apologize.  I have several forthcoming posts in my drafts, but in the meantime I figured I'd share this:

while out on trash night looking for useful things to re-purpose in my various garden projects, I discovered a bag of potatoes....in a recycling bin.  granted they have eyes, but they are perfectly firm and edible potatoes and really have no business being discarded, but since I am a living example of "one man's trash is another man's treasure"  I gladly accepted them.

I will probably use these as seed potatoes for my garden this year.  bag weighs a hair under 3.5 pounds and since they are russets I can expect to harvest around 70 pounds, provided this summer doesn't get too hot, and since we are having such a mild winter, I feel it will.

Thank you for reading :)

Trail Cam Tuesday

For a change of pace, i set my trail camera to video, and it was a good decision!  the rational was that instead of capturing one angle of blurry, out of focus animals i could choose from multiple frames, take screen captures, make gifs, or even post whole videos of interesting interactions.

this week, my camera was graced by a porcupine, and two young bucks; a proud, but modestly antlered 5-point and a nervous young spiker.  screencaps have been provided below, though i shall include full-video links to all the encounters at the bottom of the post.

the nervous spiker

if you are concerned about the well-being of these deer, do know that in the state i live, bucks must have at least 6 points to be legally taken, so these youngsters are for now safe from the glances of hunters.  but also i feel it must be mentioned that by and large, hunting is far more humane than raising animals for meat on farms, and these animals will have lived full lives, filled with warm summer days, nectar flavored flowers and rich autumn acorns.  Should the day come that these noble beasts end up on a hunter's table, they will have had a life brimming with experiences most of their domesticated brethren have never known.  this blog is 100% pro subsistence hunting, though definitely not anti-agriculture, and not all farmed animals live their life penned up either. 

the proud 5-point

 so withut further ado, i will supply links to the videos, although the porcupine strayed very close to the camera and he is an over-exposed mess of spines.

                           

Adventures in Jarrahdale Butchery

he hath fought valiantly and well

As i mentioned in my earlier entry, Scavenging for Squash there are some huge  differences between carving pumpkins aka Jack-o-lantern varieties and eating pumpkins.   Carving pumpkins have been bred to be large in size, have hollow insides with thin, watery walls of flesh and soft skins, making them simple for the average person to hack away at into a variety of festive designs.  Eating pumpkins on the other hand, have hard rinds, and thick walls of flesh, a delicious aroma reminiscent of melon and lots of tightly packed seeds.  At the end of the fall season, both carving pumpkins and edible heirloom pumpkins, such Jarrahdales, are readily available fresh and ready to eat at suburban curbs with the rest of society's so-called trash. 

The noble jarrahdale is a difficult beast, so be sure to sharpen your knife well, and keep a steady hand while dispatching this fellow.  your patience will be rewarded and once you have at least cut him in half, the rest of it gets progressively easier.  I say  again, good knife skills are a must in this venture.  unless you don't mind the knife slipping and cutting yourself.  If you haven't skill with a blade, you will learn it while parrying with this foe

roasted jarrahdale w/ onions and cranberries

once you have cut and peeled this behemoth into bite-sized pieces, i recommend putting it in a roasting pan with oil, salt, black pepper, red pepper, turmeric, thyme and lots of garlic.  add some aromatic vegetables to the party, in this case i went with quartered onions and a few handfuls of raw cranberries to complement the natural sweetness of pumpkin.  roast this melange until the the vegetables have caramelized.  the leftovers of this dish (and there will be lots of leftovers) can be frozen used at a later day to make a fine bisque, especially with venison stock, but that, dear reader is for another entry. 

jarrahdale pie fresh from the oven

Of course only two thirds of the pumpkin was actually used to make a huge tray of a roasted vegetable dinner.  the other third was made into a dessert course.  take again, peeled chunks of jarrahdale, or any eating pumpkin and boil them until tender.  i added a few cinnamon sticks and a dash each of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg to the cooking water to infuse the pumpkin with more flavor.  Once it is fork-tender, remove the pumpkin from the water and mash it until smooth, add sugar and more spices until it tastes right.  A splash of cream and one egg added to the mixture will give you a pumpkin custard ready to be made into pie.  make a crust of your choosing, for simplicity's sake, i made a cracker crust, but pie puritans would probably make a traditional crust. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the center and then let cool. 

