If I Knew Then What I Know Now

So sorry to have been gone so long.  In the last post, I said I had been "under the weather."  Well, that's about like saying the Wicked Witch of the East was 'under the weather' when Dorothy's house fell on her!  While I bear no resemblance to any witch of any compass point, I could consider the name change of "Pitiful Planter of the South" or "Maven of Malaise."  Hmmm...whining is not attractive.  Let's move on...

The title of today's post is...If I Knew Then What I Know Now...

There were a few things I got right from the get-go.  There are plenty more that have been tweaked or outright abandoned.  That's the joy of this hobby / job / lifestyle.  There is always something new to learn or imagine.

  So here are some Things I Would Not Change.....

1.  I would set up my garden in permanent beds and aisles.  If it is at all possible, I recommend the same to you. Even though weeds have gotten away from me once or twice in seasons past, having the permanent area allowed me to prioritize what to clear and gave me access all through the garden.  Having 100 square foot beds allowed me to plan easily for crop rotation and the number of transplants needed.  Including irrigation as we made the beds has been a huge advantage as the garden has grown.  Watering the garden consists of turning on the water - selecting a zone - and setting a timer.  I have 3 zones, so the entire garden is watered in an hour and a half.
2. I would still choose to start my garden small - but mostly smart!  Year one I sacrificed one of my 100 square foot beds and planted asparagus crowns (along with some parsley).  I knew I wasn't really going to get asparagus for a few years - each year the beautiful ferns come back, but the shoots are not fat or plentiful enough for harvest. But boy! The wait is worth it!  This year all of us enjoyed full servings of fresh, flavorful, yummy asparagus.  It takes 2 bunches purchased just to give each of the Mavens a few spears - that's $7 in veggies alone!  Not going to happen too often, right? This year was celebrated as week after week we savored this special spring treat. Now, with a little fertilizer and weeding, I can expect decades of spring yumminess. Here's the other first year crop I would recommend:.....Peppers!  Green peppers. Hot peppers. Poblano peppers. Banana peppers. Any kind of pepper you like.  Pepper plants are not terribly bothered by pests - each plant gives you more than a dozen peppers and they save you a boat load of money! 

          Regular green peppers are a dollar each - and that's in season!  Red and yellow can be $2 each!  Ouch!  Here's the real joy - peppers can be frozen with almost no prep! Just slice, freeze on a tray to make sure it doesn't make a solid blob and then throw it in a freezer bag!  The next time you need pepper for fajitas ( or about a zillion other dishes ), you simply pull out the right amount and saute away!  I honestly can't tell the difference between fresh and frozen, but ohh, those months with fresh!  Here's a sampling of a batch that became beef kabobs last summer.  Yum, yum!  Okay - if you don't have a garden yet - how 'bout some pepper plants in a pot or in straw bales?

 Goodness, this is going long.  I have a whole lot more that I would keep the same, and a whole, whole lot more I would change!  I'll work on crawling out from under this house, and you work on getting excited about next year's garden!

How to Make Liquid Stevia

So - I've talked about being low carb since February of this year.  I've also talked about my thoughts on raising as much of my own food as possible.  One of the (minor) challenges a low-carber faces is choosing which alternative sweetener to use.  Because, let's face it, just saying you will never have a glass of sweet tea again in your life might just turn a few of us to the dark side.  Or a cappuccino.  Or ice cream.  Or pie.  Yikes!  I had better change this train of thought!

Wait!  I can have all of those things!  Frequently! Without guilt! Phew! That was a close one!  All I have to do is sweeten it correctly.  There are a multitude of choices in artificial sweeteners on the market - and just as many dire predictions of death and gloom if you use them.  As stated before, I'm not much of a doom and gloom kind of gal, but I did notice that my weight loss stalled when I allowed sugar alcohols (as in sugar-free chocolate) in my diet.  I also noticed a (very) slight uptick when I use the packaged granular sugar substitutes. Then I found out that the extra chemicals included to keep the packets fluffy contain carbs.  No fair!

Enter Stevia.  This is a South American herb that is used as the basis for the newer sweeteners like Truvia.  It has been used extensively in Japan for decades.  Our dear FDA has now seen fit to allow it in the U.S.(fellow science nerds can take a look at a pretty good article here). You can pick up drops at your local vitamin store to the tune of $15 for 2 ounces.  I picked some up and was pleased when one bottle lasted 5 months using is every morning in my coffee and fairly frequently in my iced tea.  5 drops were plenty for my coffee and 6 plenty for a big glass of tea.  Go ahead and get some so you can see if you like the taste (it was no challenge for me).

The real challenge is the price.  I am not going to put $10 worth of drops in an ice cream recipe I've never tried!

My research led me to growing my own stevia and making my own drops this year.  I grew 3 plants over 3 feet tall in my straw bales and 2 more in a regular garden bed.  I will need to protect them this winter, because they are not cold hardy, or of course I can start from scratch next year as well.  Here's the steps I used and the results (including the challenges!).

Step 1:
Cut down stevia shoots and slide the stems backwards down your fingers to pop off the leaves.
Step 2:
Wash them in a salad spinner

You can see that I have 2 different size leaves here.  I purchased the small-leafed variety as a transplant and grew the larger-leafed ones from seed.  Both did well, so don't worry about which kind you find.

Step 3:

Stevia leaves immediately after being covered with vodka

Take the washed leaves and smash them around a bit with scissors or your hands.  Place them in a large non-reactive bowl and cover with vodka.  Cover with a plate or saucer to keep the leaves submerged and leave them out on the counter overnight.  The next day you will have a green liquid in your bowl.

