Smelly cabbage aka Sauerkraut

On August 25, 2013August 25, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn Gardening, Recipes3 Comments

Fresh veggies from the garden to make into Kraut

This one of the few things it seems like I have never made. So since i had some cauliflower that ended up being purple cabbage I am going to trade some cheese to my sis for the use of her Crock and some help making the kraut. The main things you need for Sauerkraut is cabbage, salt and a place to let it ferment. You can use a normal crock or just a mason jar. Homemade kraut taste a lot different then store-bought (which is true of almost every thing home-made).

I got this recipe from an old Mother earth news article but I am also adding a head of garlic to it.

Simple Sauerkraut:

2 large heads of cabbage (about 5 pounds)
2 to 3 tbsp noniodized salt

Grate 1 cabbage and place in a crock or plastic bucket. Sprinkle half the salt over the cabbage. Grate the second cabbage, then add it to the crock along with the rest of the salt. Crush the mixture with your hands until liquid comes out of the cabbage freely. Place a plate on top of the cabbage, then a weight on top of the plate. Cover the container and check after 2 days. Scoop the scum off the top, repack and check every 3 days. After 2 weeks, sample the kraut to see if it tastes ready to eat. The flavor will continue to mature for the next several weeks. Canning or refrigerating the sauerkraut will extend its shelf life. Yields about 2 quarts.

salted, shredded, and spiced in the crock. Now the waiting begins

Varying the Ingredients:

As a food preservation technique, fermentation is not an exact science — unlike canning, which requires specific techniques for safety reasons. The proportions in these sauerkraut recipes can be adjusted to taste, including the amount of salt. Salt is a preservative, so using more of it creates a crunchier, longer-lasting sauerkraut. Less salt produces a softer sauerkraut that may not keep as long. Many recipes call for 3 tablespoons salt for every 5 pounds of cabbage, but this can be reduced. No-salt sauerkraut is theoretically possible, but not recommended.

Garden as the summer heat hits

On July 13, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn Gardening1 Comment

As we hit mid July and the heat in the Willamette valley starts to go up we look at my little garden. Some has done surprisingly well for how early it is still. The corn is mammoth for how early it is. I always remember my Grandfather saying that knee high by the 4th of July was the goal. Mine was 6 feet tall by then. The only thing that is not doing well is my cannary melon. It is barely growning. But it looks nice and healthy just very small.

Pole bean pyramid. Great way for large amounts of beans in a small area

Brandywine tomatoes are getting bigger slowly. Lots of them growing

Banana peppers looking good. large enough for a stir fry now

Mulch growing potatoes look great. already big enough to start harvesting for dinner

Yellow pom pom dahalia — Yellow pom-pom dahlia

One of Staci's purple coneflowers — One of Staci’s purple coneflower

My freakshly big corn. Some are almost 12 feet tall. Last year they were maybe 8 feet tall at the most. — My freakishly big corn. Some are almost 12 feet tall. Last year they were maybe 8 feet tall at the most.

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

On May 25, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn GardeningLeave a comment

Sage is one of those great multi purpose herbs. My favorite use is to add it to breakfast sausage. There are multiple cultivars of sage that you can get from any garden center. Lemon sage, mint sage, ect. Way to many varieties to list. But which ever variety you pick you will find that they are very easy to grow. Sage is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the family Lamiaceae and is native to the Mediterranean region, though it has naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in modern times as an ornamental garden plant. The common name “sage” is also used for a number of related and unrelated species.

My single sage plant has grown huge in the last year.

Sage is an easy herb to grow, putting up with conditions far from optimum. However, the closer you can imitate its native habitat, the happier it will be. Ideal conditions are full sun, good drainage, a soil pH of 5 to 8, and moderate fertility. You don’t want to plant it in a heavy clay soil. The lack of drainage will water log the roots and tend to kill the plant. Mine is in a raised bed so it almost drains to well and tends to get very dry during summer months. Luckily it loves that and grows and grows and grows.