jarrahdale slice, ready for eating

Vanilla would have been a good additive to this, but i couldn't find my bottle of it.  even without vanilla this was still a pumpkin pie to be reckoned with and took very little time to make.  in little more time than it took to open a can of pumpkin i had made pumpkin pie not only from scratch, but a perfectly edible gourd which i saved from a fate in a landfill.  I think what i liked most about this variety is the bright color it keeps, even after cooking, which i think makes it look just as appetizing as it tastes. 

So if there is any moral to be found in the lines of this entry it is that there is free, fresh and good food to be found even in the trash.  i hope people will become wise enough not to discard these noble gourds, and make meals of them instead.  and if they are still not convinced, then they can give their unwanted "ornamental" pumpkins to me so that i may never go hungry.

Thank you for reading :)

Day at the Beach

today's intact bottleneck

Collecting Beach Glass is one of my favorite hobbies, and late autumn is one of the best times to find it.  The rare calm days that punctuate November's status quo of choppy riotous waters are oft to reveal marvelous treasures.  In part this is because the weather conditions dredge more of it up, but the real reason is because no sane person wants to get cold and wet and slapped by wind at the beach in late fall! Of course, that means there's simply more for the taking for those of us occupying the lunatic fringe.

of course, not every day is a  lucky one.  there are a number of productive beaches near where i live; rocky, smelly, full of trash and dead fish.  and on occasion i leave with pockets full of pinks and yellows and all manner of rare colors.  Today, that did not happen.

i found some nice things, no doubt, but not quite what i was hoping to find.  the first treasure of note was the intact top of a bottle, presumably from hot sauce judging by the small opening.  intact bottlenecks are a relative rarity, so even in a common color such as clear glass, they are a treat to come across.  Not long after, i discovered an opaque, two-tone blue glass bead, which i for sure thought was plastic but picked up anyway.  the bead was heavy for its size, and had a gritty feel, more akin to polished glass with a definite glassy "plink" when dropped on a hard surface.  I'm in love with

two-tone opaque glass bead

the vintage character of the bead and it looks slightly art deco.  im not sure if i want to turn it into a jewelry piece, or keep it in my jar of rare pieces as one of the trophies of my collection.  either way im very glad i found it!


The rest of todays haul was mostly common colors, though i did find two pieces of clear pattern glass, 3 pieces of UV glass, 1 piece of gray glass, and an unusual aqua-gray piece, much darker than is typical for aqua glass.  it was also a good day for cobalt blue and lime green, and found several pieces in both of those colors, though they are not as rare as the reds and yellows which I covet.

Pattern glass, and gray and aqua-gray

at any rate, i was at least the first person to the beach this morning.  so i got first pick of what washed ashore last night.  as i was finishing up i got the chance to talk to some fellow collectors, informed them that there wasn't much today and we got to boast about our past finds.  one older woman i talked to informed me of a beautiful piece of dark purple she found at the location during the Super Moon earlier this month.  we wished each other luck and went our own separate ways. 


once i got home and emptied my pockets, the first thing i do is check my collection under a black light, and if you dont check your finds either you are really missing out on some rare treats.   years ago, uranium was used in the manufacture of glassware and ceramics.  before it was weaponized, and before people even knew what radioactivity was,  uranium was valued as a pigment, yielding a vibrant color in shades of yellow and green.  in years past, glass of this sort would have been proudly displayed in a window, since the color of the glass seems to intensify in sunlight.  This effect is the

Today's Limes and Cobalts

result of the pigment reacting to the light, and is not actually caused by radiation (many substances fluoresce under black light, and very few of them give off radiation).    Speaking of radiation, this stuff is pretty safe to handle.  The amount of uranium actually used to create a piece of this glass is so minimal that even an intact piece of green depression glass wont even register on a Geiger counter and the exposure you would receive from these little shards is nothing to worry about when you consider the background radiation we are exposed to daily, which enters earth from space, and comes up from the ancient rocks beneath our feet. 

