The end of the garden year, 2010

This was a challenging year in the garden. Many unique conditions prevailed which affected our food yields, and I feel I've learned a lot from the trial and error that has occurred. Most significantly there was a lot of heat, early in the spring and summer. There was also a good bit of moisture - and apparently the combination of heat and moisture = slimy mold in the broccoli and cabbage family. We pulled and discarded many broccoli plants, and also noted that they were not heading properly anyways due to the early heat. We did enjoy one delicious meal of beef and broccoli when we trimmed all the tender shoots and leaves and transformed them into a gourmet delight. ginger, garlic, broccoli, black bean sauce and soy sauce were employed with nice tender steak sliced thin.

We also lost our red veined swiss chard when it bolted in the June heat. That has never happened before. As a conciliation prize, the prior year's chard plant which had gone to seed and was left on the deck to dry; cast some seeds into the driveway and they came up and became hearty, robust plants in the shade of the house, growing wildly in the gravel and thriving all through the summer and fall.

I planted shelling peas early this spring and for some reason, after several harvests the crop set new flowers and the resulting peas were still maturing in late June (despite the extreme heat and the fact that peas prefer cold weather to flourish). This bonus resulted in delays in the planting of sweet potatoes while I awaited the final pea harvest to be done, and the idea to co-crop the hills prevented me from applying the black plastic to the sweet potato beds due to the presence of pea plants. In the end, I decreased my total sweet potato harvest from 200# down to about 30 # and reduced the overall size of tubers so much that they aren't worthy of curing. We'll eat them asap, and hope they hold firm until they're gone.

The dried bean experiments from the previous year spurred more interest and varieties to try this year. There were substantial differences in yields and I am still intending to document which ones were the favored performers and flavors. I cannot afford to buy organic/ heritage seed again. It's going to have to be my own sacrifice to grow and build my seed stock over several years, I think. That is still an open question.

I did not grow tomatoes. My heritage seed from Chris Didio of Culver Road (Wambach's) germinated and grew but I started them far too late. They are large plants and next spring I need to get a serious early start for them to thrive. Volunteer cherry tomatoes proliferated the garden and I discovered that indeed, the late blight virus did not bother them at all. That is the real reason I did not plant tomatoes - fear of wasting the space and losing the whole crop.

I did not grow squash, as Evie does not like it and it takes a lot of space and Bob continues to object to "too much garden". Sweet potatoes had filled that niche for us for a few years. Upon eating a butternut squash this fall, I liked it so much I realize I need to add them in again next year.

Due to a volunteer (junk) squash plant that took over the garden, I did not get summer squash plants we started into the garden and that was a huge disappointment. I need to remember to pull all volunteers in future years and not be deceived. I always miss zucchini when we don't have it to eat. On the other hand I did plant eggplants and I must admit I have no taste for them any more. They went to waste.

Our seed onions were successful but small due to a certain hot week when drought was on, and I didn't realize the plants should have been watered and shaded. The tops bent and the plants died a month early and the resulting bulbs were only 1/2 the size they might have been. Still a good crop - but unfortunate.

Garlic went into the ground in May and came out in August/Sept. I checked them frequently for splitting and moisture damage, as the later summer was damp, and finally pulled many firm, lovely heads to dry in the barn.

Carrot seed was planted in June and the resulting crop was sweetened by cool fall temps. Young, tender carrots not too large, unlike last year's monster carrots, were also heavily invaded by rodents and many were eaten out from the tops down. I found that the square foot method for carrots might not be ideal for that reason for carrot yields in the future. I also saw many wire worms damaging our harvest of carrots.

Beets were similarly affected by rodents when bordered by bush beans, which gave coverage to whatever was sneaking in from the side and munching on their tops. Whitey and Kathy donated a row of their carrots and they are sweet, hard, blunt tipped variety.

Parsnip seed was dead and there is no parsnip harvest for this year.

