Verdict on Seed Mats

Well I’ve come to the conclusion that seed mats are the way to go for small seeds – which I deem anything smaller than a bean or pea.

Everything that we sowed using them germinated.   The 1 ply paper towel broke down quickly so it didn’t cause problems for the roots (and the weeds grew through it too :P ). 

Changes for next year:

• I think I’ll just use standard newsprint instead of paper towel for the mat.  It is a bit thicker so it will be easier to work with and I know it breaks down quite quickly once wet.  This year I was paranoid about the mat breaking down quickly enough so I separated the layers of paper towel which was tedious.  I could have left them together. 
• Skip the homemade glue made out of flour.  I’ll just get a couple of non toxic glue sticks.
• Skip making mats for the bean seeds.  It did go faster planting them using the mats but the seeds being so large had a hard time staying adhered to the paper towel.

Here are some repeat pictures and a recap – I used Bounty paper towels that I pulled apart so that they were 1 ply.  I used them because that’s what I had on hand and the dimensions were almost 12 inches square.  For the ones pictured, I used a non toxic glue stick and dabbed it at the recommended spacing for each type of veggie; dropped my seeds on; labeled with a pen and then set it out to dry. After drying I folded them up and placed them in a zip top bag.

A Sauer Meal

Our sauerkraut is now 3 weeks old.  We finally pulled out enough to actually have a portion with a meal, instead of just sampling it.  It’s still not as sour as we would like, but the taste is really good.  Time will help with that.  The texture is nice and crunchy which isn’t like anything we’ve had from store bought kraut.

Also as a surprising bonus, the saltiness that I was complaining about a week or so ago is gone.  I mean it’s still salty but really good. 

I’ve also noticed that the bubbling has slowed down.  I assume this is normal.  It could also be because the house has been cool the past few weeks.

Smoked sausage, broccoli, potato wedges and sauerkraut.

Happy Earth Day!

Everyone should do something nice for the earth today (and really everyday) whether its something like planting a tree or recycling or just turning off an unused light. 

I thought this cartoon was funny.

Pictures!

It rained all day yesterday. But today is clear so far, so I ran out and snapped a few pictures.  I had the baby in my arms so the pictures might not be framed quite right.

Wintersowing starts.  The gap in the one tub is due to me planting out some broccoli and brussel sprout seedlings the other day.  I also replanted 7 varieties of tomatoes.  I don’t  know why they failed.  I hope the replants fair well.

In the above picture you’ll notice that the peat pots are a lot smaller than the other ones.  This will be the last year I use these little tiny ones.  They just dry out way too fast (like in 2 hours on a moderately breezy day) and I lost at least 6 plants the other day.  So in the future I’ll opt for larger vessels to winter sow in. Might take a bit more potting mix but I won’t have to worry about them drying out.

Strawberry plants.  Starting to bloom like crazy.  We still need to put a new fertilizer strip in and at this point we’ll have to get creative on how we’ll do that without removing the cover.

A picture of our 5x5 bed.  We originally made it to hold potatoes and long carrots.  It’s 12 inches deep.  This year it’s holding parsnips, carrots, beets and skirret.  The big bushy green thing in the back is 2 parsnips left over from last year.  I’m going to let them go to seed and collect the seed to sow next year.

 

Baby beet plants

 

Picture of the main garden

Broccoli and lettuce starts we bought from our garden center a few weeks ago.  The broccoli is doing quite well in spite of the slugs.  We plan on harvesting salad in a few days.

Broccoli transplants I put in the other day.

Peas.

Brussel Sprouts

There were suppose to be pictures

Well the title says it all.  We had a beautiful weekend.  Temperatures in the 70’s, sunshine, light breezes, birds singing, yadda yadda yadda – but we all came down with some horrible illness.  Snot, coughing, sore throats.  The kids are getting the worst of it; baby bub has even been vomiting today :(  Ev will most likely miss school tomorrow until her nose isn’t quite so leaky.