Stevia next day after soaking all night in vodka 

Step 4:

This is where things got a little out of hand for The Maven.  Multiple web sites had instructed to carefully heat the strained liquid without boiling in order to remove the alcohol.  I strained the mixture by placing a coffee filter in a large funnel and carefully heated my green liquid.  I dutifully cooled it down and tried it the next morning. HMMM... I'm not used to vodka in my morning coffee!  I promise - not all of the alcohol was gone.  

Step 4 (plan B):

I put the liquid back into my soup pot and slowly heated it again.  All the while I dutifully watched to make sure it did not boil (as multiple sites said that would make it bitter) - of course, I messed it up and let it boil.  Come on - really - would you have been able to keep something at about 180 for 30 minutes?

Dutifully cooled it again - no bitterness - but also not very sweet!  It took a tablespoon or more to sweeten my tea!

Step 4 (plan C):

Okay - time to ignore the instructions.  I happen to have a cute little slow cooker that is used to keep dips warm.  I filled it with my green liquid, cocked the lid a little to allow evaporation and left that sucker on until the stevia extract reduced by half.

  Tada!  Delicious drops at a fraction of the cost!  Now I can work on an ice cream recipe and not feel guilty about using an ounce or more.  I'm working on that ice cream recipe tomorrow.  Guess you know what that means - there's a whole lot more! 

STRAW BALE GARDENING

I know - you think everything goes perfectly in The Maven's garden.  Bugs never enter,weeds never take over and the yield is out of this world!  Ha! Fooled you!  I write because I have had all of that go wrong and more!  So here is the confession...
                                 I stink - I fail - I'm pathetic - at growing tomatoes.

I have put in 2 beds (100 square feet each!) of tomatoes and not had enough tomatoes to put any up!  Not enough for a single pot of spaghetti sauce!  I have watched my plants die from blight.  I have have seen all of the various fungi, leaf spots, molds and other tomato afflictions up close and personal.  Most disheartening is when I watch precious little green tomatoes sit on the vine for weeks, not ripening.  Finally, they commit vegetable suicide and fall to the ground to be eaten by the bugs.  Failure, failure, failure.

So why can I talk to you today about tomato growing?  Einstein said the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I think everyone should get to the end of each gardening season and be able to say - Well, that didn't work so well.  It means you tried something new.  You tried to solve last year's problem.

I had some new ideas this year that ended in epic failure.  But I had one new idea that has me excited. I had one new idea that will be a part of my garden for years to come.  I had one idea that gave me tomatoes!  Not just a few, mind you.  The picture shows only part of one day's harvest!  I have a handy dandy kitchen scale and weighed out 10 pounds of tomatoes in just one day!

For you science nerds out there - it is even a controlled experiment.  The messy result you see here is the straw bale bed.  I have another bed with tomatoes planted in the ground.  I added a tablespoon of Borax to each planting hole on both beds because I had decided that a boron deficiency was the reason for my sickly plants.  I did have a better yield in the standard bed than in years past.  But on the day I took this photo, I was unable to pick a single tomato from the standard bed!

That's the why - now the how - then we'll talk about who and when:

• Place straw (not hay) bales in a line, square or whatever configuration you want.  
• Sprinkle with fertilizer (organic all purpose is fine)
• Cover with 3" of bagged compost - I used mushroom compost
• Water heavily daily.
• On about day 4, you should notice the bales heating up. This is from the active composting occurring. Last year, I stuck a meat thermometer in the bales and saw it go well over 100 degrees!
• Continue to water.  About day 10, the bales should be cooled down.
• Pull apart the straw and place in transplants.
• Fertilize every other week with foliar fertilizer (more on that later)
• Water generously through the season. Every other day during hot, dry times.  

Here are the benefits of straw bale culture:

1. No tilling! No digging!  This would even work for renters - nothing but compost is left later!
2. Solves weed problems without you losing your back muscles, commitment to organic practices or your religion!  I had an area at the back of the garden that was overrun with Bermuda grass. (Say grrr with me...)  I placed a thick layer of black plastic with 6 bales on top.  That area has now given me cantaloupes, stevia, thyme and a weed-free zone that will be my strawberry tower next year!  
3. Solves reoccurring problems - like my pitiful tomatoes - that may be due to imbalances of minerals in the soil. The bales take your soil totally out of the picture.  (There will be more about how The Maven evaluates her soil problem)
4. Very versatile!  You can grow tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, basil, radishes, carrots, broccoli - pretty much anything but corn or potatoes.  
5. Can be used to rebuild an old bed.  I placed the tomatoes in one of my oldest beds.  The soil got a rest and will be replenished as the bales break down
6. Can be used to start a new bed.  2 weeks to start and a beautifully amended bed at the end of the season is a pretty good way to go.  
7. Earthworms love it!  I spiked mine with standard fishing worms and some of my composting worms.  Anyone familiar with our Alabama or Georgia red clay is excited about lots of earthworms.  I'm pretty sure baby earthworms are issued hardhats before they venture out into our native soil!

So - if you are on the fence about starting a garden...maybe you could consider putting down 6 bales of straw next year and enjoy vine ripened tomatoes, gourmet baby squash, fresh basil and cantaloupes right from your own back yard!  I kind of think you'll never want to go back.  

Expect a lot more as I experiment with my own straw bales.  I plan to put one of everything in the back bed to see how it does until heavy frost.  I also expect to continue picking tomatoes until frost.  Happy sigh.  The Maven is truly happy.