Today's UV glass under black light

UV glass is highly collectible, both in its intact and surf-ravaged forms, and looks simply amazing displayed under a blacklight, or stored in a jar on a windowsill to enjoy its much more subtle display.  If you would like to find such glass, the most common color is a pale minty green, though over the years ive found UV reactive pieces in red, pale yellow, pale blue and opaque white milk glass.  if you have jars of beach glass from years past lying around, i encourage you to check your collection and see if you have any UV you didnt know about!

Thank you for reading :)

Scavenging for Squash

one of my favorite things to find this time of year is discarded pumpkins.  not all the pumpkins people buy end up getting carved, many an ornamental pumpkin is purchased simply to sit there and look pretty, only to be tossed once the fall holiday season ends and the winter season begins.

Jarrahdale and a little Lumina

 through the whole month of november its very easy to find perfectly good gourds left at the curb with the rest of the yard waste (which of course is not waste, but excellent compost waiting to be!) and so every trash night i go out hunting for them. Here's what i found yesterday.

the stars of last nights garbage harvest are the two Jarrahdale pumpkins, which have the unique gray-green flesh and a superb eating pumpkin. there was also a Lumina Pumpkin (the small white one) and two normal Jack-O-Lantern varieties.   the larger orange colored pumpkin is a cultivar im unsure of.  it looks like a Boer pumpkin, but the wrong color. so perhaps its some kind of hybrid, perhaps with a Cinderella pumpkin (yes that is the actual name of the variety)

Jarrahdale, mystery cultivar, and a teeny tiny baby one

being car-free for the most part, bringing these prizes home is an extra big challenge.  Have you ever transported pumpkins on a bike?  I have, and last night i brought home 37.5 pounds of free food home.  cargo trailer not included.

it was a lot more secure than it looks

It took two trips to get everything home;  at first i just went with the initial Jarrahdale and Lumina in my backpack, dropped them off at home and continued my rounds with heavy artillery.

i strapped the mystery cultivar to my rear-rack since it was the flattest and the deep grooves allowed my bungee cords to get a good hold and keep it still.  Although i still went very carefully over bumps and even dismounted to walk the bike when going up and down hills.  Better safe than sorry,  i wasnt feeling like scraping pumpkin guts up off the sidewalk that evening.

the second jarrahdale went into my backpack and the two [uncarved] Jack-o-lanterns went in a cloth shopping bag, cleverly rigged so it wouldn't flop all over the place while biking.  the strap of the bag went over my shoulder and at the base of handle straps i fixed another bunge cord and wrapped it under my other arm and then hooked it to the other strap.  not the most comfortable way to transport heavy cargo, but it worked!  the bungee cord was tight and made my arms feel a little numb, but nothing i couldn't bear with.  also the large pumpkins in the bag kep flopping in front of my leg which made pedalling difficult but not impossible.  point is, I did it!

so "why" is probably the question forming in all of your minds, dear reader and the answer is because i hate to see anything wasted.  Pumpkins, squash, melons and pretty much all cucurbitacea are heavy feeders, and require massive amounts of water and fertilizer to grow their gargantuan fruits

my whole collection of rescued pumpkins

why should this just go in the trash when its perfectly edible?  Jack-o-lantern varieties for sure, do not taste good.  they have been selectively bred to favor a large overall size and thin skins to make them easier to carve.  the flesh of these pumpkins are watery and insipid, but by no means inedible; the seeds at any rate, are an excellent snack.  However many of the 'ornamental' pumpkins are heirloom varieties bred for eating, and have no business in the trash

one of the Jarrahdales i reclaimed weighed 9.75 pounds, and though difficult to carve, yielded a sweet and firm flesh, with a summery aroma and a light buttery taste.  and that dear reader, shall be the subject of my subsequent entries:  how to deal with carving cooking an eating a nearly 10 pound vegetable

thank you for reading :)