Now some of you may be wondering what you can do with sage. Generally, it is the plain narrow-leafed varieties and the non-flowering broad-leafed varieties of sage that are used as cooking herbs. It is a common condiment for Mediterranean dishes, specifically Italian foods. It is generally used in marinades for meat, fish, pork sausage, lamb and even vegetables like peas, eggplants, lima beans and carrots. It is the perfect seasoning for poultry. Interestingly enough, sage is used in the preparation of English Sage Derby cheese and other soft cheeses. It is also used as a flavoring in certain biscuits, scones, breads and other baked foods. I should try to make a Sage Derby style cheese one of these days.

Sage herb can be used both internally and externally to counteract various health problems in humans. It curbs excessive sweating, treats depression, nervous anxiety and liver disorders and is also a great cure for several skin conditions. It is also used for treating painful jellyfish stings and spider bites. Sage herb is the perfect antiseptic wash for dirty wounds and forms a part of most concoctions that treat persistent and recurrent coughs (adding it to horehound tea works best for me). The mixture of sage, white vinegar and water forms a good astringent for oily skin. It is also one of the best herbal remedies for indigestion.

Sage is known to contain natural estrogens, and hence, is used in most homeopathic medicines that improve circulation and treat menopausal problems. It is also used to relieve suppressed menstruation problems in women, as well as in the regulation of abnormal flow. Sage acts as a central nervous system stimulant and is also used in the treatment of varicose veins. This herb is also used in gargling solutions used to ease laryngitis and tonsillitis. The July 2003 issue of the ‘Pharmacological Biochemical Behavior’ claims that sage has the power to improve memory. Sage is an all-in-one herb. It is also an antifungal antiseptic. This estrogenic agent works miracles in women. It is also a hypoglycemic astringent and is a good antispasmodic agent. Sage is one of those herbs that tastes great and is very good for you.

Spring tomato planting

On May 6, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn Gardening3 Comments

One of the favorites of most backyard gardeners is the wonderful tomato. There are so many things that you can make with tomatoes. Tomato sauce, salsa, tomato juice, dehydrated tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, and many more. And we can’t forget my favorite use! As an ingredient in my tomato-basil feta. Or as someone at work call’s it “pizza cheese goodness”

two of my tomato starts at the base of wire cages that i made into a fence instead of a square.

This year for growing my tomatoes I am trying a method that I have seen my father use year after year. He never uses cages or fancy holders to stake up his plants. All he does is stake up a 15 foot piece of old wire fencing and plant his tomatoes every 18 inches or so along the bottom edge. He then ties them up to the fence as they grow. This keeps them off the ground and allows for the tomatoes to grow sideways along the fence. As lower shoots on the plant grow they are cut off so that all the plant energy goes to putting on fruit instead of growing lots of leaves.

As an added boost to my plants I also added one teaspoon of epsom salt to the soil at planting time. Every time I have added it I get a huge boost to the total output of the plant. This years planting is less than I have planted some years. Four San Marzano tomatoes (paste tomatoes for sauce), two Brandywine tomatoes, one early girl tomato, and a multi colored cherry tomato that my sister bought me seeds for at Christmas. The cherry tomato is an heirloom variety so if it tastes good I will save some seeds for it for next year. For those of you on a budget it is really a saver to grow veggies from seeds. A couple of dollors for a pack of seeds instead of the same price for a single plant.

tips for growing tomatoes:

Bury tomato plants deeper than they come in the pot, all the way up to a few top leaves. Tomatoes are able to develop roots all along their stems. You can either dig a deeper hole or simply dig a shallow tunnel and lay the plant sideways. It will straighten up and grow toward the sun. Be careful not to drive your pole or cage into the stem.
Mulch after the ground has had a chance to warm up. Mulching does conserve water and prevents the soil and soil borne diseases from splashing up on the plants, but if you put it down too early it will also shade and therefore cool the soil.
Pinch and remove suckers that develop in the crotch joint of two branches. They won’t bear fruit and will take energy away from the rest of the plant. But go easy on pruning the rest of the plant. You can thin leaves to allow the sun to reach the ripening fruit, but it’s the leaves that are photosynthesizing and creating the sugars that give flavor to your tomatoes.
Water deeply and regularly while the plants are developing. Irregular watering, (missing a week and trying to make up for it), leads to blossom end rot and cracking. This is very important if you have Roma type tomatoes!!!! Once the fruit begins to ripen, lessening the water will coax the plant into concentrating its sugars. Don’t withhold water so much that the plants wilt and become stressed or they will drop their blossoms and possibly their fruit.
Determinate type tomatoes tend to set and ripen their fruit all at one time, (Roma types) making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make sauce. You can get indeterminate type tomatoes (early girl, Willamette, cherry tomatoes) to set fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer.
Plant tomatoes where they will receive at least 10 hours of direct sunlight. The more they get the better they will produce.
Do not fertilize with a high nitrogen type fertilizer. It will cause lots of leaf growth but very few tomatoes. A good compost will provide most of what the plant needs for the growing season.