Late beets were not as quick to mature as the carrots, though planted around the same time (in the parsnip spot, perhaps?) and the cold frame has only allowed them to stay living but not necessarily to make bulbs for sweetness. I have not sampled any yet but want them to be as large a baby beet as possible, and feel that this date, November 22, is a little late to have much hope left for that.

Late Cabbages were planted and are still not headed. I may be able to get some sauerkraut made from them despite they lack of heading. It seems a sad waste. Next year I hope to time my late crops better so that they are mature in time for the root cellar storage.

Marisa and I planted turnips, kohlrabi and rutabega in later summer. Turnips have matured to anywhere from 2" and up to 4" roots, with rich green tops. The others have only begun to form up, and are still baby plants. All the late crops are under plastic but not really doing much, and I'm seeing cabbage lopers invading the cabbage now. I think it is time to give up, soon, before they eat more than the possible growth that might occur.

Today, I spent grabbing an unusually warm and rainy afternoon/ evening doing some concrete patching in the basement to close off a large breeze under our kitchen. I'm fairly certain it was an entrance hole created by a rodent; and since the whole point of growing and storing food is for us to be able to eat it, I have a distinct objection to the furry four legged varmints coming in and eating the middles out of my squashes so that they can have the seeds from the middle!!! I'm glad to say that they have not discovered any way into the root cellar - this was 2009's concrete patching work - sealing all the edges carefully so that they would not be able to figure out where to gnaw their way into my storehouse. I definitely have to think long and hard about how to create the ideal conditions and how to close off the storage of cool/dry vegetables - such as squashes - so that they won't be disturbed by rodents.

Back to routine?

I'm not exactly sure I can rise to this occasion. Evie was coughing last night, Bob spent the night in distress unable to sleep, after spending the day taking extra medications so he could breathe. We may have made things worse by rubbing his feet with hyssop and lavender. I've had an itchy nose and throat all day yesterday as well. Now I am contemplating driving Evie to class, Loren to Henrietta and back, allowing Bob to drive solo to a doctor's visit if we can get one set, and me doing a massage this afternoon.
I just want to crawl back into the same little cocoon I've been in, while home, sick for the last week+.

Child's view of winter pruning

Sad, concerned face: "Mommy, you know the pear tree that has the little pears, not the big pears? well... a whole lot of the tree branches fell off and almost all of them are laying on the ground..."

And four!

We have a positive flu diagnosis from Loren's test, and Bob is home from work on bedrest and prednisolone. I am heading off to find oreganol and a humidifier.

Three Down

And number three down... after Loren realized she wasn't well and then threw up first thing this morning, and I helped her and Evie throughout the day; I finally succumbed to a headache and allover joint ache malaise. Mid afternoon, I rested on the couch while Loren slept and Evie came and tucked her freezing feet against me and (she is much better today but still coughing badly) she finally napped... I woke up an hour later and unlocked doors for Bob and limped to the bathroom and then crawled back under the covers. May I just say, however, that Extra Strength Tylenol is a miracle drug. I haven't taken it before and have no idea why it worked such a change in me, but 45 minutes later I was up, moving, and helping again. Now my headache is returning and I'm going to retreat to bed. But I feel oddly reassured, maybe this thing is running through quickly. One more dose of oreganol tonight.

Two Down...

Evie gradually improved yesterday after vomiting several times. She refused fever meds until Dad got home and he laid on the couch with her in his lap and read to her and she finally fell asleep. After that she ate rice and took the first dose of Zithromax and managed to sleep through the night although she coughed continuously. My bronchia is starting to tickle so I am taking oreganol again.
Loren woke up with a queasy stomach, a headache, 101.3 fever, and just vomited "But I Feel Much Better now Mom!"
Bob has been sharing his inhaler with Loren. The refill on her script was $80 and I didn't fill it. I wonder if he'll skate around this one?

