The Great Microscope Experiment

For some reason that I’m sure will be made clear to me, I ordered myself a microscope from a company in California named AMScope. My reason for this bit of insanity was my desire to take a close look at some of the soil microbes in my garden. If the scope works out, to plan to buy a digital camera attachment so I can take pictures and then post them on this blog. What I did not count on, however, was all the extra stuff I needed to buy to make that happen.

It became apparent to me, after browsing a book on microscope technique, that I would have to order special glass slides called ‘well slides’ in addition to stains, cover glasses and eye droppers in order to proceed. I plan to do this as soon as my scope arrives which should be this coming Friday via UPS.  

Meatload Sandwiches are cool!

This time of year, while I have extra green peppers and onions left over, I often will make meatloaf. Sure, it’s still hot outside, but there’s nothing wrong with a cold meatloaf sandwich or two is there? Here’s a simple and quick recipe that is out of this world:

Ingredients:

1.5 lb ground beef
1 small white onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
6 oz. pkg Stove top stuffing
1 can of tomato soup
¼ cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1tsp thyme
¼ tsp chili powder
2 tblsp ketchup
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Set the oven to 350 degrees. In a small pan add the soup, chili powder, milk and ketchup. Mix thoroughly. Grab a mixing bowl, add the meat, chopped onion, peppers, thyme, beaten egg and a little salt and pepper. Add one half the tomato mix and knead with your hand to form a well mixed loaf.

Press into 8x4-inch loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Place this into the oven for about 55 minutes. Check to see if done and remove. Place on a plate and add the rest of the tomato mix after first heating this on the stove. Allow to cool and serve.

The Frugal Gardener. Hey! Wait a minute, that’s me!

Some end of the season thoughts from a gardener who has most likely lost what little mind he had.

If there is one thing that many years of gardening has taught me, it’s that you can spend a boatload of money and get small results. I’ve had occasion to hold up a tomato and realized that in order to produce it, I’d spent something like ten dollars in the process. (That included the labor (hours and hours), bags of soil purchased at a garden center, seeds ordered from Burpee, water and all the other stuff that had to be done to raise this one little beauty). It dawned on me that there was more to growing vegetables economically than first met my eye! Years later, I’m still learning something new every day!

My quintessential garden crop

My first lesson learned was the year I tried to plant everything under the sun (sixty dollars worth of seed from Burpee). I even had seed packets for vegetables I didn’t even like (okra comes to mind). I think I had enough seed to supply everyone on the block. I’ll admit to liking the pretty pictures in the catalogs. (Have you ever looked at a patty pan squash and not just loved it to death)? Have you ever eaten one?

So nowadays, I’ve paired down my growing efforts to be only those crops I knew I liked (and that I could grow). This list has gotten shorter over time:

Radishes – Cherry Belle. Used mostly in the spring as a marker crop.
Romaine – Little Caesar. A lettuce that is also nutritious! Spring and fall only,
Potatoes – Nutrient dense and a no-brainer to grow. Buy from local sources.
Tomatoes – Brandywine. Cause they taste so darn good!
Green beans – Kentucky Wonder is my pick for beans every year.
Cucumbers – A heirloom called Straight Eight!
Green peppers – California Wonder. Peppers rule!

Now, while there are other crops I will also sow like Nasturtiums and Basil, these are the ones I definitely plant every year. All of em, with the exception of the radish (Cherry Belle), romaine (Little Caesar) and the potatoes were purchased only once and then grown the next season from the seed I saved.


Obtaining those first seeds

While I’m on the subject, you don’t always have to go out and spend money on seed if you have generous friend(s) with similar interests. Begging works for me. Or, you can all get together in late winter and order in a coop fashion. One packet of romaine seed may contain over 300 seeds and if you start them indoors you’ll have plenty to share! Other seed can be saved each year to the point where you can share them back with your same friends.

Heirloom seeds

In case you might not know the difference, heirloom seed will always produce the exact same plant while a hybrid will most likely not. The reason many gardeners buy hybrids in the first place is due to the fact that they have been specially bred to resist certain diseases that may be common to your locale. However, there are proven ways to avoid these problems which just a little additional reading can cure. One book that really helped me out was titled ‘Seed Starting’ by Nancy Bubel. With seed packets costing in the three dollar range, it really pays to just save some seed and use it for next year. It’s your call.