Building a raised bed

On March 9, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn GardeningLeave a comment

Since it is such a nice warm spring day we decided to build a raised bed to put in two more blueberry plants and to plant all of the spring bulbs that Katy “had to” have from the local garden center (Love Jerry’s!). This is a nice simple design for a quick raised bed, and very cheap to build

Materials:

8 red tone fir (I don’t know what else to call them i just know the red coloring is non-toxic) total cost $20
1/2 yard of dirt of choice (planting mix for me) total cost $10
plants (yes I know that is kinda obvious)

For this one we went with making a nice square raised bed. The fir boards are 8 feet long and 3 inches high. The first thing that we will do is cut them in half to give us 16 boards that are 4 foot in length. Then we will interlace them at the corners to keep them together. This will create a nice 4×4 bed that is just over a foot tall. This is the perfect depth for bulbs and shallow rooted plants. We are putting the box around a hole in the yard that a rotting stump has created. I was getting tired of tripping in it.

Katy and the boards. She is sitting in a hole in the yard that a rotting stump has made

When you interlace the corners of the boards like this it keeps them from coming apart. The weight of the dirt in the box pushes outward causeing the corners to bind and prevents the box from coming apart. The only thing you need to do is screw or nail the top layer of boards down and your box is not going to shift at all. Even with out doing that the boards only come apart on top if a 6-year-old decides to balance on them.

My little helper sitting in her garden box

Dirt all in place and the bulbs and blueberry's planted — Dirt all in place and the bulbs and blueberry’s planted

And the bed is complete for around $30 in materials. These are great beds to make if you want to get something planted quickly. Total time to get the boards cut, and stacked and filled with dirt was only about 20 minutes. Normally I can do it in 10 minutes. Just stack all the boards together and measure to the middle than chain saw through the stack. But the saw wouldn’t stay started. I am thinking I need to tune it up a bit. That will be a project for another day. Time to mow and play in the sun some more

Raspberry, Strawberry and Blueberries in raised beds

On March 3, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn Gardening1 Comment

I am very much a fan of raised beds for growing berries. Especially Raspberries which tend to be evil spreaders if you are not careful. Raised beds are easy to take care of, and much easier to weed if you put some thought into design and layout. Your bed can be any length you would like, but only make the width double of what you can reach from the side of the bed. If you make it too wide you can’t reach into it for weed pulling without stepping in to it. Using raised beds will also allow you to make the soil best for whatever type of plant you intend to put in them. For example the blueberries in one bed like a more acidic soil compared to the standard soil that raspberries like. My berry beds are 3 foot by 8 foot. Not the longest but it is enough to give us enough different berries between the three types of berries to keep us in berries most of the year. This year I am going to add a water system to the beds so they keep a lot more moist then they did last year when they only got water while I watered the year.

We will start with the Raspberry bed layout. When we first put it in we only planted four plants. Two ever bearing red and two ever bearing yellows. According to Katy the red ones are hers and the yellow ones are mine. As with any type of cane berry you need to contain them or they will spread faster than you can contain them. Raised beds help with that, but unless you line the entire thing with plastic you will still have the roots going underneath and coming up in the surrounding area. All varieties of raspberries should have some type of support to keep them from falling over. Last year when we started the berries we didn’t add the supports and the canes bowed down almost to the point of touching the ground. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but they were almost covering the strawberry bed. After cleaning out the old dead canes i added a 6 inch mulch layer of dead leaves. Raspberries require a lot of water so when you put them in raised beds you need to do everything you can to conserve soil moisture. A light amount of composted manure, and some mulch is all that raspberries require every year.