Substance P and Fibromyalgia

http://www.myalgia.com/chrpain.htm

I suspect this is pertinent and we should all read up on this one. I will post this on my favorite link section also. but I stumbled upon the info that substance P is lacking in the skin of a mole rat who lives in tunnels underground in Africa, and therefore can't feel any pain. Hmmmm..... what if there was too MUCH substance P? And sure enough, a google search reveals much data on this and fibromyalgia sufferers. What came to mind is my brother Brian, who for his entire life has alway had heightened sensitivity to pain; but also my recent stroke client, and also Tracy, and myself, and Bob's lupus side affects which mimic chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia .... and I see there is stuff about sleep interuption in here... This link is just one, I expect I will be finding more that is pertinent on this as I keep researching.

Sick child

My youngest has had a cough with fever spiking on and off over the last couple days. We went in for a doctor visit and concluded this is probably turning into bronchitis so we have started antibiotics. She informed me that chlorithromycine tastes really terrible. The dr. likes it because it has 2 doses a day over 7 days and is similar to zithromycine except with that more complete coverage. Clearly he doesn't have to swallow it. I'm so thankful I live with my kids in this century, I wonder how mothers endured watching their kids sicken with so little intervention in the past. Although I do wish I had better herbal knowledge and enough attention span to apply some natural remedies.
We've canceled all our engagements this week so far. I think I'm bound to go collapse now myself. I have been wrapping up data entry, budgeting, bill paying, homeschooling reports, and now I am hoping that the dust will settle and I'll feel caught up and happy for a day or two; despite the dog hair and dirt that magically continues to accumulate on the floors. Of course, give me a space of a minute and I can name a large project that is looming out there waiting for my attention *** got one - how about Dad's birthday gift that needs to be mailed and their late Christmas present which is far overdue, which has to have photos gathered to be loaded onto their digital frame!? After Tracy's example I was thinking about Picasa for that but have to investigate it.

Charity

Today I had the privilege to give a gift. I met a woman who had been damaged by a stroke, whose family has deserted her, and whose body refuses to rehabilitate. Her husband refuses to provide financial assistance and she has no medical insurance. Thankfully, she has a brother who has taken over every aspect of her care. She is experiencing extreme spasm and contracture in her limbs on the side where the stroke damaged her brain. She is nonverbal in some instances due to word blocks that frustrate her. Touching the side where she has contracture randomly produced extreme pain. This is my first experience with this. Eventually I was able to follow her signals and locate an area where restrictions could be treated and we got several very good trigger point releases. I was treated to the sight of a relaxed and smiling face as she was leaving. Rarely has there been a better reward.

Later I learned that her stroke was preceded by great emotional pain, depression and withdrawal from her loved ones. Also some drug dependency which may have predisposed her to risk. This was not some elderly old person who had worn out their body. This was a middle aged woman in distress, perhaps who was not sharing with others what her burdens were.

I am certain that the quality of her life now is severely deteriorated from what it was before her stroke, when it was already bad. I simply hope that I gave her something uplifting and which will continue to ease her pain.

Let us not forget that "there but by the grace of God go I".

Moral: Exercise, eat plant foods, puke up your soul to someone, and learn to get a grip on what is eating at you. And remind your friends to do likewise.

Budget hell

Budget hell. Discovered I had been alternating between several versions of my Quicken program on my business since December, so to repair it, I had to compare and update all the files to match. Done now... and the bills are paid... mostly... and I think I need to call back more clients! And pay more attention to the file names when I am backing up and opening programs.