Keeping your soil healthy

My first garden efforts not only included horrendous amounts of money spent on seed, but also on ‘soil amendments’. Stuff like vermiculite, peat moss, blood meal, phosphate and even sand. Since I had started with a poor soil (a silty clay loam from the bottom of a local river - yuk), I felt the need to try and improve it. (But, you’d be amazed at how many bags of compost and sand and vermiculite can disappear in a small raised bed). And all that money! Eventually, I found something that was worked just as well and which didn’t cost anything extra! Table scraps. Once, I began trench composting, I found I really did not need to add much else. After using homemade compost for a couple of years, I found that my soil is now chock full of earthworms and that’s always a good sign. Well, time to get back at it.

Time to plant that fall lettuce!

I got out this morning and attacked the weeds that had sprouted all over my small raised beds. It was overcast for a change and also a little cooler. While I was at it, I also took out any plants that I felt whose time had come. (That was most of them).

After this arduous task was done, I trenched in some table scraps, broke up the soil as best I could and got them ready for winter. Over the next couple of months, all the scraps from the kitchen (about two pounds per week) will go into the soil. I may then elect to sow some winter rye or other cereal grain to help further improve the overall tilth. By doing this, I will be able to avoid having to purchase any amendments come next spring.

My next chore was to get a couple of starter trays ready to accept romaine seed. I plan on starting twelve plants this weekend and then another twelve next. Once up and growing (in about two weeks), they will be planted in a small section of one of the three raised beds with a few going into the cold frames in my front yard. If all goes well, I’ll have about thirty plants by the end of September (45 days from now).  A few plants will go into the cold frames for an even later harvest.

When planting lettuce seed, I try and make sure to keep them close to the surface of the soil as they require light to germinate. Also, I watch out for the temperature as I like to place my starter trays outside in the shade. If it gets too warm I make sure to bring them inside. (Lettuce seed germinate best in the mid to upper seventy degree range). A last note, if the seed I am using is fresh, I will generally plant only one per cell. If, on the other hand, they are from a previous season, I will go with two or three. You can always thin the herd later on if need be.

Too many cucumbers? No problem.

It’s 1:30 in the PM and according to most reports were nudging into 100 degree-land yet again. I’ll tell ya, it gets mighty old quick! Like some old engine that’s prone to overheating, I make my garden errands quick and to the point. You’d think I would get my lazy ass out of bed right early when it’s still tolerable outside, but no I don’t. (There are few advantages to being unemployed and staying in bed late may be the only one I can think of).

Most of the veggies outside have gone into a form of hibernation as in they are not producing anything of note in all this heat. The sole exceptions were the basil plants that is going like gang busters and my cucumbers! Go figure. I have been drying the basil plants on my balcony and am looking forward to having a couple of bottles of the dried herb to use for this winter. The cukes, on the other hand, do not lend themselves to any kind of storage to which I am aware. So, what I do this time of year with a plant or two is let them get over mature. These I will allow to rot and then will save the seeds. The only cucumber I have planted in recent years is the heirloom variety called Straight Eight. The thing is I rarely need to plant any seed as they come up on their own each year. I’m just never sure quite where.

Now that I think of it there is one way to extend the use of the cukes and that is something my mother showed me when I was young. All you have to do is take a resealable plastic container, fill it part full with vinegar, add a little water, sugar, salt and pepper and then slice up a cucumber and maybe a white onion or two. Seal it and leave the container in the fridge for a few days or weeks. Then, whenever you want eat some of that. It’s delicious.

Seed Germination Experiment - Ambrosia cantaloupe

Not one to drop a subject prior to beating it to death, I decided to go ahead and test my Ambrosia seeds that were collected from the second Ambrosia cantaloupe I harvested a while back. I just couldn’t wait for this coming spring to find out if they would be good or bad. Also, I wanted a chance to order fresh Ambrosia seed if I needed to. The cost was $2.95 for 30 seeds at the time of this writing.

I began the experiment by selecting three healthy looking seeds and three small ones that did not look like they were fully developed. I then placed them on a moistened paper towel and inserted this into a plastic baggie. Note: I did not seal the baggie as I felt the moisture would remain high enough and yet air still could circulate. I wanted to avoid mildew if possible.

This assembly was done at 10:53 AM on August the 8^th, 2010. The baggie was left on top of a TV in my room where I was sure to notice it from time to time.

We now fast forward just 3days and as you can see in the second picture blurred though it may be, the well developed seeds have all germinated while the immature ones have not.

These were planted out, even though it be late in the season. I’ll see how well they do! I know one thing for sure. Next season, I will pre-sprout these before planting out!

Home grown stuffed peppers a la the slow cooker.