Bed all ready for spring. Old canes all trimmed and leaf mulch added.

On to the strawberry bed! Other then add a layer of leaves to the bed I had not done anything to it since I had made it. Strawberries are one of those berries that you do not want to add any type of fertilizer to during the growing season. If you do the plants tend to leaf out and stop producing berries (depending on the type.) I wish I had written down what variety of strawberry I had planted in the bed. I have never seen any variety produce as many as this one does. It is a day neutral variety that produces berries from spring until the first frost. Last year we had over 3 gallons from our little raised bed. I am going to add a nice layer of composted manure to it to give it a spring boost of growth. Then hopefully a large crop in early summer. There were a lot of grass and weeds to remove so it looks a little beat up at the moment. But several of the plants are starting to leaf out.

All weeded and ready to add compost to. Several plants are starting to send up shoots.

And the final bed to get ready is the Blueberry bed. The berry plants are still small but hopefully they will grow well this year. One thing that blueberries like is acidic soil. In Oregon the many months of rain tend to keep the soil in raised beds from staying acidic. There are several things you can do to increase the acidity of the soil. My main one is to pour the whey from my cheese making on to them which adds B vitamins and a small increase in acidity to the soil. A quick way to increase the acidity of your soil is to add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a gallon of water and use that to increase the level. Be careful or it is easy to overshoot where you want the soil to be at and will end up killing the plants. Another way is to add a little sulfur to the soil. You can get it at most garden centers with instructions on the container on how much to add and how often. I hope to get a gallon at least from the 4 plants that we have this year. None of them are over two feet in height so it will be a stretch if we end up with that much.

Blueberries just starting to bud a little. The tulips are coming up in between the plants. We still have some weeding to do on this bed

Winter garden fun in the Willamette valley

On February 24, 2013 By Sasquatch ShaneIn GardeningLeave a comment

Winter in the Valley is unlike any other place for the type of weather that will hit you. You can go from sunny to hail to sun and over to rain all in a single hour. Getting your garden ready this time of year involves a lot of mud and slugs. Since this is one of the few sunny weekend days that we have had it is perfect to start spreading out the giant pile of leaves that I have. One of the perks of living in Eugene is that during the fall when the city is cleaning the leaves off the street is that they will be more than happy to drop off a load or two of leaves for free. Since I didn’t know how far a load of leaves would cover I opted for only a single load this year. Little did I know that a load is 4.5 yards of leaves. I think this one load will be more than plenty for what I would like to cover. The area that I am covering is a strip 10’x50′ that I had planted with a variety of Indian corn called Abenaki corn. It grew very well in the soil but it was easy to tell that the soil was lacking in nutrients and organics. The corn is going to be moved to the back garden that gets more sunlight and heat.

This year I am rotating the corn out and planting potatoes on one end and tomatoes and peppers on the other. A fence shades one end of it in the afternoon so that side will be perfect for potatoes. One thing that most of the gardeners in my family have noticed is that if you add any type of manure to soil and then plant potatoes you get scabby potatoes. Hopefully adding the leaves will prevent that problem and add more than enough nutrients to the soil. I try to use no chemicals on my plants and do everything as natural as possible. My daughter is having a blast as we dig through the pile finding all the different critters that have already made it their home. So far we have found two types of earthworm, slugs, ants, beetles mushrooms, and a lone centipede. There are many more in there that we have missed most likely.

The pile plus the little bit I was able to spread out before I hurt my back

About half the pile spread out. With Katy hiding behind the wheelbarrow

I am hoping that the 6 inch thick layer of leaves will help kill off all the grass and weeds below. I really don’t want to have to spray weed killer to get rid of them. I might try putting a couple of layers of newspaper down then add more compost on top. I have had that work great in flower beds to keep control of the weeds. Not sure if I want to do it large-scale. That is a lot of work to do by myself. A six-year-old and pregnant wife don’t make for the best helpers.