math phobia vs sheer stubborn determination

We're getting a flavor for how to compare our budget to our actual spending. It involves new habits - like taking a hard look at what we actually spent (gas costs were $450 last month) and adjusting the budget to reflect reality. But then the hard part - since the budget software doesn't also balance our checkbook for us, we have to get the theoretical budget number to guide us regarding what we can do with the funds in the checking account. Even with a list to look at, I have been overwhelmed by how hard it is to keep track of the misc. things we need to reserve money for. When it is all sitting in one pot, it is way too tempting to spend it on something we need right now, and forget about the things (little ones, but which add up) which come due in a few weeks.
We are still using 3 systems - the paper register, which we compare to the bank online, which represents our actual spending, secondly the Quicken budget program, which gives us the tool to "speculate" what we want to spend, and keep tweaking it to reality, and then use it to add the expenses for all the goals we have and get a total, and finally a paper printout of the budget vs. actual, which we generate by inputting the paper checking register into a Quicken account and then running a comparison against the Quicken budget. We can go through and mark up the paper copy and see where we overspent, or where we can cut out something for the month, all in an effort to get the bottom line to zero out. We can modify the budget and then reprint any month's activity including the future month. It helps to have a paper draft.
Now, the worst thing is that despite our goals, we have overspent the budget each month since we started this. We keep dipping into savings while we try to get it to work. And the confounding thing is trying to take the illusive checking balance, and figure out how much has to be left in there after a paycheck is deposited. Since it is not directly linked with the budget program, there is no way to make the two programs give me that number.
And no matter how many times I have tried to ask Bob for help, it hasn't been sinking in for him what it is I want to know. He kept telling me it was impossible to interpret, from the tools we have, what is safe to spend and what has to be held in reserve. WHY THEN DID WE DO ALL THIS WORK? I have the data, I have a budget, and I have notes of our spending events that were outside of the budget.
I refuse to accept that two parallel accounting systems cannot be mated in a way that will tell me how much to spend, or not spend, in order to avoid bouncing a check or consistently exceeding our income. So despite my huge math phobic mental blocks, it finally became clear to me how to figure it out.
Bob's checking account has 5 (savings) sub accounts for separating funds - like a Christmas club. We set values for each of them to reserve money for big revolving expenses like fuel oil, etc. His paycheck will be automatically debited and the funds will be split between the subs before the balance is deposited into his checking act. The actual checking account we use for the things we spend every week like food, gas, and the inevitable medical copays and scripts. The total "goal amount" for those weekly expenses is what I am going to watch for as the target number on the check register immediately after the paycheck gets deposited. (Now that we have a flex spending account we will have to keep the invoices for those, and promptly submit them because otherwise we won't have money for food.)
After all this work, I still had to go back to the savings account and transfer funds electronically to cover the pellets we just put in stock and the overage from our Christmas spending. I'm reserving money for a delivery of fuel oil (though I don't have quite enough for a minimum delivery) and I'm planning a downpayment for our insulation project, which will use up the rest of the savings. At that point we are going to be living out of the freezer if we run out of funds because I'm already paying other expenses on the business side, (like my dental work) so I'm not working enough to generate extra income from my business side.

Maybe after some practice, the other "discretionary" things like clothing and childcare and meals out will find their niche in this system. For now, there isn't anything available for those splurges anyways. But at least I'm finally getting a feel for this and also seeing some of the areas where Bob and I need to grow in order to adopt these kinds of habits in an intrinsic way.

Homeschool report is due this month...

Just what have we been doing since Thanksgiving? I'm "scratching in the dirt" tonight looking for clues. Solstice was a definite highlight, and the artistic things she did, and the reading, of course. A little history we studied.
What I am obsessing about is what she isn't doing, (as I am trying to assemble a list of accomplishments) but rather than guilt-trip her or panic, I have been trying to be honest with her and engage her in finding solutions to her lack of motivation in these areas where she has anxiety or resistance. And I'm trying to intuit what changes in my behavior might magically support change; such as playing with her more, being more gentle, being more focused on her needs, spending less time on the computer/email/homeschooling group. Cutting out activities which eat up time and give back too little one on one contact (skating, for instance). Back to my draft...