After doing a short blog on the virtues of growing peppers, I got my act in gear and decided to make up a batch of stuffed peppers via the slow cooker. Normally, I would normally use the kind of peppers you find at the market which are thicker walled than the ones I grow in my backyard. However, I’ve never been one to not experiment, so here goes. Since the peppers are also mostly odd shaped and don’t want to stand in the slow cooker, I cut up a couple of potatoes to help support them. A bonus as it turned out.

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers, 2 banana peppers
1/2 pound ground beef
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided
2 potatoes, Russet or similar, washed and chopped
1/4 cup uncooked instant rice
3 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1/3 tsp oregano powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt, pepper
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, beaten

Directions:

Set the slower cooker to high heat. Remove the tops and de-seed the peppers. Set these aside. Prepared the rice according to package directions, allow to cool and then mix with the meat, ½ the tomato sauce, beaten egg, oregano, Worcestershire and ½ the shredded cheese. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

Stuff the mixture into each pepper and place them in the slow cooker. Chop the potatoes up into large pieces and add to the pot. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the tops of the stuffed peppers. Sprinkle the remained shredded cheese over the tops of the peppers. Cover, turn to low setting and cook for 6 to 8 hours or until done. Serves 4.

Notes: All of the veggies, and even the egg, were of the home grown variety (my neighbor’s mom has a farm). For ground beef, I used the cheapest cut I could find.I also added a little fresh and dried basil (about a teaspoon) to the mix towards the end. Hey, when you got it, flaunt it! I decided to cook the instant rice (brown) rather than use it as it came out of the box. Your call. The peppers were ready sooner than I thought. Probably due to the thinner walls.

The meal (don't let the picture fool you), turned out nicely as you can see.Even though the peppers had thin skins, they held up well. My home grown potatoes turned out perfect! Another nice thing is that this dish will hold for a day or two in the fridge. For many years, I used to take one or two of these peppers to work for lunch. A quick nuke job in the microwave and they would be ready to go. Oh, and yes, I saved the seeds from all those peppers!

Green peppers are still my favorites!

Each summer for going on about two decades now, I get to this point of time in mid August when I'm always amazed at how well some of my garden vegetables have turned out. Of these, I think my absolute favorite this year would have to be green peppers. My plants have been very productive and thankfully the bugs have not been a problem. This feeling of affection is reinforced every time I’m in the produce department at my local grocery. As I walk down the isle, I realize that I don’t have to purchase bell peppers that cost .89¢ each! No, by golly, I’ve got loads of these guys just hanging on the vine at home waiting for me to pick them. That is one very cool feeling.

More on seed saving.

This time, I’m saving seeds from that Ambrosia cantaloupe I wrote about in an earlier blog. As far as I know, these seeds should breed true, but like everything else about saving seeds from one harvest to another, I won’t know for sure until next year when I plant them out. That’s part of the fun, however! (I can never seem to quite get over how such a small little thing like a seed can bring forth a fruit that is so fulfilling to the soul. Just another one of God's miracles that surround us each day).

The melon I got these seeds from was the second on the single vine that is still growing in one of my raised beds. I’ve read a few reports that indicate Ambrosia’s may be hard to bring to maturity. (Some articles have indicated that fruit set can be flaky and, even when fruit would appear, they often shrivel and die). The fruit that did make it on my vine were small and green when young, but then matured to look like a regular cantaloupe after a couple of months.

After harvesting, I cut the melon in half and scooped out the seeds and pulp onto a paper towel. I then separated the seeds out and put them on a plate in the sun. I wanted to get them dried as quickly as possible and this time of year what with temps in the low nineties the plate thing seemed the way to go.

Once they had few hours to dry, I collected them from the plate. There were 40 seeds and, as you can see in the picture, looked to be pretty healthy (for a seed anyway). One word of advice is to make sure you pre-wash the seeds to remove as much of the pulp as possible, otherwise you will have an ant magnet. (I found that out the hard way). After they had dried pretty much over the course of a few hours, I gave them another quick rinse in water and replaced the seeds on a new paper towel. After another couple of more hours in the sun, I checked to make sure they were dry. I then placed them first into a small brown envelope and then into a small plastic baggie to seal out dampness. As with all seeds the most important aspect to saving them is to keep them away from moisture. From there the seeds went to the bottom shelf of my refrigerator where they will stay cool and moisture free until next spring. Note: If you can’t wait for half a year to find out if the seed is viable, then hold back a few and germinate them in a damp towel inside a baggie.

I plan to reserve a few to send to anyone who might want them. First come first served!