Saturday:

In spite of the illness, Eric mowed the lawn yesterday.  It was quite a bit overdue but we weren’t alone.  I think all our adjacent neighbours mowed their lawns within 24 hours of our mowing which I think is a first in the last 6 years that we’ve lived here.  I also managed to get out in the afternoon and quickly planted 18 squares of beans.  The planting only took about 10 minutes and was sped up by using my seed mats that I had prepared months ago.  I planted:  Beer Friend Soy, Masai Haricot Verts, Maxibel Haricot Verts, Provider and Golden Butterwax. Never had time to snap pictures.

Sunday:

First it is Eric’s birthday today– so make sure you wish him a Happy Birthday if  you get a chance.  Today started off with me preparing him pancakes with eggs and bacon.  As a side note we had the pancakes with Birch Syrup which was delish – thanks Steve ;).  Then Ev and I made Eric a cake and wrapped his gift. Followed by his unwrapping of it.  We had lunch and tried to relax a bit.  We finally found a bit of time to get outside.  I planted more beans (Golden Rocky, Gold of Bacau and Mixed pole bean) and transplanted 7 broccoli and 2 brussel sprout seedlings for a total of 23 more squares!).    Then I fixed Eric his birthday dinner.  All this was done with whiney, sick kids, one of whom was vomiting and not eating.  Still no time for pictures of the garden.

In other gardening news:  grapes that we feared were dead are leafing now.  One of the rhubarbs is sending up a seed stalk already.  I’ll lop it off in a day or two when I can get a minute.  For some reason wintersowing starts are NOT fairing well at all this year.  I don’t know what went wrong.  I think it might have had to do with all the rain we’ve had plus slugs.  I need to restart my tomato seedling tomorrow – the ones that have survived look great though. 

It’s late and I’m rambling.  If it’s not too rainy tomorrow I’ll try to snap pictures of everything.  As soon as my cold subsides a bit I’ll taste the kraut and report results too. 

Starting to taste sour

It’s been a few days now since I started the kraut.  I tasted it last night and it’s finally starting to get sour but is still really sweet IMO.  I’m surprised it’s taking so long to get sour.  I imagine at this rate it will be a few more days before we can move it to the basement where it is cooler.  Our kitchen smells like Octoberfest :)

I managed to spend about an hour outside today working on the garden.  I fixed 3 trellises.  I planted 8 squares of Stuttgarter onion sets.  I watered everything.  And I installed some mini fencing to keep the bush beans contained. 

Since our last frost date is in a few days I think I’ll go ahead and plant beans next time I can get outside.  I’ll probably wait until towards the end of April to plant squash and cucumbers.

Almost everything that I sowed a few weeks ago has germinated.  Still waiting on skirret, parsnips and carrots which can take a month to germinate.  Also the leeks haven’t germinated yet but should soon.

First Taste @ 48 hours

Last night Eric and I had a late dinner so I gave us each a small ramekin of sauerkraut on our plates. I tasted mine first.  It definitely had the initial hint of being kraut but at the same time had a crunchy fresh taste too. When I told Eric that it still tasted like fresh cabbage he bypassed his taste test, LOL.  Anyways we’ll try to taste it every day so that we can monitor its progress and halt or slow it when we deem it good eats.

One other thing about the taste test…  It was too salty. Like tongue-hurty saltiness. Eric can attest to my love of salt and everything salty so when I say too salty, it’s too salty. I was surprised and disappointed at this.  I think next taste test I’ll rinse it a bit in fresh water and see if that helps.  If we weren’t approaching warmer months, I’d say next batch would have less salt but warmer weather kind of dictates more salt.  We’ll see though. 

Also yesterday we noted the start of bubbling. If we press on the weight a ton of bubbles come rushing to the surface.

I noticed off and on yesterday and this  morning when I came down stairs that the kitchen definitely smells like kraut.  It’s not a smell that really bothers me but I notice it.