Celebration 1/11/08... amazing recipes

Sometimes rescue comes unexpectedly.
In this case, corporate turnover and reorganization has allowed Bob to relocate to a new job, out of the blue! He is joining a group comprised of familiar names and faces that I recall favorably from my past there. He feels confident that he can meet expectations in the new position, without constantly being stretched to the limit of endurance; perhaps there will be more of him left over after working, to enjoy at home.

Pondering this development, Loren and I wandered through the local Sav-alot, picked up some steaks and fresh fruit, called Sara, and Rick, and put together a surprise celebration. Loren and I scrambled to clean the house and put together a dinner to celebrate. Rick arrived with a six pack of raspberry porter, and kindly agreed to BBQ out in the very nippy winter air. Rick, Sara, Ben, Loren, Evie and I enjoyed a luscious meal together!!! Mike even called Bob, so he was a pseudo participant.

Sara sauted mushrooms in butter and white wine to perfection, a lovely side dish for our meal.
The Mahogany Broiled Chicken and Pork ka-bobs, accompanied by Smoky Lime Sweet Potatoes were extraordinary. (Woman's Day, Sept 2006 "National Chicken Cooking Contest" $100,000 Grand Prize winner.) Oh, and I needed to use up the adobo sauce so I stirred a can of whole oysters into the sauce as a firey side dish. There was a bottle of red wine: Gary Farrell 2001 Merlot, and crusty garlic bread, which everyone, especially Loren and Evie, enjoyed immensely. We melted chocolate chips fondue style, and dipped strawberries and red grapes and slices of Dan'Jou pears for dessert. Somehow, melting chocolate transformed it from a limited dessert to a dip all you want delicacy... it was really fun.
After Rick, Sara and Ben all left, the rest of us had a skipping rope competition and Loren is up to the high 30's and could not wait to take a shower before bed. I think her athletic urges are so healthy and she is loving the new activities we have been doing together and the new skills she is achieving. Evie, as usual watches from the sideline and comments on technical corrections, such as how the adults should swing the rope in less of an arc... she is so observant and smart and almost always right!
So, here's the recipes; it is at this point REALLY late... I am exhausted, fully delighted by our evening but should go to bed. I am sure that more posts will follow this one.
?? Gee, I wonder how I could post the recipes somewhere in a tabbed section, that might be more logical than buried in this entry?

In order to make the marinade, I first needed to make hoison sauce. The approximate recipes are as follows:

Hoison Sauce

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons peanut butter or black bean paste
1 tablespoon honey or molasses or brown sugar
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil
20 drops chinese hot sauce, habenero or jalepeno
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Cube 1.5 # chicken or pork

Mahogany Chicken (or Pork) Grand Prize National Chicken Cooking Contest

Blend together:

5T dark brown sugar or white sugar with a blob of dark molasses added

3 T Dijon mustard or a little less of dark brown mustard

2 T bottled hoison sauce

2 t. balsamic vinegar

(optional) minced garlic

(optional) salt and pepper

Combine ½ c lime juice with 6 T. of above mixture. We used part lemon and part lime juice with no ill effect. Marinate meat cubes, save reserved sauce for basting.

Broil, basting with reserved marinade part way through.

Optional: on serving plate, drizzle with chimchurri sauce (below)

1 cup chopped cilantro leaves,

¼ c extra virgin olive oil

3 large cloves garlic

¼ t salt and 1/8 t pepper

Smoky Lime Sweet Potatoes

2 peeled large sweet potatoes, cut in chunks and covered in water, boiled till done.

Drain (reserve cooking water for soup, it’s delicious) and return potatoes to pan and mash with the following ingredients.

2 T. unsalted butter

1 ½ tsp. lime juice

1 tsp chopped canned chipotle pepers in adobo sauce

(consider removing seeds if heat is a concern)

1 tsp adobo sauce from can

¾ tsp. ground cumin (I roasted whole cumin seeds and then ground them)

½ tsp. grated lime zest

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

modified from: Woman's Day Sept 2006 "National Chicken Cooking Contest" Camilla Saulsbury winner $100,000 Grand prize