Here is a picture from last night after I removed our bit of cabbage for sampling.  You can’t really tell from the picture but I made a make shift ‘plate’ to help hold down the floaty bits of cabbage.  I use a GladWare lid that I cut down to a manageable (and removable) size.  You’ll also notice how high the brine is.  We did add 1 cup (8oz) of brine the previous night after Eric pressed it again but it looks like we didn’t need it. 

Garden Update

After my last post about the garden my back was a mess and the weather was rainy. So not much was accomplished over the past week. Well my back is now better but the weather is still wet. In spite of that, I managed to nip out for some pictures today.

Note:  Excuse the blurriness, it seems I had a problem with the camera focus and didn’t realize it.

Here are the broccoli, romaine and mixed lettuce starts we bought.  They are all doing well and thriving.

 

  We have germination of some of our seed mats.  I think this square is either turnip or chard.  I did see lettuce and kohlrabi sprouts too.

 

Some of Eric’s direct sown peas are coming up too – Sugar snap and Oregon Giant.  The one variety: Sugar Ann doesn’t look like it’s germinating.  Those seeds are old and I remember having germination problems with them last year.  I’ll take a sample of them tomorrow and do a germination test.  If any are viable I’ll replant the area out in the garden.

Here are our rhubarb plants.  I was worried when I planted them because when I pulled them out of their pots all the soil fell off the roots so they were planted in 100% compost.  So far they look good.

 

Here is a few pictures of our winter sown starts.  I’m disappointed in their germination this year.  I think it was because we had such wonky weather this winter/spring.  The past 2 years there was a higher germination rate by now, plus the seedlings were bigger.  I’m not giving up hope though, stuff is still germinating every day so it’s not a loss yet.

 

Kraut Update

Right before bed last night, I had Eric press the cabbage.  With him being taller he had more leverage and was able to pack it a bit more firmly.

So this is what it looked like 12 hours later.  The liquid is just shy of the top of the cabbage level. Note how much it’s gone down over night.  You’ll notice too that I’ve replaced the widemouth pint jar with a regular pint filled with coins.  Provides more weight and easier removal through the mouth of the gallon jar.

 

This is what it looks like 24 hours later.  The liquid is about 1cm above the surface – though there are a few pieces still above the liquid surface.  Before bed tonight I’ll get Eric to press it again.  If we can’t get everything pressed below the liquid, I’ll whip up a cup of brine and pour it in.

Wild Fermentation

Our fermenting experience is really limited. I’ve personally done wine before.  Eric and I have done beers together.  We hope to try cheeses this summer when we have more time. 

I came across this book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz and it has really sparked my interest in fermented foods.  They are actually very healthy and safe for people.  They act as a digestive aid containing the same bacteria as yogurt. A lot of people are afraid to try their hand at fermenting foods because of the risk of botulism. If you do the reading/research you’ll find that it is a non issue with fermenting for many reasons – namely botulism doesn’t like salt and acid.

Tonight we are starting our first batch of Sauerkraut aka fermented cabbage.  We plan to post updates and reviews of the process from start to finish.

The recipe is simple: 5 lbs of fresh cabbage and about 3 tablespoons of pickling salt. 

I coarsely chopped the cabbage and removed most of the cores.   As I put each layer of cabbage in the bowl I sprinkled some salt on. 

 

Then I packed it as hard as I could in to a 1 gallon jar.  After trimming the cabbage I ended up with 4 1/2 lbs and it was all I could do to cram it into the jar. 

I placed a pint jar full of water into the mouth of the gallon jar to act as a weight.  Over the next day or two the sauerkraut will need to be pressed down when ever we can manage it.  This will ensure that the moisture is released from the cabbage and that it will be submerged under the liquid to prevent spoilage.  Then we wait for Lactobacilli  to do their thing.  Once the volume goes down a bit in the jar I’ll find something else to use as a weight. 

As a final step, I tied an old (clean) tea towel around the top to keep dust and bugs out. If you open this photo up bigger you can see the moisture is already starting to accumulate in the bottom of the jar and it’s only been about 10 minutes.